I'm so sorry this was so long in coming! This part was a lot harder than I thought it'd be, plus I didn't manage to write it in French class :) Thanks to the reviewers for the last chapter! This should be the last part... Unless I'm inspired. Start running now.

Part II

Susan started to read the letter, which ran as follows :

Dear Susan,

I'm not even sure why I'm writing this. I think it's because a part of me wants to believe that you're still the Susan Pevensie I grew up with, still the great Queen Susan of Narnia who ruled with Peter, Edmund and me. Maybe I'm wrong, but I don't think so, somehow. I think I understand why you stopped believing in Narnia. It hurt you too much, never being able to go back. It hurt all of us, Su. Why were you the only one who gave up? What was so good in this world to make you turn your back on Narnia? I know you have all those friends, but don't we mean more? Doesn't Aslan mean more?

Peter, Edmund and I managed to live without Narnia. We could still talk about, remember it, save it from being forgotten. It was so much better when Eustace and Jill went back as well. We had new friends to talk to about it, as well as the Professor and Aunt Polly. They helped us, told us what happened to all our old friends.

Don't you remember, Susan? The time we watched Aslan die on the Stone Table, and come back to life? When we rode to the Witch's house on his back? When we saw Edmund nearly die on the battlefield, and brought back to life by the cordial Father Christmas gave me? Do you remember your horn and bow that he gave you? Peter's sword and shield? Do you remember falling back through the wardrobe and feeling the years just fall away until we were just children again? Do you remember why Edmund changed? Peter? Me? You changed too, Susan. You've gone back to what you were before, though, before Narnia. Do you remember Caspian, and beating Trumpkin in that archery contest? Do you remember anything?

Susan's tears started to fall onto the letter as she read it. It all came rushing back suddenly, a sudden flood of memories. She read the end of the letter through blurred eyes, the letters swimming on the page in front of her.

I'm sorry for you if you can't or won't remember. You've cut so much out of your life if you have. Today Peter, Edmund and I are leaving to stay at the Professor's. I wish you were coming too.

Once we were Queens of Narnia, Susan. Remember that at least, even if you want to deny the rest. You will always be a Queen of somewhere, even if that place is unattainable. It's just a matter of believing.

I just want you to know that whatever happens, you'll always be my sister. And I'll always remember you as you were in Narnia. Susan the Gentle. That aspect of you never changed.

Love, Lucy.

Susan had stopped crying by now. There were no more tears left to come. Lucy was gone. And Susan couldn't follow her. Not now, not ever.

Lucy watched.

Peter and Edmund had joined her by now. Jill, Edmund, Aunt Polly and the Professor were still off greeting old friends.

Edmund turned abruptly to Lucy. "Why did you leave her that letter?"

"I don't know. There were just a few things that I couldn't have said to her face that were easier to put down on paper. I hoped that if she read the letter while we weren't there, she might have changed when we got back..." Lucy smiled. "It would have been nice to come back and find her back to how she was, don't you think?"

Peter hadn't taken his eyes off the window. "Do you think she believes now, or not?"

"She does." The three children turned to face Aslan.

"Then she can come back?" Lucy asked excitedly.

"She missed her chance, Lucy Pevensie. There are some things even I can't do."

Lucy's face fell, and her eyes swam with tears. "So we'll never see her again?"

"Did I say that, Daughter of Eve?"

Lucy looked Aslan in the face for a few moments more, then lowered her eyes and turned back t the window showing her sister.

"Lucy." She didn't look round as Aslan came to stand next to her. "The window must be closed. It can only be opened for short times, or this world will change into something similar to your world, not the perfect place it is meant to be."

Lucy stood completely still for a second, then nodded and walked back down the hill to join her brothers. Aslan watched through the window for a while, then breathed on it, and sighed sorrowfully as the vision of Susan Pevensie faded into nothing.

Susan Pevensie opened her eyes to see the letter lying on her bedside table, where she had put it before switching off her light and crying herself to sleep the night before. She swung herself out of bed, and went to look at her reflection in her mirror.

The same girl looked out at her as last week, but this one had a regal air about her, even though it was hidden beneath layers of a sorrow that was so deep as to enclose her entire being. She smiled slightly. Queen Susan the Gentle lived again.

Two weeks later, Susan still hadn't gotten used to the fact that her family was gone.

She still walked home every night, opened the door and shouted to her mother to tell her she was home, only to cut herself off mid-sentence as she felt the emptiness of the house.

She still walked along to Lucy's room when she had a problem and wanted to talk about it to somebody, only to stop halfway along the corridor and remember that Lucy had gone.

She still turned round when the door slammed, expecting to see Edmund there, having gotten home from school and in a towering temper because of something someone had said to him.

She still expected Peter to come into her room when she was upset, to comfort her as only he had been able to do. As he had been able to comfort everybody.

She still watched the clock until six in the evening for her father to come home from his work, tired and hungry.

Sometimes she even found herself calling to them in the morning when she left for work, to say goodbye.

Until, one day, several years later, she came back home after work to find someone sitting in her front room waiting for her.

"L-l-lucy?" Susan, for the first time in her life, stuttered like a schoolgirl. "W-w-what...?"

Her sister turned round to face her, and smiled. "Susan."

"How... how is this possible? You died... train crash... years ago..."

Lucy smiled again. "I did, didn't I?"

"But..."

"Aslan sent me."

"Aslan? Why?"

"To bring you home, of course."

"Really? Even though, you know, I..." Susan trailed off, looking anywhere but at her sister.

"Of course! We never gave up on you, you know."

"And I can go back? To Narnia, I mean?"

"Do you believe you can?" Lucy smiled, and held out her hand.

Susan hesitated, then took her sisters hand, saying as she did so. "I never really stopped."

As the two girls' hands touched, Susans spirit departed from this world and met Lucys as she returned to Narnia for the last time.

The police found Susans body in her house in London five hours later. The doctor announced that she had obviously suffered a heart attack and died. The only factor that (some said) seemed to belie this reasoning was the smile on her face. She was home.

Hmmmmm... I don't really like the ending, better ideas welcome, please review, you know the drill. Thanks to all who reviewed and I'm sorry for the wait.

Carly