A/N: So, here's the second chapter :) I had a wonderful wonderful response to the last chapter, so thank you to everyone who reviewed, followed or favourited this story!

Also, I just thought I should mention that this is set in the early 1900s, like Peter Pan, just to stop any confusion.

Disclaimer: I do not own Glee and I do not own Peter Pan.

In the end, Nick did not have to wait very long for the owner of the shadow to return, in fact, he only had to wait three days.

Mr and Mrs Schuester had announced to the children that they would attending a dinner party that night, and that Nick was to be in charge; of course, Nick was always in charge, so this order was barely necessary.

However, our story was almost ended when Mr Schuester debated whether or not to let Nana into the house or tie her up in her kennel. If he had let her stay in the house, then no doubt she would have guarded Nick's room very carefully, and therefore, no one should have been able to get in or out; and for this story, we need both, for somebody will be getting in, while somebody will also be getting out.

Fortunately, at an opportune moment, Nana skidded on some mud brought in by a child earlier, and she smeared the mud further around the house by accident, including almost on Mr Schuester's shoes, and therefore, he decided that she should stay outside in her kennel until the mess had been cleared. Nick had promised that he would keep an eye on her, and said that the children should feel safer with Nana in the house, but Mr Schuester had refused to relent in his decision and had told Nick that he would do a better job than a dog.

And then he'd clapped Nick on the back and reminded him that he was almost an adult anyway, and that he could make it on his own for one more night.

So that was what Nick was contemplating when he got himself ready for bed that night.

He was almost an adult. Tomorrow was his eighteenth birthday; well, the eighteenth anniversary of his abandonment on the orphanage doorstep, but that was as good a birthday as any.

Tomorrow, he would be eighteen and therefore, he would have to leave the orphanage and make his own way in the world. That was the rule; as soon as any of the children turned eighteen, then they had to leave. Not that the rule had actually been in place before, but Nick was the eldest and therefore, would be the first to go.

It wasn't anything to do with legality of guardianship once a child became an adult, no, it was because Mrs Schuester longed for babies and children to care for, and once Nick became too old, he would not want a mother's love in the same way that a smaller child would; or, at least, that was what Mrs Schuester had thought.

In truth, Nick did want a mother's love, but he would have much preferred the love of his actual mother; though now, through long term abandonment, he was not sure that he would easily forgive his mother, were they to ever come face to face with each other.

Now, I would not want you to think badly of Mr and Mrs Schuester, and I am almost certain that Nick would not want you to either, for they provided many children with shelter and food, when otherwise they would have had none; but they did not have the right connection with the children as they would have had, had the children been their own.

They also did not know how to encourage Nick to find his own path in life, for they had promised him a few pounds in money so that he could buy food and lodgings, but they had no given him anything else. Although, Nick still was grateful, for a few whole pounds was a lot of money, but while it would pay for his rent for some time, if he struggled to find a job, then the money would not last forever.

Nick had just settled down to sleep when a small plaintive cry interrupted the calm in his room. Sighing, he sat up and threw a shirt on quickly, before heading towards the nursery.

One of the youngest children was crying, clearly having woken from a nightmare. Nick hurriedly hushed her before she awoke the others.

"What's wrong?" Nick asked, wiping away the little girl's tears as he spoke.

The girl sniffed a little; she might have been a Mary or a Jane or a Wendy, but there were so many little girls in that orphanage and it was very hard to keep track of them all.

"I had a bad dream," she trembled slightly, looking at Nick with panic in her eyes, "You're leaving us, aren't you, Nicky?"

Nick looked at her sadly, and then hugged her.

"I have to," he said, "I'm not sure I want to yet, but I'm afraid that I have no choice."

"You'll come back and visit us, won't you?" the little girl asked, looking like she was about to burst into tears again.

"Of course," Nick promised, wondering whether it would be a promise that he would be able to keep.

The little girl appeared mildly pacified, and she allowed Nick to tuck her back into bed.

"Now, you'd better go back to sleep so that you're not too tired for tomorrow," he said, kissing her forehead gently and then standing up to leave the room.

"Nicky?" the girl called out softly, causing Nick to turn around from his position in the doorway.

"Yes?"

"You're my favourite, Nicky, I love you."

