Life is like a broken arrow-
memory a swingin' door
I could be your great misfortune-
Well I could make you happy
every goddamn single day of your life

--David Bowie

The morning, bright and new, reflected the state of their relationship. Both felt as if they'd gone back to their earliest days together, when they were still learning about one another. Shy smiles were coupled with lingering looks. Gentle touches and caresses took the place of words.

As Alice prepared a coffee maker for herself, Hatter dropped kisses on the side of her neck. When he carefully buttered his toast, she wrapped her arms around him from behind to hug him. With their pain and their redemption, some of the patina of the daily grind had been cleaned away. Somehow, breaking their relationship down had helped them.

"Will you come to the club tonight?" he asked her.

"Sure," she answered with a pleased smile, happy to be asked.

After lunch, he told her about the card he'd been given, hesitantly, a little worried that it might bring up the fight the night before, but she didn't even allude to it.

Alice smiled at the little card, and then up at Hatter. "Well, we can probably borrow a couple of suitcases from my mother," she told him, and his relieved grin warmed her down to her toes. She settled next to him on the couch, leaning against his shoulder. He immediately shifted, making them both more comfortable by wrapping his arm around her. "I've never been to Las Vegas," she said. "It's supposedly pretty wild."

"Wild? How?"

"Well," Alice hesitated, and then said, "Let me put it this way. The Hearts Casino was tame by comparison."

Hatter blinked as he considered this description. "It's a casino? A big one?"

Alice giggled. "Hatter, Las Vegas is also known as 'Sin City'. It's got a lot of casinos, tons of them, plus theatres and nightclubs and all sorts of things."

At first Hatter seemed disbelieving, that an entire city could be one giant casino. Then he looked worried. "There's nothing…. funny… going on there, is there?"

"You mean like draining people of their emotions? No. Just draining people of their money."

Hatter smirked. "Well, that's done easily enough around here. You people and your paper money and all."

Alice snickered, but then a thought occurred to her. "Hatter, I should warn you that the casinos don't take well at all to …. attempts to tip the scales in one's own favor."

Hatter arched a brow at her. He got what she was trying to say. He was even a bit amused at how delicately she phrased it. "You're saying I could very easily get into to real trouble?" She bit her lip in a nervous expression, and he decided to let her off the hook. "Don't worry, love. While I enjoy a challenge, we're just going for this show thing."

Later that night at the Magic Club, Hatter sensed a change in the way the others treated him. The wait-staff and bartenders were a touch more respectful. The owners were proud, taking credit for 'discovering' him. The stage magician, an illusionist this week, who'd initially dismissed Hatter as a hack, now gave him a considering look. That of course was due to the sense of competition, though Hatter didn't exactly think that what he did and what the illusionist did were really comparable.

During the stage set, he mentioned it to Alice as they sat together at the bar. She frowned a little.

"It's not that what you do could compete with what he does, Hatter. It's that he's probably been doing the club circuit for years, and you've only been here a few months. The most popular illusionists are hugely popular; it's probably very hard to break into that circle of top performers. On the other hand, there hasn't been someone famous with a bit like yours since… well, Harry the Hat himself. All charm and light-fingers, and prestidigitation. Not that I've heard of, anyway. Sometimes you catch a TV show of various acts, and there's usually someone doing fancy card tricks, but it's usually not as close-up as yours." Alice shrugged. "I don't really know much about it, but I'm betting it has more to do with you getting an audition after only a few months in the business."

Hatter nodded, mulling that over. Sometimes life seemed trickier here on this side of the Looking Glass. While in some ways he could go much further than he ever dared before, knowing that unlike in Wonderland the mark wasn't liable to kill him in retaliation; at the same time, there were so many more people here, and those people had more friends and contacts than was possible in Wonderland. He'd already been warned by staff at the Magic Club on how to spot someone you simply Did Not Pickpocket. Those tips, things he couldn't have learned because he didn't grow up here, plus his own natural instincts had kept him safe so far.

The real problem was he liked this job, he liked doing his card tricks, and he was starting to incorporate his hat juggling into his routines as well, and these were all things that came easily and naturally to Hatter, and so he could really get into it. Therefore, the need to not blow it added a whole new level of stress to his life.

Looking at Alice, who was smiling at the stage performance, Hatter realized the zing of nerves and stress he felt was very similar to tension of their first adventure together. At least this time, he didn't have to worry about Alice running off and getting herself into trouble – she'd stay by his side and they'd get into all the trouble together.

Since Alice was with him, they took a cab home after the club closed for the night. As they sat in the back, Hatter wordlessly took Alice's hand in his, threading their fingers together. She smiled at him, warm and sweet. Hatter held her gaze, thinking back to those few days in Wonderland when his whole reality had been turned upside down.

"You're staring at me," Alice whispered. When he just shrugged, she asked, "Why?"

"Do I need a reason to admire a very pretty girl in a very pretty dress?" he answered.

A slow grin crossed her face, as his words evoked the memory of the moment they met.

The cabbie announced their arrival. Up in their apartment, Hatter pulled Alice into a tight hug. "What is it?" she asked, her breath tickling his neck.

"Just… this time, I'm the one leading us into danger, I think."

"You're not scared, are you?"

He shrugged a little. He didn't mind that tacit admission of being a bit nervous. Alice squeezed him tightly in response, and said, "Look, the worst that can happen is they decide not to use you on the television show, you come back to the Magic Club, and life goes on." She narrowed her eyes at him. "I'm surprised. The man who punched out a Jabberwock, who snuck into the Hearts Casino, who destroyed Mad March, is nervous about flying to Vegas for an audition?"

He smirked. "Alright. Fair enough, it's not as bad as all that. And it can't be scarier than the most terrifying thing I've ever done."

"What's the most terrifying thing you've ever done?" Alice expected some tale of Resistance escapades, dodging Suits, that sort of thing. But Hatter's smirk faded until he looked at her with utter seriousness.

"Following an oyster back through the Looking Glass without knowing if she even cared about me," he told her.

Alice's eyes widened. Of all the risks Hatter had taken in his life, he counted risking her rejection the most frightening. The extreme reaction he'd had the night before over their fight rushed back to her, and she threw her arms around his neck, kissing him as thoroughly as she could.

Hatter instantly responded, his strong arms banding around her ribs and crushing her to his chest, in a good way. After a moment, he adjusted his grip so he could lift her up, her legs locking around his waist, and he carried her into the bedroom.

to be continued

AN: WHEW! Good grief, this chapter was hard to write. I had to get the transition from the angst and heaviness of the last 2 chapters back into the plot, and OMG it was difficult. I hope I succeeded, for my readers' sakes!