A/N: I'm trying hard to do better at t his posting new chapters quicker thing. x) Sorry again for taking so long on the last one everyone! Thanks for the reviews as well, you guys are awesome. =)

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"Caspian..."

He blinked drowsily and made a half-hearted effort to sit up in his bed.

"Caspian!"

There it was again, only this time more urgent. He swung his legs out of bed and, pulling on his boots, went to the door.

"Yes? Who is it?"

The door opened and Susan stood before him. "It's me," she said, giving him a cheeky smile. "Can't even recognize your own wife, sleepyhead?"

He smiled back at her. "Of course...but what are you doing up so late?"

"Oh, nothing really," she said absently. "Just...thinking. The moon is beautiful tonight though and the stars are really quite something; I thought you might want to see them."

And he smiled again, because even if it was the middle of the night and he was shivering because all he was wearing was a thin shirt and some old trousers, he was happy to see her and more than anything he wanted to go look at the stars with her.

So he did.

They sat close together, his arm around her shoulders, gazing up at the night sky from the deck of the ship. For hours they pointed out constellations and when they could recognize no more, discovered their own and gave them names.

It was all so perfect and Caspian wished that this moment would never end.

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Then he woke up.

For a moment he lay in his bed and smiled until he remembered that this was a ship and in order for the ship to sail there was work to be done and Susana needed to be woken and fed and he wanted to tell Susan a name he had thought up for that one group of stars they had not been able to name and...

It had all been a dream.

A dream.

"No," Caspian sobbed aloud, now in anguish. It had been so real, so perfect. It was so cruel that now he had to wake and find it had all been a lie, and would always be just a false hope.

She wasn't here.

She wasn't in England.

She wasn't coming back.

Ever.

She was dead.

And it was all his fault.

Then he lost all control and fell back on his bed, sobs wracking his body. It was so cruel that he had to be led on like that, thinking everything was fine again only to wake up and find it all just a dream, a vapor in the wind.

He could not tell how much time passed but when he finally calmed himself enough to function like a normal human being, the light filtering through the small window in his cabin was that of late morning. Suddenly it all came back to him that he was the king, the leader of this quest and that he had a job to do.

Whatever part of him that had begun to heal was now torn open, like a scab ripped away from a scrape on your knee and it was with a heavy heart that Caspian began to dress. Perhaps the crew noticed his red-rimmed eyes, his pale face and his sagging shoulders, for the glances they cast his way were seldom and fully of sympathy.

Shortly after the midday meal Caspian stood at the side of the ship, gazing with sightless eyes over the sea, lost in his thoughts. His memories took him far away, back in time to happier days when all seemed perfect.

"Sire!"

A voice at his side jolted him back into reality. It was Reepicheep, the bold little Mouse perched on the rail of the ship, frantically pointing at something out in the water. "Sire, over there! Look!"

Caspian looked and was promptly surprised when he made out the shape of three human heads bobbing on the surface, maybe a hundred meters from the ship. The leader in him pushed damp thoughts aside and he turned to the crew.

But they were already moving, turning the ship towards the people out in the water and tossing them lines and pulling them up on the deck until he saw that, under the dripping clothes and hair, two of the people were none other than Lucy and Edmund Pevensie.

"What?...how...?" He stammered as the new arrivals expressed their surprise and delight at finding themselves in Narnia again and how glad they were to see him.

Well, all except the third - a boy who looked to be around Lucy's age and kept on complaining how cold he was and how dreadful all this was.

"Who's this?" Caspian managed to ask when the other two seemed to be calming down somewhat.

"Oh," Edmund said absently, "That's Eustace. Our cousin. See, Lucy and I were staying at his house while our parents take Susan to America and Peter is still in school."

Caspian gave him a confused look.

"But never mind that," Edmund said, "What matters is that we're here."

"Oh, Caspian, it is so good to see you again!" Lucy cried and gave him a hug. After a moment she pulled away and took a step back, but the smile on her face did not grow dim. "Is Susan here?" she asked, glancing around the deck.

Then everything that had happened over the past day came back to Caspian and his face fell. He looked at Edmund and when the other boy saw his expression, his own face grew grim.

"You'd better come inside my cabin and get some dry clothes," he said quietly. "We have a lot to talk about."