AN: I was in the mood to update this story so I wrote this chapter. Do i really need to say anything else?

As Susan sat in the living room watching Peter play cards with Lucy, a new realization dawned on her. She noticed that despite promising Peter (And herself for that matter) that she wouldn't think any differently of him because he was adopted, she did see him differently now. She'd always known he was kind and good with kids but now she found herself really noticing that. Really noticing that she liked the way he talked to her. That he never forgot to say goodnight. That they fought but never stayed mad for long. That they were actually compatible. She didn't know when it had happened, she just knew it had happened, She didn't see him as just a brother anymore.

He noticed Susan looking at him and turned to smile at her before shuffling the cards to start the next game. Lucy wanted to try to win one now. She was getting better but she had lost three games already that night. Edmund might have teased her for that but he wasn't home. He was sleeping over a friend's house. Their parents weren't home either. They'd gone out to some fancy supper with their friends.

Peter could vaguely remember his birth parents going out to dinner, though anyone would say he was too little do remember such things. But he did. He had a dim memory of them leaving without even saying goodbye. All he remembered of his mother was a sharp voice saying. "Will you please keep that child from howling so? It hurts my ears." He shook his head, he didn't want to remember that. He wished he didn't. But he was safe now, As Peter Pevensie. Peter Burke didn't exist anymore. Peter Burke had disappeared the moment Helen Pevensie signed the adoption papers and took him home.

"Are you okay?" Lucy asked noticing that Peter looking sort of sad.

"Yes." Peter said. "I'm fine." He handed her the cards she needed for the game.

Susan wondered if Peter remembered anything about being a Burke. Of course he had to be too little for that. Yet something about the way he shifted when she'd brought up the subject that one time suggested some memory. And not happy ones either. She wondered, but she wouldn't bring it up. She'd promised.

"I won." Lucy declared happily at the end of the game. Then she looked suspiciously at Peter. "Did you let me win?"

"I wouldn't doubt it." Susan laughed, speaking for the first time in an hour. "He used to let me win at Chess."

"I did no such thing." Peter insisted.

"Sure you didn't, and a pawn can move the same way as a queen?" Susan pointed out.

"You were little." Peter defended himself. "I didn't want you to feel bad about losing all the time."

"I wasn't that much littler than you." Susan said.

"At least a couple of years Su." Peter reminded her.

"Peter," Lucy asked suddenly. "Why doesn't mum have your birth certificate?"

"Of course she does." Peter lied. "Why wouldn't she?"

Lucy shrugged. "I was looking through a box of all our baby things the other day and everyone's birth certificate was in there except yours."

"Mum must have misplaced it, Lucy." Susan said quickly.

Peter nodded. "Yeah, must have been that."

"Mum never misplaces things." Lucy was smarter than they gave her credit for sometimes.

"Well I guess this one time she did." Susan said firmly.

"Oh, alright then." Lucy gave in, wondering why her older siblings seemed so tense. Maybe changing the subject would help. "Is Jacob Burke a distant uncle or something?"

Peter looked very nervous. "What do you know about him?"

"I found a letter from him the other day when Edmund was cleaning out the credenza." Lucy shrugged. She didn't understand what was going on. She would have never dreamed in a million years that Jacob Burke was Peter's father.

"What did it say?" Susan asked.

"It doesn't matter." Peter said sharply.

"Why not?" Lucy wanted to know.

"It just doesn't." Peter looked very upset now. "I think it's time you went to bed Lucy."

Lucy sighed and went up to her room.

"You don't even want to know what was in the letter?" Susan whispered to him.

"No." Peter shook his head. "I don't care."

"I think you do." Susan said noticing the look on his face. He wanted to know. He was only fighting it because he didn't want to want to know. He wanted not to think about them ever again.

"I don't care." Peter insisted. He lowered his voice. "They aren't my parents anymore. They never loved me."

"I know but maybe the letter..." Susan insisted.

"Drop it, Su." Peter said.

"But Peter..." Susan tried again.

He glared at her. "I said, drop it."

"Fine." Susan dropped it at last. He clearly wasn't ready to handle that.

Later that night Susan decided that she would tell Peter how she felt. It was sort of a secret and she'd promised to tell him everything. The logical side of her brain was shouting, "Tell him everything doesn't mean tell him ever weird thought that crosses your mind. Don't tell him that. You'll regret it later." She ignored that nagging voice. She was going to tell him. Tell him that she cared about him as more than a brother. That voice would just have to deal. End of story. She hoped it wouldn't creep him out too much. She would've put off telling him but there wasn't a better time that she could see. Lucy was asleep. And no one else was home. She certainly wasn't going to tell him that she was in love with him in front of Edmund or her parents or an awake Lucy. Now that would be sheer stupidity.

She could see it now. Her mothers confused expression. Her father calling a psychiatrist. Edmund looking utterly disgusted. Lucy frowning her brows in confusion. No way Susan was going to deal with any of that. Better to just tell Peter when he was by himself.

