Disclaimer: Syfy and Lewis Carroll own everything, unless someone wants to donate mass quantities of money for me to buy the rights to Alice.
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Striking the Deal
"What?" Alice looked over to where Hatter was standing. His stance was defiant, but the look on his face was positively gleeful.
"Wasn't that hard. Convinced the guards I was an Oyster. The suitcase was a bit more trouble. Had to tell them it contained my poor dead sister, sucked dry by the Carpenter's evil machines." It took a second, but the bright gleam in his eyes died. Alice cringed at the thought that her father might have caused any deaths while he was in Wonderland. But she didn't doubt that during the ten years that he was gone, some people would have died in the Casino, or during experiments. It still hurt to believe that her father (even without the memory of his family) was capable of doing such things.
It was nice to know that Hatter had defied Jack to sneak into her world. But then why had he been so eager to get back to Wonderland?
"He's a criminal, Alice. You know that, and I know that." Jack's tone was soft, beguiling, and it only served to make Alice even more irate. As far as she was aware, the only way to be a decent person in Wonderland before the fall of the Queen of Hearts was to be a criminal. Hell, even Jack had been considered a danger by his mother.
"Criminal or not, he can help you."
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Hatter winced. Sure he was a criminal, it made a bit better money than having to work within the Queen's stupid rules. The taxes that the woman had put on teas were incredible, almost highway robbery in their own right. It stung to think that Alice might consider him to be anything less than honest just because he had lied to her a few times, and had ulterior motives… Who was he kidding? She had every right to mistrust him.
"Criminal? I dare say, Hatter." Even Charlie was disappointed in him.
"And how exactly do you suggest that Hatter make himself useful?" Jack pulled a long, thin, hand-rolled cigarette from a case inside his coat pocket. Even as he stuck it in his mouth, Hatter could almost see the king's brain working at high speed in order to turn the situation to his favor.
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"As a guard. How many people from my world know where the Looking Glass is? Ten, twenty? Now add to that the fact that all the Oysters from the Casino went back through the Glass after me." At least she hoped they had, she hadn't exactly been conscious to find out. "That raises the number probably into the hundreds if what Hatter told me about tea production was right." Hundreds of people could be drained to create a single drop of the most powerful and rare teas.
"You need someone to guard the Looking Glass from my side. Hatter is willing to do that." She hoped he was, anyway.
Jack clicked open a silver lighter and lit the end of his cigarette. Alice added that as another thing that he had lied about. She didn't date guys who smoked.
She watched as he breathed in carefully, exhaling in her direction. He knew it bothered her, that much was obvious.
"I suppose you might be correct."
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Just might? Alice had just presented a brilliant argument as to why Hatter should be allowed to stay in her world. The Looking Glass wasn't guarded, or even in a place where people couldn't accidently wander through. One of these days a construction worker was going to find himself stuck in Wonderland because of his curiosity about the oversized mirror.
Hatter felt his plan becoming a reality, whether or not Alice and Jack knew they were playing right into his hands. He really was good at what he did, listening to what people said and turning it to his advantage.
"If I were a legal member of her world, I could buy the building, make sure that the Looking Glass was safe…" His prompt might have been a little less than subtle, but he wanted them to get back to the original topic, rather than his criminal streak.
"Fine." Jack stamped out his cigarette in a candy dish. "You'll have the papers. But on one condition." Hatter stiffened. Jack was a king. He could demand just about anything from his subjects. "You'll take some of the Resistance with you. Too many of them don't trust Wonderland anymore. The want new lives, away from this world, and the only place I can offer them is yours, Alice."
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Was Jack Chase (Heart, whatever) begging her? Getting Hatter used to her world was going to be hard enough, but training a bunch of Wonderlanders to fit in… well that was going to be a bit of a job.
"As long as all of them have the proper paperwork." She said quickly. Taking care of a bunch of refugees was better than having Hatter taken away from her. "No guns, and no Dodo." Even if the man wanted out of Wonderland, he would just have to live with the consequences of threatening her and shooting Hatter.
"Very well, I'll have someone start forging the documents. By the way," Jack's smile was almost evil, "what name are you going by in her world, Hatter?"
Alice reached over and laced her fingers through Hatter's.
"David, David Hatter." Jack's smile grew.
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AN:
Well, more Jack for this chapter. I just had to make him a smoker; he looks like he would be. And of course, store bought cigarettes would be too plebian for him, so he rolls his own. Evil s.o.b.
As to the number of Oysters that there were in Wonderland… I can't believe that there were only the number that we saw in the show. If you listen to what Winston says, the White Rabbit usually brings back about twenty and he hoped that they could get almost fifty a day. There has to be a considerable number of Oysters that we didn't see. After all, they need "a thousand thrills" to create a drop. And, we saw that the White Rabbit does take children, as evidenced by the two little girls, but there were no kids in the game room at the Casino, which leads me to believe that there might have been a completely separate room for kids. Syfy channel, we love you, but your numbers and the number of extras that you hire don't add up!
As always, I love reading reviews. They remind me that people actually read this!