note:
This chapter wraps up the past section of this story.
~past~
At first her tread had been heavy, weighed down by dark thoughts and a heavy heart but the closer she got to the camp the quicker she moved. After everything she had learnt, after everything she had been through only one need pulsed through her: the desire to go home. She had thought she had been running away towards adventure, to a land without consequences and daydreams made real but the truth was shattering. The real world had responsibility and hardship and at that moment Wendy yearned for it with a deep passion because anything was better than this reality.
She marched into the camp, mind focused on her mission and found the boys dancing around the fire with Peter at the centre. He was cut off from her, the boys blocking her attempts to get through until she darted through a gap, using a few choice elbow jabs, and came to a skidding stop before the fire.
"Come to join the dance?" Peter asked, mouth hovering over the pipes.
"No! I want to speak to you in private!" she shouted over the roaring of the fire. It was blazing hot and made her eyes water.
"Later, I'm busy," he said flatly and began playing again.
Wendy shook her head, moving closer to him, "No, we must speak now, it's urgent! I can't stay here any more Peter!" she told him, trying to meet his eyes but he watched the boys dancing around as if she was not there. She stood in front of him, blocking his view but he simply swivelled on his seat, moving away from her. Almost screaming with frustration she grabbed the pipes out of his hands and threw them with all her might over the dancers and into the jungle. Peter jumped up.
"Well that was rude!"
"I WANT TO GO HOME!" she yelled and the boys who had been dancing slowed, blinking their eyes as if waking from a dream. Peter smiled at them and Wendy shuddered. If she asked most of them they would gladly tell her that Neverland was their only home, unaware that once they must have felt like hostages. It's no wonder they give into the music.
"First one to find the pipes gets to be William Tell!" Peter shouted and the boys dashed away, though some lingered, looking confused.
"I want -" she began but he cut her off, taking her hand and began walking. He took them to the very end of the camp, away from any prying eyes. Wendy pulled her hand away and he turned to her with a sigh.
"You were saying?"
"I want to return home, I won't stay here for another night. Take me home, now," she said firmly, looking him in the eye and his lips curled.
"I don't usually respond well to commands Wendy."
But she stared at him in silence, face harsh and he sighed again. He reached up and coiled a strand of her hair around his finger as she stared at his face. He slowly shook his head and let the curl spring free.
"I thought you were enjoying your stay here, barring the cave fiasco. I thought we were having fun? We are friends aren't we?" he asked, looking up with large, soft eyes.
Despite the things that she had been told her heart still ached. "How can we be friends now?"
"I wish I could take back what I said, though my feelings haven't changed. I'm sorry for any upset that Tink has caused -"
"Tink? She is not to blame here," Wendy narrowed her eyes while his eyebrows rose.
"And I am? You can't force someone to love another."
"I know that!" she said forcefully. "I would never dream of doing such a thing. Maybe the dust was wrong but you did not see what I did. The dust lead me to you and – and I knew in my heart it would. I – I don't feel like it was a mistake," she admitted, unable to look him in the eye.
"Then stay," he urged quietly and she looked up. He was gazing at her with such tenderness that she felt something in her bleeding. It was an expression full of need, yearning and hope and he was giving it to her. How easy it would be to latch onto that, to let it obliterate her morality and sweep aside the awful truth but she could not.
"I can't. Even if the spell had never been performed I'd still want to go home Peter," she said gently and the loving gaze he had for her was instantly replaced with indignation.
"Why?"
"Because this is not a good place and I think...I think it's got to you," she said hedgingly and he stared at her for a long moment before suddenly laughing.
"Got to me? I think you'll find it's the other way around," he boasted and Wendy shook her head.
"Then that's even worse. If you're really capable of doing the things I've heard -"
"What things?!" he demanded but Wendy waved a hand.
"It does not matter. Even without being told I knew there was something wrong with this place, with all of you. I – I don't want that to happen to me."
Peter leaned forward and touched her cheek, "Nothing will happen to you. I'll keep you safe."
