This story takes place only a few years after Wendy's first visit to Neverland with Peter Pan, so it is considered a follow-up to the 2003 P.J. Hogan film Peter Pan (with some references to the original Barrie novel 1911 and his own Peter Pan prequel, Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens 1904).
'Ello again! I said I'd be back! Are you still hangin' in there? Cuz I am! ;-)
Again, I have no ownership of any of the characters or actors who portrayed them...they belongs to the Great Ormond Street Hospital (no matter what Disney says)!
Here's Chapter XX .....please review! :-)
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XX. UNEXPECTED TRAPPINGSA great yawn pervaded the Jolly Roger as the day made its presumed exit. The only indication of Night's true arrival afforded to the ship's occupants was the waning of the Indian tribes furious daylong chants.
Captain Hook and Wendy had utilized the remaining operative hours to show young Ram Eye, now young Geoffrey, round the old pirate ship, from top to tails. Wendy did most of the enlightening, whilst Hook remained close at hand to correct any uncertain terminology. He'd never seen Wendy so animated as when she was pointing out the topsails or explaining the function of the scuppers to the lad. There was not a thing in the world he would begrudge her, but he had to be honest with himself and silently admit how he should very much like to be able to arouse the same such light in her eyes as that child could.
Geoffrey was already fast asleep on the Captain's fainting couch when Hook and Wendy retired as well that evening. Their nightly ritual quickly concluded, they remained awake for some time, lying on their sides facing one another and conversing about the strange events of that afternoon, snickering at how the large deckhand Trounces squealed and ran at the sight of Geoffrey, and other such frivolities.
Soon, as the pair grew sleepier, these topics gave way to more thoughtful ones. Hook had had another perplexing dream the previous night, seeing himself wondering aimlessly along a misty shore, a terrible pain in his neck, and spotting along the vague horizon the outline of a ship just before collapsing onto the sand. That was all he remembered. Wendy listened with intent, all the while carelessly tracing the palm of his one remaining hand with her fingertip and briefly marveling not only at how much larger it was than her own but also the length and profundity of his Life Line.
Wendy offered a simple explanation of the dream before they both fell into a pensive silence. Hook observed her through heavy eyelids continue to caress his hand until he felt his lips move in a most uncommon fashion:
"I do love you, you know," he practically mumbled.
Wendy's fingers slowed noticeably, but the rest of her did not seem to react at all.
"Did you hear me, Wendy?" he asked more clearly.
She nodded, keeping her eyes from his. "Yes."
"Is that all you've to say?" the Captain spoke gently.
And then Wendy drew back her hand and buried her cheek into the pillow, her face screwed into a cry. Hook raised his head in alarm.
"But...why do you weep? Surely, 'tis nothing to weep over..."
She covered her face with her hand. "I'm afraid."
"Of what, for heaven sakes?" He stroked her arm soothingly. "Of me?"
"No." She peered at him through her fingers. "Of me."
Hook did not understand, she could read it on his face. Thus she held out her hand and touched his cheek.
"You do so deserve to be loved, James," she said sadly.
Hook could scarcely like the path this was taking, but he held his tongue as yet.
"But," Wendy continued, "I'm afraid that I might never be able to love you the way you deserve to be loved."
In truth, Hook could not have found this unexpected, and the rueful smile which glazed over his countenance said thus.
Wendy furrowed. "Why do you smile when what I've said is so contemptible?"
"Oh Wendy, I could never flatter myself so by imagining that I would ever honestly be loved by the likes of you."
"Why must you say such things?"
"I am imperfect." His smile faded and became dark. "How could I expect you to feel anything at all for someone who is not...complete."
"Nonsense," Wendy asserted quickly, holding his stump to her breast. "I adore every inch of you. Even those inches which are no longer there."
Despite it all, they both smiled at this. The Captain, finding himself just a touch reassured, allowed his head to fall back onto the pillow.
"I never did apologize to you," he said.
"For what?"
"For what I did to you when first we met, when you were still a girl. I behaved so deplorably."
Wendy did not really want to think about it again. "No need for apologies. It's in the past, and I completely understand now."
"You couldn't possibly," Hook sighed. "I ought to be flogged than forgiven for it."
"Even then," Wendy began, "Underneath it all, I glimpsed at the true man that you were, that cried so desperately to be set free. And now, at last, I see that true man before me, in the flesh. A man that any woman could love without hesitation."
"I care not for 'any woman' but you, Wendy," Hook stated firmly. "'Tis only thy love alone which my black heart yearns for. But alas..."
