Chapter 7

Edmund stood in front of the large window in his Brother's council room, staring out at the vast ocean. He needed space and time to think. Behind him, his siblings discussed Ileana and her daughters.

Susan believed Ileana because of her dreams. (Her dreams were another issue entirely that Edmund didn't currently have the mental capacity to deal with, and how could she have possibly kept something like that from them?!) Lucy believed Ileana because Lucy's…well, Lucy: ready and willing to trust anything that moves. And yet she's a great judge of character; her assessments were never wrong and therefore must be considered with high regard. Peter remained skeptical, but that was mostly for Edmund's sake.

What did Edmund think? Well, he was torn, especially after the episode at dinner.

Two hours earlier

After their duel, Edmund couldn't shake the last image of Ileana from his mind. The broken-hearted look in her eyes when he didn't return her affections crushed him, more than it should have and he couldn't understand why. He thought perhaps it would be best to try and avoid her, for her sake not his, so that she wouldn't have to feel such pain again not so that he wouldn't have to see it.

He did pretty well the first hour, Nalsa warned him when she was approaching and he was able to duck around the corner or enter another room. Then his Sister called him to dinner and he couldn't refuse. He told himself it wouldn't be that bad. He didn't have to look at her; they wouldn't have to talk. But he forgot one very important thing.

Ileana wasn't alone.

"Babbo!" a tiny girl screeched before running across the marbled floor towards him. Her hair was the exact same shade as his but she had her mother's curls. Her smile reminded him of Lucy's, and her eyes were a deep chocolate brown. She stopped just before reaching him. Her smile faded and those chocolate eyes stared at him in confusion.

"Er—" What was he supposed to do? "Hi…there."

Her eyes clouded with tears and her bottom lip began to tremble.

"Sarina? Topa, what's wrong?" Ileana asked, crouching beside her.

"Where's Babbo?" the girl asked turning to her mother. Ileana's eyes flashed up to Edmund for the briefest of moments. "Where's Babbo? I want Babbo!"

And then the girl began to cry, wailing at the top of her lungs. Ileana quickly scooped her up in her arms and rocked her back and forth while trying to soothe her. It didn't work.

"Babbo! Babbo! I wan' Babbo!" she cried as Ileana carried her out of the dining hall. Edmund could still hear her screams as he approached the now silent table.

"What's a bob-oh?" he asked.

"Daddy."

Edmund swore under his breath. He didn't see the other daughter standing with Lucy. Her eyes, he noticed, matched Ileana's perfectly but her hair was two shades darker and had none of the curl.

"It means 'Daddy,'" she said again. "It's what we call…our Papà. It's what he wanted us to call him."

"Oh," was all Edmund could say.

"Sara's his little princess," she continued. "We both are. Mamma doesn't like it when he calls us that, but Babbo says 'I am a King and they my daughters, by all rights and prescriptions they are Princesses.'"

She paused and looked at him, tears filling her eyes; that made him three for three. Lucy wrapped an arm around her.

"I'm sorry, but I… I think I should go see to Mamma and Sara. Might I be excused, Unc…I mean King Peter?"

Peter fumbled over his words uncharacteristically before consenting; he must have been as thrown as Edmund was.

Present time

"Ed? Ed, what do you think?" Peter asked.

What did he think? He didn't want to think. He didn't want to think about Ileana or her daughters or what she knew. How could she have known?

"I'm not talking about the tiny spot on your elbow." Her eyes glimmered with playful ease. "I'm talking about the larger one…by your…"

"Any former lover could have betrayed my trust."

Former lover? That was a lie. He could count the number of girls he'd kissed on one hand, and none of them had ever been so intimate. He wasn't against the notion; he was just waiting for…something more, something that felt right. So how could she have known?

Ugh. He really didn't want to think about it; it was giving him a headache, but there was something else, something so glaringly obvious he couldn't ignore. How could she have known?

"Ed," Peter called to him again, this time in his High King voice. Edmund turned from the window. "What's your assessment of the Lady Ileana?"

"I… believe her," Edmund said with a sigh.

"See! There… Wait! What?"

"I believe her," Edmund said again. Lucy looked gleefully triumphant, Susan a little less so, but Peter looked bewildered.

"Of the four of us, I have the most reason to be doubtful. But...I believe her. I don't want to, but I have to. She knows things she shouldn't."

"What sort of things?" Peter asked.

"Personal things that only I know."

"How personal?"

Edmund eyed Peter pointedly. "Intimately so."

