A Grown-up Thing to Do (part 10 of 'My Brave Wendy')

by Isabelle

Disclaimers: The rights to the film and book "Peter Pan/Peter Pan and Wendy" do not belong to me; this is just done for entertainment. Chapter Disclaimers: Poem stated here is "Visions of the Daughters of Albion" by Blake

Rating: PG-15 (for adult themes and mild sexual references)

Feedback: isabelle@komodo-skin.com

Archiving: It's a requirement that I have that you ask me before posting any of my written work. Thank you.

Summary: This is a work of fiction based on the 2003 film "Peter Pan"; it is centered, like the film around Peter & Wendy's relationship, just so you know. Basically the whole "never saw each other again" is out the window and for the purposes of the fiction they did.

Setting: This happens 1 year after Peter last saw Wendy, she's now been sent to a boarding school in Switzerland with her parent's new found fortune, but it's nothing like the place they thought it to be, as WWI is in it's starting stages there's fear all around and she's left without adult supervision along with some of her boarding school girls to find a way home and hoping that a certain first love will find her.

Spoilers: The film, it'll spoil you if you have not seen the film!!

Appreciation: My beta, who rocks my world at this moment, Rogue!!

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The Eye Sees more than the Heart knows

Somewhere deep inside she knew she mustn't panic, because panicking would probably lead to his death.

A death she couldn't deal with. But this entire situation was something she didn't want to deal with. There was just so much blood. His blood/. All over the place, bathing her and reminding her that this might be the last touch of is flesh that she might ever feel.

Peter's eyes were wide and confused and he started coughing.

"Peter!" she cried, finally jumping out of her unbelieving haze. "Peter, no!"

She instinctively placed her small hands on his wound, pressing against the blood flow that tried to burst through her fingers.

Peter groaned and struggled against her.

"Joanna!" Wendy cried, the girls had awakened at the sound of the gun and were screaming.

Joanna quickly came to Wendy, looking down at Peter she understood and searched for their supplies.

"Where did the shot come from?" Anna asked, frightened and looking at the brushes.

"Take cover!" Wendy cried at them, still looking down at the struggling Peter. "Peter, please don't struggle--remain still or you'll loose more blood."

He seemed to be hearing her from very far away but the blinking in his eyes told her he understood and he simply closed his eyes and sagged back, his breath coming out in wheezes.

"Joanna, hurry!" Wendy cried, scanning the bushes herself--terrified that another bullet might come from them.

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Christian watched as Wendy struggled to save the young man, speaking to him quietly, reassuringly. He watched as they tried to work with the minimal supplies that they had.

He watched as tears started to run down her face when she realizes they really didn't have the supplies needed to save him... and something inside of him broke.

Christian Kelley was not someone to 'break'. He was strong, strength kept him alive, kept him alive to fight another day, to survive and make something out of shit-life he's been handed.

But it did. Something did break as he saw the two young lovers loosing each other. He looked down at his boots, his jaw twitching and his grip on his riffle turning his knuckles white.

"Peter, please be strong," he heard Wendy sob.

He had taken something from this girl... something she obviously loved.

He had turned into the monster his father had been.

The though eat his mind like acid on flesh and he snapped his eyes back to the scene and gulped the cool air.

Determination took over him and he stood up, slowly and started walking towards the angel who had broken him.

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Wendy was too preoccupied with helping Joanna wrap bandages around Peter's bleeding chest to notice the stranger that walked in clear view to their camp.

It was only when Rosalind cried out for her to watch out that she realized it, she quickly pulled Peter's blade and brandished it at him.

The young man looked at her with a mixture of awe and longing.

"You shot him!" she accused him, taking in the riffle in his hand.

The man looked down at his riffle and slowly brought it down. His eyes were calm and brown, clear and in a strange way comforting... like she's seen him before.

She knew this man.

That though made her jump back, the only men she was really familiar with other than her brothers and father were the soldiers who were out to kill them.

"I did." he stated. All too calm for Wendy's taste, her eyes narrowed and she placed the blade at better view. "I was hunting... deer... I saw commotion and shot... I though you all were a herd."

Her brow furrowed. "A herd?"

The young man nodded, then looked down at Peter. "He wont make it... there isn't a town for miles."

Wendy's eyes filled with tears at his words. "No!" she moaned, dropping the blade and going back to Peter who was slowly paling, his eyes flickering close but always his gaze steady on her. She reached out to take his hand, it was cool, but he gentle squeezed back, a ghost of a smile on his lips.

