CHAPTER 30: Temperence
A03
Chapter 1: Pan meets a Wendy
· Chapter 2: Scars (Felix’s Story)
· Chapter 3: Day One
· Chapter 4: Revenge and Fireflies
· Chapter 5: Brighter than Stars
· Chapter 6: filler: The Tigress
· Chapter 7: Operation Spotless!
· Chapter 8: Operation Spotless: Reporters Down
· Chapter 9: A Dance with the Devil
· Chapter 10: filler: Felix and the Pancake
· Chapter 11: The Girl with Blue Eyes pt. 1
· Chapter 12: The Girl with Blue Eyes pt. 2
· Chapter 13: The Girl With Blue Eyes: Underground
· Chapter 14. Recovery
· Chapter 14.2 Recovery some more
· Chapter 15: Trapped
Chapter 16: Filth
Chapter 17: Fairydust pt. 1
Chapter 18: Fairydust pt. 2
Chapter 19: The Mystery of the Dead Nun pt. 3
Chapter 20: The Mystery of the Dead Nun pt. 2
Chapter 21: The Mystery of the Dead Nun pt. 3
Chapter 22: Reflections pt. 1
Chapter 23: Reflections pt. 2
Chapter 24: Closing
Chapter 25: Felix is helping Pan
Chapter 26: Temporary Fix
Chapter 27: The Search Begins
Chapter 28: The Missing Pan
Chapter 29: Instincts
I’ve been re-reading this fic the last few weeks, and oh my god I can’t believe how naïve I was about journalism! Did I seriously become one just so I could right this fic? Oh my god!
Anyway, here’s Papers and Sleuthers.
-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-
When you spent as much time as Felix had around someone like Pan, you would think you knew them pretty well.
Compared to most, Felix truly did, but there were still things about Pan that not even he could place.
Peter Pan was an enigma, a mystery that could not be solved. He was vicious and wild, greedy and angst. He had a softer side of course, as soft as anyone like Pan could be, but he didn’t show it unless there was something for him as well.
The time he damaged Mother Superior’s car after she publically humiliated Tink and him came to mind. The incident happened before he and Pan were well-acquainted, but in the last few days he put the dots together that it had been for his benefit. A sort of coaxing grooming that came in handy as they transitioned into adulthood.
Felix didn’t mind really. Someone needed to keep an eye on Pan and do the impossible by keeping him tamed, and Pan had come through for him more times than he could count. It was only right that Felix look out for him.
At least that used to be his mindset. He couldn’t pinpoint just when he began to stray, but in the last few weeks he felt like Pan wasn’t directly in his line of sight anymore.
Oddly enough, since Wendy showed up the same could be said for Pan. For someone who claimed to hate her from day one, he was always by her side.
Ironically, Wendy hadn’t surfaced since August brought Pan’s disappearance to their attention.
“It’s for the best,” Tink had commented bitterly when he brought the little detail up. “She’s been hurt enough.”
The sullenness was present in her cross-armed stance when she, Felix and August approached Graham. Lily Tigress was still out looking for Wendy, but to no avail.
The sheriff looked just as concerned as Tink did.
“I’m sure he’s fine,” he said. “He’s just upset about being suspended from the paper. He’ll cool off then he’ll be back.”
“It’s been several days, and I found his cellphone,” August explained, irritation building in his voice from having to relay the details once again.
This stumped the sheriff a bit.
“He didn’t mention anything to any of you that he was taking time off?”
The trio looked at one another, for most, guiltily.
“We’re not exactly on the friendliest of terms with him right now,” Tink muttered.
Graham accepted this answer and began to ponder a solution.
“I can put an APV out for him, and I’ll get some of the locals together to search the woods.”
Felix’s stomach jerked. He hoped no one would find him in the condition they were all thinking of. Though if his theory was correct, they just might.
“I think we might have to look closer to home first,” Felix admitted, barely flinching at the look August and Tink were giving him.
“Why?”
Felix groaned, the phantom coolness of handcuffs already weighing heavily on his wrists.
“During Pan’s suspension, he asked me to get a few documents from some of the stories he wrote. He thought maybe he could…I don’t know, find a connection.”
Graham gave him an incredulous look. “Tell me you didn’t.”
“I thought it would keep him out of trouble, or at least keep him occupied.” Felix shrugged. “But now I’m worried, maybe someone found out and they’re trying to keep him from going too deep.”
Graham laughed. No, he actually howled.
“You’ve been watching too many crime dramas, Felix,” he laughed.
“Would you at least consider it?” August chimed in.
Graham waved him off. “Sure. I’m going to give a few buddies of mine down in Boston a call and then I’ll round up a few people.”
“I’ll help,” August volunteered. “I’ll call my dad and Leroy Miner. The word will be spread in half an hour.”
Graham agreed and Felix and Tink took their leave. Felix thought he was in the clear until Tink stopped him outside the station.
“What the hell?”
“I…”
“Went behind my back with Pan.” Tink finished. “Why would you do that after what he did?”
“Like I said, I was trying to keep him distracted before he burnt the town to the ground.”
Tink shook her head and stalked toward the car. “You’re enabling him. You always do that!”
“I do not,” Felix fought.
“He says jump and you do it without saying how high!”
