AN: Well this is it for this fic, then, the last chapter. Hope you like it. Oh, by the way, sort of like I did for the first one, I've left it with a bit of an open ending; not as much of one, I think, as "Lights out: Travels without the sun" had, but still a semi-open one just the same.

The first thing Susan noticed about Peter when he returned from his 'chat' with Benjamin were his blood-shot eyes. He carried himself very wearily and his face bore a restless sort of distance about it.

Strangely enough, though, the conversation hadn't been a failure-at least, not yet, anyway.

While maintaining a good level of civility, Benjamin and Peter had vehemently disagreed on most matters. Then there were ones that utterly stumped them both, and they had to admit that-which, also, wasn't easy. The conversation went on for days and after each 'session', Peter returned, not to the Pioneer but, rather, to Doctor Hester's house. There he would sit with Susan on the porch for hours. Neither of them spoke. Peter was wearying of speaking and needed nothing more than someone to hold his hand. She didn't have to say she was proud of him or that she believed in him; he knew it perfectly well when her fingers intertwined with his and when she rested her head on his shoulder. Without question, he knew what she meant.

Lucy was still weak and stayed inside with Gael and Edmund most days. Whenever she was feeling up to it the three of them played games together. Occasionally, Edmund, who was speaking far more frequently now, brought up that he was worried about Peter and hoped that he would get things sorted with Benjamin before the people of Ember considered another possible act of revolution. Gael was uninterested in whatever it was Peter and Benjamin discussed; she was too young to understand how serious the issue was. And Lucy, although concerned about it, didn't quite have the strength to worry anymore. So Edmund kept her, at times, a little in the dark-especially when there was no good news to report and the tired circles around her small blue eyes were a particularly dense gray.

Then one day Peter arrived at the doctor's house with a different expression on his face, one slightly harder to read.

Susan was waiting for him with a cup of hot tea which he took graciously and swallowed about half of in one steady gulp.

"How did it go this time?" Susan asked, taking his almost-empty cup from him and refilling it.

She still had a slight fear of the fireplace, but her nerves were no longer bothering her when she stood in front of the stove, and she'd been helping Doctor Hester and Gael with the cooking more and more lately. And so making a full pot of tea had been surprisingly easy for her and, though she would have never said so out loud, she felt absurdly proud over this.

Peter sighed. "I don't know, Su. I really don't know." He shook his head, mulling over everything that had been decided. "On the one hand, I think the people of Ember will be glad with the new arrangements…it…" -here he had to smile- "…it means we can all stay."

"Oh, Peter," Susan exclaimed, clasping her hands together happily, "that's wonderful! Why aren't you glad?"

"Because," he sighed, "I don't know how many of them are going to be so thrilled to give up their past. I've been talking, at first, as you know, only with Benjamin; but a couple of days ago, he arranged for me to speak with Wilhelm and Marianne, too. And if we stay and live the way they want us to, the only way we can possibly survive (I'm sorry, but I can't take care of everyone by myself in this world, Susan, I just can't), is to become part of Sparks. No more people of Ember and people of Sparks. Marianne has graciously allowed us to join their community-for real, this time. Wilhelm has seconded the notion. I think Benjamin is still a little against it, but he's coming around-especially since I've more or less promised that if they'll be patient with all of us and our limitations, we-the former people of Ember-will help them with farm work and growing crops and such when the winter ends. It'll be hard, we all know that. No one will be prosperous. But we'll all be the people of Sparks; that's the only way."

"Peter," Susan said gently, reaching out and putting a hand on the side of his arm, "Ember is dead. We all have to accept that, even if it means officially joining the people of Sparks. At least this way we'll get equal treatment and everyone, once the sticks in the mud get sorted out, can go back to eating with their host families."

"Yes," said Peter, "but not for ever."

"No?" Susan tilted her head and crinkled her brow in confusion.

"They're going to help us build homes of our own sooner or later; we're the people of Sparks, too, now. You have to remember that."

"And Benjamin agreed to this?" She found that a little hard to believe.

"Reluctantly," Peter told her, with the traces of a small, semi-playful smile threatening to appear on his lips. "But, yes, he did."

"I see." Susan didn't know what else to say.

