Caged • Robbie Kay/Peter Pan •

Chapter Twenty-Three

The creature chuckled. "Be my guest." she gestured with her delicate hand out toward the sea as if to offer it to us. "Have you ever seen a mermaid before?" she asked.

I shook my head, my eyes following the scales covering the lower half of her body, and two long fan-like fins swept back and forth through the water. "Would you like to touch it?" she asked, gently wrapping her fingers around my wrist and with a friendly grin, she slowly pulled my hand to touch her glistening tail.

For a moment, I couldn't move. I didn't want to move. It felt as though I were asleep and dreaming when suddenly, I was completely submerged.

Bits of light flashed through the icy water as I flailed, trying to resurface, but I couldn't.

Once again, the choir of screams, radiated from all around me, this time much louder and I let out a muffled scream hoping somehow, someone would hear me.

My lungs tightened and my arms and legs grew heavy as my eyes began to close; finally accepting defeat against the waves.

The last sight I saw was the many glistening scales, swimming off in every direction and there was an unmistakable feeling someone or something, pulling my body to the surface...

•••

"Take off her cloak!"

My eyelids flickered open and I choked; water escaping my lungs and from my mouth. My breathing increased and my sights became clearer. "She's alive!" Nolan shouted.

Peter sat beside me, water dripping from his hair and his chin and the tip of his nose as he peered down at me; panic apparent in his green eyes. Had he rescued me?

"The mermaids! Where's James?" I shot up, looking for the other boat.

Owen, James, and Roux sat in the other boat, a few feet away from us. Through the darkness, I could hear Liam's troubled voice and Owen's attempts to calm him down.

My head spun dizzily and I shivered violently, before falling back down and clamping my eyes shut. I was still in utter shock and disbelief, wondering how I had been rescued, when I felt the warmth of someone's cloak covering my body as my eyes uncontrollably closed for a second time..

When I awoke, I wasn't lying in my bed, but in darkness of a place unfamiliar. My hand felt along around both sides; hoping to find a gas lamp to reveal my surroundings. My fingers brushed against a night table and I found the nob of a lamp and switched it on.

I was in Peter's room.

Peter sat in the very chair I did when he had been poisoned, asleep with arms crossed and head against his left shoulder. His eyes opened when light filled the room and he sat up straight, his gaze meeting mine.

"Well, you're awake finally." he said dryly and expressionless.

"How did I get here? I was out in the boat with J-" I began, but stopped. By now, Peter must've known that I attempted to escape. "With James. And suddenly, I was in the water."

"Were you trying to get yourself killed or were you really that stupid to believe that you could actually leave Neverland?" Peter stood up, crossing his arms again and tone filled with mocking bewilderment.

"Where's James?" I asked, ignoring he remark.

"Oh, he's fine. Still a bit stunned from the whole ordeal. I suppose he was just too shocked to even bother to jump in to save you, after you were pulled over." Peter paced, his tone dangerously calm.

"But you did." I said.

He glanced at me without answer. I pulled the cloak off of me, realizing that it was not my own, but Peter's. "How did you know?" I asked.

"About you leaving? After our little conversation in the woods, Liam told us that you had plans to leave, so naturally we followed you. I should've just let you go to find out for yourself just how dangerous it is out there, especially for those that try to leave permanently." Pan clenched his jaw, his temples protruding slightly. Liam must've heard me talking to James when I carried him, thinking he was asleep.

My eyes didn't leave Peter. There were many times when he could've let me go. He could've decided not to follow us, to let me find my own death. He could've left me to drown instead of bringing back to the surface and he could've let me freeze to death, but for some reason, he decided not to. For some reason, he wanted me alive. "Peter." I muttered pathetically, breaking the silence.

He turned to me, his eyes looking as though they belonged to a child, full of disappointment, and the most vulnerable I'd ever seen them. "What?" he asked sternly and full of disdain.

"Thank you."

•••

A/n

So there ya go party peoples.

I think someone's being a tough lil nugget of stubbornness and refuses to let Meadow know that he's actually in love with her. BUT WE'L SEE! I COULD BE WRONG!

so anyways, I hope you liked it and leave me some feed back!

Love love love