Chapter One: Legend

By: CrazyCat99

Disclaimer: I do not own Peter Pan, for he and all the others are from the marvelous mind of JM Barrie. I just own Evie, Jake, Lily and their family.

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Once upon a time in a land not so far away, there lived a girl pressured by life. In her world, there was no such thing as stopping, pausing, quitting. Relaxing was rare, and she had never truly ever done it.

Her life was routine, her life was on schedule, and her life was constant. No breaks, no adventures, no mischief…In all of her 18 years of life, she did not have that, and she was convinced she never would. Her life was the same, ordinary, a schedule…

Until that one day. It had seemed like a charming place, that little bookstore on the corner. And if there was one thing Evie Hammond liked to do during those rare occasions she did get a chance to relax, it was reading.

And so she had gone there, into that little tiny bookstore, and in that little space she had hurriedly scanned the books, most of them titles that she had never heard of, and looked and looked and looked until one title in particular caught her eye.

Peter Pan. She was one who always loved a good fantasy, a good book that took her away from the confines of her busy life. And so she had bought it, hoping to use it as a means for an adventure to ease her overworked mind…

Little did she know just what that adventure would be like.

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She arrived home promptly as the bells of the grandfather clocked chimed six 'o clock, her body drained from the ballet class she had arrived home from, and with a sigh unwound her scarf from around her neck. It would be snowing soon, and she knew her father was scrambling around to find wood to use to make a fire. In these times, wood could be frighteningly scarce.

She passed her brother Jake on her way up the stairs, hurrying past her in tears in search of their mother, who Evie had no doubt was in the sitting room knitting like usual. Evie did not think as to why her little brother was crying; she had no doubt that it was just Lily picking on him again, as she was prone to do. After all, for being an eight year old Jake was uncharacteristically small still, having been born with what doctors referred to as 'Down's Syndrome.' To thirteen year old Lily, it only made him a freak and an embarrassment.

When she opened the door to her room she was not at all surprised Lily was in there, lying on her bed with a smug smirk on her countenance. As usual Evie ignored her younger sister, dropping her bag at the foot of her bed and extracting her school books, waiting for Lily to inevitably start trying to involve her in a conversation. Evie was slipping into the seat at her desk when it began.

"Want to know what happened to me today sister?" Lily asked, and Evie could feel her sister's green eyes burning into her back.

When Evie did not respond, simply drew a piece of paper out and opened her aged textbook, Lily took it as her sign to continue.

"Davis and I snuck out to go down to the pond behind the school; you know, the place where they say all those children disappear at? Maybe we should take Jake there" Lily laughed to herself, oblivious to the fact that her sister did not laugh with her. "Anyway, it's a right nasty place, it is, with all those weeds and toads…But I went there, without hardly any fuss, and stood in the stop Alice Pucker was said to have disappeared, and you know what? I didn't! Even though Davis was being a bloody nuisance and kept trying to scare me; honestly, if that boy annoys me one more time I'll-"

"Lily, I think mother wanted to talk to you." Evie cut her off, beginning to write her essay on the beginnings of London.

"Oh, she did? Well, she could have said something; I've been home for bloody two hours!" Lily grumbled, pushing herself off the bed to stand and saunter over to the door.

Evie listened to the rustle of her sister's skirts moving with a small, hidden smirk on her face. Lily really was too gullible some times; if her sister were a nicer person, she would actually take pity on her.

"I guess I'll see you in an hour or so for dinner then" Lily said, and absently Evie nodded in response, holding her breath until she heard the door close with a snap before releasing it all in a gush. She really could not help but really hate Lily sometimes for how mean and rude she was; she was under the impression that the word revolved around her, and thought it was Evie's obligation to listen. Well, Evie did listen to her—or at least Lily thought she did. In truth she just zoned her out, her voice nothing but a shrill whining in the back of Evie's head as she completed her homework, most of it involving history of some sort tonight.

She had lessons in the morning, she remembered with a sigh as she finished another paragraph, she could not be late again. Her father was paying extra money to ensure that his daughter became the proper lady, and Evie was determined to prove that he had put that money to good use. She was of marriage age now, and her parents were determined to get her settled and on her own; they simply could not afford to take care of her much longer, and although she was still in school, she would be graduating within the next few weeks.

Her family was ardent on finding her a husband almost immediately, and although she did not protest, truth be told many of the men that had tried to court her had not been her type. Of course she had not openly told them no, but she, well, persuaded them that she was a bad match. She was not really the good girl that she was made out to be… But of course, the failed courtships led to panic and chaos with her family, and immediately they had scrambled to find someone else for her.

