At long last, I have an update for you, Dear Readers! This chapter would hardly be readable, much less enjoyable, if it weren't for Vanilla212 and her beta skills, so mad, mad props to her.
As always, feedback of any kind is much appreciated. :)
"You 'ave a lovely day, now!" the merchant said with a sarcastic grin and a sleazy little wave.
Hatter was not having a lovely day.
He needed to get all his tea deliveries finished before his scheduled meeting with Jack Heart that afternoon, but he kept running into one issue after another. He felt like he'd been putting out fires nonstop since coming home the day before.
First, there was the matter of his wayward employee. The little man had come creeping back into the shop just before dawn, high on some suspicious substance or another. Dormie didn't take kindly to Hatter's threat to drown him in the nearest canal if he ever breathed another word about Alice to anyone. Fortunately, he had been around long enough to know that his boss didn't make idle threats. Hatter was reasonably sure he would keep quiet, at least for a while.
Once that bit of unpleasantness was dealt with, it occurred to him that getting Dormie to shut his trap might be too little, too late. Dormie and his goons had already been talking about Dodo, which meant they might have been talking to Dodo, and that put a real damper on Hatter's day. He'd never had to deal with the man personally, and he'd like to keep it that way.
Dodo was well-known as the leader of the main faction of the Resistance, and he had considerable resources and influence within the city's crime networks. Rumor had it that he was on good terms with several of the gangs, which was how he managed to keep the Resistance well-supplied. Any man who could navigate the complex web of politics and intrigue surrounding the gangs (something even Hatter, savvy as he was, avoided religiously) was not one to trifle with. It was also said that the man had a huge appetite and a quick temper, not to mention a profound distaste for oysters.
He made a mental note to bring this up with Jack — the last thing he needed was the Dodo investigating Alice.
He was going to continue on that note and find out just what Dormie had said to the Dodo, but he was already off to a late start on his deliveries. With a final dark scowl, he'd sent Dormie off to open the shop.
It seemed like the entire city had conspired to make his outing difficult. Part of the elevator shaft he was fond of using had collapsed, forcing him to find an alternate route. Then, the Suits had decided to raid several suspicious businesses on the waterfront, forcing him to go the long way 'round to get to his first customer. His second customer wanted to haggle over the previously agreed-upon price for over an hour, until Hatter started making less-than-subtle allusions to his Sledgehammer fist. Then, he'd had to pay for a boat to take him up a few levels, since his route through the docks was still blocked by Suits. The boat had capsized a mere fifty feet from their destination when the steersman throttled around a corner too quickly. Hatter had barely managed to save his packages from ending up in the canal. He was entirely unwilling to pay his fare after that, and it'd taken him another fifteen minutes of threats to get his money back from the hapless driver. Once that was settled, he'd had to pretend he was a gang member to frighten off a gaggle of tea-crazed homeless children.
He was getting tired of threatening people. It wasn't even lunch time yet, and he felt like the worst man in all of Wonderland. That might not be far off the mark, all things considered, he thought sourly.
On top of all the practical annoyances in his day, he was trying very hard not to think about what he had learned on his trip. He was managing to keep a cool head about it for the moment, but the implications of what he'd seen and heard threatened to overwhelm him at times. And then tied to that was the difficulty of being around Alice. For a fellow who dealt in emotions, Hatter realized, he hadn't a clue how to sort through his own.
As if his day wasn't unpleasant enough already, the powers-that-be had apparently decided it was a good time to unleash a heat wave. The sun was still several hours from its peak, and the city had already turned into a slow cooker. He might have hoped that his fall into the canal would have cooled him off, but instead it made him even more sweaty and sticky. His hat was droopy and wrinkled, the stench of canal water clung to his clothes, and his entire body felt like it was melting into a puddle of distilled Irritation. And he was hungry — he would have done unspeakable things for a leg of roasted jub-jub just then, but the weather was too hot for that and he'd likely regret it. Not that he had time to stop for a bite. Damn his cravings.
