The Brave One

"Let me at least try," the girl exclaimed, wincing at the sharpness in her voice.

"No, Melanie."

"But mom-"

"My decision is final."

"I'm sorry," the girl sobbed, falling to her knees beside the bed. "I'm so sorry. This is all my fault."

"No it isn't," her mother hushed, "none of this is your fault."

"But if I hadn't called the physician-"

"Drop the subject Melanie," the older woman cut her off. "There's no use crying over spilt milk."

The brunette lowered her face onto the mattress and hid it behind her crossed arms. She let the tears fall freely, she wouldn't have been able to hold them back if she wanted to anyway. Her shoulders shook sporadically. Her hair was tangled, woven through her arms, wet with her tears.

"We could run away," she whispered, lifting her head. "I could heal you and we could run away. To another village, another kingdom. Somewhere no one knows us and where no one would suspect my magic."

"We can't, you know that."

Why not? Her mind screamed. Why couldn't they be together? Why was her mother adamant on pushing away her only chance at survival? Did she want Benny and Mel to be orphans?

"Mel," her mother called. The girl met her eyes. "I love you. I love Benny." The words were a painful pang in her gut. "I'm doing this for your safety. You have to promise me you'll be brave. Promise me you'll look out for Benny."

"I can't," Melanie sniveled. "I can't promise something like that."

"You have to," her mother smiled sadly. "You have to promise me, and yourself. Most importantly yourself."

"I'm not brave, I'm afraid," she breathed, her voice hitching in her throat. "I don't know that I can take care of Benny. I don't want him to get hurt but I don't know that I'm capable of- I'm not good at-"

"Shhhh," her mother said, running her hands through Melanie's hair. "You are brave. You are smart. You are loving. That's all Benny needs. He needs a family." She wiped a tear off of Mel's cheek with her thumb. "Can you be his family?"

Melanie nodded with fervor.

"Good."

Three sharp raps at the door made her jump. Melanie cast a quick glance at Henry and saw that he too looked surprised. And scared.

The girl threw off the covers and hopped to her feet, eyes roaming the small room desperately. She need somewhere to hide the kid. Think Melanie, think. More knocking. Her heart nearly raced out of her chest.

That's it! Her brain cried in relief. The chest.

She signaled Henry with her eyes and, thank all deities, he understood what she meant. There was a fairly large wooden chest by her bed, it held some clothes that had been given to her along with the room. She wasn't sure where Pan had found women's clothing on the island. She guessed that if the shadow could take people it could very well take clothes too. The boy opened the latch carefully and climbed inside, curling into a ball. Melanie could see it wasn't very comfortable but at least he fit.

"Open up." A demanding voice, probably one of the boys on guard duty. "We have orders from Pan."

Melanie blew out a nervous breath and opened the thin door, putting on the most nonchalant smile she could muster. She even batted her eyelashes a little bit, even though her stomach twisted in disgust at it.

"Yes, how can I be of service?"

The boy poked his head inside her room and she took an instinctive step back. He stared at her then at the seemingly empty room. He scanned it carefully. He was looking for something.

"Excuse me," Mel said, snapping his attention back to her. "I believe you came with a message from Pan."

The boy straightened his back and stood in soldier-position. "Pan has requested your presence." He announced. "I am here to escort you to him."

Her stomach felt like it had been fed acid. Her heart was burning adrenaline.

"Of course," she smiled sweetly. "I just need to change. You woke me up."

The boy nodded but didn't back away from the threshold. His eyes were starting to freak her out. Melanie smoothed out her shirt with her sweaty palms. He kept glancing around her room. She released a shaky breath and grabbed the door handle slowly closing it. The guard took a hint and stepped back. She shut the door.

She counted five seconds before she heard shuffling on the other side, meaning the guard had descended the rope-ladder. The lid on the chest started lifting, tentatively. Melanie rushed to it, dropping to her knees and shielding it with her body.

"You need to wait here a little longer," she whispered to Henry. His brown eyes were wide. "There are guards waiting down there, lost boys. They came looking for you."

He nodded. "I thought I'd lost them this morning."

"That's okay," she said, trying her best to reassure him. "When I leave the room you need to stay in the chest. Count to one hundred in your head, then leave. Quickly and quietly. It's probably best if you return to where you came from. Have a good excuse in mind."

"Wait," he blurted, alarmed. "You want me to go back? What about saving me? I thought you came with my family to save me."