So far they had attempted to set her up with a Mr. Andrew Longshire from two neighborhoods over, who was her age and was planning on enlisting in the military. With WWII still in action, his enlisting meant certain death, and to start a family with a dead man was certain misfortune. But at this point, her parents were getting just desperate, and who was she to protest?

In truth, she did not mind Andrew; at least he was her type. And by her 'type' she meant wild, adventurous, and passionate—everything she lacked and kept refrained out in the open. She would not mind being his wife, but unfortunately her parents could not see past that military aspect. And so she was available again.

The thought of it sort of made her sick. A daughter just being ransomed off…But that was society now, with this war craze sweeping through it. Many whispered that soon they might all have to speak German, but no one said it aloud; Britain was still free, and that was all that mattered.

Unfortunately, while Britain may remain free, Evie was not. With a sigh she put the finishing touches to her essay, wondering what good it did her to even complete it. University for women was a rare thing still; if she went she could only really major in baking or any other home skill, and if there was one thing Evie was not it was homely. People thought—no, assumed was the better word—that she was, but in actuality she hated being indoors. Her room often felt too small for her, but what was she to do about it? No where to run too…

She had just finished all of her homework, having only halfheartedly completed it, when the door to her room was flung open, and a tiny body flew in at her.

"Evie!" Jake cried as he launched himself in her arms, and grunting a little she managed to catch him and pull him up to sit on her lap. Mirroring his happy smile she looked down at him, running a hand through his disheveled black hair and tousling it even more.

"Hey Jake sweetie, how are you?" she sweetly asked, giggling slightly when the boy practically bounced off her laugh in his excitement.

"Oh Evie, you'll never guess what happened! I lost my first tooth today!" he exclaimed proudly, opening his mouth to reveal the gap between his two front teeth to her as she appropriately gasped in delight.

"Oh Jake, that's excellent! Now you'll be visited by the tooth fairy!"

"I know, I know! And she'll give me money, right? Didn't you tell me that?"

"Of course I did Jake, and you know she will! After all, you're far from a naughty boy!"

Her heart melted when he beamed up at her, blushing slightly at the compliment. Jake was not one to be used to compliments, considering his tiny appearance and constant sickliness. Only Evie really complimented him, and it made him love her all the more for it.

"Evie, why do you have to leave so much?" the boy quietly asked, his excitement fading as he leaned against her shoulder, his tiny form relaxing easily into hers as she reached up to stroke his hair gently.

"Because Jake, it's my responsibility…You'll understand someday…"

"No," he shook his head rapidly, "No I won't! I miss you all the time, and I'm always so alone…Won't you stay with me forever?"

Evie bit her lip, closing her eyes as a pang went through her heart. He sounded so sad…

"Jake," she sighed, " You know I wish I could but I have responsibilities now…I'm a grown up now…"

"I really wish you weren't" the boy groused, clinging to her tighter. "I don't get why people have to grow up…"

"People have to grow up because they don't have a choice, I suppose. You'll be a grown up too one day, just like me."

"Nuh-huh!" he shook his head again, moving back to stare up at her with wide blue eyes burning in foolish determination. "I'll never grow up, cuz I'm not like you! I don't have…Don't have res-pond-obil-ties!" She giggled slightly again at his attempt to say the adult word, and held him closer to her chest so that she could bury her face in his hair.

"No, not yet you don't, but you will. Everyone gets responsibilities; there's no way to avoid them."

"Well…What if you go someone where else? Some where far from here?"

"There's no land that has no responsibilities, dearest; that's all a fairy tale."

"No it isn't! It exists, I've been there!" Evie quirked a brow at her little brother, who was now staring up at her excitedly again.

"Oh really? And what's this place called?" she inquired half heartedly, taking it all in as a childish fantasy.

"Why, it's called Neverland of course! And it's the most adventurous, exciting, beautiful place I've ever been too!" her brother chirped in a breathless voice, and Evie blinked at him, skeptical.

"Really?" she drawled, deciding to just go along and sate her brother's appetite for fantasy. "And when did you go there?"

"Oh, I think it was about a week ago. I don't know, but I've been there sis, I've been there!"

"And how did you get there exactly?" she asked, leaning back in her chair as he repositioned himself on her lap. "

"I flew there using pixie dust and, what was it? Oh yes, happy thoughts!" he grinned, exposing his mouth with the missing tooth in it, making him appear all the more adorable. Unable to resist she reached out to pull him into a hug again, running her hands back through his dark locks.

"You should have seen it sis, it was amazing! Oh, I wish you could come…" the boy sighed wistfully against her collarbone, and Evie held him tighter.

"And why can't I?" she quietly asked, " Why can't I fly away with you? It certainly sounds appealing!"

