Chapter 10

After the incident in the Deluded Depths, Jack was much more careful when entering Wonderland. He did not want to get caught off guard again in someplace unpleasant. But that didn't stop him from visiting when ever he had a chance, which was more frequent now that winter had ended in the northern hemisphere.

Alice had to admit, she enjoyed the experience of having a friend again. Despite this, she still did not wish to go to the party Jack's friends were hosting. Jack never pushed the matter, but Alice could tell he was disappointed by her refusal.

One day a week before the party, Alice had again refused to change her mind as Jack was saying goodbye. He hid his disappointment behind a smile, and flew down the rabbit hole back to his reality.

Alice sighed, and headed in the direction of the Dollhouse. It was time to make sure her prisoner was still trapped in his hovel.

"Conflicted?" said a voice beside her. She turned to see the Cheshire Cat appear in his usual fashion.

"Not in the least, Cat," she said dismissively. "The world outside Wonderland is not for me, I have long since learned that lesson."

"And yet you still can't help your curiosity," the Cat pointed out.

Alice huffed at the Cat's ability to read her so well. Ever since Jack had told her how much time had passed since she'd left the other world, she couldn't help the curiosity at how the world had changed. Jack had been happy to answer any question she asked, but his replies had left her even more intrigued than before.

But she didn't want to get hurt again. Nothing but pain came from that world. She said as much to the Cat.

"Pity," he said. "Fear can cause such disappointments."

Alice rounded on him, insulted. "I am not afraid."

The Cat grinned and faded away.

Alice scowled at where he had last been. She knew what he was doing. He was trying to goad her into going.

She stormed angrily off to the check the prison in the Dollhouse. Taking out her frustrations on any Bitch Babies and Doll Girls that crossed her path.

Still what the Cat had said stuck in her heads. Was she afraid, or was she simply avoiding it from past experience?

She couldn't come up with an answer for that, and it was driving her mad.

*A*A*A*

The day of North's party, Jack stopped by Wonderland one last time to give Alice a chance to change her mind.

He came out in the Vale of Tears, a place he'd been to a few times before, and liked. It was a beautiful place with its tall trees, and toys scattered around, and best of all the rivers were shallow. He just had to make sure to keep an eye out for the Duchess and avoid her.

Jack didn't have to search long for Alice. He found her at the foot of one of the giant weeping statues, talking to the White Rabbit. Jack had met the Rabbit briefly before, and the guy had struck him as nice, but twitchy. It also amused him to see that this rabbit had an accent too.

"… And if absolutely anything is amiss, you come and tell me immediately," she was saying to the nervous creature.

"Yes, yes of course, Alice," the Rabbit replied. "But must you go?"

"Go where?" asked Jack, flying over to them, brining their attention to his arrival.

"To your gathering, of course," Alice said briskly. "I assume I am still invited?"

Her abrupt change in tune threw Jack for a loop, and he spent a few moments gaping like a fish before he could answer. "Yeah, yeah, of course you are. You want to go?"

"If I did not, I made these preparations for nothing," she said, walking past him. "Shall we be off?"

Jack hurried after her, wondering what on earth had happened to change her mind, but he was not complaining.

He led her through the tunnels to the Warren, where Bunny would lead them to the right tunnel to the Pole.

As they went Jack began giving Alice advise on how to deal with his friends. "Tooth is really perky, and she'll most likely want to look at your teeth. So it's best to just let her and get it over with. Sandy doesn't really talk, but he gets the point across with sand pictures. North's kinda loud, and he tends to go overboard, especially about Christmas, but he's really nice. And the kangaroo known as the Easter Bunny…"

"Oi! Watch what yer calling a kangaroo, mate," called Bunny, as they entered the area where he was waiting for them.

Bunny looked over Alice as they drew near. He stuck out his paw and said, "Nice tah finally meet ya, miss. I'm E. Aster Bunnymund."

"He's annoying, grumpy, and reeeeally full of himself," Jack interjected. Then had to duck as Bunny took a swipe to his head.

"Alice Liddell, charmed," said Alice, ignoring Jack's teasing.

"Likewise, Sheila," Bunny said. Then he jerked his head towards one of the tunnels. "This is the way to the North Pole, lets get this over with."

"You sound as though you do not want to go to this," observed Alice, as she and Jack hurried after him.

Bunny sighed in exasperation. "It's not that I don't want to go, it's just- Frostbite wasn't kiddin' when he said North goes overboard. When ya give him an excuse to throw a party, well, you'll see what I mean."

"How are the kids getting there?" asked Jack. "Do I need to go get them?"

"Nah, North said he'd pick them up with the sleigh," said Bunny.

Jack snickered, "Lucky kids. Everyone loves the sleigh."

