Chapter 2
It's been three days.
For the most part, she's tried to keep to herself as much as possible. Sticking to the farthest edge of the camp she's been allowed.
Away from the noise and the people. After all, she's used to living on her own, not being surrounded by a group she's now somehow supposed to be a part of.
The first night here she cried a little, before pushing her tears away with the heels of her hands and returned to staring and thinking.
Pan hasn't talked to her since that night, although she's felt his gaze on her from across the camp. She can't figure out what he's planning. Somehow, she doesn't think that she wants to know. After all, it can be nothing good for any of them.
A shadow blocks the fire light from her face and slowly, she blinks towards the person
Peter
"Do you need something from me?" He doesn't say anything, simply walks towards her and then, without so much of a warning, he rears his fist back before slamming it into her stomach
She stumbles back, doubling over as pain explodes through her torso. He isn't like that other boy, his punch carries power.
Pain makes her angry and anger makes her stupid; out of pure instinct, she lashes back out at him, planting her feet to swing her fist at his rib-cage.
He catches her fist with ease in one hand before twisting it slightly. It doesn't break but it does hurt and she hisses, twisting her body to lessen the pressure a bit.
"It amazes me that you survived on the streets if you don't even know how to fight properly." She tries to rip her hand from his grip, but he just holds on tighter
"Let me go, monster!" She practically spits, her tone venom filled and in the dim light, she can't exactly be sure, but it does seem like he's smirking.
That smirk that makes annoyance flood her system.
"Anger won't win your battles for you, Lily. You have to learn! Try to hit me again and this time, do it right." They've attracted quite a crowd by now
He lets her fist go and she glares at the boys surrounding them
She's so angry at all of them
She's angry that they think they have a right to keep people here. She's angry because she doesn't want to be here, just like she didn't want to live on the streets for all those years. She's angry at her mother for not wanting her. At the woman who was supposed to raise her for dying. She's angry that Peter had taken her and decided to keep her here and that he is now smirking down at her, for some reason teaching her how to fight.
She takes a deep breath.
"Mind telling me how to do right then?"
"You're a smart girl, surely you can figure it out." She ignores the snickers from the Lost Boys, gritting her teeth at his gleeful tone
Planting her feet firmly again, she swings at him, hard. Aiming for the weakest point she can find. He catches her fist again
"Wrong." With a tiny movement, he kicks her feet out from under her, sending her to the ground, to the great amusement of their spectators
"Get up." Turning away from her, he whispers something to Felix, who nods, a dark smirk playing over his face
They are all enjoying this.
Her anger is cold but her blood boils. She flexes her hands, making fists then stretching her fingers.
Peter watches her silently.
Waiting.
"Well?" He asks mockingly and she hates him. Hates every inch of him. Hates his voice and his eyes and she's never wanted a dagger in her hands as badly as she does in this second
She kicks out with her leg, this time anticipating the fact that he's going to grab hold of it. He does and twists, giving her the leverage she needs to jump and twist her body through the air, aiming her other foot at his head. He jerks back, having not expected that, pulling them both down and they land on the ground with a solid thud and he'd cushioned the fall for her and she hates him.
They are both breathing heavily as they stare at one another "Improvement already!" His tone is full of mocking "Imagine what you could become..."
"I refuse to play," She starts fighting again, squirming to get herself free of his grasp, irritated by the fact that she is acutely aware of his heat radiating through her clothing. She supposed to despise him. Her voice rises to a shout "Your games, Pan!"
Then, he begins to laugh. She may be on top of him, but he still holds all the power. Rising to his feet, he pulls her up with him
"You don't have much of a choice, my little Tiger Lily. I love games."
"Let me go!" She jerks her arms back and this time, he lets her go and she stumbles backwards. Standing there, she pants, glaring at him and everyone else behind him
She wants to scream at him. To tell him yet again that she hates him and that he's the monster parents warn their kids about. She wants to tear this island to pieces. She wants to kill him.
But she can't. She's stuck here. With him. There's nowhere to go. Nowhere to run where he won't find her.
She draws in a breath and closes her eyes.
When she opens them, she's in control. Her anger has most certainly not faded, but she has it pushed down so that it no longer consumes every inch of her.