Maybe he would get home in time to cook something up before Jack arrived. He had been pleasantly surprised by the spotless kitchen. He wondered where Alice had learned her sense of cleanliness. It couldn't have been from Ricky.
And why was he letting himself think about Alice again? That was the last thing he needed just now. He could avoid looking at her or even being in the same room with her, but he couldn't stop her from showing up in his thoughts uninvited.
Whatever had possessed him to befriend an oyster?
Hatter finally made it back to the shop just after lunch time, no longer hungry - his appetite had vanished after he got an unexpected look at his last customer's recent dental work - but still decidedly damp. As soon as he'd confirmed that everything on the trading floor was being run properly, he changed into clean, well-pressed clothes and a dark blue hat, and then closeted himself in his office with a bottle of Patience. He was really developing a taste for the stuff, in spite of his previous abstinence from his products. It seemed to be the only thing that helped him focus, and he couldn't afford to be unfocused just now.
He was soon absorbed in his accounts ledgers, recording the morning's work. It wasn't long before someone knocked on his office door.
"Yes?" He called out.
"He's here."
He could just barely make out Alice's voice. It was quiet, even for her.
"Right," he said, "bring 'im in."
Jack had showed up earlier than expected. Hatter quickly closed the book and hid the bottle of Patience as Alice showed the Prince into the room. She tried to slip back out, but Hatter motioned for her to come inside.
He nodded a greeting to Jack. "Have a seat. Alice, why don't you make us all a bit of tea. Lemon or cherry, Your Highness?"
Hatter did not miss the small, encouraging smile Jack gave Alice as he seated himself on the sofa. "Lemon, please, and thank you." He'd only said five words, and already his cultured voice was grating on Hatter's nerves.
"Hatter?" Alice moved across the room to the cabinet where the straight teas were kept.
"None for me, Alice, thanks." He met Jack's eye, and leaned back casually in his chair. "Having a pleasant day, Jack?" He probed, noting a slight flush in the Prince's cheek and, curiously, a slight quiver in his hands. Hatter was generally quite good at these sorts of conversations. His experience in the tea business, and before that, in the Queen's employ, had ensured that. Today, though, he felt a bit strange - his senses weren't tuning into the situation properly, and he was struggling to access that easy way with the words he usually had. He forced himself to concentrate on the other man.
Either the Prince was nervous (unlikely), had recently been in an adrenaline-inducing activity of some sort, or he had also had himself a cup or two of tea (most likely).
"Not really," Jack said with a small smirk. "Somebody talked to the Dodo about our last conversation here, and I'm sorry to say that your shop is being watched. I fully expect to be making a rather hasty exit to the palace once we're finished."
"The Dodo, eh?" Hatter mused, chewing on the word as though this were the first time it'd crossed his mind, and not as though he'd spent the morning stressing over it. "That's a shame." Well, that explained the shaking hands. Perhaps the Prince had been chased through the streets on his way to the shop, or some such thing like that.
"More than a shame. He also knows about Alice."
Over by the cabinet, Alice froze, and Hatter felt her stare at them. He forced himself to keep concentrating on Jack. "How did that happen? I thought we had an understanding: no one gets to know about Alice."
The Prince leaned forward slightly. "Believe me, Hatter, I never said a word about her."
"It was Dormie." Alice said, sounding at once determined and dejected.
Both men turned to face her, and Jack raised a quizzical eyebrow. "Who's Dormie?"
"A low-life tea-head who happens to be me other employee," Hatter said through gritted teeth. Though not for much longer. He made a mental note to start hunting down a replacement. It was only a matter of time before the little man started talking again, he decided.
"While Hatter was gone, Dormie brought some friends of his in...they'd all had too much tea." Alice looked away from them as she spoke and continued to prepare the tea, pouring hot water into two mismatched cups. "Dormie told them I can speak, and they figured out that I'm an oyster. They mentioned the Dodo."