"I love you too," Nick said softly, gazing around the nursery at the other sleeping children. He loved all of them; they were like younger siblings to him, and he would miss them terribly.

Meanwhile, as Nick was comforting another child, Jeff was waiting for his opportunity to retrieve his shadow.

He'd been sitting on the oak tree by the Schuesters' household since Nana had been tied up in the yard; he'd been glad for that action on the behalf of Mr Schuester. Although he was sure that Nana was not entirely his enemy, he did not take slights to himself or his friends very lightly, and to have his entire shadow ripped off by an unknown pet made him of a predisposition to dislike the dog.

However, there had been a long interval between the time that Nana had been tied up and the time that the Schuesters had left their house, and in that time, Jeff had become rather paranoid that Nana could sense him. She'd barked rather insistently in the direction of the oak tree, but after Mr Schuester had told her to be quiet, she'd eventually become silent.

Jeff was pretty secure in the faith that it was too dark for him to be seen in the tree, and anyway, his clothes camouflaged him well, but had a light been brought closer to him, then he might have very well been discovered.

After what had seemed like days, but had actually been maybe an hour or two, for Jeff had never really been able to understand the concept of time, Mr and Mrs Schuester left their home, and walked to the end of the street, where they then entered the house on the right.

As soon as the door was closed on the pair, the windows to Nick's room were curiously blown open, and the first to enter was a rather small glowing figure, who was all of around six inches tall.

The figure darted around the room once, before returning to the window, after which Jeff also dropped noiselessly onto the floor.

"Is this room empty?" Jeff hissed to the small figure.

"Yes," the figure hissed back, settling on the top of the mirror so that it could look down on Jeff; clearly the only way to deal with being of barely any height at all.

"Are you sure, Seb?" Jeff asked warily, casting his eyes around the room, but seeing nothing but inky darkness.

The small figure huffed slightly, and crossed his arms.

"Why do you doubt everything I say?" he asked petulantly, "I'm perfectly good at my job, especially since it's about one of my only uses, because, you know, it's ever so useful to glow!"

"Alright, Sebastian," Jeff motioned for his friend to keep his voice down, "I get that you're bitter…"

"Oh, I'm bitter alright," the figure, clearly Sebastian, interrupted.

Jeff frowned.

"Could we please just find my shadow before we're discovered?" he asked.

Sebastian pouted, but decided to help Jeff by diving into the nearest drawer.

Jeff started at the bottom of the drawers, pulling out almost every article of clothing that he could find as he searched for his shadow; he was not purposefully trying to make a mess, but he was so engrossed in his task that he barely noticed what he was doing.

"Found it!" Jeff crowed in joy as he pulled the shadow that he wanted from the drawer that Nick had left it in. Unfortunately, in his elation, as he had done previously, and would most likely do again, he crowed rather too loudly, and Sebastian shushed him too late.

"Who's there?" Nick's slightly alarmed voice rang out in the darkness of the bedroom.

"Idiot!" Sebastian hissed to Jeff, who spun around at the sound of his friend's voice, but failed to find his light.

"I seem to think that it was you who said that the room was empty!" Jeff shot back but Sebastian just laughed and did not reveal himself.

"I said, who's there?" Nick repeated.

And then, before Jeff could react, there was the sound of shuffling and Nick had flicked the light switch so that the room was bathed in a warm glow. Nick had not always been supportive of the electric lights, one of the few new features to have been added to the house in recent years, as they always seemed to be going out at inconvenient times, but at that moment, he was intensely grateful for them.

The light illuminated Jeff, who was stood in the middle of the room, clutching his shadow in both hands.

"Oh, you're the person who lost the shadow," was Nick's first comment to Jeff, he held out his hand, "Nick Duval."

"Jeff Sterling," Jeff replied, somehow finding it in him to respond to Nick, but was still mildly confused when the boy offered him his hand.

Recognition sparked in Nick's eyes, he'd been almost certain that he knew the boy standing in front of him, but he hadn't been willing to fully believe it until he had confirmation. But now he knew, and Jeff was staring at his outstretched hand in puzzlement.

"You're supposed to shake it," Nick explained, lowering his hand slowly when Jeff gave him a blank look. "Never mind."

Jeff just gaped at Nick, being still bewildered by the shaking of hands concept and the fact that Nick had forgotten to put his shirt back on when he got up.

