Hook laughed triumphantly. I personally thought it was an odd time to laugh. I couldn't think of worse timing actually.

"You'll do it! I knew you wouldn't let us down!"

I forced a smile, "Yeah… I always wanted to be a pirate anyway..." I lied to myself.

Then he looked to me with all seriousness, "But it will be a challenge, a risk."

He pointed his hook to me as the light reflected off of it into my face.

"I… understand," I said slowly, "but what's the big challenge? I've been around young boys before and believe me," I said with a small laugh, "there not the hardest to pull one over on."

"He is not a boy, Eva!" Hook cried. "He's a useless young man, ageless I'd say. The problem is he's not only getting stronger and older but smarter! I'm afraid it's the opposite for me, I'm growing weaker, slower… he's in his prime and he knows it."

"It doesn't matter, a boy's a boy, I'm pretty sure they're the same anywhere you'd go," I injected looking off to the side, Hook sighed.

"Well, I'm glad you don't feel… threatened."

I looked to him, "And why would I feel threatened?"

He smiled to me then glancing to the shadow of a man that leaned casually in the door frame.

"Ahh Don, why don't you come over here?"

"You really hate answering questions don't you?" I mumbled shifting in my chair.

"Eva," said Hook, "This is, well, my answer to a lost boy," he said of the tall young man that stood before me.

"His name is Don, he will be your guide and guardian. I have a feeling you two will get along splendidly."

I looked up his slim body starting with worn black leather boots and finishing with a pale face that glared to me with a devious smirk.

He bowed to me before taking my hand, "Pleasure to meet you, Evangeline Hook."

I watched as he laid a gentle kiss upon my hand and looked up to me. I would have said something back or smiled at least if it weren't for those eyes. This man envisioned everything dark and dim, save for a pair of the oddest eyes I'd ever seen. They where ice blue, practically white, with dark pupils - only dots in the center. I could only stare.

What a freak show.

Hook rose from his seat as Don took a few steps away from me.

"I will leave the two of you to get better acquainted," he looked to Don sternly, "Do not let her roam out on deck, if Peter sees her the plan will be ruined and I'll have your head for it."

Don saluted his captain before Hook swiftly left the room.

I leaned back into the chair, allowing the discussion of the previous few minutes to sink in.

Kill a man, become a pirate, end the magic of Neverland, forget my old life, just a few hours ago my biggest worry was a ride home after the homecoming dance.

I glanced to Don who had been starring at me, "Yeah?" I asked, "Do you have something you would like to tell me?"

"You may speak to Hook and Pan in that manner Miss Hook, but the attitude you seem so desperate to present will not work with me."

Hmmm, prick.

"Sorry but what is your job again? Are you like Hook's official ass kisser or something?" I asked getting up to stretch my legs and check out the room a bit.

"Lost boy leader, actually."

I pulled a face as my back was turned to him, "How… cute. I guess I am in Neverland after all."

I began to toy with an old compass I found on Hook's desk.

"Cute is not exactly the most suitable word…"

"You do dress up like animals don't you?" I asked smiling knowing it would bother him. I shook the compass just as he snapped it shut and ripped it out of my hands placing it neatly back on the table.

"No," he whispered in a mock smile.

"Oh."

"I make the plans, I set the battles. I am the man in the front line. Since I've arrived in this dismal world Pan has been, let's say… careful."

I had moved on to a grand picture hanging on the wall of a Victorian dressed woman.

"And when was that, when did you arrive here?"I asked curious.

"Why?" his answer sounded as though he was offended.

"Well didn't Hook say we should get to know each other, we should get to know each other, right?" I was half lost in the eyes of the woman in the picture, she had long black hiar and was of African descent I guessed.

"I have told you all you need to know Miss Hook."

"What? Your name and your kiss ass job, isn't there more to your story then that?"

"I suppose I have left out something rather important…"

I continued studying the picture of the woman and reached out a hand to touch it, "Oh yeah? What's that?"

Suddenly, startlingly, he was at me side with a tight hold on my wrist pulling my hand away from the picture.

"I have no patience for spoiled, petty little girls who think everything is there's to grab."

I laughed humorlessly and turned to him, "So you think you know me already, hmm?"

"No, I know I know you. I've known you your whole life. You're the girl who thinks the world is against her, the girl who could have it all but settles for nothing. The girl who complains of the plight she set for herself. I know you very well, kid."

