Chapter 37: Specks of Gold

When the gang arrived back to the ship, they received a lengthy scolding from both Wendy and Tinkerbell (Mindy and Scarlett pretended to look ashamed even though they were the only ones who couldn't understand what she was saying).

Wendy went on about how they should have at least tried to contact them and let them know that they were alright instead of stranding them there without an explanation. Once she was too breathless to continue, she threw her arms around Peter, gave him a firm squeeze, and stormed to the opposite end of the ship with a shrill: "DON'T EVER FRIGHTEN ME LIKE THAT AGAIN!"

Dakota then led everybody into The Galley to finish off the rest of the gumbo, and he, Mindy, Jiminy, and Peter took turns explaining what had happened to them as well as introduced the group to Scarlett. Once everyone had eaten their fill, Dakota and Tinkerbell headed off to the (now fixed) helm on the upper deck, Wendy ushered The Lost Boys to bed, and Peter and Mindy went to the newly constructed Captain's Quarters to discuss their next stop on this grand adventure.

As with everything else on the ship, it was made out of sweets. Only this time, Mindy had decided to mix things up. Everything from the furniture, the window panes, and even the floor was made of assorted chocolate. There were a few hiccups (half the room had been melted by the heat of the technicolored sun, and she had caught a couple of the Lost Boys trying to steal a few squares on more than one occasion), but a quick temperature shift followed by a handing out of magically summoned Hershey kisses fixed the issues right away.

"Okay… let me see if I've got this right." Mindy started after inspecting the map of the Dremesphere for a while, "We just came from a microscopic island beside The Isle of Oblivion which, according to the map is detached from everything else. But the rest of The Dremesphere is organized in the chronological order of when the films were released as opposed to combined into one country like it was before. There's the Golden Era, the Wartime Era, the Silver Era, the Transitional Era, the Renaissance Era, the Post-Renaissance Era, and the Revival Era which means that the whole thing is set up like a timeline." She looked up at Peter for a sign of confirmation, and instead found him leaning against the window with a distant glint in his eyes.

"Peter?"

"Hmm?" He blinked a few times before readily nodding in agreement. "Oh! Oh yeah… you're uh… definitely right on track!"

"What was I on track about?"

Peter opened his mouth to answer, but no sound came out... he hadn't been expecting that. He then rubbed the back of his neck with a sheepish chuckle. "You pretty much lost me at the word chronamalogical."

"Chronological."

"Whatever."

"Chronological means in order of time." Mindy explained as she removed her rose-tinted glasses, and wiped the lenses with the sleeve of her white shirt. "In this case, the worlds are split up by the order of the film's release dates." Her brows then knitted together as she came to a realization, "Peter… you've lived here your whole life, and you're just now learning the layout of the Dremesphere?"

"I've never felt the need to." He shrugged before sitting cross-legged in midair. "It's kind of pointless to learn about the world outside of my own when I hardly ever leave."

She tilted her head, "But… didn't you leave the island whenever you went on adventures with me?"

"Sometimes… but it was no more than a day or two." Peter answered. "Mostly it was for parties you threw for the kingdom or a world crisis that called for a bunch of people to give ya a hand… This quest has been my first-time leaving Neverland for more than a couple days."

"Why haven't you done this sooner?" Mindy inquired. "I figured that you of all characters would want to explore outside of your home."

"I did, but I was afraid of-" He smacked his hands over his mouth with wide eyes, stopping himself before he concluded that confession. Peter held his breath, and prayed with all his being that she wouldn't notice the mistake.

"You were afraid of growing up."

He refused to meet her eyes.

"Peter, you have nothing to be ashamed about." Mindy insisted. "It's perfectly normal for people to be afraid of things…I'm sure that you were afraid when me, Basil, and Fatigan crashed into the clocktower."

"But I'm Peter Pan… I'm not supposed to be afraid of anything." He pointed out as he hovered lazily around the cabin. "I'm a hand-drawn animated character… the screenwriters wrote me to be anything but normal."