"Are you okay?" Nick asked, looking at Jeff carefully, "Is something wrong? Apart from the fact that you appear have to become detached from your shadow, that is."

"Er, I…you…" Jeff stuttered, motioning to Nick's bare chest.

Nick looked down and blushed violently.

"Oh, sorry, about that," he apologised hastily, feeling slightly mortified that Jeff had been quite obviously staring. "Is that better?"

"Yes, I…thank you," Jeff stumbled over his words, "Not that I didn't want to look at you, of course…no, wait, that's not what I meant…I…" He sighed and decided to stop talking.

Nick laughed at the other boy, and fancied that he heard a quiet chuckle from somewhere else in the room as well, but to what his eyes could see, there was no one else there.

"Would you like me to do something about your shadow?" Nick asked, "I don't know much about shadows, but I suppose sewing it on might work."

"Sewing?" Jeff asked sceptically, "Won't that hurt?"

Nick considered this idea, but since he'd never had to sew anybody's shadow back on before, he was not entirely sure.

"I guess it might," he said, "Are you okay with that?"

Jeff nodded bravely; he'd faced a lot worse than a needle, and anyway, he wasn't one to admit to his own weaknesses, especially not in front of strangers to whom he'd already embarrassed himself.

"Well, here goes," Nick said, taking a needle from the sewing box next to his bed and threading it, before sewing the shadow back onto Jeff's foot.

It did hurt, in the end, but Jeff willed himself not to cry out in pain, but he was sure that Nick had guessed that it had hurt him, for he awkwardly patted the other boy on the back as he got up.

Jeff hopped around the room a few times, before declaring that his shadow was back to normal and then throwing himself at Nick in gratitude.

"Thank you so much!" he cried, hugging Nick so tightly round his neck that Nick feared that his head might fall off.

"You're very welcome," Nick said, prising Jeff off him and sitting down next to the boy instead.

Jeff was extremely pleased with the way the shadow had turned out, and he began wiggling his arms and legs around so that he could watch the shadow dancing behind him.

"Where did you learn to sew?" he demanded of Nick suddenly, "It's simply wonderful what you've done for my shadow! I shall be forever grateful for your sewing."

Nick laughed.

"I learnt to sew because the lady of the house…"

"Your mother?" Jeff asked eagerly.

"No, she's not my mother," Nick shook his head, and Jeff became strangely disappointed, "This is an orphanage, Jeff, I don't have a mother; or at least, not one that I know." He looked at Jeff curiously. "Say, Jeff, where's your mother?"

Jeff looked even more disheartened.

"I don't have a mother either," he said, before suddenly appearing much happier, "But who needs a mother, Nick? Without a mother it means that you can be free and do whatever you want; there are no rules, no curfews, no limitations." He got up and started almost dancing around.

Nick laughed.

"Have you never wanted a mother, Jeff?" he asked.

"I've never needed a mother," Jeff replied, still dancing around, "And I never will!"

Nick's expression hardened a little as a thought occurred to him.

"I suppose I shan't need a mother after tomorrow," he said, almost mournfully.

"Why tomorrow?" Jeff asked, ceasing his dancing to face Nick.

"I turn eighteen tomorrow," Nick explained, and Jeff screwed his face up in displeasure at the notion of growing up, "How old are you, Jeff?"

Jeff screwed his face up again, but this time in thought, as he tried to work out how old he actually was.

Eventually he gave up.

"I don't know," he said, "I could be any age, but all I know is that I'm young! I've always been young!"

Nick watched the blonde boy in amusement as he bounded around the room again.

Suddenly, he stopped and stood in front of Nick very seriously.

"Say, Nick, I didn't give you anything for sewing my shadow back on, is there anything that you want?"

Jeff's question completely stumped Nick, he had no idea what he wanted nor whether Jeff could actually give him anything of any use to him.

And then he came to a rather bold idea, and before he could stop himself, he'd blurted it out.

"Could I give you a kiss?"

A/N: Well, you shall have to see about Jeff's reply next chapter - though if you've seen or read Peter Pan, then you'll know how he responds!

Also, I wonder if anybody can tell me the links between the possible names I gave for the little girl? It's not exactly a hard connection to make, I guess, but I'm just curious to see if people know all of them :)

Thank you for reading, and please leave a review to tell me what you thought :)