He released my sore wrist, "Don't test me. You don't know a thing about me, Don."

"Now that's funny… I'd say cute even."

"Fuck you," I cursed under me breathe.

I flinched as he swiftly raised his hand ready to come down hard against my face and raised my arms in self defense. He stopped himself and stared to me.

"Watch your mouth, girl. I won't catch myself next time, no matter whose daughter you are you will show me respect first."

I lowered my arms and found it hard to look to his face again.

He gazed past me to the picture I had been so enchanted by.

"You're quite a lady, Miss Hook."

I looked up to him questioningly and he looked back to the picture behind me seeming to compare me with her.

"Come on kid, follow me."

I looked back to the picture then to Don who was halfway out the door.

"Hey, wait! I thought I couldn't go on deck."

"We aren't going on deck now come on!"

"Where then?" I asked catching up to him as he led me down some steps.

"Just follow me, kid."

"Stop calling me that or I swear…"

He smiled as we traveled below deck.

"What in the hell is that?" I cried with a grimace as he pulled out a hideous dress from a trunk.

He glanced to me with a tested look, "A dress. You will wear it when you meet Pan, it will remind him of older times, back when he met that Wendy girl."

"When did she live, fugly B.C?"

"You will wear it, and you'll be changing the way you speak as well. Cut out the cursing, slang, innuendo, and keep the insults to a minimum. Perhaps then we'll have some sort of a chance."

"Gee, maybe if I just sit and smile with my legs crossed he'll be thrown into a hopeless passion that can only be resolved with intense, animalistic… cuddling. Oh rapture," I siad with the most sarcasm I could muster.

Don smirked, "You think you're rather funny don't you?"

"Hilarious," I said dryly looking over the hideous gown.

He raised a brow to me before shoving the dress to my chest, "Well save it for Pan, that lucky son of a bitch."

I couldn't help but smile to his obvious sarcasm as I looked over the dress in my hands. It was long, heavy, white and ruffled and I couldn't imagine anyone wearing it in public even a hundred years ago.

"Is this a nightgown?"

He nodded, "of course, what else would a Victorian woman wear to sleep?"

"Something more comfortable than this frilly thing, don't you have a pair of jeans in there?" I asked of the large elegant trunk he stood in front of that seemed to have been residing in this oversized closet of a room for eternity. It looked antique but seemed in perfect condition, does everything stay timeless hear as if captured in an old photograph?

"This trunk is all for you, it was set up by your mother for when you would arrive back home. I'm sure she left quite a few interesting items behind."

I looked into the trunk overwhelmed by the trinkets it kept. I spotted a doll, a blanket, a more proper dress, shoes, a hair brush, all sorts of jewelry, books, even sea shells, I could go on.

I reached for a perfume bottle when Don abruptly shut the trunk.

"Dress first, kid."

I narrowed my eyes to him, "I told you to shut up with that."

"When you have earned respect perhaps I will show some to you. For now, you're a kid."

I folded my arms holding the dress, "Well where shall I change Mr… Don? Maybe in front of the crew, I mean you all have been so kind to me after all, with the kidnapping and stuff… "

"Your sarcasm is not appreciated," he said under his breath lifting the trunk to place it back under its tarp in the corner.

"Then what, you expect me to be grateful or something?"

"Well, when a group of men risk their skins to save a young damsel from a life of normality, one does expect some degree of appreciation."

"Sorry if I haven't yet thrown myself at any of you yet."

"Once again with the sarcasm, is this how all young ladies talk where you come from?"

He was looking down at me again. I felt like some sort of rodent being examined by a mad scientist trying to decide if he should use me in his experiment or move on to something more important to do.

"Only the ones who realized it's a waste of time to care what others think, I say what I think."

"So that's why everything you say is so stupid?"

I gawked to him. What could have made this man so negative, so cold? Maybe years of confinement on an old ship chasing a boy that will never die, jumping to Hook's every order. A lack of female conpanionship? I knew I had much to learn of this Don character.

"So… change!" he said snapping me out of my thoughts.

"Aren't going to leave first?" I inquired with a hand on my hip.

A sly smirk crept upon his features, "I can't leave you alone, Captain's orders."

"Look I don't care if don't have any respect for me, I don't have any for you. I actually think I hate you and I've known you for almost ten minutes now. Still, there are some things that cross the line, so get the fu—I mean… please leave. Please."

