Disclaimer: Stephenie Meyer still owns the Twilight universe, the characters, phrasing, and images. J.M. Barrie definitely owns the World of Peter and Wendy and their friends. And this is the tale of what happens when two world collide.
A/N: In order to have a little fun, I needed to include additional points of views. This chapter brings in some of Jacob's POV – gosh I hope I don't mess this up…
I know I took a week off from posting this story in order to post my Carlisle story, but I have made up by posting an extra long chapter. Thank you to everyone who read the Carlisle piece and marked it as a favorite.
Once again, a big thanks to miss understood615 for the numerous times that she has read and re-read this chapter and for all the great suggestions and ideas.
Never Smile at a Crocodile!
"I have often," said Smee, "noticed your strange dread of crocodiles."
"Not of crocodiles," Hook corrected him, "but of that one crocodile." He lowered his voice. "It liked my arm so much, Smee, that it has followed me ever since, from sea to sea and from land to land, licking its lips for the rest of me." – J. M. Barrie Chapter 5 p. 68
Esme's POV
Standing in front of the glass wall looking out onto the backyard, I watched as the rain came down in rivulets against the window making it difficult to see out even with my exceptional vision. The rain was going to continue to come down hard and there would be no working on the stage or any of the sets today. Instead, I had decided to take a drive up to Seattle and wander through several vintage clothing stores looking for potential costumes for Nessie and the others to wear in the play. I turned back to the computer and the search I had performed on Google was still waiting for me. After checking out various websites, I had narrowed it down to 4 different stores but two stood out. Red Light Clothing Exchange and Arnie's Vintage Costumers appeared to have a decent selection of period pieces that would be appropriate for the early 20th century. Items could be purchased or rented. I quickly wrote down the addresses and phone numbers. I would enter the locations into the car's GPS later.
As I sat staring at the computer screen, I chuckled silently to myself. I never realized that all of my dresses from when I was a child might actually be worth something a century later. Even after I became a vampire, it wasn't practical to keep everything. We moved so often and sometimes without much notice that keeping pieces of clothing just because it might be needed for a future play didn't make sense. While I was closing out from the internet, Carlisle drifted into the room. He came over to where I sat and kissed me on the top of my head. "Good morning, love." I gently patted his hand where it rested on my left shoulder and gazed up at him as I acknowledged his greeting. Carlisle had been doing his own internet search upstairs. Since he had brought home the Peter Pan manuscript, Nessie had become enthralled in the idea of seeing a play on stage. We had realized that in her short life she had not had the opportunity to see live theater. Unfortunately, unless we wanted to arrange for an impromptu trip to London, we would not be seeing Peter Pan professionally performed on stage. Carlisle had even attempted to acquire tickets to several other musicals but to no avail. Wicked would be playing in Seattle in the fall and we had just missed the Lion King. There seemed to be a derth of age-appropriate musicals in the surrounding area this season. Alas, it appeared that the only way that Nessie would be seeing Peter Pan performed on stage would be on DVD. Fortunately, I found a copy of the broadway version of the play starring Cathy Rigby. With today's rain, it might be the perfect day for video viewing.
I picked up the phone and put a call into Jacob. On the third ring, Billy picked up.
"Hello"
"Good morning, Billy. This is Esme. How are you doing?"
"I'm fine. How may I help you Mrs. Cullen?" I had told him many times to call me by my first name but he still insisted on using the more proper form.
"I was hoping that you would know where Jacob was? He left last night after Nessie went down to sleep. I wanted to ask him if he could watch her today while I went up to Seattle." Carlisle had come up behind me and wrapped his arms around my waist. He had moved my hair away from my neck for better access and was trailing light kisses from my jaw to my collarbone and nearly caused me to drop the phone from my hand. His attempt at distracting me was working; however, I managed to catch Billy's promise to get the message to Jacob and squeeze out a quick bye as I hit the end button. In one smooth move, I had gently tossed the phone over to the couch and turned around in Carlisle's arms so that we were facing one another.
"Well Dr. Cullen" I said as my breathing began to catch "I thought you were headed out to work."
"Well Mrs. Cullen, it won't take me that long to get there" he whispered into my neck as his nose brushed along my jawline.
As we stood there, completely absorbed in one another, we suddenly heard a twinkling giggle coming from the top of the stairs. Nessie. She had awoken and was on her way down. Carlisle and I stared into each other's eyes and pressed our foreheads together briefly. We would have to continue this later after work, shopping, and tucking Nessie into bed.
