A/N (and disclaimer): Ok, I don't own the following:

Peter Pan, neither the person or the book or the movies

Neverland

The term Mister Grin for Hook's "favorite" croc—it belongs to the awesome series Peter and the Starcatchers

However, I do own Polly/Mary, Jane (complete accident, no intended relation to Wendy's daughter) and my other characters along with the concept of Wishing. And I also own Fidget, Polly's fairy.

Sometimes little babies fall out of their prams while their mothers aren't looking. Those little babies are borne away by fairies to Neverland where they are loved, but on the earth they are missed tremendously at first, but then they fade into mere memories. Those little babies are the Lost Ones.

Sometimes parents don't want their little babies, and wish them away. Fairies also bear these little unloved ones away to Neverland where they are loved, but very rarely do the parents notice their absence on the earth. Those little babies are the Wished Ones.

And the difference between the Lost Ones and the Wished Ones? The Lost Ones can return to the earth anytime they wish, but very rarely do they want to, for they find that their parents have forgotten them. The Wished Ones however, can only leave if wished back but this is also quite rare, for the parents willingly forget their poor babies and move on in life. But sometimes the parents repent their wish; perhaps a small toy or baby blanket belonging to their lost babe sparks a faint memory of the child they wished away and forgot. If the parents of any baby of Neverland desire them back, the child is borne by fairies back to their parents where they become a baby once again.

OPENING LETTER FROM JANE:

My dear friends,

I would like to begin Mary's story with the part that was only recently made known to her: how and why she was wished away.

Mother was born into a fairly well-to-do family. She was, and still is, quite pretty and could have married any number of high ranked and wealthy men. But, she was in love with the stable boy that lived nearby her family's country estate. Despite her family's fierce disapproval—for they had found a lord who was quite close to Mother's age who wanted very much to marry her—Mother wed the stable boy. The young couple was quite poor, but they managed to make their ends meet without any help from Mother's family. Mother, now Mrs. Henry Jacobs, soon discovered that she was pregnant. The couple was overjoyed with the prospect of having a child and eagerly looked forward to the little stranger's arrival. They baby was a healthy little girl named Mary by her mother, but called Polly by her father.

However, at about the same time Mary was born a horse in the care of her father became gravely ill and died. The owner of the beast insisted that Mr. Jacobs pay a huge sum for the loss of the animal, or the owner would expose the death and say that he believed that Jacobs poisoned the horse. Mary's father was unable to pay the exorbitant amount that the man demanded for the animal and told the man so. The man told the whole town that Jacobs had poisoned his horse and started a law case. The punishment in that area for theft (and killing another man's livestock counted as theft) was hanging. Mary's father lost the case, and on one rainy morning was hung as his wife wailed at the base of the hanging tree, clutching her newborn tightly in her arms. It was discovered later that the horse had been fed bad hay by another stable hand and had died of colic. The true culprit got off scot-free, leaving Mary's poor father to take the blame.

Mary's mother was heartbroken. Everything in the country town she lived in reminded her of her late husband, especially their daughter Mary. Even her nickname Polly brought back the memory of Mr. Jacobs calling out for his 'little Lady Polly-wolly-doodle-all-the-day'. Mother eventually moved back in with her family. They took her back and acted as if she had never been gone. They even managed to set her up again with the young lord she was supposed to wed. Soon, Mother found herself engaged to be married to him, but there was one thing in the way: Mary. Lord Gregory Ashley, her fiancée, knew about her short marriage to Henry Jacobs but didn't know about their daughter. Mother found herself in quite a situation as she was certain that Lord Ashley would not want to be troubled with another man's child. One day Mother lost it. She began to scream at her little daughter, telling the baby that it was standing in Mother's chance to have a decent life. Then she screamed the words: "I wish you had never been born!" With those words Mary was borne away to Neverland by fairies. Ninety-nine point ninety-nine percent of the time, the parents wish their children back before they are half way to Neverland. In Mary's case however, her mother barely made an effort to search for Mary and quickly accepted her disappearance. Her family believed that their daughter had turned Mary over to an orphanage of some sort. The wedding went ahead as planned with nary a thought of Mary. Mother and Father—Lord and Lady Ashley—eventually had three children: Matthias, Jane (myself), and Simon.

Meanwhile, Mary had been carted off to Neverland. When the fairies reached there without being called back they were quite surprised. Never before had this happened, not with a Wished One. They took the baby to Peter and the Lost Boys. None had ever seen a baby girl before and they were rather curious. Mary had arrived shortly after Wendy had left Neverland and Peter missed her sorely. The Lost Boys also missed their 'mother' and asked Peter if the little girl was their new mother. Peter, taken by surprise, said that he guessed she was. Eventually, Mary—now called Polly by Peter and the Lost Boys—grew up a little bit, until she was about twelve. In that time she had become second in command to Peter. She even had a fairy much like Tinker Bell named Fidget. In addition to Fidget, Polly could also fly, just like Peter. Polly was happy on Neverland; not much can beat tormenting Captain Hook and his pirates, pranking the mermaids, playing mother to seven little Lost Boys, and of course never growing up.

When the peak of Polly's story takes place, she was about twelve, Peter was thirteen (he felt that he had to be older than the oldest Lost Boy or Polly by at least one year), my brother Matthias was thirteen also, Simon was seven, and I was a mere six years old.

Please read on,

Jane