He was still smiling down to me, "How about you do as I say and have a bit of faith in me? I'll be over here by the door with my back turned."

I looked to him with distrust.

"I promise I won't peek."

"You better not," I mumbled as he walked to the door.

Waiting until he was facing the door with his back to me I felt it safe to slip out of my dress.

"After this I'll introduce you to the boys."

"Boys?" I asked fumbling with finding an entrance into the gown.

"The lost boys, our lost boys that is. There's Loxley and Jacobe, Jack, and DaVinci…"

I smiled to myself as I slipped on the first layer of the dress, "What about the other lost boys, you know like the ones in the story. Are they still around?"

"As stuck as Pan I'm afraid…" he cleared his throat as his mood shifted, "You know, lass, you will become one of us tonight. Every man must be sworn in as one of us or you'll find yourself just as soon at the wrong side of the plank. You see if you're not a part of us, you're one of them."

I toyed with lacing up the gown that would go before the robe, "Well, how do you exactly go about being sworn in? Don't tell me there's like some weird blood bond thing."

"You'll see tonight," was all he would reveal.

I slipped into the heavy rob that draped down to the floor and had bell sleeves that ended at the elbows. I hastily tied it in the front and pulled off the uncomfortable gold hoops I had been wearing.

"Alright, done."

He turned and looked to me, his jaw stiffened and he looked away with a small nod, "You look just like… I mean, you look good."

I would have said something bitchy back but I had been too flattered

"Thank you," I said quietly.

"Would you liked to see for yourself?" he asked before pulling a dusty tarp off of a long mirror in the corner.

I walked over to where he was and studied the reflection. I looked ridiculous, what were these idiots trying to pull off? Just because I looked like the queen of England didn't mean I was suddenly going to act like her. I didn't show my displeasure, I tried to smile.

"Are there shoes?" I inquired.

He looked away from the reflection and back to me, "Yes, of course, there in the trunk. Why don't you look as I run and get the boys?"

"Wait… why is it you can leave the room for that but not for when I was changing—"

"Don't leave this room," he said sternly not hearing a word of my own before he left me completely alone.

The ship creaked and rocked as I began to dig through the cluttered trunk.

Various items were strewn about me and the trunk was nearly empty, where the hell were these shoes?

I sat back looking around me to see the piles of trinkets I had formed, some of the items seemed so travail to save. For example, there was an empty bottle of wine and various amounts of feathers. Of course my true mother would be a hoarder.

Looking back in the trunk there was only one final item left; a light purple gown. Pulling it out of the trunk it revealed a pair of high, white, lace up boots, the very last thing left behind… or so I thought.

I looked behind the dress to the bottom of the trunk, something didn't seem right. It appeared as though someone had placed a board to fit the bottom, was it to hide something? I reached to lift it up when the door slammed open causing me nearly to jump out of my skin.

"Davinchi you dumb dago, you're s'pposed to knock first. She is a lady after all!" cried a boy's voice I didn't recognize. I quickly began to stuff the junk back in the trunk with my shoes in hand.

"Sorry Jacobe, I forgot how you're the gentleman of Neverland," said Davinchi with sarcasm and a thick Italian accent I noted.

"What'd you do? Empty the whole thing?" asked Don now at my side.

"I'm sorry my mother decided to stuff the only pair of shoes under everything in the entire crate. They don't even look comfortable," I said of the boots before I attempted to put them on.

"Kid," he announced as I was crouched over on the ground, "allow me to introduce you to the men."

"Not my name," I warned tugging on his coat.

"Sorry, meet Miss Eva Hook boys!"

They looked down to me as they stood in row, arms crossed and bored looking. I had just tugged on the first shoe and looked up to meekly smile to them, "Hello."

"Ciao," said the Italian young man unenthusiastically.

"Can we go now?" asked another boy to Don.

"No," he answered sternly, "none of you are leaving until we all get to know one another.

"Jacobe, we'll start with you," the boy jumped to hear his name, I partly looked up to him as I continued lacing the tall boots.

"Jacobe is the youngest, he's our best shot with a gun."

"Best shot with any gun," added the teenage boy. He appeared to be older than me but I found nearly impossible to really place any of the men in an age group. They all seemed to either be late teens or early twenties, except for Don who could have been older than any one of them.

I glanced back at the boy who stared down to me. He was dirty, with messy brown hair, he looked like any other boy in my school that had been left out in the wilderness for around three months.

"Then there's Loxley. His talent is in the bow and arrow, his skills are unmatched."

