Edmund looked down at Ileana where she lay motionless and barely breathing, the same way she had been for nearly twelve hours. The early morning sun was beginning to filter in through the shade. The birds were chirping in the trees outside. It had the makings of a very lovely day, weather-wise, but Edmund felt a dark cloud looming over him. He paced around the small room with memories and thoughts flying through his head.

"You're doing what?"

"I'm leaving Narnia..."

Edmund couldn't believe what he was hearing. This didn't make any sense. They were supposed to expand their family, not break it up.

"...it's why Aslan wanted to see me alone, or partially why at least," Lena continued.

"No. No this isn't right; there's been some mistake."

"Edmund, please, don't make this any harder."

He could hear the grief in her voice. Still, he tried to fight it.

"Edmund. Edmund, please look at me." She placed her hands on his cheeks and turned his face towards hers. It didn't register to him that he was crying until he felt her wipe away tears.

"I love you, Edmund. And the time spent with you has been more than I could ever ask for. I know..."

He tried to pull away; he didn't want to hear her say goodbye, but she pulled him back in.

"I know you want to fight this. I know you would spend every last hour going toe-to-toe with the Lion if you could, but...be angry with Him tomorrow. As for tonight, please, just be here with me. Then, when the time comes, you... you have to let me go." She swallowed her own tears. "You have to let me go, Edmund."

Edmund returned to Lena's bedside.

"You have to let me go, Edmund."

"No." He shook his head. "You're wrong. When You told me to let you go, you were wrong, Ileana." He bent over her body and caressed her cheek. "I will never let you go, mi amore, but I..."

He closed his eyes against the tears that threatened to fall. And when that didn't work, he wiped them with his sleeve.

"But I... I will let you... begin the next phase of your journey without me. 'In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.'*"

Edmund tried blinking away more tears but failed again. "Go. Prepare our rooms and one day... I will join you there." He leaned forward and pressed his lips to her forehead.

The first thing Meri noticed when she opened her eyes was that her oversized fluffy bed had been traded out for a much smaller, more uncomfortable one. The second thing she noticed was that the dim glow of electric light was harsher and more abrasive than the warm Narnian sun. The third was though she still woke up sore it was a different kind of soreness caused by poor sleeping conditions rather than the general aging of the body.

Meri rolled on to her side as she adjusted to her surroundings. She saw a young girl sitting atop the bed next to hers; she was playing with a toy doll and a wooden horse. She turned her head towards Meri, dark curls falling in her face, and smiled.

"Sara!" Meri jolted upright. Sara giggled as Meri floundered over to her and hugged her tight. "Oh, Sara! I've missed you so much!"

"Missed me? I just saw you yesterday in Narnia," Sara replied with more giggles.

"Just saw me? How long have you been awake?"

Sara shrugged. "I don't know. I woke up. You were sleeping. So I decided to play. Then you woke up. Now, here we are."

Meri smiled and tucked a curl behind Sara's ear; it quickly fell out. "Here we are. What are you playing with? Where did you get those?"

"From Babbo Natale, don't you remember?"

Meri studied the doll and horse carefully. "They are the ones you got from Babbo Natale, aren't they?"

Sara nodded. "Aslan let me bring them. But I... do you think I should have left them for Eddie? He might miss me?"

"I am sure Eddie would have wanted you to have them so you can remember him and Narnia."

"Why would someone forget Narnia?"

Meri shook her head. "I'm not sure they ever could really. I know we just saw each other in Narnia, but I have missed you, Sara. Ti amo, sorellina."

"E ti amo, Princess Meri." Sara giggled.

The door to their room opened then, bathing them in light. "I thought I heard voices in here."

"Aunt Susan," Meri said with a smile.

When Sara jumped off the bed to hug Susan, Meri studied her face. There was a strange sadness to her eyes. That's when Meri remembered where they were and why they were there. Susan nodded and held out her hand to Meri.

"Come; it is nearly time," she said.

Meri took Sara's hand and followed Susan into the hall. They turned the corner and saw Lucy and Peter standing outside a room. Lucy hurried over to hug each of them, Susan included. Peter, however, met them halfway. He bowed his head to Meri and she curtsied back before embracing him. Then she and Sara continued into the room. Their mother was lying on a hospital bed and their father was leaning over her and kissing her head. He stood up straight and stood with his back to them for a moment. Then, as though sensing a presence behind him, he turned around slowly. There was a beat of silence before...

"BABBO!" Sara screeched and ran forward.

She was immediately swept into Edmund's arms where she cried and laughed and babbled into his neck and shoulders, all while he hugged her and kissed her and cried along with her. Meri made her way over at a much slower pace but she received just as much love and affection from him as he wrapped an arm around her neck and held her tight.

