Disclaimer: I own nothing of Narnia, none of the characters, none of the ideas, none of the places, none of the anything. The only thing I own is my OC. Everything else is the property of the estate of CS Lewis.

Reviewer Thanks:

brezzybrez: Well, as I'm trying to write out my chapters ahead of when I plan to post, it makes it easier to post before I plan too. Glad you're enjoying it.

Dearheart: I just have to thank you for your review. I'm sure by now you've read my Review Reply, but I just have to say I was having a really bad day the day you reviewed and your review really perked me up. So, thanks.

Onward to the story now!

Imagination, Reality and the Space Between

Chapter Three: What You Say

Lucy Pevensie was unhappy for the next week after her 'trip' into the wardrobe. Marilyn had to admit that she thought that if the girl had been making it all up it wouldn't have caused her near the amount of distress that it seemed to have. But she didn't know the Pevensies all that well, though she was getting to know them and so far Lucy seemed to be very truthful in general, but still she supposed she couldn't really know for sure.

All five of them had spent the last few days together, since the five of them were the only children there. Marilyn had found that she and Susan got on rather well, in fact, they all got on rather well, and Lucy had decided that Marilyn would be her new friend, simply because she seemed slightly more inclined to believe Lucy's story than the others seemed to be.

Susan and Peter had talked to Marilyn about it two days after the fact. Susan had seemed almost disappointed.

"Lucy said you believed her about the wardrobe yesterday." Susan said, sitting in one of the chairs in the third library room.

Marilyn shrugged and sat in the other, since Peter was sitting on the window seat. "I just said that if she believed it then it was alright. I never said I thought there was anything in there."

"You really shouldn't encourage her, you know." Peter said, sitting with his hands on his knees.

"Well, I'd rather encourage her than have her mope all summer. Honestly, I don't see what's so wrong with playing pretend. Don't tell me neither of you did when you were her age. I know I did…"

"That's not the point." Susan said shaking her head. "The point is that she really believes it. It isn't healthy to pretend things like that."

Marilyn shrugged again. "I don't know… Honestly, if I could pretend there wasn't a war on and convince myself of it, I'm not sure it would be a bad thing. They tell us everything'll be alright, but I'm not so sure. I mean, now London's being evacuated, and my brothers and father are off fighting and I'm nervous and scared about what could happen. Part of me wants to pretend it isn't real." She said, her breath catching softly on unshed tears at the thought.

"Do you think that's why she's doing this?" Peter asked, walking over to stand behind Susan's chair.

"Well, I don't really know, but I figured so. I mean, your father's off fighting in the war too, right? Maybe pretending there's a magical land for her to explore is her way of dealing with it."

Susan craned her head backwards to look at Peter. They shrugged at one another silently, neither one having thought of it that way before.

"I hadn't really thought of it like that. I suppose I'm much more worried that she might actually be going batty as Edmund suggested the other day." Susan said at length rising to leave the room. "But, if she says anything more about it, would you please discourage it? If that's why she's made it up then it really isn't healthy."

Marilyn nodded solemnly. "I suppose I can do that, if you think it'll help."

"I hope it will at any rate." Susan said, leaving the door open as she walked out of the room

"Are your brothers really fighting in the war?" Peter asked once Susan had gone.

Marilyn raised an eyebrow at the question but answered anyway. "Yes. Edward and James both."

"They can't be much older than us then…" he said quietly.

"Well, Edward is twenty-six and James is nearly twenty. So, they are a bit older than we are." Marilyn paused for a moment. "You wanted to go and fight, didn't you?"

Peter looked at her silently before laughing a bit self-consciously while rubbing the back of his neck. "It was that obvious?"

"Not really, it's just that that's the only reason I could think for you to ask that." Marilyn said slowly. "Alright, it was just a tad obvious." Marilyn held two fingers a short distance apart as an illustration.

"I guess it's just that I want to be of some use, not just…"

"Stuck in some old man's house shielded as if you were a child?"

Peter blinked. "Yes. That's it exactly."

"I can understand the feeling. Mum sent me away before the evacuation started because she was terrified that something would happen to me. And yet I feel kind of useless here. There's little enough that we can do to help anyway, but there's even less here."

"But you're a girl. It's different for you."

Marilyn raised an eyebrow for the second time. He hastened to correct himself. "Not that I think you don't want to help… it's just… Oh. Just forget I said anything." He said wincing at his attempt to dig himself out of a hole

Marilyn laughed and turned to leave. "Alright, I suppose I can this time." She stopped at the doorframe. "But for what it's worth, Peter, I think you would have made a fine soldier."

For the rest of the week and for the week following that, there had been little talk of the war or the wardrobe. The group spent most of the time out of doors, as the weather was fine and it was much easier to find your way back to the house if you got lost outside. It was marvellous fun for most of them (Lucy was still unhappy but there wasn't much they could do about that) until the next rainy day came round.

By that time, there was no use in exploring the house because they all knew how to get to the necessary places, but there wasn't much to do inside. So for the better part of the morning they sat in the library and all silently hoped that the rain would stop by lunch. However, lunch came and passed with the rain giving no sign of stopping. At that point, they were all feeling a bit stir-crazy, so when Lucy suggested they play hide-and-seek, it took no time at all for everyone to agree.

The first couple of games were unremarkable. Marilyn volunteered to be "it" first, and then Peter was "it" for the second game. However at the end of the third game (Susan was "it" that time) while they were all standing in the long room with the suit of armour Lucy burst out excitedly.

"It's there! It's really there!"