"How do you do, Miss?" he asked with a perfect English accent.

"Oh Loxley," I said with sudden realization of why the name sounded so familiar, "like Robin Hood of Loxley, good nickname! You see I knew this would be cute," I said with a pleased smile to Don who rolled his eyes.

Loxley was much more put together than the others. His hair was still a dirty blonde mess and he could definitely use a shower… when was the next time I'd get a shower?

"Introducing DaVinci," said Don gesturing to the next the tallest man in line.

The man took off his hat before bowing to me saying something quickly in Italian.

"Hmm, si si!" I said laughing as he took his hand in mine and kissed it, I caught the others in line rolling their eyes.

"DaVinci here is a master swords man—"

"Among other things," he added with wink.

DaVinci was definitely interesting but far from good looking. He had a large nose and long face, maybe after a haircut and shave…

"C'mon Casanova," said the next boy in line giving DaVinci a push.

"And then there's Jack," said Don.

The man looked down to me and nodded, "Hey."

"Hey," I said back before going back to lacing my shoes.

He was American like Jacobe, but there was something different about the last lost boy who stood in line.

"Jack the map maker, he uses the stars to guide us through the jungle at night and it is no exaggeration that at times we would be lost without him.

"These boys have been with us for years," continued the leader, "each one has earned his salt—"

"Unlike Pan's pussies…" mumbled Jacobe sourly. Don glanced to him harshly for interrupting but all the men seemed to share the same thought.

"We are chivalrous, Jacobe," said Don sternly to boy but speaking to all of us, "If Pan stabs us in between our shoulders we will still fight fair and to death so be it" he looked down to me, "we are not cowardly snakes."

Damn he took this seriously. What does Hook have against Pan anyway? Well I guess if a guy cut off my hand I's be pretty pissed too.

"What about you, Eva?" asked Jacobe, "tell us about yourself."

I stood up after finishing with the white boots, what was there to tell?

"I… I don't know what to say," I said thinking of how obscure the whole situation was, I was being treated like some alien from the future for Christ sake.

"Tell us about America," said DaVinci

I shrugged, "It's probably a lot different than any of you all remember."

"So tell us!" pleaded Jack.

I looked to him, great, I felt like the kid in class who had been spacing out before the teacher asked him a question.

"Well, it's… there's, uhh, cell phones?" saying the first thing that came to mind.

"What are those?" asked Jacobe enthusiastic.

"There… like small phones that you can take anywhere with you," I stammered.

"What's a phone?" asked DaVinci to have Jacobe slap him on the back of the head.

"You moron, there those talkin' things, go on Eva," he said looking back to me.

This was going nowhere. "Yeah there's just a lot of stuff like that—"

"What about the weapons?" asked Loxley excited, thankfully Don cut in before I could ramble any longer.

"Alright, alright, there's a reason we don't discuss the other world," he said silencing the room.

There was? I wondered inwardly.

"Enough with the small talk, we need to plan—"

"But we've just been planning for nearly a year," injected DaVinci.

"Yeah," agreed Loxley, "where's the fun in just imagining hundreds of ways to kill a chap, I'd rather put these plans to the test," he said with a finger in the air.

"And we will soon enough," said Don beginning to pace around me, "with Miss Hook here things will begin to fall in place, we'll see Pan fall soon enough."

"Wait," I interrupted, "exactly how fast do you expect me to pull this scheme off?"

"Well how long to you recon it will take?" asked the irritated lost boy leader.

I thought for a moment, I wished to say something like years but I thought better of it, "I don't know, maybe weeks, I've never exaclty done anything like this before."

Immediately the room erupted in outrage, "We've only waited seventeen years!" protested DaVinci followed by the rest with similar outbursts only silenced by Don.

"Enough! Now, situations like this take time, weeks, months, who knows for certain. What we cannot do it rush this. One false move on our part and all these years of waiting, planning and preparing are over. We only get a single chance unless you would all care to wait another two decades, or longer, I suggest you stop complaining.

"If we succeed," he went on with a glance to me, "this will be the last plan we plot."

I felt the overwhelming feeling of yearning in the room. The boys wanted badly for this all to end, why, I couldn't tell just yet.

"My boys, Peter will die and no requiem will be sung."

Thank you readers for continuing your encouraging reviews, Peter should make his debut in the next installment of Never Bet the Devil Your Heart! :D

~Rose