Pan's Redemption

Chapter 16 ~Tinkerbell*

"Pan, I saw them."

"Hook." Pan said in a hard voice. The name surprised her. It hurt her heart to think about her former friend. She felt terrible that she had almost forgotten about him.

"No, it wasn't him." She said anxiously. Hook wasn't stupid. He wouldn't just come out of the blue with a rescue attempt. Pan looked at her speculating.

"How do you know it wasn't?" He asked skeptically.

"I just know. Plus, Hook can't run that fast." She stated.

Pan felt a hint of jealousy and then appall.

"Wait, you were running after them, not away?!" He looked at her as if she was crazy. If she was so scared of intruders, then why the hell would you chase them?

"Of course I was." She said slightly confused. She watched as Pan took a deep breath. She waited for him to yell and scream. Her shoulders tensed.

"Come on, lets take care of that knee." Wendy looked up at him startled, but he continued to stare at her knee. He led her towards a small pond in the middle of the warm muggy jungle.

"Pan?" She asked while he used a handkerchief from his belt and began rising her cut.

"Ya?"

"Why does it get cold here when you're around?" Wendy watched as he tensed. She wondered if it was a sensitive topic. She didn't see how it would be.

"You're very observant. When did you ever figure that out?" There was something wrong. Wendy could see it in Pan's eyes. He was thinking about something.

"When the mermaid attacked me, it got icy cold out of nowhere and then I guess I realized that it was always cold whenever I was with you." She explained watching him carefully. That split second of thought Pan had disappeared. He carefully bound her wound making her wince.

"It's always cold, but today its....hot. Why is that?" She asked. Wendy didn't know why. She didn't know why she could make him tell her things. She didn't know why he didn't just lock her up again. Was her pain hurting him as much as herself?

"Neverland is ruled by one force, life. As long as I'm alive, the island still grows. It tries to mimic my personality," he helped me up, "does your knee hurt?"

"I'm fine. But wait, are you saying the weather matches your personality?" She asked doubtfully. She didn't want to understand Neverland. She didn't want to know about Pan. Something inside her did. A small fragile peace of her curiosity. The small piece of glass left over from the broken mirror. That's how she felt. The old Wendy would be gushing with excitement. She would spend hours asking the legendary Peter Pan questions. After all, it was all she used to think about. He was all she used could think about. She felt empty. Like every good quality she used to have vanished and hid behind her worst.

"No, more like my thoughts." She tilted her head, thinking.

"What's different now?" The weather was humid. It wasn't icy like the night before. If it was his thoughts, Wendy thought she knew what it was. She could not run from him now.

"Nothing. Look, are you really worried about this mystery person? Are you sure it isn't just a curious Lost Boy?" The abrupt subject change threw her off. She had to think before she made her reply.

"I know what I saw, Pan. It wasn't a Lost Boy. It wasn't. It was someone else." Pan narrowed his eyes, but sighed.

"Fine, stay here. I'll be back." He turned, but Wendy grabbed his wrist to stop him.

"I'm coming with you." She replied in a hard voice.

"No, you have to stay here. You're better off here." He turned again, and again she stopped him.

"Pan-"

"Wendy, you will stay right here. You can either plant yourself on these rocks or I will lock you up. Pick one."

Wendy grew silent by Pan's yelling. She finally thought she was breaking his control on her, but here she goes getting him angry and bowing her head in submission.

The only thing different in this familiar scene was that there was regret. She saw it in his eyes as he pulled her chin up to meet his eyes.

"I'm sorry," he put his hands on each side of her face so she could not escape. She stood there watching his impossibly endless green eyes soften. "I will find them. I will make them go away, and then I hope we can start over." Wendy couldn't believe what she was hearing.

"Start over?" She asked in a small voice, hoping.

"No more threats. No more cruelty. You might be surprised, Wendy, but I really don't enjoy terrorizing people. I hope to be your friend." With the last sentence hanging in the air, Pan vanished into a cloud of green mist. Gone.

Wendy didn't know what to do. He was two people at once. Pan and Peter. She knew Pan all to well. His tricks, his rage, his power. The person she didn't know was Peter. The kind, storybook character from her book back in London. The one she was starting to get a glimpse of. Was it wrong to want to meet him?

Wendy knew that if she sat still and thought it would hurt her skull. The beat of her heart kept thumping in her ears. She walked through the jungle half hoping she could find this suspicious character. She hoped Pan was right, even though she knew he wasn't, that it was Hook. Believe it or not, but she missed him dearly.

As her thoughts almost drifted to Peter, she heard a snapping sound of a twig right behind her. She didn't have time to scream before the large rock crashed into the back of her head and the world went black.

The girl had long dirty blond curls that fanned around her doll like face. She caught a glimpse of her eyes when they met hers in the clearing. She thought she could spy on the little Lost Girl, but no such luck. With Pan coming from the south and the girl from the north, she had to flee up a tree.

Seeing how stupid the girl was to come back into the jungle made her laugh. Why would you run toward the thing trying to kill you? Just as she took the dagger out that meant the child's certain death, the kid's brown eyes sprang open. She pointed the dagger to her throat.

"Who are you?" She asked, "Would you like to explain how the hell a Lost Girl of all things is roaming this island with the likes of Peter Pan?" Her doe eyes filled to the brim with tears.

"I'm Wendy, Wendy Darling." Her voice cracked on the D of Darling. Just looking at her face, she knew this girl had been through hell and back. In that moment all she wanted was to reach out and hug this strange girl with all she had.

"What's your name?" She asked with those big brown eyes teary and hopeful. It was like looking into the eyes of a puppy, full of hope. Something she didn't have anymore.

"Tink, Tinkerbell."

And then all the tears exploded onto the girls cheeks. She smiled like she had just seen daylight for the first time. She reached out and grasped her forearms with each hand. Her grip locked on her desperately.

"Tinkerbell. Save. Me." A thousand sorrows broke through Wendy's voice as she clung to Tinkerbell with all she had.

....