Felix jogged to her side, stopping her outside the car.
“I try to keep him out of trouble, which usually works. I did it to give us all some space.”
Tink shook her head. “I’m just so tired of our lives orbiting around his craziness.”
Felix had to agree to that, but he couldn’t disagree that his life at least didn’t.
He and Pan were … something. Not exactly kindred spirits but there was nothing that the two couldn’t connect on. Pan was there to protect him from himself, and Felix had always been the one to take him in when he needed a break from the gritty, dark world they were surrounded by.
He knew just from looking at him that there was something strong between him and Wendy, something he wasn’t ready to admit to and was terrified of.
And Felix knew something was terribly wrong with him. This wasn’t just a holiday, this was bordering on a homicide.
“Things will change once we find him,” Felix promised Tink, almost desperately. “I swear it.”
Tink gave him a look. She didn’t believe him a bit.
Still, they needed to find the little bugger. He was not dying until she had one last go at him.
“Where to next?”
“Let’s try his apartment,” Felix said. “I want to get a better look at those files I gave him.”
Tink nodded, and then a thought came to her.
“Maybe we should try Wendy’s place first. I want to know what August was talking about when he said he saw her with some strange man.”
“Feeling protective?” Felix teased.
“Just curious,” Tink said, a warning in her tone. “One thing I’ve learned about Storybrooke is that when a stranger shows up, there’s trouble ahead.”
_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_
“Where is he?”
Jones eyes were locked on the paper at her feet, the ultimate proof of his deception. He looked back up at her and the rage on her face took his breath away.
“Wendy…”
“Don’t!” she seethed, her eyes glassing over. “Don’t say my name don’t act like you know me!”
She was bordering on hyperventilation, her mind reeling, separating as the continents did during Pangea’s reign.
“Pan didn’t leave me that night, you took him! You knew we were looking into Jekyll and you took him to stop us!”
She catches on quickly, he thought.
Please stop, he wanted to beg her.
“You took him and you’ve been lying to me ever since!”
Hot tears were running down her cheeks now. She wasn’t sure if it was hurt causing her chest to seize or the undulated anger that was crawling out of her veins.
The man before her had tricked her, distracted her and pulled her away from her goals. His crimes had only amplified when he seduced her, taken her bone-deep need for human interaction, for comfort and peace, and used it to his advantage.
Once again she’d been a pawn and someone else’s game and come out the loser.
She was a damn fool.
He was still playing her, still trying to play on her sympathies, she decided as his blue eyes glazed over with emotion of his own.
“Wendy, I…” he breathed, reaching for her.
She slapped his hand away, the sound echoing in the turbulent ship louder than thunder, loud enough to wake the captured passenger below.
“Don’t fucking come near me!” she screamed so loud Jones jumped back.
He shook his head, pained. He hadn’t wanted it to come to this.
“Give him back,” she panted, scratching at the tears on her cheeks. “We’re getting off this damn ship and you better pray we never see each other again.”
Jones swallowed, his survival instincts kicking in.
“You wish to leave, then what?” he inquired more coldly, tilting his head.
Wendy chuckled, a strange humor rising up her throat as she caught onto his insinuation. Then she was laughing and she didn’t know why. Jones, amazingly, didn’t appear all too alarmed.
“You know exactly what I’m going to do!” she laughed. “And I’m going to do it while I’m dragging Pan’s arse out of here! Now tell me where he is or I will bloody kill you myself!”
Jones inwardly sighed. He’d been caught, he couldn’t deny anything now.
Wendy Darling may be way in over her head, but she was no fool.
But he wasn’t one to be taken down.
“I…can’t do that, Wendy,” he shrugged, his mask coming on.
Wendy took in a painful breath. “Are you going to kill me?”
She said it so blatantly, so expectedly. He wondered briefly what she truly had been through, where those bumps and bruises fading on her skin he saw last night actually came from.
“You know, love,” he sighed, stepping closer. “I had to think long and hard about that.”
Wendy backed away, her panicking increasing with each step he took.
“I thought about how I would do it. Perhaps put the very pillow you had your lovely head on and end you right there. That would have been rather generous, don’t you think?”
Oh Gods, he was a psycho.
He arched his head down, closing the distance between them.
“Then I spoke to your little friend and asked his input. You know, he was no help at all.”
Wendy took in a small breath. Pan was on the ship then!
“Too kill you or not to kill you, Miss Darling. What a revolving idea.”
Wendy shook her head, hating herself for once again getting trapped.
“Why are you doing this?” she whispered. “What do you want?”
Jones tilted his head and Wendy could have sworn that his smirk had softened.
“Those two reasons, Wendy Darling, is why I’m going to offer you the deal of a lifetime.”
Wendy rolled her shoulders uneasily, desperate for space as she glanced around for her escape.
His hand came under her chin and turned him to her, keeping her gaze steady.
“I’m letting you go, Wendy,” he revealed. “I’m going to let you walk away, and I’ll make no plans to call on you. You go back to your world of misadventures and newspapers and forget all about what happened here today."
Wendy’s glare didn’t lighten. She shook her head, not accepting his offer.
“I told you before that I didn’t trust you,” she said. “I walk away now, it’ll only be a matter of time before I see you again.”
He frowned, growing frustrated by her lack of faith in his word.