"Hey, you don't seem that two-dimensional to me." she cast her eyes downward, "Look, I get it… I'm afraid of going on this quest just as much as you are (deny it all you want mister, but we both know that I'm right). Let's-let's try to think this through logically. If it took us roughly a week to find two out of seven symbols of my childhood, then that means we'll be gone for about a month or so. And I highly doubt that you'll turn into a white-haired eighty-year-old man by the end of this, so there's no reason to be afraid."

"Noted..." Peter folded his arms with a relieved chuckle. "You know you're always firing personal questions at me! Sooner or later you're gonna make me reveal something embarrassingly sappy, and… and… bleh!"

"In my world, that's what we call character development." Mindy giggled. "We wouldn't want you to have that now would we?"

There was a beat of comfortable silence…

She cleared her throat before she steered the conversation back to geography, "Alright, so let's officially choose our first world!" She sprung to her feet and started to pace the room. "It has to fit the following criteria: It has to be in proximity of the ship so we can avoid being detected, it has to have significant meaning in my life, and most importantly it has to contain Disney characters that won't immediately turn me in… any ideas?"

Peter swooped down to sit down in the chair, and propped his feet on the desk… He then scratched his head as he studied the map. "What's this place with the sandy red-and-orange colors?"

She came beside him to look over his shoulder, and smiled fondly. "That's Agrabah… city of mystery and enchantment. It's where the story of Aladdin takes place. When I was a kid, I used to think that the film was called Jasmine because it was a Disney movie with a princess in it, and I assumed that automatically made her the star… you could say that I wasn't the brightest mouseketeer in the clubhouse."

He tilted his head. "What?"

"Yeah, that was a silly metaphor wasn't it?" Mindy blushed, "Anyway, I've always liked Aladdin, but I was never obsessed with it or anything."

"Okay… uh, this looks like fun!" Peter pointed to a vividly whimsical area on the map. "You're always talking about how much you appreciate seeing the world in color and this place is covered in it!"

"That is Wonderland, and it is anything but fun." She corrected him. "Trust me, the inhabitants are raving mad and it'll be difficult to tell which ones are on my side, and which ones are not."

"Got it… what about the one that has the tall white mountain?" He pointed to a Scandinavian world on the farthest end of the map. "Is that ringing any bells?"

"That's the North Mountain, and the kingdom underneath it is called Arendelle." Mindy explained. "It's all the way in the Revival Era, so we definitely cannot go there… Peter, we need to pick a location in the Renaissance Era since there aren't many films in the Transitional Era that had an impact on my life whatsoever."

Peter scrutinized the map, but he couldn't figure out where the Renaissance Era even started. "What was the first movie that was released during that time?"

"The first box-office success of the Renaissance was The Little Mermaid. It takes place in the undersea kingdom of Atlantica. Now that I think about it, I do have a (forgive my pun) deep connection with this one." She admitted. "I can relate to Ariel's curiosity about the world around her, the songs are phenomenal, and I've always had a fascination for undersea life."

"Alright, I guess we're setting a course for Atlantica then!"

"I guess we are." Mindy agreed. "Although, I have no idea how we'll get to the kingdom once we get there. Even if we do find a way to turn ourselves into merfolk, it will be difficult to have an audience with King Triton and Ariel… but I'm sure we'll think of something before we get there."

"Ya know for a girl who always feels the need to plan every single thing out, you're pretty good at making stuff up as you go." Peter remarked out of the blue.

"I know." Mindy pushed the bridge of her glasses, "I had to learn the hard way that it's all a balancing act."

"Let's hope that "balancing act" doesn't get you killed."

Simultaneously, Mindy and Peter snapped their heads forward.

Scarlett peeped her head into the open doorway, "Sorry, am I interrupting something?"

"No." Mindy cleared her throat then clapped her hands together, "Uh, so that was a productive captain meeting, we got a lot of work done, and now I think that it's time for me to kick you out for the night!"

"What?" Peter groaned as she got up and started pushing him towards the door, "Ugh! Whyyy?"

"Because it's my turn to use the bed, that's why!"

