A/N: Well, here is the next installment. Not too much excitement, just getting them from place to place, which I felt had to be done. I did quite a bit of skipping in the first part and wanted to slow this down. For those who wanted more Peter point-of-view, I have been thinking how to incorporate some of his experiences via memories/dreams. Didn't do it here, but stay tuned!

A/N 2: This chapter has been revised since it was originally posted. It now includes an additional scene.

Part Two:

Edmund, Lucy, Susan and Helen Pevensie were loathe to leave the room.

They each silently feared that if they did, Peter wouldn't be there when they returned. That it would all turn out to be a very nice dream, but not real. That he would be gone. Dead, as they'd been told.

So when they were all jolted to awareness by a string of loudly muttered curses from a well-loved voice, small smiles graced their faces. Edmund was the first to open his eyes and take in the sight of his older brother trying in vain to untangle himself from his youngest sister's embrace and his blanket without aggravating his already irritated wound.

Mrs. Pevensie came to his rescue by shaking Lucy awake and drawing her off into the kitchen, where the two set about preparing a hearty breakfast. Susan stretched like a cat and smiled at her older brother. "Feeling better?" she asked.

Peter gingerly tried a small stretch and was pleasantly surprised to feel little pain. He smiled at that and nodded. "Much."

Edmund stood and brushed lint off his pants. "Well, need to use the loo then?" He held out a hand without waiting for Peter to answer yes or no, knowing his brother, being human and all, would definitely need to use the bathroom.

He was pleasantly surprised when Peter managed to rise with a minimal amount of pain in his expression and walk somewhat steadily to the lavatory. Edmund idled outside the door to wait for his brother, drawing a decidedly exasperated sigh and eye roll from the latter upon exiting the toilet.

"Ed, you don't have to hover. I got from Greece to England, I'm not going to collapse between the loo and the kitchen, you know." Peter smiled lightly, laying a hand on his brother's arm and using it, albeit barely, to steadily enter the kitchen where his mother and sisters were setting out eggs and bacon.

He was about to dig in to his eggs with he noticed four envelopes on the table near his mother's seat. "Mum," he said, eyes narrowed, "what are those? They look like boarding school letters…"

Mrs. Pevensie gasped and nodded, picking them up. "I had totally forgotten about them. These came yesterday, just before you arrived home, Peter. The new school year starts next week! There's even one for you here. They must not have gotten the news we did from the Army." She frowned and shuddered at the memory, but recovered quickly and shuffled through the letters and withdrew one, handing it to Peter, who perused it with an odd expression on his face.

"It'll be weird to go to school after…" he cut himself off, not voicing the thought partly because it would upset his family and partly because he didn't wish to remember most of it. Placing the letter beside his plate and thoughtfully taking a few bites of eggs, he added, "But I suppose it would be best to get on with things."

His mother smiled fondly. "You always took things head on, Peter. Never a moment's hesitation."

Peter's gaze dropped as he remembered a time when he had wavered. The eve of the battle of Beruna, when he had despaired upon learning of Aslan's disappearance from camp; he hadn't taken the battle head on without some help that time around. His gaze shifted briefly to Edmund, the one who had given him the courage to go ahead with the battle.

But he quickly shook off the thoughts and continued eating. He was aware the others were casting glances his way more often than not, but it didn't bother him for once. In fact, it felt good to be worried about after so long in the army where he had felt like just another body in uniform.

The family finished the meal in silence and Mrs. Pevensie went about preparing for work. She lingered at the doorway, clinging longer than usual to Peter before she started down the walkway. Every few steps she would turn and glance back at her son, who obligingly remained in the doorway until she was out of sight.

Peter turned around and was immediately bombarded by Lucy. "How do you feel? Oh I wish we could go back to Narnia, I could heal you right up with my cordial. Do you need anything? Can I help you somehow…?"

She trailed off when Peter laid both his hands on her shoulders and smiled. "Lu. I'm all right, really. I just need to take it easy. Why don't you come sit down with me and we'll play a game or something?"

Lucy nodded enthusiastically and the two spent the rest of the morning and part of the afternoon playing board game after board game. Edmund and Susan eventually joined them, though Susan didn't play – instead she settled into a nearby armchair and began to read a thick, dusty tome she had dragged out from her room.

The week before the start of school term went by fast.

But there was one important thing Peter knew he had to do, though he was a nervous wreck about it. The morning before they were to catch the train to school, he stopped Edmund just outside his room and pulled him inside, shutting the door behind them.

"Pete? Are you all right?" Edmund asked as his brother dragged him awkwardly to the other side of the room, away from the door. "Why are we practically in your closet?"

