There was a time when I really liked Cass.I wanted him to be a good guy and I really wanted this to be a why choose book. Unfortunatly as the pages unfolded that changed, which kind of sucks because I still like the guy. (I know! I know!) 

 

Anyway, if I had stuck with the origional plot line, the poisioning scene would have gone down a lot different. At this point in the OG story, Wednesday still has just come to the Island and this was just after the first party. Instead of running off with Cass, she get's alcohol poisioning and this happens...

I obviously changed that, but this was still a fun scene to write. Please enjoy this very raw, deleted scene.

 

Days pass, the sun rising and falling more times than I care to count, but with each change of the sky I grow stronger. Able to walk further and stay awake longer. Dying twice–or coming close to it–on the same day took more out of me than I could have imagined. I thought I was strong, capable of taking care of myself but this experience has shown me how out of my element I am.

I haven’t seen Cass. We keep missing each other, but everyday he brings me something new. Lemon bars. Blackberry pancakes. Cocobars. Banana muffins. Between his baking and Peter’s mother henning, I finally feel like myself.

I sit beside the window, one of Peter's books in my hand. He has a mini-library in the other room, mostly classics, but I’ve found a few cheesy romance novels that were written in the eighties. The cover models are the same, ridiculously buff men with flowing blonde hair. The picture’s are ridiculous but I’m on my second novel and the stories themselves haven’t been bad so far.

My ears recognize the creak of the hinges on his front door. I dog-ear the page and close my book. The sun casts shadows that are directly below the leaves. If I was to guess, I’d say it’s almost noon. Peter usually returns around this time with something for lunch. I’m in a strange place with him. I don’t trust him, but I don’t hate him either. He’s barely left my side the past few days. I feel like I owe it to him to be nice.

“Bless the stars! She’s finally awake!”

I can’t help the smile that lifts my lips. Cass is beautiful, his tan skin glowing and blonde hair bright. He’s got a plate with something chocolate in his hands. He sets it on the counter and strides to me, arms out. I stand and he swallows me, picking me up and swinging me around all at once.

I laugh and he says, “that’s a sound I was worried I wouldn’t hear again.”

He sets me on my feet. I take a step back, finding my chair again, and cross my legs. “Where’ve you been stranger?”

“Oh you know.” He tucks his thumbs in the belt loop. “Here and there, keeping the Island in order since Peter has been occupied.” Cass winks, insinuating that something more has happened between us. It confuses me because I remember him flirting with me before… well, before.

I roll my eyes. “Yeah well, seems like he has a thing about me dying by other people’s hands. He wants to make sure I’m healthy so he can finish the deed himself.” I’m joking, but a chill slides through me. 

“I swear, Wednesday, I didn’t know you’d been drinking before I got there. I never would have brought you the wine.” He looks apologetic. “I would never hurt you.”

I force a smile. I want to believe him, but I don’t know what to think. Tension falls between us.

“I know what you need.” He takes my hands and pulls me to my feet again. “You’ve been cooped up in here too long. A little sunshine and fresh air and you’ll be right as rain. I need to go hunting anyway.”

“Cass…”

He ignores me and walks into the room that’s become my own. I hear the drawers Peter filled open and close. I don’t know where the clothing came from, probably the Pirate market Cass had mentioned. He’s got a pair of hiking boots I didn’t know existed in one hand and what looks like shorts and a shirt in the other. “Get dressed, beautiful.”

I sigh, not sure I trust him enough to leave the house alone. “What makes you think I want to watch you kill something? Don’t you think that might be traumatic?”

“It might be. Or it might help you get out of this funk.”

“I’m not in a funk. I’m fine.”

“Darling—”

“Don’t call me that!” I snap. I hate the nickname, but it feels right coming out of Peter’s mouth. Cass saying it feels wrong.

“Sorry. Wednesday, where is your sense of adventure?”

“I left it on the beach with my soul.”

