Chapter 3: The Dream and The Confrontation

First of all I want to thank everyone for their reviews and support! All four of you! Its ok, it's only my first publication so I'm a work in progress. I especially want to thankSquirmberryJuicefor the excellent advice to have Alice's mother be wary of the stranger. This chapter is dedicated to you. Also, I DO NOT own anyone, I just Love them! Thanks and keep reading kids!

UPDATE: I have decided to combine the third and fourth Chapters. They were both way too short and after re-reading them. It was the obvious answer. Hopefully I will be adding new chapters soon. Thank you!

He spent the night in the hospital waiting room, he couldn't leave but he couldn't be in Alice's room with her mother.

Starting in the chair closest to the door he made a slow circuit through all the furniture in the waiting room. He stood and paced across the entry to the hallway he had been denied entry to earlier, trying to catch glimpses of the doctor who had been treating Alice, or her mother, or even Alice herself.

He couldn't keep still and it was a wonder he didn't wear a trench into the hard tile with the miles he was clocking in front of those swinging doors. Smiling oysters kept trying to give him a dark, hot drink, bitter, not at all his cup o' tea but he smiled and accepted each cardboard cup with a nod.

After his third or fourth, he started to shake and his laps where getting faster and more frantic. And he should have been getting tired, he hadn't slept in almost 2 days, but he felt strangely charged, full of an electric buzz.

When he started to pour his own cup "o'Joe" as they called it, a dumpy older woman told him if he had one more cup he might explode. Not wanting that to happen before he made sure she was safe, he decided against the last cup. The inevitable crash happened on one of the very uncomfortable chairs in the lobby area a bit before the sun came up.

She was running towards him, arms outstretched but she seemed to be getting father away from him with every step she took. There were hundreds of suits at her back and no matter how hard he tried he could not make a sound to warn her. The words caught in his throat, stuck, like dry toast no matter how many times he opened his mouth.

He tried to take a step but his feet were stuck to the ground. The culprit was of course the honey pot. The viscous matter held fast as his muscles strained towards her. He knew that if he could just get to her, he would save her. He stood, helpless, watching as the suits overtook her, "ALICE! NO!" He screamed silently.

He became frantic, a pitiful excuse for a Wonderland Champion. There was no way to reach her as the mountain of cards swelled like a tsunami, overtaking her. As they reached her they shrunk, back to the playing cards they were designed for.

Rabid, they swarmed her like bees, slicing and twirling through the air around her. He could hear the fabric of her dress being torn and her screams as the cards cut into her flesh.

He couldn't even see her now, just a cloud of cards darting and swooping. As the cloud dissipated, all that he could see was a small pile of clothes, with the ring of wonderland placed neatly at the peak.

Thunder rolled in the distance and the cackling laughter of the Red Queen echoed into the farthest reaches of his mind.

"Young man," He awoke with a start.

"Oye!" he yelped as he fell out of the chair.

"What are you still doing here? It's almost morning." It was her mother.

Still half asleep, he pulled himself off the cold floor onto his feet. She was standing there looking up at him while simultaneously looking down her nose at him. He knew he was not on top form, being without a change of clothes or a good shower in a day or three… but he stood there tall and never looked away.

He knew her game and he was not going to be the first to break. He didn't really know how to respond to her question so he just shrugged and smiled, at least he tried to, the look on her face said that he didn't quite put her fears at ease. She held out her hand and he took it in his.

It was small, like Alice's and soft, he had to look up again to make sure it was her mother's hand he was holding and not her daughters. When he firmly took her hand-shake, she finally let the corners of her lips turn up. Not quite a smile, but it was start.

"What is your name, young man"

"Hatter, uh, I mean…" what was a good Oyster name? Just then a thin, rather gangly orderly strolled past following a group of nurses, looking like a hopefull puppy waiting for some scraps to fall. The name tag on his coat gave him what he needed…

"David, David Hatter"

"David Hatter. I don't believe I have seen you around. Are you a friend of Alice's?" She was a good foot shorter than him but she still seemed to tower over him.

"You could say that. We are… um… ahem… close."

Her eyes widened in surprise.