Releasing Edmund's arm, Peter glanced at the door one more time before answering. "I have to go to the nearest Army officials and report that I'm not actually dead, Ed," he said quietly. "I don't know if they are going to discharge me or not. I don't want Mum to know where I'm going."

Edmund frowned. "Don't you mean we, Peter," he said. "Because you aren't tramping about London alone when the best bit of walking you can do is a shuffle."

For once, Peter didn't argue.

"Fine, us," he said. "But if they don't let me come home, you'll have to tell the girls and Mum what happened." Edmund bristled beside him, shaking his head.

"They can't expect you to fight again!" he hissed. "It's been five months and you can still barely walk. Surely that counts for something!"

Peter shrugged. "I don't know, I'm just warning you. I want to have all possible outcomes covered," he said. "I planned to just go to the local recruitment office; they should be able to take care of this."

It was Edmund's turn to shrug now. "Sure, if you say so. When do we leave?"

Peter frowned. "Ten minutes," he said. "The sooner we take care of this the better."

((((((((((((( ))))))))))))))

Forty minutes later, Peter and Edmund stood outside the recruitment office. Or rather, Edmund stood and Peter leaned heavily on him. They appeared to be arguing as Army personnel hurried in and out the doors to the office, carrying boxes and other office supplies.

"Why can't I come in with you?" Edmund asked. Again.

Peter shook his head. "I'll be fine for a few minutes, Ed," he said. "And the place is obviously bustling. You would just be in the way. Heck, I'm probably going to be in the way."

Pulling away from Edmund, the blonde brother took a faltering step toward the door, holding his breath for a moment until he regained his balance. His legs were shaking lightly, but that was probably just because of the train ride.

In the window glass he could see Edmund ready to leap at a moment's notice to catch him if he fell. A small smile crept across his face at the thought, and shaking his head he opened the door and entered.

The inside of the office was even more chaotic than the entrance and Peter had to be careful as people streamed around him. Barely dodging a man with far too many boxes in his arms, Peter drew to a stop in front of the only desk still set up and waited for the Corporal to acknowledge him.

"Something I can do for you?" The man said, not actually looking up the papers he was sifting through, or putting down the phone against his ear.

Clearing his throat, Peter spoke.

"Um. I'm Corporal Peter Pevensie. I'm here to report in and to have the Army's records changed to show that I am actually alive, not dead as they appear to show," he said, trying not to fidget when the man showed no sign of having heard him.

He obviously had, though.

"Why would there be such a mistake?"

Peter sighed. "I was wounded in Greece and was in the hospital for three months," he said. "My ID tags were lost and no one believed me to be a soldier. Took me two months to get home with my injury, and I can still barely walk."

The man looked up for a moment at the hunched figure in front of him then back at his paperwork, pausing to bark something into the phone. There was a great crash behind Peter as the man spoke and all the younger boy heard was "Discharge?"

Peter nodded in response.

"Fill these out."

Peter did as he was told quickly and then pushed the papers back across the desk, an odd expression on his face. Surely it can't be this easy, he thought to himself.

But the man waved him off with an "I'll take care of it," and Peter frowned, but moved off as he was being strongly urged to do.

Behind him, the Corporal collected a pile of papers and pushed them into a box. Another pile, he shoved off the desk into a garbage bin. Then he stood, slammed the phone down, and grumbled, "Damn headquarters."

(((((((((((((((((())))))))))))))))))

"All finished?" Edmund asked incredulously as Peter shuffled out the door, every so often glancing back at the Corporal who was now rushing about the office like the others. "I mean, no exam?"

Peter shrugged. "He said discharge and he'd take care of it," he said. "It seems a bit odd." He contemplated going back in and making sure the man had actually listened to him, but the word discharge had been unmistakable.

Wobbling a little, he shook his head and looked at Edmund. "I think if I went back in there, it would be pointless, he packed away the papers I signed anyway," he said.

With a sigh, Edmund nodded. "All right, then let's get you home."

The next morning…

Peter would never admit it to his siblings or his mother, but he was uncertain how the change from soldier to school boy was going to affect him.

It had been bullets and mayhem on the battlefield. Could he make the transition to books and studying that school would require? He wasn't so sure he could. After all, he had been an adult ruling a kingdom in Narnia, then a young soldier fighting in a war zone. How could he be expected to simply sit in a classroom now?

Peter sighed and put the last of his clothing into a small case on his bed. He glanced at his bedside table and noted the time. If they didn't get to the station, the four Pevensie siblings were going to miss the train.

The door to his bedroom opened and Mrs. Pevensie leaned in with a small smile. She'd been smiling more in the last week than she had in the last year. "Peter, dear. Are you ready to go? We don't want to be late and the station is going to be jam-packed."

