Title: Madly in Love
Summary: When Wendy came back from Neverland and started telling people about her experiences, they all thought she was crazy… literally. Can she convince anyone to believe her? And what if they don't?
Author's Note: We've finally hit the turning point for Wendy. Up until now, she's just sat back and tried to accept everything. Soon we'll get to see her stronger, more rebellious side.
Is there anyone else in the world who just hears the word "Math" and bursts into tears?... Yeah well, that's me.
Kiya - Actually, I had originally planned on a happy ending, but I have an idea for a sad one too. It really all depends on how many people want the sad one and how many want the happy one. I'll have a poll close to the end and we'll see how it should go.
tinkerflyinbell1210 - If you noticed in the previous chapter's Author's Note, I said that he will be in it later, but not yet. This is a WENDY fic for the moment. Don't get me wrong, I love Peter... and I'm mildly tolerant of Wendy (ironic that this whole thing is about her) but Peter has his moment in the end.
Thank you to everyone else who reviewed! I really do appreciate them.
Wendy was filled with an invigorating new feeling -- resolve. As she watched the pills circle down the toilet bowl, she swore to herself that she wasn't going to just survive the institute. She was going to conquer it. Along with her new found sense of determination, Wendy felt like a weight had been lifted off her shoulders. For the first time in years, she wasn't going to be polite if she didn't want to. It had taken her two weeks, but it finally hit her that if people thought she was mentally unstable then she could use that to her advantage.
She smiled and unconsciously placed her fists on her hips, feeling like she had won her first battle at hospital.
And it all started with throwing out her medication. This small act was what she needed all along to unlearn every lesson of tolerance and being passive, as a woman "should" be. She tossed out every thing Aunt Millicent taught her and decided to start fresh.
Starting with Tea Time.
She scuttled down to the tea room and burst in just seconds before the frizzy-haired nurse came to teach. Wendy wondered if she was even a certified nurse, or an old-fashioned mother who insisted on manners classes being taught. Smiling in mild amusement, Wendy sat wordlessly next to Eliza on a dirty-looking sofa.
"What are you smiling at, ding bat?" asked Eliza bluntly.
"Nothing. Nothing at all," replied the older girl as she quickly wiped the smile off her face. Noodle peeked his head out from the other side of Eliza to glance at Wendy and then retreated back behind the blonde.
The manners nurse (Mrs. Edwards was her name) shushed the group before her and called for their attention.
"Today we will be doing something a little bit different. We'll be working on en exercise in serving tea rather than being served it," she said clearly. She went to the locked cabinet in the corner and pulled out several tea pots. Then she lit the stove next to it wither own box of matches (the only way they could keep inmates from playing with the stove) and placed each water-filled pot over a burner. She then went on to lecture about how noble it was to serve tea and every civilized person in England had tea. All the while, Wendy knew she was just filling up the space of time that she was using to make the tea.
"It is an honorable characteristic to be a generous host. And every courteous hosts serves tea," she began as she handed out poor-quality tea cups, spoons, and other necessities for tea time. "And not only women can be hosts. Men too can display their leadership and hospitality through teatime."
Giving out the four pots to random people, she instructed the "hosts" with pots to serve two "guests" of their choosing. Wendy was designated a host and she predictably chose her two friends to be her guests.
"Another thing to remember is to always offer cream and sugar to your guests. Though I myself prefer just plain tea, there are many others who don't and you should always be considerate of your guests' preferences."
"This is such a load of rubbish," muttered Eliza. Wendy nodded with an exasperated sigh.
"Just a lot of hot air," Wendy added. Before they knew it, Mrs. Edwards was standing behind them with her lips pursed into a thin line.
"Eliza, mumbling rude comments is not becoming of a young lady. Serve the tea, Wendy. Don't waste your guests' time," scolded Mrs. Edwards. Eliza glared daggers at the woman and went on whispering every dirty name she could think of under her breath.
Wendy half-heartedly dumped some tea into Eliza's cup then said in a very monotone voice, "Cream and sugar, Ms. Patrick?"
"None," Eliza said tersely, then rolled her eyes at the fact that they were being monitored just for expressing her opinion.
Wendy moved on to Noodle's cup and began to pour. But right before the steaming tea hit Noodle's cup, he covered it with his hand. Wendy gasped in surprise as Noodle yelped from the pain going through his hand.
"Oh, I'm so sorry, Noodle!" Wendy apologized. "Are you-?"
"Young man!" Mrs. Edwards interjected. "That was very rude and most ungrateful of you to do that! You should not decline your host's hospitality unless you absolutely must! And even then, you need to decline the proper way!"
Noodle shrunk farther back into the old couch with every word she shrilly spoke and Wendy felt pity for him.
Mrs. Edwards then turned to Wendy and said, "You always ask a guest if they would like tea. Never assume. Now, pour his tea, Wendy."
The girl looked up at her with an incredulous look. "No," she refused.
"Pardon me?"
"No, I will not try to serve him more tea. It's obvious that he doesn't want any so why would I give him some anyway?" Wendy said, getting a little irritated.
"He needs to refuse the right way or gratefully accept his tea."
"Why does it matter how he declines it as long as he's not snobbish about it?"
"Because the whole purpose of this exercise is to learn the correct conduct. A proper guest would not have behaved as such," explained the nurse, nose high in the air.
"And a proper host would force a guest to take tea if they didn't wish it?"
