Peter sat dumbly before her, and Wendy made no move to start any form of conversation. Some may have seen it as a stubborn attempt on either side to force the other into some sort of apology, but in truth it was that neither knew where to go next. If he were to get up and leave, he would never have the answers to which he sought. However, if he were to stay, well, that was already proving futile as well. Wendy, on the other hand, had no idea what was going on. True she had always hoped Peter would one day again return to her, but her imagination never played this scene. She had pictured him throwing open the curtains and bounding handsomely into the room, in one hand a patch of weeds, for he had no true appreciation of flowers. In the other hand, he would hold a tiny kiss. She would cry gloriously before him and he would wrap her into his arms and whisper comforting things of love and marriage. Then they would return to Neverland and forever continue their adventures.

This was making her dreams wither and die faster than a mayfly. In fact, had she not been a lady, a few unsettling words might have been thrown at those fairy tale fantasies at this moment. But none of that mattered now to her. She could focus on her tattered dreams later, right now she had a serious problem to solve, and that was something only a once upon a time mother could do.

Seeing that Peter was not going to start addressing the problem, she took the first shot out into the dark. Apparently clearing her throat had worked since Peter's attention was immediately hers, though she found the problem was that she had acted before thinking of anything to say. Licking her lips, she decided to begin talking in hopes something worthwhile might come out. "Peter, I want to know… why did you never come back?"

"I am back." Such the child indeed.

"No, I mean before this. Peter, do you realize how many years have passed? You lied to me. You said you would come back." She lowered her head to stop the tears from showing but her quivering voice gave it away. "You just never came back."

He was silent. Utterly dumbfounded yet again and forced without reply or comfort. Not that he was much on comforting others, but for some unknown reason to himself, Peter found himself wishing for once for the perfect thing to say in order to turn the night around from the chaos he had undoubtedly brought.

"I…I thought…"

Her face snapped up and her deep blue eyes burned deeper than any flame. "No, Peter, you didn't think. You forgot about me! I know it! I can see it in your eyes."

He threw his head down like a child being reprimanded, and had Wendy not been so angry she would have felt some pity. But not now; he had lied and deceived her for the last time and she was through. "You don't care for anyone but yourself. Even now! You haven't seen me in so many years and the first thing upon arriving you kick and scream like an infant being removed from its sleep! Well, I just can't bear any more of this, this…I don't even know what this is!"

Now Peter had felt shame only a few times in his life prior to this night. But now it felt like a new feeling, or perhaps it was because he knew he wouldn't be allowed to forget this feeling in the upcoming moments. He was to sit there before his Wendy and accept his punishment until she was satisfied. So he waited.

"And besides, I don't know why you would think I would know why you are growing up! I haven't seen you! I don't know what you did with your life! Do you think I keep tabs on you anymore? I've grown up Peter! I'm done telling the tale of your mockery of a legacy."

He pointed to her papers on her table. "Then what are those."

"Those are…wait. How do you know about those?"

He began to study his bare feet finding disgust in the blistered and dirty shame they were. Upon hearing his name, he looked back to Wendy to find a questioning gaze upon her. "What?"

"I asked you, have you been spying on me?" For the first time in what seemed forever, she felt some rash feeling of hope and desperation. True, she was still mad, but he need not know how much it would mean to her if he had been.

"Not often, only after Tinkerbell died…I thought you might like to help me find a new fairy. But you had…you know…"

"Grown?"

"Yeah."

"But Peter, weren't you growing then too?"

He started slowly, as if ashamed. "Yeah."

"Then why didn't you see me?"

He looked down, "Every time I see you, it ends badly."

Now Wendy let her tears fall. "You…you wretched little boy! How could you say such things? Have you no compassion to spare my feelings?"

He ran his finger below her eye, leaving a dirty smudge but succeeding in removing her tear. "Don't cry Wendy. It's just that…it's not that I don't enjoy our adventures, but look behind us. We are not compatible with one another…it always ends in hurt feelings.

"And life lessons," she interrupted.

"We have enough of those already…when do they stop?"

She looked up at him, his naïve question reminding her of their past. "They don't." He nodded.

He turned his attention back to her papers scattered at random on her desk. Deciding to take a closer look, he began rummaging through them, staring at them individually until he felt satisfied. Wendy, who knew Peter could not read, wondered what he thought of them. She had a knack of speaking aloud when she wrote, so it was apparent he knew what she was doing. "What are you thinking about?"

"Why you would waste time writing about me if you hate me."

Wendy sighed lightly, "I don't hate you Peter. I just find you…unbearable at times."

"Oh," he turned quickly to her, a smile pasted across his lips as bright as the sun. "So then, what will you write of next?"

She sat herself upon the edge of her bed, "I'm not entirely sure yet, I haven't any other adventures to speak of."

"Well then, we must make one so that you may write one. Come with me!"

"But Peter…I have commitments here, I can't just up and leave for Neverland like I used to."

"Hush," he covered her mouth with a dirty hand and Wendy felt nauseous upon wondering what earthen creatures of the soil he might have been toying with earlier. "Consider it a business deal then old lady. You have your story and I get my answer."

"PETER I AM NOT AN OLD LADYYYYYYYY!" Before she could finish he had scooped her in his arms and flew out the window, determined to begin their adventure immediately.