Hey guys! I know that I said that I was going to release a new chapter every Tuesday and Thursday, but I was sick all last week and wasn't able to. I apologize for the inconvenience, so here's an extra chapter this week to make up for it! Also, I'm going to stick to that schedule as well as I can. Love you guys!

Chapter Sixteen: Healing

"Merida?"

Merida rolled over, groggy.

"Five more minutes." She mumbled into her pillow. She heard nervous laughter.

"Uh, Merida? You have to wake up now. Do you remember where you are?"

Merida opened her eyes.

Yesterday, Jafar had impersonated Peter, but they managed to get him in the cell. The result of his stunt was Peter's broken arm.

She was laying on a cave floor, which made sense. She had gone into the cave across from Peter's to sleep. What didn't make sense was the voice that was talking to her.

"What are you doing down here, Jim?"

Jim sat down next to her and handed her a box.

"I brought you breakfast, and if you don't eat it now, it's going to get cold."

Merida sighed, sat up, and opened the box. Inside was a hearty breakfast of eggs, gravy, sausage, and a biscuit.

"Tiana?" Merida asked.

Jim handed her a fork.

"Yeah."

Merida popped part of a sausage into her mouth.

"What's Peter doing?"

Jim laughed lightly.

"I didn't want to wake him up yet, he needs all of the rest he can get."

Merida raised her eyebrows at him.

"And you woke me up?"

"What? Someone had to eat that amazing breakfast." Jim joked.

Merida offered him the fork.

"Want some?"

He eyed it, and then took it.

"Thanks."

He cut off a small piece of a sausage and then gave her back the fork.

Jim let her finish her meal in silence.

"So, why are you really here?"

He looked up at her, trying to look innocent. She sighed.

"Look, I know that you didn't just come to bring me breakfast."

Jim sighed.

"I just wanted to make sure you were okay."

Merida raised her eyebrows at him.

"You wanted to make sure that I was okay?"

"Hey, just because you don't have a broken arm, that doesn't mean that you are okay. You've been through a lot."

"So have you."

Jim bit the inside of his cheek.

"Not as much as you have."

Merida took a deep breath. He was pretty good at seeing people's emotions.

"I think I'm okay now. Really."

Jim smiled down at her.

"Good."

The two of them sat in silence for a few minutes.

"Mer?" Her name echoed off the walls of the caves.

"Coming, Peter." She called out. "You wanna go see Peter?"

Jim ran his fingers through his hair.

"I have to be heading back now. See ya later."

He picked up her trash and took it with him. Merida walked into Peter's cave.

"Did you bring me this food?"

Peter had a box exactly like Merida's and filled with the same food.

"No, Jim did."

Peter pulled his eyebrows together.

"Jim was here?"

Merida looked Peter over; He looked like he really wanted to see him.

"Yeah. He had to leave after he brought the food."

"Oh." Peter said.

Merida sat across from him and waited for him to finish his food. When he was done, he put it to the side and smiled up at her.

"So, what are we gonna do today?"

Merida laughed at him.

"You're not going to do anything but rest."

"But Mer!"

Peter's puppy dog face was tempting, but Merida knew that she couldn't let Peter hurt his arm even worse.

"Sorry, Peter, you can't move around. You could hurt yourself again." He pouted.

"Fine. Can we at least play a game?"

Merida rolled her eyes.

"As long as it's a game where you can't hurt yourself."

He made a thinking face.

"How about Twenty Questions?"

Merida rested her head on her hand.

"I don't think I know that one."

Peter smiled.

"It's easy. One person thinks of something, and the other person can ask up to twenty yes or no questions. If they can't guess what it is after the twentieth question, then they lose and the other person gets to think of something again."

Merida wasn't quite sure that she understood, but she felt like she should give Peter what little she could.

"All right. You go first."

"Okay!"

Peter made his thinking face, and then smiled.

"Got something."

Merida tried to think of something that Peter would think of.

"Is it a person?"

"Nope."

That ruled out a lot of things.

"Is it an object?"

"Nu-uh."

Her eyebrows pulled together.

"Is it an animal?"

Peter twisted his mouth.

"I'm not really sure."

Merida stared at him.

"Is it alive…?"

He smiled.

"Yes!"

"Can it talk?"

Peter looked confused.

"Yes and no."

Merida closed her eyes. It was alive, it could talk, and Peter wasn't sure if it was an animal. What did she know that was like that?

"Is it Morph?"

"Yeah!" Peter smiled. "Now it's your turn."

Merida looked up at the ceiling of the cave. What would Peter have a hard time guessing?

"Got one." She said, smiling.

"Is it a person?"

"Yes."

Maybe he would guess it.

"Is she pretty?"

Or maybe not.

"That question doesn't work."

Peter smiled.

"Is he pretty?"

"Peter, opinions won't work for you."

"You don't know that."

Merida sighed.

"Some people would think that he's pretty, yes."

"Do you think he's pretty?"

"Peter, are you even trying anymore?"

He laughed.

"I just want to know."

Merida sighed.

"I don't think that 'pretty' is the right word…"

"Well, what about handsome?"

Merida blushed. Hopefully he wouldn't be able to guess.

"Yeah."

"Is it Tony?"

Merida started.