"No, but this isn't about you as a host-"
"Yes it is! I understood him! That's all that matters! And he wasn't at all impolite, he just has a different way of doing things," Wendy fumed. Mrs. Edwards was in shock. Wendy, usually mild-mannered, was never this rash or disrespectful. However, she wasn't about to let this mentally unstable patient teach her.
"Young lady," she exclaimed. "You will no speak to me in that way. It is unacceptable."
With a pleading look, Wendy looked over to Eliza, whose eyes were wide with surprise and awe. She'd never seen Wendy act out the way she just had. In a way, Eliza was jealous that she hadn't thought of it first. She saw Wendy begging her to help so she gladly joined in.
"What's the problem?" Noodle got the message across and Wendy wasn't offended. So I think it's you who shouldn't speak to Wendy that way. Just because you would do things differently doesn't make them wrong," Eliza insisted. Then with a little more venom in her voice she spat, "It's called individuality, ma'am."
"This is not a case of conformity, dear girl. This is a matter of manners," rebutted Mrs. Edwards, trying to regain control of the situation. "I would never allow this behavior in my home."
"Well then I suppose we won't be having tea at your house!" Eliza shouted.
"Good day, ma'am," Wendy said mockingly and then stormed out of the room.
As Wendy strolled down the halls, her cheeks still flushed from anger and still in a huff, she wondered what she was going to do next. Tea time was still in session but it only had twenty minutes or so left.
"I guess I'll just relax in my cell then wait for my next activity... Reading," she mumbled to herself. She had recently started to know her way around the hospital so she leisurely headed for her cell. She was in no hurry so every time she passed a cell, she peek in the window on the door and see if anyone was there.
A small, old nurse passed her and smiled. Knowing who she was, the nurse wasn't at all concerned about her walking alone in the halls.
Back a ways, she heard a bit of a commotion so she stopped to listen for it. It was just a moment later that two nurses, one male and one female, came trotting down the hall. When they spotted Wendy, looking rather silly with her over-sized nightgown and eyes full of surprise, they ran to catch her. Wendy stood and did nothing until they reached her and the man seized her roughly by the arm.
"Wendy Darling," the female nurse said. "You're coming with us."
"Why? What's wrong?"
"That outburst that Mrs. Edwards told us about in tea time has earned you a day in solitary confinement, authorized by Dr. Edward Powell," the male replied. "We're to accompany you there."
"What do you mean? I raised my voice a little but it was nothing!" cried Wendy, starting to struggle in his grip. The female nurse latched on to her opposite arm and they held fast to her so as to keep her under control.
"That's not the way Mrs. Edwards described it. The decision is final."
Eliza had told Wendy about solitary confinement. A single empty room they kept in the Lost Hallway was used for punishment. For twenty-four hours, they locked her up in a tiny room with no food. Eliza had been put in there several times and she said the only time you were allowed to come out was once for using the toilet.
"Excuse me, I think I deserve a little more courtesy than this," Wendy said, feeling the circulation in her arms being cut off.
"This is nothing to get upset about, Wendy. You'll be fine," the female said.
"This is my first act of simple disrespect. I did nothing terribly wrong for you to justify this," Wendy said coolly.
"Besides the boy who you poured hot tea all over? And the time with the skittles ball? Thanks to you, we removed that game from the institute. And you were screaming your pretty little head off in the tea room," the male nurse responded and his woman associate rebuked him for being so harsh.
"I most certainly was not screaming," insisted Wendy. "And the other two were complete accidents. I didn't do them on purpose."
She stopped struggling, hoping that her cooperation would gain her some trust from these two nurses. It did no such thing, just made it easier for them to move her along.
"Please, let me talk to Bridget at the front," she requested. Surely Bridget could help her.
"Mr. Vonderbeck has no authority in this. As we said, we have permission from Dr. Powell."
"Of course it was him," Wendy thought bitterly. "It's always him."
Nothing more was said as Wendy plucked up all her courage to go with them quietly. The less she fought, the less trouble she'd be in.
"Why did I have to be so careless? Why did I have to be so hot-headed? I never should have even thrown my medication out to begin with."
All of a sudden, Wendy remembered something. That one word on the medication script that Dr. Powell had written out…
"Psychosis?"
For some reason, Wendy was suddenly very curious about what the word meant. Was it the name of them medication? It sounded a bit more like a medical term rather than a medical treatment.
She would have to remember that for later. For now, she needed to deal with the matter at hand.
"I don't understand," she said calmly. "Doesn't this seem a tad extreme?"
The woman (the obviously more soft-spoken of the two) answered. "It's not our choice, dear. It's just one day so you can calm down and clear your head."
"Then why is it considered a punishment?"
"Don't worry. It's nothing terrible. It's to help you," the nurse said with a smile. Obviously, she was just saying anything she could think of to keep Wendy from getting hysterical. However, at least she was making the prospect of being isolated for twenty-four hours seem less horrible.
The man on the other side of Wendy was less compassionate for her, just wanting to scoot her along as fast as he could. Clearly he was there for muscle and the woman was there for comfort. Those were the only kinds of nurses and orderlies in the institute.
Ignoring the urging tugs from the male nurse, Wendy went along with them and took deep breaths to try to talk herself through this.
"I can do this, okay? This is nothing I can't handle. It's just one day alone. No problem, right? This is nothing. Just my first step is defeating the institute," she told herself. Her own words of encouragement were the only things that kept her from jerking loose and running away just as fast as she could. She wanted to run so badly but she knew it would do no good.
She just bowed her head and let the honey-brown hair fall into her face as she walked.