The Power She Has...

Upon his return to the Neverland, the morning after Wendy and the boys returned to London, Peter felt an unfamiliar feeling, rising from the depth of his being. As he sat in his underground home, the events of the previous night easily drifted into his mind.

Peter lies flat on his back, a trickle of crimson blood traveling down his brow, drying quickly by the cold wind that accompanied the darkness of the night, which fell upon the day sooner than should have. A darkness that seemed to emanate from him, as he fell from the sky, weighed down by thoughts of loneliness and pain. Pain, something he was accustomed to, now caused more grief, for it was not a wound of flesh that hurt, but a wound hidden somewhere where he could not know, but still could feel. His every happy thought purged from his soul, he looks up at the squirming girl in a laughing pirate's arms.

'You...were leaving me...why wont to stay?' The girl had chosen to flee, and poisoned his own men against him. She, with all her tales of swordfight and happy endings, had been about to run back to a dull reality. A reality she had tainted the Neverland with, when she made the one thing that he had ever truly wanted, seem so low and unbecoming. 'You are just a boy'. Just a boy. Only a boy, nothing more, and surely not enough for her, not enough for anyone. He was incomplete, lacking in something that she did not say, but so obviously deemed of importance. Words, so often used to strike at his enemy's pride, where now used against him. They broke through his barrier of childhood ignorance, pillaging all the magic in his being, his will to be, his will to fight.

A single tear travels down her cheek as she blinks her eyes. 'Yet....you cry...for me?' Or was she crying for her own life? Was she simply looking at him, longing to see him jump to his heals, pick up his sword, and save the day, once more? Was all she was hoping for was her escape from the Neverland to be secured? He could not save her now, he could not defeat his foe. It was all done with, and he had lost. A simple smile forms on his lips. 'Wendy...' It did not matter, she was here for now.

Captain Hook cries out as he raises his hook in the air, the blue in his eyes pushed away by a glowing red, and a bloodthirsty grin spread on his lips. Peter's eyes detach from Wendy as he looks straight above at the cold steal that readies its plunge into his heart.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!" He hears a cry from behind James Hook, as his arm is halted by an unseen force. From the corner of his eye, he sees him turn and forward, he pulls Wendy's small figure, clutching to his arm with all her might. Their gazes lock for a second, his glowing with anger over the intrusion, her's pleading for mercy on Pan. The murderous pirate sneers as he lunges his arm forward, thrusting Wendy to the floor with a loud thud, next to his prey. "Silence all! ... for Wendy's farewell" he announces, as he takes a step back.

'Wendy...don't' The pain was too much to bare. Nothing was of purpose now. She is just prolonging the inevitable. It was all done with. He was all alone, with no one to care for, no one to laugh with. There was no point.

She turns to face him, but he keeps his gaze on the night's sky. "Peter" she says softly, begging him to listen.

'He won...' The battle was lost.

"I'm sorry I must grow up"

'No...you mustn't...you chose to...' He had shown her all the magic of his beloved Neverland. He had offered her unending freedom from all that is mundane, but that was not enough for her. HE was not enough for her.

"But this...this is yours..." she says as she raises her left fist towards his face.

'What...?' What could she possibly give him that he would want now.

Suddenly, Wendy's warmth is yanked away from Peter's side, and as he stares directly up at the sky, his gaze is pulled towards her as Hook holds her by the arm. "'Tis just a thimble." she tells him innocently.

He grins. "So like a girl!" He says mockingly, as his crew laughs. "By all means my beauty...give Peter Pan...your precious thimble..." He releases her arm and she slowly turns, more tears forming in her eyes. A mournful silence overcomes the ship, as Wendy's perfect blue eyes stare directly into Peter's defeated greens.

'If you leave me...' There is no reason for him to be anymore. He was The Pan, no more. A boy, proud and valiant in all his quests, reduced to a whimpering coward before his greatest foe. And all because of a girl. One single girl who had refused to stay, in a land of magic and wonders, for fear that she would not grow? She had changed him. Curse the moment he first saw her in her nursery. The moment it started. The moment he felt something more than a child's wish for fun and games. Tinkerbell was right. He should not have stopped above her house that first night. He should have not glided by her window, or peeked in. He should have turned away a second earlier, before her face was imprinted in his mind. But he couldn't help it. Something drew him in. Something called to him, as if, something was meant for him, within that window, in that room.

She leans down and whispers into his ear. "This belongs to you ...and always will..." She lifts her head up.

'What...are you...'

She opens her fist and delicately places her hand on his cheek, sending a warm shiver down his body.

'Wendy?' The warmth cursing through him slowly pushes away all the pain and loneliness. He stares into her sad face, and notes something hidden in the right hand corner of her mouth. He hears it calling his name.

She leans in and slowly presses her tender lips to his, hurling every single thought from his mind. Unable to think, he only feels...feels the warmth of her mouth, and the coldness of her tear as it trickles down onto his cheek.

