all this has happened before

[lost_boy]

We were running. Running from Peter. Running toward the pirates.

It hadn't been difficult to convince the others this was our best option, not after all Peter had done. They knew now, they had seen what he was like, they'd been viewed under the cold, dismissive gaze of Peter Pan and understood he thought nothing of them. Of us. Because I may have been his favourite once, but it was clear I was too grown up, too close to being a man to be loved by him any longer.

I knew that had upset me once, but now, surrounded by my friends, running toward other friends, I didn't feel that same sense of loss that I had before. As with Charlie and Sal and Nod, I was choosing these good people, people I loved, and I was turning my back on Peter.

We crossed the Island, skirting the plans with the Many-Eyed, taking the path up into the mountains, toward Bear Cave, and then beyond. I paused at the cave, remembering Harry and his death here, but only for a moment. I had learned long ago how to mourn my friends while on the move and today was no different. My other friends needed me now, they needed me to lead them to safety away from Peter.

Leading the way down the mountain path, past the Marking Rock, I could see the camp and the cove in the distance, the shipped docked where it usually was when the pirates weren't away, raiding whatever places they were able to find. And I could see people. Pirates, yes, but familiar faces, too, and I picked up my pace, hurrying the others toward them.

[Coming together post! Gathering, as usual, Jamie and everyone who was with him at the tree is going to come to the pirate camp/the Jolly Roger, so feel free to have threads that take place on the ship or on the shore at the camp. Also feel free to employ fairies if you like, they'll be spying for Peter, who'll be coming soon enough. In a few days I'll post a second top level for Jamie and Peter's big final fight where Jamie will be losing his right hand.]

Comments

[forthsofar]

Bizarre as the timing of it is, there's a reunion happening here, something deep and meaningful passing between the two of them. Rosie stays quiet, letting Jamie and the pirate--Will--have as much privacy as they can. After securing the bandage, she coaxes Jamie's arm up, letting it rest against her shoulder. She's still wearing that shirt from the first day, the one Jamie found for her in that heap of clothing; now, it's rendered almost unrecognizable, splashed and streaked with Jamie's blood.

"Keeping it elevated will help," she says, though the presence of that stump so close to her face makes her stomach lurch sickeningly. She swallows once, hard, then looks over at Will, taking in the way his posture goes a little straighter as he puts himself into her service. In any other situation, it might have pleased her, even made her head spin with the power of it. Now, it's just the first bit of something fortunate she's had happen to them in ages. "We should get him somewhere safe," she says. "Safer than this. The ship, maybe. Is there..." Rosie trails off, uncertain how to ask for what she wants to know. "Would someone else on the crew know how to...how to treat an injury like this?"

The feeble, girlish hope in her voice as she asks that nearly undoes every bit of the odd calm that's swept over her.

[lost_boy]

Will nodded in response and then, perhaps seeing something in Rosie's face, he stepped forward and lifted me into his arms. I had gotten taller and stronger, but Will was still a man where I was a boy, and he lifted me with relative ease, placing my arm along his shoulder like Rosie had only moments before.

"The physician," Will said. "Well... he acts as our physician. He learned from Jamie, back when we were all still boys."

And then, colour draining from my face, I looked at Rosie. I didn't want to tell her what I used to do to the pirates. That there were others walking around here who were missing their right hand because it was what I had done to them. My signature. The mark I left on the men who thought they could beat me in combat.

"He's had practice with injuries like this," Will said, saving me from the admission, at least for now.

"Will you come with me?" I asked Rosie, almost pleading. I didn't want to be alone in the ship, no matter how well I had once known some of these men.

[forthsofar]

If she notices that pallor, it's easy to explain away, to assume it's nothing more than shock. She doesn't even think to ask if it might be anything different, and when Will scoops him up and provides that bit of information, Rosie simply nods. "Good," she says, getting up from the ground once Jamie's situated securely in the man's arms. "We'll take him there, as...as quickly as we can."

She can feel bits of damp on her shirt and pants, spots where the fabric is sticking to her, and she doesn't look down. She knows what it is, why it's happened. She can't look down.

That plea in Jamie's voice tears again at her heart, and she nods, blinking hard so she doesn't simply weep. "Of course I will," she says, reaching out to push a bit of his hair back from his forehead. "I wouldn't leave you, not now. Ever."

[lost_boy]

I felt younger now. Scared and a little dizzy, but Will was strong and he carried me up the gangplank and onto the ship, then below deck to the infirmary. Rosie stayed with me, as she promised she would, and I was especially grateful for that when Will set me down on one of the beds and then went to fetch the doctor.

I knew what they were going to do. I had done it myself for other boys. Not for injuries like this, but for deep cuts that couldn't otherwise be closed.

"The doctor is going to rinse the blood and dirt away," I said to Rosie. "And then he's going to cauterize it. It's the only thing they can do here to properly stop the bleeding. It's going to be awful and you- you don't need to stay for that part. It's okay, I'll be okay, as long as I know you're nearby."

[forthsofar]

As they walk from the beach to the ship, Rosie stays where Jamie can see her whenever she can, her presence the only thing she knows she can give him at this point. It gets harder to do once they're onboard, in the narrow stairs and corridors of the spaces below deck, but she sticks close to Will, following behind him until they're at the infirmary and Jamie's laid down on one of the cots. He looks so young and lost--but then again, they both are.

Will glances at them both before he leaves, and Rosie meets his eye. "Thank you," she murmurs, her voice wobbling even on those two short words. He nods once, then turns away.

She doesn't know what she expected Jamie to say, how she'd thought the doctor might repair what's been done to him, but the thought of cauterization makes her stomach twist horribly once more. She's not going to be sick. She refuses to be, when Jamie needs her. "I'll stay while he cleans it," she says, coming around to stand by his head, close enough that he doesn't have to strain to see her. "And...and after that's done, I'll be right outside the door. No further than that, I promise."

A better friend, a stronger friend, might have stayed for it all. Rosie doesn't let herself think about that.

[lost_boy]

I nodded and I was grateful that Rosie would stay close, but I was also grateful that she would leave. There was something horribly intimate about such an injury, something I felt almost embarrassed to have her witness, and I didn't want her to see me biting down on the length of leather the doctor would press between my teeth before he burned my wound to stop the bleeding.

I didn't want anyone to see that.

"Everyone still needs to be careful, too," I told her, slipping toward unconsciousness. "Peter can't die. He's part of the Island and it heals him, no matter what they might do to him. I don't want anyone else to get hurt."

[forthsofar]

His gaze goes unfocused, his words slurring into a faint murmur that Rosie has to bend close to make out, and for a moment she doesn't know whether it's kinder just to let him slip away for now. He'll be shocked into wakefulness again, and soon, and horribly so; if he can have these minutes of relative peace, maybe that's a kind of blessing.

"I'll tell them," she promises, feeling another stab of revulsion for the boy who'd done all of this to them over the last several days, their youthful little jailer who--it seemed--couldn't be fully defeated in the way he deserves. "We'll stay safe."

The door opens again, Will and another man Rosie assumes is the doctor entering the room, and Rosie takes a shaky breath. "It's time," she says, that steadiness from before making its way into her voice again. She presses a soft kiss to Jamie's forehead, his skin distressingly clammy beneath her lips in a way she doesn't let herself think about, then steps away. "I'll be over in the corner, there, and then right outside the door. Just like I promised."