Disclaimer: Syfy is in charge of Alice. I just tend to borrow the characters for extended periods of time.

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What was in the Bag?

Well, that was unexpected. Hatter knew she was falling for him but he hadn't anticipated her ever admitting it. The fact that she had been able to say she loved him before he had was impressive, especially given her latest relationship.

"I should hope so. I might have had to be disappointed otherwise." The fact that his hands were full prevented him from hugging her, but he still leaned forward to kiss her cheek.

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Alice wasn't worried. It didn't matter that Hatter hadn't said he loved her. It's not that he didn't need to say it. She would want to hear it sometime, but she wasn't going to force the matter. He cared (a lot more than any other guy she had ever dated) and for now that was enough.

"So, ready to get going?" She hefted the bags.

"What exactly is all this?" He was looking down into one of the shopping bags curiously. A faint flush rose up in his cheeks. "Your mother certainly has…" he coughed, "interesting tastes."

Alice grinned noting the store name on the side of the bag.

"Actually that's mine." His face turned red. If any other man had tried to imagine her wearing what was in the bag, she would have been offended. But with Hatter, she thought it was kind of sweet that he was blushing while thinking of it. He might pretend to be a sleazy guy, but in reality he was remarkably considerate.

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They walked back to Alice's apartment. Throughout the walk, images of Alice wearing what he had seen burned themselves into his brain. How many other things did she have like that? The question tormented him.

He wouldn't put it past her to have purposely let him let him carry that particular bag. And the fact that the bag hung off his arm, looking completely innocent from the outside, was sheer torture. Until that moment he hadn't thought that Alice could be cruel, but this proved it.

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Weirdly enough, the lingerie had been her mother's idea. Alice wondered if it had been Carol's hint that she was finally okay with the idea of Alice and Hatter sleeping together. Even if (despite Alice's jokes with her mother) they hadn't yet.

That fact made Alice a bit proud of herself. It proved that their relationship wasn't based on physical attraction (though there was definitely enough of that to go around). She couldn't count the number of times that she had considered the possibility of sleeping with Hatter. But there was a catch, the more she thought about it, the more she realized that if she had sex with Hatter, she would never have sex with anyone else.

She didn't want to have sex with anyone else, that wasn't the point. The point was, that for some reason sex with Hatter seemed like it would be different. Sleeping with Hatter would be a step in their relationship, not just a tool to try to tie herself to another person.

Alice liked their relationship the way it was, well, with the minor twist that she had now admitted she was in love with him.

Whatever, this wasn't going to get her anywhere. She decided to try talking to Hatter to distract herself.

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It took Hatter a moment to realize that she was talking. He might have a romantic bent, but he was still unapologetically male. And he did enjoy thinking about things that would probably get him into massive amounts of trouble with her mother if she ever found out.

"What was that?" he asked, hoping Alice wouldn't be too exasperated with having to repeat herself.

"I said that I wonder how Duchess is doing." Hatter was surprised.

"But you just saw her yesterday."

"That's not what I meant." He took Alice's sigh as a commentary on the perceptiveness of men in general and chose to ignore it.

"Alright then, explain if you feel like I don't understand." Privately he acknowledged the fact that he didn't understand, but of course, Alice would never have to hear about that.

"She still loves Jack. She might not like him, but this is the longest she's ever been away from him with the exception of when he was here. And now, she's got the added factor of knowing she's pregnant. I just wonder how she's handling all that." Hatter politely reminded Alice that Duchess's relationship, however dysfunctional it might be, was not their business.

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Alice kissed Hatter goodbye at the door and watched him leave. It had quickly become her habit over the last few weeks to watch him go until he was completely out of sight down the stairwell. Once she couldn't see him any trace of him, she unlocked the door and hauled the bags inside.

"So, how was it?" asked Carol, who was sitting with a book in her lap on the couch.

"How was what?" Alice really was confused for a second, until she remembered about the lingerie. Had her mother really expected her to have sex with Hatter at the club? Well, she supposed they could have gone somewhere else (though Hatter's apartment was completely out of the question with Duchess there, not that her mother knew that).

"You know mom, you are a dirty, dirty woman." Alice commented.

"Well, someone around here has to be." Alice went to her room, still shaking her head at her mother's remark.

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Hatter gave up on the idea of going back to cROOKed. There was no way that he was going to get any work done now that he had the image of Alice only nominally clothed in his head. He went back to his apartment.

Mercifully, Duchess was already asleep. She seemed to be doing more of that lately and for a second he spared a thought to hope that the extra hours of sleep were normal for a pregnant woman.

His hat slid down his arm and he deposited it on the rack. What would it be like to come home to find Alice sleeping at the apartment instead of Duchess? Someday he hoped he would have the answer to that question.

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AN:

Sorry for missing another update. So there will be two chapters put up tonight.

Alice in this story has had sex before in efforts to keep relationships together. I think that Alice would think that sex with Hatter would mean something different than sex with anyone else. She loves him and I do think that makes a lot of difference. But it also makes me think that she's probably thinking about what the future might hold if she does decide to be with him.

Anything to say on this chapter? I love hearing from readers!