For a heads up, here's the setting/ Darling house is still in London, Neverland is still in existence, everything appears to have remained the same despite the adventures that Wendy, John and Micheal embarked on in the winter, which didn't actually equate to any real lost time, only a two days were they gone from home. Now school had set in once again, and the family troubles had increased with the loss of Mr. Darling's job and the sudden illness of Mrs. Darling. Wendy began to feel the strain of adulthood as she was left with the responsibility of taking care of her two younger brothers, John and Micheal, and had suffered the ridicule of her peers when her tales of Neverland were circulated. Reaching an emotional climax, Wendy returns from school one day, in tears and does not anticipate the events to come.
Chapter One: I can't promise forever
Wendy flung open the entrance door to the Darling household as fast as her fingers could scramble to undo the lock and bolted up the stairs in a fit of tears and anger. Having left the door slightly ajar, a few autumn leaves drifted in and came floating down in front of the fireplace. Alit with a blazing flame, the fire roared beside Mrs. Darling, who rested in an antique rocking chair with her head reclined and brow furrowed with worry surrounded by an array of medicine bottles and hot water bags. Upon feeling the slight breeze that snuck in to the room, her eyes opened weakly and searched about for the source of discomfort. As her eyes came upon the open door, Mrs. Darling gathered her strength to gradually lift herself from the creaky chair, while clinging to the blankets that had been swaddled about her, and shuffled slowly to close the door. As she reached the door, Mrs. Darling was startled by the sudden loud slam of a door, created by Wendy who had, after scurrying up the staircase and through the elaborately decorated hallway with much haste, slammed the door to the nursery. Mrs. Darling stared up the stairs sympathetically after her emotionally distraught daughter and allowed one hand to carefully shut and lock the door with two swift motions. Then, turning to face the stairs, Mrs. Darling motioned to attempt to climb the foreboding steps, only to be quickly reminded of her frail state. With worry and sorrow carefully etching lines on to her kind and soft face, Mrs. Darling limped back to her rocking chair upon realizing that she could not console her daughter and whatever troubles may be plaguing her today. Settling back down among the excess bottles prescribed for her pains that had not yet been identified with any particular illness, Mrs. Darling eased herself gently back in to a troubled sleep.
After tearing up the stairs and through the hallways that had seen a better portrait of the Darling family, Wendy frantically threw the nursery door open, slamming it shut as soon as she made her way through and locking it. She carelessly tossed her book bag towards the closet and it hit the wall with a loud bang. Even more frustrated after realizing what damage she could've done by her actions, she walked huffily over to check on it and her shoe caught on the edge of a large rug that lay in the middle of the nursery. Falling to the ground with a thud and bruising her knees and elbows, Wendy stared in amazement at what had just happened for a moment, and then began to heave uncontrollable sobs. Unable to keep her frustration to a tear or two, Wendy lay sprawled out on the floor burying her tear-streaked face in her arm and breathed rapidly as a pounding headache seized her mind. Coping with her mother's illness, her sweet, caring, good, mother, her Father's loss of his job, the responsibility of monitoring the boys and dealing with the daily taunting she received at school for her insistence that the entire ordeal with Pan had been true, had taken a severe toll on Wendy. Little by little, her happiness was slipping away, as she repeatedly came home form school in tears of her classmate's comments or simply overwhelmed by the amount of responsibility that had suddenly been heaped upon her shoulders. Lately, the only joy she could find in her daily misery was that she could weep in privacy at home, because the boys and Mr. Darling were out during the afternoon everyday now, searching for some means of financial relief. She knew that her poor mother could not manage to make it up the stairs, so Wendy could be undisturbed and for once during the day, at peace in the gloom that had shrouded her once normal life. Though life was not unbearable, at times Wendy felt that her fourteen year old soul did not deserve such trouble, and she only wished life could revert to back when her father had a job and her mother was well. Pan was the only trouble on her life that she debated the resentment of, because she still cared for him deeply, but despised the trouble that had accompanied his departure. Certainly, these other events weren't his fault, and Wendy had the will to endure the childish teasing from her classmates, but it was the void in her heart that made her regret leaving Neverland, Pan, and the lost boys, and loathe Pan all the more for not helping her through her struggles. As Wendy reviewed the causes of her intense misery over and over again in her mind, she gently slipped in to a dreamless sleep and her crying ceased in to a hoarse breathing.
