Wendy’s skin warms, as surely as if she’d been slapped. Mary knows Jane nearly every bit as well as Wendy and Ned, maybe in some ways better. She’s been there since the beginning, during those first sleepless nights as Wendy paced the floor with the new weight of Jane against her shoulder, exhausted and singing lullabies. She heated milk on the stove for them both, and whispered stories when Wendy’s own voice gave out—the same stories she used to tell in St. Bernadette’s, of Blood Clot Boy and the Bear Woman and the Sacred Otter.

Wendy remembers how Mary’s eyes shone. Did Mary think of her own mother when she told them, or of her baby sister who had died as she was being born? If anyone knows what Wendy should do now, how to find the way through the rift she’s created between herself and Jane, it’s Mary.

Keep on loving her. It’s that simple, and that complicated. Love. Fight. Never back down. It’s time for her to grow up, truly. It’s time to fight for Jane, for Ned, for Mary, even for Michael and John. She will not give up until she’s found a way to make things right, undo all the hurt she’s caused in Neverland’s name.

After a moment, Mary lifts a scone filled with cream and jam, holding it to Wendy’s lips.

“What do you think? I’ve been tinkering with the recipe. I thought maybe instead of just a bakery my place could be a tea shop, too. I could put these on the menu.”

Despite herself, Wendy takes a bite, not caring that crumbs and a dollop of jam fall onto her skirt. The scone is buttery, melting in her mouth, the jam sweet but not overly so.

“Perfect.”

Mary sets the rest of the scone aside with a satisfied smirk.

If you had your choice in leaving, where would you go? Would you go back to Neverland? Mary’s words from years ago, sitting under the tree on St. Bernadette’s lawn, return to Wendy. She’d called Neverland a lie then. She thinks of Timothy’s broken body, of Peter curled beneath the weight of his shadow. The door is closed to her, but if it remained open, with the truth of it laid bare, would she return? She’d claimed to want that truth, but perhaps Neverland was better off broken, better off without her interference. She’d put it back together, but too late to save the mermaids, to save Tiger Lily. She’d stitched the pieces one to the other, but that’s not the same as healed, or whole.

Mary nudges Wendy’s shoulder, bringing her out of her reverie. At the same moment, Wendy hears the front door open, Jane and Ned returning.