Jessica wasn't sure that she had heard him right.
Did that guy say Neverland?!
"Harrison!" he barked. The boy who had previously been stepping on Jessica's head snapped into a salute.
Jessica seized the opening and began to stand up. Harrison moved to knock her back down, but Pan spoke in a clear, calm voice. "Let her be."
Jessica stood up and straightened her back when she saw that Pan was walking towards her. She didn't understand. Peter Pan was a hero. He endlessly fought Captain Hook, the cruelest pirate to set sail, and won every time. So why was he so scary?
He walked in a slow circle around her. Jessica was reminded of a shark. He stopped walking and stood behind her.
Suddenly, she held a cold hand on either side of her waist. "What the hell?!" Jessica screamed. She held her breath as she felt his face move closer to hers. "I hope you know how to fight..."
One of his hands slowly made its way up her ribcage, and rested there for a moment before inspecting her shoulder and arm muscles.
The other hand slid down her thigh. "Flex it." Pan demanded, and he squeezed her leg. Jessica heard a sword unsheath behind her, and she began to panic. Pan shoved her back down to the ground. He threw the blade at her feet. "Time to see what you know."
Jessica hesitated. She picked up the sword by its handle, but kept her eyes on the strange man in front of her. Jessica stood up and spread her legs shoulder width apart. A piece of information nagged her. A wide stance is a strong stance.
"Whenever you're ready," she said to Pan.
Jessica instantly understood that she shouldn't have said that. Pan attacked with the force of a hurricane, slashing fast enough to outrun a gazelle. However, Jess knew he was holding back on her. She saw the force in his arms holding back from unleashing everything he had on her, a small beach-tanned girl with guitar callouses on her hands.
"Pan!" yelled Harrison, and Jessica saw an opening and stabbed with all the force in her body. The blade went straight through his stomach and came out on the other side. "I am so sorry!"
Pan tried to wave Jessica away but her grandmum had been a nurse and her grandpa a doctor (how they met) so she knew a few things. She tore a strip of cloth from the tunic Pan was wearing, and quickly pulled the blade from his side. "Well then!" he said as the last inch of the sword left his body. Blood began to spurt out both the front and back of his body. Jessica pulled the cloth strip tight around Pan's torso, covering both the entry and exit wound. Pan groaned as she tied the knot as tight as she could. The cloth was so clenched that you couldn't slip a finger beneath it without entirely cutting off circulation to said finger.
"You know what you're doing." Pan mused.
"Well you see," and Jessica began to ramble. "My grandfather was a doctor and my grandmother was a nurse. My grandmum had just used a defibrillator to save this guy's life when my grandpa said, '"Can you restart my heart? Because it stops when I look at you."' It's kind of corny, but they told me that story all the time when I was little. They taught me to surf too, and they bought all my instruments. I play drums, guitar, base... they died in a fire. It was kind of awful timing, because I was just about to ask my parents if I could live with grandmum and grandpa instead."
Pan smiled at her. His eyes looked like he understood.
Jessica wasn't sure she had seen that right.
But he kept smiling.