Nobody seems quite sure just how Jefferson acquired his magical hat, or about just where he came from, but what a few people think they know, is the story of how the mysterious Hatter met his Alyss. Running into her in the Hall Between Worlds, Jefferson and Alyss became almost inseparable after numerous run-ins with one another. Their chosen line of work wasnât exactly legal in any sense of the word, and they quickly built up quite a reputation in multiple worlds as experts in stealing magical artefacts, for a price. The two worked perfectly together, in sync every step of the way, and it wasnât long before the young portal-jumpers came to the realization that they had fallen hard for one another, eventually marrying and giving up their life of crime when Alyss discovered she was pregnant with their daughter, Grace.This perfect happy ending was brought to an abrupt and heartbreaking end as âone last jobâ for Regina to Wonderland, which Alyss took on alone, apparently resulted in his wifeâs demise, leaving Jefferson to raise their one year old daughter alone. Abandoning his criminal lifestyle, he chose a simpler life in the forest to bring up his daughter, filling her life with stories of the adventures he and her mother had shared once upon a time. But after some manipulation from Regina nine years later, he found himself stranded in Wonderland by the queen, Grace effectively orphaned and Jefferson without a way to return to his daughter. Left at the âmercyâ of the Queen of Hearts in the fractured remnants of the Wonderland he had once visited before Chernabog, he was slowly driven to the brink of his sanity in his desperate efforts to recreate the magic hat which had brought him to Wonderland in the first place.
When Regina enacted the Dark Curse, he was pulled out of Wonderland and trapped in a house full of every luxury he had wanted for Grace, forced to watch his beloved little girl with a whole new family for twenty eight years before Emma arrived in town. Despite his best efforts during a tension filled night at his house when he took the Saviour and Snow White hostage in a last-ditch attempt at finding a way to take Grace home. The night culminated in a fight which left him kicked out of an upstairs window, a fall he only survived by falling into the hat Emma had made and reignited with just enough of a spark of magic. With the Enchanted Forest inaccessible, Jefferson briefly found himself in Wonderland once more, but was able to find a way back into Storybrooke through the cracks between worlds that had begun to grow since Emma had arrived. After being involved in Reginaâs plot to send Emma under the sleeping curse, Jefferson retreated back to his house as the curse only fractured. Realising that he canât hide in the house forever, heâs decided to start exploring the false life of somewhat eccentric millionaire playboy from New York the curse had built for him, namely one of the townâs bars heâd invested in, The Rabbit HoleâŠ
