Peter's Lily (Sequel to Pan's Tiger)

Chapter 42: Figures from the past

'Are you referring to your son and how we will defeat Pan?' I wondered.

'I suppose so...' Baelfire trailed off and looked at her curiously, 'But I think there are some other things you need to worry about. We will win, there is no doubt, but you have been crying, so there is something bigger on your mind.'

'No!' I snapped. Then almost immediately, I replied with the pathetic, obvious excuse, 'I just had something in my eye.

Baelfire laughed hoarsely and decided that I didn't want to talk about it. I cared for Baelfire, but I had missed out on so many years of his life that I felt like I barely knew him. We had the kind of friendship that meant we knew each other's personalities to the core, but I could barely list five facts about him anymore. Even when he was a Lost Boy, nobody talked about their past.

'I heard you ran into some pretty evil pirates.' He commented with a small laugh. Although I didn't know much about Baelfire's life from before the Darlings to after leaving Neverland, I knew enough to know that he had once had to deal with Captain Hook. Killian Jones had always been merciful, but also very, very selfish.

'Nothing I can't handle.' I muttered.

Baelfire laughed once more, but it was empty. It was like he knew that I felt broken, that I was just a pawn in Peter's games. I was nothing more than a girl he used to find the person that needed to save his life. I was irrelevant to Peter Pan. 'Sure.'

'Don't worry, Neal, I didn't need saving that much...' I winced, looking up at him with wide eyes.

Baelfire had known me long enough to know that it was best to let me keep my ridiculous fantasies that without Pan rescuing me, there may be a small possibility that I could have saved myself from the pirates. Regardless of whether I needed saving, I liked to think that I was independent and brave enough to look after myself.

'I know.' He told me, a little sympathetically.

My hunger for people to see me as brave and noble was beginning to dissipate, nobody thought for a second that I knew what I was doing. Yet, by some miracle, Peter Pan had bothered to save my life. And reminding him that he didn't need to was what he saw as a "Tiger Lily Thank you".

'No, seriously. I'm not the girl Pan saved from the mountain lion anymore.' I reminded him with a raised eyebrow. 'I'm not a native princess that needs saving. I'm a Lost Girl... a damsel in distress that can handle it on her own.'

'Lost Girl or not, you can always count on me to help.' Baelfire reminded me with a small nudge and I suddenly felt like nothing had happened. I suddenly felt like I hadn't recently found out he was my grandson. I suddenly felt like I hadn't promised to follow him and escape to Earth. I suddenly felt like the guy I was in love with didn't wanted to kill his son. It was just me and Baelfire again.

'I know.' I smiled, giving him a signature "Tiger Lily Thank you".

'No, seriously, you're brave enough to handle it on your own, but I will always be there to help you. You mustn't forget how brave and beautiful and bright you are.'

It didn't take long for me to realise that Baelfire had always been that way, even when he was a Lost Boy and relations with Pan were tense. I didn't overlook times when my best friend told me that I was pretty, but my ex-husband and lover always seemed to forget to.

'I know you were waiting for someone here, and I don't think it was a Lost Boy, was it?' Baelfire inferred and my mind instantly went into overdrive, thinking things over of how I was going to explain my meeting with Oliver, especially considering that I was expecting him to go with Henry's family and I wouldn't ever see him again. 'You don't have to tell me...'