*A*A*A*

Jack and Alice soon saw what North meant. It had seemed odd to Jack that they would have a summer party at the North Pole, rather than someplace more appropriate, like Tooth Palace, or Sandman's Island. But North had done his best to turn the better part of the upper floor of workshop into a beach party, meanwhile most of the yetis still worked on the lower floors. There both fake and real palm trees everywhere, and sand had been spread across the floor. A large aquarium with tropical fish was set off to one side, and a large indoor pool had been set up beside it. The yetis at the party wore grass skirts and carried trays of drinks in coconut cups, and platters of seafood. The elves scurried underfoot, switching out their usual pointed hats for wooden tiki-heads.

"Wow," said Jack incredulously, as he took in his surroundings. "North went all out."

"Ho ho ho, of course I did, is party!" guffawed North as he walked up to them wearing a very tacky red Hawaiian print t-shirt.

He then beamed down at Alice. "You must be Miss Alice Liddell. Is very nice to meet you. I am Nicolas St. North, better known as Santa Claus or Father Christmas. But please, just call me North."

"Thank you for inviting me," Alice politely, if a bit stiffly. North looked far from what she'd expected of Father Christmas

"Bah, is no big deal," said North waving his hand. "Ve have all been very anxious to meet you. Is not everyday a pretty young lady catches Jack's eye."

This time Jack caught the insinuation. "Dude!" he said in embarrassment.

Fortunately for him, Alice had been distracted by the elves doing something stupid and missed North's last statement.

"What are they doing?" she asked incredulously. Watching as a group of elves kept banging their heads against each other and falling over like dominos.

"I am thinking is supposed to be hula dance, but can't be sure," said North without even blinking. He was far too used to the elves antics by now.

"This is why the yetis make the toys," Jack whispered to her.

"JACK!"

Jack turned just in time to see Jamie and the Burgess kids rushing towards him right before they tackled him in a hug, causing him to collapse to the bottom a pile of laughing kids.

Sophie had come running too, but she tackled Bunny's leg instead, giggling madly.

Alice watched this in amusement. The Insane Children often had the same reaction when Jack came to visit them at the Skool.

When Jack worked his way out of the mess he grinned at the kids. "Hey guys, miss me that much?"

"Of course," said Jamie in exasperation. "We haven't seen you since Easter. We didn't think we'd see you again till September at the earliest."

Jack laughed and ruffled Jamie's hair, making the younger boy squawk in protest, and the other children laugh.

The kids (sans Sophie, who was still hugging Bunny and babbling at him in toddler talk) then noticed Alice watching them all.

"Is she-?" asked Claude.

"She's gotta be," confirmed Caleb.

"You're Alice? THE Alice?" asked Pippa in awe.

Monty blinked in surprise at her. "But you're not blond."

Cupcake bopped Monty's shoulder, "And Jack's not an old guy, and the Tooth Fairy doesn't look like Tinker Bell. You should know by now that a lot of the mainstream stuff is wrong."

"Are you going to be a Guardian too, Alice?" asked Jamie excitedly.

Alice felt a little overwhelmed by the children all talking at once, but the last question caught her attention.

"No, of course not, I'm just here for the gathering," she said, giving Jamie an odd look.

"But I think you would make a great Guardian!" said Jamie enthusiastically. "Jack's told us all about how you can fight really good, and how you protect those kids in Wonderland, an-and how you saved those kids at the orphanage that one time!"

The other children all nodded in agreement

Alice glanced at Jack in surprise. "You told them all that?"

Jack shrugged sheepishly, and North clapped his hand onto Jack shoulder and laughed.

"Are you joking?" said North in amusement. "Is hard to shut him up, he is very fond of you."

"Too right he is," agreed Bunny, sharing in North's teasing.

Once again the implications flew over Alice's head as the children clamored for her attention, but Jack glared at his friends in embarrassment.

"I'm not that bad," he snapped. "And I didn't tell the kids everything," he said to Alice, "for obvious reasons."

Alice nodded in understanding.

"Anyway," said Jack, eager to get the spotlight off of him. He pointed at each of the kids, and introduced them. "This is Jamie, my first believer."

"Hi," Jamie said brightly.

"Pippa."

"It's so nice to finally meet you," she said excitedly. "I have so many questions."

"Monty."

"H-hey," said Monty bashfully.

"Claude and Caleb."

"Hey, that's not funny, Jack," said Caleb, who Jack had jokingly identified as Claude. "I'm Caleb and he's Claude. Nice to meet you."

"Yeah, nice to meet cha', said Claude eagerly. "Jack says you've got a wicked knife. Can we see it?"

"Perhaps," said Alice in bemusement.

"And this is Cupcake."

"Hello," said Cupcake. "I was in the play version of your story a few months ago."

"There's a play?" Alice asked in interest.

"Yup," said Cupcake proudly. "I played the Queen of Hearts."

"Oh dear, she's an awful person," said Alice

That statement got all the kids begging for her to tell them about the real Wonderland characters.

While the kids occupied Alice, the Guardians moved aside to talk. "Where are Sandy and Tooth?"

"They'll be along shortly," said North. "They're just finishing up before they can leave their jobs."

As North had said, Sandy and Tooth arrived soon after (Tooth gushed over how well Alice was taking care of her teeth, and Sandy tipped a sand hat to her), and the party got underway.

