As his blue eyes squeezed to slits, the remaining color in Jack's face had faded. Peter nervously bit his bottom lip, a gesture that would normally put my hormones into overdrive. But this time around, he clenched down so hard on his lip that I was surprised it didn't start bleeding. Gnawing it as if he was scared, as if he lost his purpose in life, my heart began to race. As if he hadn't be through enough tonight with the loss of Thomas, he now had to face the unexpected appearance of a potential relative. We now had to face the unexpected appearance of a potential relative.

Peter's eyes frantically grazed over my body as the rest of his energy was being used to fuel the nerves of his very own shell. "We never did anything," he said, his majestic eyes now widened in utter denial. Jack's ears perked up at Peter's words, as he shifted uncomfortably and crossed his arms awkwardly over his chest.

"Nothing," Peter repeated again, as if he were trying to reassure himself. With a tremendous amount of heat radiating through my cheeks, I nodded.

"I know. You don't have to tell me twice, Peter. I know."

What else was I supposed to say? We never had done anything that would have resulted in bringing a child to the world, so how in the world did this tiny being get here? And was....was it possible that she could truly be our daughter? A person crafted and created from our genetics, from our love?

Surely, she had Peter's wondrous, beautiful eyes and she definitely inherited his dazzling smile. She had my hair and my birthmark- a birthmark so distinct that it would be a long shot if she ended up not being related to me. But....just how?

"Well if Laney was never....pregnant," Jack scrunched his nose up as he took a few steps forward. "There's only one other way," he stated as he glanced down at Peter as if he were reprimanding him.

Seeming to get annoyed, Peter shot an angered glare at Jack. It was unlike him to be on edge like this but realistically, Jack should have been more emotionally sensitive knowing the events that occured today. "We didn't request a child, Jack. Get your head out of the clouds and quit being ridiculous."

"Excuse me, what? Request a child?" I asked, faltering my view between the two boys before me. They both stared and blankly blinked at me before composing their emotions.

A mischievous smirk formed its way on Jack's face as he knew he was going to be talking about one of the weirdest topics to ever exist. Taking a quick glance over my shoulder, I noticed that Melanie had seated a little purple teddy bear in the tiniest seat and she was busy trying to feed it with a plastic milk bottle.

Jack smirked toward me as Peter's face turned a deep shade of red. "Well clearly, you realize babies aren't exactly made the same way in Neverland as they are on Earth."

Facepalming himself, Peter held his reddened face in embarrassment. On the other hand, Jack seemed to enjoy making everyone else in the room feel completely awkward, as he had this devilish glint in his eye and this playful smile dancing on his lips.

"I wasn't aware....," was all I managed to utter.

"Well let me give you a basic lesson in Babies 103."

"You mean 101...?"

"Yeah, whatever number it is. But anyway we all know how babies are made on Earth, no need to go into detail with that."

Shaking his head with his hand still over his face, Peter uncomfortably shifted in his standing position.

"But Neverland babies are completely different. We have a stork. So when a mom and a dad decide they are ready for a baby, they will go to the Neverland Council and request a baby."

"What the hell....," I uttered. "That is so weird. Why do you need permission from someone else to have a kid? That's like going downtown to the mayor and saying, 'Hey dude. I want a child so like....can you give us permission to have one?' Umm....what kind of procedure is that?"

Jack chuckled as his chest gently lifted and fell. "It's Neverland procedure. Because while human anatomy is based on deoxyribonucleic acid, Neverlanders are just simply built on dust."

What he was uttering was just going over my head. Why in the world did you have to tell a council that you want to have a baby? Shouldn't that be something sacred between two people and not a whole council?

"Dust? You're kidding," I stated, nearly chuckling at his statement.

Nonchalantly shrugging, Jack shot me a cocky smile. "Fine, don't believe me."

"But that just makes no sense. Like why would you have to go through all of this to have a kid?"

"Can I just continue my story?" Jack asked, unamused by my unwanted commentary.

"I'm sorry I interrupted your storytime, Princess."