“And I’ve already told you,” she added with a growl, her and feel the smooth side of a stack of boxes. “I’m not leaving WITHOUT HIM!”
In a flash, she threw her weight on him, clawing at the boxes so that they would come down with her. Exiting his grip, she slipped past him just as the boxes came down, landing on Jones as she made a break through the door.
She heard Jones yell for her as she raced down the hallway as he struggled to free himself from the mountain of boxes. Wendy kept flying, her mind buzzing with the need for survival.
She broke onto the deck, the very place she’d danced in Jones’s arms the night before. The icy air slapped her hard, punishing her for her ignorance.
“Peter!” She called out hoarsely, circling the deck for…anything!
The ship was massive, hell, the hallway she’d just been in alone had five doors. He was somewhere on this ship and it would take days to search every room.
She gazed out to the pier as she struggled to control her breathing. She was feeling so many emotions at once: panic, rage, fear, guilt. She couldn’t process them, couldn’t decide just what to do. Jones was probably going to undo his previous vow and kill her as soon as he was freed.
In fact she could hear him scuffling out of his trap. She moved closer to the edge of the ship, the wind biting at her cheeks. Could she jump and make a break for shore? Try to get help? Jones would probably kill Pan and run if she didw vg.
White spots were flashing across her eyes. Was she about to pass out? It felt more like she was going to die.
He hands found the edge of the ship and she gripped it for dear life, her feet scuffling for steadiness. The board under her seemed like it wanted to give out just like her.
She looked down at the screaming wood, something in her scrambled brain coming into focus.
Just wait and listen.
She could suddenly picture the abandoned wing of the Storybrooke hospital very clearly, every shadow and cobweb.
There was someone in the darkness, waiting for her perhaps? Maybe it was Jones or Jekyll…no…no it couldn’t be. She wasn’t afraid…
She stepped forward into the darkness and somehow could hear the creaking board loud and clear.
The figure didn’t move despite how she advanced on him, the creaking becoming a pounding in her ears, so loud it began to sway her vision.
It became too much. Her eyes began to water and the figure in the shadows evaporated when she blinked.
She was staring at her feet on the deck, the board bent under her. She lifted her foot and it came back into place, and then Wendy was hit with a strong realization.
Where did you keep things that you don’t want to be found?
Under everyone.
The new euphoria helped her mind pull itself together. She was going to survive this thing.
She could hear Jones getting closer and her eyes landed on the nearest door.
She sped to it, Jones hot on her heels. She opened the door with ease and pushed her weight against it when it closed, blocking out her name on Jones’s tongue.
He pounded on the door, her name muffled through the wood. He nearly had it opened at one point, nearly throwing Wendy down the steps.
Her hand brilliantly fumbled onto a latch and she swung it down, blocking out her intruder.
But then, Jones just stopped, leaving Wendy gasping in the aftermath. She could hear him retreating and she let out a sigh of relief.
She felt the walls for something equivalent to a light switch but found nothing. She could just see a dim light down below and she picked up the sound of metal scraping together.
“Hello?” she called down, easing down the steps one at a time.
She heard something call out, very weak, and her heart jumped.
“Pan!” she yelled out, taking the steps faster, stumbling on the final one.
She froze, just making him out in the dim light of a window. He was trying to slip his hand out of a cuff.
“Pan,” she gasped running to him.
“No, Don Wan,” he replied hoarsely. “Would you get me out of this thing?”
Wendy grabbed hold of his wrist, gasping at the wetness. In the dim light she could just make out blood on his arm, wrist and mouth.
He was trying to free himself using his own blood as lubrication.
“Oh Peter,” she whispered. “I’m so sorry,”
“Don’t you dare,” he warned. “Grab the cuff so I can pull out.”
Wendy grabbed the sticky cuff and held onto the slippery thing while Pan pulled weakly, twisting his wrist as he did.
Finally, he popped free, stumbling back and hitting a while.
“Oh finally!” he yelled, clutching his wrist. “I was up there for days.”
Wendy ripped off her cardigan, quickly grabbing Pan’s arm and wrapping his wrist.
“He took you that night,” Wendy stated, her throat growing tight. “He bloody kidnapped you right in front of me.”
“Yep,” Pan coughed as he flexed his arms to relieve the numbness. “This was definitely—”
He was cut off when Wendy collided into him, wrapping her arms tightly around his frame.
“The…cardigan’s tourniquet enough,” he rasped, feeling weaker than he had in the last four days.
“I’m sorry,” Wendy sobbed. “I’m so sorry. I let him trick me.”
Pan blinked, his arms heavy, unable to offer her comfort.
“We…” he coughed. “We can’t worry about that now. Just…stop, okay? We have to get out of here.”
She nodded against his shoulder but held onto him a moment longer, taking in his salty scent. There had been this numbness in the depths of her being for the past several days. She had thought it was just the anger she felt at Pan, or her own instincts fighting off the hurt she was feeling.
Now that he was in her arms, she realized it was the weight of his absence, the role he played in her life.
She had tried to force herself to move on but he was still in the depths of her mind, screaming to come out.
Now he was in front of her and he was too weak to scream or even move.
“Where is he?” Pan inquired, weak anger straining his flaccid body.
