Chapter Seven –

Slightly fell back onto his bed, shocked by what he had just heard. John had just given him an update of the current situation and if he understood correctly, it seemed that Wendy had been kidnapped, Peter was the last one to see her, and John wanted him take them to Neverland and question Peter about the night's events. Though technically he wasn't Wendy's brother like the other boys, Slightly had always been rather fond of her as she was the first mother he had ever known or could remember, and he was more than willing to help get her back, but there was no way he could do what John was asking of him.

"Look, I'd really love to help you all but I'm afraid what you're asking is impossible," said Slightly, rasing himself from the bed.

"Are you saying that you don't know how to get back to Neverland?" Queried John, rather confused. The twins had told him that Slightly was the only one who knew how to get back, other than Peter that is. If Slightly couldn't help them, there would be no way for he to talk to Peter.

"No, what I said is you are asking for the impossible. I know how to get back, but the only way to get to Neverland is to fly, and the only way you can fly is with fairy dust, and I'm afraid I'm all out."

"But there has to be another way," said Curley, afraid that he had lost his sister forever.

"I don't think you understand!" roared John, grabbing the front of Slightly's pyjamas and shoving him backwards against the bedroom wall. Applying pressure to his chest to make sure Slightly couldn't move, John continued is rant: "My sister has been kidnapped and you're telling me there's nothing we can do about it! For all we know she could be lying bloodied in a ditch, or being tortured by pirates, or... well God knows what else. If you don't tell me what I want to know, then whatever happens to her, I shall personally make you endure it threefold."

"John, calm down," squeaked Michael. He had never seen his brother lose his temper at anyone, but John seemed to have something else driving him tonight. He had yelled earlier that night at his brothers, he had then impulsively walked out into the black night to visit their cousin, whom he was now threatening. Not what you'd call typical-John-behaviour.

"Michael, stay out of this," bellowed John, directing his anger at his youngest brother.

"But he said he can't help us," argued Michael.

"Do you want to get Wendy back?" retorted John, applying additional pressure to Slightly's chest, making it hard for him to breath.

"We don't even know if Peter can help us!" yelled Michael. He was feeling rather annoying with the way his older brother had been behaving and had decided that he had had enough. "We have all followed your instructions down to the letter, and we have completed all our task without complaint or objection. We even followed you blindly into the night without question, we walked half way across town in subzero temperatures with nothing but your word that it was the only way to get our sister back. Now, we have interrogated Slightly in regards to finding and talking to Peter, but our efforts have proved fruitless. There is nothing more we can do here tonight. I think it's time to go to Plan B."

"Here, here!" chorused the three other boys in accord, Slightly's cheer being somewhat hoarser than the rest.

John was shocked. Michael had never shown any kind of leadership ability, yet he had now convinced all the others that John own style of leadership was proving damn near useless in regards to finding their sister and getting her back unharmed. He had somehow led them all to believe that he was a better authoritarian than John!

'Inconceivable!' thought John, now angered by his brother's insolence. 'Michael doesn't have the level headedness it takes to be in a commanding position.'

Feeling slightly put out, John resolved that it was time for him to reclaim control of this little party. "Well," he said to Michael, "do you have a 'plan B' as you have so wittingly dubbed it? Because after this I'm all out of ideas. But if you know a better way to find out what happened to Wendy, then please, do share it."

Michael glared at his older brother clearly seeing that he was trying to make him sound like a blithering idiot. John knew that they had no other leads on Wendy's whereabouts, but to make Michael admit that he didn't know how to get her back would be sure to make the other think John was better man for leading them to their lost sister.

"John, I'm not going to argue with you over leadership of this search, but you are being completely unreasonable --"

"I'm being unreasonable?!" John yelled angrily. He was now looking more furious than Michael or his brothers had ever seen him. "I'm not the one who has told us: 'yes there is a way to get your sister back, but no I won't help you do it'. I bet he helped Pan kidnap her!"

"Peter wouldn't kidnap Wendy!" said Nibbs, finally speaking up. He hadn't spoken the whole way through this conversation, but he was not about to sit by and let John insult the boy who taught him how to fight and helped him survive for all those years he'd spent in Neverland.

"Why not?" snapped John. "He's done it before."

"He has never taken any child involuntarily," wheezed Slightly, still unable to breath properly with John weight on his chest, crushing is lungs.

"How would you know?" John barked. 'This situation is spinning out of control,' he thought to himself. 'This is not the way things were supposed to happen!'

"Well, I can't account for all the time he's spent in Neverland... but I can tell you that while we were living there, no one was ever made to come or stay with him against their will."

"Look," said Curley, having had just about enough of the others' squabbling. "We're wasting time by arguing about this. Slightly says that he knows how to get to Neverland if fly, so all we need to do is figure out another way to fly."

John was about to argue with this theory and say there was no other way to fly, but a flicker of light near the windowsill distracted him. Letting go of Slightly, John did a double take to make sure he mind wasn't playing tricks on him, but it appeared his prayers had been answered.

"Right," John said, directing his attention back to his brothers and cousin. "Well, you all get to work on that and I'll... ummm... well I'll watch the skies to make sure Peter isn't going on a joy fly. Wouldn't want to miss him, hey? Just in case, you know?"

Michael watched his brother suspiciously as John walked over to Slightly's window and looked up into the night's sky. 'What could have made him change his mind about this so quickly?' Michael wondered, not fully convinced that John would have backed down from an argument so easily.

"Earth to Michael. Come in Michael," said Slightly, interrupting his chain of thought by waving an annoying hand in front of his eyes.

"Sorry, what?" responded Michael, snapping out of his hazy state of mind.

"Can we stop daydreaming and get to work?"

"Oh... yeah, sure... work..."

"Don't worry about him," said Curly, making himself comfortable on the floor. "He'll be spurting incoherent babble for the next half hour or so. Come on, we need to get to started."

Looking over his shoulder to make sure none of the other boys were watching him, John turned to the source of the small glowing light and sighed with relief.

"Thank god you're here," he whispered quietly, as he did not want the other's to be aware of the new being's presence. "There are a few things we need to sort out, such as my sister's kidnapping. That was never part of the plan. You were supposed to bring Peter to the house, and he was supposed to leave heartbroken. You never said anything about Wendy being kidnapped!"

"An unavoidable mishap," replied the new comer. "But things have changed, and we must adapt to change. I've put to much time and effort into this to see I all collapse because a silly little girl who is ruled by her emotions. This is what you must do: tell the boys that Peter has indeed kidnapped Wendy and that you know how you can get to Neverland --"

"But Tink, I don't know how to get to Neverland." John cut in, pointing out an obvious flaw in her plan.

"Of course you don't, idiot, but I do. Then, inform them that I've come back to help get you to Neverland. You will then 'rescue' your sister from Peter's hideout and return home. I don't need to remind you that both our futures rely on this working, John... or should I call you Captain?"

A/N: howdy all, sorry it took me so long to write this chapter, I've been sick and the computer's been sick so even though I wrote it a few days ago i haven't been able to post it... stupid technology. And I know it's probably not overly exciting with no Peter or Wendy action happening or anything, but I promise, everything with the boys relevent. If you haven't noticed, some of them have gone slightly evil, though irronically not Slightly :) Ok that was lame but not the point.Oh, and for all you Peter/Wendy fans out there, there is not need to fret, the whole next chapter is devoted to them so don't worry, it's all good. Anyways, I should be going but keep those review coming and I'll have the next chapter written ASAP,

Bye!