After Wonderland

Prologue

As Alice escaped from Hatter's, or as he had told her mother, David's embrace, she looked to her mother, and was immediately frightened by her expression. Alice's mother had dawned wide eyes and a completely agape jaw. "Alice," her mother began, "how do you already know this man? Why did you call him Hatter? Why did you kiss him of all things? What happened to Jack?" Alice took her mother's hand, along with Hatter's and walked them to the kitchen table.

They told her everything. Alice began with how she had followed Jack that night and then followed a "White Rabbit" into what looked like a mirror. Then how she had met Hatter and almost died trying to get back home. Hatter helped explain the rest: finding out Jack had lied about everything, meeting the "Caterpillar", finding her father after all those years, then watching him die trying to save her, and of course, the best part, taking down the Queen of Hearts. Alice's mother looked at them and said, "Wow, that's really..." her mother trailed off.

"Unbelievable?" Hatter said. Her mother nodded.

"Alice," her mother started, "you still haven't explained why you kissed this man!"

"Well mom it's simple," Alice took a deep breath as she made one-hundred percent sure in her mind, that what she was about to say was absolutely true. "I love him," she said, "I love him with all my heart and with every fiber of my being. The man my heart has been searching for had been stuck behind a pane of glass, waiting for me to find him." Alice looked at Hatter and squeezed his hand, as if to reassure herself that he was actually there. Alice's mother looked her straight in the eyes.

"And you promise this," she said, gesturing towards Hatter, "is the last one?" Alice looked at Hatter then looked back at her mother and smiled.

"Yeah. He's the last one."

"Well I guess first impressions are slightly overdue, but I would like to formally meet you again sometime," Alice's mother said looking at Hatter, "Also I don't believe calling you Hatter in public is going to work, so you might want to make sure that David is what you want to be called."

"Well I think it's splendid," Hatter said, "David. David Hatter. Get a new name and keep the old one. How does that sound, Alice?" Alice nodded.

"It sounds nice... David."

And this is where our story begins.