Damn. What the hell was Charlie doing here? And who had he led right to Hatter's hiding place? Hatter cursed under his breath. Charlie was entirely too good at finding people... although it had come in handy when they were rescuing Alice.
Then came a loud, insistent knock on the door. Hatter hit the wall in frustration, and cursed again, louder this time, as he wrapped his towel around his waist and went to the door, water still dripping down his neck from his sopping wet hair.
He yanked the door open, much harder then he had intended, so hard that it came loose from the wall and clattered to the floor.
Standing in front of him, looking mildly amused, stood Jack Heart. Standing next to him, and doing nothing to contain his amusement, was the White Knight. And standing behind them both was someone that he knew, although they had never met. Caterpillar.
A loud groan escaped him, but he did not apologize for it or even try to muffle it. "Something I can help you with, your majesty?"
Thankfully, they let him escape with his clothes, back into the bathroom to get dressed. When he came back out, moments later, fully clothed and with his pork pie hat firmly back in place, he found only two of the three visitors, both standing in much the same manner that he had left them. He could hear by his "hey nonny nonny", that Charlie was not far away, but was now somewhere outside.
For a long, uncomfortable moment, no one inside said anything. Then Caterpillar turned to Jack, and said, "Ask him why he is here?"
"Why are you here, Hatter?" Jack obediently parroted.
Hatter tensed slightly. "Whaddu you mean?" he mumbled
"Ask him why he didn't go to Alice's world?" Caterpillar continued.
"Why didn't you go..."
"I can hear him!" Hatter snapped, but then checked his tone. "He can talk to me directly." Hatter bit his lip and fell silent.
"Were you afraid to go with her?" Caterpillar continued, finally directly addressing Hatter.
Hatter didn't reply, but clenched his jaw defiantly and looked away.
Jack watched Hatter for a moment and shook his head. It still bothered him slightly that Alice had turned down his proposal because she wanted to be with this dark, sullen... man, that stood in front of him now.
However, he was thankful that Alice had said no. He cared about Alice deeply, but in the end, he had proposed to her out of duty. She had saved Wonderland and handed him the throne – she had every right to be queen. But last night, when he had chosen to make the Duchess his queen – well, she had given him a night he would never forget.
His cheeks warmed slightly at the memory, but he pushed it aside. This was important.
As much as it grated on him, Jack knew that Hatter was as much a hero in the taking of Wonderland as Alice. And Caterpillar had drawn Jack's attention to just how big of a role Hatter had played. And was still to play, in a round about sort of way.
Hatter was still standing there, teeth clenched. He hadn't answered any of the questions that Caterpillar had asked.
"Hatter, we need to talk to you about Alice," Jack Heart said firmly, making direct eye contact. No longer did he act like it was beneath him to acknowledge Hatter. And Hatter noticed.
None the less, "You are the last person I want to talk to about her," Hatter almost growled back.
"Hatter, I asked her to be my queen."
Hatter flushed a little at this and clenched his fist.
"She said no," Jack hastily continued. "She said she wanted something else. Someone else."
Hatter's eyes grew big at this. Her last words "and lots of other things" started to resound in his head. Alice had invited him to go back with her to her world, had wanted him to go back with her to her world. He had to force himself to focus, because Jack was still talking. Or rather, confessing.
"I care about Alice, more then you will ever know, and she did save Wonderland, so she deserved to be queen. And it isn't easy for me to accept that I lost her affections to you. But I do care about her, and I want her to be happy. And she wants you..."
Jack was almost babbling at this point, but Hatter was barely hearing him. Alice chose him. He had won Alice's affections from Jack. Hatter's eyes took on an almost dreamy state.
Caterpillar, however, just looked annoyed, as he watched the two men behaving like oysters. "Tell him what will happen to Wonderland if he does not go."
Hatter immediately snapped back to reality. "What's going to happen to Wonderland?"
Jack looked uncomfortable now. "Hatter, you have to go to Alice's world, because if you don't, nothing that just happened will happen."
"Come again?"
Caterpillar looked at him for a long moment, and then spoke. "We have discovered that you were the one who was responsible for Alice coming to Wonderland. If you do not go, then she will not come, and all that she has done will come undone."
Riddles. Hatter tried to figure this one out, but came up blank. "What do you mean I was responsible?"
Jack pulled a cell phone from the pocket of his suit jacket. "You texted me."
"I what now?" Hatter was getting even more confused. He knew what a cell phone was – some of the suits had them, although the only places they worked were at the casino and a few places in the city. Very limited coverage. But he had no idea what Jack meant by texted.
"When I was in Alice's world, the first time, I kept receiving texts from a blocked number. Warning me that I was being followed. Telling me not to go back to my apartment one night. And then the night I was with Alice, I got a text that said RUN. I didn't know who was sending them, all I knew was that someone had my back. So, after I gave the ring to Alice, I ran. And she followed me. And came through the looking glass."
"And I... texted you?" Hatter's brain was spinning now. He shook his head. "How?"
"You were there."
"How was I there? I have never been to her world!"
"That's the thing. We need you to go."
Hatter shook his head again, not saying no, but simply struggling to wrap his mind around everything. Then it dawned on him. "But all this has already happened. And I wasn't there. If I went through now, I would land in Alice's world... now, not then. Yeah?"
Jack looked over at Caterpillar, awaiting the same explanation that he had received merely hours ago.
"The looking glass is a portal who's time and place is in flux between the oyster world and our world. That is why we can tune it to send the oysters back to almost the same time that they were taken from their world, even if they have been here for a long time. It can't send someone into the far past, or too far into the future, but it can be adjusted a few weeks or months in either direction."
Hatter took a moment to digest this. "So, you want to send me back to the time before Alice came to Wonderland, so that I can make sure that she will come to Wonderland."
"Yes," both Caterpillar and Jack chorused.
And from the other side of the wall, Charlie chimed in, "Best of luck, Harbinger."
