Chapter 8: Wounds Beneath the Skin

Wendy was by now dressed and had arrived downstairs in the kitchen on time. Thanks to Slightly.

As the cook handed her an apron Wendy thanked her politely and the cook smiled back without a reply.

She motioned for Wendy to follow her into the main area of the kitchen, which was surrounded, by numerous pots and pans.

Wendy covered her mouth suddenly as a tired yawn escaped. Her eyes watered a bit which made the redness that already surrounded them even more noticeable.

The cook looked concerned and said, "My dear…are you alright?"

Wendy nodded and removed her hand to say, "Yes…I'm just a little tired that's all."

The cook shook her head sadly and said, "If it was up to me, I'd let you get all the sleep you need. A growing girl needs her rest. How else does that aunt of yours expect you to complete your studies and all the rest?"

Wendy gaped as the woman turned her back. She couldn't believe what this lady had just said about her aunt. Why on earth did she work for her if she despised her so much?

The lady turned to face Wendy and what she said next, Wendy swore the lady had read her mind.

"Oh don't get me wrong miss Wendy, I think your aunt is a very wise woman, but her methods of some tasks are quite extreme." She explained.

"I understand perfectly." Said Wendy letting a grim smile appear on her lips.

The cook gave her a sympathetic look before saying, "Anyway we better get moving. We have to have breakfast on the table by seven, and trust me, we are going to need all the time we can get."

Wendy's eyes widened. Three hours to prepare breakfast? Now she knew why her own mother was so exhausted all the time. Wendy had never thought about this side of life. She had always been treated like a princess, now that she came to think of it. She got anything she asked for…well almost anything.

Wendy followed the woman out through the kitchen door, which led to a chicken coop and in the distance she saw a few cows in a shack, obviously waiting to be milked.

"Alright, now, I want you to go into the chicken coop and collect all the eggs you find in the nest boxes." The woman explained handing her a cane basket.

Wendy received it with a look on her face that said, I'll try my best.

As Wendy entered the coop she was greeted by a rather unpleasant smell. She upturned her nose and tried to hurry. A few chickens decided that it was rather funny to fly right into her face as she walked past, leaving white and brown feathers sitting in her hair.

She then came to a chicken that was sitting protectively over its nest box. She reached under its feathers and pulled out one large, creamy coloured egg with ease. However as she went to reach for the next egg from underneath it, the chicken flew up and scratched its claws against her left eyeball.

She dropped the basket frantically, flung her hands to her eye and ran out of the coop screaming. The cook greeted her worriedly, trying to find out what the problem was.

She saw the blood seep from her eye and turned quite pale. She rushed Wendy back inside to the kitchen and grabbed a freezing cold icepack out of the freezer. She told Wendy to sit on a stool at the bench and wait until she got aunt Millicent.

Wendy sat there holding the icepack against her eye painfully.

This is just great. Now I would probably go blind in my left eye.

A few minutes later aunt Millicent rushed over to her with a rather concerned look in her eyes. She was still in her nightclothes with a night robe wrapped around her.

"Wendy dear." She exclaimed as she cupped her hands around Wendy's face trying to examine her eye. "Show me your eye."

She shook her head and said, "No…it hurts."

"Please Wendy…I must know how bad it is, so I know whether to call the doctor or not." She explained.

Wendy reluctantly removed the icepack from her left eye crying in pain, which hurt even more as the tears washed over the cut, stinging her.

"Oh my…" Aunt Millicent trailed off as she saw the blood slowly seeping from the corners of her eye.

"Madam Cherry…please stay here with Wendy while I go to call the doctor." Aunt Millicent requested as she left the room with a hand over her mouth.

The cook whose name was now known as Madam Cherry sat beside Wendy rubbing her arms soothingly as she tried to calm Wendy down.

However, Wendy wished it were her own mother here at the moment.

A while later Aunt Millicent came back and instructed Wendy to follow her up to Wendy's room. She said that the doctor was on his way and he wanted her to lie down, so as to not cause further damage. He also said that the ice pack was a smart move by Madam Cherry.

As Aunt Millicent and Wendy left Madam Cherry in the kitchen, the cook felt that breakfast would most likely not happen at all that morning.

Aunt Millicent helped Wendy walk up the stairs to her room. As they walked through the hallway Slightly came out of his room to greet them smiling, but frowned as soon as he saw that all was not well.

"Wendy what happened?" he asked concerned, as he saw the icepack pressed firmly against her left eye.

"Slightly we don't have time for you right now. Go make yourself useful downstairs. Wendy is not well." Barked Aunt Millicent.

Slightly was a little shocked at his mother's sudden anger and nodded taking one last glance at Wendy before running down the stairs.

"Well it doesn't look too serious…just a scratch." Explained the doctor who was now sitting by Wendy, who was lying down in her bed.

"It hurts." Wendy whimpered trying not to cry, fearing that it would cause her more pain.

"I bet it does." Replied the doctor. "That's why I'm going to cover it up with a patch so that you don't keep moving it all the time. I'll also have to put a black eye patch over the top which will secure it down." He said as he began to pull out his tools.

"But before I do that, I'm going to have to flush your eye out with disinfectant. You may have dirt trapped in the eye." He said pulling out a small bottle from his black leather suitcase.