“Don’t say that. Your soul is bright and beautiful and every bit still attached to you.”

“I don't eat animals.”  I’m not vegan but any excuse not to go watch him kill something sounds worth saying. I’ve never been hunting. There’s not much opportunity for that sort of thing where I live, but even if I could I don’t think I’d like to see a life taken or the blood spilled.

I understand that when I eat a steak or hamburger something has lost its life, but there is a peacefulness to be in the dark of how they died and not be forced to see them struggle to take their last breath or hear the aumal cry out in pain before it's heart gives out.

Cass smirks, lifting his lips into a boyish grin I didn’t realize I was missing. “Perfect. This is just the kind of hunting you’ll love.” His eyes tingle with mischief as he leans over and presses his lips to my forehead.

It’s the first time someone has kissed me since I woke up a few days ago. Oddly enough, it makes me think of Peter and the way mouth lips felt on mine by the bar. In the real world, a kiss can become so much more. What starts as harmless fun can quickly turn into happily ever after or a painful ending. It can lead to unexpecting bindings and children with someone you never planned to see again. One kiss is all it takes to change a life.

But that is in the real world and this is supposedly Neverland, a place every child wants to visit for the adventure of a lifetime. I don't know what a kiss could be here. Peter hasn’t tried to be romantic, not that I blame him. I went from cursing his name to limp within hours. But in the days I’ve been awake he’s done nothing more than be a friend.

Maybe there’s a reason. A twisted truth in the tale I’m not supposed to know about. In the book, Peter gives Wendy a thimble. Perhaps that’s why we haven’t talked about what went down between us in the Keys. I still feel that spark when he’s around, only now instead of a burning flame it’s more like tepid water, but it’s there in the long sideways glances and innocent brushes against my skin.

“I don’t think I’m ready.” I’d rather sit here and wait for Peter to come back. I look at the door. He should have been here by now.

Cass frowns. I open my book again, ignoring his displeasure. He wasn’t by my side every day. He didn’t hand feed me when I could barely keep my eyes open or rest cold rags against my neck when I was fevered. I don’t fault Cass for helping me the way he knew how, but I don’t feel like disappearing without warning Peter either. He deserves more from me than that.

Cass my book from my hands and tosses it on the end table. “Get dressed, Wednesday.  You’re coming with me and that’s final. Staying cooped up in the treehouse this long isn’t healthy. You need fresh air, and sunshine and to find your purpose in life again. You can’t do that stuck inside”

“Fine, I get that, but I don’t want to watch something die, Cass. I’ve had enough run-ins with the grim reaper. I don’t want to give him reason to change his mind about me.”

“It’s a good thing we’re picking brambleberries then.” He fists the clothes and tosses them in my lap.

“That’s not hunting that… I don’t know foraging. Why couldn’t you have led with that”

“Because it sounds nowhere near as exciting as let’s go hunting.”

“Cass…” I sigh, barely ready to give him the truth I’ve been fighting with myself about. “There’s only a few more weeks until the full moon. What if leavingthe treehouse pisses Peter off and he doesn’t take me home? I can’t risk staying here for the rest of my life because you want to hang out.”

“First of all, when Peter makes a promise, he keeps it. It will literally kill him if he doesn’t. You’ll go home at the next full moon. I promise to do whatever it takes to make sure that happens.” He holds out his pink and I laugh, linking them together. “Now I’m bound too.  You’re on an adventure of a lifetime. Do you really want to waste it being sad in a stuffy old room?”

“Kind of.”

“Well, that’s not a yes, which means there’s wiggle room for a no.” He smiles and it’s infectious. “Come with me this morning. Let me show you the island. If tomorrow you want to be left alone, I’ll respect your wishes. I’ll give you space until you’re ready to play again. But give me today, darling. Give me the chance to make you fall in love.”

“With you or Neverland?”

He smiles again. “We leave in five. Get dressed. I’ll be waiting outside.”