Finding Normal, or Something Like That

Chapter Three

Disclaimer: Please SyFy? No? Aw . . .

Here's chapter three, in which Alice and Hatter go for pizza, Hatter marvels at the wonder of Alice's world, and he does a tiny bit of explaining. It's not the longest chapter I've ever written but it's a bit fluffy and chock full of Alice/Hatter goodness.

Hope you enjoy.

"Pizza?" he asked eagerly, eyes brightening considerably. He didn't know exactly what pizza was, but he did know that it was food of some kind and that it was supposed to be very good. And it did give him a chance to be alone with Alice.

Alice paused at the end of the hall. "Yep, pizza. After all, wasn't that something you said we could do here?"

He grinned broadly, their last (rushed) conversation before she had been forced back through the Looking Glass replaying in his head for not the first time. "Of course, we can do pizza." He looked at her cheekily. "And lots of other things."

Alice paused at the end of the hall, in front of a set of metal doors (they had confused him earlier when he was looking for the stairs up). Hatter tentatively drew up beside her. As she pushed a button on the wall, she turned to look at him. A queer look crossed her face, which was quickly replaced by a bright smile that he adored.

"Naturally." A bell dinged loudly, making him jump and the doors slid open, revealing an open room. He looked at it confused before following Alice in. She caught his look. "It's an elevator, Hatter. It'll take us to different floors in the building."

She pressed a button and the doors slid shut. A moment later, the little box-room rumbled and began descending. Again, he jumped (not like he planned it!).

"Oh, it's a bus!" he exclaimed.

Alice laughed heartily at him. "Not quite, Hatter. We call it an elevator her."

He frowned at her. "You oysters have some very weird notions."

She smiled. "You're in our world now, Hatter, so you're going to have to learn how to pass off as one of us."

"That's no fun!"

"Hey, my mom was just the first in a long line of people who will look at you weird for your Wonderland tendencies." She paused briefly, giving him a quick once-over. "I love you as your typical insane Hatter-self in Wonderland and I must say you clean up real nice too."

He grinned at her. Her declaration warmed him. "Alice, I always look good."

The door to the elevator opened with a ding, revealing the lobby of the building. This thing was a very interesting and surprisingly helpful device, he decided, as the pair walked into the lobby.

Alice was chuckling under her breath at his last statement. "You know, before you showed up back there, I had convinced myself that Wonderland and you didn't exist at all, that you were merely figments of my imagination that I had dreamt up when I had hit my head."

"Oh yes, Wonderland is very real alright and I wouldn't be here right now if I didn't love you like I did, Alice."

Her smile was wide, bright and genuine, her eyes lightening up in the way that always made his heart melt into a giant puddle. Hatter tentatively put an arm around her shoulders. Alice instinctively leaned into him, slipping an arm around his waist. His heart leapt considerable. As always, she felt so good so close to him and it felt so right to have her in his embrace like this.

The sun was particularly bright when they walked out into the street. He had to blink a bit to let his eyes adjust, despite his hat.

"So, shall we go get this pizza I've been hearing so much about?" he asked.

"Of course."

Alice gently tugged at the hem of his shirt, guiding him down the street. He was content to let her navigate the way to the pizza place. She knew this city far better than he did at the moment, though he hoped to rectify that fact soon.

It didn't take them too long to reach the pizza place that Alice boasted had the best thin-crust (whatever that was) in the city. A few more minutes after that and they were being seated in a cozy, little booth tucked back in a corner of the restaurant, which he was grateful for. They had a lot to talk about and he knew that Alice (being the kind of person that she was) would want to know about how he got through the Looking Glass and other logistics like that.

He let her order for them, since he had no idea what to do and would invariably bungle up their orders. She ordered them a thin-crust pizza (so that's what a thin-crust was) with pepperoni and sausage on it and a pair of iced teas.

After the waiter was out of earshot, he raised an eyebrow at her. "Iced tea?"

She merely smiled. "You'll find out."

"Well, if its name is any clue, it sounds rather novel."

Alice rolled her eyes at him. "Only you would say something like that." She looked at him steadily from across the table, reaching over to take one of his hands in hers. "Okay, now that the food's on the way, would you mind telling me exactly where you're staying."

He gulped. "I don't know if you'll like it, but I'm using Jack's old apartment, at least for the time being. I don't like the man all that much but he was extremely generous when I told him I wanted to follow you over." It pained him to admit it, it really did. "He told me that I better be good to you and that I have to love you with all of my heart and my being or else he would come over here and beat me up – not that he could."

She had to smile at that little comment. Jack didn't stand a chance against Hatter.

"Underneath it all, Jack's a good man, Hatter."

"I know that, but I'm still prejudiced against his family and how he acted to you. He wasn't fair or kind to you at all, Alice." He lowered his eyes to the table and would have pulled his hand away if her grip on it wasn't strong. "I'll admit that I really wanted to kill at several points. I still do want to kill him."

"I'm mad at him for what he did to me, but, you know, he did do some good." Hatter felt her press her free hand under his chin and raise it up so that he was looking directly into her eyes. After spending years of selling human emotions to Wonderlanders in form of tea, he was pretty good at recognizing emotions at this point and he knew the depth of the emotion in her eyes. "Because of all of this, Jack gave me you and, for that, I'm eternally grateful. I love you, David Hatter."

Warmth and love filled him. "I love you too, Alice Hamilton."

With that, their drinks arrived and Hatter had his first taste of iced tea – NOVEL! – and, shortly thereafter, their pizza came. By the time they were leaving the pizza parlor two hours later, Hatter was confident that everything would be okay.

Hope you enjoyed the chapter. Now go review it. Good reviews make me feel happy. Creative construction is useful. Unwarranted flames will be sent to the Jabberwocky.