"Push your majesty push! The princess is almost here," The doctor said as the queen of hearts continued to push until she heard the cries of her precious daughter entering the world.
"Let me see my baby," The queen demanded as the nurse took the baby from the doctor handing her to the queen to hold her. "My precious baby."
"Congratulations your majesties. It's a beautiful baby girl," The doctor said while watching the mother hold her newest addition to the family.
"Do you have a name picked out for her already my dear," the king of hearts asked.
"I do. I'm going to name her Ruby. I think it's fitting for her since she is such a precious little gem. I can't wait for Jack to meet his new sister," The queen said, before the nurse approached her again as the doctors and nurses walked out of the room to give the queen a moment to bond with her daughter. A few minutes later a different nurse walked in to retrieve the baby for cleaning.
"Your majesty, I know you're loving the feeling of holding your baby in your arms, but I really should get the princess cleaned up. Once she's all clean, she will be returned to your arms, and you can fuss over her all you want," The nurse said, before gently taking the baby from the queen of hearts.
"You're absolutely sure that nothing bad will happen to her, while she's not in my care," The queen questioned.
"Nothing bad will happen to her. I'm only taking her to get cleaned up. You relax while I go and do that," the nurse said before walking away from the queen.
"Do you think that it will take them long before she comes back with the baby," The queen asked.
"It shouldn't take them long to get her cleaned up and wrapped up in a nice blanket for you. They know how long you have been waiting to meet our precious daughter," The king of hearts said.
The queen waited a few minutes, starting to grow impatient wanting to hold her daughter in her arms again. The queen was growing nervous when a different nurse walked into the room to check on her. "Nurse, do you know what is taking so long for the other nurse to return my baby back to me?"
"What other nurse? Your majesty you only had a handful of nurses that you wanted in your room, and after you gave birth, we left to give you time alone with your daughter. I was actually coming in so we can check her over and get her ready for you. We have the clothes already that you had wanted her dressed in," The nurse said.
"No, this can't be. There was another nurse in here, unless," The queen said before turning to her husband with a horrified look. "Winston, inform the guards that there is an intruder who is kidnapping our baby. Do not let the intruder take our little girl away from us!"
The king of hearts rushed to inform the guards of the imposter nurse who took the newborn princess and is most likely trying to make their escape with her.
The nurse ran out of the casino with a bundle wrapped up, safely in her arms, rushing to get as far away as she could before any of the queen's spades could capture her and take away the precious bundle that she held in her arms. Once the woman was sure she was far away from the casino, the woman stopped in the woods, looking down at the precious gem in her hands.
"Oh, precious little girl. You deserve a life better than what the queen of hearts can give you. I won't allow that woman to corrupt you and turn you into a mini version of her. I will do my best to give you a good life and teach you how to treat others as well. I can't wait for you to meet the rest of the family," the woman said before looking up and spotting her husband coming forward towards her. "Tilo, oh thank goodness you're here."
"Parveen, did you get the baby like you said you were going to," Tilo asked.
"I did. This is her. The queen named her Ruby," Parveen said.
"Parveen, you know we can't risk keeping her name as Ruby. We have to change it if we want to keep the queen off our tracks and take our new daughter away from us," Tilo said.
"I know this, but Ruby is such a beautiful name for a beautiful little girl," Parveen said.
"I know but it's a risk we can't take. How about we change her name to Rowena," Tilo suggested.
Parveen looked down at the precious little girl in her arms smiling down at her, before turning her attention back to her husband. Rowena is perfect for our new daughter. I love it. Thank you for giving her such a perfect name."
"Let's be quick and get our little girl home, before we are caught with her out in the woods. We will have to keep her hidden from the spades, and anyone else who may be in alliance with the queen of hearts. I'm sure once everyone hears of the missing princess, they will do anything they can to get in the queen's good graces," Tilo said before gently wrapping an arm around his wife's waist leading her back to their home where their two songs are waiting for them.
Upon their arrival back home, both boys ran out to greet their parents, before looking into their mothers' arms, noticing a baby wrapped in a blanket.
"Mother, why do you have a baby? Aren't March Hare and I enough for you? Don't we bring you enough joy," a young hatter spoke up.
"Oh, my dear boy, you two are more than enough, but I thought it would be nice for you two to have a sister around; so that way you two aren't too rough around the edges. I think you both will grow to love her," Parveen said.
"If Hatter doesn't want to acknowledge her as our sister, then she can be my sister only. I will be the one who keeps her safe from all harm. I will die keeping her safe. She is pure and innocent and shouldn't be corrupted by the things that you and father tell us about," March Hare said.
"Thank you, son. I truly do appreciate you wanting to keep your new baby sister safe," Parveena said.