"Ah. I see." Jack looked relieved.
An awkward silence hung in the air for several moments as Alice handed a steaming cup of tea to Jack and sat down with her
own on the opposite end of the sofa.
Best not to let them all stew in their thoughts this time around, Hatter decided.
"Right. Jack. I've made me decision about joining your little club."
Jack sipped his tea, and quirked his eyebrow a second time. To Hatter, the mannerism was more irritating each time he did it, to the point of being distracting. Damn the man.
"I've decided to join your Resistance," he continued, "on condition that we have a written contract, signed by the both of us and a witness, about what exactly my role will be in your new government if we succeed. And if things gets messy...well, I'll not be risking my neck when you get outed to Mommy and Daddy."
Jack nodded. "Fair enough. Who do you want to witness it?"
"Chez the Cheshire." Easy decision, that. Chez had no love for either party, so he'd be an impartial witness. Besides, it was a bit of a Wonderlandian tradition to have Cheshires witness contracts. They were notoriously unreliable, but that was beside the point.
Hatter knew his way to Chez's heart, that was the point. Best to not leave anything to chance.
If Jack was surprised by the choice or unaware of who exactly Chez was, he didn't say anything. "I can draft it and bring it by later in the week. It will be enormously beneficial for you, Hatter. Trust me on that."
Hatter shrugged. "I'll decide that when I read it, mate. Just make sure me business has a prime spot in there somewhere - I want full protection for me network, and a place in your cabinet."
Alice gave a start. "Wait, what?"
They both turned to look at her.
"What do you mean, protection for your network?" She asked, a slight edge in her voice.
"Is something wrong, Alice?" Jack asked gently.
"Hatter, are you going to keep your business open after all of this…happens?" She was staring at him in disbelief.
Hatter couldn't very well lie to her, but he had a feeling the truth wasn't going to go over well. "It's purely a practical decision, Alice. Things won't be stable enough to close down for a while after the House of Cards falls."
She got to her feet, spilling some of her tea on her dress in the process. Hatter noticed that she'd put extra effort into her appearance today. Of course she had, what with Prince Charming coming over. He ignored the part of him that wished she'd dressed that way for him, and instead wondered what it would take to calm her down. Why was she taking this so seriously?
"You're supposed to get rid of the tea trade!" She said angrily. "That's what you talked about last time."
Oh. That was why.
Of course she was upset about that. They'd talked about eliminating the tea trade during the last meeting. What Alice didn't realize, though, was just how impossible that goal was. Better to eliminate all but a select few sanctioned businesses - or, even better, all but his - then slowly taper it down. Maybe, in a few decades, they could be rid of it all together. In the meantime, though, demand would go up as supply diminished, and it would become an even more lucrative profession. Jack would need to fund his government.
One glance at the Prince told Hatter that he had obviously come to a similar conclusion.
One glance at his very incensed oyster told him that she found it completely unacceptable, which was only fair. But at the end of the day, he reminded himself, she was only an oyster. Only an oyster...
Suddenly, without warning, Alice threw the teacup at him. Hatter yelped in surprise and managed to dodge it. He jumped up from his chair. "Alice, what the hell?"
But she was already gone, slamming the door behind her to punctuate her anger.
Jack gave him a reproachful look, as if to say, Why on earth did you bring that up in front of her? Then he hurried out of the room, presumably to catch up with Alice and placate her. Hatter thought if might be best if he stayed in the office, and he poured himself a cup of Clear-Conscience. He had a feeling he'd need it when he had to face her again. For some reason, though, it didn't seem to help much.
Alice came back in unannounced and hour later.
"Jack left," she said, in answer to Hatter's questioning glance.
He nodded and took another sip of his tea, thanking his lucky stars that he'd had the foresight to pour it into an opaque glass. He didn't particularly want her to know about his budding tea habit, especially after that conversation. It was none of her business, anyway.
