I don't own Narnia, C. S. Lewis does.
Peter sits later beside his brother's bed. Lucy and Susan are with him and he wonders if they are having as much trouble as him understanding this. The healers have just left assuring the three monarchs that their brother is in good hands. Peter wonders if they know he and Su caught the confused and worried looks that passed between them. He does know Su is furious with him and Lucy is upset. He didn't tell them about Ed right away, wanted them to finish their lessons and hoped desperately he would be able to tell them that Ed was fine and just caught a little cold, that the healers would have something for him in the way of a cure.
They didn't and only said to keep Edmund warm and ensure he drank and ate. Peter has the feeling if he leaves now and goes to the library, he will find them pouring over medical texts and historical accounts looking for an answer. Part of him wants to, if only to justify his anger with them, part of him, which sounds suspiciously like Edmund, reminds him getting in their way will lengthen the process. The final part hopes in vain he's wrong that the healers have this under control and his imagination is exaggerating
Susan clears her throat and pulls him from his thoughts. "I think it's time we ate." She says it primly and Peter knows he deserves her anger. He rises and places a hand on Lucy's shoulder. She moves too, sliding off the bed. He expects her to be more worried but she looks much calmer than he or Susan and even smiles at him brightly.
At dinner he learns why. After the food has been placed out Lucy begins Grace, as she's done for every dinner. "Aslan, we thank you for the food, for the hands who prepared it, and the land that grew it and we trust Edmund's health to you since you know what is best and ask you in return to help us to wait for you. Amen."
He and Susan echo the prayer distantly but Lucy catches his eye and smiles again. He finds himself grinning back. Of course she's so calm, she believes that Aslan will care for their brother. He wishes he had her faith then, his thoughts aren't clear and his stomach clenches at the thought of food. He isn't hungry, he's worried. Lucy and Susan dish themselves up and Lucy starts a cheerful babble of what she learned that day while Susan gives him pointed looks over their sister's head. Her meaning is clear, he had better eat.
Fighting her seems more trouble than it's worth so he complies and attempts to concentrate to Lucy rather than the disturbing tastelessness of the food. He knows logically that worry won't change anything, and furthermore, worry may not even be necessary. He may very well finish dinner and return to Ed's room to find his brother attempting to escape Susan's blanket tucking job. He doubts it though, Edmund never does anything half way and getting sick is no exception. Peter is able to finish dinner while eating a Susan approved amount of food.
They return to Ed's room and find no change but it's late and Susan hurries to get Lucy ready for bed. His youngest sister, usually willing to play any game she can think of to sneak even a few more minutes, complies easily enough this time. She only pauses to ask who will read her bedtime story, a job Edmund had taken over in Narnia and one that tonight, he will be unable to accomplish. Susan moves, signaling she will, and Lucy gives both her brothers a kiss on the cheek and whispers something to Ed before leaving. Once they leave, he is left again with his own thoughts.
Peter remembers how he used to read to Lucy, before Narnia and he and Susan had laternated early in their reign. However Edmund had started one night, maybe a month after their coronation, when both Peter and Susan were busy. Lucy had asked Ed to do it every night since and to both older siblings surprise, Ed always agreed. It was true he was generally more complicit in doing what his siblings asked but before Narnia he would, and did, ruthlessly tease Lucy for being a baby. That he should now be not only the occasional storyteller but the primary baffled them.
It was this confusion that lead to one night joining Lu and Ed and learning why. It turned out that Ed was, and is, and excellent storyteller. He didn't only read the story, he acted them out, each character had voices and he became more animated often waving his hands and fencing invisible foes to Lucy's endless amusement. More surprising Edmund seemed to be enjoying himself and when he finished, appeared just as disappointed as Lucy when he reluctantly told her they'd continue tomorrow.
