~{Madly In Love~Mad Hatter}~

11~The Gardens Of Memory, The Palace Of Dreams

"C'mon this way!" Alice giggled as she dragged Evie to a quaint little house a couple of blocks away from the Kingsleigh's. In this house lived Alice's elder sister, Margaret Kingsleigh, now Margaret Manchester, and her husband Lowell. Alice still didn't necessarily trust Lowell after catching him making out with another woman at Alice's engagement party. But he seemed to behave after that incident and he does make Margaret happy so Alice was content with the situation.

Alice knocked on the door and a man answered the door. Evelynn assumed that this was Lowell, Margaret's husband. She'd obviously never met the man but Alice had spoken about him a few times. "Ah, Alice! Here to see your sister, I presume?" Alice gave a small smile and nodded. Lowell allowed them in while he went to fetch Margaret. Evie plopped herself in a lush living chair while Alice sat in the rocking chair next to her.

A few minutes later, Margaret made her way down the stairs. "Alice!" She exclaimed as she hugged her sister, her three-month baby bump getting in the way. Alice pulled back and looked at her sister's pregnant belly. "Look at you, Margaret! You're practically glowing!" Alice smiled. "Why thank you, darling." She caught sight of Evelynn and her eyes widened. "Evelynn my dear, is it really you?" Before Evie could answer, however, Margaret pulled her into a hug. Margaret motioned for Lowell, who was standing next to Alice by the entryway, to come over. "Evie, this is my wonderful husband, Lowell. Lowell, this is Evelynn, my 'little sister!'" Margaret giggled as Evie beamed and shook Lowell's hand.

It's no secret that Evie was practically adopted into the Kingsleigh family when she and her father had visited. Between getting along so well with Margaret, being a friend who really understands Alice, and being a polite house guest to Helen and Charles, she became part of the family in no time at all. Evie always felt like part of the family too. Helen was like the mother she never had. Charles was like her second father. Margaret was like the big sister she never had. And Alice...well...what was Alice to Evie? A sisterly figure, yes, but that wasn't it. Maybe it was the way her eyes twinkled with their signature curiosity. But Evelynn found herself attracted to her childhood friend.

Evie realized she liked women a couple of years ago. One of her closest friends back home, Lisa-Anne, was joking around with Evie. There were a couple of their other friends there. They were playing Truth Or Dare when Lisa got dared to make out with the person on her left for ten seconds. Of course, that person was Evie. She didn't think that she would enjoy it as much as she did. Evelynn has been a closeted bisexual since then, knowing what people do to homosexuals. She didn't want to tell Alice the way she felt for several reasons. The two biggest being she wasn't sure if Alice liked women that way and Evie was still in love with Tarrant of course. Evie sensed there might still be chemistry between Alice and Hatter but didn't think much of it since he really seemed devoted to Evie. Perhaps this is just one of those puzzling love triangles that's meant to remain puzzling.

"What brings you back to the bustling streets of London?" Margaret asked. "Just came back to visit my second family!" Evie shrugged. "Would you ladies like some tea?" Lowell offered. The three women nodded their heads and trailed off to the kitchen. They all sat and talked over tea, catching up with the past ten years or so. Evie dually noted Lowell's "special blend" didn't hold a candle to Hatter's organic specialties. Oh, Tarrant, why did I ever leave you? Evie asked herself. Deep down she was depressed but she plastered on a fake smile to cover up her pain for the time being. She hated acting fake and like everything was fine when it's really not. Evelynn was the type of person to wear her heart on her sleeve. Once it got to about three-thirty in the afternoon, Alice and Evie went back home to share dinner with Helen and Benedict.

{•~•~•~•~•~}

A week had passed in Underland (Time works differently and quite frankly, it's so illogical and inconsistent there's no use in trying to explain it) and Tarrant was spiraling out of control. He was so far gone that he hadn't left his house nor has he let anyone in. Anything he could lay his hands on in his house, he'd destroy in an effort to relieve his madness. Tarrant was consistently an open book, always had been since he was a lad. The only problem was, emotions were confusing to him. When a large wave of an emotion came over him, he just didn't know what to do with himself. If he was feeling elated, he'd be overly excited and hyperactive. If he was feeling gloomy, he'd shut down and not talk to anyone all the while having a complete meltdown to no avail. And so on and so forth.