Keeping Fantasia: The Third Book of the Fantasia Series

Chapter 37: Neverland Misadventures - The Physio I

Chapter 37: Neverland Misadventures - The Physio I

(When: Approximately 6 Years and 2 Months Ago)

"Mrs. Pan? Mrs. Pan? Mrs. Pan, can you open your eyes?"

Wendy stirred. Everything was hazy and her ears were stuffed, but she gathered someone was telling her to wake up. 

She tried. Her eyelids were heavy. With an extraordinary effort, Wendy managed to squint up like a baby bird.

Someone was hovering over her. Someone with green eyes inside a blurry face. Slowly, the blurry features pixilated into a girl wearing grey scrubs and a bright expression.

The girl smiled. "Good morning."

Wendy blinked. She had no idea who this was.  However, the girl had wished her good morning, so Wendy opened her mouth to respond.

Nothing came out. 

Wendy tried to speak again, but she couldn't. Her voice was reduced to scratches. 

Wendy touched her throat. She tried to sit up. Instantly, sharp pains radiated across her stomach. An oxygen wire yanked behind her ear. Wendy reached to loosen it, but her IV line was too short. 

Wendy started to panic. Where was Peter? Where were Ariel and Jim?  Where were her children? Why was she alone? Where were Eris, Pitch, and Captain Hook? Why did she hurt EVERYWHERE?

The girl touched Wendy's shoulders.

"It's okay.  Lay still for a second."

Wendy froze. She watched as the girl unraveled the tangled lines.

"You can't speak because you were intubated." the girl explained. "That means a tube was placed down your throat to help you breathe. You've only just started breathing again by yourself because the intubation tube got removed last night."

The girl ran two fingers up  her neck. "When the tube gets pulled out, it can bruise tissues. That can cause difficulty speaking. Once those tissues heal, your voice will come back. Please try not to panic."

Wendy settled into her pillow, but it almost impossible not to panic. Her memory of Captain Hook was extremely threadbare, but the details that she did remember were harrowing. 

Wendy knew she had been badly hurt. She also knew she was in a hospital, although the location was still a mystery. She knew that she had tried to shadow work the medical staff, but Jim had stopped her. Therefore, Jim was somewhere in the hospital and she assumed Ariel and Peter were with him.

But the children. Where were her children? Where was her baby boy? Was he...alive?

Wendy closed her eyes, wishing desperately for Peter. She heard the beep, beep, beep of the heart rate monitor increase with her anxiety.

Wendy opened her eyes.  Because there was no one else in the room, she looked at the girl.

The girl smiled. "Freaking out a little?"

Wendy nodded. She certainly was.

"That's totally normal." assured the girl, stacking her clipboard and stethoscope behind the IV. Wendy noticed that she also set aside a walker before crouching down and continuing her reassurance.

"Being in the hospital is scary, especially when you wake up and have no idea where you are. So, let me try to help: You are in the Uranus Medical Station, in the Milky Way Galaxy. You came with your family on a ship. I believe it was a crash landing."