"Because, um…Because I doubt Peter will let you. I mean, not only are you a girl, but you're an adult now! Peter doesn't like adults…" was the muffled response as he buried his face into her shoulder.

"Oh? Whose this Peter fellow? Is he a friend of yours?"

"Uh, yes, I suppose he could be my friend, though he's bloody wicked sometimes. Knows how to beat anything…"

"Anything?" she encouraged, and Jake picked his head up off her shoulder to gaze at her with gleaming eyes.

"Yeah, anything! Last time, he killed a wild boar right in front of me!"

Evie frowned, not liking the violence that seemed to be going through her little brother's head. Peter obviously had to be his imaginary friend, but did he have to be so, well, aggressive? Her brother was such a sweet boy; could he possibly have a hidden blood lust somewhere inside his tiny body? She hoped to god that he didn't…

"Did you help slay this wild boar Jake?" she asked, smoothing the hair back from his brow.

"Oh no, not me. I'm too tiny you see, and Peter says that I'd be bad with a blade."

"A blade?" she gasped, stricken, "What kind of blade?"

"Oh, I don't know, I think he used a dagger. He's right good with them you see, can take anything down!"

"Yes but still, a blade! Jake…I'm not sure you should be seeing this Peter anymore, not if he's making you use weapons. What will mother and father think?"

"They won't ever know of it!" Jake suddenly looked at her frantically, grabbing onto the front of her white dress almost desperately. "You won't tell, will you Evie? If you do, Peter will never come back!"

"I must say that that might be a good thing" she replied, eyeing her brother's stricken face wearily. "This Peter sounds violent…"

"No, no he's not! He's just childish, like me! Once you meet him, I'm sure you'll understand!"

"Oh? And just how am I supposed to meet him?" Evie asked, still dubious. Why was her brother talking about this boy as though he existed? He was far too old to be having imaginary friends, but then again, he was an awfully lonely child; perhaps this Peter had been fabricated from his own loneliness, made from his despair? The Peter character certainly was dark enough…

"Uh…" Jake pulled back away from her to think, screwing his eyes and chewing thoughtfully on his lower lip. Evie watched him in amusement, resisting the urge to crush him to her again because he was just so darn adorable.

She tried not to smile as his eyes suddenly lit up with an idea, and he began to wiggle excitedly in her lap again in glee. "I have an idea!" he announced imperiously, as though she had not already known that he did.

"Really, what?" she obliged him, and laughed at the way he grinned happily at her.

"The next time Peter comes, I'll wake you up so that you can see him! I'm sure he won't mind meeting you; he just won't like you."

She scoffed a little at that, furrowed her brow. "He won't like me? Why ever not?"

"Because sis, you're an adult now, and if there's one thing Peter Pan hates, it's adults."

Evie felt her face pale at that name. "Wait, Jake, what was his name? His whole name?"

"What? Oh," Jake blinked at her, "Peter Pan, why?"

Evie felt her jaw slacken at the name, her mind thinking back to the leather bound book she had only just purchased. Peter Pan…She did not know how Jake could have known of it, but did not consider it to be a coincidence of any kind. Perhaps Jake had one day heard about it at school, and the name had stuck with him? She refused to believe that it was anything else.

And so she covered her expression of surprise and replaced it with one of sympathetic kindness, believing that her brother was in fact inflicted with life-like daydreams and fantasies that plagued his dreams and had managed to cross into his conscious psyche.

"Oh Jake, that's just a silly old story!" she laughed lightly, hoping to pull him away from the edge of lunacy that he teetered on.

He pouted adorably at her, taking offence at her lack of belief. "Nuh-huh, he's real, I saw him!"

"Dearest, I'm sure you just imagined him" she tried, "He exists only in fiction. Why, just today I bought a book with him in it!"

"A book…? No, Peter can't be in a book; he lives in Neverland with the fairies and the lost boys, and the pirates-"

"Jake dear, I'm sure you just dreamed this all up. I have not yet read the book, but I'm sure it's nothing like that!"

"B-But Evie, it was so real, and I…I can clearly remember flying…"

"Jake," she firmed her tone, pulling back away from him to look him straight in the eye. "It's all nonsense, all of it. Now I want you to stop talking about this; it is frightening me."

"Evie no, it's not suppose to frighten you, it's supposed too-"

"Jacob Hammond, stop this right now! What will mother and father think if they hear you saying such things? Flying and fairies and such aren't real!" Evie exclaimed, giving her little brother a slight shake to emphasize her point.

She sighed in slight annoyance when she noticed his bottom lip start to tremble, realizing that yelling at him had hurt his sensitive heart and brought him close to tears. Pulling his shaking form back into her, she gently started shushing him as she rubbed his back in soothing circles.

