Wendy looked out her window after Peter left & wondered when she would see him again. Her family rejoiced behind her, but she was deaf to their merry making as she stared into the night, until Nana pulled her back into the fray. She hugged her parents, & her & her brothers promised to never run away again. However, to Wendy, those promises were hollow, for she had already pledged to remember & follow Peter Pan if he ever again came through her window. & so, she left the window unlocked.
Her adventure in Neverland stalled her father's decision for a little while as he & Mrs. Darling celebrated the return of their children. However, three months after her return, Wendy was moved out of the nursery. She now had a room of her own, & no one was allowed in without her permission. She still played with her brothers of course, but now she would leave the nursery for her own room after story time, instead of crawling into bed with them. But, despite the changes, Wendy still walked through her days to the sound of faerie bells & left her window unlocked. Still waiting for her sprightly friend.
The years passed & many things changed. John & Michael moved out of the nursery as well, & stopped asking for stories, claiming they were too big & grown up for such nonsense as faeries, mermaids & pirates. Wendy grew as well & her bookshelves, once filled with once upon a times & faerie dust, were now cluttered with makeup & fashion magazines as Wendy strove to become an upstanding young woman in British society. Wendy began to forget about Peter & her promise to remember, pushing them away as a dream too silly & fanciful to be real. She took to latching her window most nights, wondering why she ever left it open in the first place. Still, something pulled at the back of her mind & Wendy would unlatch the window the next morning, though only to "air out the room" of course.
& so, the years passed.
Peter was happy. He had been very busy cleaning up the pirate's mess & taking care of the Lost Boys, but now everything had been put to rights & he was finally free to do as he pleased. Leaving Tink behind to watch over the Boys, Peter flew off into the night.
His first stop was the Darling residence. Only a few months or so had passed in Neverland (for one must remember that time passes differently there) & so he expected to find Wendy & her brothers in their nursery, perhaps still awake & reading stories if he was early enough. He was certain though, if they were asleep, they would not begrudge him waking them. They seemed to like his adventures too much to stay mad.
When Peter got to London, it was already dark & so was the Darling house. He peered through the nursery window & was startled to see that Nana's doghouse had been removed & the only bed in the room was Wendy's, now sporting a young boy who looked nothing like John or Michael. Peter was confused. Where were John & Michael? Who was this stranger in Wendy's bed? & most importantly, where was Wendy? He went to open the window to ask the stranger, but found the glass would not move! The window was latched! Worried now, Peter flew round to Mr. & Mrs. Darling's window to see if he could get in there, but found the room empty & the window once again locked.
He began to fly around the house looking for an occupied room, until he found one across the hall from the nursery. Inside there was a young couple was sitting on a large bed, looking down on the bassinet that sat beside it. The woman looked vaguely familiar, but did not notice Peter. The window in this room was locked as well, & so Peter began banging on it, trying to catch the couple's attention. They did not move however, until the banging woke the toddler in the bassinet, who then started hollering.
The woman picked up the child & rocked her as she walked towards the window, assuring the little girl that the noise was only a branch knocking the windowpanes. The little girl however insisted in a sleepy babble, that there was a boy peering in, a boy with red hair & green clothes. When they reached the window, the woman paused, searching for what her daughter had seen. Peter stared at her as hard as he could; hoping she would see him & help him make sense of what was going on. For a brief moment he though he saw a flicker of recognition in the woman's eyes but after a few seconds she shook her head & turned away as her husband called out to her, "Come back to bed Wendy, Sarah probably just imagined it. She'll settle down in a moment." Peter Pan stared in shocked silence as Wendy put her child to bed & climbed into her own. At that moment, a realization hit him. Wendy had broken her promise, for she could not see him, & the window was locked.