Chapter Ten: The Real Jim

"Merida?" Peter asked, opening the door to the study.

Merida was leaning against a wall, and Doctor Sweet was on the phone with the group of people at her house. Merida nodded, and Peter stepped in with Jim cautiously following.

"Hey Peter, hey Jim." Merida said casually. She wasn't going to let Peter find out what Sweet had just told her.

"Okay. All right." The doctor said into the phone, and then hung up.

"What's the news?" Peter asked.

Jim sat against the wall next to Merida. Merida felt so sorry for what happened to him; He looked so innocent. Sweet clapped his hands, pulling her out of her thoughts.

"Well, we've all come to an agreement that this" Sweet motioned to Jim "is the real Jim Hawkins."

Peter's posture relaxed, and Jim let out a breath that Merida didn't know he was holding.

"And the other guy?" Jim asked, looking up at Sweet.

Sweet gave Peter a sideways glance.

"We're just figuring out what to do with him."

Jim nodded and slouched back into the wall. As soon as he did so, Peter stood up and looked at the doctor.

"You and I should head over there and see what's going on." Peter shifted his eyes to Merida. "Can you take Jim home? He's been away for a while."

If Sweet hadn't told her about Peter wanting to keep her in the dark, Merida would have protested, but she couldn't let him know that she knew.

She stood up and brushed off her pants.

"Yeah. Come on, Jim." She said, helping him up.

Merida turned to walk out, but Peter pulled her into a hug.

"Be careful." He said.

Merida had no idea what to say, so she blushed quietly until he let her go. Peter straightened her necklace, and then looked at Jim.

"You two should leave before Hook realizes that we've found the real Jim."

Jim nodded, and he and Merida walked out the door.

After they were out of the castle, Merida cleared her throat.

"So… Where do you live?" Jim laughed.

"Pretty far from here, actually. Too bad we can't all fly like Peter." They laughed, and fell into silence. After a few minutes, Jim spoke up.

"Merida…" Jim said, kicking a rock.

"Yeah?"

"Peter told me about how you thought that… When that guy was me… We were…" Jim ran his fingers through his hair. "I'm sorry about that."

Merida felt a sting in her chest, but tried to keep herself composed.

"It's okay, Jim. I'm not mad at you."

He smiled at her.

"Thanks for that."

The two were silent for a while.

"So where are we going, anyway?" Merida asked, and Jim smiled.

"I live at the edge of the beach." She shuddered.

Jim looked up at her.

"If you don't want to go over there I understand."

Merida forced a laugh.

"No, I'm fine. Really."

The two settled into a mutual silence –with a few comments here and there- until they reached Jim's house.

"Wow." Merida said.

Jim's house looked old and futuristic at the same time. The framework looked like a multiple-story cottage, but the top of the house was covered with strange panels. Next to it was something that vaguely resembled a boat, except the sail was covered with the same strange panels.

"What is that?" Merida asked, pointing at it.

Jim laughed.

"What, my solar-surfer?" Merida stared at it and nodded. "It's kind of like a skateboard, but for the air."

She looked up at him.

"Skateboard?"

Jim raised his eyebrows at her.

"What, you don't know what a skateboard is?"

Merida looked at the solar-surfer and sighed.

"Compared to everyone else, where I came from didn't have a lot of technology."

Merida thought about her family and sighed again. She still missed them, but the ache for them wasn't as bad as before.

"Well, I'll take you flying on it sometime, because you're missing out if you've never been on one."

Merida smiled at him.

"Okay."

Jim held open the front door and the two walked into his house.

The front room had a few chairs and a large couch. Jim sank down onto the latter and sighed happily. Merida took the chair across from him.

"It's so good to be home." He said.

Suddenly, there was a loud squeaking noise, and a pink blob flew into Jim's face.

Merida gasped, but Jim was laughing.

"Morph!" He said as the creature licked his face.

Merida stared at it, wide eyed. Was that thing alive?

Jim looked at Merida's face and laughed.

"What, they don't have these where you come from?" Merida could only shake her head. "Go on Morph, say hi to Merida."

Morph flew up to her. She held out her hand, and he plopped down on it.

"Hello." Merida said, looking at Morph curiously.

Morph's body vibrated and then turned into a tiny Merida.

"Hello. Hello. Hello." It said in her voice. Merida gasped again and Jim laughed.

"See why he's called Morph?"

Morph changed back into his pink self and licked Merida's nose. She laughed.

"Yes, I see."

Merida looked at Jim. He looked exactly like the Jim that she had known, but acted so much different. Even his mannerisms didn't match Jafar's version of him.

He looked up, and she quickly looked away.

"How long have you been in Wonderland?"

Merida looked up to the ceiling, counting back the months.

"Almost a year." Jim laughed.