"Oh." Peter's eyebrow rose.

"It's not just that, though," Edmund carried on. "If that's all it was I'd say she's using some perverse looking glass or something. But, she…she knows about the Hillside. She knows what Aslan said to me."

"But you've never…"

"I've never told anyone, I know. And I never intended to tell anyone. What He said was between me and Him. But He… He did tell me that one day I…that one day I might share it…with the one who shared my heart. Which is why…I don't understand how, but I believe her."

"Oh, Ed." Lucy sighed looking less triumphant. "We couldn't possibly know or understand all the reasons Aslan does what He does. We simply must trust He has a purpose and a will behind it."

"I know, Lu. But that begs the issue, that if it is His will that brought her here, then it is not up to Us to send her home."

"How do we tell her that?" Susan asked. "All she wants is to go back. I do not think that she will accept that she must simply wait for her purpose to be filled before she can leave."

"Let me speak to her. I think she will take it better from me," Lucy said.

XXX

It was a thoroughly exhausting day for Lena. Her training with Meri had been tiring. The duel with Edmund was draining, both physically and emotionally. Her time with Lucy and the girls in the music room was refreshing, but then dinner came and it took an hour to calm Sara down; she was most decidedly Babbo's bambina.

Sara had just fallen asleep when Prima, the Leopard assigned as Lena's night guard, pushed her way through the door. She padded over and met Lena in the middle of the room. "Queen Lucy is here to see you, Lady Ileana. Will you take her here or in your own quarters?"

Lena looked back at Sara. She was tucked snugly in her bed, her cloth doll embraced tightly to her chest, and she was fast asleep. With any luck, she'd stay that way through the night. Still, Lena didn't want to test it.

"My quarters, please," she whispered turning back to the Leopard. They walked across the hall together where Lucy was already waiting for her.

"I hope you don't mind me letting myself in," Lucy said.

"Of course not, Lu. You're always welcome at ou—here," Lena finished quickly covering her near slip. "I'd offer you some wine, but I have none nor ale I'm afraid. No, gin," Lena corrected. "A day like today requires gin, or a smoke, or a damn good shag. But I guess all three of those are out."

"I didn't know you smoked; I'm sure we could find a Dwarf's pipe." Lucy said.

Lena shrugged. "It's an old habbit. I haven't had one since Sara was born. Ed never really liked it and… he's always been inclined to help with one of the other options."

Lucy pinched her face in disapproval. "I love my brother, dearly, but there are some things, like that, that I don't need to know."

Lena smiled. "Yes, you prefer to hear about the times he's being an arse not about the times I've seen his—"

"How's Sara doing?" Lucy cut across Lena, a playful gleam in one eye and queenly authority in the other. Lena knew not to push the matter, nor could she at the mention of her youngest.

"She's…" Lena sighed. "I'll be honest with you, Lu. She's confused. She sees a man with Babbo's face and she hears Babbo's voice when he speaks, but she senses there's something different about him, something that makes him not be Babbo anymore. She doesn't know what to make of it; none of us do really."

"He doesn't mean to make things difficult for any of you."

"I know. He's never cruel for the sake of being cruel; it's not his nature. But no matter how much he denies it, there is something real between us or… at least there will be."

"He…he doesn't deny it though."

"What?"

"He believes, as we all do, that you and your daughters are from that other place and that we are family there. He believes you are his wife."

There was nothing Lena could do but sit on the bench at the foot of her bed as all the air rushed from her lungs. He believed. Lena was certain that after their duel, King Edmund would never believe her. But he believed. For one fleeting moment Lena was happy, hopeful but then what Lucy didn't say settled in.

"He believes…but he doesn't feel. Otherwise, it would be he who came to me, not you," Lena said in despair, tears forming at the corner of her eyes. Lucy smiled sympathetically; she couldn't deny it. "So this is how it feels when your husband of six years no longer loves you."

"That's not true!" Lucy said, rushing to sit next to Lena and taking her hand. "Your husband, Ed, loves you very much; of that I am certain. But my Brother, King Edmund, doesn't know you well enough to love you yet."

Nor shall he, Lena thought. She'd learned early in life, that if she locked away her heart then it couldn't be hurt. That's how she survived the years before Cuore. She pulled her hand from Lucy's and walked away.

"Is that all you came to tell me, Lucy or has there been any progress made in returning me and my daughters to our time?" Her words were cold and brusque, eliciting a low growl from Prima.

