Chapter Text
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They heard the doors lock click from the outside and as their eyes adjusted to the dim light they saw all that was in the room was a desk against one wall, two chairs and a few empty shelves.
Connor turned to face everyone else, “So, who wants to go first?”
Cutter and Sarah headed over to the chairs, Abby sat on the desk and Stephan and Becker leant against the shelves.
Danny pushed past Connor and headed towards the desk. Turning to face him and leaning back against it, he asked. “So, if you’re from Wonderland, who are you there?”
“Can’t you guess?” Connor asked as he performed a little hat trick. Flinging it up into the air and making it spin unnaturally before landing back on his head.
Their expression when he revealed exactly who he was supposed to be was priceless. This had revealed a whole other side to Connor that they had never seen before. A part of him that was alien, literally. How could their geeky scientist also break walls with his fist and not hurt himself, how could he have this whole secret life that none of them had any inclining about? There was neither sense nor rational reason to the world at the moment.
“The Mad Hatter!” They all shouted at him.
“It’s actually just Hatter. And I resent that, I’m not mad, though we do have a bit of Madness inside us. My family doesn’t have a short temper and we’re not completely insane.”
“So you are a bit then?” Stephan asked with a smirk.
Connor grinned widely in response. Then it fell slightly, “what else do you want to know?”
He regretted it instantly when they started bombarding him with questions. But he took it all in his stride and answered them as best as he could.
“So your eyes, they are naturally like that?”
“Yeah, I’ve had to put makeup on for years so people don’t think I’m wearing any.”
“But, how?”
“The Hatters have always had a spark of magic about them. It manifests in different forms. Our eyes for example are mesmerising, my grandfather the Mad Hatter had eyes of different colours (think Johnny Depp version). I’m pretty tame compared to them.”
“Is that why you can punch like that then? The ‘magic’ inside you?”
“Yeah, our hands are especially magic. Grandfather made hats and wrote riddles and poetry and my father could grow anything he put his mind to, and played all kinds of music, he also liked doing tricks. I’m good with technology, painting and a bit of cooking. We also all have the ‘Sledgehammer’, as people call it.”
“I’ve never seen you cook or paint.”
“Well I don’t do it much anymore. And the cooking is more experimenting with different kinds of teas. My mum used to help me when I was younger, before I went to Wonderland that is.”
“Your mother, you said she was an Oyster? How did it happen?”
“Yeah, after the original Alice my family became about obsessed with this world. When my father visited once he fell in love with my mother. It was kept a secret and he’d visit her every chance he had. Well, one thing led to another and they had me. I lived with her for the first years of my life and I was slowly introduced to wonderland. When I was a couple of years old I almost permanently lived in wonderland.”
“Then how did you go to school here?”
“I said almost permanently. Because of the way that time flows between our worlds I got to have an almost normal childhood here as well.”
“Why didn’t your father live here, or your mother live there?”
“It was too dangerous. Dad couldn’t leave his position without being hunted down and mum would have been drained or killed.”
“Connor, you didn’t think that this was something we needed to know. The fact that you’re a character from a children’s book is kind of important, don’t you think?”
“I’m sorry, okay. It’s not something you talk about though. Hi, my name’s Connor TempleHatter, I’m from Wonderland and I’m not a hundred percent sure of my age. And I am not a character; Carroll used my grandfather as a character for his story.”
“It does sound a bit ridicules from someone else, but not from you.” Abby joked.
“Thanks, but would any of you actually believed me?” Connor looked and saw their faces reflected back exactly what he thought they would. “I thought not.”
“So what happened exactly? What made you decide to leave Wonderland for good?”
“You’ve met Jack. Everyone from Wonderland has a least a bit of madness in them, the Hearts have it worse than most. Jack’s not as bad as his mother but he does have his moments. Jack and I knew each other growing up, my father worked for his parents and I tagged along. None of them ever knew that my mother was an Oyster. Then a few years ago Jack came to this world to find the daughter of one of the scientists, in the hope that she could wake him up. The plan kind of worked and a girl called Alice followed the White Rabbit through the Looking Glass into Wonderland. She came to me looking for assistance and I couldn’t resist a girl in a wet dress.”
“You, were a ladies’ man? I can’t believe it.”
“I wasn’t exactly a ladies’ man per say, I just seemed to attract people around me. Some of them would happily never see me again, and I them.”
They fell into an awkward silence absorbing all the information that they had just received. It had answered some of the missing points about Connor’s quirky personality and dress sense. But there were still more they were curious about and needed to know.
“What’s with the ring and box?”
“It’s called the Stone of Wonderland, it was crafted or found centuries ago and used as the power source for the Looking Glass.”
“So if they don’t have it…”
“The Looking Glass won’t work. I should have kept it hidden or gotten rid of it years ago, but…”
“You wanted to keep a part of Wonderland with you?”
“Yeah.”
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After talking more about Connor’s past and the differences between their two worlds the team began to feel exhausted. This day had not turned out how any of them had expected. They were horrified to discover that Wonderlanders kidnapped Oysters and drained them of their emotions. That they were used as drugs and that Connor used to sell them. He didn’t explain himself as he knew that there was nothing to justify his actions. He had always felt guilty and sick that he had been involved, but there was nothing he could have done. He explained his adventure with Alice and his part in the resistance.
Connor was yawning from his hectic day, who knew his entire world would come crashing down around him like this. He and everyone else found a place to settle down and try and get as comfortable as possible. Realising that if they didn’t do something they could risk losing Connor for good Back and Danny settled either side of him, much to Connor’s surprise. He unconsciously leant against Becker trying to get comfortable. Danny looked over and silently laughed at Becker's position. Between them they twisted Connor round so that his legs were on Danny’s and his head rested on Becker's knees. Becker brought his hand up and gently stroked Connor’s hair. He watched as the boy fell into a deeper sleep and soon followed him.
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Jack stared in from the window, watching as Connor’s head rested on the soldier boy’s knees. How dare that pathetic little Oyster think he had the right to touch him. The sooner they left this world the better.
He turned and saw Wabbit leaning against the wall behind him.
“Try and keep him apart from the Oysters as much as possible.”
His only reply was a smirk as they both walked away down the corridor.
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