"What are you talking about, Lucy?" Marilyn couldn't help but ask, having totally forgotten about the magical land within the wardrobe.

"Narnia! It's all in the wardrobe like I told you! This time Edmund went too, we met each other in the wood."

The others turned toward Edmund looking for confirmation of Lucy's story.

Edmund just shrugged. "I was just playing along, pretending that her country in the wardrobe was real. There isn't anything there."

Lucy, who had been looking at Edmund hopefully, looked crestfallen once Edmund started to speak. Once he was finished, she ran out of the room, not quite crying, but well on her way.

"That was perfectly horrid of you, Edmund!" Susan said.

"It was. Ever since Lucy started this nonsense about the wardrobe you've been awful to Lucy and now you're playing games with her about it and setting her off again. I think you're doing it simply out of spite." Peter said angrily.

"But it is nonsense!" Edmund said rather taken aback at his brother's tone.

Peter rolled his eyes and gestured widely. "Of course its nonsense, but what good do you think it'll do teasing her about it one day, then encouraging her the next?"

"But I thought – I thought – " Edmund said, not sure what to say.

"Honestly, you two, having a row here isn't going to help. Come on, let's go find Lucy." Susan said reasonably.

The four in the room (closer to three, as Marilyn had been uncomfortably inching towards the doorway Lucy had run out of before while Peter and Edmund were shouting at one another) left, and headed down the passage to find Lucy sobbing, with her arms wrapped around none other than the Professor, Marilyn's grandfather. He had a bemused expression on his face, and just as the three saw them (Edmund had not come with them to find Lucy), Mrs. Macready shouted as she came into view.

"You are one shenanigan shy of – " She stopped dead, seeing the Professor. "Professor, I'm sorry. I told them you were not to be disturbed."

"It's alright Mrs. Macready. I'm sure there's an explanation. But first I think this one" Here he extricated himself from Lucy's arms "is in need of a little hot chocolate."

Lucy went off with Mrs. Macready without a fuss and the others attempted to walk away quietly, but failed in that regard and were called back by the Professor clearing his throat. Peter and Susan turned back, though Marilyn didn't at first.

"You too, Marilyn" he said.

Marilyn came back wincing slightly at being called out. The three followed him wordlessly to his study where he began to fix his pipe. Susan and Peter stood in front of his desk, while Marilyn walked over to the far corner of the room and stood silently, wondering why she was made to come too.

"You seem to have upset the delicate internal balance of my housekeeper." He said matter-of-factly.

"We're sorry, sir. It won't happen again." Peter said, standing uncomfortably with a look on his face that clearly said that he hoped that was the end of it. Susan, however, felt the need to say more.

"It's our sister, sir. Lucy."

"The weeping girl."

"Yes, sir. She's upset."

"Hence the weeping."

"It's nothing. We can handle it." Peter broke in.

"Oh, I can see that." the Professor said in a bemused voice.

Susan looked at Peter for a moment before speaking again. "She thinks she's found a magical land in the upstairs wardrobe."

Marilyn noted the shift in her grandfather's expression. She wasn't at all surprised when he asked Susan "What did you say?"

Peter replied that time however. "Um… The wardrobe upstairs, Lucy thinks she's found a forest inside."

Susan merely nodded as they took a seat on the couch in the room.

"What was it like?" the Professor asked.

"Like talking to a lunatic." Susan said, assuming he meant to ask what it was like talking to Lucy about the forest in the wardrobe.

"No, no. Not her. The forest."

Peter and Susan both looked shocked. "You're not saying you believe her?" Peter asked incredulously.

"You don't?" was the reply.

Susan blinked. "Well, of course not. I mean, logically, it's impossible."

Marilyn watched as her grandfather shook his head and mumbled to himself for a moment.

"Edmund said they were only pretending." Peter said, even though he had already had a row with Edmund over that fact.

"And he's normally the more truthful one?" the professor asked.

"No… this would be the first time." Peter said quietly.

"Well then, if she isn't mad, and she's not lying, then logically we must assume she's telling the truth."

Peter blinked, confused. "Are you saying we should just believe her?"

"She's your sister. You're a family. You might try acting like one."

Susan and Peter looked at one another, still a bit confused at how they could possibly just believe there was a wood inside a wardrobe other than the back. A moment later they had gone, having been dismissed by her grandfather and Marilyn moved out of the corner.

"May I go now?"

Her grandfather looked at the sternly for a moment. "Why didn't you tell me about there being a wood in the wardrobe?"

"I've never seen one myself. For all I knew she was just pretending." Marilyn said defensively.

"Do you believe her?" He asked curiously.

"I suppose so. I mean, I don't suppose it matters either way. After all, if she's the only one who gets into the land, she might as well be pretending… but I'm sure that she's convinced it's really there, so that's enough to say that it exists for her." Marilyn said at length.

Her grandfather smiled to himself about what Marilyn couldn't say, but he didn't say anything to her. Marilyn stood still for a moment, before asking if she could go again. He gave a wave of his hand and she scampered out the door quickly, closing it quietly behind her.

Author's Note: I always thought that it would make sense to pretend there was some magical land during wartime. It seems to me that it would make life easier to handle for a child if they can pretend it isn't happening at all. So that's where that conversation stems from. Also, I love that scene in the film with the Professor far too much to drop it in favor of the book version, so I permuted it to fit the book situation. Hopefully it worked. If you've read this far, please drop a review, even if it's just to tell me that you did/didn't like the chapter. Thanks and happy reading,

ESG