"You know, Su," Peter felt he had to remind her, "if you ever do decide you want to get married, we…we could have our own house."

"And Edmund and Lucy," Susan added.

"What about them?" Peter looked puzzled for a moment.

"Yes, I just meant…I don't know. Forget it."

"That they won't want to live with us for ever?"

"Why wouldn't they?" Susan looked even more puzzled than Peter had been.

"I've seen them grown up," Peter pointed out, though he knew talking about Narnia in front of Susan was rarely a good idea these days. "And he's protective of her now."

"So are you."

"But it's different."

"How so?"

"Like it is with us," he said flat-out. "Or might be…if…if you decide it's what you want." And I hope you do more than anything in the world, he added in his mind.

"Oh, Peter!" she scoffed. "Do be practical! You can't be reading into Edmund wanting to marry her already. She is only seven."

"I'm not saying he's going to marry her tomorrow. Or even that I'd be entirely comfortable with it ten years from now. I'll still have to give Edmund the 'you hurt her and I'll beat you senseless, brother or not' talk. But, I think, it might work out."

"That's a long time from now, Peter. How do you know he won't be interested in someone else by then?"

"We're not." Then he looked at her and saw her expression recoil slightly. Lowering his brow he added, "We're not…right? I mean, you're not?"

Susan didn't answer.

"All right, who do I have to kill?" His eyes darkened a full shade.

"No, Peter, it's not like that," she swore, reaching for his hand to reassure him. "They're isn't anybody."

"Then why-"

"But what if there was…someday?"

"Why would there be? You love me, I love you."

"It's a big world up here and if something happened, if either of us ever…"

"Please don't say that," he begged her, holding back tears. "I love you, not anyone else. That's just how it is and always will be-I know that."

"What if I don't?" she whispered.

"Susan…what are you saying?"

"That I need more time to figure everything out. Nothing's changed since we last talked, I promise, and I will give a chance when I'm ready. I just…I want to know how long you're willing to wait."

"Till every world that ever was ends." Peter reached over and gently brushed a lock of her hair over one of her shoulders. "Is that clear?"

"Yes." She smiled at him; there were tears in her eyes, too.

"Oh, if some dashing man comes and tries to steal you away from me between now and then, I actually may very well have to dispatch the poor sap."

Susan laughed at that. Reaching out, she touched the tip of his nose with her index finger. "You're so funny, Peter."

"I'm dead serious." He looked it, too.

She giggled, sighing in a melancholy manner to herself.

"You think I'm teasing?" He shook his head. "The boys had better keep their hands off of you…or I may have to break them."

"Ah, you're a real joker." She got up and started to walk away.

"Hey," he stood up and fast-walked over to her side, "to end this conversation on a good note, let me just say it one more time."

"Say what?" She stopped walking.

"I love you."

She nodded. "I love you, too."

Leaning forward, Peter kissed her on the cheek. "I've got to go now, I wouldn't want to be late for the town leader's announcement."

"Tell me how it goes."

"You could come," he offered.

She shook her head and forced a small smile. "No, thank you."

"Why?"

"It's too cold for me." She glanced over her shoulder at Edmund who was pretending not to listen to their conversation while he used the poker to turn over a few logs in the fireplace.

"Yeah, you probably would rather stay here with Ed and Lu. It's likely for the best." He said the words with enough conviction in themselves, but Edmund sensed that he didn't completely mean them, that he would have preferred to have Susan at his side when the announcement was made.

"I'll come with you," said a little voice at his elbow.

He looked down to see Gael who had turned up out of no where.

Susan bent down to Gael's level. "You keep him out of trouble, dear."

"I'll do my best." Gael beamed, her lips splitting into a toothy grin.

All things considered, the announcement went off well. A few individuals had a hard time accepting that they would no longer be the 'people of Ember', but for the most part the majority seemed to understand that Ember-like it's namesake-wasn't meant to last for ever; their city was dead. Starting anew did not mean changing who they were, although it might mean a few sacrifices all around.

One of the nicest parts was that, through much strenuous effort, Peter had managed the impossible. He had, without blackmail of any sort, actually convinced Benjamin to apologize for the no-lunch-with-host-families incident. It was a rather stiff apology, but it was honestly meant and was taken as such.