“I locked him out,” Wendy explained, helping him to his feet. “Do you know of another way out?”
Footsteps pressed on the boards above them. Wendy gulped, wondering if Jones was waiting for them.
“Over here,” Pan pointed to the end of the room where a tangle of ropes were hanging from what looked like a vent.
Wendy squinted, just making out streams of light.
“We can use the ropes to climb up,” Pan explained. “See the hinges? It lifts up, we can sneak out and make a run for it.”
“We can’t do anything,” Wendy said, grimacing at Pan’s cold grip. “You’re too weak to make that climb and if he catches up to us he’ll kill us both.”
“No he won’t.”
“Pan I know—”
“He won’t hurt you,” Pan fought defiantly, not quite meeting her eyes.
Wendy shook her head. “What do you mean?”
Pan groaned. He was too weak for this shit.
“He likes you,” Pan admitted coldly. “He told me last night. Not directly, but I read between the lines.”
Wendy grimaced.
Pan was too weak to give into the anger he had simpering in his gut, and to reveal to her he had first-hand knowledge of her and Jones’s coupling.
“It’s me he wants. I’m pretty sure he’ll let you live if you get out of here.”
“What about you?”
Pan scoffed. “I’ll take him on until only one of us is left standing.”
Wendy rolled her eyes. “You’re a bloody liar, just like him.”
“Are you—”
“You’re too weak right now, look at you!” she exclaimed. “And I did not come here just to leave you behind and save my own skin.” She put her hand on his shoulder and squeezed hard. “We are getting out of here together. And if Jones does show up, I’ll be the one to distract him.”
Pan glanced at her hand and back at her. She really meant it, and she’d really come for him.
And truth be told, he felt like hell.
“Fine,” he relented.
“Okay, I’ll climb up first and pull you up,” she instructed.
“No,” Pan shook his head. “I’m too heavy for you. I think the best chance we have is if I take the door.”
“No,” Wendy fought. “We’re not separating.”
“Please, don’t damn start—”
“I’m not losing you again!” Wendy yelled.
Pan flinched. Well shit.
“This happened because of me, so we’re escaping here together no matter what I have to do.”
Pan swallowed, the dryness nearly chocking him.
“No, Wendy, this isn’t—”
A coughing fit took promptly took him and he was cut off. Wendy pushed him back, turning back to the ropes.
They were running out of time.
Pan leaned against a wall as Wendy tested the ropes. There was so much he wanted to say to her, so much that he wanted to do now that he was mere yards away from freedom.
But he felt sick, and he was probably in more danger than he was letting on.
Wendy turned back to him, giving him a strained smile.
“Here I go,” she said, gripping the rope and making her trip up the wall.
Pan felt a wave of exhaustion lap at him and he had no choice but to sit down. Shit, maybe he was dying.
In the last few days—hell, the last few month—Death had been standing off to the side, waiting for him. Pan had accepted his presence each time, yet somehow, each time Wendy showed up, he would scream at him to go.
How and when did he go from hating her to needing her so much?
Wendy panted as she scaled the wall to get to the vent. Her former PE teacher would be quite disappointed with her stamina.
She glanced down to see Pan nodding off. This was going to be much harder than she had planned for. She’d practically have to drag him out, but she’d throw him off this very ship if it meant saving him from Jones.
She still didn’t know what all of this was about, why Jones had taken him in the first place and why he had all of that information on Jekyll. Just another Storybrooke secret, she supposed. She’d grill Pan later, when he was better, until then she’d focus on getting them out alive.
She gripped the rope for dear life as she reached up with one hand, slowly opening the vent and struggled her way through. She struggled to pull herself up, her arms shaking. With her luck she was going to slip and break her neck.
She gripped at the ancient wood floors and pulled herself forward while trying to make as little noise as possible.
She sighed in relief when she pulled through completely and turned on her back to gather her strength.
Her satisfied smile instantly disappeared when she saw Jones’s glistening blue eyes staring down at her.
“Leaving so soon?”
Wendy took in a shaky breath, somehow able to find calmness through the storm going on around.
“How…how did you—”
“It’s my ship, love,” he chuckled. “You think I wouldn’t know all the escape routes?”
Of course she had.
“You’re not getting him,” Wendy simply said, slowly sitting up.
Jones nodded, his eyes downcast.
“I know love, I know.”
Wendy was on her feet now, staring down the man who had her and Pan’s lives in his hands.
He advanced towards her but Wendy stood her ground.
His smile was grim, forced, it would seem.
“I want to give you one last chance to run, Wendy Darling,” he said, and to Wendy’s horror his hand glided up her neck to rest on her cheek.
She wished she could erase the last four days, wished she hadn’t began to put her heart on the line and let her guard down.
She had told Jones she didn’t trust him last night, had kept her heart guarded.
Then she had woken up and he had been by her side, there was a flicker of a moment when she wanted to open herself more, push aside the pain and apprehension her time in Storybrooke had caused her.
Jones had been terrifyingly convincing after all, he still was now.
But the anger and hurt had rebuilt itself and she was not giving in now.
She shook her head and instantly felt Jones’s hand creep down the side of her neck.
She waited for his hand to grip her throat, to choke the very life out of her, but then a wave of movement behind Jones shifted her attention.
Jones caught her gaze and shot around, but Pan already had him tackled to the ground.