"But we didn't even play rock, paper, scissors!"

"Oh, and you should ask Wendy if we should drop her off in your film's London before we go."

"Yeah, but-"

"-glad we agree, see ya tomorrow bye!"

Scarlett stepped out of the way as Mindy shoved him out of the room, and slammed the door in his face. She released a sigh as she tucked a loose strand of her hair behind her ear, "So, what was it that you wanted?"

"Can I crash with you again for tonight?"

"Sure but-"

Before she could even finish her question, Scarlett crossed the rest of the way into the room, and belly-flopped onto the shockingly soft chocolate mattress. Her voice was muffled due to her face being smothered in the chocolate candy-floss pillow, "I can't stand the smell of candy. It's sickeningly sweet but…chocolate is an aphrodisiac so it's the exception in my book."

"That's valid." Mindy then plopped herself at the foot of the bed…after a moment she asked, "What else did you need?"

"How'd you guess?"

"You only go quiet whenever something else is on your mind. We're the only ones in here, so whatever the problem is, you don't have to worry about anyone else hearing you. Talk to me, Scar…what's wrong?"

"Everything."

"Ya gotta be more specific girl."

Scarlett hoisted herself up, and turned to face her.

Her eyes bored into Mindy's with an intense amount of frustration. It was the stare that spoke in a thousand different voices saying: "You've screwed up." And in that moment, even though she wasn't sure what she did wrong, she could tell that she had in fact done something wrong. Scarlett didn't say anything right away. She twitched sporadically whilst clutching the sides of her head as if that would be enough to contain all of the thoughts and emotions wanting to explode out of her mouth.

Eventually, Scar released the breath she had been holding as she allowed her shoulders to relax, "How…how can you expect me to be okay with all of this?"

Mindy's brows furrowed, "What do you mean?"

"Ever since you and Dakota found me, I've been pretending that everything we've dealt with so far has been fine and dandy!" Scarlett forced a smile that was a little too bright, "Well, guess what? Everything we've dealt with so far is not fine and dandy! I-I'm not-" She paused and sucked in a breath to keep herself from spiraling out of control, "I'm not okay…" Mindy could tell from how quietly she had uttered that single declaration that admitting it had not been an easy thing for her to do, "I'm not okay with this…I'm not okay with any of this! I just…I just want to know what's going on. No one is giving me any explanations, and it's not fair."

"You're right." Mindy's eyes clouded with guilt, "I'm sorry…I'm so sorry. I should've told you everything from the start, and I shouldn't've used the circumstances as an excuse for not coming clean. Even after the fact, I still should have pulled you aside and explained everything to you at the party."

Scarlett went silent for a split-second before speaking, "No more secrets…tell me what I signed up for."

"I will, but first-" she got up, walked to the chair in front of the desk, and grabbed her satchel, "-I need to return a couple things to you." She reached in, withdrew Scarlett's cell phone, and handed it to her, "Here…Basil found it in the alleyway you were taken."

Scarlett's mouth broke into a relieved smile as she held it close to her chest, "Oh technology, how I've missed having you in my life!"

"And, here's the other thing." Mindy took out her prized leather jacket, and draped it over Scarlett's shoulders before patting them, "There, now your bare shoulders aren't showing and you can't attract thirty-something year-old mice anymore."

Scarlett punched her lightly, "Thanks…I feel more like my awesome, queer self again."

"So you didn't blurt out that you were a lesbian just to get Basil off your tail?"

"Nope." Scarlett smirked proudly, "Granted, it wasn't the ideal coming out scenario that I wanted…but it'll have to do."

"At least it was memorable." Mindy took hold of her hands with an encouraging smile, "I want you to know that I'm proud of you Scar. What am I saying? I'm always gonna be proud of you. But, that took a lot of guts (especially saying it in front of the guy who was crushing on you, you should have seen his face! It was heartbreaking and priceless at the same time) and I fully support you. And in case Dakota hasn't said anything to you yet, I'm sure he supports you too."

"Thanks, it means a lot."

"I guess I should start at the beginning then."