"I did come with them, to save you and my brother." Seeing his confused look she added, "He was taken by the shadow."

"Then why aren't we leaving? Don't you have a plan?"

I wish I did kid.

"Of course," she lied. "But we need to wait for Emma to come get us. She has to find a way off the island before we attempt to escape." The last part was true. Melanie hoped she'd find one soon. "For now I've got to go. Pan needs to believe he's winning. You have to play along, okay?"

"Okay," he answered.

"Be brave."

She was about to close the lid when Henry stopped her, "Wait. You told him you were changing." He threw her a clean white shirt and she caught it, smiling.

The guard seemed very displeased with her taking so long to change. He led her through the vegetation back to the center of camp, to the place where the lost boys kept their food. The smell of it made her stomach grumble, reminding her that she had gone to sleep without feeding it. But the guard hadn't brought her here to eat, he kept walking purposefully and she followed.

He took her on a new path, one she hadn't had the chance to explore yet. The sun was shining overhead, but thankfully the heat wasn't bothering her. Pan must have given up on playing with the thermostat. She wondered what he wanted with her now.

It must have something to do with Henry, her mind reasoned. The guard had been suspiciously interested in analyzing her room. That might have been something else though. No, her mind argued, he was definitely looking for the kid. Pan had learned that Henry had slipped his guards this morning, which wasn't that impressive seeing as how he had magic and spies everywhere. But somehow he guessed Henry would come to her. Maybe he wants to interrogate me. Maybe he wants to kill me.

Enough, she told herself. He wouldn't kill her, not yet. That was his flaw, she'd realized. His curiosity, his wonder. The lost boys had it, and so did he. It was part of being a child, Neverland brought it out in everyone. And Pan was deadly curious about her magic and her purpose. She knew the lack of knowledge was killing him inside.

Her understanding of his inner workings astounded her, even scared her a bit. She realized that maybe he wasn't that hard for her to read after all. Maybe she just needed to pay more attention.

"Is he very far still?" she asked the guard.

He turned around with a bored look on his face, "Yes."

"I didn't know the camp was so big," Mel said, mostly to herself. She ran her left hand along the side of a huge tree trunk and her eyes roamed her surroundings.

They went on walking for a few more minutes and Melanie thought about asking the boy for a break. She really was tired from trekking through the dense vegetation. Then she felt something wash over her with the distinct touch of magic. It was like walking through a waterfall. As soon as the feeling passed she saw the guard's shoulders tense. He put his hand on the hilt of his weapon. Melanie drew a sharp breath and backed away but he wasn't paying her attention. She looked around and noticed this part of the island felt different, it hummed with a different magic. It was hot. Too hot, she realized, for Pan's compound.

The guard was out before he could draw his club. Melanie turned around searching for someone or something. She felt defenseless and vulnerable. There was a twitch in the magic around her, and she swiveled just in time to witness the pooling of a smoky cloud.

"Hello, dearie."

"Mel," barely a whisper. A shove. "Melanie."

"Who? What? Where?" she mumbled, rubbing the sleep off her eyes. She tried to blink the darkness off her eyes, raising herself on one elbow on the mattress. She blinked again and managed to make out the outline of a small head next to her. "Benny?"

"Nope, the Evil Queen," he answered. She could hear the eye roll in his tone. So young, yet so sarcastic.

"Well, your Highness, may I ask what you're doing out of bed so late?"

"Melanie," his voice lost its teasing tone. He was all seriousness now. The girl was still surprised at his ability to sound so mature and adult when he wanted to. "I'm worried."

She sat up and pulled him onto the bed. He squirmed, trying to find a comfortable position. A ray of moonlight illuminated half his face.

"What are you worried about?" She didn't have to ask. She knew.

"Mom. I'm worried she won't get better."

Melanie wanted to say "she will be fine, don't worry" but it would be a lie. She wouldn't lie to him. Soon it would be him and her against the odds, and he would be the only person in the world she could trust. She wanted him to trust her too.

"She might not, Benny. There isn't any medicine for her illness."

"She's strong, though." He argued. "She could fight it off."

"Yes, she could." It pained her to have to bear the bad news, but she did. "Chances are, though, she won't."

Benny's little round face filled with sadness and thought. "You could help her. With your get better song."

"I don't think it would work," she told him, closing her eyes. "It only heals scrapes and grazes."

"You could try," he said.

"I could."

A.N: There you go! I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Thanks for the reviews and speculation, it is really nice to see you guys invested in the story.