A/N: So this is it. Maybe I didn't want to end it but alas such is life. The responses to this story have been overwhelming and touching to say the least. Thank you everyone for the lovely words!

Wendy snuggled into the warm body beside her, murmuring contentedly at the sensation of the slightly hirsute arm tucked firmly around her waist. Hearing James' head shift on the pillow, she felt his lips drop a kiss to her bare shoulder.

"You're still here," she murmured sleepily.

"As I promised I would be," James replied, nuzzling his nose into the nape of Wendy's neck.

"So is this," she teased, reaching behind and grazing her fingertips against James' tumescent length pressing against her backside.

"You're a temptress even in the midst of sleep," he purred, sliding a hand down Wendy's leg, both of which were still stocking clad. Drawing it over his hip, he positioned Wendy's body flush against his.

Gasping breathlessly, Wendy clutched onto her pillow when she felt James gently make his way into her body. His left hand caressed her breasts and stomach as he moved slowly and unhurriedly within her. Easily coaxing Wendy's body to its peak, James soon followed behind when he felt her walls tighten around him.

"Oh my," Wendy gasped afterwards, her hands falling from its grasp on the pillow.

"I only thought it fair to return the favor; after all you did ravish me last night," James said.

"Is that what you believe?" Wendy replied, hiding a smile.

"With all my heart," he retorted cheekily.

"You are horrid, simply horrid," Wendy chastised, turning around to kiss James. "Now what would you like, breakfast and then a bath? Or bath and then breakfast?"

"I'll go with the latter option."

Smiling at James, Wendy crawled from the bed rolling her eyes when he lightly patted her bare behind. Unrolling the stockings from both legs, Wendy put on a quilted dressing gown and walked out of the room.

After the bathtub had been filled, James sank in the hot water groaning at the heat biting into his skin. He'd convinced Wendy to get in with him and she lay with her head back against his shoulder.

"After believing that I was never to see you again, I still find it a bit surreal that you're here," Wendy confessed after awhile. She reached up blindly to caress James' bristly cheek. "You need a shave, love."

James laughed throatily and pressed a kiss to the side of Wendy's head. "I know, I'm a right sorry mess," he said. "After you were gone I was never able to sort myself out. I think the crew was scared of me…more so than usual."

"Speaking of the men, where are they now?" Wendy asked.

"I left Smee in charge of the ship and the men; they can do what they bloody well please with it. The only treasure I'm concerned with is the one in my arms right now."

Wendy grinned widely, pressing her toes against James' beneath the sudsy water.

"Fill in me, I want to know everything that's happened since my foolish blunder," James said.

"Alright," Wendy began, winding a slim arm around James' neck and idly slipping her fingers through his damp hair.

She began with the Sisters that found her on the doorstep of her church, along with a sizeable bag of precious gems and rubies that had been hidden on her person with a short yet heartfelt note attached to it. After converting half of the stones to cash, she'd been able to purchase her childhood home and still had a plethora of money left over. Wendy donated some of the funds to an orphanage where she volunteered a few days out of the week, reading and spending time with the children.

The rest of her days she spent working on her first novel, as the note James left proclaimed that she should live out her dream.

Wendy went on to tell James about her brother John trying to match her up with his colleagues, making him laugh heartily as she described how she'd thrown them both out of her house before getting round to serving them lunch. Since returning she hadn't seen or heard anything from her ex-fiancé Gavin and oddly enough two months later he'd turned up missing. After mentioning this bit she looked up at James' who bore the most peculiar look on his face. Seeing the familiar feral glint in his eye Wendy changed the subject, deciding that certain things were better left unspoken.

By the time they both climbed out of the tub and were settled at Wendy's breakfast nook, James began filling her in with his story. After she'd left James had fallen into a state of perpetual moroseness. He'd tried to convince himself that it would have been wrong to let Wendy stay in the Neverland with him, yet it didn't negate the pain that he felt.

It had nearly been a year when Smee forced the usually unreasonable man to listen to him, calling him a blithering idiot and suggesting that he find his way back to Wendy.

"Yes, now I can ask. How did you get here?" she finally asked.

"The very same fairy that I made bring you back home helped me to find my way. She knew where you lived as she came to check on you from time to time, although I made her swear that she wouldn't let you see her. Maila told me that you'd always keep to yourself up in that nursery night after night, writing or crying yourself to sleep. Do you know how hard it was for me to hear that? Knowing that I was the source of your misery; my gut felt as if I'd taken my own hook to myself."

Wendy paused in between bites of her breakfast, looking across the table at James.

"Finally when Smee could no longer, as he so eloquently stated, 'take my long puss,' he told me to get off my pitiful ass and go claim my woman. I know it was rather selfish of me to just show up like this even though Maila made no mention of you being courted or wed, but love makes you do maddened things."

A small smile spread across Wendy's face. "I'd love to see the expression on Aunt Millicent and my brother's face when they see you," she said mischievously.

