Disclaimer: I own nothing of Psych and its related characters. This is just for my own enjoyment and the potential enjoyment of other Psych-Os like me, and no monetary gain was expected or received.
Rating: T+
Spoilers: Few, but possible at any point through entire series
A/N: Sorry for the delay on my Psych stuff, but I've been having trouble with Breakin' In Slow-Motion, probably because my first talk with my doc about the seizures was not my first talk with my doc, so I didn't know how to go back in time and make it a first talk. I don't remember now what my first talk with a psychiatrist was like. I'm also having trouble with a scene in the next chapter of A Quiet Normal Life, which is slowing me down on everything, which is why I've been posting Captain Hook stories lately - with the exception of the short story, which I wrote within an hour or two last Saturday, they were all already written, though I have a long way to go on the new ongoing and don't know whether it'll work. Now that I know when I'm going in the hospital for my longterm EGG to find out for sure whether this is epilepsy, I'm hoping that Breakin' will be easier to write and maybe even wrap up. I do really like that story, but it isn't an easy one to write. Anyway, I got to thinking while looking over endless paragraphs about Captain Hook that Tim Omundson would make an excellent Hook and then I got to thinking about that curious line when Lassy answers the question, "Could you place a value on your own father?" with "375 thousand," and I came up with this. Hopefully this will grease the wheels a little on SOMETHING. More hopefully still it's just a two-shot. (Was going to be a one-shot, but it started getting way too long between start and conclusion, so I had to break it up. Sorry.)
Shanghaied
The case was a series of disappearances, the victims last seen down by the docks. Shawn was on vacation with Gus in Tijuana, so Lassiter was pleased to have the case all to himself and his partner. He and O'Hara went down to the docks to search for leads and met up very soon with Henry Spencer, who was almost always there on his boat.
"Hey, Henry," Juliet said.
"Hey, cops," Henry called back. "You here for them guys that vanished?"
"Yeah," Lassiter said. "Looking for anything we can find out. I know if you'd seen anything in particular you'd have told us already, but was there anything suspicious at all you've seen? Just something minor?"
Henry took off his ball cap and scratched the top of his head briefly, then put his cap back on. "Absolutely nothing, and it pisses me off, because that last guy? Pretty much disappeared right in front of me. I don't know what the hell's going on."
"Huh," Lassiter said, and O'Hara looked up at him. She couldn't quite identify his expression. Thoughtful, yes, but also… nervous? Apprehensive? What was that look, exactly?
"Carlton, what's wrong?" she asked him. "Did you figure something out?"
He shook his head. "No. No, just… I don't know. A passing thought. Nothing important. Let's keep looking. Thanks, Henry."
They continued from one end of the docks to the other, speaking to everyone they could and finding nothing whatsoever out about their disappearances. That curious look settled more and more firmly on Lassiter's face, and Juliet was growing ever more concerned about it. Finally she stopped and stared him down. That he let her spoke to just how badly he felt.
"What is wrong?" she demanded.
"It's nothing, really," he said, but she knew he was lying.
"Carlton. What is it?"
"I just… don't want to be here. I don't want to be anywhere near here right now. I don't want to be anywhere near Santa Barbara."
"What? Why not? Carlton, what do you know?"
He shrugged. "I don't know anything. I just suspect. And if I tell you what I suspect you'll think I'm crazy."
"Carlton," she said, smiling brightly. "Everybody thinks you're crazy. It's no big deal. Just tell me what you're thinking."
He sighed deeply, his remarkable blue eyes closed briefly before opening again to look at her. "I think these people are getting shanghaied."
"Erm… what?"
"Shanghaied. Forced into service on a ship."
"Uh… okay, yeah, I've heard of that. But… do they still do that? I kind of thought that went out with, um… I don't know, the invention of the airplane, maybe."
"There's at least… one ship on the sea today… that would still do that I think…"
Juliet turned to face him directly. "Carlton. What do you know?"
"I can't… tell you. You'll really think I'm crazy and no joke."
"Well, if… sailors are running up behind these guys and… knocking them on the head and carrying them off to a waiting ship, someone has to have seen them, right?" Juliet said.
Lassiter shook his head. "Not the sailors I'm thinking of."
"You know I don't want to say this, Carlton, but you are kind of starting to sound a little crazy."
"I know. But believe me, if it's who I think, no one will have seen anything."
"Well, we… have to keep looking, Carlton, don't we? There's no way to prove just now that you're right, after all."