Wendy jumped out of the way, steadying herself as Pan began to wail on Jones.
“Pan, no!” she screamed as Jones instantly gained the upper hand.
He gripped Pan’s throat with one hand and held one of his hands down with the other. Pan’s unrestrained hand was hitting Jones’s face in every direction.
Wendy looked around quickly for something to aid Pan, catching site of a wall decoration. It looked like a giant spear but jagged on the ends, certainly something dangerous and sharp.
Wendy struggled to untangle it from the wall as Pan’s cries became more distressed.
Pan clawed at Jones’s neck, causing thin red trails to form and drip on Pan’s face.
Jones’s cursed, grabbing Pan by the throat and slamming him over and over again into the floor.
“You should have stayed underground, boy,” Jones hissed as he held his arms down.
Pan gasped, the blood from his busted nose and lips a morbid quencher on his dry throat.
He wasn’t going to last much longer, he could feel that, but he wasn’t letting this bastard have the last word.
He gathered enough blood and spit to send back in Jones’s face, smirking when his kidnapper flinched.
“And you should have never taken me,” Pan threw back.
Jones increased the pressure on Pan’s throat, wanting the little bastard dead as quickly as possible.
Pan’s hands grasped weakly at Jones’s wrist, his vision fading.
With an anguished grunt, Wendy snatched the hook from the wall, struggling to lift it.
“Stop!” she yelled as she dragged it towards the struggling men.
Pan’s legs had stopped twitching. His eyes had rolled back into the back of his head.
Panting, Wendy lifted the hook up as much as she could, managing with great difficulty to lift it over her head.
“I said STOP!”
With a shout, she swung it, gasping when she hit Jones square on the back of the head, the man slumping from the force.
Wendy watched in horror as he began twitching on the floor. She hadn’t meant to hit him so hard, she just wanted him to stop. She threw the hook down, covering her mouth his shaking hands.
Pan sputtered back to life, distracting her from her guilt and near-panic attack.
“Hey,” she sobbed, lifting Pan up. “Are you okay?”
Pan stared at her, his eyes bloodshot and opening and closing slowly.
She wiped her eyes quickly and wrapped one of his arms around her shoulders, lifting him to his feet and all but dragging him with her.
She could hear the sounds leaving Jones’s damaged body and she tried to ignore them, focusing solely on dragging Pan’s deadweight body from harm.
The bright sun that greeted them outside of the ship seemed to scorch her, punishing her for her sins.
She forced herself not to look back, not to giving into the anxiety overflowing in her gut that Jones was right behind her and would kill them both.
She was so tired and already out of breath. The stairs that would lead off this nightmarish ship seemed like miles away instead of just a few feet.
Then Wendy heard the sound: a board squeaking, she thought, and she shot around too fast looking for Jones, not seeing the first step.
She shrieked as she stumbled down the stairs, the extra weight from Pan sending her down fast. The steel steps felt like stabs from the sharpest knives as she toppled down them, Pan’s unconscious form following her.
She hit the ground hard, a smothered scream escaping her lips as pain shot through every nerve of her body, white flashes blinding her.
She found some strength to turn onto her back, a sharp squeak of agony escaping from her.
Pan was faced down on the ground, unmoving, and Wendy was certain his arm was broken judging by the twisted shape.
“Pe…Pe…”
A sob cut her off. Her own.
Oh gods what had she done?
She looked around, unable to see everything, but she heard the tantalizing peace that didn’t seem to belong with her racing mind. The sound of the waves and birds that flew overhead, and more softly the sounds of traffic and businesses and life from Storybrooke.
Wendy felt this sudden feeling of isolation, like she was too big to fit in this tiny town. This miniscule world.
She was too tainted. She’d seen too much. Gone too far.
She glanced over at Pan. Was he dead? Had she killed him?
Was she dying?
She laid her head slowly back on the hard, icy concrete, feeling her thoughts speed through her, twister, scattered and untamed.
Pan. Glass. Felix. Tink. Her mother. Her father. Edward. Cruella. Jekyll. Belle. Jones.
Had she…had she failed at something? What had been her mission to begin with?
Jones had asked her last why she had come here. Now, she couldn’t remember.
Who had she been running from? What had she been trying to get away from?
Who had she tried to be?
Did she reach that goal at some point? Through all the pain, and the fear and fights and the misadventures and even the good moments, had she accomplished anything?
She’d become bigger than this twisted little town, that much she knew, but she hadn’t become better than the person she left behind in London.
She was darker, and so utterly lost.
Her hand slid out and she was grateful when she felt the tips of Pan’s fingers. The boy she felt so much for. Hate, contempt, need and maybe—she was still trying to place it—love.
He had been placed in the dead center of her new existence. She had this desperate need now to concrete him there.
She struggled to turn on her side, her hand never leaving his.
“Pan,” she called hoarsely, his stillness making her heart sink. “Pan…please…open your eyes.”
But the stubborn man—so full of passion and fire and always refusing to give anyone or anything the upper hand over him—remained silent and still.
Wendy laid her head back down. Now he really had abandoned her.
“Wendy?”
Wendy seized, looking around frantically for the source of the voice. Jones?
Footsteps came rumbling towards her and she shrieked when a shadow washed over her.
