AN: This chapter picks up just where the last one left off.

"Why? Who's it from?" Lucy asked wondering why Edmund looked so confused and upset. She leaned forward to look at the letter herself before Edmund shifted and her view of it was ruined by his shoulder.

"Um...you don't want to know." Edmund started to turn red. Lucy and Peter were very close and he didn't want to change the way Lucy saw her big brother.

"Yes, I do." Lucy insisted. What was he trying to keep from her?

"No, you were right, we shouldn't have read it." Edmund folded up the letter wondering if he'd ever have any respect for his elder brother again after this. He certainly didn't have any now. He thought he might even at this moment, hate him. He'd never thought his own brother could be so...twisted.

"Why wont you let me see it?" Lucy asked.

"It's not polite." Edmund said.

"But you saw it." Lucy pointed out.

"And I deeply regret it." Edmund told her. Did he ever!

"Did the boy say something..." Lucy turned a little red as she tried to come up with a lady-like way of asking a not so lady-like question. "...Disrespectful?"

"Um, it depends what you mean by disrespectful." He said. If she meant out right dirty comments, no. If she meant their own brother expressing feelings he really shouldn't have then, yes.

"I mean..." Lucy tired again.

"I don't have the playing cards in my bag, Lu." Edmund changed the subject, wondering if he should burn or burry the letter so Susan never had to read it. "Go outside and play with Eustace, I've got somewhere to go."

"Where are you going?" Lucy asked as Edmund grabbed his scarf and hat, heading for the door. "It's too hot for those..." she added.

In the shock of the moment, Edmund had forgotten. He took off the hat and scarf then told Lucy. "I'm going to the Professor's."

Lucy clapped happily, any worries over the letter long gone in her mind. "Great, we can go together. I want to see Peter, I haven't seen him in..."

"No we can't." Edmund said quickly. "I'm going on my own."

Lucy pouted. "Why can't I come?"

Good question. "Uh..." Edmund quickly thought of something. "Eustace would be all by himself."

"Can't he come too?" Lucy asked.

"No...they had a fight." Edmund came up with.

"Who? Eustace and the railway station people?" Lucy looked very confused.

"Eustace and Peter." Edmund lied. "Some bad name calling, hard feelings, wouldn't want them to run into one another until they calm down a bit."

Lucy believed him. "When did they fight?"

"Real recently." Edmund said wondering if lightning was going to come and strike him for telling so many lies in a row. Rabadash's words though long forgotten and never believed rang in his head now, 'the lightning bolt of Tash, strikes from above!' That did not sound appealing.

"Why didn't Peter say anything about it?" Lucy wondered. "He tells me everything."

No, he tells Susan everything. Edmund thought bitterly. Even things he really shouldn't tell her. But he knew better than to put fuel in the fire by retorting, "Peter didn't tell you about Susan being a mermaid did he?"

Rather he walked out of the room, leaving Lucy with the impression that Her brother and cousin were mortal enemies.

Back at Professor Kirke's house, Susan and Peter had finished studying and were now having tea with Digory.

"So did you find anything useful in my research?" He asked them as Peter stirred his tea and Susan took a sip of her's.

"It was a big help." Peter told Digory gratefully. "How can we ever thank you?"

"I don't need thanks." The professor said kindly. "Only understanding. Now that we all understand each other things will be better."

Peter nodded as Susan blew on her tea to make it cooler.

The Professor smiled at them. "So, problems with the parents, huh?"

"How do you know?" Susan asked suspiciously.

"I'm not a fool, dear girl, I saw the way you both looked at each other this morning." Digory laughed. "What did you think I meant when I said we all understood each other?"

Susan and Peter didn't answer. They'd assumed he'd meant the mermaids not the other thing.

As if reading their thoughts, Digory went on, "I did mean the mermaids but it was one of those things that has a double meaning. You'll find their are more of those in the world than things that have only one meaning."

"But how do we deal with it?" Susan asked. "It's...hard..."