He took a few hard, shallow breaths, and then visibly calmed. "You're right. I don't like it, but you're right. It's just… I don't see any reason for them to be here specifically except… maybe… to mess with me or Mom or Lauren. And I don't want that to happen. Although if they mess with Mom maybe they deserve what they get."
"Who is 'them'?" Juliet demanded.
"I can't tell you," Lassiter said in a very small voice. "You'd never believe me."
Juliet threw up her hands in surrender and led the way back to the other end of the dock, being rather aggressive with potential witnesses along the way. Lassiter followed meekly and under the bright Santa Barbara sun, with the cool ocean breeze blowing in her hair, she slowly calmed down. She was feeling pretty damned good, really, when all of a sudden the lights… went… out.
-…-…-…-
She had a lump on the back of her head, and the spot was tender, painful. Someone had hit her on the head. Someone was going to die.
She felt for her gun. Her holster was empty. Damn. She looked around. She was in a large, dark space, made of wood, and it was… rocking, gently, to and fro. To her left, thankfully, she saw Carlton, still unconscious. She crawled to his side and shook him by the arm.
"Carlton. Carlton, get up. Come on, partner, wake up. Wake up, come on."
He blinked, his eyes rolled up in his head, then he shook his head and blinked some more. "That's right, partner, come on, wake up," Juliet said again. Carlton raised a hand to his head and groaned.
"Oh God… I really need some Excedrin."
"Somebody knocked us out, Carlton," she said. "In broad daylight they knocked us out! And I think you were right. I think we're on a ship."
He looked around, then his expression turned enraged and he struggled to his feet. "Yes, we're on a ship," he said, and his voice was that quiet voice that spoke of real danger. It rose in volume steadily as he continued to speak. "We're on the ship. The Jolly frickin' Roger."
"The Jolly Roger? Wait, isn't that… Captain Hook's ship?"
He shot her a look. "It is."
She shot him a look. "We're on Captain Hook's ship."
"We are on… my father's… ship… Detective O'Hara… and now you know why I didn't want to say anything."
"Oh, so your father named his ship after Captain Hook's ship," Juliet said, relieved.
"No. My father is Captain Hook. Captain James Hook, though he prefers to go by 'Jas'."
Juliet stared at him, open-mouthed, for a long while, and then she burst out laughing. "No, really, Carlton, where are we?"
"Told you you wouldn't believe me," he said, "but I expect you're going to meet him soon, so you'd better get it under control. He doesn't like to be laughed at, to say the least. A quick pointer: don't shake his hand. If you really think you have to, offer him your left."
"If your father's name is 'Hook' why is your name 'Lassiter'?" Juliet asked. He gave her a look.
"Is it really so hard to figure? For one thing, it's not really a creditable last name, is it? For another, he and my mother never actually married. They lived together from the time I was conceived 'til I was about thirteen, but they weren't married by anything other than Common Law. I'm a bastard! For which I bear no ill will whatsoever. If he had married my mother, I'd still go by her maiden name."
"You know, I saw that movie when it came out, the live-action Peter Pan, with Jason Isaacs as Captain Hook. That was good," Juliet said. "They made it so his eyes turned red before he killed someone. Is that true? I never read the book and I don't remember it in any of the other movies or the stage play."
"Yes, it's true, but I don't know if it was in the book, either. I would venture to guess whoever was responsible for that movie just realized on their own that Dad was just that damned evil."
"Well, it explains why your eyes turn red before you start yelling at the squad or at Shawn."
"What? They don't, do they? Tell me you're kidding." He looked absolutely panicked.
She raised her hands to steady him. "I am kidding, Carlton. I've never seen it. Not yet, anyway."
He closed his eyes and let out a long, shuddering breath. "You never will. I'm not like that. Not even a little."
"You do have a hell of a temper," she said.
"No! It's not the same!"
Above them, a hatch opened, and a roly-poly little man in a red headscarf with heavy white sideburns and a thick white beard came rolling bowlegged down the stairs, whistling what sounded like an old sea chantey. "Thought I could hear ye was awake down 'ere," he said, with a bit of a laugh.
"Ah, Mister Smee," Carlton said, freezingly, folding his arms across his chest and leaning against a post.
"Aye! Ye remembers me!" the man said, clapping his hands together in glee. "Wasn't sure ye would. Ain't seen ya since ye been knee-high to a cuttlefish, I ain't. Ye were a cute one, ye was, scurryin' about the decks a-lookin' like the Captain in miniature, gettin' inta everythin'."