Peter was sitting at the table reading something.

"What are you reading?" Susan asked trying to calm her nerves a bit.

"Something unbelievably dull." Peter laughed, clearly in a better mood now than he was earlier. He snapped the book shut.

"Why do we even have that book?" Susan asked. "It put me right to sleep and I've been known to read straight from the dictionary for hours without a problem."

"I don't know." Peter agreed. "I think it was a wedding gift to our parents from Aunt Alberta."

"Figures." Susan muttered. "It was probably a re-gift too knowing them."

Peter laughed again. "Probably."

"I have to tell you something." Susan said. It was the moment of truth. She took a seat next to him.

"What's on your mind?" Peter noticed she looked uncomfortable and wondered what was wrong.

"Promise not to think I'm...well...a creep?" Susan asked starting to wonder if she should back out now.

"You are not a creep." Peter assured her. "What's wrong?"

"Well nothing's wrong...per say..." Susan tried to start. What if he didn't feel the same way and the first thing that came out of his mouth was, "Ew!"? Was she going to be able to handle that? What if he didn't want to hang out with her anymore after he knew?

Peter looked concerned now. "What is it?"

"I..." Susan tried again. By the Lion! why was this so hard? "I love you." There she'd said it. Finally. Why had he just let her blab on like an idiot all that time?

"I love you too?" Peter looked confused. Why on earth would it be so hard for her to say that?

Oh well that was just great, he didn't understand. Now she had to repeat herself. Ugh. Maybe she should just run upstairs now. No, she had to finish want she'd started even if it was awkward. "No, I mean, I'm in love with you." Susan could feel her cheeks turning red. Thinking, I did not just say that.

But from the look on Peter's face she knew she had. "Uh..." He looked very surprised. Clearly he hadn't seen this coming.

"You don't have to say anything." She told him. "I just wanted you to know."

"No, I do have to say something." Susan couldn't help but notice he sounded kind of sad now. "I'm sorry, Su. I don't feel the same way." he said it as kindly as possible but it still hurt. "I do love you but like a sister."

"Well at least now I know." Susan said softly. She started to get up from her seat and tried to hide her disappointment. "Is there anyway we could pretend this conversation never took place?"

Peter nodded. "Sure. No problem. Never happened."

"Thanks." She looked a little relieved as she walk away but there was still several traces of disappointment in that relief.

Peter felt rotten. He'd lied to her. He'd had to of course. But he felt horrible about it. The reason was because he couldn't feel that way about her and still be Peter Pevensie. Peter Pevensie was Susan Pevensie's big brother that was it. Peter Burke could be something else but as far as he was concerned, Peter Burke didn't exist. So he'd told her he didn't feel the same way. But he did. He sighed and looked out the kitchen window, hoping the feeling would pass but knowing it wouldn't.

Susan sat in her room quietly. It hadn't gone too badly she'd told herself. He was nice about it. And he knew how she felt now. That was good wasn't it? No, it really wasn't.

At that moment she heard a knock at the door. "Susan?" It was Lucy.

"What are you doing up Lucy?" Susan asked surprised.

"I couldn't sleep." Lucy explained. "Say Su, did you know how nasty the original fairy-tales were?"

Susan did know thanks to Edmund's blood-and-gore phase. He used to read the gross parts out loud until Peter made him stop. But Lucy had been too little to remember that.

Lucy explained that she was reading from one of Edmund's books. They certainly weren't the kiddie versions of Fairytales.

"You'll get nightmares, Lu." Susan warned her.

"I didn't know they were that bad." Lucy looked surprised. "Did you know that the little mermaid doesn't live happily ever after?"

"Um no?" Now that Susan hadn't known. "What happened to her?"

"Well," Lucy started trying to remember exactly what had happened. "She fell in love with this prince who really cared about her but only in a father/child, brother/sister way and then,"

"Did she ever tell him how she felt?" Susan said before she could stop herself.

"No, the sea witch had cut out her tongue." Lucy explained looking kind of sick at the thought of someone getting their tongue cut out. "She couldn't talk."

Some mermaids have all the luck, Susan thought grumpily.

"Anyway," Lucy went on. "She and the prince were really close friends for a while. He even let her sleep outside his doorway at night so that they were never far apart."

"Did they stay friends for ever?" Susan asked. That would be good. 'Friends' was very good.

"Not exactly." Lucy admitted. "He married someone else and the mermaid died the morning after."

"Great." Susan moaned. Lots to look forward to.

"I think I heard Dad, pull into the drive." Lucy said, forgetting what they were talking about.

"You'd better go to bed Lucy, before they see you're still up." Susan told her.

Lucy did so and Susan was left alone to think about 'The Little Mermaid Who Couldn't.'

AN: So whatja think? Click that review button down there to tell me!