AN: WOW. If I'd known that many people were waiting for this fic, I would have written it sooner! I can't believe how many of you reviewed that one chapter! Thank you all so much. I hope you like this chapter as well.

"Rikki, could you check to see if the clothes on the line are dry yet?" Mr. Chadwick's voice called out to his daughter.

"Sure thing, Dad." Rikki answered, picking up the laundry basket, and walking out back to check. As she reached out to touch a pair of slightly damp jeans, her cell phone rang.

She dropped the basket on the ground and checked the caller ID. It said, 'ZANE'. Rikki rolled her eyes. She was sort of mad at him because he had promised to come by earlier and hadn't. He was probably calling with some lame excuse. She came close to hitting 'Ignore incoming call' but changed her mind at the last second.

"Hey." Rikki said in a flat we-aren't-on-great-terms-right-now-so-don't-try-to-pretend-we-are-or-else tone.

"Rikki, I've got some really bad news." Zane's voice sounded weary, not apologetic or even its usual tone of 'extremely smug'.

For a moment, Rikki forgot she was mad at him. "What's wrong?"

"My dad's trying to develop Mako Island again." Zane told her.

"What?" Rikki cried in horror. "He can't do that! What about the environment protection people?"

"They can't do anything." Zane said gravely.

"Why not?" Rikki demanded.

"Because." Zane told her. "My dad just brought the whole island. They said his offer was too high to refuse."

"What? No!" Rikki shouted. This wasn't happening. This had to be a dream. A nightmare. And she was just about to wake up. She pinched herself. She felt it. This was really happening and there was nothing she could do about it.

Peter was sitting on the beach, looking out at the ocean, remembering the beach-front view from his old Narnian castle, Cair Paravel. He was thinking about the first time he'd really looked out at that view. It had been after he discovered something about himself that he hadn't wanted to admit.

He had just been crowned High King Peter of Narnia and all the Narnians were happily celebrating this (After all, even a school boy with a sword is a better ruler than an evil witch with a wand and a fondness for never-ending winters) with a grand feast/ball in the main throne room. The windows had been wide open and you could hear the mermaids singing songs of victory and joy. Edmund and Lucy had been wildly dancing about in the mist of all the creatures present. Susan had been slower and more graceful in her moves than her siblings aimed to be. She spun around on the tips of her toes like a well trained ballerina.

Unfortunately, a fumble-footed faun who could just barely dance didn't watch were he was leaping and banged into Susan who was in mid-spin. She went flying across the room (Spinning much faster than she meant to) right into the high king's arms.

And that was how it had all started for Peter. After she'd banged into him, glad that she had avoided a near collision with a marble pillar, they'd danced together. He didn't know exactly how it had happened but he knew that somehow he'd fallen in love with her during the course of that dance.

That first night at Cair Paravel, he had stared hopelessly out at the sea, knowing that he'd fallen in love with someone whom he thought he had no chance with. She hadn't even known his secret about being a Burke. He hadn't wanted her to. He'd thought he'd rather die than admit that to anyone.

He sometimes wondered if Aslan somehow knew but never gathered enough courage to ask him, preferring to go with the ignore-it-and-it-will-go-away philosophy. But his feelings didn't go away. If anything they'd only gotten stronger. Not only was she still his dear wonderful Su whom he adored but she proceeded to grow up into a remarkably beautiful woman. Which sadly meant that every other male visitor to the castle had a habit of falling in love with her and begging for her hand in marriage, some having to be dragged forcibly out of the castle kicking, screaming, crying, and cursing everyone from his beloved pet dog to his own mother.

At first Peter hadn't worried about her getting married to some royal suitor, figuring that she wouldn't find any worthy of her and would go on being single. That was why when she first seriously started courting he began to loathe every suitor who arrived. If he was vile, Peter hated him. If he was a good person, Peter hated him even more seeing him as a threat. He wanted Susan to be happy but seeing her with those men killed him inside. Edmund and Lucy used to wonder why Peter was so irritable whenever someone asked for her hand in marriage.

Many times he'd wondered what would happen if he fell at her feet and declared his love for her. None of the outcomes he could picture in his mind were good ones. She always looked utterly disgusted and vowed never to speak to him again. Or worse, laughed. Laughed like it was some sort of joke.

On the day they'd gone hunting the white stag, Susan told him that she was strongly considering marrying a prince from a country north of Narnia. He was a reasonably kind man and she was nearly thirty then and didn't want to be an old maid queen.

