More Than Just Flashing Lights And Sound 2/2
Title: More Than Just Flashing Lights And Sound (2/2)
Rating: PG-13
Pairings/Characters: Jack/Hatter, the Duchess, Tweedle Dee, Tweedle Dum
Genre: Hurt/Comfort, Romance
Warnings: Violence (a slightly more in depth description of what the twins do to Hatter than part 1 had)
Length: 2,840
Pov: Hatter's
Disclaimer: Although I wish it, I do not own. I am only borrowing for fun.
Author's Notes: Beta'd by the lovely 
demonqueen666 .
The creators never gave a surname for Doctors Dee and Dum nor did they mention Tweedle so I decided to make that the twins’ last name.
I know Andrew Lee Potts is older than Philip Winchester, but in my head Hatter seemed the younger of the two characters.
Hatter decided to take a walk in the land surrounding the city to clear his head. Since his breakup with
After staying in
As he worked on rebuilding the kingdom, Hatter found that he had gone through several changes during his adventure with
The most important change was his attraction to the
After returning and volunteering to help, Nine and Ten insisted he work with the king on the restoration. He was surprised that those two stayed on, but then reminded himself of how quickly Ten had produced a knife when they were threatening to cut off the former Queen’s finger. Hatter reluctantly agreed to help out as well, fully expecting to dislike the rich king who got
As time passed, Hatter discovered that he was looking forward to meeting with the king to discuss plans and go over progress that had been made so far. At first their conversations stayed strictly to business, but eventually branched out. Before Hatter quite realized what happened, he found himself deeply in love with the older man.
They realized that they had read many of the same books and other forms of literature. He knew that this revelation surprised the older man. Most looked at Hatter and saw what he wanted them to see and not what was really there.
This was a necessary trait for the former double agent since he could not afford for people to guess what he really thought in any given situation. The side effect of this skill was that people assumed that he was far shallower and selfish than he actually was.
One of the few others who saw through his disguises was, amazingly enough, the ex-fiancé of the new king. He supposed this made sense. Often people who shared this skill of misdirection could spot others with the same ability. The Duchess was certainly similarly talented to him after having to fool the Queen into thinking that she was a willing pawn and not show that she cared for Jack more than the Queen did.
It was the Duchess that approached him, confronted him, and forced him to admit to his growing attraction to Jack. Hatter had assumed she was going to tell Jack and he would end up being tossed out, but the woman shocked him by promising not to say a word.
Hatter was unsure of why she confronted him about Jack, but found out why a few weeks later. The blonde woman took him aside to tell him she thought Jack felt the same way and that Hatter should say something about it.
Because the Duchess used to be engaged to Jack and was in love with the man, Hatter was naturally suspicious of her motives. She replied that she accepted Jack would never love her back, but she wanted to see him end up with someone she felt wouldn’t use him and love him for himself, not the image Jack had to present to the public.
As they talked, Hatter concluded that she was telling the truth, but still declined to talk to the king about it. Hatter felt that there still was a chance the Duchess was wrong and refused to risk his heart just to find out.
Hatter paused in his musings and sat down on the ground. Pulling out a sandwich from the bag he was carrying he began to eat lunch.
He was taking a rare day off to clear his head and try to sort out his emotions. As much as he loved the city he needed to escape to the wilderness where there was more quiet. He was still close enough that if there were any problems, someone would easily be able to find him.
As he looked out over the large lake near the city something heavy connected with the back of his head. Hatter’s vision blackened as he fell forward.
~~ooOoo~~
The first thing Hatter realized as he woke up was that his head hurt badly. He only grasped that he might be in trouble when he tried to reach up to feel it and found that he couldn’t move.
Opening his eyes he noticed that he was on his side at the same spot where he had chosen to eat his lunch. Rope held his wrists together and bound them to his ankles behind his back. A gag had been tied around his mouth, limiting the amount of noise he could make. The result of his position left the most vulnerable parts of his body open with no protection at all.
“We apologize for the inelegance of this meeting. My brother and I are unfortunately not fit enough to take you someplace else.”
“The gag is there to keep you from making too much noise.”
“We wouldn’t want to be interrupted again, like we were last time.”
Hatter tried to turn over at the sound of the voices. When he couldn’t, the speakers were polite enough to step into view. Standing before the prone man were the Doctors Tweedle, two men Hatter had hoped never to deal with again.
“We noticed you sitting here all by yourself and simply couldn’t pass up the opportunity to conclude the business we were engaged in a while back.” The twin on the left, Dee most likely, smiled coldly.
Hatter could see the madness in their eyes, and guess that the situation was going to go very badly for him.
“It is time for him to have a bit of an accident, isn’t it,” Dum commented to his brother.
“Quite right, but if the poor boy is to accidentally fall down the hill, shouldn’t he have a few bruises?”
With that question
“I don’t think the little Hatter is enjoying our time together.”
“Maybe we should bring out our old friend for him.”
The two revealed the rods they were carrying in their bags and made sure that Hatter saw both of them. As
“Wait. He might be wearing that disgusting armor of his. I don’t think we want him to be too conductive or his accident will occur before we want it to.”
With that Tweedle Dum reached passed his brother to unbutton Hatter’s shirt. Once it was opened,
“Hold still boy. We wouldn’t want any premature cuts to occur.” With that, Tweedle Dee cut off his reinforced vest, exposing his chest to the air.
Hatter did let out muffled screams when the twins applied the electrified rods to his naked torso.
In many ways, this was far worse then when he had been tied up in their old examining room. At least in that room he had more ability to move and had been able to kick them a couple of times before they realized not to stand in front of him.
Here, he was completely at their will, feeling far more vulnerable than he ever had before in his life. He had no hope of escape and no one would come rushing to his aid. The best he could hope for was that they would grow bored and leave before he was too far gone to recover.