"What? No."

Peter smiled.

"Is he old?"

"Depends on how old is old."

"Twenty!"

Merida pulled her eyebrows together. Did he think she was old?

"No, he isn't old."

"Does he have yellow hair?"

"Nope."

Peter made his thinking face, and then looked like he got an idea.

"Is he good at tennis?"

"Peter, how am I supposed to know that?"

"Well, you could."

"Well, I don't."

"Are his hands made of fire?"

Fire?

"No."

Peter pulled his eyebrows together.

"Well, that eliminates a whole ton of people."

Merida rolled her eyes.

"Peter, you only have ten questions left."

"Is he tall?"

"You have to stop asking questions that are opinionated."

"Well, is he taller than you?"

"Yes."

"Is he your friend?"

"Yes."

"Is it Doctor Sweet?"

"Peter, Doctor Sweet is older than Twenty."

"Oh, yeah."

He let out a breath.

"Is it Aladdin?"

Merida had to suppress a laugh.

"No. Five more questions, Peter."

He screwed his mouth to the side.

"You're really good at this game."

She smiled.

"Yup."

Peter thought for a little while.

"Do you like him?"

Merida choked on the air she was breathing.

"What?"

"Do you like him."

Peter said, looking at Merida.

"How- How in the world is that going to help you guess who it is."

"I don't know."

She took a breath.

"Peter, I'm not going to answer that."

He smirked.

"Because it's true?"

Merida took another deep, deep breath. Peter waited patiently.

"I'm not answering that either. Can we play a different game?"

He looked confused.

"But we didn't even finish this one."

"What about Slide?"

"Oh, I love Slide!"

She sighed. That was close.

Merida flipped over onto her belly. She and Peter had been playing games for multiple hours now, and frankly, she was done with them.

"What about Charades?"

"Peter, I don't want to play any more games."

Peter leaned his head against his hand.

"Well, what else are we supposed to do?" He said.

"Go to sleep."

Peter laughed.

"It's not even time to sleep yet. Why would I do that?"

There were footsteps, and Peter and Merida both looked to the door.

"Be right back." Merida said, getting up. Peter leaned against the wall.

"'Kay."

She walked into the hallway and saw Jim.

"Hey." She said, walking toward him.

"Hi."

Merida looked him over. He looked tired, but he was smiling. He leaned against the wall and she could see that he was carrying something.

"What are you doing here?"

"Brought you guys lunch." He said, handing her a bag.

"Oh, thanks. Do you want to go see Peter?"

He smiled.

"Yeah."

The two walked into Peter's cave and saw him laying against the wall, asleep.

Merida motioned for Jim to follow her into the cave that she had been using to sleep in, and they sat down.

"It's good that he's getting his rest." Jim said. Merida nodded.

In the bag were three boxes. Merida looked up at Jim.

"I was going to eat with you guys." He said, running his fingers through his hair.

She handed him a box.

"We can give Peter his later."

She grabbed a box for herself and opened it. Inside was fried chicken, mashed potatoes, and a biscuit.

"Is Tiana going to cook all of our meals?" She said, taking a bite.

"I really wouldn't mind if she did. I get a meal out of it, too." They both laughed.

Peter and Merida had in the cave for three weeks. Jim would visit three times a day to bring food, and if Peter was up, they would all eat together. If Peter wasn't awake, Merida and Jim would eat together and talk until Peter woke up. On occasion, others would visit for a few hours, but never more.

Doctor Sweet visited every few days to make sure that Peter was healing correctly.

"How's the arm feeling?" The Doctor was touching Peter's injured arm lightly.

"Great, Doc." Peter replied, smiling.

Sweet put pressure on different areas of the arm. Merida was going to object, but Peter didn't react.

"All right, Peter, looks like you're okay to go home."

"Yes!" he said, standing up.

"Are you sure?" Merida asked, concerned. She didn't want Peter to hurt his arm trying to get out; That could add weeks on to their stay underground.

"Positive." Sweet said, collecting his supplies. "I'm going to head out now, you and Peter are welcome to, also."

Sweet walked out of the cave, and Peter began walking out, too.

"Come on, Merida, let's go!"

"Hold on, Peter." He looked at her, confused. "Are you sure you can do this?"

"Yeah." He said, smiling. "I would have been out of here a long time ago if it wasn't too tight to fly up. Merida rolled her eyes.

"All right, but if your arm starts to hurt, we're going back down, okay?"

Peter smirked.

"It won't, but okay."

The two made their way to the ladder and He began to climb up. After he had scaled a few rungs, She began to climb.

A few minutes passed.

"See, Mer, I can do this with one hand!" Peter laughed and she sucked in a sharp breath.

"Don't you dare try."

The two climbed in silence for a few minutes.

"Hey, Mer?"

"Yeah Peter?"

He was silent for a few seconds.

"What do you wanna do when we get up there?" She laughed.

"I don't know, I didn't think about it."

They were close to the top now. Peter pulled himself on to the ground, and once Merida reached the top, she did, too.

She looked out across the forest. She didn't want to admit it to Peter, but she was beyond tired.

"Peter?"

He stood up.

"Yeah?"

"I think I just want to go home."

He smiled at her.

"Okay, Mer, I'll take you home."