"Wait, are you sure we're alone?"

"Why are…oh." When Scarlett's eyes flickered to Mindy's shoulder, she immediately knew who she was referring to, "Jiminy's helping Wendy with story time. He'll be here eventually, but it depends on how much time it takes for The Lost Boys to be put to sleep afterwards. If you want, I could ask him to leave whe-"

"-no, no, he's your guide."

"He's also my helicopter parent." Mindy rolled her eyes, "Sure, he knows when to give me some space, but most of the time he breathes down my neck twenty-four-seven... Literally. I don't mind the company, but sometimes it can be a bit much. He'll understand."

"If you say so." Scarlett flipped upright, and scooted over to make some room.

Mindy smiled as she settled next to her on the bed.

The last thing she had expected was for the girl to rest her head onto the crook of her neck. When she didn't respond to the physical contact, Scarlett took hold of Mindy's arm that was closest to her, and lifted it up to wrap around her shoulder.

Mindy didn't know how to react, so she rolled with it.

Scarlett snuggled in closer and did nothing but listen to the soothing sound of Mindy's voice as she recounted the events leading up to this point. Verbal storytelling had never been her forte, and yet somehow the story effortlessly tumbled from her lips with little to no detours. Mindy wasn't entirely sure if Scarlett was paying attention what she was saying. It had been a long night for all of them, and even Mindy's eyes were beginning to droop. When she asked Scarlett if she was still awake, she was relieved when she received a conscious: "Yeah, keep going." in reply.

So she did.

When she was done, she asked Scarlett if she had any lingering questions. She had a few, and Mindy spent the following half hour answering each one to the best of her ability.

"This is so weird."

"I know." Without even thinking about it beforehand, Mindy rubbed the girl's shoulder in comfort, "And it's only gonna get weirder, so if you want to leave-"

"-It's like you don't even know me at all." She interrupted, "I'm not going anywhere...why would you even consider that to be a possibility?"

"I don't know." Mindy gave her shoulder a firm squeeze, "I gave Dakota the same option when we arrived at Sorcerer Yen Sid's Tower…I don't want to guilt trip you into staying with me…that's the last thing that I want to do. I have no idea what's gonna happen in the future. But what I do know, is that I can't lose either of you. I wouldn't be able to forgive myself if you got hurt because of me."

"I speak for both of us when I say that that's exactly how we feel about you." Scarlett removed herself from Mindy's side to look up at her, "We're staying with you until this is all over…period. Because 1: we're your friends and we love you and 2: If we ditched, there would be no guarantee that you would even find a way to follow us back after saving the world and whatnot. The truth is, you can't always do everything on your own. You need to be nicer to yourself, and most importantly, you need to recognize that you deserve to be helped."

That last statement struck a chord on Mindy's heartstrings.

You deserve to be helped…

With that one statement, her troubles seemed to dissipate into the ether.

She was starting to think that The Projectionist was right about her being a foolish, foolish girl. Why was she even worrying about her friend's wellbeing anyway? It sounded corny in her head, but if they stuck together, everything would turn out alright in the end.

At least, that was how it typically worked in these kinds of stories.

Was what Dakota said right? Mindy pondered, Has The Dremesphere truly accepted that Disney logic applies to us now, or is that just a sweet sentiment to make me feel better about our current situation?

For all she knew, Disney logic wasn't even real.

Then again, Basil was arguably the smartest character in the entire Disney pantheon, so chances were pretty good that he knew what he was talking about. She could only hope that Dakota's unrelenting optimistic attitude had been enough to convince The Dremesphere that they deserved to be rooted for.

Mindy nodded in silent agreement as she allowed herself to make eye-contact with her best friend. She opened her mouth to say something nauseatingly whimsical and light-hearted, when Scarlett beat her to it.

"You have specks of gold…"

"Huh?"

"Your eyes." She elaborated, "I thought that they were only grey, but you have specks of gold in them."

"Oh…" Mindy wasn't sure how to respond, so she laughed instead, "Okay, that was a little random."

Scarlett's cheeks tinted pink as she joined her, "What do you expect from a dork like me?"