"Yeah. Great memories," Carlton said, sarcastically. "Running around on board a pirate ship, surrounded by the dregs of humanity."
"You'd look just like yer father now, if yer skin wa'ant so dark an' yer hair wa'ant so short."
Juliet, who thought Carlton was really very pale for a native Santa Barbaran, wondered exactly what the little man was talking about. And had Carlton actually called him… Smee?
"Anyways, you an' the lady is wanted aboard decks," "Smee" said. "I've come to fetch ye, I has. Come on, then. Up ye get."
The little man chivvied them up the stairs and onto the deck above, where they found themselves surrounded by men. Filthy men, wearing filthy clothes and looking diseased. Juliet stayed close to Carlton's side, as if he could keep her from catching whatever these men had.
The men stared at them, ogling Juliet in particular. Leering at her. Carlton tried to shield her from their eyes as best he could. Then something knocked against the planks, and the men shifted to clear a path in front of a door below the quarterdeck. The door opened, and…
It was Captain Hook, no doubt about it. Or at least a really, really good facsimile. And, somehow terrifyingly, it was also Carlton. The same face, the same eyes, the same dark slash of relatively heavy eyebrows, even the same crooked nose. He didn't look any older, either. In truth, the only differences she could see were in dress - the Captain wore what you might expect, a jacket and waistcoat with lace and gold piping and a large tricorn feathered hat - and in the fact that the Captain was pale as death and wore his curly hair shoulder length and had a goatee and moustache. Otherwise, yeah… strong family resemblance to say the least.
Carlton breathed heavily again as across the deck his father smiled a most sinister smile at them. Then he said, "Hey Pop. Eaten by any crocodiles lately?"
The mates laughed, but only for a very short while until they clapped their hands over their mouths in perfect unison and cast nervous eyes at their Captain. Hook just smiled a little broader and said, "You always were a smartass, my boy."
Lassiter reached behind himself and took Juliet's hand. He squeezed it, and the mates saw and said "Aww," and nudged each other, and then Lassiter let go and grabbed the gun hidden away at the small of his back. He pointed it directly at his father. Around them, instantly, the mates drew cutlasses and flintlock pistols.
"I told you to search him, you idiots," Hook said. "He always has more than one weapon."
Carlton's father smiled at him again. "Do you think you have enough bullets in that thing to take us all on?" he said, with a nod at the gun.
"No," Lassiter said, "but I've got more than enough to take care of you."
"Ye've grown into a feisty li'tle devil, ain't ye?" Smee said, and then he grabbed Juliet by the arm and yanked her away from Lassiter. He put his cutlass to her throat. "You might wanna be puttin' that gun down, though."
"Mister Smee, you're a gutless coward, you know that," Lassiter said.
"Aye, I am. I don't make no bones about it," Smee said, laughing again. "But I'll tell ya true, lad - I'm a sight more afraid o' the Captain than I be a' you, an' that's the hones' truth."
Lassiter closed his eyes, clicked the safety on the gun, lowered his aim and knelt down to slide the pistol across the deck to his father's feet. He stood up with his hands raised in surrender. "All right. Now let my partner go."
"Smee," Hook said, and the little man released Juliet at once.
Lassiter sighed heavily. "What do you want with us?" he said.
Hook took a few steps closer. "Absolutely nothing, my boy," he said.
"Then take us home," Carlton said.
"I am taking you home," Hook said, innocently.
"We were home," Juliet chimed in. "You never had to take us anywhere."
"He means he's taking us to his home," Lassiter said over his shoulder. "The Neverland."
"What? You mean it… it exists?"
"What, you thought Captain Hook does and the Neverland doesn't?"
"I thought this was some kind of weird game of dress-up."
Hook came right up to them and doffed his hat. "Miss O'Hara. Pleasure to meet you," he said, with a bow.
"Um, Captain," she said, and offered her hand. Carlton spoke urgently out the side of his mouth.
"Left hand. Left hand."
"The right hand perfectly suffices," Hook said, tucking his hat under his right arm. "What, you did not think I was going to shake with her, did you, my son? You don't shake with a lady. What are you thinking?" He reached out with his left, took Juliet's hand, turned it, and kissed her fingers. He released her hand and looked at his son again. "I thought I taught you the basic principles of good form."
"I did my best to forget everything you taught me."
