Jane had woken up in the middle of a clearing. Strange, she had remembered going to bed, because it was Daddy who'd taken her and Danny upstairs. She didn't have any memory of Peter coming in to wake her up and take her to Neverland.

But then, if Peter had come to take her... why on earth would she be left here, all alone in the Neverforest? Was Peter playing one of his old tricks again?

Getting up, the young girl dusted off her nightgown, pulled up her socks and ventured slowly through the brush. The forest was far more humid than she remembered... she took off her bed jacket and tied it around her waist, wiping her brow with her forearm. Honestly, it was more of a jungle than a forest now...

A sudden thought halted her step. What if this was another one of Hook's tricks? He'd captured her once, who's to say he wouldn't do it again? An icy chill crept up her spine, despite the humidity. It was awfully quiet here...

The Lost Girl picked her way among the thick bushes and paused as she drew a branch away from her path. Feeling her eyes widen at the sight of another clearing, but this one filled with... things.

There was a tea set sitting on a small bamboo table, different objects, such as globes and crates and a flag pole depicting the Union Jack. Was she in England? She thought not. There was no such landscape as this in England, surely? The Japanese would have bombed it to the ground during the War.

Picking her way through the camp, she froze as she heard a voice, a woman's voice.

She went over a large map on the desk in the tent, making various marks. Her father, Professor Archimedes Q. Porter, was staring over her shoulder, pointing out things on the map and telling her to make notes upon various coordinates.

"...and this, Jane dear, is where elephant herds have been documented bathing communally....and over here...is where I believe there are gorillas nests...I think I may go scouting over here today...if you would be a dear and catalog all the plant samples we've taken, I'd greatly appreciate it."

"Of course, Daddy!" she said as she walked out of the tent, and returned shortly with a pack full of basic provisions (food, a canteen, binoculars, a notebook and pencil, a lantern, matches, a map, a compass, etc.) and slid it onto her fathers back."Be careful, Daddy! Don't let the piranhas get you!"she said with a chuckle as she sent her father off for the day, while she would take care of the camp.

"Oh, my dear Janey! I've faced far worse than fish! Just ask Aunt Isabel!" he said with a chuckle before waving goodbye to his daughter.

It was a lovely day outside, so she decided to take her work onto the bamboo table outside. She muttered to herself as she worked as she worked, carefully preserving leaves and flowers in a book and making notes about where they were found and what species they were.

Suddenly, she heard a loud rustling coming from the surrounding foliage. She suddenly was on her guard, ready to pounce at any moment. "Hello?....who's there?" she asked cautiously, and gasped in shock as a young girl, no older than 13, emerged from the bushes.

Jane froze, looking at the woman in front of her. She was tall, with brown hair and very pretty. Jane swallowed. What was a grown up doing in Neverland? The only grown ups she knew of were Hook, the Pirates and the Indians... she'd never seen this woman before.

"I... I'm Jane." She said after a moment of finding her voice. "What... um... where am I? Where's Peter? and Tink?" The questions came forth abruptly. She wasn't comfortable in this heat. "I'm not in England... am I?" She chewed her lip. She had to wonder whether this really was one of Hook's tricks. If it were... why here? Hook and Pan survived off each other... if she were bait to get Peter, then why had she been left in this unfamiliar landscape?

Shaking her head free of the thoughts that brewed in her head. "Um... who are you?" She asked, finally, not wanting to sound rude, but curiosity getting the better of her.

Scuffing one sock against the soft grass, she wiped her brow once again... this heat was unbearable. How on earth did this woman seem so cool and collected? Jane was surprised to feel a little jealous at the older woman.

The girl introduced herself as Jane, and she couldn't help but chuckle. She could already see that this girl was much like herself at that age. "Well, what a coincidence. That also happens to be my name. And I'm afraid, my dear, that we are not in England at all. You're deep in the jungles of Africa, and how you got here is just as much of a mystery to me as it probably is to you."

She saw the girl remove her bed jacket and wipe her brow. Clearly, she wasn't used to scorching heat and very high humidity the way she was. While she essentially had no idea who the girl was, or where she had come from, it wouldn't be very ladylike of her to deny her a safe place to stay. "Let's get you some water" she said, beckoning young Jane to follow her.

She lead her into the main tent of the camp, situated under the shade of trees to make a pleasantly cool jungle abode. She poured her a glass of water and handed it to her, a sympathetic smile on her face.

"Now, I can help you get back home if you can tell me as much as you know. Where did you come from?" she asked, sitting down in front of her.

Jane felt her eyes grow wide. "Africa?" She exclaimed. "But... but... how??" She wasn't used to going to sleep and waking up somewhere completely different... it had never happened before (unless you counted Captain Hook kidnapping her, but she had been awake for that...).

Chewing her lip, she debated whether or not to follow this woman - also named Jane - into the tent... could it be a trap, designed and executed by Hook? But... if she really were in Africa, and this kind of heat gave off the feeling that she was. then she'd better find shade.... and fast!

Throwing caution to the wind, the girl followed the older woman and gratefully accepted the glass of water, listening to what she had to say. Tell her everything? Oh... bother.

"Err... I'm Jane Molly Elizabeth Baker... I'm 10... I'll be 11 on September 15, I live in London... my father's name is Edward, and my mother's name is Wendy, I have a brother, Daniel and a dog, Nanatwo...." She felt a lump in her throat. Where is my family? She thought to herself, swallowing hurriedly to stop the tears from falling. "How did I get here?" She asked, quietly, looking at her socks.

She chuckled at the girl, who went into great detail about her life back in London, where she was also from. "That's as much a mystery to me as it is to you, my dear! I haven't the faintest idea how you got here!" she said, hoping her good humor would lighten the girls spirits, especially when she was clearly frightened.

