Rounds duty was never interesting. Wandering up and down halls checking for girls out of their rooms, poking awake other RAs who'd fallen asleep in the library, and occasionally running into the janitorial staff playing cards in the hall. Generally, rounds tended to be as interesting as reading death reports. But apparently, Susan Pevensie had decided tonight, an unusually cold Wednesday night, just demanded some drama. I wasn't even aware she was awake, to be honest. I wasn't due to start patrolling the grounds till after four in the morning. It was only two. Not that it really mattered; it's still too damn early to really be functioning.
According to sweet little John Parker, the senior groundskeeper who possibly had Miss Kreamons beat on age, he'd ran across Susan on one of the benches to the south of the building. Crying up a storm, he'd tried to ask if she was okay. At which point, she blew up on him. Told him to buggar off and leave her alone. Lovely. Exactly what I wanted to deal with at two in the morning in the middle of February.
Wandering out into the courtyard, it wasn't hard to spot Susan. Hunched over, dark hair falling softly over her face, and sobs wracking the air, Susan Pevensie appeared to be a hot mess. Stopping about ten feet from her, I debated how to approach this. As a Marine, I really wanted to tell her to buck it up, and move on. But something seemed different. I'd never seen Susan Pevensie cry. Lucy'd cried before. I'd even heard of Edmund shedding a few tears. But never Susan.
In the end, I did the only thing that made sense. I went and sat down beside her. It took her a few seconds to realize I was there, but she, surprisingly, didn't scream at me. Just looked, and started crying harder. At which point, I was officially out of my element. Crying girls aren't exactly my strong point. So I let her cry it out. It was bitterly cold, and I was freezing, but Susan had to be even colder. No jacket or sweater, just her white button down shirt. Sighing, I shifted my regulation approved school jacket of my shoulders, and draped it over her back. Susan glanced up and sniffled, but didn't say anything. Silence permeated the air for a few more minutes.
"Have you ever been in love, Emma?"
Surprised, I looked up from the stone I'd been staring at intently. Susan's pale blue eyes, now rimmed with a stark red, peered at me from underneath her hair. I stared for a few seconds, then shook my head, sensing now wasn't the time for me to be talking.
Susan nodded her head softly, then gazed longingly at the bright moon that illuminated the two of us. Silence reigned again, then Susan began her story.
"This last summer, before the school year started up again, we went back to the country. We'd been there before, when they evacuated everyone, surely you remember? Well, we all went back to visit the Professor, and I met Him. Oh Emma, he was simply, I don't even know how to describe him. Kingly, maybe?" Susan laughed wryly, and fell silent again. I didn't have a clue where she was going with this, but it must have been important to her. "Caspian, that was his name you see, swept me off my feet. Quite literally at one point. I knew I was falling in love. Every day I spent with him was better than the last. But he was older than me, older than Peter. He was being called off to fight, and well, I wasn't. The night before he left, I accidentally told him I loved him. I was so embarrassed Emma; I hadn't meant to say that out loud. And he just smiled at me, and told me he loved me too, Emma." Susan stopped here again, apparently loosing herself in the memory of what sounded like her first love. "We were in love Emma. I knew it was true love, and so did he. And we.."
"And you?" I probed gently, wondering where exactly this story was going, and what it had to do with her little emotional breakdown here in the courtyard.
"And we acted on it," Susan's cheeks colored darkly, and she ducked her head to force her hair to form a curtain between us.
Acted on it? What is that supposed to, oh. Oh. She meant, and they did, and oh, wow. That was not what I expected to come out of her mouth. I gaped at Susan silently, surely looking like a fish out of water. Something nagged at me though. That didn't seem to be the end of the story. Swallowing thickly, I braved a question. "What happened, Susan?"
Susan returned her gaze to the moon above us, and continued quietly. "Caspian went off to war, and we left the country. Came back home to be stuck in this infernal place. But it didn't end in the country Emma. Something wasn't right with me when we came back. My moods were all over the place, worse than they are now, if you can believe that. I was constantly sick, especially in the mornings. And I just wasn't right. And then a few weeks later, it hit me. I'd missed it."
Susan stopped here, and looked at me. Unfortunately, she'd completely lost me. "It?" I questioned, stressing the ambiguous pronoun.
She sighed. "You know, it?" She paused again and looked at me, clearly hoping she wasn't going to have to clarify. I was still as confused as ever, and Susan dropped her head against her knees. "My cycle."
I stared at her for a moment, then promptly choked on nothing but air. Holy shit. She'd been with child, but she wasn't now. I'd certainly never seen her look even remotely pregnant, and I don't remember her ever leaving for more than a couple hours at a time. Definitely not enough time to give birth to a child. I whipped my surprised gaze on her, awaiting an answer that would clarify.
Susan chuckled monotonously, then sighed again. "Yes. I was with child. Caspian's child was growing inside of me. And I was so excited. Admittedly, my timing was horrible. And Peter would've had a fit if he'd known. But it never came to that. I couldn't have been more than three months along, Emma. And it happened. My stomach was trying to kill me, and I started bleeding, and I fainted. When I woke up a few hours later, I knew. I knew I'd lost our child. I felt so hollow inside. Like some part of me had died, and I suppose it did."
