"More appear every day," Jefferson told her, motioning around the large round room. Wendy had become a frequent visitor of Jefferson's hat over the years, she preferred it to traveling by bean because she could actually see the difference that was slowly changing the world, all worlds.
"Magic is returning."
"I still don't understand how," The hatter said and Wendy smiled at him knowingly. It was returning because one little girl believed it should. With a child's innocence Oona expected every world to follow the same rules that she did, for the very air to vibrate with magic and every realm she stepped foot in awakened something long slumbering. The only world untouched was the one her brother Michael now lived in. Storybrooke was the same self-contained bubble of magic, cut off from the rest of the world. As it should be.
"She's incredibly powerful, possibly the most powerful to own the heart…" Wendy whispered, drawn to a familiar window. The stained glass that depicted blue rolling waves surrounding an island was dark, as it had been for years. Fine hairline cracks spread through the window panes and Wendy traced her fingers over it. Sometimes she imagined that a very faint glow emitted from the island but it was always a trick of the light or her imagining. But the island was not the thing that drew her to the window.
"It's getting brighter," Jefferson said behind her and Wendy smiled. The window was split in two, one side of the casement showing Neverland and the other London. Her London. It had been dark and dormant for centuries but once it had glowed with magic that laid behind the glass, a magic that flowed through the land and its people.
Now it was shining.
"I know it's back, I'm practically drowning with my workload but I like to see it, touch it," she murmured, placing her hand flat against the glass. She had envisioned her role as the head of the Home Office primarily dealing with magic in other realms and not her own but over a short few years so much had changed. This was the destiny of the Truest Believer. Not to be entrapped and stuck in time but free and spreading that belief to everything they touched. It was the fate Peter should have had.
"How's John?" Jefferson asked, pulling Wendy out of her thoughts. She turned, looking at the door that she had just come through. It was a golden gate with a trident pride of place in the centre. It had taken some time for the Home Office to locate her brother and Tiger Lily but when they did Wendy had been overjoyed but not as much John when he saw Wendy alive.
"Oh I think his life is finally back on track. He's always secretly wanted people to bow and scrape and he does love to order people about. Yes a royal life suits him just fine," she joked but she knew her brother had struggled to be where he was now. Being in love with a princess unknowingly betrothed to another was a pain that she never wanted John to experience, or Lily, but if there was one thing about her brother that never faulted it was his stubbornness. But she refused to call him your highness, no matter how much he insisted.
"He aims high, I'll give him that," Jefferson said and moved to unlock the window that would take her back to London. Wendy smiled teasingly at him, head cocking to the side.
"How's Emma?"
Jefferson's jaw clenched and he exhaled before answering. "You'll have to ask her yourself."
"I'll be sure to," she replied, trying not to smile. She had kept in contact with Emma, watching the woman grow even more skilled and controlled in her magic, something that she had thrown herself into but Wendy knew other aspects of her life were not so smooth. That the hatter was obviously in love with Emma Swan had escaped no one's notice but the very woman in question. But then she had a very complicated love life.
She's not the only one, Wendy thought and pushed it aside as snowflakes drifted through the open window. From the time she was a child all she wanted was magic and adventure, to be surrounded and swept away by it but now the very serious technicalities of magic springing up again in a world coming to terms with it was exhausting. Magical portal beans might seem small and rather mundane to her but in the wrong hands? It kept her up at night. She was never bored however, her life was bursting with more people than she knew what to do with. The Office was full of Lost Boys, orphans who now had a real home and lives of their own and for that she would always treasure. Her mind drifted to Edward, someone who had become her right hand man but his interest in her was clearly not professional. John and Lily urged her to date, to at least try and she had once or twice but it was useless. Her heart was not in it.
She had a life outside work of course, as time consuming as it was. She had hobbies and a small circle of new friends. She loved to write, she kept up her archery and sewing. She was even part of an amateur theatre production but sometimes she just wanted to come here, open the other side of the window and disappear into a jungle that no longer existed.
"Business or pleasure?" Jefferson asked as she stepped through and laughed.
"Both hopefully!"
Snow blanketed the park, untouched and thick but soon it would be trampled into ice by feet and scooped up into snowmen. Kensington Garden was closed, dawn touching the laden branches and Wendy's boots crunched through it, her hair lifting slightly from under her woolly hat on a chilly breeze.
She loved coming to the park before anyone else, to have it to herself and the peace and silence that came with it. Soon she would have to go back to the Home Office, meet with government officials and liaise with other worlds but now this was her time.
Their time.
It had been over three years since Wendy had woke alone that morning in Storybrooke. His absence was not unexpected but it hurt and that feeling had lingered, only soothed by time and the strange but wonderful sensation of finally governing her life and choices. Peter had kept his word. He searched for the shadow, dividing his time in his pursuit between the court and London. The fairies welcomed him, he was part of that world as surely as he was part of hers but never truly fitting in either. He had a house in the city, though it was empty more often than not and Wendy had seen it a few times, walked the distance from her home and wondering if she knocked would he answer the door. He could not stay in one place for long, which was strange as he had been stuck in one place for centuries. She supposed it was not so odd, she had developed an intense feeling of wanderlust herself.