Hopefully it's still the same house, Pan thought to himself, as he soared gracefully through soft billows of clouds over the industrial landscape of London. Passing streets that were painted with the leaves of fall from trees that lined the sidewalk, Peter smiled mischievously to himself as her swooped down to the same balcony window where he had spent many nights listening to the enchanting voice of Wendy tell fairy tales that her retrieved to tell to the lost boys. Setting his feet down on the crisp windowsill, Peter turned the knob to the window and shook his head when it turned loose easily, allowing him to open it. They never learn to keep this window shut, do they, Pan thought, chuckling softly to himself. Once he crouched through it and placed his feet firmly on the nursery floor, Pan grabbed the curtains that were sucked outside in the cool late afternoon breeze and pulled them back in while shutting the window as quietly as he could. Proud of his stealthy actions, Peter whipped around to survey the nursery prior to making another move. When his eyes reached the figure of Wendy, sprawled out on the wooden floor, his eyes became panicked and he raced over to her. Kneeling on the ground beside her figure, Peter put his arms on both sides of her and lowered himself close enough so that he could her breathing and determine whether or not he needed to alert someone if she had been hurt. But as his ear rested on the upper part of her back, Pan could hear the quiet circulation of air occurring inside of her as her lungs expanded and contracted. Easing himself back to examine her fallen body further, Peter saw the bruises on her elbows and knees, the flipped up edge of the carpet and broke in to a smile when he assumed she had just clumsily fallen. Now sitting on the floor beside her, Pan debated waking the sleeping Wendy up to inform her of the disturbing news he brought with him. Deciding to wait at least as little while more before rousing her, Peter took great measures to cradle her light body in his arms to transport her over to her bed. She slumped to him limply in his arms as Peter flew gracefully over to Wendy's bed and he set her down gently on the tidy bed. Peter sat by her side and watched intently as she turned to her side in her bed. He gazed at her face, which was wrought with sadness and the residue of tears. Suddenly Pan felt the intensity of Wendy's emotions, through some unseen bond he felt the urge to comfort her and help her in some way. Moving to hold her, Pan realized her might awaken Wendy and disturbing her slumber could do more harm than good at that point, so he flew over to the other side of her, hoisted himself up next to her and after propping himself up on one elbow, he brushed the hair out of her face gently. Moving with controlled motion, Peter smoothed the back of her hair affectionately, while looking at her face as it seemed to loosen up a bit more, seeming to slip in to a deep state of peace. Maybe, Peter began a thought and dismissed it as soon as it had appeared in his mind as absurdity. But something persisted in his mind as he listened to the rhythmic breathing of Wendy and felt the silky touch of her golden brown hair, something about the kiss that he shared with her that revived his spirit and allowed him to defeat Hook. Although he still fought with his inner child spirit, Peter couldn't ignore the part of him that Wendy had taken when she shared that magical moment with him. Not now, Peter thought, things have changed, there are more important things to take care of now, he assured himself. And slowly, Wendy came to consciousness, at first groggy and complete unaware of the figure that sat beside her. Peter drew back his hand and waited patiently to be noticed, barely managing to withhold a grin. After rubbing her eyes and looking at her watch, Wendy sighed with exhaustion and started to sit up when she let out a small shriek at the sight of Pan and fell abruptly to the floor, not too much different than she had at their first encounter. Mumbling and rubbing her bottom where it had a rude landing on the ground, Wendy said to Pan grumpily, "And I suppose you think that was hilarious." Pan looked sheepishly on the ground for a moment before returning her glance with a wide smile and replied between giggles, "Unfortunately, it was indeed very funny!" Upon finishing his sentence, Pan covered his mouth to help save himself from getting a stern talk to, but this idea only made him laugh all the more harder, though not necessarily at Wendy's fall. Embarrassment and anger began to fill Wendy's face while she pulled herself on her feet and began to march over to the nursery door. Seeing that he had offended her more than he intended, Peter flew over in front of the door and said pleadingly while hovering a few inches above the ground, "Please, Wendy, I need to talk to you, I need your help". Wendy stared at the ground and replied viciously, "Pan, you've no idea what's happened since I went to Neverland with you, do you? Although, I'm sure it's of no importance to you, but I've been run ragged by all of the stuff that has happened to me and my family!" Pan lowered himself to the ground at the seriousness of her tone, coming face to face with Wendy while her eyes were still focused on the ground. "It's been horrible!" Wendy continued, "Father's lost his job, Mother's been so ill from a sickness not even the doctor's can define, I've been left to watch over the boys, because they still don't believe Nana's a proper caretaker." And at this