Dedictated to Ilovetoread38 and kidsinlotsoftrouble (think I got your name right, if not I will amend when I check.)


Hook strode into the room with the air of a man certain that victory had come at last. He smiled at Wendy before walking close towards her, rum stained breath assaulting her cheek. From his hiding spot underneath the bed Peter drew out his sword and readied himself for the assault.

"My men," Hooks breath reeked of alcohol and spirits, "Desire a story." He leaned his face closer to Wendy's and smiled at her as she backed away up the bed, "If they do not get a story soon they may want other pleasures and I don't know if I can restrain them." He pulled himself closer, "I don't know if I can restrain myself." He didn't have to say what those 'other' pleasures where, they both knew the grim reality of Wendy's situation. Lying underneath the mattress Peter didn't have a clue.

"I'll give you five minutes, my dear Wendy," Hook said slowly and turned to leave, sending one last acidic remark behind him, "and then I'll come for you." However Peter had now had enough of Hook and he flew to his feet, landing just centimetres behind Hooks spine.

"A curse on you Hook!" He yelled and went into a fighter's stance but Hook didn't even turn, he only looked over his shoulder in bemusement when Wendy cheered but that was his only response to such blatant provocation. Instead he just carried on walking towards the door.

"Coward!" Peter yelled again trying to incite Hooks rage, Wendy cringed knowing that Hooks dubious sense of honour wouldn't let him stand such an insult. But the Long-sword stayed in its sheaf, Hook did not whirl and indeed he acted as though Peter did not exist.

"Very well!" Peter cried and stabbed forward with his sword, the blade entering at Hooks midriff and it's tip coming out at the other side. There was no blood, no scream of pain only the ominous sound of boots clicking as Hook turned to look at Wendy, his gaze drifting straight through Peter.

"Did you throw something at me, Mrs Darling," he asked, reasonable and cultured to the last.

Wendy looked dumbfounded, "No," she stammered, still in shock at both Peters return and the pact that Hook wasn't yet dead. She was sure she had seen the sword enter just below the ribcage, and yet there was no visible damage.

"Strange," Hook mused, "I could have sworn I felt a pin prick on my back. I thought I heard a voice as well, must be the drink." He opened the cabin door and left, the sounds of drunken singing reverberating through the door.

Peter turned to Wendy, sorrow written all over his innocent features. "What has happened to me Wendy? He should be dead, but he didn't even notice me. It's as though I don't exist." He looked at her sadly, with the sort of expression that he would never have shown before. Something had changed about Peter Pan, something was different in those brown eyes. The cockiness was gone, the casual confidence and laughter had vanished. He was a shadow of his former self, and behind him that famous shadow mourned with him, it's head clutched in see-through arms.

"I don't know Peter, I really don't, your real aren't you?" A thought struck her, "Aren't you?" She now knew what she had to do. Since childhood she had been beguiled with a thousand and one ghost stories and she knew one certain thing about ghosts. They weren't solid. That was one certainty she could cling too and test right now.

"Peter, come here." She told him, as though commanding a small child. Peter hung back, flying close to the ceiling where she couldn't reach him.

"Why?"

"I want to give you a kiss." She said it simply and that helped the lie, but Peter wasn't to be fooled as easily as that.

"You've already given me one, and you don't have another." He looked at her cunningly as though he knew what she had in mind and at that moment she realised finally that she loved him. It didn't matter to her that he was so annoying, that he was so innocent and that he would see through her lies. She loved him, and that was an emotion that she would hold until her dying day.

"I want to give you a thimble, Peter." She said that truthfully, and he slowly drifted down from the ceiling towards her. He had almost childlike innocence in his eyes, but Wendy could see a change. There was something more in those eyes; desire, lust even. This child was growing up.

He reached the bedside and sat cross-legged next to her, "What's a thimble Wendy?" He asked.

"This." She said it passionately and confidently, despite having never done anything like this before. She lent over to kiss him on the cheek, but somehow he shifted and her peck caught her lips instead. From the moment he touched her lips she knew one thing for sure-he wasn't a ghost.

He shot upwards and smashed himself onto the roof, shaking the ceiling with a great thump. Above the music and the dancing stopped as the pirates tried to work out just what was happening below. The sound of running footsteps began to echo round the ship.

Meanwhile Peter was hovering on the ceiling, staying as far out of Wendy's reach as possible. "You're trying to turn me into a man," he screeched at her, "You're trying to make me grow up!"

"Peter, please…"

"You're one of them, you want me to grow up! I'll never grow up, never ever, not even if you take me into London and..." He shot out of the cabins windows-shattering through the glass as though it was little more than tissue, at the same moment as Hook smashed through the doors roaring his anger.

"Peter, come back!" Wendy yelled, racing to the window.

Behind her Hook stared, "He's alive!" He said incredulously, rushing to the window with her. In the distance he thought his eyes could see a distant gleaming speck, disappearing behind the mountain in the centre of Neverland. He shook his head and it was gone, there was nothing more than darkness outside the ship.

It was nothing but his imagination he told himself, as he took a second glance at the darkness. He couldn't go mad now, that would be very poor form, and if there was anything that Hook was afraid of it was poor form. He dismissed the vision of Pan from his mind and turned to wendy.

"Time," he said to Wendy, "For you to tell us a story."


Right guys, I hope you enjoyed that chapter. I have good news and bad news, the good news is that chapter 4 (provisionally titled 'The Story of James Stuart', I'll let you glean from that what you will.) is nearly ready, I just need to proof read it. Hopefully it'll be ready by tomorrow.

The bad news is that after this I'm writing from scratch, rather than working on old ideas so chapters may take 2 days or so.

Thanks for the reviews...and the 40 readers who havn't reviewed...whats keeping you?

BrooklynRed x