A.N. Ahhhhh vacation. It's a wonderful thing, truly. I'm tan, relaxed, and back with two brand new chapters for you! I know it was a long wait, and I'm sorry about that! But hopefully it was worth it. A huge revelation to Mary (and most of you, although a few of you caught on to what I was planning, you smarties you ^_~) comes out in this chapter, so I hope you aren't disappointed at all by it, as it will become the platform for the rest of the story, but not the only exciting event by far, so no worries if it doesn't have you jumping with excitement. The next chapter will come in a few days, as I'm just finishing up with the last few details.

Enjoy everyone! And have a happy few days/weeks before some of you head back off to school!

Dressed and clean at last, I once again followed Teaken back up into the branches of Hangman's tree (and the second ride was as crazy as the first, but I was more prepared for it this time), and inside to a small room somewhere a few branches above where I'd slept last night. Teaken was looking a bit nervous as he lead me into the room and asked me quietly to sit down on the bench that ran along the wall below the window. I knew something was wrong, it had to be. I mean, Teaken never asked me to do things, he just shouted and threatened and blackmailed and guilt-tripped until I did them…most of the time.

"Ok, Mary, now I'm going to need you to listen carefully." Teaken began as he looked down at me where I sat perched on the bench.

"Ten-four, cap'n," I grinned.

"Mary, this is serious."

"As a heart-attack, apparently." I frowned as he looked at me nervously again. I decided I didn't like 'serious! and pensive!Teaken' much.

"Worse, actually. People recover from heart-attacks. This is about something none of us may recover from. Ever."

I blinked. "Teaken, what's wrong? Just tell me and stop hinting at it."

He ran his hands over his face and blew out a long breath. "All right," he said, slowly sinking to the bench beside me. "Try to stay with me on this, ok? Oh, and promise not to hit me when I'm done explaining."

That got my alarms ringing. "Teaken! Explain!" I said impatiently.

"All right, ok. Here goes. You're going to meet Peter today."

I blinked, waiting for him to elaborate, even as that small statement made my chest tighten a bit.

He just stared back at me, waiting to see if it had sunken in yet, I suppose. Apparently, this required some sort of reaction from me.

I cleared my throat. "Ok. Right. Meeting Peter. Got that."

He still didn't say anything, and continued to look at me as if I were a kindergartener who couldn't spell 'cat' correctly. "And why would that make me want to hit you?"

He nodded and took another breath. "Well, you'll see. Remember what I showed you last night? How Neverland is dying, bit by bit?"

I nodded, still incredibly confused.

"And remember why I told you that you were here? The reason you had to come?"

"You…said that I could save the island, that Peter had sent for me…" I nodded slowly, remembering, as well as trying to put all these jagged pieces of information together into something legible.

"That's right. He did. And you can. Save us, I mean."

"How?" I whispered, shaking my head.

Teaken took a deep breath and averted his eyes, as if gauging the distance to the nearest door, and seeing if he could escape in time before I lost it on him. "That's…what's tricky about all this. You might not like it, but know that it's serious, Mary, and there really is no other way. We've thought about it and thought about it until we've made ourselves crazy. And also understand that we don't totally understand this ourselves…we just know that it's…er…necessary."

"Teaken, please stop talking in circles. You're making me nervous. Are we talking like, blood-letting or something here?" I asked, my stomach clenching at the thought.

"No, God no," Teaken laughed quickly, then stopped, looking pensive. "Well, I mean, it could…maybe…"

Teaken caught the look on my face and quickly hurried on to try and smooth over my fears. "But it shouldn't! I mean, not an excessive amount or anything. From what I understand, anyway…"

I stood up, frustrated and scared, and turned around, resting my arms on the sill of the window and placing my forehead down on my forearms.

I heard Teaken sigh wearily behind me and stand. He stood at my side, facing the opposite way, and stared straight ahead. "New magic is the only thing that can save Neverland, and Peter. The faeries are dying, and taking the magic with them. We need that magic to exist…and to get new magic, we need new faeries."

Something quietly ticked into place in my mind, quietly enough that I didn't quite notice it, but it put me on edge anyway. I slowly lifted my head, my eyes focused out the window while my mind tried to decode what Teaken had just told me. "New magic? But I can't…" My mind whirled faster, and suddenly settled on the small bit that had clicked into place earlier, and the bottom dropped out of my stomach.

"Teaken, remind me again how faeries are made…" I whispered.

Teaken grimaced, and glanced at me out of the corner of his eye. "You know, Mary." He sounded relieved that he didn't have to say it.

"You need…a baby," I said slowly.

Teaken gave a small nod.

"A new born, to laugh for the first time."

Teaken nodded again, giving me a small, sympathetic smile.