"Shh, calm down now love, I did not meant o be so harsh, I'm just worried. This Peter pan seems like a villainous fellow…"

"Oh no Evie!" Jake gasped, drawing back to look up at her aghast. "Peter's wonderful, and he could never be evil! He beats up the pirates and-"

"Can we talk about something else dear?" Evie cut him off, not wishing to hear anymore of his slightly disturbing childish ramblings.

He seemed slightly hurt at being told off the subject, but much to her relief he obliged, beginning to tell her about his day so that soon the whole Peter pan mishap was all but forgotten.

He was in the midst of telling her about a new teacher at school when the door suddenly opened and Lily entered, a scowl forming on her face when she spotted Jake in Evie's lap.

"Hey twerp, mother says its bath time," she told him, "So stop your prattling and get moving!"

It was with reluctance that Jake left her lap, shooting a mournful look over his shoulder at his elder sister before following Lily to the door, stopping at it to turn back and give Evie one last smile that she wholeheartedly returned.

"Can I come talk to you again after my bath?" he asked almost shyly as Lily tried to usher him out the door and Evie smiled and nodded in response.

"You can come see me anytime dear."

She giggled once more at the bright grin and wave he gave her before Lily yanked him out, the door slamming shut behind him to leave Evie alone again with her work and exhaustion. She sighed, slumping down in her chair as she flicked a pencil away from her, glaring with disgust down at the finished paper before her. All this work for what? What did she get from it? Nothing but headache, a lousy, aching headache.

Heaving another sigh she stood on her tired feet, wearily walking over to her window to peer out. She did not have view of anything; the solid brick wall from the building next to hers, grimy and a faded red now from years of weather wear, was all that her window revealed. But if she tilted her head up, pressed her forehead against the cool glass and lifted her eyes to the sky, she could see some stars, those tiny little pricks of light that bathed her in the faintest of white. She stared up at them now almost dreamily, for a moment losing herself in the stars, in her wishes. What she would not give to just fly away sometimes, to soar up to those stars…

But no, she could never think like that. She had to keep her feet planted firmly on the ground, keep her mind realistic and level. There was no room for silly fantasies in her life, and those stars up there…Those stars were unreachable. She had no choice but to turn her back on them and go back over to her desk.

The bag that contained the books she had bought earlier was in front of her, and she stared at it, eyeing it almost curiously. She could not see the book, but she knew that it was in there—Peter Pan. It was just a silly book she had bought on a whim, yet still…She thought back to all that her bother had said and bit her lip. She told herself that she did not believe in fate, did not believe in coincidences, and yet…

She slowly drew it from her bag, the leather cover oddly warm beneath her fingertips as though thriving with life, with adventure waiting to be read. It made her heart skip a beat even as she told herself that it was childish, impractical. She would just read it, that was all, and discover things about this Peter Pan fellow herself. It looked like a good adventure…

The air seemed to thicken as she opened the worn cover, exposing the title page. There it was, two words so tiny yet powerful on the otherwise blank page. Peter Pan. She sucked in a breath and reached out to turn the brittle page, yellowed from years of sitting on a shelf waiting. Waiting for this moment, for…for her…

Chapter One, it read, and the air seemed to crackle around her, making the hair on the back of her neck stand up, making her heart flutter. But she was determined to believe that it was nothing, just her fancy thoughts, and read the first paragraph.

Once upon a time there existed a girl, a seemingly average girl with too much potential and too little fun. This girl secretly yearned for an adventure beyond imagination, desired to be in a place far from society, a place known simply as Neverland, her home, her soul, her…heart. And if it was adventure she craved, then it was adventure that she would soon get…

She was shivering when she finished reading it, this first page, her eyes closing as she tried to regain some sense. What was--?

And then, when she opened her eyes again, it was there, a light as bright as the stars burning in the middle of the book, entrancing her, shocking her, making her heart twirl and leap with fright and delight in turns. She went to drop the book, but found that she could not, the warmth it suddenly emitted, warmth that had once been so discreet flaring until it licked up around her, caressing flames that did not damage but enticed, pulling her resisting body down towards that starlight positioned in the middle of the pages.

Evie could only shut her eyes and wish as the starlight crashed into her, feeling her body begin to fall as the light danced around her, through her, weaving through her limbs and her soul in leaps and bounds.

And she was falling and falling and falling…

The light burning and burning and burning…

Until, with a resounding snap the book was closed, and with it her consciousness.

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So, what did you think? I'm sorry if I made Lily sound mean, I needed at least some type of close villain! And as for Jake having Down's syndrome, that will come into play more later, along with the obvious affection he and Evie share.

But anyway, I'd love to hear what you think! Should I continue on with this story, which is really just a pet project for me? Please Review and let me know!

--Cat