Chapter 15
Maggie
The moon treaded high over their heads as Maggie and Peter landed on Hook’s pirate ship.
Crocodile Waters was exceptionally quiet that evening as they arrived, not even a pair of beading eyes watching them from the darkness.
What Maggie once considered to be a sign of good luck, that there would be only smooth sailing ahead, now appeared to be nothing more than a haunting omen.
Perhaps Hook and his crew lingered in the shadows, taking the opportunity to end their Peter Pan problem once and for all.
Maybe Maggie’s insistence upon handling things through a peaceful deal wasn’t the right way to do it all.
Could that be the very thing that brings them more harm than good?
Hundreds of questions and speculations danced through Maggie’s brain as they cautiously walked across the quiet wooden deck.
Hook’s statue was tucked beneath her arm, and though the thing was rather large for a simple statue, it barely weighed a thing.
It was an odd and unique thing, which made sense as to why Neptune wanted to keep it amongst his treasures.
Her eyes landed on the shelf where their good luck charm was supposed to stand, but the mermaid statue was no longer there.
Maggie inched toward it, her heart racing.
They couldn’t have backed out on their deal, not when everything was finally falling into place.
“Looking for this, my lady?” Hook stepped out of the shadows, the smoking scarring on the pirate ship dark enough to have him and the rest of his crew obscured from their view.
One by one they piled out, slipping out of the captain’s cabin to meet them head on.
Hook tossed the mermaid statue above him before catching it in the same motion.
Behind him, a small crew of pirates drew their glistening swords, the sharpened tips pointing in Maggie’s direction.
“She’s got it,” one of the pirates murmured.
Another gasped. “They’ve really done it!”
“Our good luck charm is returned!”
Hook’s leather boot slammed onto the creaking wood, effectively silencing his eager crew.
He paced in front of them in the way he had once done before, when Maggie had first met him.
Steely grey eyes lingered on the statue tucked beneath her arm, his grip only growing tighter over the prize she sought.
“So,” Hook cooed, his brow raising, “you two managed to retrieve the statue from Neptune’s Treasury. I must say, I’m rather impressed.” His eyes landed on Peter in a mocking fashion. “I did not realize that this was all it would take to make the King of Neverland into a thief.”
The sound of Peter drawing his blade shrieked through the air.
Maggie felt the whistle of the sword being brought forward, the tip aimed directly at the sarcastic pirate Captain.
Maggie reached for him, covering his fist that was tightened over the leather bound hilt. Peter’s eyes flicked over to her.
“Relax,” Maggie whispered to him.
He looked uncertain. “But –”
“But you need to relax,” she repeated. “Look around, Peter. There aren’t any Lost Boys to back you up this time. We’re outmanned.”
Peter grinned, though it wasn’t entirely believable. “We can take them, can’t we?”
“No, Peter,” Maggie whispered. “We need this exchange to go through, or I fear there will be a prison waiting for us, one that won’t be so quick to grant us a way out.”
Peter opened his mouth as if to argue some more, but his bravado was quickly fading.
There was only one way forward, one path that saw the statues returned to their rightful owners, without any unnecessary pain shed.
Even then, as Hook and his crew had their weapons drawn, Maggie had the feeling that none of them wanted violence.
The one thing they were searching for, that they were vying for, lay in each other's hands.
Maggie pulled the statue out from under her arm and turned back to Hook as Peter lowered his blade.
The surrounding pirates shared a baffled look as the King of Neverland sheathed his sword to his rivals.
“A statue for a statue, Hook,” Maggie called out. “Those were the terms, weren’t they?”
Hook eyed her, his head tilting as he looked over the statue. “I believe it was.” He drew forward, the blade catching the moonlight’s ray on its edge. The tip drew nearer, coming excruciatingly close to the center of Maggie’s chest. Hook looked her over, his eyes lingering on the statue.
And then, in a surprising turn, Hook sheathed his sword. “And if there is one thing pirates are known for, it is how they always live up to their end of the deal.”
Hook handed the statue to Peter. They eyed each other with a growing aura of stubbornness. Maggie watched with a narrowing gaze, ready to lunge when both of them refused to entirely let go of the other’s statue.
Peter took the mermaid statue and handed over their good luck charm, the corner of his lip unable to stop itself from twitching into a smile.
Though they did not dare to exchange a look of friendliness, the exchange went by smoothly, allowing Hook to gratefully place their statue back on its respective shelf.
The crew of pirates cheered and celebrated in front of their good luck charm, hollering and leaping into each other’s arms. Hook tossed a final look over his shoulder, giving Maggie and Peter a quiet wink before turning to his crew’s celebrations.
Before Maggie had the chance to take another breath, Peter gathered her up in his arms, and shot up into the sky. She clutched the statue onto her lap as the stars grew brighter overhead.
“I can fly myself, you know,” Maggie said.
Peter shrugged, but the mischievous glint in his eye was speaking a thousand words.
“What’s got you smiling like that?”
“Like what?” Peter asked.
She rolled her eyes and reached for his cheek, making sure to poke at his growing dimple. “That smile, cheeky,” she teased.
Peter was silent for a few moments as they neared the Everything Plants. “I’m just thinking,” he finally said. “I told Neptune that you were my bride, remember?”
