AN: A few changes have been made to this Chapter.

Hatter stopped and turned. He had a feeling someone was watching him. He started running and didn't stop till he got to the middle of the forest clearing as something hit him square in the back, knocking him to the ground. He tumbled head over feet, landing on his back. He saw a flash of blue and grey fur. A cat sat on top of him, it's paws on his chest.

The Cheshire cat. "Why if it is wee little Hatter, not so little anymore."

"Ches." He hadn't seen a Cheshire since he was a little boy. Was it the same one? It couldn't be. But the one he had known always teased him. Those who know him would agree is a seamless blend of humor and malice.

Alice climbed over the clearing. She couldn't believe what she was seeing.

"Hatter!" Alice's face split into the wildest grins and she ran at him, wrapping her arms around him and squeezing him tight. The Doctor did not return the gesture of affection. He looked rather uncomfortable, just standing there, allowing himself to be squeezed, a baffled expression on his face. Why is she hugging me? I haven't done nothin yet. That feels sort of...good.

She told him that the Cheshire could lead them to the White Queen. "Hatter he could be our only chance."

"We have more of a chance with Charlie." Hatter said.

"What it the chance of finding his again?" Ches asked Alice. "It is a big forest."

" Don't listen to him Alice. Cheshire's can't be trusted."

The Cheshire yawned, "Curiosity killed the cat." He was getting tired of their bantering.

Alice turned to Hatter. "He was my cat Dinah."

Hatter stifled a chuckle. "You have a girls name."

Dinah swiped his paw at the side of Hatter's face as he floated by him. He missed on purpose.

They had found a secret hatch in the forest floor, covered with leaves. Hatter took a few torches off the brackets on the walls. He handed one to Alice.

"What is a Cheshire exactly." Alice knew it was a fictional cat in the Carol novels.

"Cheshire's are half Kneazel, similar to cats. They have a very high level of intelligence, are independent and occasionally aggressive, and have an uncanny ability to detect suspicious and distrustful people."

"It's all a bit Harry Potter."

"Harry, who?" Hatter said.

"It's a series of children books like Lewis Carol's Alice in Wonderland."

"Sometimes things cross over to your world by accident or vise versa, ideas, ect."

She stopped, suddenly. "Where were you? Were did they take you? If they did anything to you...I don't want anything to happen to you. I don't know what I'd do if anything happened to you. And I'm so scared..." She had expected her to comfort her, hug her, tell her it would be okay. Instead he comforted her with words, or at least he tried to. He sounded way too flippant.

"Ok, think of six impossible things, when you're scared." Hatter said. "Me dad always thought of six impossible things before breakfast."

Alice couldn't think of six impossible things. But she could think of...

Alice started whistling the tune to "favorite things." Then started singing it.

"That's a song?" Hatter asked.

"I never heard any of yours but you got some seriously messed up nursery rhymes."

"You can talk. Wolf in your granny's dressing gown."

They continued to walk as Ches led the way.

They found themselves talking about Dodo.

"Why would he still want to kill you?" Alice still thought of going to Jack for help. But he would probably still refuse. Grace. She would help. She said she was her friend. But could she trust the Duchess? It seemed she couldn't trust anyone in wonderland, not even Hatter, who seemed like he was on something.

"I dunno. He always takes things personally." Hatter found himself asking what a Dodo actually was. "I never actually thought about it. What is a Dodo exactly?"

Alice was getting anoynned like she had been with the old Hatter. He was being the old Hatter. What was with him? She answered him to cover up her fustration. "In the Oyster world a Dodo is a flightless extinct bird, it's also a polite way of telling someone they haven't got a clue."

"Good thing he isn't here. I'd probably have difficulty fighting the urge to say that to his face." Hatter's tone was nonchalant. It seemed too relaxed.

What was wrong with him? He was acting rather...odd, like he was when he first met her.

As they moved closer down the tunnel, she examined his face illuminated by the flame of his torch. His features seemed all too perfect. The look on his face, was expressionless.

She couldn't fight the thought in her head any longer. "What's wrong with you?"

"Wrong with me? Wha' you mean?"

"You're like...really chilled out right now..." She saw the confused expression on his face so she used another word. "Too relaxed."

"I'm fine Alice." He did feel fine. He never felt better in his life. He would have been frightened for his life, if he wasn't still hopped up on carelessness.

"No." She put her hand around the wrist of his free hand. "What did they do to you?"

"Really. I dun wan' ye worrin' abou' me. I'm not worth worrin'. You should be worrin about you." He wasn't worth nuthin. He didn't deserve her.

"Tell me what they did to you." This wasn't the Hatter she had come to know at all.

His eyes avoided her.Why did he feel guilty all of a sudden?Hatter asked himself.

He can never look back. The world behind is simply a gateway to madness. Never look back, never remember, and never think. He can sometimes pretend that it works. All the other times he laughs at himself because he thinks he'll believe it.

Ches led her to where she needed to go. She had lost Hatter somewhere among the forest.

It was Cheshire that encouraged her on. "There aren't any jaberwoks out 'ere, this part of the woods. You want to find the White Queen or not?"

The Cheshire turned into his cat form, floating through the air, going from midst to solid form. Without warning he pushed Alice though the mirror.

She entered through a mirror. It was a throne room. It was not like the Queen of Heart's. Unlike the Queen of Hearts the room was all white and looked like it was made out of ice. But oddly the atmosphere was warm. The woman she saw sitting in a chair, her back turned apparently looked young. She had white blonde hair, a flawless complexion.

AN: In my story, of what Cheshire's actually are, they are half cat like creatures. They were brought into exitance from cats accidently wandering through the looking glass and breeding with cat-like creatures.