Disclaimer: Alice belongs to Syfy. I just write here…

---

Coming Clean

They were some of the hardest words that Alice had ever had to say. It was time to tell the truth, no matter how much it would hurt her mother to hear it.

Alice had grown up thinking that men would run away, since that's what her father had done. But her mother had an entirely different view of the situation. She had always thought that he would come back. That's why she had allowed Alice's attempts to find her father. That's why Carol was still able to pretend like nothing was wrong when they talked about him.

"Do you remember the night that I ended up at the hospital after chasing down Jack?" Neither of them had discussed that night after their first few fights on the matter. Alice had been too sick of lying to continue and her mother had known her daughter wasn't telling the truth.

Alice sat down on the couch, hoping that her mother would take the hint and sit down as well. But Carol stayed standing, staring down at her daughter.

"But what does this have to do with your father?" Carol's voice wasn't exactly firm. It wavered on the word "father" as if she were about to cry.

Alice knew that she had to tell the story in order, so that her mother could understand. If anything was left out or misplaced none of it would make any sense.

"I followed Jack to give him back the ring that he had slipped into my pocket. I didn't go straight to the warehouse like I told you. I had never even been there before. A man tried to get the ring from me, claiming that Jack had stolen it." This was all fairly understandable, even plausible for their world. Jack could have fallen in with a bad crowd and gotten himself into trouble.

"I followed him to the warehouse and fell through a mirror." Alice glanced up at the mirror on the wall of the living room that looked suspiciously like the Looking Glass. "I landed in a different world, knowing only that I had to save Jack." Her mother finally sat down.

"Alice, you were only gone for an hour or so. Then Hatter brought you to the hospital." Carol's voice was stronger now, as she tried to sooth her daughter. Alice wondered if her mother thought she was having a mental breakdown or something.

"Mom, you just need to listen to me." The command silenced Carol, but did nothing to ease the growing tension in the room. "I met Hatter who agreed to help me find Jack. But it turned out that Jack was the prince of the world I was in. The place was called Wonderland, like in the children's book. Jack told me that Daddy was there, even gave me his watch." As much as Alice wanted to tell her mother everything that had happened, the abbreviated version was probably a bit better. Once she had grasped the truth, other details could be filled in.

Alice would have done anything for her mother not have that look of betrayal on her face. It stung Alice not knowing who Carol felt betrayed by, her husband or her daughter.

She smoothed out the hem of her dress. It was nearer to three in the morning than two now and Alice felt the hours wearing on her. But the story had to be finished.

"I met him. He didn't even remember who I was." It had been so painful, standing there outside the Hospital of Dreams while her father denied having ever seen her before. She had felt like a child again, begging him to recognize her. "Jack's mother had taken Dad there to work on projects for her, projects that were hurting people. She had her people erase all memory of us so that he wouldn't want to come back home, or even remember he had a home." Alice bit her lip while her mother looked as if she was ready to call the hospital.

"He didn't even remember Dinah, Mom." Up until he had disappeared, Dinah's death had been the most traumatic event in Alice's young life. It stuck out as one of those things that could be remembered in every detail instead of being obscured the vague fog that sometimes clouds childhood memories.

Alice swallowed a sob that was threatening to erupt from her chest and blinked back the tears. She had to finish the story, no matter what.

"The Queen, Jack's mom, wanted everything her way. She would even kill to get it. Dad's project was to extract emotions from humans to be consumed by others." It was the nicest way that Alice could explain the tea industry that the Queen had established. "She was willing to kill all of us if that would keep her plans moving forward. Even Jack wasn't safe." It had been frightening not knowing what was going to happen to any of them.

"Finally Hatter helped me free the people that Dad was experimenting on. We got so many of them out, so many lives that we helped save. But they killed him… they killed Daddy." Alice's voice finally broke. She couldn't tell the story of her adventures in Wonderland without feeling as if she had been brought back to those moments in time. Her heart felt again like it was being ripped out of her chest while watching her father fall.

Arms wrapped around her. Her mother might not believe her yet, but she wasn't calling her crazy either.

"Hush, Alice…" murmured her mother, rubbing her back. No matter how comforting Alice remembered her father's arms after Dinah had died, it was her mother who had held her during her tears after her father's disappearance. It was these warm, tender arms that Alice equated with the very concept of comfort. It had been so long since she had let her mother hold her like this, so long since Alice had been willing to admit to any type of weakness.

Her mother made her go to bed, not letting Alice explain any further, or asking any of the questions that Alice knew she would have. She just made sure that her daughter fell asleep before either of them said anything more.

---

AN:

Yes, this chapter is a little out of line with the rest of the story, it's actually serious. Alice had to explain to her mother what had happened. There was no way that Alice could keep the fact that her father was dead from Carol any longer. It would have destroyed her slowly. She had spent so much time trying to find him that they had both almost convinced themselves that someday they would find him.

So, sorry about the fact that this chapter is kind of a summary of the show, but Carol needed to hear it.

I love reading reviews, so please, just hit the button and say what you liked or disliked about the chapter or the story as a whole.