"So...you're from London....that's a start at least..."she said, getting back to the subject at hand. She pondered a moment. How would someone go about figuring out how they mysteriously crossed continents? She was sure it had happened before. After all, people got marooned at sea all the time. But this girl didn't look like she'd spent much time at sea. In fact, all she was wearing was a violet nightgown and bed jacket - clearly not sea-faring attire! Jane hardly thought a little girl like that would fit in amongst the burly men that were frequently employed on ships anyways. Then....she remembered from the Sherlock Holmes books she read back in London...and she had an idea.

"Well, I suppose the most logical thing to do would be to retrace your steps. So let's start from the beginning. What was the LAST thing you remember before waking up here?" she asked.

Jane sniffed quietly, not wanting tears to give her true feelings away. "The last thing I remember? I remember Daddy putting my brother to bed and then telling us a story of a beautiful maid getting trapped by a beast who was really a prince..." She pondered for a minute. "Daddy doesn't tell stories as well as Mummy does, but he tries..." She managed a tiny smile.

As her mind turned over the facts, the girl had to wonder... had she managed to fly to Africa due to Pixie Dust? But if that were so, how did she fly in her sleep? Had her dreams been particularly good and happy? She couldn't remember!

Another thought crept across her mind. "Why are you here? I didn't think the was was as far as Africa... and it's almost over... you don't look like a soldier, or a nurse..."

Oh, the thoughts that were buzzing around her head. And the woman's attire! Wasn't she hot? Jane felt disgustingly sweaty just looking at the heavy yellow dress. A horrible thought crossed her mind. "You're... you're not a... a... deserter.... are you?" She couldn't bear such a thing if that were the case... Daddy had told her about the deserters in France, how in the end, most of them had been captured and tried... oh, she hoped this other Jane wasn't one like that! Perhaps she was merely keeping safe... like England wanted to keep its children safe by sending them to the country... hmmm...

She was taken aback as the girl asked if she was a deserter. She knew there was a war going on, as Tarzan always got startled when he heard the roar of an airplane flying over the jungle, but she was certainly not a soldier! Imagine, a woman in the army! The very thought!

At this, she chuckled. "If by deserter you mean deserting civilization in favor of the jungle, then yes, I am. But I am no soldier." She ruffled the girls hair playfully. "No, I live here with my father and my husband...we came here to study gorillas, and one thing led to another...and now we live here..." she said with a reassuring smile."But I will help you get back to London somehow. In the meantime, you're more than welcome to stay here. I'm sure Daddy and Tarzan wouldn't mind giving you a safe place to stay at all!" she said cheerfully, hoping to lift the girls spirits.

"Perhaps we can figure out what happened if you retrace your steps...your father was telling you a story...do you recall what happened before then? Have you ever been to Africa before? Perhaps you were kidnapped!" she gasped, thinking of all the possibilities as she peppered the girl with questions.

OOC: Good lord! I'm so, so, SO sorry for the wait!!!

Jane cocked her head to one side. Had she been kidnapped? It'd happened before, but despite that, she certainly hoped not. If she had to be rescued by Peter again, she didn't know what she'd do... especially as he would most likely tease her mercilessly for managing to get kidnapped twice in one year! Goodness!

"No, I've never been to Africa before..." The girl answered thoughtfully. "I think the fartherest from home I've ever been was to the country... we went and stayed at my uncle's house. That was before the war, though... when I was little."

She tried to recall what had happened before Daddy had taken her and Danny up to bed. "Well, we had supper - pea and ham soup. And before that, I was playing with Danny in the nursery... I was telling him stories of Peter Pan's adventures..." She felt her eyes fill with tears again. Oh, she wanted her family more than anything in the world!

She paused. Tarzan? What type of name was that? Although she didn't want to seem rude, she did cock her head slightly at the name, looking curious. "Is ...err... Tarzan ... your husband?"

She nodded as the girl asked her question about Tarzan. "Yes, he is my husband." she said with a small smile. "Daddy and I came here on an expedition to study gorillas, and that's when I met him. I've been living here ever since.", she added as an anecdote.

Just then, her father, Archimedes Q. Porter came marching into the camp, his pack bouncing off his back. "Oh, Janey! You won't believe it! I found the most glorious...Oh, hello." her father said, immediately seeing the younger Jane sitting at their camp. Her father paused, studying the girl slightly, as if she were a new species he had just discovered and was trying to learn about. Jane gave her father a look, and her father snapped out of it. "Archimedes Q. Porter at your service!" he said with a smile and a gallant bow.

"Daddy, this is Jane...she's lost...and I promised we'd help her find her way home." she said.

"Of course!" her father answered jovially. "Tell me everything, miss. From the beginning." her father said, taking a seat and getting down to business.

Jane, although distrressed about where she was, couldn't help but be amused by the portly older gentleman that had just come into the tent. The older Jane called him 'Daddy'... the girl smiled slightly in answer to his greeting.

"Very pleased to meet you, sir." Jane said softly, taking a sip of water as her throat caught a little. She raised a hand to wipe sweat off her forehead once again, as Mr Porter asked her to tell her story, once again, from the beginning.

Enlightening the man, whom she couldn't help but take a liking to, she told her story once again, how she'd found herself in the clearing, how she didn't know how far away from home she was, how she'd wandered into the camp and met Jane. She even added the tidbits about what she'd been doing before she found herself in the clearing - supper, stories, bed...

She sighed heavily. "I'm sorry..." She said in a small voice. "I know you probably won't be able to help me... but... well..." She looked up, her blue eyes full of watery determination. "If you point me in the direction of the ocean, I can find bits and pieces to build a raft and get myself back home..."

She'd done it before, hadn't she? Granted the raft hadn't been a great success... but... she had to try. She didn't want her mother or father worrying about her...