Rolling his eyes in response, he ignored my comment and continued on. "Everytime a baby is born in Neverland, they are delivered to their home by a stork and left on the front porch or in front of the main entrance door to Neverland houses. Each delivered baby has a little bottle of pixie dust that's attached to a necklace they're wearing. Their parents are to preserve that little bottle because when a man or a woman becomes of age and decides that they want a child, they will take a sprinkle of both of their dust containers and use that- along with some other dust combinations- to make a child."

As a smile formed its way on my lips, his jaw clenched. He most likely knew I had unamusing questions to ask, and if that is what he was thinking then he was most definitely correct. "Okay, so the parents are to keep the pixie dust of each baby?"

Nodding, Jack nonverbally stated yes. Peter peeked his eyes out from between his fingers, obviously very uncomfortable about having the baby talk.

"Then what happens if a parent loses the dust? You said that the kids have to be 'of age' before they can use it, right?"

"Yeah....," Jack nervously scratched the back of his head. "If they lose it, that's a pretty big problem. I mean, they can go to The Council to see if they have any extra of their dust on file, but there are no guarantees."

My jaw nearly dropped to the floor from his story. So if a parent was absolutely irresponsible and decided to lose their child's pixie dust, their child will not be able to have babies? What cruel form of torture was that? "So each person has their own individual dust and if it gets lost, they can't have a family? That's just cruel, just horrible!"

"That's Neverland....," muttered Peter. "Plus, my parents still haven't handed over my dust. Thus, I cannot have Neverland kids right now. So that narrows out that option."

"And I don't even have dust....," I uttered between my teeth.

Jack lifted his hand to hold his chin. "This is making absolutely no sense at all then....unless you two are lying...," he said, squinting his eyes at us again.

"NO!" Peter and I screamed in unison.

Reaching for my hand, Peter's fingers interlocked with mine. A much needed gesture, I mentally thanked him. I was sure he needed the reassurance as much as I did.

Taking in my love's tired silhouette, I scanned his perfectly defined features. How could someone so lovely, someone so real be made of just dust? Peter has feelings, Peter has a heart. He is so much more than just some dust to me. He is my oxygen, my Earth, my Neverland. He is my everything. "So does that mean....?"

Shamefully looking down and avoiding my gaze, Peter nodded. "If I ever return to Neverland, I'm just dust in the shell of a boy. Yes."

"But for now....?"

"I'm flesh and bone," he nervously chuckled. "I'm banned and in human form, remember?" He stated as he cutely smiled which pushed up the tired bags beneath his eyes. If it weren't for Jack and how awkward he was at any sign of PDA, I would've kissed Peter at this very moment. However, Jack was still here so I did my best to push away the thought, though I noticed the blush that overtook Peter's face. He must've noticed that I was staring at his lips. Oops.

"And what about you, Frost boy? You're just dust in a shell too? Or do you have little tiny ice cubes that make you up?"

While I thought I would get a chuckle out of him with that one, I was shocked to see that he reacted in the exact opposite way. His body completely froze in place at the question asked as his eyes frantically searched Peter's face. Shifting my gaze to the boy holding my hand, he stared straight at his friend and mirrored his exact expression. Clearly they had some kind of bro code communication going on because I didn't understand a single thing happening at this moment in time.

"I think it's best we leave," stated Jack, still as tense as he was before. As Peter led me to the exit of the treehouse, he took a single glance back at Melanie and bid goodbye. Yet my thoughts stayed transfixed on Jack. Jack who knew so much, but shared so little. Jack who always answered in the least amount of words. Jack who never really shared any inner thought but disgust.

Jack who hides a secret that I so desperately wanted to uncover.

© Lightning_Stryker 2017

Hey there #LostBoys, long time no see! How's it going?

What do you think of the Neverland baby process? Kind of weird, huh? And what do you think about Melanie? According to both Peter and Laney, they didn't do anything to have an Earthly or Neverland baby. So where does she come in? Hmm...

By the way, who caught the Heartbreak Hotline reference in this chapter? In case you haven't heard already, I have a new dialogue story (that's even shorter than this one) and would love if you took a peek at it. I promise it has loads of giggles and sarcasm! ;)

Until next time,

Jay