Tick was one of the few who didn't at all like the arrangement. Still, in spite of everything, he wanted his war-he wanted excitement. And he couldn't stay without causing trouble, so he did the first decent thing he had probably ever done, made the first sensible decision he had probably ever even considered in all of his life. A week later when a few roamers appeared in Sparks, Tick left with them. His former fellow Ember citizens rarely saw him after that, and it was largely in passing glimpses when they did. That was the way they liked it. Except for Lizzie, who wept endlessly that it was cruel of him to leave without asking her to come with him. She was far too silly in the head to rationalize that even if Tick had really cared for her (he hadn't) twelve was much too young an age for eloping at any rate.

As for Peter, when all was said and done, he was well liked by all of the people of Sparks-both those that had once been Emberties and those who hadn't. Come springtime, he would be one of the first to start on the building of the many new houses that the increased number of the people of Sparks would call for. In the meantime, he would begin helping with some mild repair projects on the Pioneer so that it was a safer place to sleep and less people had to stay in the town hall, which really was far too cramped and something of a fire-hazard.

At night, shortly after the people of Ember officially joined the people of Sparks, Peter started to have vivid dreams of everyone living happily in peace together in a beautiful land that did not actually look at all like the town of Sparks. It looked, instead, like Narnia except that it was richer and greener even than that near-perfect country he'd once ruled over had been. The cliffs were less imposing and twice as beautiful; the seas seven times as blue and deep, but when one gazed at them, one never had to fear drowning.

Everyone seemed to be there. Edmund and Lucy (older and happy and perfectly healthy again, no longer stunted or weak), Gael and Doctor Hester, all three of the town leaders (even Benjamin), Jill Pole and Eustace Scrubb, Doon and Lina, Edward Pocket, Mr. Harrow, Clary, The Professor and Aunt Polly, as well as all of the other former people of Ember (except for Lizzie and Tick whom Peter forgot because he never really thought about them after the poisoned milk incident was resolved) and all of the old friends he and his siblings had known in Narnia; in short, everyone that mattered. Everyone that is, aside from Susan.

In Peter's dream, she had a throne right beside his own, where it ought to be, but it was always empty. Sometimes, he woke up with tears in his eyes from the sadness of that portion of the dream and how it marred the rest. But this did not leave him in despair, for he believed that anything was possible. And if the beautiful vision he saw in his mind's eye when he slumbered was only a beautiful future laced with a warning, he would take it. Peter was determined to make sure that the happiness all came true, even if the place like Narnia-but ever so much more real-was never found, and that included keeping Susan. He would not lose her, he was certain. Not for real he wouldn't. Each day was a new day; with that, came hope. Susan loved him; Peter, in turn, loved her. She would be ready for him someday. They would be more than stepbrother and stepsister someday. She would remember Narnia someday. It just wouldn't be today. Peter could live with that.

The last snowfall of the winter came through Sparks, little more than a light dusting. The Pevensies all sat on the porch together to watch it. Lucy was half-asleep, clinging to Edmund's hand. Susan was fully awake, sitting at Peter's side, but she leaned on his arm in a tired manner anyway.

"Spring is coming," Edmund noted.

"Yes," said Peter.

"Today or tomorrow will be the first day of thawing, you can tell by the wind."

"Hmm," Peter agreed, a little absently.

"So," Susan put in, "this is it, then. We, the Pevensies, live in Sparks for the rest of our lives, no use pretending any different."

"Don't you like it here, Su?" Edmund asked, a bit taken aback.

"I do," Susan assured him. "I just…I don't know. Maybe I was expecting something a little more when we found our way out of Ember."

"This isn't the end, you know," Peter shifted slightly to face Susan, nudging her off of his arm momentarily. "It's only the beginning. That's what Sparks are-a beginning. This is meant to last. Perhaps even to grow."

"I like that," Susan murmured, both to Peter and Edmund and to herself.

"Perhaps this is the beginning for you, too, Pete," Edmund suggested, blinking as the white dusting seemed to come to an end and a sun that was certainly not the same sun they'd been seeing all winter peeked through the silvery-gray clouds. "Peter of Sparks, now that's a name that sounds like the start of something."

-The End-

AN: Last chapter, last chance to review!