OF BIRTHDAYS OLD AND NEW
"Aging is not lost youth but a new stage of opportunity and strength."
(Betty Friedan)
Peter was gone from their care, had left Wendy and Hook one afternoon without much pomp or circumstance while Wendy was still very much pregnant. He had stayed just long enough to heal and learn to adapt to his new life, but not long enough to feel he was a burden on the woman who was his savior and the pirate Captain to whom he was forever indebted. Peter remained in Neverland, despite Wendy's offer to bring him back to England when they returned there. He wanted to grow on his own. Needed to. Despite Wendy's protestations, he left. He would work in town, he told her, would grow up a strong man willing to protect the helpless and fight for something. His injury weighed on him heavily, especially given that he had to live through the infirmity under the watchful eye of the pirate whom he had caused the same pain to so many years before. Hook had forgiven him and told him so, but the thought still caused shame to raise to Peter's throat. He could not live under their care any longer. He was aging. He would be a man soon. Peter grew up.
Hook swore he could sense the boy's presence. Wendy chuckled to herself at his inflection when he spoke the boy's name; where his voice had once held a passionate hatred for the boy, it now held something akin to a melding of respect and knowing pity. Her darling Captain had grown up somehow. She laughed at the thought.
Despite Tiger Lily's offer to continue to house Hook, his bride, and their adopted little ones during Wendy's pregnancy, the pirate Captain was still too proud to accept. He continued to work onboard the Jolly Roger, though he stayed on the ship only a few hours daily to keep the men appraised of his position and allow their morale to remain bolstered. They pillaged. They spied. They drank and laughed together, singing of the memories of the men who had died in their most recent battle. Wendy was not allowed on the ship in her condition, nor did she truly wish to return there, at least yet. She could imagine the ship as a source of happiness and joy, but her last memories on the deck of the Jolly Roger were not of the most pleasant variety. She needed time to want to return to the ship on which her love for her husband had first blossomed. Wendy would return to the ship; but it would not be until she and her family were set to leave Neverland forever. The thought terrified her.
A little house was purchased for Hook's growing family; from the front step, Wendy could have a full view of the Jolly Roger. It was comforting to have Hook so very close, even when he had other commitments to which he needed to attend. Haystack and Felicity seemed to grow taller and more rambunctious daily. It was all that Wendy could do to keep up with them, especially as her stomach continued to swell and her hormones raged with flushes of overheated lust, shivering coldness, and insatiable hunger for butterscotch candies. Hook did his best to correct all of her ragings as best he could, but he was, after all, only one man. And the minx continued to exhaust him so frequently, his men had taken to teasing him onboard the Jolly Roger. Had he not been so tired, he would have fought the disrespect more fervently; as it was, he laughed along with them and spoke to those pirates who had sympathetic ears to the tales of his adored, infuriating woman's mood swings.
/
A pain shot through Wendy the likes of which she had never experienced before. She awoke, clutching her swollen stomach, with a guttural moan. The sheets beneath her had been soaked through and she had the distinct impression that she needed to lie back and push. The baby! Captain Hook was awake and had brandished his blade before her pain-addled mind had made the connection. His fire-red eyes scanned their small room before settling on his pink-faced bride. She smiled at him through her agony.
"I believe we are to be parents tonight, James."
/
A screaming, squirming infant girl came into the world, into Neverland and the arms of the notorious Captain Hook, showered with laughter and the joyous tears of her parents. She was loved, adored, from the moment she first took a wailing breath of sweet Neverland air. Tiger Lily had aided Wendy in the delivery, and the new mother now sat up, nursing a calmed newborn. Though she was just breaths into her life, Jane was treasured. She had cried upon her releasing into the world, but had taken a calm series of glances at her father when she was not focused on wailing. Tiger Lily assured the Captain that babies could not see very well so early in their lives, but he did not believe her, for the child looked directly into his face with such an inquisitive concern that he felt the need to explain himself to her. He shook himself back to reality and the glowing mother of his child. He was loved, he had so many whom he could love. James Hook was home, so long as he remained with the glorious woman who gave him the squirming gift in her arms.
