Riio glanced from one group to another in desperation. She couldn’t bear to join one and leave others...but people were counting on her.

Jukes was gazing at her with an expression on his face that she couldn’t recognise, or perhaps didn’t want to. Maybe it was sadness...heartbreak. He knew where she would be safest, and it wasn’t on the ship. He was convinced she couldn’t choose to be with him, or so Riio thought.

Billy knew where she would be safest. Back home, where she belonged.

Peter was staring at the sky with an ‘I don’t care what you do’ look on his face. Girls, mothers, had come and gone in Neverland. Granted, he could get another soon after, but there was something he wasn’t showing. Something Riio couldn’t see.

Peter didn’t want her to go, not deep down. For once, he really cared about his mother.

There was a flutter of white behind Hook’s head. All on the ship were too focused on Riio to notice it, but to her it all suddenly became clear. She didn’t have to hurt anyone at all.

Riio lurched forwards and ran for her life. Hook gave a broad smile and opened his arms wide for her...but she bowled him over with all the strength she possessed, knocking him to one side.

“Miss Riio!” he called after her, and his jaw dropped as she leapt onto the boat’s edge and launched herself into the air.

Hook was rooted to the spot. Jukes’ knees gave way and he gripped Mullins in shock. Peter watched in horror as Riio sailed, arms spread, over the water.

She wasn’t even trying to fly.

“Riio!” howled Jukes, and ran. Nobody tried to stop him as his bare feet pounded the wooden boards of the Jolly Roger.

** Time seemed to stand still, if it even existed in this world, as Riio freefell through the salty air. Youth held out a hand to her, and she clasped it...gently...lovingly...

She didn’t grip or snatch. She wasn’t afraid.

She turned her head in mild surprise as another body joined hers in the gentle descent. Billy also stretched out a hand and took hold of what he had never had. The angel of Childhood soared ever higher, taking their souls with her.

Billy and Riio looked back towards the water and saw their bodies drop into the sea and appear to dissolve like sugar. Billy had never seen a sweeter sight. Now he was weightless, careless, bodiless, but ever full of emotion and strength.

“Go where you belong.” Youth pulled them above the clouds and released their hands. As if they were nothing but cloud themselves, they dispersed and that was the last time anyone in Neverland saw them.

** Riio opened her eyes and got used to the feeling of having a body again. She looked herself over as she lay, fully clothed in her bed and glanced at the clock. It was an hour after she had left for Neverland.

It was nice to be home. Nice, but strange. She had thought she was dead. She saw her body go...though she hadn’t known where. On top of this, Billy was gone too.

Forever.

Riio turned over and cried for a second home she would never revisit.

When she awoke in the morning, it was because her mother was shaking her, telling her to get changed and make herself look presentable.

“Why? Wassup?” She groaned sleepily, though secretly she had never been this happy to see her family.

“Don’t you remember anything? And how on earth you managed to muck up those trousers like that I’ll never know...” Grumbled her mother, and bustled out without answering. Riio threw on some clean jeans, washed her face and brushed her teeth, and followed her mum around to the next-door neighbours at her request.

“Riio!” Greeted Mrs Jusek, an elderly lady who was only ever seen by Riio from over the fence. Her husband stood beside her, a wide grin on his face. “We thought you might like to meet somebody - someone around your own age, since this is quite a small neighbourhood.”

Riio scratched her head, still groggy. “I thought you didn’t foster any more, Mr Jusek? After you retired...”

“We don’t.” He beamed, wrinkles stretching. Riio looked confused. “We’ve adopted.”

“But...”

A young lad stepped out from behind the elderly couple. Riio tailed off.

It was unmistakeably Billy. In jeans and a shirt, nevertheless, and brushed hair, but it was still Billy.

She opened her mouth, but couldn’t say anything. She just stared. The boy waved cheekily at her, and gave her a wink.

“I’ve seen these endings,” she thought to herself. “One person sees another person they’ve met from another time, but it’s a completely different person. He just looks like Billy.”

Before she could look closer, her mother was guiding her back inside, and the Juseks were doing the same to their adopted son. Just as Riio had convinced herself that it wasn’t Billy, she risked a glance behind her.

Billy did the same thing and mouthed at her.

See ya later, Missy.

Fin.