"But you'll have us, Su." Peter had said rather pathetically. "Edmund, Lucy, and Me. What do you need a husband for?"

She had looked at him as though he was insane. "It's not the same thing, Peter." She'd told him rather harshly, clearly expecting a different reaction out of her older brother than the one she'd gotten.

That night they hadn't come back to Cair Paravel but found themselves children again in Professor Kirke's house. Although he mourned the loss of Narnia, Peter secretly had a smile of relief on his face.

It was strange to think about how far they'd come since then. Peter couldn't believe that she'd ended up falling in love with him after discovering his secret. He'd never dreamed in a million years of that happening. Then losing her again because of her losing faith in Narnia and Aslan had been almost unbearably painful and yet, they'd finally overcome that as well. They had a new life, new friends, and had nothing left to do but to wait for Aslan to let them back into his country.

And there was Susan now, swimming towards him her long golden tail trailing behind her. He still remembered the first time he had seen it. When she'd poured that glass of water over herself to show him. If he hadn't truly loved her, the fish tail might have been enough to snap him out of his infatuation. But if anything, he loved her all the more for having that tail. Because with or without the tail, she was still Susan. She was still that sweet little baby mum had brought into the world, the one grandma Pevensie thought was regal enough to marry a king (Funny how she actually was engaged to a king now). She was still the little girl who'd kept him company during his school holidays. And she was still the beautiful woman he'd fallen for back in Narnia.

Susan dried off, walked over to him and took a seat beside him.

"What are you thinking about?" She asked.

He smiled at her. "You."

She gave him a playful shove. "No, really."

"Honest." Peter told her, taking her hand in his while she leaned on his shoulder. "I was thinking about when I first fell in love with you back in Narnia."

"It's too bad I didn't know." Susan said softly. "I can't believe I wasted all that time on those suitors when I clearly belonged with you."

"I was your brother then." Peter reminded her. "I wasn't Peter Burke-Pevensie. I was just, Peter Pevensie."

"Well whomever you are, we're together now." Susan said happily.

"I know." Peter's smile widened. "Isn't it great?"

"And no more denial." Susan sighed. "I have to believe in Aslan now."

"And no more of those awful parties." Peter shuddered at the memory.

"Gosh." Laughed Susan. "I haven't thought about those in years."

"At least you don't remember any of those idiots you flirted with right in front of me." Peter teased.

"Sorry about that." Susan told him, lifting her head off his shoulder to give him a sweet-pleading look. "Forgive me?"

"Of course." Peter leaned forward and kissed her.

As if on cue, the angry rap music ringtone started.

"By the lion!" Exclaimed Peter, pulling away from her and trying to find his phone. "I think I want to hurl this thing into the ocean."

"Peter, I'm begging you to change that ring tone. I swear, if that becomes our song, I'll never forgive you." Susan joked.

"I told you." Peter joke-huffed, finally finding the phone. "I don't know how."

The caller ID. said, 'RIKKI'.

"Did you forget to meet them again?" Peter asked as before-voice-static filled the speaker phone.

"No." Susan didn't remember making any plans with them for today.

"Peter, is Susan with you?" Rikki asked in an anxious voice.

"Yes, but why didn't you just call her cell?" Peter snapped, wondering how he had been mistaken for Susan Pevensie's answering machine.

"I don't have it with me." Susan whispered.

"Oh." Peter shrugged and tuned back into the phone conversation with Rikki. "What's wrong?" Something had to be wrong, he'd just snapped and Rikki and she hadn't given him a sarcastic retort.

"Zane'sDad'sgonnaruinMakoIsland!" Rikki bawled into the phone.

"Wait, what?" Susan gasped. She didn't quite get all of what Rikki was saying but she did hear, 'Zane' and 'Mako Island'. That didn't sound good at all.

Rikki repeated it, slower this time.

"No!" Susan cried. "What about the moon pool?"

"I don't know." Rikki told her. "I can't believe the environment protection people just bailed on us like that!"

"But what's going to happen if they find out what the moon pool can do?" Peter wondered aloud. "The secret could get out."

"It's worse than that!" Rikki's voice shouted into the phone. "Zane's dad already knows about the pool. Remember?"

"That's right!" Susan said miserably. "Cleo told me what he and Dr. Denman tried to do to her, you, and Emma."

"Wait, that doesn't mean he understands everything about the pool." Peter reminded them. "It's not like he knows exactly how you all became mermaids."

"And he is under the impression that you gave it all up." Susan pointed out.