Peter looked at the empty doghouse that still looked so out of place in the nursery, then back at Wendy. "And I, I made the stupid mistake to tell my classmates about our adventures! Now they think I'm bonkers and oh, Peter, I don't know when the torment will end and I can attend school normally again!" At this statement, Peter glanced a tear that rolled down Wendy's face and dropped to the cold wooden floor of the nursery. Wendy sighed heavily, "I just don't know how much more I'll be able to hold up, I'm getting so tired. And then there's you." Wendy stopped talking and shook her head, "But that's not important right now, no, it's not." She looked down at her feet, and felt a hand carefully lift her chin up. Peter searched Wendy's eyes that were once again filled with tears and spoke remorsefully to her, "I know Wendy, I know that things have changed for you. I'm sorry that they're for the worst; I wish I could change that. But right now, Neverland's in the worst trouble that it's ever encountered and I need you to help carry out my plan to save it. Please Wendy, I just know that if you come with me, I can stop the way things are headed and save that place that is a haven for everything I know that is good. I don't know how to explain exactly how much Neverland means to me, but you, you understand what I mean a little bit right, everything we did there, wasn't it fantastic?" Peter looked at her with slight enthusiasm for her response, but Wendy spoke in a tone that was still harsh. "Oh yes Peter, it was great fun, and then what happened? I came back and you know what, Neverland isn't reality, because in reality, there are things worse than pirates and there aren't always Indians to play games with and mermaids, well, there are no such thing here! Though I suppose you can't do a lot of what you can do in Neverland here either. You see Pan, my family needs me, and I need them, because where do I go when I want to stop playing? Home, Peter, home." Her face had softened a little bit and she looked to Pan to see what he might think of her situation, after a moment's silence, Pan ran huffily to the other side of the room and after shouting "I knew you wouldn't agree to help!" before slumping down next to the wall and burying his face in the space he created by gathering his knees up against him and arms around them. Wendy looked after him in disbelief, debating for a moment whether to give up and go downstairs to fix her grumbling stomach a snack or commit to consoling Pan and working out some arrangement. Clutching the doorknob, Wendy stood paralyzed with her thoughts. A weariness had grown in Wendy's face over the past month or so, and it showed the most at this very moment, as Wendy decided that life couldn't get any worse if she just talked to Pan about it. Wendy walked over to the other side of the room and crouched down next to Peter, after a brief silence, Wendy ventured to speak with a benevolent tone she strained to muster, "Now there's no use arguing between the two of us if neither acts willing to compromise. C'mon Peter, lets talk it out." Upon hearing this, Peter raised his head and looked with a small smile in to the caring eyes of Wendy.
Mr. Darling, John and Michael had returned shortly after Wendy's mother drifted off to sleep once more and shuffled in morosely. No job had been found available as predicted; hope seemed to be running out for the Darling family. Though Mrs. Darling wasn't getting any worse, she wasn't any better either, and Mr. Darling had taken the boys out walking with him everyday as they came out from school (and in Michael's case, day-care) to go around looking for a job and picking up their welfare check. The streets of London were filled with stale air, and the stink of corporate layoffs, as Mr. Darling soon smelled after the back had to reduce to layoffs as a means of making up for poor yearly customer turn out. The neighborhood seemed to sink in to the bottomless pit of sorrow that the mild depression had created throughout much of England. This was, however, merely the result of the fiscal calendar cycle, which was currently in a slump. Still, the dreary lifestyle, not entirely unbearable, took effect on to the Darling household, with relief nowhere in sight, Mrs. Darling wasted the day away bed-ridden and Mr. Darling roamed the streets of London in search of employment. However, Mr. Darling was never on to admit defeat and insisted that the family take no shame in their current financial status, while on the inside the disappointment slowly wore away his spirit. And yet whenever Mr. Darling glanced at his suffering wife, he was rejuvenated with an fierce force that made him even more dedicated to find a cause for her illness. The house brewed with discontent, and communication was mum given the atmosphere. Wendy made Peter wait outside while John and Michael entered the room, exhausted from a day of searching and depressed with the miniscule of gruel they were allotted for dinner. Tucking them in to bed, Wendy soothed their tired minds with a enthralling story about King Arthur and his knights of the Round Table. After their eyes drooped lazily down around the tale of Lancelot's battle and finally snores filled the nursery at the beginning of Arthur's deadly duel with Morgana, Wendy stared longingly in to their restful faces, wondering how they would fare if she were to accompany Peter on yet another quest to aid Neverland. Soon Wendy realized that she had not gotten anything in her to eat since a lunch at school, and her stomach