“Easy, sister.”
Wendy blinked, her vision blurred from the bright light, settling finally on the familiar man above her.
“L…Leroy?”
“Hey,” he greeted, his ever-present frown deep on his face. “Boy have a lot of people been looking for you two.”
“Looking…” she gasped, another pair of footsteps approached…and tripped, but the sound of the scrapping gravel.
“Oh, is she okay,” came the high feminine voice as she joined Leroy’s side.
“Astrid,” Wendy sighed.
“Oh Wendy!” she greeted, more like they were at a picnic than on the grounds of the dock. Astrid’s eyes shifted to Pan and she paled.
“He needs help,” Wendy said as Astrid fussed over him, Leroy stepped away to call for help.
Wendy laid back down, the gravel feeling like welcomed hot pokers against her skin.
The sky was too bright, too alive compared to the dark prison she’d been in a moment ago.
She felt Pan’s hand slip from her own and she turned over to find that Astrid had turned him over, cupping his face.
Wendy’s fingers flinched from the emptiness. She needed to touch him again. It was the only thing that kept him alive. That kept her from losing him again.
She reached out, unable to move the rest of her body.
The last thing she saw before her vision blurred was her own hand reaching out and Astrid’s frightened eyes when she turned to her.
-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-
Tink stared mournfully at a framed picture on Wendy’s dresser. She had a lovely family, and she looked so bright and happy in that picture. Sans the hurt that seemed to haunt her eyes as of late.
And Tink knew she had a lot to do with that.
Felix watched her as he peaked into the bedroom, knowing her mind.
“I shouldn’t have been so cold to her,” Tink sighed.
Felix leaned against the doorframe.
“You were angry, I think Wendy understood that,”
“None of this was her fault,” Tink returned, turning to face Felix as she leaned on the dresser. “She was trying to help me…and she did! She couldn’t have known what Pan was going to do.”
Felix managed a small smile. “Then tell her that. Forgive her and welcome her back.”
Tink nodded. It was the right thing to do. She knew Wendy needed a good friend. It was what would keep her from getting too sucked into Pan’s influence…though judging by August’s notes, she was doing that on her own.
“I wonder who this man she’s seeing is,” Tink mused, gratefully changing the subject. “Storybrooke really doesn’t get that many visitors outside of the tourist seasons.”
Felix shrugged. “Maybe it’s someone from London…who was that boy who came with her father that one time? William?”
“Something like that,” Tink waived off. “Maybe I can get her to spill once we find—”
The building sound of an ambulance cut her off and both she and Felix immediately sought out the window to see where it was coming from.
The sound of an ambulance always made the staff at the Storybrooke Mirror perk their ears. More than half the time it was something simple: a little old lady fell in her house, Leroy passed out at Granny’s and had to be taken to the hospital so that Granny could fight off any lawsuits.
Once in a while though it was their next story, an omen that something in their quiet wee town was about to change.
Felix particularly was on high alert. He watched the vehicle go past, the emergency sirens shaking the windows of the old apartment building.
For a moment, when it passed and the screaming faded, he began to relax…
And then then the second one followed, screeching just as loudly as its predecessor.
Paling, Felix and Tink turned to one another, the same thought—the same person—sharing space in their minds, and they shot out of the door.
-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-
Wendy couldn’t even begin to describe what she was feeling. It was so good for one, despite the soreness on her lips and neither regions.
Through the ecstasy there was exhaustion that was quickly sinking into her bones. The heat from the extra body on top of her was making her far too comfortable to resist.
The shining blue eyes that looked her over from head to toe were grateful, mystified, but also sad.
Maybe had she looked closer, Wendy would have seen the lies there as well.
Wendy awoke quietly, too tired to bolt upright as she would do after an unnerving dream.
She felt…dull, like something was stopping the reactors in her brain from creating the much needed reactions.
She looked around. She was in the hospital, that was certain, and a glance to the left concluded she was not alone.
Pan was in the bed on the other side of the room, heavily bandaged, his arm in a cast and an oxygen mask strapped to his face.
The very image of seeing him so beaten, so helpless, sparked a surge in her. She threw the covers off, her limbs as heavey as slabs of concrete, and struggled to stand.
“Hold it, hold it!”
Dr. Whale came bounding in, pushing her back with a firm but gentle hand.
“But Pan—”
“Is in a great, drug-induced coma, so getting up before you’re ready isn’t doing him a bit of good.”
Wendy gulped but reluctantly went back under the blankets.
“What’s wrong with him,” she sobbed. “Please tell me.”
The doctor grimaced and checked over his shoulder, moving in to stand over Wendy.
“He’s severally dehydrated and has a set of bruised ribs,” the doctor relayed. “That toppled with his other injuries from the past couple of weeks, he’s in pretty rough shape.”
Wendy leaned her bed back on the pillows, defeated. This was her fault. Gods this was her fault.
“He’ll pull through,” Whale added. “You both will, but get some rest for now.”
Wendy didn’t respond and barely noticed him leaving.
The guilt was eating her, picking the meat right off her bones. She’d caused this, and now she had no choice but to stare at the repercussions.
“I’m sorry,” she cried, hoping that he could hear her in his dreams. “I’m so sorry, Pan.”