She says nothing and for a few minutes, they just look at each other. Their little crowd has finally dispersed and leaves only Felix standing slightly behind Pan.
"You are a brave girl." It's not meant as a compliment or as an insult. It's merely an observation.
She scoffs.
He turns and motions for Felix to follow him "Do try to not get into too much trouble while I'm gone. I'm beginning to grow attached to you."
X.X.X X.X.X X.X.X
Jerking awake with a gasp, Calleigh's eyes flies around the room, frantically searching for the boy who turned out to be her brother.
But the room is empty.
Taking a deep breath to try and calm her racing heart, she puts her head in her hands, groaning at the pounding behind her eyes.
"I'm going to kill him." Him, being Felix, who had knocked her out just after the fight, muttering something along the lines of not wanting her to interfere with Peter's plans "Kill him definitely."
Swinging her legs off of the bed she'd been resting on, she finally glances around at her surroundings.
Her old room.
Being here now, everything that happened when she was first on Neverland... feels like an age ago.
How much has changed in the time that she's been gone?
Her eyes snap towards the door when rapid footsteps sound up from beyond it. Henry runs through the door and launches himself onto the bed and into her arms, barely giving her a chance to brace herself against the impact "Calleigh! You're awake!" she looks up over his shoulder to see Felix standing in the doorway, smirking
"I'll leave you two to catch up. Come to the fire once your done, Tiger Lily, Peter should be back soon."
Then he turns to leave and Calleigh looks down at Henry, running her hands over his face, checking for injuries "Are you okay? They didn't hurt you, did they?"
"No, but Pan tricked me, Leigh. He pretended to be a Lost Boy who ran away and then he caught me." Sounds just like something that Peter would do.
She sighs "I'm just glad that you're okay, Henry."
"Me? I was more worried about you. I saw that shadow carrying you away and I was terrified that you got hurt. Just like what happened with... Greg." The ten year old swallows hard, glancing down at his clenched hands
"I'm sorry you had to see that, Henry." He shrugs
"I was right though, wasn't I? You're Peter Pan's true love." When he first came out with that story, she had still been trapped under the curse and thought he was just making stuff up and had indulged him in his fantasies.
Now though, she nods but instead of looking excited about it, Henry gives her a serious look "He's dangerous, Leigh. You have to try and save him."
What's the alternative? Kill him?
Calleigh sighs before hugging Henry tight again
No pressure right?
X.X.X X.X.X X.X.X
"Why does Felix call you Tiger Lily?" Sitting quietly near one of the fires, that Felix had ordered built for her, Calleigh stares into the dancing flames, aware of Henry looking at her questioningly
So many memories flash before her eyes. Memories of living on the streets. Of when she was brought to Neverland. How much she hated it here. Hated Pan. And the way she fought him at every turn.
She sighs, pulling her brother closer to her "Well, you know that my name is actually Lillian, right?" Henry nods, "When I was first brought here... I hated Peter. I would fight him every single chance that I got. I wanted off of this Island. It wasn't my home and I never thought that it would be. So that first night, I got into a fight with one of the Lost Boys tasked with taking me to the camp and Peter just thought it would a great idea to call me that and I guess it just stuck. At first it was meant to annoy me... but later it grew on me." She ends her story with a shrug
"There's something that I've been wondering about." She looks down at him curiously, he continues "The curse didn't affect this island, it didn't even affect all of the Enchanted forest, some of it survived... so how did you get pulled to Storybrook?"
Frown lines mar her forehead. She isn't actually too sure, the one moment she was on the cliff with Peter and the next... she hasn't had the chance to give it much thought, to be honest "I... I honestly don't know, Henry. But I will definitely be trying my best to find out."
They both look up as loud laughter and playful banter sounds from just beyond camp "They're back." Calleigh whispers, heart beating wildly in her chest
Peter's back.
She ignores the questioning gazes of the returning Lost Boys as they move past them to the bigger fire in the center of the camp.
Then, Henry inhales sharply and tucks himself closer into her side and she follows his gaze to the boy standing off to the side.
"Peter." His eyes seem to narrow as they gaze at her
"Lily." He says her name sharply. His lips part for a second and before she has a chance to properly untangle herself from Henry and stand up, he's striding towards them
"You're finally home." He comes to a halt in front of her, staring down at her with dark grey eyes. But he doesn't wait for her to say anything. He reaches for her, one large warm hand reaching around her waist, his fingers curling into the thin fabric of her shirt. He pulls her until she's flush against his chest, the hard planes of him warm through his green shirt.