Hook plucked his hat out from under his arm and situated it on his head again, then reached out with his right hand - which, Juliet could now see, did indeed end in a great, blade-like iron hook - and placed it under Carlton's chin to lift his face.
"What did I do to deserve this disapprobation?" he said. "I taught you, I raised you, I cared for you, I took you on adventures another boy could only dream of. You seemed to appreciate it at the time. Why so unhappy with me now?"
The expression on Lassiter's face could only be described as half smile, half scowl. "If my mouth weren't so dry, I'd spit in your face," he said.
"But why?" Hook persisted. "I don't think I'm being too egotistical when I say you loved me back then."
"That was when I was still a stupid little kid, and long before I realized that you were anything but a hero."
Juliet tapped Carlton on the shoulder. "Is your father being English the reason why you only claim to be Irish?" she asked, very quietly.
"Yes," he said back, not so quietly. Hook smiled, a far less sinister smile than any he had smiled previously.
"That's just fine, because I only claim my Irish ancestry as well, despite having been raised by my English relations," he said.
Carlton stood stock still for a moment, then turned to Juliet with a huge grin on his face. "Guess what, O'Hara? Turns out I'm English!"
Hook hooked his hook under the collar of Lassiter's shirt, and held it so the blunt edge was against the skin of his chest. He then pulled it down, popping the buttons off Carlton's shirt one by one as he said, "You know, any man on my crew who spoke to me like that would find my hook in his gullet immediately. 'Tis fortunate you are that you're flesh of my flesh."
"Why should that stop you?" Lassiter said. Juliet winced.
Hook pulled his hook out of Lassiter's shirt and put the point up next to Lassiter's eye. "Because, you silly-pated child, I… love… you."
The mates gasped at the bald-faced admission. Clearly they'd never heard such a thing from their captain before. "You're not capable of it," Lassiter said with a sneer.
"Will you stop trying to get yourself killed?" Juliet hissed. "If this really is Captain Hook then I don't think he has much compunction about killing people under ordinary circumstances."
"You should listen to your lady, my son," Hook said. "Who knows but that my patience doesn't have its limits where you're concerned? You are, after all, not nearly as cute as you were when you were but a child. Though I have to say, you are a handsome devil."
"I didn't know I looked so much like you," Lassiter said. "I guess this means I'll have to undergo reconstructive facial surgery when I make it back to Santa Barbara."
"You know, she is no relation to me whatsoever," Hook said, with a nod toward Juliet. "Perhaps I'll just have her killed."
"If you or any of your crew lays so much as a finger on her not a man here nor your fucking hook will be able to stop me from tearing your ass apart piece by piece, and I will enjoy every second of it," Lassiter said, glowering.
"Carlton, just calm down," Juliet said, tugging at his jacket. "You have to realize, we're kind of outnumbered here. Just… calm down."
He turned to her and put his arms around her, pulling her into a tight embrace the same way he did at the top of the clock tower. This time was a little different because Juliet wasn't crying, and because his shirt was cut wide open, meaning her face was pressed against his bare chest. She found she didn't much mind, for some reason.
"They're not going to hurt you," he said. "I won't let 'em."
"Oh, that is lovely," Hook said. "Yes, quite touching. I rather thought you'd be that way together. That's why I had the boys bring her along. There's no sense in depriving you of the closest relationship you've ever had, now is there? Boys?"
The men snapped to attention. "Aye, Cap'n?" they chorused.
"The lady is off-limits. In all ways. Lay a finger on her, and you die."
"Aye, Cap'n."
"Back to your duties, scugs. Let these two stroll about the decks if they wish. I'm sure they need to get their sea legs. Leave them alone. If they want to go below, Mister Smee, show them to the First Mate's cabin. I shall be in mine."
Hook disappeared back inside, and the mates all scattered to their own special spheres. Lassiter held tight to Juliet for a moment or two longer, then let her go and backed away. He shoved his fists in the pockets of his slacks and turned and headed for the bowsprit with his shoulders hunched. He stood there in the bow with his head hanging and his hands on the gunnels, the picture of dejection. Juliet went up to him, trying not to stagger as the deck pitched beneath her feet.
"Spread your legs and bend your knees a little," Lassiter said over his shoulder. "Sailors are bowlegged to a purpose."
Juliet tried it, feeling only a little stupid, and it did seem to keep her a bit steadier. She came up to his side and put a hand on his shoulder.
"Want to reenact that scene from Titanic?" she asked, trying to make light of the situation.
