A.N.: Thanks to all the reviewers. You all are great! Much thanks for your feedback. It is the best sensation to know that people are enjoying what you write, and the thought that there are some who find delight in something that I love doing makes this all worthwhile.

Chapter 4.

"I remember the first time Peter taught me to fly," Wendy's eyes went to the woods and she smiled. "I felt like I could do anything after that. He had made me feel like I could simply fly up into heaven if I well pleased. Back then I was willing to try anything, and I used to surprise him with how I had no fear upon my face when I was lifted off of the group and into the sky.

"My fear did not come until Peter decided to teach Michael and John," Wendy let out a soft laugh. "How I felt like mother, yelling at Peter to be careful so as not to hurt them both. Peter kept telling me to not bother, yet I kept persisting and nearly fainted when I watched Michael and John roaming about like a bird, soaring against the night sky. I thought I would near die of horror."

"What did you do after he taught you to fly?" I asked, Wendy's story seeming much more interesting than the monotonous small-talk that was expected to pass between us.

"Why, we flew." Wendy blushed. "I don't know how to explain it. We roamed Neverland like no one else could and explored every little corner of it. Peter introduced me to the Mermaids and the Indians, and how jealous I used to be when I would see how all of the girls stared at him. That was when I realized that I was not a child anymore. The more I looked at him, the more I saw him as a person I could be more than a friend with. Yet, no matter how much my own feelings about him were, he was still Peter Pan. He could never look at me any other way but as a playmate, or a fellow kid who just did not want to grow up.

"Try as I might to catch his attention, to draw his attention my way in any way besides the friendly matter he looked at me, he was quite content with us being playmates. I would come to him in the night more dressed up than I would during the day, or he would find me doing my hair with ribbons and comment that girls were the weirdest creatures he had ever met but not once did he compliment me. He could not see past the fun we shared and see the girl that wanted to spend the rest of her life with him…"

"Wendy…" I saw the troubled look on her face as a poignant mask came upon her face. "What happened? Nothing horrid, I hope?"

" Slowly but surely I forgot things," Wendy lowered her gaze. "I thought perhaps it was nothing serious. That perhaps I was just making room in my head for more wondrous things and adventures, but when I forgot how to fly… I… I knew things were changing. Peter would try to take me to Neverland, but I could not find it. When he stopped visiting me, I would wander the woods all night and come back covered in mud and twigs and having my mother on the urge of sending me to an institution, but I could only sob in her arms and say I could not find what I was looking for. I was convinced that everything was only a dream, but when my mother told me she was hiring Jeanette as governess to turn me into the lady I should already be, Peter visited me."

"Did you realize everything was real then?"

"Of course," Wendy looked up at me now, tears in her eyes, and locked my gaze. "He offered me everything, Margaret. Peter promised me forever, if only I would not grow up and stay to play with him. When I told him I must grow up but I wanted to be with him yet, he only jeered as if I had insulted him, saying that if I wanted to grow up and get old and die then that was fine with him. He said he would never teach me to fly again and would never see me again. Then, I let him go."

"You let him go? Not another word said?"

"I did not know what to say," Wendy confessed. "How I wanted to be with him, Margaret. Why… I loved him so, but Peter… he could not… would not… ever love me. I suppose he might for playing and poking fun with, but never in the way I wished him to."

"But you loved him!" I gasped. "Why would you let him go?"

"Yes, I did love Peter." Wendy looked down at her hands. "He was the boy who visited me and took me on adventures I could never dream. But I had to let him go. I had chosen my destiny, and I planned to grow up. Peter had chosen never to. I could not go all of my life bound to a boy."

"Why would Peter not want to grow up?" I questioned, enthralled in her story.

"I do not know," Wendy smiled. "Now, that is enough talk of my Peter Pan for the moment. Lord only knows how much scolding I would receive from Jeanette if she knew I had spent this whole time telling you my tales of a childhood fantasy."

"Do you think this… Peter Pan… is still out there right now?"

"Oh yes, I believe Peter is still out there playing as we speak with his new playmates." Wendy took one last glance at the woods before continuing. "Why, he has an eternity of playtime and I am sure he must have a new fellow to share, if only a few moments, with him."

"Did you enjoy our performance there?" Peter asked when we were safe on the ground. "A royal time, I assure you all."

"I wish I could fly, Peter." Michael said. "I have not flown in so long."

"You don't mean to say you've forgotten, Michael?"

"You stopped coming to visit us so long ago, Peter, I can't help forgetting."

"I'll leave you to Tink." Peter remarked to Michael before turning to me. "Would you like to explore more?"

"Yes, what a place Neverland is." I looked over at Nicholas, who was resting against a tree and smiling smugly. "Would you like to join us, Nicholas?"

"I am rather content sitting here, thank you." Nicholas responded. "This Neverland is indeed a pleasant place."

"What a twit!" Peter laughed. "A whole world at his feet and he would take it lying down and resting! What a bore!"

"Nicholas is the practical one," I answered. "He would choose sitting down in a chair while we all run about any day."