Christian watched her, watched their grieving looks and shuddered. "I have some supplies... and I've had some experience... some medical training."

Wendy's head turned to him once more, a slight shine of hope in those blue orbs.

"You do?" she asked, excitement growing in her.

"... I don't know what I can do... but I can try." he offered.

Wendy stood from her place and walked to him, his body responding to her closeness. "Oh please... please do something... I can't loose him."

Her voice was so desperate, so needing... a large part of him wished desperately for someone to love him like that, especially if that someone was Wendy. He looked down at Peter, the boy had only minutes.

His jaw tightened as he looked back at her. Tears were running freely down her cheeks.

"I beg of you, sir.... please."

He really didn't have to think twice on it but simple nodded, pulled out his bag and crouched before the young man.

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"I will be keeping you informed, of course." Mr. Waterford told them. "My transport leave tonight to Switzerland... I will send you a telegram the moment I arrive."

Mrs. Darling came forward and embraced the man, ignoring the rules of politeness in their society. Mr. Waterford was confused for a moment but quickly returned the embrace, patting her back comfortingly.

"Thank you so much, dear sir," she told him, a smile on her face.

He placed his hat back on and nodded. "As long as our young hero stays with them we should be alright."

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Wendy had stayed with Peter while Christian worked, talking to Peter though he was completely unconscious by then, she kept holding his hand and stroking his face.

Joanna stayed and helped Christian with the 'dirty' work, watching and learning as he extracted the bullet from the pale chest.

"He's a strong boy," Christian commented after he had pulled the bullet out. "... but I don't know if I can control the bleeding. He looks to have internal bleeding..."

Joanna bit her lip and looked down.

Wendy looked up from her gazing at Peter's face to look at him. "... what do you mean?"

Christian cleaned his bloody hands with a towel and shook his head. "The bullet hit his lungs... punctured them... I doubt he'll last the night..."

Wendy's wide blue eyes stared at him, he wondered if she'd gone into shock herself.

"No." she said finally after a while. She looked down at Peter. "We need to get him back to Neverland."

Christian arched his eyes brow. "Neverland?"

"Neverland... were he's from. We need to take him to the queen fairy, she'll know what to do."

"But we don't know were Tinkerbell is, Wendy." Joanna told her calmly.

"Tinkerbell?" Christian asked, even more confused than before.

"His fairy," Wendy explained, standing up herself and looking up to the night sky.

"Fairy... there's no such thing as fai--" Christian's words were cut off when Wendy slapped her hand on his mouth, preventing him from speaking. She was breathing harshly and she was so close to him that he was very willing to believe in fairies if it meant having her this close all of the time.

"Never say that," she told him, the realized their closeness and backed away quickly, as if burnt. "I'll see if I can contact her."

"Contact her?" Joanna asked her. "Why couldn't we contact her before."

Wendy turned to look at her friend. "I didn't want it bad enough." With one last lingering look at Peter's almost cold body she walked away from the camp.

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She settled herself by the small frozen pond, her skirts fanning out about her. She pulled her hair loose, tucked her legs under her, straightened her back and closed her eyes.

She placed each of her palms against her chest and took a deep breath, inhaling the cold night air.

Wendy then started to imagine, imagine what she remembered--her memories.

"Neverland... Tinkerbell..." a clear picture came to her of the little fairy, though most images were not nice ones she concentrated as much as she could on the little fairy.

"Tinkerbell... Peter needs you," she whispered, willing her should to connect to the small pixie. A clear picture of Peter smiling as they flew over lush forests came to her mind.

"He needs you, Tinkerbell... where are you?"

She felt the breeze pick up, the wind hollowed and chilled her.

"Please, Tinkerbell... hear me... I need you... Peter is dying..." tears started to fall down her cheeks. "... you need to take him back, Tinkerbell... please save him...."

Now all she could feel was pain as the only picture before her was of a dying Peter, his eyes closing slowly, a small smile of farewell on his lips.

"Don't let him die... please Tinkerbell... I know you can feel him..."

She didn't know how long she sat there, sobs wrecking her body as image past image swirled before her mind and the words of pleading kept coming from her mouth.

She was tired. Consumed. Emotionally drained.

She had nothing left. The weeks now of traveling, Peter's return and now Peter's demise were all too much.

After a while she felt a hand, lightly on her shoulder.

