Alice and What Came After: Between the Glass

Disclaimer: I don't own anything related to Alice – no rights, no claims, nada – it belongs to SyFy and Nick Willing. Rex, Sid, and Nancy belong to ITV/Impossible Pictures. Sarah, Connor, Damon, and Chase are my own creations.

Chapter Thirteen: Almost

Connor Temple rode in the front seat this time around. Becker was behind the wheel, while Danny sat in the backseat, calling in reinforcements and ordering protection for the main members of the ARC team. Connor could also hear him transmitting the location of anomaly, where Sarah Page and his wife, his Abby, were murdered by Helen Cutter.

He tried not to think about Abby's death. It all seemed like a bad dream still.

Even so, he wasn't about to take a chance with Sarah's life. They had kept her alive in the Cretaceous era for most of her life—there was no way Connor was going to lose her in present day London to a psycho.

He clenched his fists. You'll pay for this, Helen. You'll pay…


"I need you to help me reach my knife. If you can get it out of my pocket, I can get us out of here," Sarah promised her fellow captive.

Jenny nodded. "Okay. Where is it?"

Sarah rolled closer to Jenny's hands. "Front pocket. It's a penknife. Very slim."

The other woman's hands brushed against her leg, feeling for the bump in the jeans. The two women strained to get closer to each other.

"I've almost got it…" Jenny said.

What followed was the longest minute of Sarah's life so far. Jenny's fingers closed on the blade, lost it, found it again, dropped it, and then passed it to Sarah. However, just as Sarah worked the knife against her wrists, the van's back doors opened.

"What the hell are you two doing?" growled one of Helen's men.

Sarah went still, trying to ignore the wetness of her own blood. This was not part of her plan.


He followed Cutter into what appeared to be a shopping centre of some sort—not quite a mall, but still a large collection of stores. They climbed on a lift, taking it up several floors, where they ended up in an office suite.

"If you see anything—anything at all—say something," Cutter insisted.

Hatter frowned. That seemed like a rather odd request.

But it didn't seem as odd when a really large cockroach leapt at his face.


Connor entered his flat mere steps behind Becker. The door to the flat had been unlocked—a bad sign if there ever was one—and there was a trickle of blood on the stairs.

As soon as they reached the main level, Connor broke away from the military man.

"Sarah? Jenny? 'Ello? Rex? Anyone?"

He went room to room, ducking under tables and beds, opening closet doors, and scouring the rather open-aired flat for any sign of his daughter, his friend, or his pets.

Rex ended up in one of the bathrooms. He'd been locked in.

Connor found Sid and Nancy pacing the floor of the master bedroom. Sarah's favorite playmates looked lost without her. They were rarely ever apart—his prehistoric pets loved having someone close in size who babbled to them, played games with them, and even fell asleep with them.

One of Abby's favorite pictures of Sarah had been one afternoon when the toddler fell asleep on Connor's chest. The two of them huddled up on the couch, Connor snoring lightly, before Sid and Nancy joined their favorite humans. Sid slept on one side of Sarah, Nancy on the other.

Even Rex joined in. He landed on Connor's legs, keeping watch over the family.

Abby took the picture without any of them ever noticing. No matter what her mood was, seeing that picture always made her smile.

Connor closed his eyes, wishing like hell he could have those good times back.

"Sarah? Jenny?"

Becker joined him in the kitchen. "Any sign of them?"

He shook his head.

"Great. Just great." Becker checked his gun again. "Does Jenny ever leave with Sarah?"

"She'd leave a note—and she'd lock the door. She has a key," Connor said.

"Do you think Helen's got them?"

Connor opened his mouth to venture a guess when the flat's landline began to ring.


"Nothing," Jenny said quickly. "Just… chatting. You know how girls are…"

The man didn't seem at all convinced.

Sarah tried not to wince as the knife in her hands slipped, cutting through a large section of rope, as well as cutting into her skin.

"Time to go," he muttered, reaching for Jenny first.

The PR manager lashed out with her feet, her heels scraping against his hands. The man snarled, his hand connecting with her cheek in a loud smack.

Before he could reach for her again, Sarah was on her feet, knife in hand. She lunged at Helen's cohort, her hand poised for a deadly knife blow. A hand grabbed her wrist.

She spun, breaking free of the grab as she kicked him in the groin with a powerful snap kick.

"Sarah… look out!" Jenny cried in warning.

Sarah didn't know what hit her when she tumbled onto the harsh pavement below.


Hatter yelped in surprise; his trusty right fist at the ready.

But even his sledgehammer was no match for this… genetically enhanced cockroach. It had pincers, which dug into his arm.

He screamed, out of both shock and pain.

As he crumbled to his knees, he could feel the venom in his blood already. He was going to die in this strange, backwards place. This was it. He, David Hatter, King of Wonderland, the Mad Hatter, was going to die from a cockroach bite.


"Temple residence," he answered, trying to keep his voice steady.

"Hello, Connor," a too-familiar female voice said. "I was wondering when you would show up. And you brought the captain with you. How sweet."

"What do you want, Helen? Haven't you done enough? Wasn't killing Abby enough?"

There was that laugh—her laugh. He hated the sound.

"No, no, you stupid boy. This is much bigger than your little crush. Much, much, bigger. The fate of the world is up for grabs. And you, you are going to give me what I need to control it. You are going to fix my anomaly opener. If you don't… everyone you care about will die. The longer you take, the more lives you will lose."

"Stop this nonsense!"

"It's not nonsense, Connor. It's business. If you want to see your daughter alive again, you will listen to me. In the next five hours, someone you care about will die. Two hours after that, another one will die. And so on."

"I would rather die than help you!" he spat.

"You'll be begging for death soon enough, dear, stupid boy. Oh, I can only imagine what you would have been like if Nick had never gotten his hands on you—never poisoned your mind against what could be. What should be."

"You're sick, Helen."

She laughed again.

"Not sick… realistic."

"I want my daughter back. Now."

"You don't get her back until you do what I say. In case you're thinking of double-crossing me, I have a little bit of insurance… your daughter, Jenny Lewis, and your little lost girl from the future. Wouldn't it be a shame if they died because of you?"

Connor couldn't find words to say. This was a nightmare.

"I'll take that as a 'yes'," Helen said. "Now, you've got less than five hours before one of them dies…"

The phone went dead.

Becker looked over at him. "What did she want?"

"She wants me to give her the means to destroy the world. If I don't, she's going to kill Sarah."

Author's Notes:

Since certain anomalies seem prone to opening, I took the liberty of re-opening anomaly from the episode in season 2 when the girl goes after her lost dog and Cutter and Stephen go after her.

Anyways, thanks for reviewing! Please keep them coming! I've finally got a bit of a plan for this story and the original thanks to a weekend getaway and a late-night brainstorming session with my sis. This is for you, Bec!