A/N Having just reread all the books and watched the movies again, I've decided I don't like the idea of Susan being left behind after the train crash and so I'm writing the story of how she eventually made it home.

Susan's world had become one of work, parties and friends, her life in Narnia was so long forgotten it had become one of those amazing dreams you have and then forget the minute you wake up. Some might say that her desperation to live an ordinary life made her conceited and vain, her siblings had known better than to think that. They had understood that the last time Susan left Narnia she had more to leave behind than the rest of them, they had understood that in order to stay sane she couldn't spend her days dreaming over going back to someone and somewhere that would never be possible. They had understood well enough to let her leave, to let her move on and she had loved them that much more for it.

So the day the telegram with news of the train crash arrived in Susan's New York home, was the day her world came crashing down around her. She had held the tiny piece of paper in her hand and collapsed onto the floor in a heap of tears.

"Why?" She had screamed at thin air in between sobs. "Why?" She had repeated whispering and clutching at her chest, but no reply came.

It had taken about a day for Susan to come to her senses and begin to think logically. By the end of the week her apartment was packed up and she was ready to travel back to London, ready to face her dauntingly empty childhood home and ready to finally say goodbye to her family.

To most the boat docking in London would have been a tremendous sight, for a child it may have even been a moment of excitement. For Susan fighting her way through the hoards of happy family reunions it was a moment filled with despair. But opening the door to the empty family home was the worst part by fair.

When the door opened it revealed unopened mail on the mat, shoes scattered by the stairs, Lucy's coat on the stairs, their mother's apron hanging on the kitchen door. It looked so ordinary Susan half expected Lucy to come running out to greet her, or Peter to appear in the doorway to the study and demand to know where she had been for so long. But that didn't happen and it never would happen.

The day of the funeral arrived and Susan felt her heart shatter into a million pieces as the six coffins of her parents and siblings were lowered slowly into the ground. Tears had fallen freely down her face as she whispered her final goodbyes to each of them. There had been many friends and colleagues at the funeral but they had all left by the time Susan finally turned and walked away from the fresh graves of her family.

In Susan's eyes the days after the funeral were the worst, listening to the wills of her family had only shattered her heart further, the lawyer had tried to cheer her up by saying "At least you're a very rich woman now, Miss Pevensie." The statement had angered her to the point where she struggled to retain some small part of her composure and not lash out at the lawyer who was only doing his job after all. Old friends came round several days, she knew they were trying to be compassionate but a fridge full of Beef Wellington and Apple Pie wasn't going to change the fact that her family would never be coming home.

It took several years but she eventually began to find ways to cope with the loss of her family; finally allowing her to move on in her own life.

Things got better, she met her husband James and after 3 years of courting she married him in a spectacular ceremony that she knew Lucy would have adored. The only thing making her sad that day was the knowledge that she would never be able to share this happiness with her family. But it wasn't long before Susan was starting a family of her own.

Less than 2 years after her wedding day she gave birth to a beautiful blue eyed baby girl, she named Ella. For 5 years she lived happily with James and Ella in the house she'd grown up in. Her heart became almost whole once more and filled with the joy that her daughter bought her.

When Ella started school Susan found herself occasionally writing stories of a magical land protected by 4 extraordinary children and the adventures they had, to fill her time. When her husband died from lung cancer after years of smoking she found herself relying on her stories to distract her, she almost yearned for them to be true so she could take her daughter and escape to a happier world but she knew they were the product of her imagination and nothing more.

The years passed and Susan watched as her beautiful daughter grew into a stunning young woman always filled with a joy that reminded her of Lucy, and an intelligence so similar to that that had been possessed by Edmund and Peter. Susan's aging eyes watched with unrivalled happiness as her daughter walked down the aisle towards the man that in a few short minutes would become her husband. She'd cried with happiness when a few years later Ella and her husband, Oliver, had told her they were expecting a little girl in a few months time. And she'd smiled as she held her granddaughter in her arms for the very first time.

The hurt of losing her family never truly left her but the joy of watching her daughter and granddaughter live such happy lives made what used to be an excruciating pain become so faint that some days it couldn't be felt at all.

I really enjoyed writing this first chapter so I hope you enjoyed reading it. Please leave a review, any opinions are welcome and appreciated, xem98x