Darling Ellie

Chapter 17

Elaine

The process of cleaning and stitching Daniel's wounds was a lengthy one. The tent was filled with the noises of an in-pain Daniel and once the gagging of Joseph as he threw up from watching the needle pierce D's skin. I bandaged the cut on his leg and tightly wrapped large strips of fabric and bandage around his ribs. Hoping they would be stable enough to heal straight. I was sure that the ribs were only cracked and bruised not broken in fragments.

For his broken fingers I set the bones as best I could with my limited first aid training, using small strips of bandage and the sticks, I created splints for his broken figures. Joseph and Stephen helped me change Daniel into clean clothes and move him onto his bed. As Joseph and Stephen moved him, Will and I attempted to wipe the blood away as best as we could. The hard-packed dirt would always be stained with the memory of today. Once I was sure he would be okay, I walked quickly back to Pan's cabin, light rain coating my body. I opened the door slowly and saw Pan sitting in his chair.

He seemed lost in thought, half cradling his right hand. I walked slowly towards him standing in front of his chair.

"Why did you do it?" I asked bluntly.

"I don't have to answer to you."

"I deserve to know, you did this because of me. Didn't you." Pan was silent.

"Pan did you do this because of me?" I shouted.

"Of course, I did." He replied quietly. "I didn't want to, but I did."

"Why? If you didn't want to, they why did you?"

"You two thought you were being discrete. I know you thought you could hide it. I see the way he looks at you. I asked around the Lost boys. A few of them had seen you two together. You seem like you care for him and I wanted to leave you alone. But I made it fairly clear that you were of interest to me, I don't like when my possessions are taken from me."

"I'm no one's possession." I said through clenched teeth.

"Don't you think I know that!" Pan shouted jumping out of his chair.

I took a step back.

"I know you should be free to make your own decisions Elaine and that's what kills me. The boys know me as ruthless and cold. I control Neverland, if I let one thing slip, if I let one boy slip then everything will fall out of control."

"So, you punished Daniel." I whispered slowly.

"Yes, I punished Daniel, I had to keep up my reputation. After all a reputation is all a man, or a never aging boy has." Pan flopped back into his chair.

I walked closer to him, sitting on the floor in front of his chair.

"Your more than your reputation Pan."

"I'm sorry that I did that to Daniel, even if it happened that you didn't love him, I can tell he's your friend."

"Love him? Pan I don't love Daniel. Not all romance means love." Pan looked slightly confused.

As much as I was angry at him for what he'd done, I couldn't bring myself to stay angry. Something deep within me told me not too, he'd made a decision he though was right, not matter how idiotic it I thought it was. I reached out and grabbed his still bloody right hand.

"You need stitches." I believed that all the equipment I needed was sitting on the floor next to me.

He seemed shocked, "Is that how you got a bow, in the forest?"

I nodded before setting to work. I doused Pan's knuckles in brandy, cleaning away the dirt and dried blood. He hissed just as Daniel had. I couldn't do much for the splits on each knuckle, but I stitched up the split which had become a gash running down the back of his hand. I stitched tentatively, holding his hand gently and keeping it relaxed. Once I was finished, I looked up at him. Pan was looking at me his expression soft, for the first time I couldn't see any calculating or mischievous glint in his eye. He moved his hands to hold mine firmly.

"Thank you, Elaine." He whispered.

I lent my head on his knee.

"Make me a promise."

"What is it you wish?" Pan gently stroked my hair.

"Let me decided what I want for myself, let me get to know both you and Daniel. Please."

"I promise...Are you hungry?" He asked quickly.

I was famished. Pan gestured to the small table in the middle of the room which now held two plates of food. I held his hand walking over to the table. We ate in silence, unsure of what to say to each other. Once we finished our meals, I got up to leave.

"I should check on Daniel."

"Okay, I'll see you after."

"You will, you can call me Ellie by the way. But it's a privilege I can revoke."

"I understand. Thank you, Ellie."

"And Pan, I forgive you. But I won't forget what you did. I won't ever forget."

###

Daniel was sleeping lightly when I came into the room. It hadn't been long since I left. Will had stayed in Daniel's tent to watch him. I let Will go so he could have something to eat. I sat next to Daniel's bed and looked around his tent. A deer hide lay on the floor in front of the entrance and a pair of antlers hung above his bed. Under the table on the far side of the bed was a small set of shelves with a couple of books. I picked up one which was one of my favourites and started to read to him,

"Mrs. Rachel Lynde lived just where the Avonlea main road dipped down into a little hollow, fringed with alders and ladies' eardrops and traversed by a brook that had its source away back in the woods of the old Cuthbert place; it was reputed to be an intricate, headlong brook in its earlier course through those woods, with dark secrets of pool and cascade; but by the time it reached Lynde's Hollow it was a quiet, well-conducted little stream, for not even a brook could run past Mrs. Rachel Lynde's door without due regard for decency and decorum; it probably was conscious that Mrs. Rachel was sitting at her window, keeping a sharp eye on everything that passed, from brooks and children up, and that if she noticed anything odd or out of place she would never rest until she had ferreted out the whys and wherefores thereof."

Just as I finished the first paragraph of Anne of Green Gables Daniel awoke and reached out his hand to me.

"I'm sorry, did I wake you."

"It's fine, I have to tell you something." He whispered gruffly.

"What is it? Are you still in pain?"

"No that's not it. I found a way."

"Found a way? What do you mean?"

"I found a way...for you to get off this Island."