He began to turn away, but Wendy stayed him softly, her voice trembling. "Please don't give up on me, James. Not yet. I couldn't bear it if you were to abandon me as well."
"Never!" he nearly bellowed, affronted at the thought of treating Wendy as that despicable Peter Pan had. He closed his hand tight around hers. "My darling, I would gladly wait until Doom itself cracks if you should ever find it in your heart to bestow upon me thy most precious Kiss."
She could hear his voice waver as well, and she smiled at him though damp eyes. "One day soon, you will have it all, James Hook. Just as you ought to."
The pirate's powerful body suddenly wilted into a gentle weep, so unused it was to such succor.
Wendy hastened to wipe his tears away. "Oh, now don't you start too!" she exclaimed with a gentle smile.
He let out a silly snort himself. "I can't scarcely help it."
"What a fine pair we make," Wendy laughed, wrapping her arms around his neck.
"I daresay," Hook drawled, staring down at the one true fortune of his life. He drew her in closer and kissed her as he had never kissed her before. And he would have made love to her brilliantly at that moment had he not pulled away so suddenly and prematurely.
"What is it?" Wendy gasped.
Hook laid low on his back, his eyes narrow and darting past Wendy's shoulder.
"We have a guest," he hissed though his teeth.
Wendy followed his gaze and was shocked to behold, indeed, the slight figure of a boy lingering at their bedside.
"Geoffrey!" she squealed, pulling the duvet up to her neck.
"Excuse me, Miss Wendy, Cap'n sir," Geoffrey said in a small voice, seemingly unaffected by the sight he had walked in on. "I 'ad a bad dream."
"Oh, I'm sorry," said Wendy genuinely.
"Well, 'tis all over now, yes?" Hook blurted with forced joviality. "Back to bed with you."
"Oh, I don't think I could, Cap'n," Geoffrey shook his head insistently. "I think I shan't want to be alone anymore t'night."
"You poor dear," Wendy cooed, giving Hook a slightly nauseous feeling.
"An' I was jus' wonderin'," the boy went on sheepishly, "if I could bunk with ye the rest o' the night."
Wendy stared at him for a long moment, wordless. But Hook was the more effusive.
"Oh, poppycock," he dismissed. "You are perfectly safe in the stateroom."
"I s'pose I ought t'be, sir," Geoffrey replied, his lower lip beginning to quiver, "but alas, I find it so vary unsettlin'."
The boy was near tears, and had Wendy not been restricted by her own immodesty, she would have run to him at once.
Hook, however, did not appear quite so empathetic and decided a more heavy-handed approach was in order.
"Now, now, young man, we shall have none of that. I say, is this the conduct of a pirate?"
His own words nipped at his nose the moment they left his mouth, and he needn't have had Wendy's arched eyebrow to add salt to the wound. In that moment, he recognized his own foolishness, and decided that perhaps these matters should be best left handled by the Woman.
And Wendy's ensuing solution was not unforeseen.
"Geoffrey," she said with newly-dispensed authority, "Of course you may join us for the night."
The child's eyes lit up like the boulevards on Christmas, and he took an anxious step forward.
"But first...!" Wendy cried out, both she and Hook inclining dreadfully from him. "You must do something for me."
"Yes, Miss?"
She offered a coy expression to mask her true intentions. "First, you must turn around, close your eyes, and count to.....thirty! Can you count to thirty, Geoffrey?"
"I believe so, Miss, but...why must I do this?"
"To, erm...because...umm..." Wendy stumbled, looking briefly to Hook, who himself had long-abandoned this conundrum, "To prove that you are truly awake! For if you are not, then all is well and you have no need to get into bed with us, would you?"
"Oh...I see." Though he truly did not. But he decided to play anyway. After all, grown-ups know best, don't they?
Thus with a shrug and an uncertain grin, Geoffrey turned about, facing the door, clamped his hands over his eyes, and began his laborious chant:
"One.....two.....three...."
Almost immediately, Wendy and Hook exploded from the bed like two cannons and spilled over their respective sides, each diving for any scrap of discarded clothing which littered the floor around the bed.
"...twalve....thirteen.....farteen.....ehteen.....erm, no! Fifteen....."
And in betwixt Geoffrey's counting the telltale grumblings of the thinly-masked mêlée behind him:
"Smartly now!"
"Oh, bloody hell..."
"....nineteen.....twenty.....twenty-n-one....."
"Is this mine or yours?"
"Mine!"
"Ouch!"
"Sorry..."
"....twenty-n-six.....twenty-n-seven....."