Alice waited for him to speak, and when it became clear that he wasn't going to, she did. "Hatter, is that tea?"
Oh, for the love of…now his oyster was presuming to police his drinking habits? In his own shop? "I'm not a tea drinker, Alice." He kept his voice professionally calm, but the words came out more sullen than he had intended.
"Hatter, look..." she said, after another silent minute had passed. He stared at her, waiting. She swallowed and began again. "Hatter, I know you don't owe me anything, but you can't keep running your shop after the House of Cards falls. You just...it's not right."
"Really, Alice?" He snapped, his impatience getting the better of him. "Who are you to tell me what to do? You're an oyster, remember? I rescued you, and I run this business, so stop pretending you have a say in this, yeah?"
She fixed him with a stare so sharp it cut through him. Her jaw tightened, she stood a little straighter, and he felt a twinge of shame.
"I know I'm an oyster, but that doesn't mean I can't think." Why was she being so calm? He'd expected her to be yelling at him, the way she had earlier. "Hatter, it's your decision, but if you decide to keep trading in teas, I can't stay here."
He didn't know what to say to that. She was his Alice…she had to stay.
Except, he suddenly realized, she didn't.
"Look…Alice," He said. "Me brain's a bit odd right now. We'll talk about this tomorrow." He stood and crossed the room to open the door for her."
In spite of his clear signals that the conversation was over, Alice was not leaving. "Hatter?" She asked, in a tone that said she wouldn't budge even if he ignored her.
Hatter sighed. "Yes?" Better deal with this now or he'd never hear the end of it, whatever it was. Would this day never be over? He moved away from the door and over to the edge of the room that was open to the city.
"Why are you working with Jack? You don't like him, right? Why help him?"
She still had that clear, piercing light in her eyes. It made his heart ache.
"No, Alice, I don't like him. Not a bit." Hatter looked away from her and stared across the rooftops. "He thinks he can have whatever he wants." He looked back at her for a just a moment, before putting on his hat and heading for the back door.
"Hold on," Alice called after him. "I don't want to run the shop without you here, in case Dormie makes trouble."
Hatter shrugged. "Close down early." And he was gone.
Alice watched him go, and gave the floor a frustrated little kick. Hatter might have at least taken care of closing the shop down before he went. She was reaching the end of her rope with him and his increasingly strange behavior. Mostly, she was worries. She was sure that he had started drinking his own product. They called him Mad Hatter for a reason, right? If he was drinking, what if it was bringing all the madness to the surface…what if he went after her with that sledgehammer fist of his?
Alice chewed her lip, and noted with surprise how scared she really was — scared, and angry at herself. After Ricky and all the others, she knew better than to let herself become vulnerable.
But it had been obvious how much Ricky had despised her — she was nothing more than a defective product to him, not even worth the food he had grudgingly allowed her. Hatter – the sane, savvy Hatter she had grown used to – actually seemed to care for her. A little.
In a way, that was even more cruel. Why did he bother pretending she mattered in the first place if she was just an oyster to him?
But why shouldn't he? She was a valuable employee. Not addicted to tea. Not looking to get her pockets stuffed. Unobtrusive, purposefully overlooking the more questionable comings and goings of the shop that she was not directly involved with. And if he threw a few kind words and smiles her way to make her feel special...well, that just motivated her to work harder, didn't it? Keeping her around was just good business.
Alice hated the thought of just being "kept around." She'd had enough of that for one lifetime, she decided. And she had meant what she said to him. She couldn't stay in the shop, knowing that he had no intention of contributing to the end of the tea trade if the opportunity arose.
She thought about her conversation with Jack a few minutes ago, and about the curious little wooden container he'd pressed into her hands. Maybe it was time for things to change. Maybe this was who Hatter really was.
