AN: Phew! This is one of my longer chapters. I had a blast writting it. I hope you like it.

"The fairies are never going to trust us again." Susan said softly as she laid back on her bed looking up at the beams on the ceiling. "What we did is unforgivable."

"What did we do that was so wrong?" Lucy protested in a slightly teary voice. "It wasn't our fault this got out."

"But we knew it could." Susan shook her head. "We put them at risk. We should have known better. I should have known better." She paused for a moment. "Peter would have known better. I failed his fairies and I failed him."

"You don't think he would have taken the photographs?" Lucy asked softly, not sure she agreed with her sister on this one.

"No, I don't." Susan told her.

"Maybe the fairies will understand." Lucy said, as she pulled back the bed covers and crawled in beside her sister. She had her own bed but they were both too shaken up to sleep alone tonight.

"They won't." Susan said, hopelessly. "We've betrayed them."

"Couldn't we do something for them?" Lucy offered.

"Like what?" Susan asked. "What in the world could we ever do for them?"

"We could bring them something." Lucy said, getting a bit of an idea now. "Something to say how sorry we are."

"They wont take cake from us again." Susan said trying not to cry. "I'm sure they'd starve first."

"No, not cake." Lucy knew that wasn't enough. They gave them cake all the time. "Something bigger. Much bigger."

"What else do fairies like besides cake?" Susan pondered aloud.

Lucy thought it over. "They like to dance."

"There's nothing we can give them to help with that." Susan told her. "They have their ring and they haven't used it since Mum, dad, and I made Peter stop believing. They'll play, but they wont dance now. At least not there. Maybe they have another ring somewhere else."

"That's it!" Lucy exclaimed. "I've got an idea."

Susan sat up and looked at her.

"We can build them a house." Lucy told her. "They can't really like living in those bushes, if that's where they really live. And we can use all the fairy chairs, couches, and beds I made for Marjorie. She gave them all back to me because she was upset about her parents taking the photographs to be tested."

"But what do we build the house out of?" Susan asked.

"I've collected a lot of stuff I was going to use to make some more things for Marjorie." Lucy explained. "We'll just use it on the fairy house."

"But what good is a house?" Susan asked. "it's too hopeless, Lucy. It wont make things any better."

"Yes it will." Lucy said. "Hear me out. We'll put it right in the fairy ring so that they know it's theirs to take away and we can use Peter's fairy drawings as wall paper."

Susan was horrified. Could Lucy really be willing to give up their dead brother's drawings? "Have you gone mad? We can't use his drawings! What would mum say?"

"This isn't about mum, Su." Lucy said firmly. "This is about the fairies."

"Alright." Susan gave in. "That's what we'll do then."

Lucy got out of the bed. "I can't sleep, can you?"

"No." Susan admitted. "I'm too nervous."

"We could work on the fairy house tonight so that we could put it in the ring first thing tomorrow."

And so they started to work. Lucy showed Susan how to weave the moss and sticks together to make walls and railings. Susan also made a beautiful chain of acorn tops (which she spray painted gold) to run along the top of the house like extra singles. With long twigs and some extra wood that they'd managed to take from one of their old doll houses, they made a tower with a sort of throne at the top for the queen to sit on. Bark and strong leaves made curtains and doorways. The last thing before they put it all together was the wall paper.

Lucy and Susan crept into Peter's room and opened his desk draw. They took all the fairy drawings they could find. Lucy grabbed a pair of scissors that had been near Peter's closet and fairly out of sight.

With great care, the girls took to cutting out the drawings and pasting them onto the walls of their fairy house.

"Lucy, can you cut these?" Susan asked, handing her the scissors and the remaining drawings. "My hands are shaking too much, I know I'll ruin them if this keeps up."

Lucy took over and finished the job. Soon they had a beautiful, earthy, doll-sized house in front of them. They looked up from their work and out the window. The sun was rising. They'd been working all night.

