Disclaimer: I don not own any of the characters in this story yet, though I particularly wish I owned Peter. -smiles-
Authors Note: This will be a rather long chapter because I want the story to officially start the next chapter. This is just a few clippings from the movie and some twists of my own added. So don't skip ahead on me, because I worked for an hour on this chapter!
Peter lay underneath the oak tree in his backyard and gazed up at the cloud filled sky. It was a perfect day for cloud spotting, in his mind so he began to name shapes he spotted.
"Cor, look at that cloud. Looks like a big old ship!" came a voice.
It was Edmund.
"Hey Ed. What's going on in your world?"
Ed responded with a sigh and lay down next to Peter. "Mum is being a bitch." He said which made Peter take in a breath.
"Ed!" he cried and looked at his brother who was sporting a scowl.
"Well she is! She's making me pack all my icky suits. The one's with ties and Peter Pan collars."
Peter shook his head and stood up. A drop of rain had landed on his nose and the clouds were dark.
It was World War Two and Peter and his brother and sisters were being sent away to somewhere far away; to a Professor who had offered to watch them.
Peter started to walk in.
"Time for tea Ed. Don't want to be late, right?"
Edmund nodded and followed Peter into the house. Just as he was closing the door, he looked outside once more, realizing it could be the last time he ever played on the soft grass. The last time he would ever have snowball fights or splash Lucy his little sister with a hose in the summer. Sadness filled him and he looked up at the sky.
The ship was still there.
-X-
It was the dead of the night. Lucy lay, fast asleep in her bed dreaming of the summer and how she would miss it here in London, when a great bang that shook the whole house shook her awake.
"What?" she asked herself and peered out the window from her bed. There were lights swirling around like skylights. Just when she had laid her head back down on her pillow, almost asleep, there was a greater bang and thud followed by Peter shouting downstairs.
"Mummy!" Lucy cried and put her hands over her ears.
The banged open and Susan came in with a flashlight. She wildly looked around until she spotted Lucy crying in her bed.
"Lucy
come on!" she cried and pulled her out of bed, dragging her
downstairs.
At the bottom was her mother.
"Into the shed everyone! Hurry!"
Lucy went first, followed by Susan and their Mum, with Edmund then Peter in pursuit. Susan flung the door open and just as the girls and their Mum were in the shed Edmund cried out,
"Dad!"
He started racing back into the house.
"Edmund! Get back here!" Lucy's Mum cried.
Peter grimaced and started chasing Edmund. He turned only once turning around to shout, "Don't worry! I'll get him!"
Lucy watched until both her brothers were out of sight then turned to Susan.
"Will they be all right?" she asked, burying her face in Susan's arms.
Susan pushed Lucy away.
"Grow up Lucy, I'm not Mum." she grumbled, and then took in Lucy's reaction. "Oh fine. They'll be ok, all right?"
And then came the biggest bang yet as a bomb fell right outside their house window. Lucy screamed and started to sob. The door flew open again and Peter pushed Edmund in, a picture of their Dad smashing next to him. Her Mum instantly grabbed Edmund and hugged him. Peter however was red with rage.
"You're so selfish, you could have got us both killed!"
"Peter!" Mum cried and looked at him with pleading eyes.
Edmund was looking down at the picture, silent tears streaming down.
"Why can't you just do as you're told?" he whispered and pulled the door shut.
There was a silence then, as Peter took the top bunk of one of their shelter beds. He closed his eyes and curled into a ball, falling asleep instantly. Lucy climbed up next to Peter and whispered in his ear, "Thanks for saving Edmund." Then she crawled next to her Mum and fell asleep, but not before seeing Peter open his eyes and look around the cabin until spotting Edmund, a look of remorse on his face.
-X-
Daylight came quickly for Edmund. He was the first to wake, and he quietly crept outside, careful not to wake the others. It was difficult though because Peter had pulled the door shut so hard that the handle had fallen off.
Edmund walked over to the oak tree and climbed up the slippery bark to the top branch. He looked at the sky where he saw the ship cloud. It was defiantly the same ship, but it had blurred overnight so that it looked like it had snapped in half. How weird.
He was looking so intensely at the cloud, wondering why on Earth the image of a broken sip looked so familiar, that he didn't hear the rustle of branched until he heard a cough only a branch below him. He was so startled he felt himself slip off a bit, but grabbed on to the branch and regained his position. It was Peter who coughed. His blue eyes were sparkling next to leaves that were glistening with early morning dew.
"Ed, um...I wanted to apologize for…"
"I have to pee." Edmund lied and started to climb down. He was stopped when Peter moved in his way. "Move Peter. I have to pee."