North went all out with his party. The food was good, the games were fun, and everyone was enjoying themselves.

However, as Jack was avoiding the swimming pool like the plague while the others swam, he noticed that despite the fact Alice seemed to be having fun, she had remained stiff and guarded the entire time.

Jack had figured that might happen. Alice never said anything about it, but he had guessed she was far from her comfort zone at the moment. The real world is where all her problems had come from, Wonderland only reflected those problems.

As the party was winding down, it came out that Alice had yet to see the any Alice in Wonderland films.

This had scandalized the kids, and North had promptly taken them to a room with a giant T.V. to watch the two Disney versions of the film.

Throughout the films, Alice criticized all the things she saw as wrong, much to the amusement of the other viewers.

With the animated version, it went something like this.

"My sister was not that much older than me, and Dinah had black fur."

"The Tweedles are far more unpleasant than that. And they do not honk."

"Carpenter is much taller than that. And the Walrus is far less dapper, and much less intelligent."

"The Cheshire Cat is not and has never been pink!"

"The Hatter is much too short, and his nose isn't big enough."

"I miss it when the Card soldiers looked like that. Now they look like walking corpses."

"The Cards are Zombies? Cool!" was Claude and Caleb's response to that.

"Well they got the Queen right, she did used to be like that."

"She should have just stomped on them when she had the chance. The court was a sham anyway."

It went similarly with the Burton version.

"My father was the dean at Oxford, he did no business in trading."

"My mother never cared for such things as corsets, in fact she rightfully thought they were abominations."

"I would even consider marrying with someone so dry and stupid as this Hamish character."

"My sister's name is Elizabeth, not Margaret."

"Kill him, you little twit! If any man dared cheat on my Lizzie, he would not live to see another day!"

"Why is this girl playing me so expressionless."

"Door Mouse is not female."

"Caterpillar's name is Caterpillar, not Absolem. And Wonderland has no Oraculum."

"Cat is not blue either."

"There are so many things wrong with this Hatter, I can not even begin."

"The White Queen has the appearance of a living chess piece, and where is the White King?"

"Are-are they implying a romance between me, a-and Hatter! Never! I'd rather swim in Ruin!"

"Why is she shrinking back down? She would have stood a much better chance against the Jabberwock if she remained a larger size."

"Don't tell me that twit still thinks this is a dream."

"Underland? Wonderland is called Wonderland!"

"The twit is a pathetic fighter."

"What are they thinking, letting the Queen live? She'll just come back."

By the time the movies were done, the children were exhausted. North loaded them onto his sleigh and flew them back to Burgess.

After they left Alice was still fuming at the portrayals of Wonderland in the films. Jack was next to her and made attempts to cheer her up, but she mostly ignored him.

Suddenly the two heard snickers and giggles coming in the direction of Tooth, Bunny, and Sandy.

When the two looked over at the senior Guardians, Bunny gave them a wicked grin. "Do ya realize where yer standen', mates?"

Jack and Alice looked around, but didn't see anything special until they looked up.

Hanging above their heads amongst the beach decorations was a sprig of mistletoe.

Realizing what that meant, Jack tried to dart away, only to be grabbed by a pair of Yetis and forced back under it.

"Uh uhh," Tooth tisked. "You stood under the mistletoe, that means a kiss is in order. That's the rules."

Sandy nodded in agreement, his face in a mock serious expression.

"But-" Jack tried to protest, but the yetis just pushed him and Alice closer together.

Sandy used his sand to create an image of the North Pole, North, a Christmas tree and a rulebook.

"Because we're at North's place, we have to follow the Christmas traditions," Jack translated aloud.

Sandy nodded, then gestured with his hands for the two to hurry up.

Jack was about to argue again, that he and Alice were just friends, when he felt something soft touch his cheek. He froze in the spot when he realized Alice was kissing him!

He remained frozen there for several seconds after she pulled away, still in shock.

"Aww!" cooed Tooth, happily, Sandy gave them a thumbs up, and Bunny laughed. "I think you broke 'im, Sheila."

Jack snapped out of it, and beamed Bunny with a snowball. The Pooka glared and was about to snap at Jack, but Tooth began to abolish Bunny for his teasing.

Alice let out an amused huff, before grabbing Jack's arm and dragging him away. "They weren't going to let us go till it happened, so stop fussing Jack, and think nothing of it. It is time you took me home."

As they left they failed to see Bunny slip the yetis and some elves a bunch of chocolate eggs as payment for hanging the mistletoe above their heads without them noticing.

So Jack walked Alice back to the tunnel to Wonderland, where she thanked him for the good time, and went on here way.

As Jack flew off he reflected on how great the party had been, but his thoughts still went back to the kiss, and he reached up to touch his cheek.

He and Alice were just friends. Right?

*A*A*A*

A/N Jack's finally starting to see Alice in a different light, but she still doesn't see it. What do you think? Too sappy?

Disclaimer: I own nothing