☆

SETTLING BACK into the average day to day of Professor Kirke's house, did not come easily to the five Pevensies. Everyday without fail, the five checked the wardrobe, as if the wooden backboard will have magically vanished over night revealing the autumnal setting of their kingdom.

Eliza would wake in the morning and naturally look out the window, praying for the grassy hills of England to have morphed into the beautiful view from Cair Paravel. She'd frown in dismay, knowing they were far from their real home.

Today, just like everyday since they'd arrived back, a knock resounded on Eliza's door as she buttoned up the last button on Ed's old shirt that she'd taken from him. "Come in!" She called out, as she turned to face the door.

"Breakfast is ready!" Susan said with a small smile as she opened the wooden door. Eliza nodded slowly, her lips twisting into a false smile as Susan retreated. The two girls had grown closer over their time in Narnia, sure, they have their differences but family is family and family was the only reason Eliza got up out of bed each morning.

The girl tentatively made her way down to the kitchen table where Lucy, Edmund and Susan day patiently in front of their boiled eggs, awaiting Peter and Eliza's arrival. The girl sat down quietly beside her twin, offering him a weak smile. Peter soon joined the four, and together the siblings sat in silence. There wasn't much to say. They'd lived a long fifteen years in Narnia and then those years were stripped away with a singular step in England's direction. 

"The eggs are delicious this morning!" Susan spoke up optimistically, trying to enlighten her siblings, who all looked down at their breakfast sadly.

"They're the same as usual Susan." Eliza replied bluntly, poking at her fried egg with a fork before turning to Mrs. MacCready. "May I please be excused? I'm not that hungry this morning..."

The older woman looked down at the girl scornfully, "This is good food! You are not going to let it go to waste!" She snapped, making Eliza nod slowly.

"Now, Now Mrs. MacCready, I'm sure the others will happily take Eliza's meal." A voice interrupted, making the five Pevensie's turn in their wooden chairs, "Eliza, You're excused."

"Thank you sir!" Eliza replied gratefully, standing up from her seat at the table. The girl smiled at the professor as she passed him at the doorway. The older man seemed to be more lighthearted after their return from Narnia. The five Pevensie's has sat for hours, recollecting their time in their kingdom while he listened eagerly, taking notes and commenting on their tales.

Eliza took a deep breath in, walking slowly up the stairs, her fingers trailing along the bannister as she climbed. The girl continued on through a corridor and stopped outside the room. Eliza glanced around quickly, before pushing the door open. The wooden door creaked open, revealing a grand wardrobe at the end of the room. She slowly walked towards it, her heart racing and her breathing getting heavier as she took each step. Soon, her hand was wrapped tightly around the wardrobe's handle.

"Please, please, please..." the girl murmured as she pulled open the door, revealing the coats hanging up inside. Eliza feverishly reached in and once her hand made contact with the hard wooden backing of the wardrobe, she sighed lowly.

Crestfallen, the girl retracted her arm and closed the wardrobe door shut. Eliza shook her head, and backed away from it, her eyes involuntarily welling with tears. She refused to cry, she couldn't cry. She was Eliza the Righteous, Knight and Queen of Narnia, she couldn't show weakness. Eliza stood silently facing the wardrobe, her arms crossed tightly over her chest. She took a deep breath in before once again, stepping forward.

"Aslan, please." She whispered, "If you can hear me, why? Why are we here and not there?" The girl fell back into the silence, biting her lips in hope of an answer.

"Fine..." Eliza muttered, turning her back on the wooden wardrobe, and walking towards the  door that would lead her out into the corridor. Her hand clasped the door handle and she exited the spare room, the hole in her heart where Narnia usually resides, seemed to be a bit bigger, it's pain inevitable.

She walked down the hallway quietly, her head down as she clenched her jaw in sorrow. "Eliza?" A small voice spoke up, making the girl sigh.

"Yeah?" She asked, turning around to face her siblings who stood at the end of the corridor. Her face softened as her siblings looked at her in sympathy.

"Still not there?" Susan asked in dismay, all hope leeching out of her face. Eliza shook her head, earning a chorus of low sighs.

"I'm sick of waiting, why can't we just go back?!" Edmund huffed, folding his arm across his chest.

"-because we aren't needed there..." Peter interrupted, silencing his younger siblings. "I'm sure that we'll return when the time is right."

Eliza nodded and stalked towards her siblings, "Can we please play a game?" Lucy begged Susan and Peter, tugging on the older boys shirt.

"As long as it's not cricket." Edmund joked, making all his siblings laugh in unison as they remembered how their last game of cricket went down.

"No, not cricket." Lucy giggled, she looked up at all her siblings, a small twinkle in her eye as she gazed up. "I was thinking we play hide and seek..."

Peter and Susan exchanged an unreadable look, and Lucy smiled innocently up at them. The older boy crouched down beside his littlest sister.

"One, two, three-" Peter counted, covering his eyes as Lucy squealed in delight, and off the younger Pevensie's ran, to find hiding spaces. The siblings laughed in euphoria as they escaped their older brothers gaze and since they'd arrived back home, they were finally having fun.

And Family and fun was all they needed to survive in their Narnia-less world.

☆

My babies :(

Anyway I hope you liked this lil one shot!

Don't forget to vote and comment (I love reading them) and I love you all!