Disclaimer: Syfy owns Alice and I own nothing except for the plot Jabberwockies.
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Farewell to the Past
When Dormie stopped by, Alice was curled up under the purple velvet coat, listening intently to the music being piped through Hatter's headphones. It was amazing that he had been able to fix the stereobox as well as he had, though it still skipped at strange intervals. He would have to bring that through the Glass too, if only to tinker with it more on the other side.
After a few minutes of haggling and a brief nap on Dormie's part, Hatter was a good deal richer. It was a relief to know that the plan was going well.
Hatter vowed to himself that he would buy that construction site and make it into a dance club, with real music. He watched Alice's foot tap in time to the music that she was listening to and wondered exactly which album she had chosen. He had been willing to point out his favorites, but she had just selected one at random and figured out how to use the stereobox by herself. Maybe it wasn't all that different from the ones in her world after all.
"Well, Alice," he said, stretching out. He hoped that she could hear him over the music. "If dear old Jack were here, we could get going."
"Charming, Hatter." Jack Heart walked into the office. He motioned for one of the Suits to hand Hatter a large manila envelope.
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Alice scrambled to her feet, pulling the headphones off.
"Everything should be in order. Made him a native of England while I was at it, though of course also a naturalized American citizen." Alice wondered what exactly would have happened if Jack had left that out. The idea of Hatter getting deported to England was a bit disturbing, even if he probably would have just run back through the Looking Glass instead.
At least saying that Hatter was from England would explain away his accent, and some of the strange things that he said. Half the time, Alice felt like she needed a dictionary to understand what he was talking about. But that just made him more interesting. His lapses into slang and random references to places and events she had never heard of made him seem a lot less polished and fake than Jack.
"Thank you, Jack." Alice and Hatter said simultaneously, her tone a bit less sarcastic than his. Hatter's arm moved around her waist possessively.
"Well," said Jack, clapping his hands together, "I believe we have some other business to do. I hear that you recently acquired some wealth that you need exchanged." Alice thought it was a bit creepy that Jack already knew that Hatter had sold the shop.
Another Suit approached with a briefcase, handing it carefully to Jack.
"Fifty million should be more than enough for you to purchase the warehouse. Of course it is more than you sold this place for, so just think of it as rent for those I'll be sending through." Alice's jaw dropped. Fifty million dollars? All in that briefcase? Granted, it wasn't a small briefcase, but still. Usually in movies when people were handing over such large amounts of cash, it practically needed a forklift. But (she did some quick calculations in her head) if it were all in large bills…
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Hatter turned to Alice and took her look of first absolute astonishment and then consideration to be a sign that he wasn't being cheated too badly, if at all. He handed over the jewels that Dormie had given him. If there was one thing that didn't lose its value, it was gold and jewels, in fact those just seemed to increase in value as they got older. Too bad he had to part with them for some little pieces of paper that he probably could have gotten someone to forge anyway.
Wait…
"Are they the real thing?" He asked, as Jack handed over the briefcase. "I don't want Alice getting in trouble for dealing with fakes." He didn't want to get in trouble for dealing with fake money either. It would be kind of nice to stay mostly on the right side of the law for once, except of course for all the forged paperwork that he would be handling when the refugees came.
"It's all real. You think I would do something like that to Alice?"
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And then they were regular guys, fighting over the girl. Alice rolled her eyes. It was nice to know that men were still men no matter what world they were from.
"Thank you, Jack." She repeated. "But if we are going to have everything ready, we had better get going. You know how time is." The time differences between her world and Wonderland still bothered her. How was Jack supposed to know when they were ready for the refugees?
"Certainly, I can imagine your mother might be missing you." Alice caught Hatter making a face out the corner of her eye and smiled slightly. He was able to make her feel better, despite her annoyance with Jack.
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"If we could borrow some of your Suits…" Hatter began.
"Not going to happen." Jack's retort cut through Hatter's suggestion. They would need people to carry things back through the Looking Glass… but oh well.
"I suppose we could go ask the Resistance. I bet they're real bored not having anything to do." The way Jack's face paled (even more than usual) at the mention of the Resistance. Hatter knew from what Charlie said, and Jack's insistence that some of the Resistance go to Alice's world that there was something not entirely right in Wonderland still. But it was probably just a bit of unrest after Jack's rise to power.
"Fine, get everything together and load it into a Scarab. No one else will go through the Glass, but they can throw it through." Hatter decided that he would have to carry his records himself. Alice could hold the stereobox, since that was already a bit broken. The girl seriously needed to work on her landings.
"Alright then."
He marched to the corner of the room and extracted a white top hat from behind his desk. He set it on Alice's head at a jaunty angle and was rewarded with a smile.
"Just let us pack up."
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AN:
I decided to name Hatter's music system a "stereobox" for lack of a better idea. It needed a name, since I wasn't just going to call it a music system the entire time.
I hope that you are happy with your Christmas present of two chapters. I wanted to do something special for you guys, since I've had some awesome reviewers.
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