Recognizing that he would die today, Hatter wished he had followed the Duchess’s advice and told Jack Heart about how he loved the older man. All he could wish for was that Jack had found a reason to seek him out today and arrive before the Doctors finished him off. The cynical side of Hatter pointed out that this was unlikely to happen.
So immersed in his pain and lack of hope, he did not notice the sound of horses approaching. It wasn’t until a sharp pain erupted in his torso that he pulled his attention back to the twins.
“Looks like we are going to be interrupted again,”
The man stabbed the knife into his chest again before handing the blade off to Dum. The other man stabbed Hatter two times as well before they dropped the knife and ran off into the woods.
All that Hatter could see was the city in the distance as his vision blurred.
The last thought that went through his head before darkness overcame him was that Jack never did ask him what his real name was.
~~ooOoo~~
When Hatter initially regained consciousness the first thing he noticed was that he didn’t hurt nearly as much as he had expected. There was a feeling of dull pressure in his chest and his head still hurt, but that was all. Combining that information with the fact that he was laying on a comfortable bed, Hatter realized he must be in the hospital.
He fought off the sleepiness that threatened to pull him under again and slowly opened his eyes to see a boring white ceiling above his head. The soft light filtering into the room indicated that it was probably sometime in the morning. He had no idea how he ended up in the hospital or why he expected to hurt more than he did. With that thought he drifted back to sleep.
The next time he regained consciousness, he noticed that the light in the room had become brighter. He squinted as the sunlight caused pain to shoot through his sensitive eyes. He still wasn’t completely sure why he was in the hospital, but he was able to lift his head enough to see more of the room.
A large amount of get well cards decorated the room and since he was the only occupant in there, he came to the conclusion that the cards must be for him. Bewildered, Hatter put his head back down on the pillow. Hatter had not realized that that many people cared about him enough to send a card if he ended up injured. His eyes closed again and as he drifted off he thought he heard a door open and someone walk in.
It wasn’t until evening that he awoke enough to make sense of his surroundings. This time he was too tired to really open his eyes for more than a second, but wasn’t weary enough to fall back asleep.
He twitched his hands and felt a pinch in his left hand. That flare of sharp pain brought back his memories. Hatter’s breath caught slightly as the sequence of events replayed vividly in his mind. Since he was obviously alive, someone must have found him before he died of his wounds.
He vaguely remembered the sound of hoofs on the ground and assumed that some knights must have found him. He made a note to thank Charlie for insisting that the knights took turns patrolling the country side as well as the city. He hadn’t been far from the city and a group of knights on patrol would have been more likely than anyone else to have stumbled over him.
“You better wake up soon, Hatter.” A female voice spoke up. “Jack is really starting to let his own health decline since you were admitted here. He has left your side only when he couldn’t work in the room with you and we’ve had to sit with him during meal times to make sure he ate something. I am worried that if you don’t wake up soon, he might end up needing a room here himself.”
Hatter recognized the speaker as being the Duchess. The injured man decided not to open his eyes since sleep was still very much trying to grab onto him. He thought about what the Duchess had just said.
Hearing that Jack had been spending a large amount of time in the hospital with him gave Hatter hope. He knew that the Duchess had insisted that Jack was in love with him, but he never really entertained the idea that she was right. What helped convince him was that the Duchess thought he was unconscious and would be unable to really hear her words. Resolving to tell Jack how he felt when he was up on his feet again, he allowed his mind to drift, not really asleep but not fully awake either.
In part of his mind, he registered that someone had joined the Duchess a few minutes later, but was unsure of who the other person was. The conversation between the two reached his ears in the form of a low murmur, and he could only tell that the new person was male. The sound of heels walking away and the higher voice saying goodbye indicated that the Duchess had left the room. The other person soon sat down next to Hatter, but did not talk for a while.
Hatter was uncertain of how much time had passed when the man picked up his hand. The other man’s grip was strong but gentle and Hatter began to think that the person with him was Jack. When he began to speak to Hatter, the younger man’s suspicions were verified.
“Hatter, you need to wake up soon. Everyone is really worried about you. It would make a lot of people relieved to find out you regained consciousness and it would make me happy if you opened your eyes. I know you probably can’t hear me, and that I will have to repeat this when you do wake, but I should say this now. At some point since we began to work together I found that I cared a great deal for you.”
Hatter forced his eyes open at Jack’s words. Unfortunately, the golden-haired man was not looking at him at the time.
A tight sensation reappeared in his chest, but it was not from pain.
Jack continued to talk, staring at a wall and not noticing the change in Hatter’s status. “I didn’t say anything since I was unsure of your feelings, but several people, the Duchess included, insisted me you felt the same and that I should take a chance. So here it is, for what it is worth: I love you. I don’t know when this happened and I don’t know why, but it is the truth. In a way, this is amusing since I don’t even know your real name.”
Hatter couldn’t believe his wishes were coming true. That only happened to better people than he was. He knew he had to say something.
“Do you really mean that?” Hatter finally asked.
Hatter’s question clearly startled Jack as the man jumped slightly and looked down at Hatter. A smile crept across the king’s face as he looked into Hatter’s eyes.
“Yes, I meant every word,” was the reply.
Hatter observed that Jack’s smile held a decent amount of apprehension in it. He was astonished to realize that Jack had been just as nervous of telling Hatter his feeling as Hatter had been. A large smile appeared on Hatter’s face as he could see the truth in Jack’s eyes.
“David,” he told the prince. “My real name is David.”
end notes: So that officially ends the two part fic. I have two short-ish 1-shots on my hard drive, but I think I will hold off posting them for a bit. The reason is, as of this post, I have made the majority of the entries the community has. Any more, and I feel like I am spamming everyone here. Have a good night!