That first year she had hardly seen Peter but she kept tabs on him and it came with great relief that he did not approach Oona or her family, something that once caused her deep worry but as far as she knew he had not made any attempts against Oona's life. Felix kept her informed, making regular visits to keep her updated but after awhile that worry faded to nothing. Oona was safe.
Sometimes the child would visit and Wendy adored those days. Oona Emily Jones was as vivacious, funny and direct as her mother but as well-mannered and commanding as her father. She was a beautiful commotion that always brightened Wendy's day when she whirled through her office and made her feel that all the dark that she had to wade through had been worth it. She had a great destiny but she could not be surrounded by more loving or fierce people. Who else could say they had a dragon for a teacher?
Wendy smiled to herself as she took a seat by the lake. To her left was a stretch of snow covered grass ringed by a low fence and she knew that in every earth but her own a statue of a boy playing a flute was standing proud. Here there was no such thing because here no one had heard of Peter Pan. Or Wendy Darling for that matter, at least they did not think of a child in slippers when they heard her name but a measured young woman in a suit.
"Here you can be yourself. I think that's why you can't stay away," she whispered, looking over the frozen lake and pulling the collar up against her neck, a tingle of anticipation erupting inside.
"Hmm I think I come for other reasons too…" a sardonic voice said beside her and she did not turn but smiled. It had started as short, rather formal meetings that happened infrequently. In time it became monthly conversations under the guise of updates but now it was a weekly occurrence. They took it slowly and though they had spent a century together it was like they were getting to know each other again. The pain that he had inflicted was still there, an old but sometimes raw scar but she could not ignore how happy she was to see him or how much she anticipated his arrival. Always at the same place and time. The court had always been connected to this part of London and where the statue of the person beside her should be was a doorway to another world.
"I wanted to talk to you," she said and finally turned to him. He was dressed for the winter as she was, dark green coat and dark trousers, and the sight of him sent an electric pulse through her. He appeared the same but also fundamentally different. In the years that had passed a lightness seemed to settle over him, he was no longer weighed down as he had been and a sense of excitement and growing joy surrounded him. It always had but the cruelty, the hunger and manipulation was now buried deep, not gone but not something that he instinctively fell back on. He was not perfect, he could be callous and sometimes she did not know what he was thinking but it was only now that she honestly believed he felt guilt and remorse.
"What's wrong?" he asked, knowing something was not right. Wendy stared at him intensely, tracing his well-known features and touched his cheek with her cold fingertips.
"Look at me. Do you see any difference?"
He tilted his head and gazed at her deeply and even after all the years she felt her breath catch. He smiled softly and cupped the side of her face.
"Tired, I suppose, but no. Should I?"
"That's what I mean. It's been almost four years and I see little difference. I've hardly aged," Wendy breathed and felt her stomach relaxing. She had thought leaving Neverland would snap its hold over her, that time would touch her but it was feather light and hardly felt. She had a period every month so she knew that her body was back into the normal cycle it should be but her face was all but unmarked by time.
Peter smiled softly and sighed. "We'll grow old but I suppose just not like everyone else. The price of drinking from the fountain perhaps?"
"Maybe," she said, thinking of her brothers who were similarly untouched by aging. She eyed Peter and cocked an eyebrow at the untroubled look on his face. "You're pleased?"
"Of course I am! I always said I'd rather die than become some sad middle aged man," he said passionately but Wendy rolled her eyes with a smile.
"Somehow I doubt that will be you. It's clear you're one of those people who'll reach seventy and still think they're thirty."
"With the way we're aging I won't have to delude myself," he laughed and Wendy gave him a mulish expression. She was worried, he knew how much she wanted to grow but it seemed this was the price of Neverland. The seers had said it was cursed even before Peter stepped foot there and maybe this was it.
Wendy got to her feet, suddenly restless and grimaced. It was an old feeling, a horrible sensation of being stuck and the more demanding her work became the more intense it grew. She loved the work she did, the purpose it gave her but sometimes she wanted something else. Peter frowned, following her up and she caught the way his eyes swept to the shadows in the trees and understanding dawned.
"Are you worried about me? Are you protecting me?"
"Yes," he answered without hesitation and Wendy inhaled a breath and held it. "The child, Oona, is untouchable but you're not. Blue is trapped but alive, her shadow is out there and still connected to her. I know her, she wants revenge. You took her wings," he said seriously, moving closer to her until his breath played over her face. Wendy tugged gently on his coat.
"And you sent her into nothing. Who's looking out for you?"
Peter blinked and a terrible pain rose in Wendy. He had told her a long time ago that one of the things he feared was being alone and it struck her in that moment more than ever how lonely Peter was. It was a self-exile, a self-punishment and at first she had accepted it, wanting to be independent from him and allow him that attempt at redemption but now every time they parted it seemed he ripped a fragment of herself away with him.
Peter smiled arrogantly, masking the momentarily hurt that flared in his eyes. "I think I can hold my own. I'm quite smart you know."
"Really? I never noticed," she smiled coyly and he leaned closer to her, eyes gleaming with mischief.
"Clearly you weren't paying attention."
