AN: An alternate canon for Peter x Wendy, OR fix-it fic for sudden pedophilia caused by "Think Lovely Thoughts". M-rating soon to be earned.

milk teeth couldn't hold me

a prologue, of sorts

Wendy Darling was a good mother. One of the best, they said. It was a pity she had only one daughter. But Wendy Moira Angela Darling-Brasher paid them no mind. Jane was all she needed. In fact, some days, she thought Jane was all she could handle.

Wendy had not wanted to be a mother for many, many years. It had taken quite a bit of pressure from her parents and her besotted beau to coax her to the altar. Her brothers, John and Michael, had staunchly defended her position against wedlock. This time, however, it was not in a bid to keep her young. They were far too familiar with the darkness that stalked children in the night; the shadow that brought dreams that quickly turned to nightmares. Not one of three wanted to put any child through that.

In the end though, society won. The adults were victorious and, almost in her thirtieth year, Wendy was married. Then Wendy became a mother and, it seemed, she blossomed again.

At eight years old, Jane did not understand the reasoning behind her mother's obsession with the nursery window; Jane knew only that it must always stay locked. Jane knew she must not talk to strangers - adult or child; real or shadow, magical or not. Jane knew her mother loved to hear about her dreams every morning. Jane also knew she was the only child whose mother would play games with her late into the night, refusing to leave the room until Jane was fully asleep.

Jane knew better than to ask for stories.

Jane also knew that, one day just a few weeks before her ninth birthday, she woke up and the nursery window was open wide. Her uncles were downstairs with her father all looking worried. Her mother was gone.

There was that boy her parents had taken in when she was young, they said, she never stopped looking for him.

They were right Jane found out much, much later. Her mother had gone looking for a boy. But not that boy - she had gone to save that boy from the Eternal Boy, the Shadow, the Demon. The one whose name her uncles (still impossibly young) whispered like profanity:

Peter Pan.

TBC