"Brimstone and gall!"
And at last: "Tharty!"
Geoffrey spun himself like a top, all giddiness and anticipation, to see his benefactors laying every so deliberately upon the bed in rumpled garments he had not noticed previously and wearing in addition a pair of rather pasted-on smiles.
"Bravo, Geoffrey!" Wendy exclaimed with a bit of a wheeze to her voice.
But lo, something else appeared askance.
"Weht a second," Geoffrey creased his forehead, "Waren't you switched around befare?"
Wendy peered wide-eyed over Hook's shoulder but was quick to the task. "Oh dear! I daresay he is yet still quite asleep, isn't he?"
And before the boy could protest, Wendy was gesturing him to the bed and clearing an ample space between herself and Hook. His encroachment onto the mattress was rather clumsy, at least to Hook's taste, but the pirate remained tactfully mum even when Geoffrey's tiny kneecap sunk into his solar plexus. Under the guise of helping, Hook snatched the boy's leg and seethingly tossed it away from his person and toward Wendy.
One mustn't judge the Captain too harshly for his behavior, given his otherwise wobbly history with the younger set. But rest assured that he was trying most vigorously, for Wendy's sake, not to be so terribly burdened. Notice I say "be" and not "appear to be", for Hook wished in all honesty to "be" the very best man for Wendy that he could conceive of and that which she deserved. He'd grown so very tired as late of his own negativity. Granted, he had been tired of it for some time – long before he knew of Wendy Darling – but only until very recently had he clung to his rage like an old unswerving companion.
But he was no longer in need of such worn-out, depressing company as that, was he?
Geoffrey nestled his little head against Wendy's bosom, curling up into a ball like a kitten. And though she held him tightly enough for a boy his size, Geoffrey clearly thought it not enough, and he reached back to clutch the sleeve of Hook's dressing gown and drape it over him as well.
The Captain would have found this quite startling on any occasion, but the boy's action had made even Wendy stop and give wary notice, for Geoffrey had taken hold of Hook's right arm.
They both froze breathless as Geoffrey turned his head a slight to get a full look at the stump resting over his shoulder.
And then, he let out a tiny yawn, returned his head to Wendy's chest and muttered: "Oy, that musta 'urt."
Hook breathed again, though not so much in relief but in aghast at the boy's apathy toward his affliction. He searched Wendy's eyes, which fixed on his in a smile which seemed to say, "You see? 'Tis not so awful as you think."
Hook smiled too.
As the bizarre trio drifted off into Dreamland that evening, each one had a very similar sentiment tickling at the Happy Center of their minds – that wouldn't it be so very lovely if the Universe were to let it be like this always.
Was the Universe listening this night?
The ensuing day, in all its morose glory, was an exhausting one indeed, to all except for young Geoffrey, who could have happily carried on for weeks without a single complaint or respite. He had first been given a good coaching on proper swordsmanship from the Captain, eagerly absorbing all there was to know and picking up everything beautifully – perhaps a little too well. By the time Smee's secret pocket watch ticked at Noon, poor Hook had been all but worn down to the decks by the boisterous youth. He beseeched of Wendy to distract the boy in some other endeavor whilst he retired to the cabin to soak his feet, and she gladly obliged, playing a spirited game of hide-and-go-seek with the lad.
Geoffrey was besting Wendy soundly through the first couple rounds – he had sought her out in record time when she ducked into the crow's nest and had successfully alluded her detection himself underneath the small forecastle staircase. But when it came Wendy's turn to hide again, she was certain he would be positively confounded this time. And indeed he was, and when he still could not seek her out after some minutes had passed, he pranced about the ship loudly proclaiming his defeat. But she would not reveal herself.
When she was at last discovered by the cook inside his musky, cramped pantry, Hook was summoned from his rest to the infirmary at once. Declining Smee's offer for his Sedan chair, Hook hobbled and limped to the doctor's quarters on his own accord, his heart racing like a thousand mustangs.
Bursting through the door, Hook found therein Doc washing his hands in a basin and Wendy sitting close by on his observation table, looking no worse than perhaps a tad weary.
"What's going on?" Hook demanded.
"I'm alright, James," Wendy assured him. "I just got a bit lightheaded being inside that cabinet and all."
"Well, there's a bit more to't than that," Doc declared, drying his hands on a rag. "But I wanted the Cap'n present afore I said anything else."
Hook and Wendy both looked to the doctor eagerly.
"Well?"
Doc's face was unmoved. "Your young miss 'ere is with child."