"So, you need me to…"

Teaken sighed. "I'm afraid s-"

"Well, you can forget it. There's NO way I'm kidnapping an infant! Who are you people?! That is SO incredibly cruel, I can't even believe you'd suggest it!" I ranted.

Teaken stared incredulously at me. He looked as if someone had sucked the brain out of the back of his head. I stared right back, hands on my hips and eyes daring him to disagree with me. He slowly raised his right hand and wiped it down over his face. He closed his eyes and raised one of his hands in the air between us.

"Who," he started, seemed to falter, took breath and started again. "Who said anything about kidnapping?"

I looked back at him and cocked my head a bit. "Well, you said you needed a kid, and I suppose you think I can just waltz back to my world and grab ya one. But that is by far the sickest thing I've ever-"

"Mary!" Teaken grabbed my arms and stopped my tirade. He closed his eyes tightly, then opened them again. "Mary, I need you to listen to me, all right? If we just needed a random child to gurgle it's first giggle here to save Neverland, do you think we'd be this worried about it? God, if it was that simple, this problem would never have been a problem! I'd have grabbed the first kid out of the nearest hospital that I could get to and that would have been that. It can't be just any baby, Mary."

"Well how the hell should I know what kind of baby you'd need? I'm not educated in the methods of saving fictional paradises, all right? Jesus," I yelled back, not liking at all the way Teaken was making me sound like a complete idiot. "And just what kind of baby might you need for this endeavor, hmm? And how do you know I'd have picked the right one? If I'm supposed to be able to save this place, shouldn't I know how to do it?!"

Teaken gripped my arms tighter, bringing my attention back to him. "It can't be just any child," he said, not taking his eyes away from mine. "It has to be yours." he said quietly.

I stopped moving completely, and stood stiffly staring back at Teaken. "What?" I whispered.

"It has to be your child, Mary. It has to be yours."

"But, but I'm not preg-" I stammered stupidly before Teaken interrupted.

"Yours and Peter's."

My ears were broken. They had to be. I couldn't be hearing this. I couldn't hear anything just then, in fact. A dull roar had begun in my ears and my eyes refused to focus. I managed to find my voice through this storm of confusion, however.

"You…you're crazy."

Teaken sighed, and lowered his head for a moment, then, still gripping my arms (which may very well have been the only reason I was still upright), he raised his head and looked at me again unblinking and steady. "No, Mary. It's the truth. It's the only way to create new magic. To save Neverland." His eyes took on a shadow of desperation. "To save us."

"No, that doesn't make sense, I mean, why me, of all people?" My legs finally refused to fight gravity for one more second, and Teaken helped me slide gently to my knees on the floor. I didn't even know I'd moved.

"Why you?" Teaken squinted at me. "Mary, why do you think I brought you here? Why did I go to all the trouble to get the most difficult girl in that club that night to come with me?" Teaken half grinned, trying to get me to smile.

"I don't know, I just figured to found the youngest girl who would give you the time of day…or night, as it were…" I murmured.

Teaken suddenly went still. He didn't move for so long a period of time that I finally even noticed, and weakly raised my head up to look questioningly at him.

His mouth was softly agape, and his eyes unbelieving. He slowly shook his head at me. "My God, Mary," he whispered. "Don't…I mean, don't you know?"

"Know what?" I whispered brokenly back.

"Don't you know who you are?"

My eyebrows furrowed in confusion. "I'm…I'm me. I'm Mary. Who am I supposed to be?"

Teaken swore under his breath and sighed, moving closer to me. He rested his hands on my knees and locked his eyes on my face. "Mary, you are the niece of Heidi Darling Bennington."

I nodded weakly.

"Heidi Darling Bennington is the daughter of Moira Darling Weston."

I nodded again.

"Moira Darling Weston was the daughter of Jane Darling Grant."

I narrowed my eyes, I hadn't known my great-great grandmother's first name…

"Jane Darling Grant was the only daughter of Wendy Moira Angela Darling."

Wendy Moira Angela Darling…

The name certainly rang a bell, I closed my eyes in concentration, searching every corner of my mind…where had I heard it before?

"Boy, why are you crying?"

"What's your name?"

"Wendy Moira Angela Darling, what's yours?"

"Peter Pan."

My eyes opened slowly as I began to comprehend. Mother of God…

"Mary," Teaken said slowly, as if explaining physics to a three year old. "You are the great-great-great granddaughter of Wendy Moira Angela Darling, and as such, the great-great-great-granddaughter of the only woman Peter Pan ever loved."

*Well…there you have it. Now let me have it! Please review. And stay tuned, the next chapter will be out in a few days! Maybe sooner, we'll see how ambitious I get…^_~*