"True." Rikki said, still understandably unnerved. "Look, I just called Cleo, we're all meeting at her house in fifteen minutes." She paused for a moment before adding. "That means you too, Peter."

Mr. Sertori head a knock at the front door. He started for the door only to hear Cleo call, "It's for me, I'll get it dad."

"You were expecting someone?" Mr. Sertori seemed surprised.

"Lewis, right?" Kim said smugly, coming in from the kitchen. "Your boyfriend." She said 'boyfriend' the say way most people say 'green snot' and 'dog poo'.

"Is it just me or has that boy been over here a lot lately?" Mr. Setori commented.

"It's not Lewis." Cleo told them. "Lewis is away with his family for the weekend, he's not coming back until tomorrow."

"Well maybe he came back early." Kim guessed, standing on her tip-toes looking throw the clear part of the glass front door instead of getting out of the way so Cleo could open it. "I see a blond boy's head."

"That's Peter." Cleo corrected her, nudging her way over to the door and opening it.

"Who the heck is Peter?" Mr. Sertori seemed very confused.

The door opened. Peter walked in.

"Hi, I don't believe we've met." Mr. Sertori reached out to shake their hands.

"Oh, I guess we haven't." Peter realized. "I'm Peter, I'm a friend of Cleo's."

"I'm Kim, Cleo's mature younger sister." Kim jumped in front of her dad to shake Peter's hand first, tucking a peace of her hair behind her ears and beaming up at him.

There was another knock at the door. Susan, Emma, and Ash were there. (Susan had met up with Ash and Emma for a ride, thus the reason she hadn't been at the door with Peter).

"Hello, Emma. Hello, Ash." Mr. Sertori already knew them, he turned to Susan. "And you are?"

"This is Susan, she's engaged to Peter." Cleo jumped in, giving her sister a dirty look which very clearly said, 'now will you please stop trying to flirt with him? You're embarrassing me!'.

"Really?" Mr. Sertori wasn't as tense if the guy hanging around his teenage daughter was unavailable. He instantly became more friendly towards Peter.

"Yes." Susan lifted her hand and showed him the ring on her finger.

"How old are you anyway?" Mr. Sertori asked. At first he'd thought they were teenagers but then they seemed a little older. And they were engaged. They seemed, odd as it was, to have no real fixed age at all and yet, it was somehow perfectly natural.

"Um..." Peter tried to come up with an answer. "Somewhere over 1500?"

"Funny." Mr. Sertori chuckled. He turned to his daughter. "I like him." He mouthed.

The door bell rang. Emma opened the door, Miss Chatham and Max Hamilton walked in.

"Oh, hello." Mr. Sertori was more than a little surprised to see them. "I didn't know you were coming."

"Neither did I." Miss Chatham told him. "Until a little while ago."

knock knock. William Burke stood at the door.

"Oh that's my cousin." Peter said causally.

The old man at the door smiled at them (He was missing a few teeth) as he entered.

"Big age difference huh?" Kim commented.

Next came Rikki and Zane.

"Um, I thought your dad and sister weren't home." Rikki said as she entered.

"Sorry." Cleo mouthed. Her dad had come home early and Kim's shopping trip with their mother had been cancelled less than two minutes ago.

"Maybe we should have done this at Emma's." Zane groaned.

"Done what?" Mr. Setori asked.

"School project." Cleo came up with.

"Yes, it's worth a big part of our grade so we'd best get started up in Cleo's room." Emma added, eyeing the staircase.

"But Miss Chatham, Max, and Peter's cousin aren't your classmates..." Mr. Sertori said, rubbing his forehead as he spoke. "And are Peter and Susan even in your grade?"

"No, no, of course not...." Ash tried to come up with something. "They um...are...we need them for..."

"Interviews!" Zane cut in.

Everyone nodded in agreement as if this had been their plan all along.

"But I think we'd better all go to Emma's house anyway because she has more..." Rikki tried to come up with a good reason for going to Emma's.

"Stuff!" Ash blurted out.

"School stuff." Zane added.

"Let's work out a car pool." Peter suggested.

And they were out of the house before Kim and Mr. Sertori could figure out just what was going on.

No one talked the whole ride over to Emma's house. They couldn't stop thinking about that pool on Mako Island. Or Zane's jerk of a father. Or the fact that the next full moon was only in two short days and they were in no way prepared for it.

AN: Please review. It would really make me happy and happy writters do tend to write more than unhappy writters. Just sayn'!