Author's Note: You'll be happy to hear (or see rather) that I've begun to deviate from the movie plot line a little bit. Thanks for hanging in there if you've made it to this point. Please read and review. Please be critical if you can! Muchas gracias.

And of course - I do not own Edmund, Lucy, Caspian, Narnia... you get the picture. NOT MINE!

~Chapter 4~

Caspian

The crew of the Dawn Treader, now joined by Rhince from Narrowhaven and his stowaway daughter Gael, remained in high spirits despite the gravity of their mission. The weather was good and the sailing conditions fine. They continued East, settling back into their comparatively quiet life at sea.

Lucy, being the only woman on board, took Gael under her wing. Gael adored the Queen and followed after her like a puppy. Having been raised in a world ruled by slave traders, the girl was a brave child and did not shy away from work. In fact, Caspian considered the girl to be much more helpful than Eustace, who spent hours on end scribbling in his diary and generally being a nuisance.

Edmund spent a good deal of his spare time restoring the ancient Narnian sword. Although it was slow work, he appeared to take a great amount of joy in it. He would work away at the layers that covered the blade tirelessly and would still be at it late at night as he sat up talking with Caspian.

When Lord Bern had approached them with the sword, Caspian had seen that look that he so dreaded fall upon Edmund's brow and without a second thought had made his decision. He would have been happy to give up Peter's sword and carry the one from Lord Bern, but he knew that Edmund would not accept Rhindon. The look that Edmund gave him when Caspian handed him the sword had warmed the king's heart. It was not just an expression of gratitude; something else lay behind it and it had filled Caspian with a hope that he had seen the last of that dark shadow on Edmund's face.

Since that moment, Edmund's attitude had changed subtly. He deferred to Caspian's decisions, and even sought approval from the older king before giving even the most trivial of commands. It wasn't just that though – to Caspian, it was as though the events in the Lone Islands had brought them even closer together. Whether it was his imagination or not, the Telmarine was unsure, but it seemed that they would find themselves standing and sitting nearer to each other or finding an excuse to casually brush against the other more often. When they sat up late, he could almost feel the other boy's hand so close to his that it could not have been any nearer without touching it.

On one such night the two of them sat wordlessly on the deck, the conversation having died off, and each was immersed in his own thoughts. Caspian studied Edmund from the side, watching the dark hair fluttering across the other boy's brow. Edmund turned and looked directly into Caspian's eyes just as he had many times before.

"Ed…" he began hoarsely, feeling a desire to keep the moment from being lost as it had so many times before.

He could feel Edmund's breath, warm on his face in contrast to the cool night air. Without thinking, he brought his hand to the pale face and cupped it gently. Edmund leaned into the caress and Caspian's heart quickened and pounded against his ribcage like a drum.

Thunk!

Something shifted below deck and the pair started and quickly moved apart. Neither one of them spoke as they stood and retreated to bed, but Edmund shot him a small, furtive grin. Caspian lay awake for a long time, heart still beating madly in his chest. When he finally fell to sleep, his dreams were haunted with the pale face of the Just King.

Edmund

"Ed! Edmund Pevensie!"

"Huh?" Edmund looked at his sister who was waving her hand energetically in front of his face and wearing an expression that was half exasperation and half amusement.

"I've only been talking to you for a full minute!" she informed him. "You've been in an entirely different world – which we already are, so you might as well come back to this other world."

"Sorry Lu," he made an apologetic face and wrenched his thoughts away from the night before and the feel of Caspian's hand on his cheek. "What were you saying?"

"I was saying that I've been thinking a lot lately about why we're here and whether this mightn't be our last time in Narnia."

"What? Why?" he started back in on the blade of his sword and struggled with a particularly stubborn bit of grime.

"Well… it's just that we're not very much younger than Peter and Sue were on their last trip to Narnia. What if we're here to… I dunno… to learn what we need to grow up?" Lucy paused and bit her lip before continuing softly. "Ed… what if we never get to come back?"

Edmund looked up at his sister's anxious expression and considered what she had said. He had been so preoccupied with their search for the Lords of Telmar and with his increasingly complicated relations with Caspian that he had nearly forgotten that they would, of course, be going back to England eventually. Now that Lucy had said something, though, he rather wished that she hadn't. Going back to Cambridge was not something that he wanted to face. Although he missed the rest of their family greatly, they would still be an ocean apart even in their home world. The idea of going back to the Scrubb residence was less appealing to Edmund even than facing the unknown terrors of the Eastern Sea.

"Well Lu," he replied slowly, still prying at the same stubborn chunk of filth that clung to his blade, "I don't know. I suppose that if we aren't meant to come back, then there's not much we can do about it, is there? We just have to trust that Aslan knows what's best for us…" Edmund trailed off and tried his best to think of a way to reassure his sister. The trouble was, now that he was thinking about it, he was just as apprehensive as she was.

"Is that really how you feel, Ed?" the younger girl was looking at him somewhat shrewdly. "Would you really be okay with the idea of never coming back – never seeing Caspian or Reepicheep or Aslan ever again?"

Edmund sighed and looked out at the sparkling waves that surrounded them. If he was honest with himself, the answer was no. Leaving Narnia would be heartbreaking, and leaving Caspian… well, he didn't know if there was even a word in existence for what he would feel if he had to say goodbye.

"No," he told Lucy. "I don't think I would be. But it's going to happen one way or another. I reckon we'll just have to do our best to learn what we can and… and…" he turned his face from his sister and cleared his throat. "Let's not worry about it just now Lu. We can't even be certain that this is our last time here. What is it that Peter and Sue learned that meant they were grown up anyhow? Maybe it's not our time yet."

"Well…" Lucy said rather slyly, "Susan learned how to kiss a king."

Edmund whipped his head around and mouthed wordlessly at her as she smiled innocently at him and returned to the corner of the deck where Gael sat mending shirts.

"That's completely off the point!" he shouted after her, but it sounded rather feeble even to his own ears.