It wasn't only the manner of telling the stories that was different but the stories themselves. When Susan read, it was always romances while Peter tended to pick fairy tales. Ed read epics. Tales of knights and battles and heroes and when he finished Lucy was more awake than at the beginning! Susan had been quick to chastise him but Edmund, for one brief moment, had looked like Edmund before the Witch and boarding school, impish smirk adorning his face in all its toothy glory and his dark eyes sparkling with mirth and mischief as he cheekily offered to read Susan's reports next time since they could put a raging minotaur to sleep. Peter hid a chuckle behind his hand and Lucy laughed, even Su fought to keep he smile at bay. Almost a year later, that night, those few precious moments, still burned bright in his memory.
It was short lived though, much too quickly the gleeful smirk was replaced by the a calmer expression and he apologized to Su softly. She had opened her mouth to say something when Lucy shook Ed's arm and encouraged him to finish as she lay back down. To both of the older siblings surprises Ed didn't tell another story he sang a soft lullaby which had the desired effect of putting their youngest sibling to sleep as he arranged the blankets around her lovingly. Of course his face had burned an interesting shade of red as he bade them a good night and disappeared. They wisely choose not to speak of it the next morning and Edmund had been the primary storyteller since.
"If you think any louder, you'll wake the palace."
Another time the dry accusation would have brought laughter from Peter but not now. Ed meets his eyes from the bed and Peter feels the strange mixture of elation at Ed being awake and trepidation at not knowing if this is over. The faint shivering of his brother under the blankets justifies the worries, he thinks.
Apparently he should have something already because Ed rolls his eyes and says, "I'm fine Pete."
He disagrees. "You fainted during training and you're only now awakening. I think I have the right to be worried."
Ed goes silent at that and Peter does too. He's been waiting for Ed to wake up all day and now that he has, suddenly he can't think of anything to say to him. Several minutes pass in silence before Ed asks, "Did you have the healers look at me?"
Peter nods, of course he did, Ed is sick of course he had the healers look him over. For some reason the words die in throat, never making it out. Ed seems fine with the nonverbal response and asks another question.
"Did they find anything?" This question and the prior one too, now that Peter thinks about it, are asked in a voice very unlike his brother. Uncertain, afraid of the answer, and afraid to even ask. Peter's heart aches a little and he moves from his seat onto the bed. The action surprises both of them. Peter has always been physical when it comes to love and the girls but he and Edmund...well even after the Witch things had often been uncomfortable. Distant maybe is the best word. He thought Ed knew he loved him, forgave him, and wanted what they used to have when they were little but maybe his little brother didn't?
It's a conversation they will have, when Peter isn't sure, but they will. In the meantime he shifts closer to his brother and replies as confidently as he can, "They told me to make sure you got plenty of rest, didn't tire yourself and ate and drank properly. They also said to make sure you understood if you played any of your games they'd bring you down to their wing."
In actuality, they said almost none of that, least of all the last part but the chuckle he gets from Ed is worth it. Neither of them like being abed however at least when they are forced so in their own room it's a little better. Peter loves Narnia...just the healer's wing a little less.
"I suppose I should drink my tea when they bring it to me instead of pouring if off the balcony?" There's mirth in his eyes as he references what Peter did with his medicine infused drink a few months ago when he came down with summer fever.
"I would have gotten away with it if Oreius hadn't been under my window." He replies trying his best to Susan prim tone but the smile breaking onto his face ruins it. Ed laughs and Peter does too, remembering the soggy General's demure face as he announced it was raining tea.
"You didn't think to look?"
"I didn't expect to need to, what were the chances there would be someone under my window at the exact moment I dumped the foul stuff?"
Both brothers laugher is interrupted by a sudden coughing fit from the younger and Peter sits him up to rub his back until the cough eases. He ignores the coldness of the skin and leans Ed against his chest, to better reach his back he tells himself. The fit must have worn his brother out because even after its ended, Ed doesn't move or protest, not even when Peter circles his arms around the younger boy and rocks them slowly. At some point Ed falls asleep and Peter lays him back down and tucks him back in. He adds two more logs to the fire blazing in the room and laments that it doesn't seem to be doing enough for Ed. He then returns to his chair and prepares to spend the night.