He feels things he doesn't understand. Things he somehow knew existed, but was never willing to learn about. But not all of the strange feelings are just his...some he knows are flowing from her. He feels something unexplainable ... something ... wonderful ... something magical, unlike any other magic he could ever encounter in the Neverland. A calming yet stirring feeling overpowers his being.

She lifts away from their embrace and looks longingly into his face.

"That was no thimble..." says John.

"...That was her hidden kiss!" announced Michael.

An ominous roar lifts all eyes up as the stars collect atop the Jolly Roger. Hook quickly grabs Wendy and hoists her up away from Peter.

Still unable to make sense of it all, Peter feels consumed by a growing desire at the pit of his stomach.

"Brace yourself lads" says Slightly.

"'Tis a powerful thing...." says Toodles.

Peter can't help but smile wildly as he detaches his eyes from his Wendy and stares absently at the sky. Every emotion overpowering his senses and emanating through his skin.

"Pan ... you're pink!" exclaims Hook as he stares in disbelief.

'Not... alone...' he thinks irrationally for nothing makes sense. Unable to form a thought in whole, only wild emotions bounce around in his soul, threatening to burst right through him if not released. A warmth in his heart that he never knew, or perhaps had long forgotten. A lightness in his head, unlike that of flying to the highest of stars. A sweeping calm that heightens the senses and somehow keeps the body jittering with an unrelenting sensation!

"Split my infinitives..." says Hook as he and the rest of the pirates loom over Peter, dumbfounded and gawking.

The feeling rises from his stomach and out his lips in a scream that resonates throughout the entire Neverland, catching the attention of the self-indulgent fairies, and making them fly towards the origin of the sound. Tis was Peter Pan, they all knew. Something grand beyond their grasp is in motion. The glow explodes in a burst of energy that hurls all into the air.

'She...Wendy...you do care!!!'

His body, now light as a fairy's wings, drifts off the ground, and spins up into the night sky as his arms stretch out wide, soaring and breathing in the cool night air. A smile spread wide on his lips; a vision of happiness and love in his thoughts, and a melody in his ear, of a dance with the one that would always remain. In this moment, on this night, it was clear, that he would never be alone. She was not abandoning him, of this he was sure, for she would never leave him, for ever more. 'My Wendy!'

'That was very odd...but...grand! What power she has...'

Such a night, filled with magic so new to him left him forever wondering,and all would have been perfectly wonderful if it were not for the ache in his stomach.He turned his head to look at Tink, who was busy studying her reflection in the water bucket. "Tink...I feel weird...I think I am ill."

Hearing his distraught, she quickly lost interest in the fairy in the mirror and flew towards him, pressing her tiny hands on his forehead. But sensing no fever, she floated backwards and shook her head.

"Not sick?" He frowns. "Then why are my palms so sweaty and my heart thumping so fast?"

The little fairy bit her lip and pondered the reason for his illness, when all of a sudden, her eyes light up and a sly smile appeared on her face. She rushed to his ear and whispered.

"Love?!?!?!?" Peter gasped as he tripped backwards. "Love!?!?!?! I cannot love! I am a boy...I do not love!!!"

Tink smiled compassionately as she stared at the frightened boy. He was not willing or able to see it, but it was there. In his own time, he'd see clearly, but for now, it was best to let him be.

"I do not love...even the sound of it offends me!" he says, mostly to reassure himself.

Tinkerbell continued smiling as she reached over to tussle his hair before she shot out of the underground house.

"Stupid fairy....I do not love...I cannot love...love is for adults!" He threw himself on the pile of cloths he called a bed. "Love...meh...it's not that...I simply care for her...like I care for...the lost boys!!!" But the more he thought about those words, the more he released the lie.

'No...it's not like the lost boys...I know I'd never want a thimble from any of them!'

"Like I care for Tink!"

'No...I do not wish for a thimble from her either...'

He remained still, and then reached over to the table and picked up the small brown pouch containing Wendy's kiss. He took it out and held it in front of his face with his thumb and forefinger, and closed his eyes. A vision of beauty with a sweet laughing smile formed in his thoughts; and as he closed his hand around the kiss, the image became clearer. A girl with long brown hair and a silky voice spook to him words unknown. 'Wendy' "This is all you left me...a kiss..." He opened his eyes as the image remained drifting in his thoughts.

'Wendy Moira Angela Darling ... I know you want to grow up...but why? You should stay here with me...be carefree for ever...'

Her sweet voice echoed through his thoughts 'There is so much more...'

'What more is there? What did she mean...' he ponders desperately.

Another echo resounded in response 'I don't know...I think it becomes clearer when you grow up...'

'Grow up....grow up...' he repeats absently, as he placed one hand on his tumbling stomach. 'Does this have to do with growing up?'