Hefting his suitcase in his right hand, Peter nodded and followed his mother from the room to find his siblings assembled by the front door. He and Edmund were dressed in the blue jackets and gray pants of their boarding school, and Lucy and Susan in the red blazers and gray skirts of their own school. Each held a small valise, similar to Peter's.

The tram trip to the station was subdued. None of the Pevensies really wanted to part with each other yet. Lucy had clung to her brother all the previous night, as if she would never see him again. He understood her fear and had sportingly allowed her to shadow his every move. Now, she sat abnormally close to him.

"Lu, it's only for a school term," Peter said, nudging her arm. "And I promise to write every week."

The young girl looked up and smiled at him. "You better," she said in response, jabbing his right leg with her pointer finger. "Or else…"

Mrs. Pevensie smiled at her children as the tram pulled up to the station.

It was nearly noon and there was a mad dash of lunch travelers scurrying about the station. Peter found himself hard-pressed to avoid being jostled and his siblings, perceptive as always, formed a protective ring around him, letting the commuters rushing about hit them instead of their brother.

Helen, loathe to let her kids go, hugged each tightly before disappearing into the crowd to get to work on time. That left Peter, Edmund, Susan and Lucy seated on a bench under the tiled "Strand" sign as the train approached their stop.

Suddenly, Lucy yelped and leapt to her feet. "Hey, who pinched me!?"

Peter jerked next and also stood, glaring at Edmund, who in turn said with arms thrown up, "I didn't touch you, Peter!"

For a moment, there was nothing, then, "HEY!" Edmund and Susan stood quickly, glancing back at the bench as if it was to blame for the pinches.

"That felt like magic," Lucy commented, looking to Susan with a broad grin.

"Hold hands," Susan commanded, her tone allowing no argument.

The four siblings, hands linked, watched as the train roared through the station. They were taken aback when they thought they saw trees through the speeding windows. And then there were no windows – in fact, there was no train. They were standing, not in the London underground, but in a heavily wooded forest, the ground covered in fallen, crisp leaves.

For a moment, none of them spoke. Then, Lucy let out a whoop and spun around to face her brothers and sister. "We're back! We're back in Narnia! Oh, isn't this wonderful!!" She turned around and around, taking in the scene around them. "But…I'm not really sure where in Narnia…" she trailed off.

Peter turned around and spied a small hovel at the base of a nearby tree. "There." His siblings turned and looked as well. "Let's see if anyone's home."

Edmund stepped in front of Peter and took the lead. He could almost see Peter's frown of consternation, but he didn't acknowledge his brother. If someone hostile was in that hut, he wasn't about to let Peter greet the foe.

Stooping, Edmund knocked on the small wooden door, barely big enough for Peter to get through if he cared to try it. After a few minutes it was evident that no one was home. "Well, we're not getting answers here," he said, straightening. "Should we go in? Perhaps there is some sort of clue in there?"

Peter was hesitant to trespass, but this was Narnia and they were the Kings and Queens, surely a quick jot inside wouldn't be so bad. And they did need to find out where they were and what was going on in Narnia that might have called them back.

"Yes, let's," Peter said, gesturing for Ed to open the door. The latter did so and bent low to enter. Lucy, Susan and Peter followed, though the elder brother grunted uncomfortably at the strain of scrunching his taller frame through the doorway.

The inside of the hovel had a homely feel. All the siblings could stand straight, thankfully. To one side was a kitchen area, in the center a small table and chairs and off to the other side a small fireplace and squashy chairs. The main room smelt of some sort of soup.

"Whoever lives here didn't leave all that long ago," Ed said, voicing the others' thoughts. "And I'd say they left in a big hurry." He held up a bowl of still fresh, albeit cold, soup that had been left sitting on the dining table.

Lucy, who had moved further into the home, held up a soiled bandage gingerly between two fingers. "Looks like someone was hurt too," she said.

Peter took the bandage from her hands and frowned and added, "Someone who looks to have been a far sight bigger than whoever lives here, I'd say, judging by the size of the loop the bandage is still tied in."

Susan sighed. "Well, it's getting dark and it's pointless to try tracking in the middle of the night. Why don't we stay here until first light? If the owner of the place doesn't return before then, we can set off to try and find them. And there is food and shelter here."

Peter and Edmund shrugged and nodded their agreement. Lucy smiled and settled down onto the small couch by the fireplace. It barely fit even her frame, and looked more like an armchair than a couch when she sat.

Her brothers moved into the back room where she had found the bandage and spied a rather comfortable looking bed that they could squeeze themselves into, though it would be a tight fit, and Susan gathered cushions and made a comfortable spot in front of the fireplace.

Knowing it could be a long time before they got another good night's rest, the four Pevensies immediately went to sleep – Peter dropping off first, Lucy next and Susan and Edmund soon to follow.

Pretty, pretty, pretty please review?!