Gaping at Susan, I waited to see if she would continue. She didn't, and simply returned to staring at the moon looming so far above us. Silence reigned again as I attempted to digest everything she'd told me. This explained so much. She'd fallen in love, almost become a mother at a mere sixteen years old, then had it all ripped away from her. And she hadn't told anyone. No wonder she'd been such a bitch. She'd been depressed for so long, and no one had done a thing. Me included. I suddenly felt like my own stomach was going to revolt on me.
"I didn't mean to snap at poor Mr. Parker," Susan apologized softly, her voice sounding about ready to crack. "It all just came crashing down today. What with everyone buzzing about that bloody dance coming up, it brought back memories of Caspian. Of how we used to dance. And then it hit me, today would have been the day. Well, probably. There may have been a few days given or taken, but about anyway. Today would have been the day I would have held mine and Caspian's son or daughter in my hands." Susan was shaking fiercely, and I pulled the poor girl in for a hug. Damn skippy, I now had absolutely no reason to not like this girl. She'd survived more than women twice her age had. And all alone at that.
"You're not going to write me up for being out after hours, are you?" Susan chuckled, sounding as if she really didn't care if I did.
"Wouldn't dream of it, hun," I said softly, gently pulling the girl, who was really more of a woman, all things considered, to her feet. "What I'm going to do is make you come inside where you won't freeze to death." Susan had looked up quizzically at my use of the word "hun", but didn't seem terribly suspicious. She seemed more excited about the prospect of heat.
When she reached up to remove my jacket from her shoulders, I waved my hand dismissively at Susan. "Keep it; though, I might come back looking for it later." I told her jokingly, watching the smile creep over her features.
We had just gotten back into the moderate warmth of the girls dorm when we heard the arguing. And the voice sounded terribly familiar. "Is that Peter?" I questioned, surprised. Peter never raised his voice to much of anyone. Susan nodded distractedly, then took off towards the front desk, which is where all the ruckus seemed to be emanating. And there was Peter, and Edmund surprisingly enough, trying in vain to get past the Headmaster. Miss Kreamons may have not been a problem, but the Headmaster was notoriously stubborn.
"Ah, Roberts. Glad you're here. Take these two back to their dorm. Don't let them come back" The Headmaster announced this as he was stalking off towards his office, clearly dismissing us. Well, that's odd. Not even going to question what these two are doing here, or what Susan and I are doing outside at three in the morning?
"Peter! Ed? What's going on?" Susan sounded borderline hysterical, and the two boys looked it. Turning my attention to Peter, I questioned what it was that was wrong.
"Lucy."
I sighed, then motioned for the Pevensie entourage to follow. Because, damn it all to hell, Peter Pevensie hadn't been wrong yet about his littlest sister. Bounding up a flight of stairs, and down a hallway that felt unusually long, we made it to room 248. And something was definitely wrong.
Light was streaming out from underneath the cracked door, and I could see the silhouettes of three young girls against the closest wall. Gently prodding the door open with my toe, I caught Elizabeth's, Blaire's, and Samantha's attention. Motioning for them to quietly stand and slip out the door, I snuck in the dreary room. Peter and Edmund directly followed, Susan bringing up the rear.
"Does it feel unusually cold in here to anyone else?" Susan whispered, her voice taking on a panicked edge. Edmund's face drained of all color, and Peter looked about ready to murder someone. While they stood in the suite's small common area, I crept silently over to Lucy and Samantha's door. And was surprised to find a woman already in there.
Flame red hair falling down her back, the woman already appeared to be everything a child dreaded dreaming about. A sharp jaw and thin mouth, coupled with wicked eyes the color of ice, this woman made me shiver. And poor little Lucy looked terrified. Whimpering softly, Lucy had backed herself into the corner closest to the door.
Lucy looked up, and met my eyes, looking about ready to cry. Looking at me as if I were to save her. Luckily, or maybe not so, Peter took up that position. Slamming the door open, Edmund and Susan flanking him, Peter rounded on the bizarre woman currently terrifying little Lucy.
Surprised to find someone interrupting her, the woman rounded on Peter. In her momentary shock, I motioned for Lucy to slide in behind me. I may not have known this woman, but I do know an enemy when I see when.
"Why hello Little King," her voice sounded like shards of ice scraping across the frozen ground, and Peter snarled.
"Hello Jadis."
So, I do live. Barely. Midterms were about the death of me, and finals are around the corner. Clearly, updates are going to be sporadic at best. Chapter 4 is the works, but who knows when it'll actually get finished. College isn't exactly allowing just a ton of time for creativity. With any luck, Chap. 4 will be up before Thanksgiving, but I make no promises. I still own nothing, except a really awesome How to Train Your Dragon blanket at this point and Maddison/Emma. As always, please read and review. To my lovely four reviewers, thank you. Somebody cares.