“Sure,” Maggie replied, though her voice was a bit high.
Of course she remembered that, but she was in the process of burying it far beneath her skin.
It was only a means to an end, something Peter came up with on the fly to get them out of a sticky situation.
Maggie struggled to keep herself from thinking it wasn’t anything more. “What about it?”
“Something tells me that the King won’t be happy if he finds out I was lying about our engagement,” Peter continued with a nonchalant shrug. “The only solution I can think of is to really get married.”
Maggie stared up at him, her arms wrapped around his neck. A laugh blurted out of her mouth. It sounded only slightly amused, the rest of it more like a startling crow’s caw. The longer she watched him the more she became aware of a fact she never expected: he was entirely serious.
“You’re joking, aren’t you?” she asked.
Peter raised a brow, not at all offended. “If you really want me to be joking, I suppose I could be. But…”
“But what, Peter?”
He eyed her with a seriousness she had never seen in his youthful expression. “But why shouldn’t you marry me?” Peter beamed. “Can you answer me honestly, Maggie? Because I don’t think you can!” He leaned closer to her, warm breath fanning her chin. “Why shouldn’t you?”
Maggie was speechless. Months ago she might’ve had a countless list of reasons as to why she shouldn’t marry Peter Pan.
At the top of it sat all the responsibilities that remained within the human land, the future she had once imagined for herself.
She tried to picture it now but the picture was drastically warped.
Where she once sought a bakery in a small human town was now easily replaced with the restaurant the Lost Boys built for her.
In the moments that she imagined having a partner to walk through life with, Peter’s face quickly came into shape.
There was a life for her here in Neverland, a life she had dreamt of, even if it was shaped a bit differently.
And what was wrong with Peter anyways? He was, in all forms of the term, perfect.
The way he treated her went unseen in the human lands.
All of her dreams and aspirations quickly became his own.
He infused her life with happiness, but never once took away the fiery need to work and grow that she carried so close to her heart.
Perhaps it was not the life of adventures he once had, but he was trading it all away for a future with Maggie.
Everything that happened over the last few months, since Peter took her away from the human lands, brought her nothing but joy and friendship.
Things that were impossible for her to have in the human lands came as easy as the rain on Neverland.
Why shouldn’t I marry him?
Maggie’s hands tightened nervously around his neck. “We’d have to have a long engagement, you know.”
“A long…” Peter’s voice drifted off, his eyes widening. “D-Does that mean?”
Her nod was short and firm.
Peter released a holler that pierced the sky above before booming across the horizon.
He was barreling through the air, carefully making sure to hold Maggie tightly against his chest. He rolled and flipped across the heavens, shooting through clouds and collecting mist along his blonde hair and eyelashes.
Maggie clutched the statue as he leveled out, the beach where the Everything Plants stood growing closer.
“You will be getting a proper proposal, mind you,” Peter finally said, once their laughter subsided.
Maggie sighed. “I-I don’t –”
“Yes, Maggie Hart,” he firmly interjected. “You deserve something more special than a question in the air but a decision made in front of a king to remedy a punishment.” His feet landed against the sand softly. “But there’s something I need to ask.”
Maggie stood on her own two feet, a bit dizzy from his excited leaps and rolls. “What is it, Peter?”
“If you agree to marry me,” he began in a quiet voice, “does this mean you’re staying in Neverland?”
Maggie struggled to find the right words. “All my life, I have learned that the only way to succeed is on your own. There were never any handouts for me, no relatives to turn back to. As far as I was concerned, the only person looking out for me was, well, me.”
He listened intently, his eyes wide and full of hope.
“Neverland has done more than prove me wrong,” Maggie said. “I’ll stay, Peter Pan, if you’ll have me.”
Peter’s shoulders fell in a way she had never seen before.
He shot forward as though he couldn’t stand on his own two feet, hooking his arms beneath her own and trapping her in a tight embrace.
She breathed him in as much as she could, realizing that the warmth he gave her would not be going away anytime soon.
There was no need to rush, to take as much as she could with greedy hands.
The King of Neverland was hers, and Maggie Hart belonged to him.
Maggie drew away as they walked hand-in-hand to the Everything Plants.
The small space in the center where the statue once stood had a slight imprint on it, giving Maggie the perfect guide to placing it back where it belonged.
Nothing spectacular happened the moment it rested on the ground, but Maggie wasn’t entirely sure what she was expecting.
She hoped that the Everything Plant would return to normal, to be fixed after all that time, but it was hardly on the forefront of her mind.
Peter’s hand grew tighter in her own, giving her a slight squeeze as they began to walk in the opposite direction.
For so long, she thought that fixing the Everything Plant also meant her return to the human lands.
The burden rested on her chest so heavily, but Maggie had hardly recognized it, for it had been there all along.
It only took the King of Neverland, Peter Pan, to step into her life to lift it off her frame, to carry her anxieties on his own shoulders, to show her that the world did not need to be conquered on her own.
Maggie allowed Peter to pull her closer to his side, to wrap his arm around her shoulders and press a fleeting kiss to the top of her head.
And her smile was the broadest she had ever conjured.