"Good morning Nessie" we both greeted her.
She nearly flew down the stairs and rushed into our open arms. "Good morning" she squealed in return. Her smile lit up her entire face. We stood momentarily together in a family hug. I breathed in her scent deeply and gave her a squeeze. Her fragrance hinted at a mixture of jasmine, and citrus with a touch of vanilla. After one more hug, Carlisle planted a kiss on the top of both our heads and excused himself to go off to the hospital.
I stood holding Nessie in my arms in front of the glass wall. We both seemed to be enjoying the moment and were silently mesmerized by the rain that continued to fall steadily from the sky. Finally, I broke out of the trance that had seemed to fall over us and asked her about breakfast. "Nessie would you like me to make you some scrambled eggs?" Eggs seemed to be her favorite human food and she excitedly nodded her head.
Off to the kitchen we walked. I placed her on one of the stools and proceeded to get out the eggs and some other items from the refrigerator. After pouring the beaten eggs into the hot pan, I popped a slice of bread in the toaster and washed some blueberries and raspberries which I placed in a small bowl. Once the eggs were finished, I set the food before her and sat down across from her at the wooden countertop.
"Nessie, how would you like Jacob to watch you today while I run some errands in Seattle?"
Her head came up and I could see the excitement in her eyes. Her mouth was filled with scrambled eggs so she enthusiastically nodded her response.
"After you finish breakfast, we can get you dressed and something tells me Jacob will be here by then." I knew that the communication between the wolves would be rapid once Billy got the message out to Seth or one of the others. When it concerned Nessie, Jake would not delay. "I also have the DVD of Peter Pan performed on stage that the two of you could watch since the rain is going to continue all day."
"Gramma, what are you going to do in Seattle?"
"I'm going to search for some costumes for your play. There are a few stores that carry vintage clothing that might be perfect for what we need. I may also try and find some fabric to make some extra clothes and to use in the set designs."
"How do you know what they wore in Peter Pan? The book doesn't have any pictures." Nessie popped a couple of blueberries into her mouth and began to chew thoughtfully.
"Well, Nessie, I actually was about the same age as Wendy was in the book when it first came out. I think I might just be able to find the right outfits that we need."
"I can't wait to see the clothes, but it will be fun to see Jake."
My little darling finished up her breakfast and I washed up the few dishes and put everything away. "Let's get you cleaned up and ready to spend the day with Jake." We headed up to Edward's old room where she had been staying. I knew better than to try and dress her. Rosalie and Alice had trained her well. She pulled a stool over to the dresser and opened the drawer and rummaged around looking at the various brightly colored tops. After some deliberation, she pulled out a long-sleeved top in hot pink with appliquéd lace on the chest and cuffs. She pulled it on over her head and moved to the next drawer to search for a pair of pants. She decided on a pair of cuff Capri jeans that she quickly stepped into. Now for the shoes. Nessie opened the closet door and glanced at the array of sandals, sneakers, and shoes. She quickly selected a pair of slip-on sporty flats with a diagonal elastic strap in matching pink.
Just about the time, I had finished brushing her wild ringlets into a ponytail, I could hear the door to the kitchen open. Nessie and I managed to make it down the stairs and into the kitchen in time to see Jacob shaking some of the water out of his hair. I stifled a laugh from escaping my lips. The others were freer with their teasing of Jacob, but I had to admit the image did remind me of a dog shaking water from his fur. He now stood before us barefooted and wearing only a pair of damp cut-offs. I handed him a towel to finish drying off and he then found a t-shirt to throw on.
"Hi Nessie. Hi Esme." By this time, Nessie was done waiting for her overgrown playmate to finish drying off. She climbed up on the stool and stood up. However, even from that point, she was still over a foot shorter than Jacob. He obliged her by lifting her up and his long arms and expansive chest swallowed up her petite frame. Just for fun he shook out his hair one more time spraying rain drops on her and she pushed slightly away "Ewww".
I smiled as I watched the two of them interact. There was a playful ease in their manner and their joy radiated out into the bleakness of the day. It was easy to see how Jake had been Bella's sun during the dark period of Edward's absence.
"Jacob, I am going to head up to Seattle to check out several vintage clothing stores and was hoping you wouldn't mind spending the day with Nessie."