"Let's take it to the ring now." Lucy suggested. "Before anyone wakes up."

"Is it safe?" Susan wondered. "What about the reporter?"

"He mightn't be there now and it would be worse if we went later when someone would be more likely to come looking for us." Lucy told her.

"That's right." Susan said, wiping a bit of paste off her night gown. "Help me lift it."

Lucy took one side and Susan took the other, together they made their way out of the room, down the stairs, out of the house, down the lane, across the street right to Mrs. Esmara's garden.

"Here we are." Susan said, as they reached the fairy ring. "Let's ease it down carefully so it doesn't break."

Lucy nodded and slowly started bending her knees. They house slid right down into the ring. It fit perfectly, like the ring of mushrooms had been made just for the fairy house.

Lucy pulled a bit of cake out her pocket and put it in the house. It couldn't hurt to put it there. Surely they'd be forgiven now.

"Rosie!" Susan started calling her little leaf-carrying fairy. "Come on out, it's me, Susan."

She didn't come.

"Toad!" Lucy started calling for one of the gnomes. "Come see the house we've made! You'll love it!"

"Jeo!" Susan called out for another gnome. "Jeo we have cake for you."

"You're majesty?" Lucy tried calling for the queen. "Come out, please. We wish to see you."

They called out until their voices were hoarse. They climbed along the bank, and the grassy spots and the bushes, forgetting that they were still in their night-clothes. There was no answer from any of the fairies. And not a single fairy allowed itself to be found.

It's no use, Susan thought sadly. She knew the were there, she could just sense it. But they weren't answering. They were still angry.

As Lucy came close to the bush where she and Susan had seen the fairies for the first time, she heard a rustling.

It wasn't gentle or small enough to be a fairy. Perhaps it was a cat or a small dog. Lucy took a step closer. Whatever it was, was bigger than she'd thought at first. The size of a person.

"Susan?" Lucy said. "is that you?" No answer but she caught sight of the tip of a man's boot. She thought it looked like one of Edmund's boots.

"Edmund?" Lucy said, feeling a bit nervous though she wasn't sure why. "Come out, you're scaring me."

A man came out of the bushes and grabbed onto her arm. It wasn't Edmund after all. It was Roy. She'd thought it possible that he was hiding in the bushes near her house but she'd never thought he'd be waiting here.

Lucy let out a yelp and tried to pull away from him.

"Listen here." Roy growled, tightening his grip on her arm so she couldn't get away. "I'm in a fowl mood and I want the truth now. Tell me, did Colin Lee Marcus put you up to it?"

"No." Lucy said in a small voice feeling very frightened by the man's cold, almost inhuman stare.

"Don't lie to me." Roy tightened him grip so much that his nails dug into Lucy's arm.

She let out a scream from the sudden pain. It hurt terribly and she was sure it was going to leave a bruise.

"Lucy?" Susan heard the scream and came running to find her sister. Racing down the green slope she almost banged right into Roy who still wouldn't let go of Lucy's arm. Tears were streaming down her face.

"Ah, the other fairy girl graces us with her presence." Roy said mockingly.

"Let her go." Susan demanded.

"Not until I get the truth." Roy insisted.

"If you don't leave right now..." Susan tried to think of something threatening to say.

"What?" Roy pouted and pretended to look worried. "Are the fairies going to leap out and hit me? Or perhaps your brother will come back from the dead and beat me?" He laughed, thinking himself far more witty than he really was.

Susan glared at him and kicked him in the shins as hard as she could. He was so surprised that he let go of Lucy's arm.

"Run, Lucy, Run." Susan told her as they both started running as fast as their legs would take them. Lucy had shorter legs and kept falling behind. She would have grabbed on to Susan's hand so that she could keep up but she was in too much of a panic to think of that.