/
Off in the skeletonized remnants of the hideout of the defected Lost Boys woke a creature we had thought perished. But she had not perished, not for eternity, at any rate. The first bubble of laughter of a special child born in Neverland was needed to bring her back into the realm of the living. As the melodic notes of her first giggle left her throat, Jane Hook was responsible for the awakening of Tinkerbell. The fairy woke to agony, but also to the glorious realization that she was alive, which overwhelmed all other feelings. Her wings would grow back, though they would always be weaker than they once were. Terrified she would be discovered and attacked again, Tinkerbell decided never again to answer to her own name. But she would find Peter and make sure he was safe. His childish memory was so scattered that she was sure she could convince him that she was his fairy, but of a different name. Esmerelda. Hadn't she always wished for that to be her name? She decided her fate with a nod. Esmerelda it was.
/
Jane was now four years old. She was gloriously curious, her blue eyes sparkling whenever something caught her attention. When something did garner her attention, she was off in a flurry of auburn hair and rosy cheeks. She had a confidante in her older sister, Felicity, who was six and well-versed in all of the glorious interest in Neverland. They had lived in the outskirts of town without trouble until the girl had reached an age where Wendy felt comfortable traveling between worlds. Felicity was eager to get a taste of London. She had heard her father, for that was what she called our dear Captain Hook, tell stories of bakeries and towers and bridges falling down! What a wonder it would be to see all of that with her very own eyes!
During the last stretches of their time in Neverland, the family suffered a devastating loss. Haystack had vanished in the night. They searched for days with no trace of him until a breathtaking teenager knocked on their door. Tiger Lily's daughter, Willow, informed the couple that Peter Pan had been sighted again, flying around Neverland, younger and more carefree than ever. Impossible, thought Hook, but Wendy's heart soared. A crowing was heard in the distance, different in tone, but identifiably the crowing of an ever-youthful Pan. Wendy knew Haystack was safe. He was the Pan now. And Peter, the real Peter, was growing into a strong young man…he was 16 now, or appeared so, at the very least. Wendy had passed by him in the marketplace not a month before; he nodded to her, his left hand touching the brim of a large captain's hat, his hook sparkling in the light. A few inquires had been made; Mr. Smee admitted to the Captain that the boy had asked to serve on the Jolly Roger, but was told he needed to be…or appear older. So, Peter would return to the ship when his body revealed itself as that of a 21-year-old. His hair, which had formerly been glowing and blonde, had darkened considerably, likely due to the horrid history that he had suffered before truly growing up. It fell in ringlets of darkening auburn curls, which he held back with a black ribbon. Wendy smiled at the recollection. Neverland would continue as it had before, though the players had changed, the story remained the same.
Wendy had planned their removal from Neverland to occur on Jane's fourth birthday and, now that it had come, she doubted her decision. It was not that she did not want to grow up; no, Wendy was of that breed that liked to grow up. It was simply that…she…she sighed. She was terrified that she was consigning her daughters to a life without adventure or magic. Captain Hook stood behind her, his arms wrapped around her still-thin waist, a kiss pressed to her shoulder.
"I have a secret, my love, which I feel I must relay to you."
"It cannot wait? We must finish packing our things and bake a cake for Jane before we leave tonight. James, I am in no mood for surprises, please."
He smiled, his mustache twitching against her skin.
"You never make me a cake for my birthday."
She turned and stuck out her tongue at him.
"You never told me when your birthday is!"
"You could make a cake randomly, hoping that its baking date falls on the happy occasion of my birth."
She growled her frustration and moved to leave their bedroom. He pulled her back, his left hand around her wrist, his hook pressing against the small of her back.
"And why would I do that?"
"Because you adore me."
"I do. But I do not wish to be forever baking cakes simply because I adore you."
He laughed.
"Touché."
"Will you not just tell me?"
"Guess."
"I do not have time for games, James."
"Just one guess, if you're wrong, I won't trouble you again for a cake."
"But I want to know your birthday!"
"Then you had better guess correctly."
She pondered, a small wrinkle forming on her otherwise smooth brow. He kissed it.
"I'll give you a hint. It happens to fall on the same day as our daughter's day of birth."
Wendy's eyes flared.
"Today?"
"You guessed!"
"James!"
He smiled wickedly.
"Don't be cross with me, poppet."
She rolled her eyes.
"What was your surprise, James?"
He grinned.
"I was going to tell you it was my birthday."
She blanched.
"You were…? You were going to tell me it was your birthday, without running me around the bush as you just did?"
He nodded. She shook her head, her eyes bulging slightly, unbelieving.
"You are insufferable, James."
"You love it."
She held back a smile.
"I do not."
He kissed her, she relented. They fell to their marital bed where his eager fingers found respite from the cool air between her warm thighs.
"My Wendy. How I do love you."
"Shut up and kiss me, Captain. The children will be returning soon and I have a pair of cakes to bake."
/
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