"Nothing." Mindy insisted as she lulled her back into her original cuddling position, "Absolutely nothing."

Heavy sobs drew Mindy out of the void of sleep.

At first, she thought that she'd awoken inside of the Dreamscape again.

When she actually opened her eyes however, she found that she was still in the Captain's Quarters. Puzzled, she turned to where the noise was coming from and was taken aback when she realized that it was Scarlett.

With a snap of her fingers, a soft pinkish orangish glow illuminated the room.

The light source was irrelevant since that was the furthest thing from Mindy's mind at the moment, "Scar…Scar, it's okay I'm here."

"No…no not again, please not again!"

It was a routine Mindy was accustomed to.

If years upon years of late-night slumber parties at their treehouse had taught her anything, it was that they needed to change the scenery. Snapping her fingers a second time, a blanket of glittering stars appeared on the ceiling.

"I don't want to go back I don't want to go back I don't want to go back-"

"-shh, everything's okay Scarlett…you're here on The Jolly Rancher, you're safe. You're safe here with me."

"No! Let me go, let me go aghh!"

She started to thrash around in her arms as her sobs increased in volume. Mindy wasn't deterred from her task and gripped her tighter in response, "Though sun may set today, the stars you'll kiss goodnight. When darkness comes your way, know you'll be alright. Sleep, sleep well my rose my love. Lift your gaze to the heavens above. Know that you're safe in the moonlight's embrace and dream of sweet things my dove…"

She hummed in the tune of the lullaby she had known for as long as she could remember and turned to look at Scarlett. She was starting to stir from sleep, the tears still cascading down her cheeks. Seeing them made Mindy's own eyes grow misty.

"As you close your eyes, remember where you are…and until sunrise, count your lucky stars." She resumed, steadily gaining confidence with each note that left her mouth, "Your fears and doubts beneath you, here inside your dream land. I'll cherish and protect you, just by holding your hand…holding your hand…so sleep, sleep well my rose my love. Lift your gaze to the heavens above. Know that you're safe in the moonlight's embrace and dream of sweet things my dove…dream of sweet things my dove."

When she'd finished, Scarlett opened her bloodshot eyes. "Mindy?"

"I'm right here Scarlett." She whispered, "I've got you, you're okay."

"Mindy…" Her heart throbbed when Scarlett's voice cracked, and drew her closer in response, "He-he was there…he was there Mindy a-and I couldn't-"

"-I know."

She rocked Scarlett back-and-forth as she stained her lavender overalls with snotty tears. Mindy didn't care though, and started to thread her fingers into her friend's thick ringlets of raven hair. Multiple times, Scarlett tried to piece together a sentence but her throat was so tight with wails and sobs that she wasn't able to. Mindy did her best to comfort her until she passed out in her arms from the exhaustion.

She looked down at the girl and wiped away the stray tears that had lingered on her reddened cheeks with her thumb…It was funny. Scarlett had always presented herself as someone who oozed confidence and could withstand adversity and hardship of the highest caliber. However, Mindy knew that underneath all of those layers was a frightened little girl who had experienced the unimaginable.

With another snap of her fingers, the bluish starry atmosphere vanished, leaving only a chocolate chandelier with pinkish orangish lights behind…

"Is she alright?"

Mindy snapped her head towards the voice and sucked in a breath.

"Don't scare me like that Cricket."

Jiminy blushed from his spot on the nightstand, "Sorry…does-does this happen often?"

"Yeah." Mindy nodded after a moment, "Usually, the terrors last longer than this though…how much did you hear?"

"If I'm being honest, not a lot." He admitted as he climbed out of the matchbox bed Mindy had constructed for him, "Do you know what the cause of it is?"

She grew silent…

"It's…it's not my business to say."

"Oh…I'm so-"

"-don't be." Mindy cut him off as she settled into bed, "There's no way you could've known…goodnight Jiminy."

With a final snap of her fingers, the candles in the chandelier blew out.

She was at least relieved that it hadn't been herself waking up in tears again.