Much to her horror, Lucy lost sight of where her sister had run to. She stumbled over a tree root that was sticking up and right into a fairy ring she had never seen before. Susan was right, they did have another ring after all. She meant to get up and leap out of the ring right away to avoid being captured but she had fallen so suddenly and was in such shock that she forgot to do so. She saw fairies approaching.

Are they going to kidnap me? Lucy wondered feeling surprising calm for someone in her situation. But much to her surprise, the fairies were carrying something which they dropped in the ring beside her. It was a white handkerchief with the letters L.P. on it. She picked it up and examined it.

"Hey that the one I loaned to Peter the day he..." Lucy's heart stopped beating for a moment. She'd loaned it to him the day he'd gone missing.

She looked up at the fairies for an explanation but they flew away, clearly not planning on taking her with them. Were they still angry? Did they know where Peter was? How had they gotten the handkerchief?

Meanwhile, Susan was still running thinking her sister was right behind her. She banged into someone. Assuming it was Roy, she let out a scream.

"Shh. It's alright, Phyllis, it's me." A kind voice said.

Susan looked up. It was Charles Finbar. She'd known it had to be him when he'd said, "Phyllis" She wasn't sure why he'd used that name seeing as she'd already told him the her real one, then she figured out it was to reassure her that she was safe. She thought that was rather sweet of him.

"Charles?" Susan put her hand to her heart. "You scared me, I thought you were the reporter..." She started looking around for Lucy. "It's alright, Lu. You can come out, it's a friend."

Lucy didn't answer.

"Lucy?" Susan tried again. "oh, no."

"What's wrong?" Charles asked.

"My sister..." Susan explained. "I thought she was right behind me."

"Let's go find her." Charles instantly started looking around. He turned back to Susan. "Her name's Lucy, right?"

Susan nodded.

"Lucy!" He called as he wandered around the denser parts of the garden. "Lucy!"

Finally Susan spotted a little girl with blood-shot eyes carrying a white handkerchief, walking towards them.

She raced up to Lucy and threw her arms around her. "Thank goodness!"

Lucy didn't hug back, she just looked over at Charles. "Who is that?"

"Oh," Susan forgot she didn't know him. "This is Charles."

"You must be Lucy." Charles said, shaking her hand. "I'm glad we finally found you."

"What are you doing here anyway?" Susan asked him.

"Well I came to see you, Phyllis-Susan." Charles explained. "I saw the photographs in the magazine and I recognized you right away. I wanted to come and see you but I didn't know where you lived until that reporter put your address in the paper."

He eased down on a rock and the girls sat next to him, one on either side. They were pretty sure they'd lost Roy a while back in the garden and felt fairly safe.

"They're real, aren't they?" Charles asked the girls, a smile forming on his face. He looked to Lucy first who nodded. Then to Susan.

"Yes, they're as real as we are." Susan assured him.

"I knew it!" Charles beamed at them and grabbed both their hands.

Susan blushed a little (She thought maybe she was starting to really like Charles after all) at the thought of a boy holding her hand while she was still in her night-clothes.

"We really should get back." Susan said quickly, letting go of his hand.

"Yes, everyone will wonder where we were." Lucy agreed, letting go of his other hand.

"Can I come with you both just in case that reporter is still around here some place?" Charles asked.

"You would do that?" Susan asked him.

"Phyllis-Susan." He laughed, putting his hands on his hips. "Do you really think I want anything to happen to you or your sister?"

"Why does he call you Phyllis-Susan?" Lucy whispered.

"Long story." Susan whispered back.

Back home, Mr. and Mrs. Pevensie didn't know their daughters had left the house but Edmund had gone into their bedroom to ask them a question only to find they weren't there. He was terrified What if Roy got them a hold of them? Why couldn't they just stay in the house where it was safe? Why? What were they thinking?

Now he saw three figures coming up to the side door. Thankfully none of them were Roy. It was Susan, Lucy, and that boy who's rich dad owned the school Susan attended.

"Thanks be to the lion!" He exclaimed, throwing opened the side room and rushing out to meet them. "Are you alright?"