"I say he's a twit."

"Say what you want, but my opinion shall not change on account of it."

"Why did you call for me?" Peter demanded.

"What do you mean?"

"You called for me," Peter's face grew angry. "You wanted me there. You asked for an adventure. What made you do it?"

"I wanted to meet you," I answered simply. "Wendy had told me about you and I wanted to have a story like that to share. I wanted to experience what Wendy felt. Perhaps this bit of adventure is what I need."

"What did Wendy tell you?"

"She said you taught her and her brothers to fly," I said seriously. "And that you took them on adventures, introducing them into the Indians and Mermaids."

"…and Hook."

"Wendy didn't mention Hook."

"Just like her," Peter shook his head. "That was because I saved her life that night. Hook had captured her and my lost boys, ready to make them walk the plank if they didn't join him. I, of course, came to their rescue, and the ungrateful brat turns me away and says she would rather grow up into a boring old woman rather than having fun forever."

"Wendy wanted to grow up," I told him. "There comes a time in everyone's life when they accept that it must happen, and then it's not half so bad."

"I won't accept it!" Peter yelled. "I am never going to grow up! Never!"

"Peter…"

"Don't try to make me feel better. There isn't anything you can do. Wendy isn't going to come back. She can't. She's forgotten everything. She went and grew up. But I never will. I will not leave Neverland!"

"You aren't leaving us, are ya Peter?"

Looking up, I saw a dozen heads looking down at us from a tree house atop the huge trees. Youthful faces, much younger than Peter, grinned sheepishly at me, and when Peter laughed his reply and we flew up, the tension from our conversation rapidly disappearing until only my anticipation to meet Peter's lost boys remained.

"This is Annie," Peter introduced, crossing his arms.

"Margaret Anita Maurice," I corrected. "But Annie is just as fine, thank you."

"Are you going to be our new mother, Annie?" a small freckled boy asked.

"Yes, will you tell us stories like Wendy did?" another kid hoped with wide eyes.

"She's much prettier than Wendy was," a skinny lad with hair that seemed to consume his head remarked.

"Annie, these are my lost boys." Peter said proudly.

"And you guys enjoy Neverland?"

"Yes, yes!" they piped.

"So much fun!"

"No more chores!"

"Don't matter if my hair is all messed up and tangled!"

"We can play all day!"

"Tink is fun to tease!"

"How about flying?" I giggled. "None of you enjoy that?"

"Ooooh…" the boys looked at Peter, who had rested in a hammock with a leg hanging off, swinging the leg back and forth as he whistled.

"Peter only teaches his favorites how to fly," the freckled boy explained.

"Only the special ones!" the boys said in unison.

"So you suppose I'm special?" I asked, blushing at the thought.

"Yes! Why do ya think he taught Wendy how to fly? And she was a girl!"

"Oh, so of course Peter cannot teach girls how to fly?" my hands went to my hips. "And why not?"

"Because they're girls, of course!"

"So I am not a girl now?"

"You're just Annie," the skinny lad stated. "Don't be expecting anything else. Wendy did, and look where…"

"Shhhh…" the boys reached out and covered his mouth.

"Peter was awful mad when Wendy wanted to grow up," the boy with a mass of hair pulled me down so he could whisper into my ear. "He locked himself up in his room and would only talk to Tink. I suppose he was mighty heartbroken she didn't want to stay with him."

"How do ya like my lost boys?" Peter hollered between whistles.

"They are very friendly," I called back, especially liking the three boys who clung to me and declared me their mother. "They seem neglected. Do you ever play with them, Peter?"

"They got each other, don't they?" Peter asked.

"Oh yes, I forgot." I said it more to myself than Peter, since he had went off with his Tinkerbell. "Does he go off often?"

"Everyday," big eyes told me.

"He comes back when he thinks we're all asleep and then he plays his pipes and broods like he has something worth being sad over." my new tall, hairy friend commented.

"He only does that because Wendy left him," freckles proceeded. "He used to always play games with us before then."

"It seems such a long time since he did that." big eyes pouted.

"What are your names?" I laughed, realizing I've been conducting conversation and did not even ask their names.

"Buggy," big eyes said.

"Hairball," the tall, hairy boy said.

"Freckles," the freckled boy said.

"Wow," I giggled. "My, and here I was in my mind giving you names not that far off from that!"

"Annie?"

Turning around, I saw Peter hovering next to the tree house, his fairy gleaming at his side. Looking at him, I smiled and grabbed his hand as I stepped over the railing and joined him. Holding hands, we sailed off to the treetops, and a million thoughts rushed through my head. The lost boys had said I must be special since Peter taught me to fly. Perhaps I could be someone dearer than his Wendy. Maybe I could be the one to rescue Peter from his Neverland.

"Peter…" I murmured his name when rested atop a tree with only the night sky as our canopy. "I can't describe exactly what…"

"Hook is here," Peter interrupted as he sunk down towards the ground. "He has finally come, and he's looking for you."