Digory reached over and patted her hand. "I know." He said kindly. "I know."

"Do you think anyone will ever understand?" Peter asked. "Other than yourself?"

"The world is a very cold place." Professor Krike told them. "At least, our world is." He added a wink at the hint of Narnia. "But their is always hope. Don't lose it."

"We wont." Susan said.

"At least you're both braver than I was." Digory sighed. "You told each other how you felt. I never could tell Polly."

"She never knew?" Peter asked.

"No." Professor Kirke looked very sad. "It's strange, I was young, had money, was her closest friend, and yet I still felt I had nothing to offer her. That's what held me back."

Peter understood that all too well. he could remember a High King living in a castle, having everything and still feeling he had nothing to give to his queen. Nothing but what she already had.

"What happened to her?" Susan wanted to know.

The Professor took a sip of his tea before answering them with one single word, "Nothing."

They both wanted him to explain what he meant by that but neither had the heart to ask.

"So, have you decided what you're going to tell your parents?" The Professor asked them. "Poor things, I do pity them, it must be frightful to find your own daughter missing."

Susan felt very guilty. "I'm going to call them tomorrow and tell them where I am. I just can't swim back, I'm too scared."

"I think, you'll be alright in the end." The Professor told them. "I don't know, who can know? But I do think."

There was a knock at the door.

"Ah, that'll be Ivy." The Professor said ."Such a nice girl, used to be maid in my house. Very young and very kind. She does come around time to time to see if I'm doing well. It's like having a daughter in a way."

Susan got up to open the door.

It wasn't Ivy after all, It was Edmund. His jaw dropped when he saw her. "Susan? What are you doing here?"

"Long story?" Susan said nervously. She wondered if he'd seen the letter or not. Maybe not. Maybe they were safe.

"Is Peter there?" Edmund asked willing his brain not to explode from the over-dose of shocking discoveries.

"Hey, Ed." Peter said as he walked over to them, trying to act natural.

"Can we talk?" Edmund asked.

"Sure." Peter agreed.

"Alone?" Edmund frowned at Susan.

"I'll go tell the Professor you're here." Susan said leaving them alone.

"Peter, how could you?" Edmund demanded.

"How could I what?" Peter asked.

"Write a note like this to Susan!" Edmund pulled the letter out of his pocket. "Are you out of your mind?"

"I can explain." Peter tried.

"Unless you know another girl named Susan, I don't think you can!" Edmund glared at him. "She's our sister!"

"No, Edmund." Peter said closing his eyes and taking a deep breath. He had to tell him. There was no way around it. "She's your sister."

"What do you mean?" Edmund looked a little less angry and a little more confused.

"I'm not really your brother." Peter said the pain of the words hurting more than he thought possible. He didn't want to admit the family he'd grown up with, the family that he loved and belonged to, wasn't really his own. "My real last name is..." could he say it with out having a break down? When saying it made it true after all these years? He could turn back now, he still could...But then he thought of Susan, no he couldn't turn back now, it was too late. He was willing to give up being a Pevensie for her. She was worth it. It was the one thing he had left to lose, his identity "...Burke."

Edmund looked up at his brother as if seeing him for the first time. In a way, he was.

Meanwhile, Lucy sat with Eustace playing checkers (They never did the get the cards.)

"What did you and Peter fight about?" Lucy asked him.

"Peter and I fight?" Eustace burst out laughing. "I'm not an idiot Lu, he's bigger and stronger than me. Even before getting sucked into that painting I wouldn't have been such a fool."

"You didn't argue at all?" Lucy asked. Had Edmund lied to her?

"No." Eustace said as he moved his piece on the board. "King me."

"I can't believe he lied to me!" Lucy got up, stamped her foot and walked away. Why didn't her brother trust her? Why the secrets? Why the lies?

"Does this mean I win?" Eustace asked after her.

Lucy didn't answer. She was going to the Professor's get answers. She didn't have time to give them.

AN: So? Did ya like it? Review and tell me!