Hours went by in the tiny hospital room. Nurses went in and out, checking IVs and heart monitors. Wendy didn’t say anything to them, couldn’t say anything to them. She was so tired but she couldn’t close her eyes. She didn’t want to take her eyes off Pan, didn’t want to dream.
Her mind kept going back to the night he was kidnapped, the way Pan had been spiraling before she found a way to keep him balanced.
It was ironic, really. Pan was the unstable one, yet he always seemed to be the one that followed her into dangerous situations. She started it, she realized, the day she went out on her own to find Cruella. Pan had followed her, and literally ran a truck into her to save her. Then of course the bout with Jekyll, which all started because she had called Pan to help her with Belle.
And then this time, she followed him into a club, a place that should have been enjoyable for them both, and it was because of a two minute conversation with Jones that Pan got taken.
All this time she thought he was the problem, that he was the one endangering their lives with his carelessness.
But really it’d been her. Just by existing.
A soft knock pulled her from her musings and she lifted her head to see Sheriff Graham standing there.
He smiled gently and approached her carefully, placing a file he had on her bedside table.
“How you feeling?”
Wendy sat up, shrugging.
Graham nodded. “Doc says you’ll be fine, might even get to leave in the morning.”
Wendy looked to Pan. There was no way he was on the same course.
Noticing her crestfallen expression, he cleared his throat awkwardly.
“I uh, need to ask you a few questions. Do you know the man who took him?”
“Killian Jones.”
Wendy paused and glanced back at him. “What?”
He smiled, all pearly whites and charm. “My name. I think it’s about time you learned it.”
And then…
“I feel like I should be afraid of you.”
Wendy moaned, rubbing at her temples.
“No…I didn’t,” she replied, it was the truth, the wholehearted truth.
Graham frowned. He and his deputy had gone to inspect the ship, and found messes all over it, including the rumpled bed.
He didn’t want to jump to conclusions—didn’t dare want to look at Wendy in such a way—but the evidence was stacked up, and his instincts were rarely wrong.
Plus, there was another matter…
“Do you have any idea of why he took Pan?”
Wendy glanced at her unmoving companion.
Jekyll’s face flashed across her mind, that strange link between Jones and them.
“No, he wouldn’t tell me anything.”
Graham tilted his head. “How did you know Pan was on the ship?”
“Let me lead, Wendy.”
“Do you trust me?”
I want to…
“No.”
Wendy covered her mouth, feeling sick. She could feel the phantom touch of his fingers gliding over her skin. It was just as unnerving as when Jekyll touched her hair.
“Where is he?” Wendy coughed. “Do you have him locked up?”
Graham sighed. “He escaped by the time we got on the ship.”
Wendy’s head shot up. “He’s still out there!”
“It’s alright,” Graham assured, trying to calm her. “My deputy’s looking for him and we have the whole dock and town entrance surrounded. He’s not going anywhere.”
Wendy’s head began to pound. What if he snuck into the hospital to finish Pan off? To kill her?
“You’re both safe, I promise,” Graham said, frowning when he couldn’t show her what he had intended to.
He stood, reaching for the file he’d laid on her table, when a knock distracted him.
“Sheriff,” Whale greeted. “A moment?”
Graham nodded, sparing another look at Wendy before he stepped out of the room emptyhanded.
Wendy couldn’t make out the conversation, couldn’t concentrate on anything but the overwhelming anxiety bubbling inside of her.
Jones was still on the loose and probably plotting his revenge.
Just like Cruella…just like Jekyll…
Wendy wiped the angry tears in her eyes, forcing herself to breathe and think.
She couldn’t let him get away.
Graham poked his head back in the door. “If you think of anything…just call me, okay?”
Wendy didn’t respond, and Graham left, defeated.
Wendy stayed very still and very quiet for some time, listening to the sounds of the hospital as it settled for the night, tensing whenever someone walked into the room, determined that the next time it would be Jones.
Finally, a nurse turned off the light, declaring it was time for more rest, but Wendy remained bolted upright.
Jones had come on the ship…was there a chance he had a car stashed in the woods like Jekyll had? Maybe he had a lackey or a partner waiting for him.
But where had he gone when Astrid and Leroy found them? How did he just disappear from a ship in the middle of the dock while the whole town descended on him?
Wendy gasped.
“He’s right where we left him.”
She glanced at Pan once more and then at the door, easing out of her bed quietly to locate her clothes and cellphone.
A quick glance in the hallway revealed its near-emptiness, the nurse at the front desk distracted with some mindless computer game.
With a hand on the wall, Wendy glided towards the exit, her legs shaking and her head spinning slightly, but her determination solid.
An orderly…or a patient, Wendy couldn’t quite tell…mopped the halls sluggishly. The only thought Wendy could conjure about them was that their hair was too long and that if they squealed on her she would have to make a run for it or hit them.
Instead the person looked up at her with glassy eyes, staring at her without really looking at her.
Wendy didn’t break contact with them as she found the staircase, easing the heavy door open slowly. She almost thanked them for their silence, but she had more on her mind than niceties.
She hurried down the stairs, her head banging from the effort. She wondered briefly if she had sustained a concussion when she and Pan toppled down the staircase on Jones’s ship or if it was just the stress she was under.
She made it to the lobby and eased quietly to the exit, her eyes trained on the door.