She was still up mopping the floor when he came in hours later. The blue hat he'd been wearing earlier was gone, replaced by a light green one with a feather pinned to the brim.
Alice frowned. "You changed your hat."
He inclined his head. "Always the observant one, Alice."
Alice was unsure of what to say next to keep the conversation going. She wanted to bring up Jack's visit, to see if she could learn more, but he was not making it easy. "So did you trade with someone to get that one, or what?"
Hatter gave an irritated huff. "I'm a Hatter, right?" He pointed at himself. "Hatter." At his hat. "Hat." He spit the last t out like it stung his gums.
Alice watched him take the hat in question off, minus his habitual flourishes, and toss it on the rack without even looking at it. Then he came over and examined the floor. Seeing that she was only half done with the job, he grabbed and extra rag from the cupboard, dipped it in the mop bucket, and got to his knees to begin scrubbing tile – on the opposite side of the room from her.
She looked down at her rag and decided it was too dirty, so she dipped it in the bucket and rinsed it out. The water had gotten quite cold. "You know, it's funny."
He did not look up from his work. "What is, Alice?"
"Remember when you first brought me here? How you wouldn't shut up, but you couldn't get me to say more than a few words?"
Hatter shrugged. "And your point is?"
"Well, it's been reversed now, hasn't it?" She started scrubbing again. When there was no answer, Alice took a deep breath, and asked, "Why are you mad at me, Hatter? Am I really so wrong about this?"
He looked up at her (studied her, really), and she stopped scrubbing to meet his gaze, trying to guess at what he might be thinking. It was difficult to tell, but she thought he looked very sad.
"No, I'm not mad at you. It's been an awful day, and me head feels like a bloody building fell on it. G'night, Alice." And he dropped the rag and walked into the back rooms, closing the door behind him.
But Alice wasn't satisfied. She had some sympathy for his headache, assuming he actually had one, and a part of her thought she should leave well enough alone. They could continue their conversation in the morning, but she knew she wouldn't be able to sleep if she didn't get some answers. Having a bad day didn't explain the way he'd been acting recently. The side of him she knew, the Hatter she'd thought was her friend, was being pushed out by this...whatever it was that was bothering him. She couldn't just allow him to shut her out while he wallowed in his troubles.
She walked quietly through the hallways and knocked on his office door. No answer, only faint noises from inside. She pushed it open.
Hatter was rummaging through the Sensibility Cabinet. He surfaced with a tall empty glass and glared at her. "G'night, Alice. That means go. Now. Away. Far."
"I have a question." She swallowed. "Well, actually, I have two."
He sighed audibly and reached back into the cabinet, coming back with a delicate tea cup and saucer that Alice couldn't recall seeing before, along with a can of simple fruit juice. He opened it dumped half of it into the tea cup, then handed both items to her without ceremony. She set the can down and took a sip of the juice. "Thank you."
He gave her an odd look. "Sure." The silence stretched out awkwardly, until he said, "Your questions."
She bit her lip. "Right. My questions. All right…first one: what's wrong with you?"
"Nothing. I'm a bit tired. Next?"
She'd been expecting that, so she moved on to the next one, the one that was much harder to ask. She stared hard into the tea cup, as if it would tell her the best way to phrase it. "You've never taken emotions from me…but what about the others?" She kept her eyes down, focused on the juice. "Have you ever extracted from an oyster, Hatter? Did you ever kill one of us? When you were working for the Queen?"
He flopped into his chair and leaned into it like a desolate king on his throne. She dared to stare at him again. "Well?"
He looked away, up at the ceiling, his right fist clenching and unclenching. "Yes, yes I have." It came out as an exhalation, a whisper.
There it was, hanging in the air between them. He had killed at least one of her kind before. Her worst doubts were true…he was not to be trusted.
She waited for him to continue, but instead he got up and opened his safe. He chose two different bottles he'd brought back from his trip and mixed some of the contents of each in the tall glass.