"You managed to get into this much trouble in less than a year?" Merida couldn't help but blush.

"I think trouble follows me around."

Jim nodded.

"I know how you feel." She looked up at him. He was smiling, but his eyes were sad.

"How long have you been here?" Merida asked, trying to get his mind off of whatever memory he was thinking of. Jim laughed.

"I've got to say, I've been here a while: Over ten years." Merida's eyes widened.

"Really? How young were you when you came here?"

Jim laughed.

"The same age as I am now."

Merida's mouth fell open.

"Wh…What?"

Jim smiled at her.

"Don't you know? Everyone in Wonderland grows to a certain age, and then they stop."

She tried to process this.

"People… don't… age…?"

Does that mean that she wasn't going to get older? Jim interrupted her confusion.

"It's different for everyone. I didn't end up aging past eighteen, which is how old I was when I got here. Peter was thirteen when he got here, but he hit seventeen before he stopped. You don't know how old you'll get until you stop aging."

Merida felt her heart sink. What if Merida grew older than all of her friends? What if she got decades older than Peter and Jim?

"Relax, Merida," Jim said "you're probably going to stay young. You've got that kind of spirit." Merida took a deep breath. He was probably right; There was no reason to worry. But why hadn't anyone told her this before?

Morph flew up to Merida and squeaked at her. He turned into a miniature Jim.

"There's no reason to worry. There's no reason to worry."

"This looks just like you." She said, holding the mini Jim in her palm.

"Yeah, he's pretty good at that, isn't he?" Jim looked down "I guess he's not the only one, though."

"Yeah." Merida said, looking away.

Jim's eyes shifted up to her.

"Merida, you don't know who did it, do you?" He asked.

Merida bit her lip. He looked like a child, scared, innocent, and trusting.

She cleared her throat. She didn't know if he was supposed to know who did it, but if she had a right to, didn't he, too?

"Someone named Jafar."

Jim's head snapped up.

"Are you sure?" He asked.

He was whispering, and he looked terrified.

"Yes, yes I'm sure. Are you all right Jim?" His hands were shaking lightly.

"Do you know who Jafar is, Merida?"

Merida shook her head slowly.

"He's an evil, evil guy from Jasmine's past."

Merida put he hands on her knees. How come so many people had enemies in the past?

"What does he want?"

Jim leaned in toward Merida.

"I don't know for sure, but I've been thinking."

She could see the wheels turning behind Jim's eyes.

"This person, who we now know is Jafar, seemed to be targeting you. Peter told me that Hook said that he needed more crew members, but I don't think that's exactly what's going on. Jafar has always been obsessed with ruling, so maybe he was looking for soldiers."

Merida stared at Jim. What he just said made so much sense, and she could see the growing truth behind it.

"How long did it take for you to come up with that?" She asked. Jim shrugged.

"From the time Peter told me what had happened to you telling me about it being Jafar."

Merida's eyes widened.

"How did you…?"

Jim ran his fingers through his hair.

"I like to figure things out." He said, leaning back.

Merida smiled at him. He was brilliant.

There was a ringing noise in the room, and Merida looked around. It sounded like a phone, but she didn't see one…

Jim looked around and then picked a small object up off of the table.

"Hello?" He said into it. Merida gasped.

"Is that thing a phone?"

She stared at it, wide eyed, and tried to poke it. Jim wriggled away from her finger and laughed. There was noise on the other end, and he cleared his throat.

"What? Yeah, I'm listening."

Merida leaned back into her hair, and Morph turned into the tiny phone. She laughed and put it to her ear.

"Hello?" She asked.

"Hello? Hello? Hello?" Morph copied. He turned back into his pink form and licked in her ear.

"Eww! Morph!" Merida said, trying to grab him.

"All right. Yeah, thanks." Jim said into the phone, and then put it on the side table. It made a beeping noise.

He cupped his hands around his face and leaned toward Merida.

"That was Peter. He just told me about Jafar, but asked me not to tell you. Would you like to explain that?"

Merida sat up straight and then cleared her throat.

"Uhm…"

Jim looked at her suspiciously.

"Merida?"

She sighed. Well, there was no use keeping it from him.

"Sweet told me about Jafar because he said that I had a right to know."

Jim tucked his hair behind one of his ears, and then smirked.

"Well, yeah, I guess you do have a right to know. But Peter is going to find out sooner or later."

Merida sighed.

"I know."

Morph turned into a mini Merida and sighed.

"Well, I wouldn't worry about it, because he may just tell you himself."

Merida looked at Jim.

"What? How do you know?"

Jim laughed.

"He wants both of us to head down to Tiana's place to figure out where to keep him. Now, I don't know about you, but I think it would be hard to keep someone from knowing whose trying to capture them if they're with you when you're deciding where to put the guy."

Merida laughed.

"All right then, let's go."