She allowed a second to glance at the front desk, the bodyguard who was supposed to keep the place secure fast asleep. She only hoped her instinct was right and Jones didn’t sneak into the hospital while she was away.
Just as she reached the door, a familiar couple caught her eye.
Huddled in the far corner were Tink and Felix, fast asleep in a pair of uncomfortable chairs. And was that August a row of chairs down?
Wendy felt a surge of grief wash over her at the site of them. Were they there for Pan? Her, maybe? Could forgiveness be near?
Wendy swallowed her feelings down. There’d be time for all that, perhaps, but now she had a job to do.
Taking a deep breath, she made a jog to the doors, dashing out into the night before anyone noticed the disturbance.
Her senses were on high alert as she jogged to the docks, terrified that at any moment her worst fears would come to life.
Nature, at least, seemed to be on her side. The moon was full and lighted her way, giving her a calming comfort.
She sound of the water as she reached Jones’s ship made her queasy, and the site of the police tape surrounding the ship made her angry.
Wendy pulled out her cellphone, making sure it was unlocked as she stepped closure, eyes scanning the very ship just the night before she’d thought was a safe, welcoming place.
She ducked under the tape, circling behind the ship, away from prying eyes. She kept her steps light, now wanting to disturb the wood and reveal her presence.
A sound, like a gasp or a curse, alerted her that she was indeed not alone and that she’d been right to come back here.
With another careful step, she looked behind the ship and found Jones packing supplies into a small motorboat, a rope dangling from the side of the ship. He must have hid there during Graham’s investigation.
A surge of anger overcame her. He’d tricked them just as he tricked her, and he thought he was going to get away with it!
“Don’t move.” She growled.
Jones instantly shot around, his caught-in-the-cookie-jar expression fading when he saw Wendy. His face was bruised and dried with blood from Pan’s earlier assault.
His gaze softened when he saw her, boiling Wendy’s blood all the more.
“Hello, lass,” he laughed, so nonchalant.
It infuriated Wendy. Did he really not see her as a threat?
“That was…quite a row, wasn’t it?” he said, as if they were talking about something as simplistic as the weather. He stood up, balancing in the motor boat so easily.
“And you know what,” he chuckled again, wagging a finger. “You bested me. You bested me Wendy Darling.”
“You lied to me,” Wendy responded quietly.
His grin withered some and the glint in his eyes seemed to fade. He coughed out a laugh, hiding whatever emotion he was truly feeling.
“Well, either way it’s been very memorable,” he saluted her, the act far from respectable. “I’ll remember it fondly. Now if you’ll excuse me.”
Wendy quietly brought her phone from her pocket, casually going through her contacts as she felt Jones’s gaze harden on her.
“What are you doing, Wendy?”
Wendy held up her phone, her thumb poised on the call button.
“Move and I’ll gave the sheriff here before you have the chance to start that piece of junk you’re in,”
Jones stared at her a moment is disbelief. He thought surely she’d given up by now, or at least have enough fondness between them to let him escape.
Of course he was only kidding himself. She had fire, he knew, and despite how he tried he hadn’t been able to extinguish it.
But he was not getting caught.
In a flash, he had a gun pointed at her. She didn’t even flinch, to her credit.
“I gave you a chance earlier to walk away,” he reminded her though grit teeth. “So many people have begged me for that chance!”
She didn’t move, didn’t seem to care that her very life was at stake.
The gun twitched in his hand, his finger aching to pull the trigger.
Wendy’s finger stayed poised on the call button. She had every intention to press it, to capture Jones and see that he was dealt with properly.
Honestly, she hoped he would shoot her. End the agony she’d held onto for so long. Free her from herself.
But Jones wasn’t doing any favors today.
He lowered the gun with a curse, pained.
“I can’t kill you, Wendy,” he scoffed. “You’ve grown on me too much.”
Her thumb pressed on the button, the call to Graham remaining in limbo.
Jones tossed the gun to the other side of the boat with a sigh, running his hand through his hair.
“You’re a good person, Wendy. I needed someone like you.”
Wendy shook her head, unable to fight the tears on her cheeks.
“Just go…”
He nodded sadly, starting up boat with a pull of a string. The sound was loud, he knew he only had moments before he was found, but he risked it for his goodbye.
“We would have made a brilliant pair,” he laughed over the engine. “Maybe in another life?”
Wendy only glared at him, her body shaking from the grief she was holding back.
His smile sank, but he accepted her choice with downcast eyes. She didn’t see the tears in his eyes and he drove the boat forward.
Wendy watched as he quickly exited the harbor, disappearing into the sea as his boat tore the waters into ribbons of slosh.
When the roar of his boat became only a hum, all her hurt, her anger, sprang forward.
She dropped her phone, releasing the call button and sending the call to Graham through.
Her legs gave out quickly as her screams left her, her entire being shaking as she released her sobs, her body catching alight with fire from the release.
She hurt all the way through and she needed to grieve.
And she did. She grieved for the man who broke her heart. Grieved for the girl he had taken with him.
Somewhere though her pain she could hear Graham’s panicked voice through her phone, but she only had the strength the curl into a tight ball on the cold pier, sobbing all the harder when she couldn’t see the ripples in the water anymore.
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