Alice watched, surprised only by how calm she was. Instead of the surge of anger she would have expected, all she felt was vague sort of sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach. "I knew it."
"Knew what, Alice?" He took a small swallow of the concoction and watched her, his dark eyes dull.
"That you'd started taking tea again. You haven't been yourself."
He smiled bitterly. "That, or you are completely oblivious as to who my real self happens to be."
Alice watched him lift the cup and take a sip. "The Hatter I know is always smiling. He wouldn't lie to me. He even embarrassed a Cheshire Cat to make me feel better."
Hatter laughed. Or at least, it was supposed to be a laugh. What came out was closer to a sob. "We must know two different Hatters, Alice."
She didn't know how to answer that, so instead she asked another question. "Is it the tea you brought back from your trip? Is that what's changed you?"
He stared at her for a moment, and she saw him come to a decision. "You want to know where those teas come from, I take it?"
The tone he used made her sure that she'd be better off not knowing, but curiosity trumped her growing unease. She waited for him to continue.
He gave her a long look, then took another swallow.
"This trip I just got back from…I was meeting with a new supplier for me product. The market's been drying up here in the city. Can't find a reliable supplier to save me life, so I thought I'd branch out a bit. I found a lovely new source for this stuff. More than a new source. I found new kinds."
He raised his glass towards the safe, as if to toast it. "Therein, dear Alice, are the purest, the most noble of the bloody oyster emotions. Soon to be for sale, right here, to the chaps who can pay for them." He moved the glass in his hand so that it caught the light. "Want to know what's in here? I'll tell you. Four parts Honesty and one part Adoration. All organic and unforced."
He took another swallow, a long one this time, and stared once more at Alice. "They aren't extracting from these oysters like they do the others, Alice. They aren't using drugs to keep them sedated. They're bringing the emotions in naturally, getting large amounts of it, from those big, overflowing oyster hearts."
Hatter moved to stand in front of her, looking down into her face with an intense look in his eyes that she could not read. Uncomfortable, Alice sank deeper into the couch. "But here's the catch, see. They have to kill every last one of them, because once the emotion is fermented and harvest, the oysters are ruined. They'll never be able to trick them again. And they get more out of it, so much more, if they drain the oysters until they die."
His face twisted into a smile, bitter and tight. "Because oysters keep their love and purity buried so deep, you have to suck them dry to get it all."
He closed his eyes. "They're killing children, Alice. Every Day. Butchering them on the drainers." Alice's heart wrenched with pity, and she couldn't stop herself from reaching out to touch his arm. She felt it tighten beneath her hand.
His eyes snapped open, damp with tears. They held an unnatural glint of vulnerability – the effects of the tea. Alice pulled her hand away, but he grabbed it and held it tightly. "And it's not just children. There's a fellow down there who convinces women to trust and adore him. Then, when they love him more than they have ever loved anything or anyone else, he puts them on the drainer."
Alice shifted nervously and tried to pull her hand away. Hatter clenched it tighter. "And do you know, it's the most heady mix I've ever tasted. All innocence and nobility, overwhelming commitment, with just a hint of lust." Without warning, Hatter roughly pulled her to her feet. He dragged her closer, then held the glass up to her nose.
"Do you smell that?" he asked, leaning in close so they could both breathe in the sickeningly sweet aroma. Alice was long used to the odor of tea, but she detected a subtle difference to this one. It was both alarming and familiar, and she found that she couldn't force herself to turn away from it. It was...intriguing. Enticing.
Seductive.
Alice gasped, glancing up from the glass to meet Hatter's dark gaze. "Would you like to know what he did to get it? Would you like to know what I've thought about doing to you, Alice?"
Hatter's words hit her like a bucket of ice water, breaking the spell, and she yanked her arm from his grasp. "Stay the hell away from me," she hissed through clenched teeth. Tears welled up before she could stop them, and she ran from the room, from the shop, leaving the doors open behind her.