"Clearly."
Wendy laughed as he suddenly wrapped his arms around her and picked her up. She placed her hands against his joyful face and something someone once said came back to her. All stories have an element of truth and the childlike happiness, the abandon and momentary carefreeness was something that could never be extinguished in Peter. It seemed to her now that side of him was free and pure.
His lips were warm and soft and she felt a thrill because she knew without a doubt that he only kissed her, only touched her and no one else. He had waited and he would continue to but now that time, as long as it may last, was not something she wanted to waste. If it was true he was one of a few who was like her, who would not wither away as her friends would. He lowered her down, still kissing her and Wendy opened her eyes and was not surprised that they were a foot off the ground.
"I miss you," he said and while she was his happy thoughts she was also the thing that brought him down to earth. He would leave and she would go back to being an adult. Wendy fisted his coat, staring at him intently and let a wild and irresponsible urge take over.
"Take me away from here."
"What?"
"I know what you've been doing Peter. You search for the shadow but that's not all is it?" she had suspected it for a long time.
Peter narrowed his eyes, deliberating before he nodded. "When I was a boy I dreamed of Neverland before I even knew what it was. I dream of it still."
"You're trying to find it?" Once she would have felt disappointment and anxious but now she felt excited, as misplaced and ill advised as it was. She missed the island, she could not deny it any longer. She dreamed of it so much it sometimes confused her what world was real when she awoke. London or Neverland? As snow began to fall softly around them Peter shook his head with a strange smile.
"I searched, I couldn't stop myself and I found it. It's where it's always been," he said softly and tapped Wendy's temple. "Where it's always meant to stay. Anyway I think I'm a little too old for it now," he finally confessed and there was a grief in his eyes but also relief. He was letting go but they both knew it was never truly gone. Wendy leaned up and kissed his mouth gently before leaning back. The thimble swung against her chest and he tugged it gently with a wistful smile.
"This old thing. Thought you would have stopped wearing it."
"No," Wendy said possessively and clutched it in her hand. It beat warmly and steadily in his proximity. The thimble was not just a symbol of their past but now was home to something else. The tiny golden wish hovered within, unused but waiting. Like the seers said she would keep it for a rainy day but it would have to be a monsoon before she paid the price that came with making that wish.
Thinking of the wish made her think of birthdays and candles and she gazed at him in consideration. He had hit on something that she had been thinking about but she felt oddly nervous talking about it. Again she was reminded how all this seemed so new and novel. Young. "I've never gotten you anything."
"What?"
"A birthday present," she explained and his eyebrows rose. "I know you don't know when it is exactly but I saw something, a little thing and I got it for you. It's silly."
"What?" he asked, pleased and she knew he had never been given anything, not that he could remember. Gingerly she pulled the small ornament out of her pocket and placed in in his hand before she could rethink it.
"An hourglass?" he said, lifting it, a little confused. It was about the size of a ten pence piece and a circle of gold ringed it. The sand within was white, like the sand once found on Neverland.
"Yes. I know you hated the hourglass that was in Neverland but I started thinking about it. You said it was always there and I thought that was down to Blue but it was you Peter, wasn't it?"
"A reminder of my time running out," he said darkly, staring at the tiny flume of sand running through the glass.
"Yes and no. It's an hourglass, it measures time until it's gone. But what do you do with an hourglass when the sand stops running?"
"You turn it over," he said and did it with a soft smile, understanding her.
"You start again," she added gently and he nodded. This was the meaning of the hourglass, of Neverland. Growing up doesn't just mean dying, it means changing andif you were lucky, if you were brave that change could be for the best.
"Thank you…though I'd kill for a set of panpipes," he sighed, ignoring the look on Wendy's face. Finally he looked back at the trees and exhaled a misty breath. "I should be going," Peter said, his smile fading and was about to move back to the entrance to the fairy court when Wendy tightened her grip on his hand. Without a word he understood. Their meetings, though cherished, were short because both knew the longer they stayed together the harder it was to part. Hand in hand they walked through the snowy park, towards the locked gate and stopped. A few people were going to work, milling at the bus stop but the road was mostly deserted. A policeman walked slowly past her but did not spare her a glance. Wendy smiled, turning to Peter and gasped.
"Don't you dare!"
A snowball flew passed her head and exploded against the policemen's helmet, knocking it clean off. Peter laughed wildly behind her and she hid a shocked grin behind a hand, a joy inside that could not be contained. As she bent down to scoop up snow his arm hooked around her waist and with a screaming laugh she was lifted off the ground and up into the air. When the policemen looked through the gate he saw nothing, just heard strange laughter from the air above but the sky was only swirling with fresh snow.
Peter Pan and Wendy Darling were gone.
~The End~
a.n:
Thank you to those who have been reading and reviewing, especially those who have stuck with it since A Very Sweet Subject. It's been 10 months in the making and I couldn't have done it without the support and encouragement from you guys! I love this pairing a lot and I will continue to write them for as long as possible.
So I hope you like the ending and if anyone wants a hint of what may happen after this I suggest you go back to AVSS, chapter 15, and read the prophecy that the seers gave Wendy and then think about what she's doing with her life now... ;)