It has been months since Bae had been taken and frustration threatens to break her for good.

When she is not climbing out of windows trying to recall the shadow, or hunting through Kensington gardens where boys are rumoured to go missing, guilt and fear keep her up at night. Still, all attempts to get back to Neverland have failed and she feels the consequences of her actions like a weight on her chest, slowly crushing her.

The Darlings have noticed her peculiar behavior, but the blame is put on her missing adoptive brother and his influence. After Bae's disappearance, she had gone frantic, even spending a few weeks sick in bed due to all the stress. It was all her fault that Bae was taken by the shadow to that horrid place, to that horrid boy. Everything was her fault. If only she had listened to him, if only she had never taken the shadow's hand in the first place.

What if's and if only's plague her every thought.

Just like every night since her return to London, Wendy clutches at the curtains of the window in her new room, trying her best to stay awake despite the siren call of sleep. George had finally gotten a say over her mother and had moved Wendy into her own room. She was not a child anymore, and thus it was improper for her to stay in the nursery with her brothers.

She suspected they also didn't want her influencing John and Michael with her fixation on Bae.

They didn't even listen to her reasoning. How was she supposed to protect her brothers? What if the demon boy had decided that Bae was not enough and the shadow came back for them?

Each night she stayed up as long as she could, straining her ears for any sound coming from the nursery in the next room. She can't count the number of times she has gotten up to sneak into the nursery and check on them. She still would, if George had not placed Nana right outside her door to alert him if ever she chose to leave her room in the middle of the night.

The window is also where she attempts to call the shadow back to her.

"I believe." She whispers, glancing back at the door to her room in case her parents had heard her before turning back around to peer out her open window. She has been saying the same thing for weeks, trying out different ways, but the shadow still refuses to answer her call. Was it because she was no longer a child, or was it only because of Pan's orders? She had tried in her nursery, had even asked poor Michael to say the words for her. But nothing.

Wendy sighs, locks the window, and decides to finally crawl into bed. If her father catches her yawning during breakfast again, he might finally send her off to boarding school like he has threatened to many times before. She gets under the covers, turns to face the window, and wills herself to sleep.

The fog of dreamland creeps across the edges of her mind, poking and prodding and willing her to relax, willing her to submit into sleep. It almost succeeds before the process is interrupted.

An eerie glow penetrates her eyelids just as she begins to doze, and she is wrenched from sleep. She throws the covers off her and looks at the window, trying to find the source of light. Is it the shadow? Has it come back?

Fear roots her to her bed, keeping her in place though she tries to fight it, tries to be brave to go to the shadow and demand it bring her back to Neverland. But then the glow is gone, and it is replaced by noises outside her window.

Wendy fears the shadow and she fears Pan, but this could be a completely different monster, one she does not know how to handle, perhaps one mortal like herself.

She holds her breath as the noises grow louder. A familiar face suddenly pops into view and she nearly screams, hands slapping over her mouth just in time.

Captain Hook!

She trips in the tangle of bedsheets as she rushes to the window. The pirate is there, waving at her with his hook and a smirk. She reaches forward to unlatch the lock but then debates with herself as to whether or not she should let him in. He is a pirate, after all. And she knew that, because of the arrangement he had with the boy, there was a chance he was actually working for Pan.

But curiosity had always been Wendy's chief weakness. It had made her take the shadow's hand, against all warning, after all. Slowly her fingers move to lift the latch, and she steps aside as he pushes the windows open and enters, boots trekking mud all over her bedroom floor.

The pirate looks around, surveying his surroundings, eyes lingering on a few of her trinkets here and there. Wendy suddenly feels very small and young in her room, filled with white lace and feminine trims, a room so similar to the treehouse Pan had built for her so long ago.

"Captain?" She breaks the silence with a whisper, so that Nana or her parents won't hear her. Killian bows to her in greeting before gesturing to her bed, signalling her to sit down. She is suspicious but she does as he asks and looks up at him expectantly.

"I'm here to talk about someone important to us both," He starts, the deep tone of his voice just low enough to make sure their conversation won't be heard. "A boy recently came to be on my ship. A boy I had come to grow attached to, come to care for. But the lost boys stole him away under Pan's orders and I need your help in getting him back."

Still not understand where he was going with this, Wendy urged him to continue.

"Baelfire needs you, love."

At the sound of Bae's name, Wendy interrupts and shoots to her feet, hand going to her chest in worry.

"Bae? You've seen him? Where is he? Is he alright?" Question after question pours out of her mouth and she can feel her hands start to shake as she waits for his answer. Please let him be alright.

Killian closes his eyes and sighs. "We need to get him out of Neverland. The longer he stays there, the longer we risk losing him. It won't be long until he forgets everything and truly becomes a lost boy."

The thought of Baelfire, sweet, innocent, Baelfire, becoming wild and reckless sends chills up her spine. He had too much goodness in him, too much heart to be a lost boy! The boys had been sweet to her, but they had had their moments of cruelty. There was always an undercurrent of something malicious in them whenever they spoke to her, as if their previous lives had damaged them so completely that even forgetting who they were wasn't enough to erase the dark tinge. She couldn't allow that to happen to Bae.

But if the Captain was trying to help Bae, why wasn't he in Neverland?

"Then why are you here?"

"I want to bring him back here, to his family, but I can't do it alone. I need your help. Pan has lead him to believe that I willingly gave him up, and now he refuses to talk to me" His face is somber and it looks as if he has aged terribly since she has last seen him. She almost feels his pain.

But then her gaze narrowed, and she stares at him suspiciously while her lips twist into a sneer. This was a pirate after all, and one who worked for Pan. Should she trust him?

"Perhaps I did let Pan take him away. I should have fought harder to keep him safe. He won't listen to me. Won't let me help him." Killian's voice wavers slightly, a vulnerable tone escaping him before he gives a slight cough and continues.

He looks at her then, a pleading expression in his eyes. "But he'll listen to you, love. He talked about you while he was on the Jolly Roger. He said you were like his sister and he'd do anything for you. I know — well I had hoped — that you'd do anything for him as well, even returning to that forsaken place."

There is warmth that fills her when he talks of Bae and her resolve strengthens. Bae needs her. This is her chance to save him! When will another opportunity to get to Neverland come by? But her suspicion still lingers.

"Why should I trust you? From what I remember, you work with Pan," The title feels all wrong in her mouth, for she has only ever referred to him as Peter out loud. She had been the only one other than Felix and Rufio allowed to call him by that name and she had once reveled in that honour. But that was before.

"I have committed many wrongs in my past, nothing can change that. And I will continue to do more once our quest is complete. But leaving Bae with that demon boy cannot be one of them. I will bear the repercussions once he is safe here with you, whatever they may be. But I want Bae safe just as much as you do."

Wendy doesn't trust him, not with her life, and not with Bae's life. But his convincing tone, the overwhelming guilt she feels, and her determination to get her brother back overcome any sense she might have once head. She makes her decision.

"Will you do it, love? Will you come back to Neverland for Bae?"

"I'll come," She takes the captain's offer of his good hand, and watches as he throws a small, shiny bean out the window to the garden below. The wind picks up and a green glow illuminates her room once more.

Wendy does not look back before she follows Captain Hook, leaping from her window to the portal below.