"I told you, I'd always find you." He murmurs, and he holds her impossibly close to him, his face buried in her neck as he slowly breathed her in, his face and nose tickling her sensitive neck as he nuzzles his face against it. She reaches her hands up until one rests on his chest, the frantic beat of his heart pulsing beneath her fingers. The other finds the back of his hair, the familiar softness of his brown locks curling around her fingers "You're mine. Forever."
His words wash over her, and she curls her fingers into the fabric of his shirt.
He bends forward and his nose brushes against hers, much more softly than she can ever remember coming from him. She feels his lips press against hers, warm and rough and he presses harder as her nails dig into his scalp.
It's easy to lose herself in him. It always has been. When he's like this, nothing else ever matters. Not the other lost boys, who have long ago learned not to stare too curiously at their leader and the girl he loves. Nothing. He lifts her up towards him and then... "Sorry to interrupt, Pan." Felix.
"Kill him definitely." She murmurs against him and he chuckles.
He sets her down in front of him, still keeping her close, while eyeing Felix questioningly "You wanted to know about the dark one."
The dark one? Rumpelstiltskin? Does Peter know that he's been playing the part of her adoptive father all these years? Does he even know why? Does she even know? With everything that had been going on before they got taken, she never really had a chance to ask and now...
"Ah, yes." His voice shakes her from her thoughts and he looks back at her, "Don't go anywhere, Love. I'll be right back."
She sighs and sits down next to a very awkward looking Henry, who coughs "So, that was more than a little awkward."
She giggles, wrapping her arm around his shoulders again "Sorry, Little Dude."
X.X.X X.X.X X.X.X
A while later, when most of the Lost Boys had went to sleep for the night, Calleigh still sits quietly by the fire, staring intently at the dancing flames.
She should be happy... ecstatic to be...well, home... but she can't. Not that she doesn't want to. It's great to be back. To have Peter close by her again. To see her friends... her family... but after all the time that's passed... everything is unfamiliar now- different.
She isn't in tune with the island like she once was. She's lost that connection. Hell, she didn't even recognize it when Greg brought them here.
Her stomach pangs and she swallows, the gulping noise almost deafening to her ears in the quiet of the night.
She glances down to the sleeping Henry, who somehow, managed to cuddle even closer to her in his sleep and a small smile graces her lips.
Memories war in her head.
Her former self and her current self fighting for control.
She flexes her fingers – Fingers that knew how to both kill without thinking and play the most beautiful melodies on the piano – and inhales as she looks back at the flames.
Two lives trying to find some semblance of normal inside her head.
Two lives...
She jerks in surprise when Felix suddenly appeared in front of her, blocking the light from the fire, "What are you," He presses a finger to his lips, nodding his head at Henry before scooping him up to take him to one of the tree houses.
A presence next to her, makes her look up, right into the grey eyes of Peter, who grins at her, "Come on, Love." He holds out a hand, "Let's get some rest. Tomorrow is going to be a long day for everyone."
Allowing him to pull her up, she tries her best not to squeak in surprise when he leans down and picks her up bridal-style.
She shuts her eyes, nuzzling her face into neck as he flies them up to his personal treehouse.
The familiar feeling of wind brushing against her face makes her sigh.
There is a lot she needs to talk to him about. He can't hurt Rumple... or Emma... or...
He moves to lower her onto the fur covered bed but she refuses to let go of his shirt, tightening her grip in an effort to pull him down with her.
He chuckles darkly before settling himself next to her, wrapping his arms around her waist.
"Peter," She needs to tell him...
"Hush, Love. We can talk about this all in the morning."
He kisses her head softly and sleep claims her before she can form a coherent reply.
A/N: So, what do you guys think? I'm going to try my best and not make this story something that has been read to death before, I promise. Saying that though, this story will go dark, as dark as I can handle writing. I'm not going to follow the whole season 3 exactly but I will be following it mostly on Neverland with my own things mixed in. I just need to kind of reestablish Peter and Calleigh's relationship.
Also, you guys are awesome! Reviews make my day, seriously.