The queen of hearts jumped awake, reliving the all too familiar nightmare that she keeps experiencing. Oh, how the queen wishes that she can go back to that day and prevent her daughter from ever being taken away from her. It still pains her that she only held her daughter for a short while, before she was taken away from her.
Oh my precious Ruby...where could you be right now? Are you well cared for? Are you out in the streets struggling to find food? Do you have everything you could possibly want? Are you happy with the family that took you away from me, acting as though you belong to them? Where could you be hiding right now my precious girl? I can't let you go, even though everyone around me tells me that I should. They say that you are either long gone, never to be returned to me, or that you could possibly be dead. But I refuse to entertain those thoughts. I have to hold out hope that I will find you and I will bring you back home where you truly belong. I will teach you everything that you need to know. I want you to be able to have a chance to meet your brother and spend time with him. I know the two of you will get along really well together. I just ask for some miracle that you are returned back to me soon, the queen thought as she got up out of bed and got ready to take on the day. Though deep down all she wanted to do was hide away and cry her eyes out for the daughter that was taken from her. But the queen of hearts knew that she couldn't let her people down. They needed her too. They needed someone to keep order. Without her in charge, they would be all over the place, and Wonderland would be utter chaos, which is something she didn't need right now.
The queen of hearts got ready for the day, knowing that she had a lot to do. Once she was dressed, she made her way out of the room, to her throne room, where she spotted her husband sitting there waiting for her.
"Darling, I was wondering when you were planning on showing up. It's not like you to sleep in like this. Did you have trouble sleeping," The king of hearts asked.
"I did. I had the dream of our daughter being taken away from us, the very moment that she was born. Who would want to take an innocent baby away from her parents? Who could be so damn cruel to separate our little girl from us; and keep us from raising her," the queen of hearts asked.
"Honey are you sure that you're not having these dreams, because you haven't accepted the fact that our little girl could have died, and the doctors didn't want to say anything about our daughter possibly dying, because they know how you can get," the king of hearts said.
"Don't make me think that I'm making this up as a way to cope with my daughter missing. I know that I'm not making this up. I am haunted by that night that our daughter was taken away. Though I can't believe that you gave up on trying to find our little girl. What kind of father would do that to his missing daughter," the queen of hearts asked growing furious with her husband.
"Your majesty, please keep calm. We need you to keep your composure. We don't want to put your assassin on edge when you have him come and speak with him. If you're on edge, then he will pick up on that and may not want to answer questions that you may have for him," one of the spades said.
The queen of hearts took a deep breath before slowly letting it out. "You're right. I don't want to have my assassin not answer the questions that I have for him. If he closes up and doesn't answer my questions, then I will get mad and have his head removed. I just want my daughter back, even though she's grown up. I would at least like to spend a little time with her, even if I missed out on her childhood."
"Keep calm my darling wife. We both may have missed out on our daughter's childhood, but that doesn't mean we can ask her questions about it. We could take the time to get to know her as an adult, and bond with her. Just keep your head clear of any doubts. And don't believe that everyone is against you. We are all on your side," the king of hearts said.
Rowena tossed and turned in her bed, having the strange dream that was reoccurring. Rowena shot up in bed, breathing heavily, looking around her room, trying to calm down, before realizing that she was in her own room again. Why the hell do I keep having a dream like that? There is no way that I was born somewhere else. My brother is Mad March, even if we have two different fathers. But that's beside the point. Why would I have a dream that I have different parents? That's really weird. And I don't have time to sit around and think about this dream. I have to get up and see if there is anything that I can do to help him out with, Rowena thought to herself as she got up and got ready and dressed. She then walks out of her room, walking throughout the house looking for any sign of her older brother. Rowena was about to give up on finding her brother, when he walked through the door, causing her to turn and glare at him as he walked in.
"Rowena, you're up earlier than I originally anticipated. I thought you would have slept in a little bit longer," Mad March said as he entered the house, closing the door to make sure no one outside of the house caught sight of his sister standing there.
"I thought you were going to take me along with you to help you out," Rowena said.
Mad March let out a bit of an annoyed sigh. "Rowena, I know you're upset about me not taking you with me today. But I will make it up to you when I go out and take care of business. I'm sure I have something lined up for today. But we have to wait until nightfall. You know the rules. I don't want to risk the queen's knights spotting you and taking you away from me."
"I understand. You're only doing what mother and father want you to do, which is keep me safe. Do you have anything that you need sharpened," Rowena asked.
"Just a few knives, if you don't mind," Mad March asked.
"If I minded sharpening it, do you think I would have asked you if there is anything that you need me to take care of," Rowena asked.
"I know. I appreciate you helping me out my dear sister," Mad March said watching as Rowena took the knives and moved to get them sharpened. Oh, my darling sister, if you knew the truth about where you come from, would you still see me as your older brother, who would do anything to keep you safe? Or would you view me as a monster for keeping this secret from you, Mad March thought to himself.