"No need to twist my arm" and with that Nessie pretended to twist his hand back, both of them laughing.
"I'll probably be gone most of the day. There is food in the refrigerator and in the pantry. Help yourself to whatever you like. And I promised Nessie that you two could watch the DVD of the broadway version of Peter Pan."
"Cool."
By this time, Nessie was wiggling out of Jake's arms and he reluctantly let her down. She grabbed his large hand in her smaller one and pulled him towards the living room. "Can you help me build a pirate's ship with my legos, Jake?"
Before I knew it, they were settled in the living room with several buckets of multi-colored legos surrounding them. Apparently this was my cue to exit. "Bye, Nessie! Bye, Jake! Have fun!"
I put on my rain coat and was slipping out the door as I heard their departing "See you later!"
Jacob's POV
In the background, I heard the door close behind Esme and the car pull out of the garage. I returned my full attention to Nessie and the pirates' ship that we were building. "Nessie, how big are we going to building our ship?"
"Let's use all the legos and make it really, really big."
All of a sudden, I had an idea. "Nessie, what if instead we created a pirates' ship using the table? We can even make a plank and pretend that the pirates are making Wendy walk the plank." Nessie's face lit up at the idea and she ran to get a sheet from the upstairs closet. I began to move around the chairs to support a board that was left over from the stage. Nessie and I both stepped back to admire our work. Nessie wasn't quite satisfied with our creation and she wanted to cut circles out of paper and tape them to the sheet as portholes.
"Now Jake, you be Captain Hook and I'll be Wendy."
"Who is going to save you from walking off the plank?"
Nessie thought for a moment and exclaimed "Why you can be both Hook and Peter?"
I rolled my eyes for dramatic effect though it meant nothing. I would play every role if that was what she wanted. She looked at me as if she were waiting for me to begin. So, I started by quoting Hook "See here, honey, I'll save you if you promise to be my mother".
Nessie quoted Wendy from the book "I would almost rather have no children at all" and tossed her head and stubbornly refused to do what "Hook" wanted. But then as Hook, I ordered her to walk the plank. Nessie began to walk the plank and I then pretended to be Peter disguised as the crocodile and made a ticking sound as I moved up the side of our home-made ship. Nessie, as Wendy, made to jump and I rescued her from her fate of being attacked by the crocodile. We continued back and forth like this for awhile.
As Nessie and I were recovering from our "walk the plank" game, I heard a familiar car rambling down the driveway. I was wondering which of the pack had hi-jacked my car. Before I had time to consider it, I heard a shout and a bang on the door. I jumped up to answer it and as I did the door swung open and in came Seth, Embry, Quil and Claire. It seemed that I wasn't the only one with babysitting duties.
"Hey guys! Hi Claire!" I yelled out in greeting. There was a round of hellos in return. "What brings you over here?"
"The rain" moaned Seth "There is nothing to do, so we thought we would come by and see what was happening here."
"I told Claire about the Peter Pan stuff that Nessie has been doing and she wanted to see and of course, it's better than playing at the beach in the rain." Quil looked around at the makeshift pirates' ship and wooden plank, "How cool, you set up the stage inside."
"Wow, I want to try walking the plank too" squealed Claire and she quickly ran over to a chair and began climbing up on the table to get to the plank.
I quickly rescued a squirming Claire from falling off the table and returned her to Quil. "No, no, no, Jake. I can do it!" Claire continued to protest but I shot a look at Quil that indicated that he needed to keep an eye on her. She wasn't nearly as coordinated or sturdy as Nessie and even I could figure out what would happen if she tumbled head first off the plank. Quil quickly consoled Claire and compromised with her. She agreed to let him help her up to the plank and catch her as she jumped off.
Embry rolled his eyes at the whole thing and headed into the kitchen to rummage through the pantry for food. He came back in with a bag of chips and some sodas that he doled out to the others and plopped himself down in front of the TV with the remote control.
Nessie decided that now that there were several of us we could play the part of the pirates and the lost boys and she and Claire could take turns being Wendy. She went over to the TV and turned it off and stood in front of Embry with her hands on her hips. In a very serious tone, she said "Embry, we need you as one of the pirates."