"I'm sure it will be nothing short of amusing," James replied, his blue eyes twinkling. "Before I forget, I've brought something for you."

Digging into his left pocket, he unearthed a red velvet bag and pushed it across the table towards Wendy. After setting her fork down she picked the bag up, curiously looking at James as she untied the cording.

Wendy's mouth fell open when she poured out a handful of loose diamonds and gems, the sunlight catching the many facets and throwing colorful glimmers off the wall.

"I always take care of what is mine," he said, looking at Wendy. "Keep going, I believe you missed a few."

Her mouth still gaping open, Wendy held the bag upside down and heard something bounce off the table and fall into her lap. Pushing the folds of her gown aside she picked up a delicate gold ring with a large single white diamond set in the middle.

"Is this what I think it is?" she asked.

"Only if you want it to be," James replied, anxious to hear Wendy's answer.

Wendy remained silent; opting to leap up from her seat and into James' lap nearly upsetting the breakfast dishes.

"So I guess that means yes, you will marry me?" James asked, wrapping an arm around Wendy to steady her on his knee.

"Yes of course James!" she cried, pressing kisses into his face.

The following week, Wendy brought James to her aunt's house for tea, introducing him as her fiancé. Aunt Millicent promptly feigned shocked, throwing herself with a most dramatic flair onto her fainting couch.

After her hysterics were gone, James turned his charms onto the older woman, politely offering to fix her tea and asking how she took it. Watching as he moved deftly about, Aunt Millicent looked at James from head to toe, eyeing his expensive and custom tailored suit and shoes. He wore what looked like a class ring on his pinky finger, his glossy black curls neatly pulled back into a queue and his beard and mustache skillfully groomed.

He spoke to Wendy's aunt in a frank and honest manner about his love for her niece, and promised that she would never want for anything. Knowing that it was futile to object, Aunt Millicent conceded and welcomed the foreign man into the family.

Right on cue, young Michael and John came home and into the parlor. Michael's mouth promptly fell open when he saw the man that made his insides quiver with fear when he was younger. John, on other hand, grew incredibly flustered.

Wendy was persistent when she told her brother that James Hook was real; yet putting away childish things John had convinced himself that his voyage to Neverland had never happened. Now he stood before tangible proof and found himself speechless.

James had gotten up and politely shook the elder Darling boy's hand, introducing himself. John's face turned red when he saw the familiar blue eyes, although they seemed to no longer hold any malice. Looking over at his sister, John noticed that her pretty face looked rather smug.

"Close your mouth, John," she'd told him.

Things had grown better between Wendy and her aunt. It seemed that Aunt Millicent had been more excited about her niece's upcoming nuptials, dragging Wendy to and fro for dress fittings, cake tastings and such. James had made it clear to the matriarch that he wanted no spared expense, that his Wendy would have the best on her special day.

One evening after returning home, Wendy had promptly collapsed into James' arms, stressed from her aunt's constant jabbering about laces, pearls, veils and other things that she'd tuned out after a few minutes.

"I'm beginning to wish that we'd just run off to the vicar without telling anyone," she complained.

James laughed, and ran his hand soothingly across Wendy's back. "Your aunt means well," he told her.

"Yes, well…" Wendy trailed off. "I don't know what you've done but you have certainly thawed out her icy disposition. I don't remember ever seeing my aunt so…cheerful!"

James merely shrugged his shoulders, drawing his fiancée towards him for a kiss.

Aunt Millicent had been scandalized when she found that James was staying in Wendy's house, until her niece had pointed out that it was now their home collectively and no one's business. The elder woman had gone on about propriety and being prurient until Wendy threatened to elope.

"You're a bit tense love," he remarked.

"Sorry," Wendy replied dejectedly.

James suddenly scooped both arms beneath her body and held her against his chest, standing up and walking towards the stairs.

"Where are we going?" she asked.

"I think it's time you make those little sounds I love."

Blushing yet laughing giddily, Wendy threw her arms around James' neck and buried her face in his shoulder.

James and Wendy were wed in the spring. The affair had been grand and decadent at her Aunt's behest, yet Wendy found that the only thing she'd cared around was her husband.

Months after the wedding, Wendy managed to publish her first novel, dedicating it to her dear husband whom she'd had to go to the 'Second star to the right and straight on to morning,' to find him, but he'd been worth it.

Each night she slept securely within James' arms, his hands caressing her back and slightly swollen stomach.

When she bore a little girl with James' black curls and her grey eyes, Wendy sat the child between her and James in the nursery, regaling stories just like she'd done with her siblings as a child.

As little Mary got older, just like her mother her favorite stories included those about pirates.

"Papa, are pirates real?" she'd asked in a tinny voice, climbing into her father's lap and playing with his black curls that she loved to proclaim 'were just like hers.'

"I don't know, little love. Why don't you ask your mother?" James said.

The little girl looked across at her pretty mother questioningly.

Wendy looked down at the two people she loved most in the world. James looked back at her, his forget me not's twinkling at her.

"Yes love, they're real."

Fin.