"It's all right, Prima. Lady Ileana is tried and upset. I am certain she meant no disrespect." Lucy, on the other hand, was the picture of poise and grace at the moment. Lena didn't want to say anything, but out of respect for the friendship that she had with Queen Lucy's counterpart in the other world, she did.

"Of course not, Lu. I am just anxious and ready to return home."

"I do not think it will be as easy as you hoped it would be."

"Certainly not, or I'd already be gone." There was another growl. "I'm sorry; please continue."

"If it were up to Us, Lena, then We would do everything in Our power to return you. But it's not up to Us. You are here by the Will of Aslan, and only by His will can you return."

"So what? Am I supposed to just sit here and wait and hope He hasn't forgotten about me?"

"He forgets nothing, but forgives everything," Lucy said poetically, then she moved towards Lena once more. "We are sending word to Mr. Tumnus; he was the first to find me when I entered. If anyone knows anything about the other place, it would be him. And I… I know I am not the sister you know there, but it is my wish that we can still be friends."

The thing about locking away your heart that Lena had not yet learned, was that once the key had been given to another then they could unlock it anytime they wished. Lena swiped at her tears and nodded her head.

1958, London

Lucy walked into the small room and found her brother holding one of Lena's frail hands between both of his, lips pressed to it, and head bowed in prayer. Lucy softly walked over to him and placed her hand on his shoulder as she joined him. After a few moments, Lucy felt his muscles flex as he lifted his head and placed a hand over hers in gratitude.

"How is she?" Lucy asked, pulling up a chair to sit next to him.

Edmund shook his head. "There hasn't been any significant change. She woke, maybe an hour ago, for just a minute but she's been sleeping ever since. The drugs help with that I guess."

Lucy rubbed the back of his shoulders.

"I keep thinking about those early days when she first arrived," he continued. "I was so cold to her; I tried to avoid her at all costs."

"I'm sure she repaid that coldness ten-fold when you found her again."

He half chuckled. "Twenty-fold is more like it." Then he wiped at his eyes.

"She never blamed you for it, you know. She knew it wasn't the same you; it wasn't her Core-yay."

Edmund smiled. "Cuore," he corrected.

"Core-ay."

"Quaw-ahy."

"Cu…Oh! I'll never be as good at speaking Italian as you are."

"But you'll enjoy their wines well enough."

"Oh, yes! I have no problems with that." She laughed in a rare moment of light-heartedness. Edmund smiled too, but his smile quickly faded.

"How are the girls?" he asked.

"Sleeping. Susan is with them now. They are dreaming of faraway lands with castles that gleam on the sea-side, of the Kings and Queens that rule there, and of marvelous Beasts that can talk." Lucy studied her brother's face as she spoke. His eyes were bloodshot with dark circles beneath them. She frowned. "When is the last time you slept, Ed?"

Edmund shook his head. "I can't. I've tried, but just when I begin to drift off I have a dream in which Lena wakes up and she needs me but I'm not there, and I… I can't leave her."

Edmund swallowed the lump in his throat while Lucy sniffled. "Please, Lu, don't start crying because then I'll start again."

"Oh, I'm s-sorry, Ed." Lucy quickly wiped her eyes and rubbed her nose on the sleeve of her arm.

"Sue would throw a fit if she saw you doing that."

"Well, I won't tell if you don't," Lucy said as Edmund did the same thing.

For a while, all that could be heard was the sniffling of tears, the wiping of noses, and the droning of machines. When Edmund spoke again, his voice was hoarse and dry.

"When the girls wake, Lu… will you send them in, please? They'll…they'll want to be here when…" The lump was suddenly back in his throat; he pushed it down.

"Even Sara?"

"Sara…" he swallowed and bit the inside of his cheek. "Sara may be too young to fully understand what's happening, but I won't take the moment from her. And…I'll want to see her again."

"Not as much, I think, as she'll want to see you."

Edmund smiled lightly.

"I'll bring them to you," Lucy continued, standing up to leave. "And, Ed, We're here for you. If you need anything, We're here."

"What I need, Lu…you can't give." His voice quivered as he lost the fight.

"I may not be able to," Lucy had to wipe at her own tears again. "But He can." She kissed the top of her brother's head. She stayed there a moment, cradling his head, her tears mingling with his hair, before pulling back.

"Lucy, wait... Will you…will you stay a bit longer…and pray with me some more?"

"Of course, Brother." Lucy reclaimed the empty chair next to him. Then she clasped his hand tightly in hers, leaned into his side, and led them in prayer.

The end of this chapter always hits me.