"Hey, I was watching that" protested Embry. I stood behind Nessie and glared at Embry. I didn't have to say anything for him to know that this wasn't a choice. "Never mind the TV, Nessie" grumbled Embry "I would love to be a pirate or whatever you need." He pulled himself up from the couch and trudged over to the pirates' ship.
The morning passed quickly as we continued to act out different scenes from Peter Pan under Nessie's directions. As hunger began to take over, we left our set and moved into the kitchen to make lunch. Everyone pitched in to help and started pulling out the fixin's for sandwiches. We didn't bother to set the table but instead just stood around munching our food while the girls sat on the barstools at the wooden counter. Although Nessie's verbal skills and understanding far surpassed Claire's, she seemed to enjoy spending time chatting and laughing with her.
Just as we were about to return to the dining room, Claire noticed the box of Kellog's® Rice Krispies and pulled it out. "Can we make rice krispy treats, Quil?" she asked. Quil looked to me and I looked around the kitchen and the pantry. The recipe was on the box. How hard could they be to make? Sure enough, Esme had all the ingredients on hand. As I was melting butter and marshmallows on the stovetop, Claire and Nessie were working on pouring the cereal into a large bowl. The cereal began to overflow the container and fell onto the table and then onto the floor.
Seth came over to the girls and stepped in some of the cereal further grinding it into the floor. "Geez, watch what you are doing over there" I yelled out to him as I brought over the hot marshmallow mixture. As we mixed the marshmallow goop into the cereal, it seemed to get everywhere, in the girls hair, and on the counter, stove, and floor, and definitely on hands and in mouths. Forget making them into bars, the gang was digging into the warm, gooey mass and pulling off pieces to eat before they were even cooled.
Through mouthfuls of rice krispy treats, the guys joked about how much fun it would be to go outside and play in the rain. Claire and Nessie started jumping around and asking if they could join them. I didn't think the rain could hurt either of them much and it would be an easy way to distract them from the sweet treat that they had been devouring.
Once outside, someone initiated a tag game by touching Nessie and shouting "You're it". As the rain poured, we each took turns calling "it" and tagging one another. The girls were giggling and running and hiding behind one of us to avoid being tagged and the pack became increasingly more aggressive in tagging each other. Everyone was completely rain-soaked and beginning to be covered in mud. After about an hour of this craziness, I had to beg Nessie and Claire to come inside and get cleaned up. The girls took off running into the house with Seth, Embry, and Quil following them. I yelled "Remember to wipe your feet before walking on Esme's rugs." Obviously, no one was listening because by the time I got into the house there was a trail of muddy footprints leading through the kitchen, into the living room, across the beige colored rugs and up the stairs. I was going to be in big trouble when Esme got home.
Esme's POV (In Seattle)
As I was standing in the Red Light Clothing Exchange looking at several dresses from the early 1900's, I was wondering how Nessie and Jake were doing at home. I was hoping that they had found food to eat and some games to play, and I knew that they had the DVD for the end of the day. What could go wrong? I returned my attention to the dresses before me. Two of the dresses would be perfect sizes for Nessie and I pictured how she would look in them. Imaging Nessie in the white dress with a blue satin sash and blue buttons with her hair pulled back and caught up in a blue ribbon made me smile.
I continued to search through the clothes selecting a few more items that seemed appropriate, some hats, and suits. Hmmm…I would need to find fabric and sew some items. Nessie's "lost boys" were lot taller than any of the boys I remember from that time period. After purchasing the items I had selected, I headed to the next store and continued this pattern over the course of the day.
When I had finished shopping, I headed back to where I had left my car. I started up the car and pointed it in the direction of Forks. I was eager to get back to Nessie and to show her what I had found. Wouldn't she be surprised by all the great costumes that I had discovered?
Jacob's POV
Glancing at the clock, my heart skipped a beat. Esme would be home soon. I had to do something quick. "Guys, we've got to clean this mess up." There were toys and scraps of paper, scissors, and tape all over the living room. The kitchen looked like a tornado had hit it. The remains of our lunch and the sticky containers from the rice krispy treats were all over the place. And the girls' muddy footprints left an easy trail to follow. If Edward saw this, I would be dead immediately. I was hoping that Esme might be more forgiving. Either way, I would probably lose my babysitting privileges. Quil looked equally queasy. He captured Claire and muttered something about needing to get her home and cleaned up before her mother realized that he had taken her outside in the rain without a coat or shoes. Embry slid out the door with Quil and Claire. Only Seth was left to help. We both looked at each other and shrugged.