"Yes, Ed, we're fine." Susan told him, as she was nearly crushed by her brother's tight hug.

"But what's going on?" He asked pulling away from her. "Why are you all dirty and in your night-clothes?"

"We were trying to do something nice for the fairies." Lucy explained simply.

Edmund rolled his eyes. "Safety first." He told them. Oh dear Aslan, he thought to himself, I'm turning into my brother.

A week later, Lucy and Marjorie went for a Sunday afternoon car ride with Mr. Preston.

Lucy was more than pleased to get away from the house that was often surrounded by reporters, none of them as wicked as Roy, but just as annoying. Susan and Edmund had gone somewhere with their parents to avoid the area too. She thought sadly that it was only a matter of time before people came with nets to Mrs. Esmara's garden and scared the fairies off for good.

"Why are we stopping?" Marjorie asked her parents.

"Oh, I just wanted to drop in here and say hello to Mr. Trent." Mr. Preston explained.

"Can we come in too?" Marjorie asked. She turned to Lucy. "You'll like him, he's a very nice man. He's the one that tested your photographs and didn't tell anyone about them."

"I suppose you could come but we're only staying for a few minutes." Mr. Preston warned them. "and you must control yourself, Marjorie, no banging into things this time."

"I wont." Marjorie promised.

"Me neither." Lucy said, even though she'd gained a matter of grace during her time as a queen in Narnia and rarely ever banged into anything now-a-days.

"Hullo." Mr. Trent came to the door. "Do come in."

They walked in and a tired-looking house keeper offered to take their coats for them. Mr. Preston shook his head.

"You've really grown, Marjorie." Mr. Trent told her. "Who's your friend here?"

"This is Lucy." She told him.

"Pleased to meet you." Lucy said politely.

Mr. Trent smiled at her. "Why don't you girls go over to the living room over there and play with the cats for a bit while I talk to your father?"

"Okay." Marjorie shrugged. "I haven't seen Blackie in a while."

Lucy went to the bathroom first because it had been a long car ride.

"So," Mr. Preston asked Mr. Trent. "How is Rupert?"

Mr. Trent sighed. "He's come down with a bad cold, possibly the flu. Nothing we can't take care of but I still worry about him. He's in the guest room resting now."

As Lucy walked out of the bathroom and passed a slightly open door way, she heard muffled moans and slight coughing. She looked both ways then tip-toed into the room. In the middle of the room on the bed, buried under the covers all the way up to their hairline, someone was shivering and crying in their sleep.

There wasn't much she could do about the moaning but she thought that perhaps the poor soul would feel a little better if she put an extra blanket over them. Lucy noticed a warm wool blanket on a rocking chair near the dark-curtained window. She picked it up and put it over the person on the bed. Whomever it was stopped shivering and their coughs and moans lessened a bit. They seemed to be in a less fitful sleep now.

Lucy had an urge to pull down the covers a little to see what the person looked like, if they were ill or disfigured. Young or old. She assumed it was a young person, probably a boy. A boy with blond hair. She wondered if he was anything like her lost brother. But before she could decide whether or not it would be rude to take just a quick peek, she heard Marjorie's voice calling her.

"Lucy, come on, we're leaving."

Lucy walked softly out of the room and made sure she was well into the hallway before calling back, "Coming."

Hours later, Rupert woke up with an extra blanket on top of him.

"Was I cold this afternoon?" He asked Mr. Trent that night at dinner.

"I don't know." Mr. Trent told him. "I wasn't with you this afternoon."

"So you didn't put an extra blanket over me?" He asked.

"Nope." Mr. Trent told him, as he started eating his potatoes. "Maybe it was the house keeper."

The house keeper passed by. "It wasn't me."

Rupert had a strong feeling that whomever the mystery person was, it was someone who cared about him. He just wished he knew exactly who it was.

AN: Please review. You review, I smile. You don't, I frown. So Review!