Disclaimer: I don't own Peter Pan, J. M. Barrie is my hero. The characters are based on the 2003 film version.
Wendy watched Peter fly away from her window and instantly knew she had just made the biggest mistake of her entire life. Of course she didn't want to grow up, of course she didn't want to get married and have children. She wanted to have fun, she wanted adventure and, most of all, she wanted Peter.
She called after him but he either didn't hear or didn't want to because she had deserted him.
Two years later…
Wendy was sitting on the window seat in the nursery with her head resting ever so slighting upon her hand. The wind was rippling the folds of her nightgown and twisting her hair into ribbons. She still dreamt about Peter from time to time, but she always awoke to find an empty room and a closed window. Her mother always closed and bolted the windows at night now. No exceptions. The nursery had changed a lot since Peter's last visit, there were now four beds pushed against the wall for Michael, the twins and Slightly. The other boys slept on four beds in the drawing room and poor Wendy was forced to share with Aunt Millicent who had taken over her education and her arrival into society.
John never spoke about Neverland or Tiger Lily anymore. He was terribly preoccupied with school work these days. Michael, on the other hand, Wendy had caught on several occasions sleeping a few feet above his bed, floating ever so softly on the air. Of course, as soon as she woke him he would always fall straight back down again.
The other lost boys were in varying states of confusion and remembrance; they all struggled at school and were always in trouble. Mr and Mrs Darling had endless strife trying to get them to do simple things like bathe and go to bed when they were told to and their table manners were "simply atrocious". Aunt Millicent said that she had "had it up to here" with trying to "culture" Slightly and had suggested on more than one occasion that he should be sent away to boarding school. Slightly never renounced his past and was proud to say that he had been a lost boy. The twins had no idea what was going on, most of the time, and they caused the most trouble by far. They were constantly running away and at least once a week they would be escorted back to school by a police constable. Nibs and Tootles tried their best to model themselves on John, as Mr Darling had instructed them to do so, and therefore they never mentioned Neverland either and scoffed when the other boys spoke of the myth of Peter Pan. It seemed they had begun to forget. Curly was always in trouble for creating slingshots or shooting arrows out of the nursery window at passers-by and he never forgot or doubted for a minute where he had come from. There was also an interesting phenomenon surrounding how the children were growing.
Some of the boys didn't seem to age at all, the twins, Michael, Tootles and Slightly had hardly changed since their time in Neverland, except for being a lot cleaner and smelling a lot nicer. It was as though the real world hadn't noticed they were back yet and time hadn't caught up with them as they clung on to their childhood with both hands. John, on the other hand, and Nibs seemed to have aged in fast forward, to make up for their time away, John had grown at least a foot and a half since their return and he certainly acted a lot more grown up than he ever had before. Nibs looked like a little gentleman these days and had also grown a foot taller and Tootles had finally started to grow upwards rather that sideways.
Wendy wasn't sure about how she was growing. She was able to watch the other boys with interest as they changed around her or didn't, for that matter, especially when she measured them on the nursery wall. But when it came to herself she was a little puzzled, it was true she had grown a couple of inches over the past two years but she didn't think her body was really changing as much as it ought to at her age.
She hoped beyond hope that time wouldn't catch up with her before Peter's next visit. She knew he lost track of things sometimes but she was sure that he would drop by one day thinking they had only been apart a few hours.
Wendy often snuck into the nursery at night to watch the skies in the hope of seeing that flash of gold which meant he had come back. And this was lucky because, if she hadn't, she never would have heard it and then, there would be no story.
It was a bell.
Though a bell doesn't quite cover it, it was more like a dozen tiny tinkling bells all ringing at the same time. That sound could only mean one thing. Tinker Bell. And Tinker Bell could mean only one thing. Peter. Peter Pan was back.
She was so excited she almost screamed but she stopped herself for she knew the noise would surely wake her parents. Instead she roused the boys in the nursery.
"I heard it," she said
These boys didn't need any more than that; they jumped out of their beds and tried desperately to push the window open. Wendy ran through the house to the drawing room and tried to wake the others. John rolled over and told her to leave him alone. Curly sprinted to the nursery on silent bare feet but Nibs and Tootles looked at John, they knew they were supposed to do as he did, that was what Mr Darling had told them. Wendy didn't have time to convince them so she ran back to the nursery. Tootles followed her. Nibs and John stayed.
When she reached the nursery the boys had succeeded in pushing open the window and Wendy closed the door behind her so as not to wake her parents. It wasn't until she turned to face the window again that she saw him.
"Hi Wendy," said the boy, "did you miss me?"
"Oh so much Peter," said the girl.
"Have you learnt your lesson yet? Are you ready to come back?"
"Have we ever?" yelled Slightly and the twins nodded enthusiastically.
"I only hope you haven't grown up too much to come back."
"We haven't Peter" said Curly, "look." He pointed to the wall where Wendy had measured them. Slightly, Curly, Michael and the twins' lines hadn't moved an Inch in two years. Wendy's, John's, Tootles' and Nibs' had.
"Looks to me like most of you can come back, good work men."
"What about us Peter?" asked Tootles, "We can come too can't we?"
"We'll have to let Tink be the judge of that" said Peter and at his command Tink circled the room smothering them all in golden pixie dust. Most of the boys rose into the air instantly. Wendy was only floating a couple of inches off the ground.
"Looks like I came back just in time" he said looking into her face with suspicion, "not much longer and you would be too grown up."
Tootles hadn't risen off the ground at all and his eyes were filling with tears as he tried desperately to think happy thoughts.
"Please take me back with you Peter" he pleaded.
"Sorry Tootles," he said without a hint of sympathy, "but you can't come back with us."
Tootles wept and wept, cursing Mr Darling, cursing John and cursing himself for being a fool and growing up.
"It's your own fault you know," said one of the twins, "we told you not to grow up," said the other.
The boys wasted no more time flying out the window without a backwards glance at the parents who had taken them in and the boys who had been their brothers.
Wendy once again found herself standing on the windowsill surveying the nursery and debating with herself as to whether or not she should leave. She wouldn't just be leaving her parents and Nana this time; she would be leaving John too. And her surrogate sons Nibs and Tootles.
Peter came up behind her as he had done years ago and whispered in her ear, "they would have lost you anyway Wendy, when you married or when they died, but me, I don't ever have to lose you again."
He was right, she knew he was right, her parents would have to let her go one day, but Neverland, Neverland was forever. And so was Peter.
He took her hand and they lifted into the air and with her final decision to leave she soared away at Peter's side.
Tootles went back to bed and cried himself to sleep.
John and Nibs didn't even stir.