a few
q u e s t i o n s

"So what do you use for currency if you don't have money?" she asked, readjusting her grip on the saddle. Hatter rolled his eyes and resisted the urge to turn and give her a peeved look. Instead he decided to get a little revenge and urged the horse half-way into a small gulley that made them sway dangerously. She let out a little yelp and gripped the sides of his jacket for balance, causing him to grin.

"You ask a lot of questions," he said, deciding to refuse her an answer. He didn't see the angry look she shot at the back of his head. He did this every two or three questions, dodging giving her a proper answer until she asked him in a way that provided no loopholes. She was nothing if not persistent, though, and he decided he may as well give her what she wanted. "A lot of people use Tea nowadays. It's more valuable than anything. Before that, we used coins or just traded what we didn't need for what we did."

Alice was silent, accepting this as a good answer, and shifted again, hesitantly letting go of Hatter's leather coat. The saddle was really starting to bite into her legs and no matter how she twisted, it didn't seem to relieve the ache. Hatter seemed to notice, much to her dismay, and she saw him leaning back a bit.

"You comfy?" he asked, and she knew he was being cheeky. She wanted to huff and possibly push him off the horse if only for the tone of his voice. He was maddening.

Finally, she merely settled on saying, "No. Of course not."

Of course she wasn't comfortable. She hadn't been comfortable for quite a while now. Not during that agonizing dinner with her mother or when Jack made his agonizing proposition or during any of the agonizing moments since. She was lost in a strange world with strange people and of course she wasn't comfortable with this man who overwhelmed her in every possible way sitting right there in front of her.

"Why don't you just lean forward a bit and put your arms around my waist and let my body take the weight?" he asked. She'd known what he was suggesting from lean forward a bit and there was absolutely no way in hell she was going to comply. Although it would probably help that pain that was starting to settle in her lower back and they could both benefit from the shared body heat in the chilly forest air, she really didn't think it was a good idea, simply because the idea appealed too much. So she responded quickly, almost before he was finished.

"Yeah, I'm good," she told him. But she really wasn't. She was going to have some serious saddle ache when this was over. After a moment of (amused? She could swear he was grinning) silence, she decided that another question was in order. "Why did that Owl woman call your right hand a 'sledgehammer'?"

Silence. As in, not even a cheeky comment for her troubles. She was about to lean to the side to try to get a look at his face when he cleared his throat. "It's… it's a long story. And you probably wouldn't believe me if I told you."

Well, that wasn't what she expected. But her curiosity had been piqued and there was no turning back now. "Well, let's hear it. I'm sure we've got time."

He heaved a great sigh, muttered something about tea trays in the sky and a Great Uncle Hatter, before he turned and gave her a look. "To make a long story short, I did someone a good turn and they saw fit to 'reward' me by giving me the sledgehammer, my greatest strength and my greatest weakness. I can punch through a brick wall with my bare fist… but if you disable it, I'm practically useless."

Alice waited for him to elaborate, but he turned around didn't speak again. She nearly gave in to the urge to pout, but she was beginning to suspect that he had eyes in the back of his head.

"That's it? That's all you're going to tell me?" she asked, indignation shining through.

"It's all you really need to know," he said, sounding far more serious than he had since… since he held out his hand to her and led her away from the edge. He must have heard something that made him want to continue, for he said, "I suppose Charlie's been leaving traps out here for longer than anyone knew, though. I was hiding out after coming back from a smuggling job—the queen had a few suits tailing me and I didn't want to leave any tracks. I came on an old griffin whose claw was stuck in a trap. He gave me a real fright, to be honest. I didn't know they still existed."

"I didn't know they existed at all," Alice muttered. She heard a grin in Hatter's voice when he spoke next.

"Well, you're an Oyster. I don't expect you to know much," he said cheekily, smiling wider when she huffed. "But to get back to it, I helped the griffin out of the trap and he saw fit to shake my hand. He told me that he'd given me a powerful gift. I didn't believe him until I pulled the rip cord off my engine." From Alice's gasp, he knew that she knew it was no mean feat. "It was three months before I could shake someone's hand without crushing the bones in their fingers and even longer until I was able to pick up a tea cup without shattering it beyond repair. And that engine was the devil to fix—she still doesn't want to work for me now."

"You're right," Alice said with a shuddering breath. "That is hard to believe." She looked down at her own right hand, wondering what it would be like to have to re-learn everything. And then a thought struck her. "Wait; when you offered me your hand… on the ledge… it was your right hand."

He bobbed his head. "I got the sledgehammer years ago, before the queen and her goonies had figured out how to bottle Beauty." From his tone, Alice guessed this was a long time. "I'm totally in control of it now—I can even punch a man in the face and not kill him instantly. And… I knew that if I gave you my right hand, you wouldn't fall."

Alice mulled that thought over, the fact that he'd made himself vulnerable to keep her safe. Hadn't he been doing that for a while now? And she wondered, just for a moment, what it would be like to be on the receiving end of that fist. A shudder went down her spine and she forced her thoughts down a different path. For the first time, she was truly grateful that she had Hatter on her side.

a/n: I really just wanted to try to explain the sledgehammer. There's no way that he just naturally had that gift, at least in my mind. :) Hope you enjoyed!

Love,
Beth.