"I want to apologi-"
"I really have to go Peter!" he whined and pushed at Peter with his foot.
Peter gave a great sigh and rapidly moved down branches until he was close enough to jump.
Edmund followed and raced for the door.
"Ed-I am so sorry!"
Edmund ignored him.
-X-
Peter looked around him. Three hundred or more had gathered at the station. All of the parents were crying or trying not to cry, pinning labels on their children. On the other side of the station was soldiers boarding the train for war.
Helen, Peter's Mum, stood up after pinning a label on Lucy and gazed at them all. Edmund was peering at a poster reading "Help the children, housing evacuees is a national service."
"If dad were here, he wouldn't make us go." Edmund grumbled.
"If dad were here it would mean the war was over, and we wouldn't have to go." Peter snapped.
"You will listen to your brother, won't you Edmund?" Helen asked.
Edmund gave a slight nod, not really meaning it.
Helen moved closer to Peter. She looked him up and down, and then gave him a hug, and Peter wished she'd never let go.
"Take care of the others." She pleaded.
"I will Mum." He whispered in her ear, and let go.
Peter didn't hear is Mum saying goodbye to anyone else. He clutched the tickets in his hands, as he watched everyone else say their teary goodbyes.
"Ok. Off you go." Helen said, smiling a bright as she could, despite her red eyes.
Peter grabbed Lucy's hand, a source of comfort he guessed, and moved toward the train. Lucy looked back a couple times until Peter crouched down next to her.
"Come on Lucy. Everything is going to be all right, we have to stick together now."
They reached the beginning of the line, but as soon as he was going to hand over the tickets, he spotted a soldier that was his age. A well of sorrow rose in his throat. He tried to swallow it, as Susan grabbed the tickets from his clammy palms, and handed them over with a "Tickets please Peter!" Good old Susan. Always taking charge when Peter should have.
-X-
Susan looked out the train window at her Mum. Myriad clumps of people were outside the train as well, waving goodbye. As the train took off, she only saw her Mum once more. Than Peter pulled her inside, taking them to a compartment that already held two small country-looking children.
Peter placed their baggage on the top shelf and they sat down. Susan looked out the window, trying so hard to forget that they were leaving their Mum. She tried to think of it as an adventure. Her mum had told her to and so she would. It would be difficult though. She didn't even know the Professor they were going to live with.
Lucy was already asleep, head in Peter's lap. Peter was holding on to her like a doll, and Edmund was grimacing as he looked out the window.
Finally, after several ours of complete silence a voice called out their address and they walked out the train. There was nobody their but themselves. Peter carried their numerous bags as they walked down the stairs of the train stop. A car appeared, and they were all sure that it was for them. They raced down only to see the car zooming by, clouds of dust following.
"Perhaps we've been incorrectly labeled?" Edmund asked and looked down at the label tied around his button.
It was warm for April. April 9 to be exact, which was why when a horse appeared and made dust rise around Susan, making her breath it all in, she found herself parched. She was dry as a bone but didn't dare ask the strange lady who introduced herself as Mrs. McCready for a drink when they entered the house.
Mrs. McCready told them all the rules, emphasizing that they should never bother the Professor, and then led them to their rooms. As soon as she left, they started to unpack, until Susan flopped down on the bed she and Lucy would share. Another bout of dust rose and she started to cough uncontrollably.
"It's a bit stuffy in here isn't it?" she finally asked, breaking the hours of silence between them. When she received no response, she went over to the only window in the room. "Well I think it is. Shall we open a window then?"
Peter hesitantly came over and helped her open it.
The fresh air poured in, and they all smiled.
"Time for bed Lucy." Peter finally said and helped her in.
"The sheets are scratchy." She said, tears in her voice.
"Don't worry Lucy, the war will all be over soon. Soon we'll go home."
"Yea, if home is still there." Edmund grumbled again, looking out the window.
"Hadn't you better go to bed?" Susan asked, angry that Edmund was ruining another moment.
"Yes Mum!" he grumbled.
"Ed!" Peter warned but stopped. "It's followed us…" he whispered and moved closer to the window.
Edmund walked over to where Peter was standing and gasped.
"I don't believe it." He whispered.
Susan followed over with Lucy behind.
What she saw was strange. A giant cloud was clearly visible in the sky. It was shaped like a ship. Only, the ship was broken in two, the part where the stern would be was lower than the bow part, almost as it were sinking in the other cloud below it.
And so, this is how our story beings, with the four Pevensie children staring out a window, at a cloud shaped like a ship, on the night of April 9.