"From what? Who holds all the power here? Who controls the games? You do...I think that's why you were so shocked after we..." she touched her mouth and his eyes lingered there. "It was not something you had control over. It was not planned." He gazed at her intensely and she found it hard to breathe. In her heart there was a piece of hope that he would realise that she was right, that he would stop being scared. Because that is what it was, what she had seen with her own eyes. He had been frightened. Wendy leaned up closer and whispered "You don't have anything to fear."
He blinked and leaned back, dropping his hand. "Fear? Of what? You?"
"Of that," she breathed and looked up. The sky was spotless and more stars then she had ever seen were shinning. It was a breathtaking sight but Peter looked at the sky like it was a traitorous thing, his teeth bared.
"No, time is meant to stand still," he said hoarsely and then looked down at Wendy in accusation. "It's nonsense, nothing else holds sway here, only me and I can prove it."
He grabbed her and pressed his lips against hers hard. It was a rough kiss, one meant to prove his dominance over everything but as they touched that current ran through them again, though muted now by dark truths. She gasped into his mouth, heart blazing and he squeezed her waist convulsively until he tore himself away with difficulty. They breathed heavily and Wendy's mind whirled but she felt a clear, sharp burst of victory.
"You see? That's not nonsense."
He was breathing fast, eyes burning with the beginnings of cruelty. "It is ridiculous and this has no place in Neverland! You, and your feelings, have no place here. You mean nothing to me, you've got no sway over me, no one has! Do you understand?" he stressed and Wendy had never seen him so out of control.
"Peter..."
"You want to go home? Fine, I'll let you go because frankly I don't need you and never did. You were just something to occupy the time. Soon I'll have the Heart of the Truest Believer and nothing like this will happen again."
Tears stung her eyes but she did not cry. "You're wicked."
"Really? I seem to recall I made a promise to you and I never break a promise. I'll let you go but at night I'll take one of your brothers in return," he smirked at her appalled face.
"YOU CAN'T!"
"I can do whatever I like. Now go home and have a nice, boring life Wendy Darling," he said through his teeth and then vanished in front of her, making her jump. Alone and stunned Wendy looked up at the sky that was now smothered by clouds. She did not know how long she stayed there but when someone tapped her shoulder she felt like it was the first time she moved in days. It was Tink.
"He – he says I'm to take you home," Tink said gently and Wendy nodded weakly. It was only after that she wondered why the Shadow did not take her home. The fairy took her hand and then poured pixie dust over her head. They both floated into the air and up towards the sky. Wendy had a hazy, faint recollection of her journey home. She remembered the orange blur of the fire in the camp and the figures dancing around it frenziedly, only they did not look like boys any more. Shuddering Wendy stared up at Tink hollowly.
"You can fly?"
"Just for tonight. He – he was not pleased with what I did and he knows how much I love to fly..." she stared fiercely at the star ahead as they burst out of the clouds.
"Why don't you leave?"
"I can't, I'm waiting for someone...and if Pan succeeds I won't even need wings or pixie dust. I'll show that blue bitch," she muttered darkly and Wendy gazed down and saw with a mild surprise that they were now in London. Dawn was approaching and below the city was remarkably clear of the usual soupy mist. As they flew over Russell Square Wendy felt an intense flare of emotion, cutting through the fog she had been in since leaving Neverland.
"There, that's my home," Wendy pointed and Tink flew down. When they hovered over Bloomsbury Square the fairy stopped and looked at Wendy fixedly.
"I know you don't feel like it now but you don't know how blessed you are. You're free," she hugged her and wished her luck and Wendy clung on, knowing that she'd probably never see her again. A part of her cried out in a similar pain that she never got to say goodbye to Peter and she hated herself for it.
"Goodbye Tinkerbell. I hope that one day..." she fell silent, knowing that any wishes she had would be useless to the fairy. If a fairy could not grant her own wishes and hopes what good would hers do? Instead Wendy hugged her tightly, repeating her farewell before Tink flew her to the open nursery window.
Asleep on the window seat was Baelfire and Wendy looked down at him. It was strange, as if she was seeing him after years and years but he did not look any different. But then neither did she. She stepped onto the window ledge and Bae jerked awake in fear, turning.
