Disclaimer: Syfy owns Alice. Everything else is just figments of my imagination.
---
An Interruption
Hatter kind of wanted to hide. There were a lot of people in the club, too many if you asked him. He had known what he was getting into when he started a club. It was obvious that there would be a lot of people around, but he hadn't expected quite this many. And the most frightening part was that they were still well under what the fire department had told him the building could hold.
Thankfully Alice was at his side. If she hadn't been standing right beside him, he might have gone a bit batty. She knew from their earlier experience at a night club that he didn't really like to be around loud hoards of people. But since it was opening night, they stayed out in the main portion of the club.
He looked around. It had only been a few minutes since the doors opened and already most of the people had drinks in hand and were well on their way to becoming inebriated. Hatter was glad that he had given Hart and Fowler the number of a cab company to call for clients who were too drunk to figure out how to do it themselves.
---
Alice was having a good time. The dress she was wearing felt like a costume and made her feel a bit bold, despite the fact that she stood out in the crowd, especially because Hatter was standing beside her. Women had been casting glances his direction since the doors opened. But Alice knew he wasn't even looking at them.
Alice noticed something strange about the guests as she considered the women who were trying to stare her down. Every one of them had a green mark on the back of their hands that looked suspiciously like paisley.
He hadn't… Had he?
Alice looked more closely at the next client who walked by. Sure enough, the mark on the back of his hand resembled the marks that Oysters got when they were burned by the light of the Scarabs.
She noticed that Hatter was grinning at her.
"What? It's an inside joke." It definitely was. Only the Wonderlanders and Alice had any idea what was going on.
Alice looked around to see how everyone else was faring.
Hart and Fowler didn't look nearly as intimidating as they were supposed to as they gleefully stamped the green marks onto the back of the customers' hands while still trying to remember to collect the cover charge and check id.
Carol and Duchess were out on the dance floor, moving to the beat of the newest song that Scamp had put on. The dance floor wasn't very crowded yet, but people seemed to be moving their heads in time to the music and looking as if they were considering heading in that direction. The strange combination of sixties music, techno and trance, seemed to be infectious.
Alice thought she spotted Winnow and Thatcher moving through the crowd, taking empty cups off tables and making sure that there wasn't anything obstructing the dance floor.
The song ended and Scamp's voice echoed through the speakers.
"Ladies and gentle beasts, please welcome our boss, and the man who made this place possible, Hatter!"
---
All of the sudden, a spotlight was on him, blinding him. Hatter vowed that whoever was on the catwalk moving the light was going to get some sort of reprimand. He hated being in crowded rooms, and he hated being blinded even more. Putting the two together made him feel a bit irritable.
He felt Alice squeezing his hand. They walked together to the front of the room where Hatter joined Scamp in the DJ booth. She handed him the microphone.
"Welcome to cROOKed, a place where wonders can happen. As Scamp said, I'm Hatter. If you have any questions throughout the night about the music or anything else, feel free to talk to me. Thank you all for coming, and please, enjoy yourselves." He played with his hat throughout the speech, ending with a flourish that sent it flying through the air and then back down onto his head.
There was a polite smattering of applause and more than a few whistles from interested women.
"Maybe you should take that act of yours on the road. The Magical Hatter… I think kids would love it." Alice said in his ear when he rejoined her. He smiled imagining little kids crowded around him as he did tricks for them. Maybe someday, when the kids were his.
That thought led to one pressing question… What was Alice wearing underneath that dress?
And then, his mind was gone… straight down the rabbit hole.
---
Alice didn't exactly want to admit to the fact that the woman who was tearing up the dance floor was her mother. Since seeing her mom dancing with men less than half her age was a bit disturbing. Alice kept thinking about the fact that people might think that her mother was a cougar rather than the truth that Carol just liked to dance, especially to music that sounded a bit retro. At least Duchess was dancing out there as well. Her duties wouldn't officially begin until the next night when she and Hatter would begin switching off on who was on duty.
People were moving onto the dance floor, abandoning drinks to the table tables. The bartender, Josh, was taking some of the money out of his tip jar while the customers were distracted by the dancing. He had told Alice that keeping an only partially filled jar meant that he tended to get tipped better.
A woman walked up to Alice and Hatter. Blonde hair bounced around her head in curls that could not have been natural. It didn't help that her make-up was put on so thickly that her face looked like a mask rather than skin. Her black dress was pulled tight, revealing more cleavage than Alice thought was strictly necessary, even for clubbing.
"Hi, I'm Sherri."
---
The woman nearly thrust her breasts into Hatter's face. He blinked rapidly, trying to figure out exactly how to respond to this. It had happened often enough at the Tea Shoppe with women trying to convince him to let them pay their bills with services rather than goods. Back then he had just told them no and walked away, but he wasn't sure if that was the right way to handle things in this world.
But judging by the way that Alice was glaring at the woman, there was obviously something wrong with Sherri's conduct, which Hatter took to mean as an invitation for him to brush the woman off. But Alice got there first.
"Hello, Sherri. I'm Alice, Hatter's girlfriend." Alice's evil smile was more than enough to scare the other woman away. Hatter watched the blonde beat a hasty retreat. He turned back to Alice.
"Have I ever told you just how much I love you?" He asked, in awe of her ability to scare people without even having to openly threaten them. Alice was an impressive woman, and he noticed that more and more each day.
---
Alice's mood changed from pissed off to elated in an instant.
"Nope, you haven't." She felt the tiniest twinge of guilt at the fact that she was fishing for those three little words. But then again, it had been weeks since she had told him the same.
"I love you." He said, quite clearly. He was smiling almost as broadly as she was.
---
There was a weight in his pocket, a small box that he had been considering off and on all day. It felt slightly velvety beneath his fingers as he plunged his hand into his coat pocket.
He could ask her, right here, right now. It was perfect. The club was complete and seemed to be popular with the crowd. Her mother was there to approve (or not) as she chose. Even Duchess would be able to witness him making an utter fool of himself in order to get Alice to say "yes."
Hatter wanted nothing more than to see that smile on her face get even wider.
He started to pull the box out from his pocket. But before he had opened his hand, Winnow ran up.
"Someone's vomiting all over the men's bathroom." Hatter slipped the box back into his pocket, hoping that Alice hadn't noticed it.
He kissed her on the cheek.
"I'll be right back."
---
AN:
Hatter's going to have to find a better way to propose. Seems that the club is too hectic for him to find the perfect moment to ask her his question. But don't worry, it will happen! I just can't see him actually doing a normal proposal, even if he has been studying up on them and trying to figure out what he should do. Normal is not Hatter's style and proposing at the opening would have been way too plain for him. So, it's good that they got interrupted. At least in my opinion…
Also, this week I might be making some first and middle name combinations out of the names that readers sent in for Duchess's baby. I'll try to figure out how to put them in a poll so that you can all vote to choose what the baby is named.
What are your thoughts on the chapter? I love to hear what you think!