"Will it hurt?" Whispered Wendy.

"Yes I'm afraid, but just for a bit." He said reassuringly.

Wendy decided to be brave as her aunt held onto her hand for support.

"Okay look straight at me." He instructed.

Wendy followed orders and looked at the doctor who dripped a few drops of liquid into her throbbing eye.

"Arghh!" Wendy screamed in pain as the liquid seeped into her eye flushing out a few grains of dirt.

"There we go all done." The old doctor soothed, as he patted her hair. "Now we only have to put the patches on."

Wendy nodded glad that the worst was over.
As the man began to attach the materialized patch to Wendy's eye, a boy in the window watched on, rather scared for Wendy.

That night Wendy had a hard time sleeping, even though her aunt had given her a sleeping pill.

She tossed and turned and finally threw back the covers as she jumped up out of her bed. She walked over to her mirror to inspect her new patch for the first time.

She giggled a bit realising that she looked like a pirate.

More memories flooded her mind again of Peter. Her smile disappeared and she walked over to her window to look out at the sky and found that something was coming closer and closer in the distance. Like a shooting star. Wendy backed away from the window and ducked under her bed, afraid that it was a comet headed straight for her room.

However the comet never seemed to arrive, so Wendy crawled out from under her bed and tiptoed over to the window. Nothing was there.

She opened her window and walked out onto the balcony. She looked down and saw nothing had fallen at all. Taking one last glance around at the night sky, she turned to walk back into her room, only to find that a young boy was standing in front of her.

She went to scream in shock, only to be stopped by his left hand covering her lips. He raised his right finger to his lips and whispered, "Sshhh."

Wendy nodded and he removed his hand. For a moment they stood looking at each other in the moonlight. Both with rather curious expressions upon their faces.

Finally Peter spoke up, "You know, you would make a funny-looking pirate." He said smiling.

Wendy grinned a meaningful smile for the first time in a very long time.

"Like you can talk. You looked pretty silly yourself when you dressed up in Hook's clothes that night on the ship." She replied cheekily.

"Me…look silly…never." he declared and flew a few feet into the air so that he could stare into her eyes at the same level, (well one eye at least).

"So…what are you doing here?" she asked looking at him seriously.

"To clear a few things up that's all." He replied giving her the same look.

"Oh…like what?" she questioned.

His expression looked a little angry and he said, "Like the other night when I came here and you pretended not to see me."

"What…how do you know I pretended not to see you?" she asked mystified.

"Well for one thing you told me just now, and…I have my sources." He said sounding strangely mature for a moment.

"What sources?" she asked folding her arms.

"Look, the fact is, when I first came to see you at your house, you clearly stated that you didn't ever want to see a flying pan again, and when I saved you when you fell out of the window, you pretended not to see me then as well." He said also folding his arms as he began to fly a little higher above her.

"What? I never said that." She argued.

"Yes you did…just after you went upstairs from that place with food." He said pouting.

Wendy let a smile form upon her lips as she realised what he meant. She giggled a little which made him frown.

"What's so funny?" he demanded.

"Oh…it's just that…what I actually said was, that I never wanted to see a frying pan again." She said trying to contain her smile.

His furrowed eyebrows relaxed as he began to understand, only to ask, "What's a frying pan?"

"Oh it's just something you use to cook food on." She explained.

"Ah…alright then." He said smiling.

Wendy suddenly remembered his previous words. He had said that he had saved her from when she fell out of the window at her home.

"Peter…it was you who saved me from falling?" she whispered.

He looked at her in bewilderment.

"Yes Wendy…didn't you see me? I was talking to you the whole time and you ignored me." He said folding his arms once more.

Wendy looked at him confused and said, "Well, at least I now know why I was shoved so forcefully back through the window."

His bright eyes showed sadness and he said, "I hope I didn't hurt you. But I didn't have to save you. I was on my way back to Neverland. And then you didn't even bother to thank me for what I did."

He started fuming as he said his last words. However he didn't mean it. He would have saved Wendy no matter what the circumstances were.

"Peter, believe me. I didn't see you." She explained walking towards him.

He eyed her with a look of discomfort as she did this and so she stopped in her tracks.

He then whispered angrily sounding very hurt, "How can I believe you, when you don't even believe yourself?"

Wendy was cut deep by his words and tone of voice and whispered, "Please leave Peter…and don't ever come back."

He looked shocked and went to apologise, but he was Peter Pan, he didn't have anything to be sorry for.

"I think I will. But I want you to have something before I go." He said gently. He took her right hand and placed something in it.

She opened her hand and saw his kiss that she had so carelessly thrown out of the window that day.

Wendy looked pleased to see it but suddenly did the opposite to what Peter expected. She stuffed it back into his hand and said, "I don't want it. It means nothing to me anymore."

With that being said she ran back through the open window and shut it slowly. She then stared into his eyes through the glass, with a mixture of sadness and anger, as she slowly turned the lock at the top of the window.

A sign that even Peter understood. He was no longer welcome in her life. No longer a part of it. She was locking him out.

Wendy watched as he flew away into the sky once more. Once again leaving her life. Leaving her behind. But this time it was for good.

A/N: Well I'm back again. Yey! Read and Review pretty please! Enjoy!

P.S. I changed my pen name for the last time for an important purpose.

Yunie Tidus