"Um… no," he said, not trying to make light of anything at all.
"Oh, come on, Carlton. Your father said he doesn't want to kill us. I don't know about you, but I consider that good news."
"And you trust the word of a pirate?"
"Well no, but he is also your father. I figure that makes him a little more trustworthy."
He shook his head. "Yeah. Don't count on it, O'Hara."
"You do have quite the problem with him, don't you?" Juliet said. "Is that because he's a pirate, and he's done horrible things…? Or is it because he did horrible things to you when you were a child…? Or is it just because he left you?"
He sighed and shook his head again. "Dad… never did horrible things to me, all right? Never. And I know you wouldn't have even asked that if you hadn't already known he didn't. Truth is, he was a better parent to me than Mom was. Mom was… she… well, she… put me down, all the time, about everything. Said I'd never be any good, never get anything right. Dad was just the opposite. Always built me up, tried to convince me I could do anything."
"So he was a good father," Juliet said.
"He's a good liar," Lassiter snapped back.
"Why do you think he lied to you? He couldn't possibly love his own son?"
"He's Captain Hook. He's everything Peter Pan isn't. Pan is Joy, Laughter, Goodness. Hook is what, now? Misery, Despair, and Evil."
"Are you sure he's not just a man?" Juliet asked quietly.
"His eyes turn red."
"Yeah, okay. That is kind of freaky. But nevertheless, I think you gotta give him a chance, here. He's your Dad."
"And a murderer. You're not going to argue with me on that, are you?"
"Well, now, no - but have you ever seen him do it? Can you prove he's ever really done it? Or does he just say it? Like he's trying to present an image to you?"
"I can't prove anything, O'Hara, but I'm sure these pirates aboard his ship could bear testimony to plenty. You see how they just snap to his every least word. They're terrified of him."
"When you told that museum director that your father was worth three hundred and seventy-five thousand," Juliet said, "that was the reward on his head, wasn't it?"
He took a deep breath. "That's the modern value of the original reward on his head, in pounds because I don't know how to convert it into American dollars. But that was the reward when he was still Captain James Winchester, and that… was three hundred years ago. Nobody's looking anymore."
"Three hundred years?"
"You didn't seem to find it at all hard to believe he was alive when J.M. Barrie wrote about him way back in the day. Is this really any harder to believe? At any rate, he was born in 1669. He would be three hundred years older than me, but his birthday's in November. Or at least, he always said it was."
"Oh. Okay." Juliet looked out to sea for awhile, sticking close by Carlton's arm. Then she said, "The hair. Is it real, or… you know, like in Hook, with Dustin Hoffman. A wig?"
"I never saw Hook, or the Disney movie, or the one you talked about with that Lucius Malfoy guy, or that new one and I won't, and I never read the book or saw the stage play. I'm sure it was all great stuff, but it all ended with my Dad getting eaten or at least chased off by a crocodile. Not something I ever really wanted to see. Not even now. Anyway, the hair - I don't know if it's real or not, but if it's a wig it's a damn good one, and he never takes it off, ever."
"How did he survive the crocodile?" Juliet asked.
"I never felt it prudent to ask. Apparently it is a true story, but I don't know how he got away."
"Why, the same way all we swabs get away whene'er th' Cap'n hooks us," Smee laughed, wheezing, from behind them nearby. They spun around to face him. "No one dies forever in the Neverland," Smee said, with a shrug. "Give it a few days maybe, ye'll be back, right as rain like ye never left."
"What do you mean?" Juliet asked.
"Well, see, it's like this: Cap'n wants us disciplined, use't be 'e'd give us a floggin' t' set us straight. Worked a charm, it did, but really beat a mate up. Not pretty at all. Once we found out that death weren't forever in the Neverland, Cap'n started givin' us the 'ook instead. You can bet yer buttons it 'urts, a'right; ain't no matey wants it to happen to 'em. But a couple hours later yer jus' fine an' swabbin' the decks again. Gettin' eaten by a crocodile was a li'tle bit more complicated a proposition, but two days later we seen the crocodile pitchin' a hellacious fit right on shore, and 'oo should cut 'is way out a' its stomach but the Cap'n! Crocodile's alive again, too. Nothin' dies forever in the Neverland."
"So you mean to say that Captain Hook doesn't really kill anyone?" Juliet said, looking at Lassiter triumphantly.
