EBONY WAS THREE SHEETS to the wind. Apparently, she liked to sing as she drank, and my sweet little pirate couldn’t hold a tune in a bucket. The more she sang, the harder everyone laughed and the happier our little band of misfits seemed to be.

I couldn’t help but marvel at the way she had bounced back again and again. She was betrayed by Hook, her crew, Long John Silver, and now the Lost Boys. Most people would be wallowing in self-pity or doubt, but besides a little grieving, Ebony was resilient.

I admired so many things about her. I would like to think that since meeting her, I had become a better man. I knew I wanted to be better, not only for her, which I did, but for me. But she seemed to breathe life into me, when I was just moving through the motions.

Her cup was getting low, and I moved to refill it with the bottle of wine closest to me. Ebony grinned and swiped the bottle out of my hands.

“A real pirate doesn’t need a glass,” she slurred, “and we all know I am the most real of the real pirates.”

Alex and I shared a glance of amusement.

Tiger Lilly tilted her head to the side in question, “What is a fake pirate?”

The little hiccup that followed the question was both endearing and hilarious.

A wide smile slashed across Eb’s face, “You were fucking a fake pirate earlier on the deck, have you forgotten?”

Alex scowled as Ebony, and I burst into laughter. Tiger Lilly looked like she wanted to join in, but patted Alex’s knee instead.

“I am rather fond of your man-sword, Alex. Don’t you listen to those meanies.”

Alex rolled his eyes, “Neither one of you can hold your wine. But thank you, my love, all the same. I wonder where Tink and Puck are? It’s been a hell of a long time since they left.”

Eb burped, it was so unladylike that she looked around to see where it came from. I gathered her loose limbs and positioned her on my lap.

“You are going to fall into a puddle on the ground,” I whispered in her ear.

She smiled sweetly up at me, “You wouldn’t allow that to happen, you are Peter Pan. I have spent months chasing you clear across the universe and back.”

I loved this woman.

“What do you intend to do with me, now that you have caught me,” I murmured, as I began to leisurely kiss her neck in soft pecks.

Ebony sighed and tilted her head to give me better access. “I will keep you! You will be mine forever.”

My heart thudded, “Deal.” I smiled against her skin, and she sighed again. This time the sigh sounded more sleepily than before.

“Sure, the moment my back is turned you have a drunken brawl.”

I turned to see Puck and Tinkerbell striding toward us. I couldn’t help the broad smile as I noticed clutched in Tink’s hands was an old rolled up parchment.

“We needed to save the wine for ourselves,” I said jovially, “I assume you were successful?”

Puck scoffed, “Please, it was child’s play.”

I would have believed him if it weren’t for the knife wound on his arm.

“Looks you had a little trouble,” Ebony sat up, sounding less drunk. “Are the both of you, all right?”

Tinkerbell nodded and then snatched the wine bottle from Ebony’s hands and took a long pull of the deep burgundy liquid. She wiped her mouth with the back of her hand and then offered the bottle to Puck who shook his head.

“It isn’t more than a scratch,” Puck answered, and indeed it didn’t look deep.

“Was it Hook who did that?” Ebony asked, as she tried to focus her eyes on the bloody gash.

“No,” Tinkerbell answered, “it was me.”

All of us swung wide-eyed gazes at the little fairy.

But it was Puck who spoke, “It wasn’t your fault that idiot lunged at you.”

Tink blushed, “We were in our tiny forms zipping around the ship. If you fly fast, enough most will mistake you for a dragonfly. But someone opened a door right as we were in range and I fell to the ground.”

Ebony frowned, “Now that you mention it, I can see a faint bruise on your jaw.”

Tink nodded, “I ran right into it and would have been stepped on if it wasn’t for Puck. He changed us both to life-sized in a second. At that moment, the pirate lunged with a dagger and barely missed my face. I kicked the pirate in the nuts and as he fell the blade flew out of his hand and sliced Puck on the way to the floor.”

Puck glanced at his forearm, “It is merely bloody, not a big deal.”

Tinkerbell’s lips tightened, “I will be sewing it up as soon as it’s cleaned.”

Then grabbing his arm, she poured some of the wine over it. Puck winced, and I could see his mouth muttering something that suspiciously looked like mother fucker. But he didn’t cry out. He was one tough son of a bitch.

From there, Tinkerbell grabbed the first aid kit and sewed up the small cut. Had we been only men in the crew I doubted that anyone would have bothered with it. I was honestly surprised that Puck was letting her fuss over him.

The patience he exhibited was so far from the old Puck we had once known, that I felt proud of him and how far he had come.

Tinkerbell had handed the map to Alex when she began her ministrations. Tiger Lilly and Alex were studying the blank page. But since smoke, water, blood, and fire magic hadn’t made the parchment give up its contents I didn’t think that staring at it would do anything either.

I still felt strongly that Ebony was the key to it somehow. Reaching out my hand, Alex passed it over to us. I felt a surge of disappointment when Ebony touched it, and nothing happened. I had been so sure.

She looked at it front and back and shrugged, “Just a blank sheet, I don’t know what he could have been thinking.”

Alex reached back over to take the map and the second he touched it while Ebony was still holding the other end scrolls of ink began to appear on the aged parchment.

“Holy Crap on a cracker!” Ebony exclaimed and dropped her side in surprise. Everything vanished, and it went back to being blank.

“Grab that map Ebony!” I wasn’t sure which one of us shouted it, and when she picked up her corner, with Alex still holding his, the map began to appear again.

We watched in tense silence as the familiar features of Neverland seemed to appear as if an invisible artist were standing before us.

There was the Indian Camp where we had left Tiger Lilly’s father and her tribe. Hangman’s Tree filled in with long twining branches, looking eerily similar to how it had when Eb and I visited Charlie.

Cannibal Cove was at the south end of the map. This was where Hook usually kept the Jolly Roger back in his glory days. Mermaid Lagoon where the map had been stored all these years under the murky blue waves.

And finally, Skull Rock appeared on the furthest northeastern point. There were jagged rocks there that made for dangerous sailing. There was a reason that it was abandoned. Most that ventured there never came back.

I supposed that I should have known what the map would show. One doesn’t hide the most important treasure in the easiest place to find. So, when the bloody red X appeared at the base of Skull Rock I swallowed hard before speaking.

“We can’t take the boat,” Ebony spoke up before I did.

“You can’t dive there,” Alex ground his teeth, “That the only place on the island that has sharks. How in the hell are we supposed to get there? And if we make it, how do we survive?”

Puck shrugged, “We fly.”