yearned painfully for nourishment. Deciding to wait a little while longer before telling Peter the coast was clear, Wendy exited the nursery as quiet as a mouse and moved down the sullen hallway and stairs towards the kitchen. When she reached the kitchen entry, Wendy saw her father sitting on a chair hunched over on to the table using his arms as a makeshift pillow and snoring softly. At this image she smiled a bit, for the peaceful and somewhat silly image of her father was quite amusing. As swiftly and stealthily as she could, Wendy managed to grab a small chunk of a loaf of bread and a glass of milk before trying to escape the dining room without being noticed. But right as she was just about to disappear from any noticeable distance from her father, he spoke softly, "Oh, Wendy, hello, I didn't even notice you there," after saying that Wendy glanced back and saw her father adjusting his tie and ruffling his hair. "Sorry for startling you Father, I meant just to grab a bite to eat before retiring to the nursery," and at this Wendy started to walk up the staircase when her father spoke again. In a false cheerful voice her Father reported in a whisper, "Well, nearly had her today, a job at McGomery's, but they said that I had just missed the opening. Imagine that, just the luck. But, surely, tomorrow, I'll get something." But Wendy knew this wasn't so, and that made her want all the more to run up to her father and embrace him in a hug while telling him how much she admired his spirit, to just be able to tell him things will work out some way. Wendy nodded her head in approval, saying that, "Of course, Father, the job market is improving by the minute, and aside from that Mother's looking much better, so perhaps our medical bills won't be so bad when she gets well, and did I say she's looking better?" "Yes you did, my little Wendy," Mr. Darling said affectionately, "Things will get better soon enough." Wendy looked at the tiresome figure for a moment, a man that strived desperately to improve himself for the sake of his family's survival, and then whispered, "Goodnight, Father." Beaming proudly at his mature and responsible daughter, Mr. Darling replied, "Goodnight". And as soon as Wendy was up the stairs, weariness set in to Mr. Darling's eyes and spread through his body like poison.
As soon as Wendy was back in the nursery and had safely shut the door without noise, her eyes rested upon Peter who sat defiantly on her bed. A little perturbed at his presence without her approval, Wendy hissed, "Why didn't you wait, Michael and John could've still been up!" Peter exaggerated a quick glance over at their beds, so that Wendy could see that their figures seemed frozen in contorted positions while from their mouths was emitted a dreadful droning snore. She rolled her eyes and Peter smiled a quick grin, before motioning for Wendy to come sit beside him. She approached meekly and plopped down beside him while munching on a heel of the bread she had brought up and sipping milk. Wendy watched excitedly as Peter dug his hand in to one of the dark green pockets that was sewn on to his outfit, withdrawing a parcel wrapped in a thick, rubbery leaf. "Close your eyes," Peter instructed Wendy, and she lowered her lids while still savoring the bread in her mouth. She felt the cool placement of something near her collarbone center and then felt Pan's hands rest string about her neck. "Now, open them," Peter instructed once more, and when Wendy opened her eyes she saw the most beautiful clam shell that seemed to have all different kinds of brightly colored seashells and pearls infused on to it, while it was only the size of a golf ball. Wendy hopped up to look over in a vanity mirror near the closet in the nursery and admired how her new piece of jewelry shone so brilliantly in the light. She looked back over at Pan and exclaimed in a hushed voice, "Oh, Peter, it's simply gorgeous!" Peter bashfully acknowledged her approval and said sheepishly, "One of the mermaids left it out on the coral, and I was to return it to her promptly, but decided it would be more appreciated by you." She looked jubilantly in to his eyes and replied happily, "Well, your thievery sure has brightened my day." At that comment, Pan blushed even more and then a look of concentration and sudden remembrance crossed his face and he spoke to her softly, "So, you will come along with me won't you? I promise we won't be long, and about your mother, I think the faeries might know of a remedy to cure the pains you speak of, and since Hook is back with a plan to wipe all of the inhabitants and vegetation of Neverland out, I need the help of a girl with keen, sharp intelligence." His eyes gazed pleadingly in to Wendy's uncertain ones and he drew up behind closely while putting his face so that it just brushed her hair. "And what about getting away from it all for just a little while Wendy? The troubles of your family, we could fix them and you could come with me on another adventure." Peter piped down a bit more when Michael murmured in some dream during his slumber and said in a breathy whisper, "Forget them all once more, come away with me, to Neverland." Wendy looked about at the childish decorations of the nursery and looked to the window, which looked so inviting at that very moment. Then, for some unknown reason, two children, a boy dressed in an outlandish outfit and girl clad in her school dress, took flight in the crisp fall night, bound for the second star to the right and to continue straight on 'till morning.