"Oh, 'e does," Smee said comfortably. "Kills us all the time, 'e does. It jus' don't stick, it don't. Like whene'er Pan kills Cap'n."
"If they know they can't kill each other, then why do they fight?" Juliet asked.
"Aw, somefing to do, ain't it?" Smee said. "The Neverland was where we hid up, from the authorities like. The East India Company an' all that rot. We didn't know for a long time that it was a place time di'n't touch, we jus' knew it was borin' as hell, not just for us but for Pan, too. Him bein' a boy an' all, he half the time wanted to be a pirate, an' the rest a' the time wanted to fight the pirates. Cap'n let 'im do what 'e wanted to do. It was almos' as en'ertainin' fer us as it was fer Pan. Sometimes the kid took it too seriously, though. Not that Cap'n ever tol' 'im off fer it."
"Wait a minute - didn't… Peter Pan… cut off… Captain Hook's hand?" Juliet asked, cautiously.
"Oh, that were an accident. The crocodile's fault, really. They was fencin' near the water's edge and the crocodile come up and growled at 'em and they both startled and Pan's sword went too far. Poor kid was totally thunderstruck. He stared at that hand, at that bloody stump, an' he reached down an' picked it up, looked at it, gave an almighty screech, an' tossed it away - right inta the jaws a' the crocodile; snap snap! But that Barrie chap got it all wrong when he said Cap'n ever blamed poor Peter for that. Never cried out, 'e di'n't, did the Cap'n. White as a ghost, but dead quiet all the while 'e was tryin' t' stop the bleedin'. Then 'e looks up an' sees how bloody upset Peter was, an' 'e jus' puts 'is other arm around him and says 'It's alright. You di'n't do nothin' wrong.' Cap'n weren't never really out to get Peter, not fer real. He jus' liked to put a li'tle scare in the kid, an' all the Los' Boys, too - 'cause the kiddies liked it that way."
Juliet nudged Lassiter in the side. "Are you hearing this, Carlton?"
"I'm hearing a pirate say a lot of stuff which is probably lies."
"Aw, now, laddie, what makes ye think it's lies?" Smee asked, reproachfully. "'E were good to you, weren't he?"
Carlton didn't seem to have an answer for that, and lowered himself into a seat on a nearby tar barrel.
"Anyway, I didn't come up 'ere to be a-jawin' atcha's," Smee said. "Just come up t' tell ya's, 'tis almost dinner time. Cap'n wants ye eatin' with 'im in 'is cabin. When the sun says it's six o' the clock," Smee said, with a smile. "Ye remember how t' tell time by the sun, don't ye, boy? No proper functioning watches aboard this ship, ha-ha. That's why we had t' leave yer watch and both a' yer phones behind us. They 'ave clocks on 'em. Cap'n don't like clocks. Ye un'erstand."
Smee turned to head back to wherever he came from, but Juliet reached out to stop him. "Please, wait - what about those people who disappeared? I'm assuming you…shanghaied them. Where are they now?"
"Oh, we put 'em back ashore once we 'ad the two a' you," Smee said. "They was just t' lure ye out t' the docks. Easier t' get ye there than to have t' chase ye all 'round the city."
"Oh. Charming," Juliet said, smiling a bit frozenly. "So this was all just to get to the two of us. Am I just extra baggage or was the plan to pick me up too, all along?"
"Oh yeah, ye were part a' the plan. Like Cap'n said, no need to separate the two a' you, not when ye's so close, like." Smee patted her companionably on the shoulder and headed on his way.
Juliet pulled up a tar barrel next to Lassiter and sat down beside him. She was subdued now, no longer sure what to think, but she tried very hard to brighten and look at the positives, as always.
"Well, we're… on our way to the Neverland. Who hasn't wanted to go to the Neverland?" she said cheerfully.
"I've been there. It not all that," Carlton said.
"You've met Peter Pan and the Lost Boys?"
"Yeah. Pan is annoying. They all are, but especially Pan. He's like… Spencer on amphetamines."
"How old were you last time you were there?"
He thought about it for a moment. "I think I was… nine when Dad took me. I did appreciate getting away from Mom for a little while."
"Don't you think it'll be nice to see it again? Like a vacation?"
"An unauthorized vacation kidnapped aboard a pirate ship. Yeah, great."
"Oh come on, Carlton, look at the positives."
"I don't see any."
She hugged his arm, cuddling close against him. "We're together. That's a good thing, right?" she said. He was completely unable to reply.
TBC