"I'll start a bath for Nessie and see if I can get her cleaned up. Can you call your sister and see if she can come over?"
"Sure, but I don't think Leah is going to be too excited about cleaning up a mess we made. We are going to have to hear about it forever."
I took the stairs two at a time and found the bathroom and began running the water. I tossed some bubble bath smelly stuff into the water. Girls liked that. "Nessie, why don't you take off all your wet clothes and play in the tub. I'll go find you some clothes." While she got into the bathtub, I headed into Edward's old room and looked for some clothes. I grabbed a pair of purple sweatpants, some socks, and a floral top. I placed the clothes outside the bathroom door and told her that I had left clothes for her and I would be downstairs cleaning up.
Seth had started to clean up the living room and was doing a pretty decent job, but we both had no idea what to do about the stains on the carpet. I tried searching for a vacuum cleaner and some carpet cleaner. I had my head in the cabinet under the sink when Leah arrived. I heard a low whistle, and though I couldn't see her, the humor in her voice was evident. "You are in deep trouble."
"Thanks for stating the obvious. Instead of talking, do you think you can lend a hand?"
"Touchy, touchy aren't we? Where do you want me to start?" She looked around in disgust.
"Grab a sponge and see what you can do with this kitchen." I barked at her.
While we were cleaning, Nessie came down the stairs. Well she looked cleaner, but her hair was a tangled mess and the outfit I had picked out made her look a little like a misfit. Where was Alice when you needed her? No time. I scooped Nessie up. "How about watching that DVD of Peter Pan while we clean up?"
"Sure" said Nessie. She seemed pretty worn out. I wouldn't be surprised if she fell asleep. I placed her on the couch and popped the dvd into the machine and got it all set up for her. As she watched the movie, I returned to helping Seth and Leah with the clean up.
In a little while, I heard Esme's car pull into the driveway. "Oh crap!" Judgment time had arrived.
Esme POV
I was eager to show Nessie all of the clothes that I had discovered on my trip to Seattle. I pulled the bags out of the trunk and headed into the house. When I entered the kitchen, Leah was standing there looking sheepish while holding a pot and sponge in her hands. "Marshmallow goo, hard to get off of the pan!" She said as way of explanation and turned back to the sink to finish cleaning the pan.
My mouth fell open in surprise as I looked around. I could only imagine what the place had looked like earlier. It still showed evidence of lunch remains and some kind of cereal experiment gone bad. "Where's Jacob?" I squeaked out.
"In the living room" came her reply.
I should have known. All I had to do was follow the muddy footprints. When I entered the living room and dining area, I saw the vacuum cleaner out and both Seth and Jacob trying to get the mud out of my beautiful beige rug. Beyond them, the Peter Pan DVD played on the television and Nessie was curled up asleep on the couch in a different set of clothes than I had left her in.
"Hi Esme" Jacob greeted me, looking nervous and just a little embarrassed.
"Hey Esme, sorry about the rug." Seth offered as way of greeting and apology.
I wasn't sure if I should be furious or burst into laughter. I decided that by the looks on the boys faces that amused might be the better choice. Getting angry wouldn't help the situation, but they were going to finish cleaning up the mess.
"Jacob, I am not going to even ask right now what happened. But I do expect that this place will be cleaned and returned to its original state before you leave."
The guys nodded and went back to work. I put my packages down near the staircase and went to explore the rest of the house. Fortunately, the only real disaster upstairs was the bathroom. I drained the water from the tub and rinsed it out, and then I put the wet towels and dirty clothes into the hamper.
As I came back down the stairs, I heard Carlisle enter. His face held a similar bemused-shocked look that mine had earlier. After several decades of living with our gang, we had walked in on a lot worse. He just shook his head, and ran his hand through his hair. "Well, looks like you had fun today."
A little later, everything had been restored to normal. Carlisle had taken Nessie up to her room and tucked her into bed. Jacob, Seth, and Leah said their good-byes and departed. I had just settled down on the couch when Carlisle slipped in besides me.
"So where were we?" he whispered into my ear. I guess later had come.
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Quotes are cited directly from chapter 14 page 164 of The Adventures of Peter Pan, copyright © 1911 by J.M. Barrie
Note: If you want to see the first outfit that Nessie was wearing, you can click on th links on my profile page.
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