"What do you mean, 'Close'? I have never even heard you mentioned. Now I love my daughter but she doesn't have many friends. And I met the lovely man she is dating and his name is Jack, so pardon me if I have trouble believing you when you tell me that you and my daughter are 'Close'."

"I, uh…"

He tried to think of a plausible explanation. After all, who would believe that he and Alice had been on the most exciting, dangerous, wondrous adventure of all time?

They had fought Suits, Jabberwockies, Insane assassins and each other for the last week, but she had only been missing for minutes. He held her hand when she was afraid of the steep drops of the floating city. Shot at his mentor at the resistance and rescued her from the clutches of an evil queen on the back of a Flying, mechanical Flamingo. All in the blink of an eye here in the Land of the Oysters.

How do you explain all this to a woman who still believes her husband left of his own accord 15 years ago, when the carpenter was in Wonderland for over a century? He couldn't think of anything, honestly, he couldn't think period. The caffeine in his system had long left his blood stream and he was now at 72 hours with 15 minutes of sleep.

"Well? Why are you still here?" she crossed her arms over her chest, the effect her stance had on him was not unlike the original "drink me" bottle that the Alice of Legend had first encountered upon entering wonderland through the rabbit hole.

With head lowered, eyes below the brim of his trusty fedora, he tried again, "I love her…" it came out smaller than a whisper, the words he had never thought he would say, the words that changed everything.

His head slowly rose, "I love her." Stronger but still too quiet to hear.

"What did you say? Please speak up, I have had a very long night." She shifted her small frame as she pressed her hands to her temples.

"I…" he started again, still louder. "I love…."

"Stop right there." She lifted her hand to silence him. "My daughter has yet to wake up after you drug her out of an abandoned construction site. I have never met you before, I have never even heard her speak of you." She was visibly tense, "so this leads me to believe one of two things…"

"I know how this must sound…"

"Don't interrupt me young man, I have had no sleep in the last 24 hours and my daughter is lying in a hospital bed, unconscious. You will listen to what I have to say and then you will leave this hospital and I don't want to see you gain. Is that clear?"

"Yes, but if you would just let me explain…"

Her gaze silenced him before she even opened her mouth to speak, "This leads me to believe one of two things: One, that you are the one who caused her to get hurt in that building…"

"I would never…" but maybe it was his fault; he did hesitate before deciding whether or not to follow her out of the looking glass.

"Or," she continued choosing to ignore his outburst, "You were just in the right place at the right time. Either way I don't see how you fit into her future."

Hatter could feel his heart sinking. She was giving a voice to every doubt he had about himself and what he could give to Alice, even if she did feel the same way about him.

A fish can love a bird, but where would they live?

"I think it would be best if you leave. Now. Before I call the police."

Though he had no idea what 'police' were, she said the word the same way Queen sympathizers said 'suits' so he knew his choice was made for him. Her words rang with a finality that he could not deny.

"But… "The word hung in the air. What could he possibly say to convince her?

How could he explain to this woman that there was no way in hell he was going to leave Alice here, with just her mother for protection? Yeah, the queen was defeated but there were still plenty of people who supported the things she stood for or even those who personally disliked Hatter himself and any one of them could follow them through the looking glass. Any one of them could find their way to Alice's home.

Then what would happen? Oysters had no idea how to deal with Wonderlanders. They had no idea what they were up against. His own fist was proof enough of that.

Speaking of, he hadn't even tried it out here, he heard stories of wonderland powers magnifying here, something about the power of the ring and the transference as you stepped through the looking glass. If only he could remember.

She was still standing, hands on her hips, looking down her nose/ up at him. He had no choice. He would have to hide from her again. He wasn't leaving, but he wasn't going to tell her that.

"Yes of course, she is your daughter after all."

"Good." She held her hand out to shake and there was only a slight hesitation before he gripped it firmly and turned to go.

He needed a plan, He couldn't just hide out in a closet until Alice woke up. He needed a hiding place, an alias. He needed help.

As he walked down the corridor, lost in his scheming, he didn't notice the large man in a black trench coat, hiding behind a wall of shelves, his beady eyes glistening with delight at finally having tracked the object of his loathing through the span of Wonderland and through the looking glass.

"I will get you back for double crossing me Hatter.

I never lose a caucus race."