Disclaimer: If anything seems familiar, it belongs to Syfy. If it looks strange and non-cannon, that stuff's mine.
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The Five
Jack looked over the first of the applicants. Most of them were completely unsuited to living anywhere but Wonderland. They had habits and ticks that would never be accepted in Alice's world. Hatter's powerful right hook was easy to hide as long as he didn't get into fights, but some were like the White Knight, only too likely to give away the existence of Wonderland.
Anyone who had been admitted to the Hospital of Dreams for any length of time would not be allowed to go through the Glass. There was too much danger that they would try to figure out how to distill tea from the Oysters.
It was a nightmare trying to decide who could be trusted enough in the other world.
So, he limited the list to former Resistance fighters, people who had worked hard in order to bring about a change, and those who had lived in the Great Library in order to escape the Queen's wrath.
"Now, you say that your great-grandmother was an Oyster?" asked Jack, considering the petite woman before him.
"Yes, sir. Gran stumbled her way through the Glass during the Red King's reign and never thought to leave. Mum always used to think that it was because of the fact that Gran realized she was going to have a baby before she got around to leaving." Jack bit his tongue to prevent a retort. Thinking about pregnant women right now just made his mind loop back to Duchess.
The red headed woman before him was young, though probably a few years older than Alice. He thought that she would do well adapting to Alice's world.
"I will only grant permission for you to use the Looking Glass on one condition." The woman's eyes brightened as she stared at Jack. "You are to follow the orders of people I entrust you to as you would follow my own. They are my proxies in that world and as such, deserve the same respect that you show me." The woman nodded emphatically.
"Thank you, sir!" She jumped to her feet. "My mum's never going to believe this!"
If Jack felt any guilt over allowing the slightly hyperactive woman through the Glass, it was quashed by Broker's report.
"So, Duchess doesn't want to speak to me." He mused. The white suited man stood still before his monarch's desk.
"It would appear that way, my king." Broker looked embarrassed from having to relate Duchess's exact words to the king.
"I suppose that I can give her a little more time. Though not too much. I do have other things that I need to concentrate on." And with that, Jack dismissed Broker.
The fact that Duchess seemed to hate him now didn't really come as a surprise to Jack. He had acted in a manner unbecoming a prince. Even if he wasn't sorry for his actions, he could at least concede to that much. His actions had the desired effect. Wonderland was free from his mother and the need for Oyster-based teas. That justified everything in his mind. Every word he had spoken against Duchess, every lie he had told Alice, and every time that he had pretended to be a good and loyal son to his mother. It was all justified by the outcome.
---
Hatter didn't sleep that night. There were too many things going on in his head for that. Snippets of imaginary conversations floated around images of things that he wanted to do. How exactly did one propose in this world? He could have gotten up and done a search for popular methods of proposing on his computer, but instead he stayed flat on his back, looking up at the ceiling. The shadow covered surface couldn't tell him anything, but it did relax him a little bit.
He still couldn't fall asleep. If he was wake, then he could make plans.
As the morning light started to slip past the blinds, he forgot all the plans he had been working on and finally surrendered to the weight pulling down on his eyelids.
---
The next day was a nightmare. Hatter had slept far past his alarm and had woken up to Duchess hitting him repeatedly with a pillow.
"Get up. Don't you have to be at the club?" He staggered upright, trying to remember where the closet was. He stumbled towards it, hoping to rescue a shirt and pants before Duchess started talking again.
"So, what happened last night?" Her tone was almost playful. He turned bloodshot eyes on her.
"Nothing worth mentioning." He rasped. The taste in his throat was horrible. A toothbrush, that's what he needed. He started towards the bathroom.
"Nothing doesn't have Alice over here only an hour after the sun is up looking for you. I told her I thought you were at the club." It made sense, that's where he normally was these days. There had been some nights when he hadn't even come back to the apartment.
Alice could wait there for a little while. He was sure she wouldn't mind if he took a shower before meeting her.
---
The door to the club was already unlocked when Alice got there. Hatter was probably inside tinkering with the electronics. She just hoped that whatever jumble of wires he ended up with would pass fire code.
But Hatter wasn't inside. Instead there were five people and a variety of suitcases. Each person was wearing the type of anachronistic outfits that she expected of Wonderlanders.
The refugees had arrived.
---
By the time Hatter showed up, each had given Alice the paperwork that Jack had provided for them. At least that was one thing that she could be happy about. All of them were under thirty-five according to their papers and seemed genuinely interested in the fact that they would be working in the building they found themselves in.
"You mean to tell me that this Hatter fellow thought that Wonderland would be interesting to the Oysters?" asked a short and rather overexcited woman. Her hair was a bright red that had Alice wondering if hair dye existed in Wonderland. She wore a mix of orange and brown clothes that clashed horribly with her hair, but she seemed to be completely ignorant of that fact.
Alice wondered how quickly it would take her to develop a hatred for the word "Oyster" with seven people flinging it around. She was happy she hadn't been born in Wonderland if her time there was anything to go on, and she wasn't going to let them make her feel stupid because of it.
---
"I bet that you all are excited to see this world." said Hatter, walking up beside Alice. He wasn't certain that she had noticed him come in with five other people to pay attention to. "It's the same way with them about our world. People like to see something different, something exciting. It keeps life interesting." All five heads were nodding, some more enthusiastically than others.
"This is Hatter." Alice introduced him to the group. He could tell she was relieved by his presence. Just how long had she been trying to explain things to these people?
"This place is a club. We'll be serving drinks, alcohol for those of you who remember it," the two men in the group nodded, "and letting people dance. People are willing to pay money to come to places like this."
A curly haired woman looked a bit curious.
"What's money?"
Hatter devoutly hoped that he had never been this ignorant. He had learned a lot about Alice's world in just about two months, but dealing with these people was going to be torture until Alice started teaching them to apply their common sense.
And that wasn't the worst of his day. One of the inspectors called to say that he wasn't going to be able to keep the appointment that he had set and that another inspector would be coming the day after tomorrow.
Hatter then blew a fuse while trying to get his stereobox connected to a power outlet. Apparently he needed something that would adjust the flow of the current, whatever that meant. But Alice assured him that she could help him figure something out.
By nightfall, he was sick and tired of curious people trying to look over his shoulder as he worked. He was generally a good tempered man, but it was driving him to his wits' end.
"I'm a bit tired." The curly haired woman commented. And one after another the rest of the people agreed with her.
He called a hotel. There was no way that he was going to let five Wonderlanders sleep in his apartment.
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AN:
And finally Jack sends some people through. He's trying to pick people who will be useful, but that's a matter of opinion. Though, the fact that the red-head might bother everyone is a bit of a bonus on his part.
And of course, Hatter stayed up all night thinking about how to propose to Alice. Now that he knows she is in love with him, he doesn't have any doubts about it. We'll just have to see how things turn out.
Anything you want to say? Any burning questions?