Author's Note: I hope you liked the first chapter. Here is the second. Please Read & Review!

Disclaimer: I only own Aaryn.

Chapter 2- Of Findings and Fights

Peter helped all of us girls off of the carriage before handing us our luggage. Edmund helped him and the job was done pretty quickly. I waited for Ed before following after the others.

"Isn't this place great? It's huge!" I said excitedly. He laughed, looking over the place himself.

"It is rather large." he smiled. We walked in and studied are surroundings as Mrs. McCready began to speak.

"There'll be no shoutin', no runnin', no improper use of the dumbwaiter, and NO TOUCHING OF THE HISTORICAL ARTIFACTS!" she cried as Susan reached out to touch a statue. The rest of us snickered at Susan getting reprimanded, but she glared daggers at us and we silenced quickly. "And above all, there will be no disturbin' of the Professor." She led us to our rooms, I was sharing with Lucy and Susan and the boys were just across the hall. We unloaded our stuff and donned our nightgowns, then wrapped our robes around them for modesty's sake, because we knew the boys would be in any moment.

It wasn't long before Peter was sitting at the radio, listening to coverage of the bombings in London. Susan walked over and clicked it off, jerking her head toward a sniffling Lucy as she fidgeted with the sheets.

"The sheets are scratchy." she said, looking up at her older brother.

"Wars don't last forever, Lu. It won't be long before we get home." Peter reassured her.

"Yeah, if home's still there." Edmund said, coming up behind me. I elbowed him in the side.

"Ow! What was that for?" he whispered harshly.

"Being mean." I whispered back.

"Isn't it time you should be getting to bed?" Susan asked Edmund distastefully.

"Yes, Mum." he answered, rolling his eyes.

"Ed!" Peter snapped. Edmund walked out the door and I followed him.

"What are you doing?" he asked me, turning around to face me. "You're on their side."

"I am not. You very well know I don't approve of the way they treat you. But that doesn't give you the right to be mean." he shrugged, knowing I was right. I put a hand on his shoulder.

"And you know I don't like Peter at all. But Lucy has done nothing wrong. She's been kind to you every time and Susan's just doing what she thinks is best." He sighed.

"I know. I'm trying."

"That's all I ask." I headed back to my room, just as Peter came out. I looked at him angrily and he bumped my shoulder hard as he passed. Living with this family was not going to be fun.

The next morning, it rained. Everyone was grouchy and upset because of it and we all gathered in a nearby study as Susan thought of a game.

"Alright, Aaryn, it's your turn." she said. "What does 'Gregarious' mean?" she was sitting on a couch with a dictionary open in her hand, evidently in the 'G' section. Peter sat to her left in a chair, Lucy was staring out the window, Edmund was underneath one of the chairs carving his name into it no doubt, and I was on a couch to Susan's right.

"Su, I have absolutely no idea." I answered.

"Come on, you have to at least try!"

"Hm.. could it mean danger?" I said, thinking of 'precarious', maybe since they sounded alike it would work. Though I'm not sure 'danger' is exactly the definition to the other either.

"No. It means- tending to associate with others of one's kind; social." I shrugged and laid back, closing my eyes as I listened to Peter's turn.

"Alright, Peter, 'Gastrovascular'." There was silence for a moment before he asked,

"Is it Latin?"

"Yes." She answered.

"Is it Latin for 'worst game ever invented'?" Edmund asked, I looked over and started laughing at the same time as Peter. Susan slammed the book shut and huffed her disagreement. Lucy came over to Peter.

"We could play hide and seek." she suggested hopefully.

"No..." Edmund groaned.

"But we're already having so much fun." he answered her sarcastically, rolling his eyes to look at Susan who was simmering in her disagreement.

"Come on, Peter, please?" she said, giving him the puppy dog eyes. He smiled before beginning to count.

"One, two, three..."

"What?!" Edmund cried, but nonetheless, we all ran from the room. I ran into my room and hid underneath Susan and Lucy's beds and listened to the sounds of running all over the floor. Just as Peter reached ninety, the pattering stopped.

"Ready or not, here I come!" he cried. He walked past my door as I stilled my breathing and listened to what was going on.

Suddenly I heard Lucy yelling.
"I'm back! I'm back! Don't worry, I'm back!" Getting out from under the bed, I came up behind Peter as Edmund was saying.

"That's the point. That's why he was seeking you!"

"Does this mean I win?" Susan asked, coming up behind me.

"I don't think Lucy wants to play anymore." Peter said, looking curiously at their youngest sister.

"But... I've been gone for hours." she said, a genuine look of confusion on her face. We all looked at each other. "Look, I'll show you!" she said impatiently. She grabbed Peter's hand and began dragging him toward a spare room. She began telling us of a faun named Mr. Tumnus and how she'd had tea at his house. We all examined the Wardrobe. It was beautifully carved and well made, but besides that, there was nothing about it that was out of the ordinary.

"Lucy, the only wood in here is the back of the wardrobe." Susan said as she took a step out of it. We all looked at Lucy and turned to leave.

"One game at a time Lu, we don't all have your imagination." Peter said.

"But I wasn't imagining!" she defended herself. Lucy glanced at the wardrobe and back at us as we all spun around to look at her.

"That's enough, Lucy." Susan said in a warning tone.

"Come on, Lu. Your whole story is impossible." I told her.

"I wouldn't lie about this!" Lucy cried, now on the verge of tears.

"Well, I believe her." Edmund said. I tried to catch his eye and warn him not to do this, but he ignored me.

"You do?" Lucy said, looking a little more cheered but slightly suspicious. His serious expression turned to a smile.

"Of course, haven't I ever told you of the football field in the bathroom cupboard?" he chuckled.

"Oh would you just stop!" Peter said, taking a step toward him.

"It was just a joke." Edmund answered, moving back. Peter narrowed his eyes condescendingly.

"When are you going to learn to grow up?" This made Edmund bristle and he took a few brisk steps and put his face right into his brothers.

"Shut up! You think you're Dad but you're not!" he yelled, causing Peter to take a few steps back. Susan and I glared at Peter as Ed tore from the room.

"What's wrong with you?!" I yelled at the elder brother angrily, before running after Edmund.

"Well that was nicely handled!" I heard Susan say as she followed us. I found Edmund in the study, sitting on the couch with his arms wrapped around his legs and head on his knees.

"Ed." I said gently sitting down next to him. He didn't move and I placed a hand on his. He didn't say anything and I sensed he didn't want to talk, so I just sat beside him and looked out the window. Susan never showed up and I guessed she'd seen what was going on and decided not to interrupt it.

"I shouldn't have said that to Lucy, right?" he asked genuinely.

"No, you shouldn't have." I answered, looking him in the eye now that his head was lifted. "But both you and Peter were in the wrong. And I have no idea what's gotten into Lucy." He chuckled at that.

He wiped a few remaining tears off his cheeks and looked over at me.

"Thanks." he said.

"For what?"

"Always being there for me." he answered with a soft smile. Then he changed the subject. "Want to play chess?" he asked. I quickly agreed.