Disclaimer: I suppose that I should admit that I don't own Alice. But if you hadn't figured that out already…

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Carol in Wonderland

Hatter lay on his couch, trying to figure out what to do with his evening. He usually spent time on projects for cROOKed or with Alice. But now that cROOKed was complete and Alice was busy with her mother, he didn't have much to do. Alice was enough to tie him to this world, but she couldn't make him part of it so quickly. He didn't feel comfortable just yet wandering around aimlessly.

He put a hand over his eyes and willed himself back to sleep. Maybe in a few hours things would look better.

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Alice almost literally dragged her mother down the side streets to cROOKed. Carol was not at all a willing participant in their adventure, but she hadn't said no since Alice had scolded her. Alice wondered if telling her mother off had really been the best course of action, but it was the only way she had seen to get the woman to come along.

The sun had already set and in the dark, the alleys reminded Alice of the first time she had gone through the Glass. Maybe her mother had the same sense of foreboding that Alice had been subject to, but at least Carol wasn't chasing down her kidnapped boyfriend. She was just following her daughter to go look at the place where the most important man in her life had been killed. Yeah, maybe Carol had a reason to not like this.

Through the Looking Glass… it was only by seeing the world on the other side that her mother would begin to heal. At least that's what Alice hoped for.

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Thankfully Duchess didn't ask any questions when Alice arrived at the club. Carol was still not talking and there were too many things that Alice wasn't willing to reply to if asked.

"We're going to be in the office for awhile." The club would be opening again in a few minutes and Alice figured that they would be back before it closed. The fact that time shifted between the two worlds was one of the few things that Alice never got used to.

Alice nodded at Scamp and Thatcher who were gossiping by the bar. Winnow and Fowler were, according to Duchess's quick explanation, making out in the back room pretending no one knew they were a couple. Alice tried to process all of this, but it was hard to think of anyone else's lives when she had problems of her own.

She wanted things to work out with Hatter, and she had a feeling that if her mother continued to hate him, he would end up putting some distance between them.

Alice pulled her mother into the office. The woman didn't seem to see the decoration around her, she just focused on the Looking Glass as if she knew what was coming.

Alice shoved Carol into the mirror.

Taking a deep breath, Alice followed.

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The landing was just as bad as Alice remembered from every other time she had gone through the Glass. This time, she landed part way on top of her mother.

"Now do you believe that the Glass leads to another world?" Alice asked, standing up and straightening out her clothes.

"Alice! You have returned to us!" Alice found herself wrapped in a familiar, if somewhat uncomfortable embrace. Chainmail pressed up against the side of her face, making her think she was going to end up with an imprint on her skin.

"It's good to see you too, Charlie." She commented, trying to shift herself out of his hold. "Charlie, this is my mom, Carol." His arms dropped from around her and Alice found herself watching as Charlie bowed to her mother.

"It is a pleasure to meet you, my lady." He looked a little bit too eager to be meeting her mother. Alice noticed that her mom didn't look as rumpled as Alice felt by the fall. But as much as Alice loved the old knight, he was way too old to be ogling her mom.

Carol, however, didn't seem to be noticing anything. She wasn't speaking. She hadn't even gotten up off the floor.

"Um… Charlie, could we possibly get a ride to the Casino?" The knight had access to a Scarab, that much Alice knew from the last time that she had been here.

Charlie shook his head, causing his mail to rustle and his breastplate to creak.

"I'm sorry, Alice. The King needed the Scarab to fly formations over the city and country. It seems the rebels are a more serious threat than we expected." Alice paused. Rebels? It made sense that not everyone would be happy with Jack as king. But the fact that he was worried about them, and had Charlie worried about them, was significant to Alice. As far as she had been able to tell while they were together, Jack didn't worry, Jack planned.

"Horses then?" Alice asked hopefully. She wasn't just gong to wait around for a Scarab to be available. She wanted her mother to come to terms with what had happened as quickly as possible. Yes, it was selfish of her, but she wanted there to be some closure in her life. Heck, she needed it.

"I suppose…" Charlie sounded rather reluctant. Alice thought that he might have orders to keep the horses in case anything happened. But, it seemed that his loyalty to Alice won out over his loyalty to the king. "They're stabled out back."

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Alice and her mother rode through the city. Charlie had sent a Suit with them because Alice didn't know her way around Wonderland as well as she would like. In fact, she had mostly had someone leading her or dragging her the entire time she had been here before.

Alice realized quickly two things. One was that living in New York did not prepare someone to be in the saddle for hours. The second was that traveling by Flamingo, as much as she hated it, was a lot faster than riding a horse.

She couldn't help but think that she wished Hatter was there, so that she could ride behind him.

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Hatter eventually decided just to go to the club. He hadn't been able to fall asleep and he kept worrying that something was wrong. In fact, he knew something was wrong.

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AN:

And Carol and Alice go to Wonderland. The idea of Carol in Wonderland is strange, I'm not sure how she is going to deal with it, she doesn't seem like she's doing too good right now. I feel kind of sorry for Hatter, getting blamed for everything and then getting left in Alice's world while they go back to his.

We're now in the final stretch, I hope… (Now I really need to go through all those names people submitted. I'm sorry it's taking me so long.)

Please leave a review, even if just to tell me what you thought.