"Wendy?" it was a male voice.

"Peter?" she sat up, looking at him.

"No, I'm afraid," the man before her told her. The one who had shot Peter... accidentally.

"Oh..." she looked down, tears falling once more.

"I'm sorry, Wendy... I really am." he took a deep breath. "He's dead... I couldn't do anything..."

Wendy simply stared at her hands.

".... if she could at least come to take his body away... he would like to rest in Neverland, not here. There's too much pain here." she said softly.

"We'll take care of him as much as we can..." he said and slowly placed her on her feet.

She was shaking and pale.

"Let's get you closer to the fire... you're iced."

She took one last look at the sky, hoping to see a flicker of a fairy shine... but nothing... so she let the man lead her to the fire.

Peter's body was still, his eyes closed and Joanna wrapped a blanket around him, sniffling herself... the other girls were openly sobbing in a corner.

Wendy pulled out of the man's arms and slowly walked to Peter, kneeling next to him.

His face looked so peaceful, no pain was on it...searching in to his shirt she found what she was looking for. Her thimble, the one she'd given to him.

The sight of it made her composure break and the tears that she once held back could not be stopped now.

"Peter," she sobbed, grasping his hand and resting her forehead against his still chest. "...you promised not to leave me...."

What startled her was not the noises of the other people screaming in fright, it was the feeling she got. Magic was about.

Her head snapped up, face still marred with tears when she saw it.

A dancing light in the wind, flying towards them so fast if she would've blinked she would've missed it.

"Tinkerbell!" Joanna cried, pointing at the light. "It's a fairy, Wendy!"

"Tink?" Wendy whispered.

The light come close and closer until the small fairy was hovering over Peter and Wendy.

She finally come to rest on Peter's chest, looking down sadly at his face.

"He's gone Tink... we were too late..." Wendy told her softly, reaching out to brush his wild hair from his forehead.

The little pixie looked up at Wendy and showed her a small leather sac she carried over her tiny shoulder.

Wendy looked at her, curiously. Tink blinked and flew to Wendy's face, making a cup with her fairy dust, pretending to drink it and gagging with a grimace.

"Medicine..." Wendy realized.

Tinkerbell blinked happily, shoving the small sac at her.

"But... he's gone already, Tink... medicine cannot help that," more tears fell from her cheeks.

The fairy blinked, angrily and tossed the sac to her.

"Ok... fine!" Wendy snapped, angrily.

Carefully she opened the small packet, placing her hand behind the back of his neck she raised Peter up slightly.

Tink blinked angrily and stomped her small feet on his chest.

"What..." Wendy saw she was pointing at Peter's wound. "Pour it there?"

Tinkerbell blinked, glaring at her regardless.

Wendy let go of Peter's head and brought the sac to his chest, closing her eyes against hope and poured the thick substance over the wound.

A sizzling sound came from his flesh, turning it bright red as it was absorbed by his body. Wendy poured out all of the contents, watching in fascination as his chest started to rise, lifting him into the air. She gasped and stepped back as light started to burst out of his body.

She jumped back, watching Peter be lifted ten feet into the air, the wind began to hollow and snow started to fall in gentle flakes.

"What the--" Christian whispered, still in shock over the apparent fairy jumping about and now Peter's body floating, shinning and producing magical snow.

"How magical..." Helen whispered as they watched the scene before them.

"He really is magical!" Rosalind cried, happily.

Peter's body continued to float, and starburst started to shoot from him. All screamed and backed away except for Wendy who face was shaping a smile.

"Peter..." she whispered.

Then something burst and illuminated the entire area, sending off such a large amount of energy that threw them all on their backs.

By the time Wendy sat up to look at Peter he was being floated to the ground, making him land on his knees.

The his head slowly was lifted and he opened his eyes, looked directly at Wendy.

"That was a grand adventure," he said, a smile on his face.

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TBC....

A/N: Hope you're all happy with the outcome of this situation ;) For those of you interested, there's 7 more chapters after this one so the story is not over yet ;)

Also, I know many of you have mentioned the grammar/spelling. Let me remind you once more that this version I am posting it not beta'd. If you want to check out the beta'd version, I post it a few days after this one and you can read it over at my fanfiction site www.plastic-slut.com/purplepoet

I'm very glad so many of you are enjoying it! Please leave a review, do you know that out of 10 readers only 2 leave a review? Don't be a statistic!