"It's all right, it's just me," she said quietly and he stared at her in amazement. She was home but Tink was wrong, she was not free, not while her brother's safety was in question. As she sat on her bed with Bae and explained what had happened to her but she could not tell him everything. It was only afterwards, when Bae had been taken by the Shadow that she realised that she had not named Peter once. With Bae gone she vowed that she would do everything she could to get him back because Peter had made good on his promise, he had taken one of her brothers and she would not stop until she found a way to save him.
Three Months Later
It was by chance that she overheard them, walking with her brothers and Nana through Kensington Gardens but by that point Wendy had a strong belief that there were no coincidences.
"Says he appeared out of thin air. George saw him, didn't you mate?"
"Aye. Was kipping underneath the bench and when sudden like there was a great blinding light and winds a'blowing something awful. Then this wee lad fell from it," the elderly man said and Wendy stopped. A group of old soldiers, whom she suspected were homeless, were huddled together on a bench.
"Well this place has always been full of tales of ghost children and the like," one of them said and shifted in his coat uncomfortably. Wendy took a step towards them, her brothers and Nana now far ahead, unaware that she was lingering. All at once they seemed to realise they had company and Wendy smiled at them.
"Good afternoon. I – I couldn't help overhearing, it seemed a most thrilling story," she said politely and the old men chuckled, except for the witness.
"Just stuff and nonsense," they said but George grumbled.
"It was not nonsense, I saw it with my own eyes do you hear?"
"Don't listen to him my lady. He's bladdered half the time."
Indignant, the man sat up straight. "I may have had the odd tipple to warm me up but I swear on my Nancy's grave that it was true. And that's not all! This place is long haunted, you've heard the tales," he demanded and the others looked grim. Wendy took another step forward.
"What tales?"
George blinked, amazed that he was actually being taken seriously. "Well...there's thin spots see and one of them be here," he said, pointing a grubby finger to the ground. "When I was a boy my mother used to warn me not to stay here after closing time, not after dark. Cause then he'd come and take you away."
"Who – who would?"
"The Pied Piper," he said and the others laughed. Wendy leaned back, heart sinking. He was mad but George was not giving in without a fight. "You can laugh but I know! He would take wee ones from their prams, ones that were sick or dead, I dunno, but he would take 'em to a thin spot and then they were never seen again..." he waggled his fingers dramatically which made his friends laugh harder.
"To a thin spot?" Wendy asked and he nodded.
"There are more things in 'eaven and earth, than are dreamt of in your philosophy. 'Ol Bill had it right and no mistake. You stay here long enough and you'll see," he said and sat back, satisfied that he got to say his piece.
Wendy stared at him, unsure. They others found his ramblings amusing and had nothing but scorn for his tale but he was right. There was more to the earth then they knew. Maybe if she discovered one of these thin spots, a spot that was no doubt created by a bean portal, she could find a way to Bae. She would try and to hell with the neighbours. They thought she was peculiar and she had no problem fuelling their prying and incessant gossip. She would take it if it meant rescuing Baelfire.
"Come on Wendy! What are you doing all the way down there?" John shouted, motioning her over to them while Nana barked. Wendy waved at them and turned to the gathering of old men.
"Thank you, you've been most helpful," she said sincerely and George blinked as she ran off and sat back, content for the day. Wendy caught up with her family, who stared at her with a concealed worry that they had been wearing for months.
"Come on Wendy, the park is closing soon," Michael said and she nodded.
"Yes, I'll be right behind you."
They walked towards Hyde Park, towards home, and as they left Wendy looked back at the park as mist swirled around the trees. She would be back and then, if she was lucky, she would find a way back to Neverland, to Bae and damn Peter in the process.
a.n:
And that leads nicely back, hopefully, to the first chapter where Wendy is at boarding school because she spent a night at Kensington Gardens. From here on out the rest of the chapters will take place in the present.
Thank you all so much for your amazing response to the last chapter! I was flailing and still am! :D