"Oh, Meri. I'm sorry. I'm sorry I didn't know you when you first arrived."

Meri laughed through her tears. "That was years ago, Babbo. I'm just glad to see you now."

She pulled back and wiped the tears from both of their faces before looking over his shoulder. Her mother lay as thin and sickly as the day she arrived in Narnia, but Meri thought she could see—or perhaps she merely sensed it—a lighter glow to her skin. Surely it was a remnant of the Lion's love. Meri made her way over slowly. She leaned down to her ear, her hand sliding into her mother's, and spoke softly to her.

"Give my love to Teagan and all the others. Tell them I will see them again one day."

Meri smiled and pulled back. Edmund was watching her closely.

"It would seem we have things to discuss," he said.

Meri nodded. "There is so much I have to tell you, Babbo. But we'll do that later."

"Later," he agreed.

"Babbo?" Sara directed his attention back to her. "Is Mamma going to go live with Aslan and Jesus now?"

Edmund swallowed the lump in his throat. "Yea, Topa; she is."

Sara stretched out an arm towards the bed and tried leaning in closer. Edmund walked her over. She kissed her mother's cheek and laid her princess doll in her arms.

"Ti amo, Mamma."

"Thank you for stopping by. Edmund and the girls greatly appreciate it," Susan said diplomatically at the door. Meanwhile, Meri rummaged through the drink cabinet.

"I feel I should be the responsible uncle and remind you that you are only sixteen again," Peter said. Meri gave him a look. "But far be it for me to stop a Queen of Narnia."

"Queen Mother, actually," Meri corrected.

"My apologies." Peter held up his hands.

Meri smiled coyly before pulling out whiskey glasses and a bottle of red. "I prefer ale myself."

"Wine's too sweet."

"Exactly," she agreed. She studied the bottle a moment before sighing. "But it was Mamma's drink of choice."

She popped the cork and poured a little into each glass. With Peter's help they carried them and the bottle into the sitting room.

"The last of the visitors just left."

"Thank you, Aunt Susan," Meri said as she handed her a glass.

"Of course, Meri. If you and Ed need anything, just ask."

"We're all here for you," said cousin Eustace.

"Thank you, Uncle E," Meri replied. "And I'm really glad you and Aunt Jill were able to make it back from your travels in time."

"We came as soon as we heard," Jill said.

"Where is Edmund? Is he still putting Sara to bed?" Lucy asked as she took her cup from Peter.

"Hopefully not," Edmund replied as he came in, rubbing his hands over his face. "Hopefully this one takes."

Meri handed him a glass and he drank its contents in a single gulp. Meri poured him another glass with a sigh.

"I don't think she means for you to drink just yet," Peter said.

"Oh. Sorry."

"It's all right," Meri relied.

"Oops. Then I think I need some more as well," Lucy said, holding up her empty glass.

"And that is why I brought the bottle."

"Where's Holly?" Susan asked.

"She's feeding Stevie," Peter replied, taking a seat after all the glasses had been passed out.

"Correction. She was feeding," Holly said. She walked in carrying Stevie on her hip. "Now he's been fed, burped, and changed. He should be good to go for a while. Is that glass for me?"

"Yes, but don't drink just yet; Meri's about to give a toast," Peter said, exchanging a cup for the baby.

"Right then." Meri held up her glass. "To Mamma. She was stubborn at the best of times and single-minded at the worst. But she loved her family the way she was loved; more deeply and more fully than she ever could have imagined. She will be missed and we will cherish the memory of her always. And one day, we shall join her on the Golden Shores where she waits with all those who have gone before us."

There was a pause before Peter said, "To Lena."

"To Lena," was repeated throughout the room and last of all by Edmund.

"That was lovely, Meri," Lucy said, picking up the bottle and re-filling her cup.

"Thanks. Sadly, it was not my first farewell toast."

"Peter was always really good at giving farewell toasts and speeches too," Susan said.

"It never got any easier though," he said.

"I found that if you let the ale flow for a bit, then it made everyone more susceptible to laughing which in turn made the toasts more comical," Meri said. Everyone looked at her a bit quizzically. "I simply meant that you focus more on the deceased's laughter and smile instead of your own ache at losing them."

"Oh, that's a lovely idea," Lucy said. "We should do another toast later then." She refilled her glass.

"I so easily forget about your secret travels sometimes," Holly said, shaking her head. "Perhaps because I never had any of my own." Holly was not a friend of Narnia in the traveling sense, but she knew all of the tales as well as any who lived them.

"I do wish you could have seen Narnia, Love," Peter said.

"Yes, but you wouldn't have wanted to see Peter there," Susan said. "He was all awkward and fumbling around girls."

"What do you mean 'was awkward?' He still is." Holly laughed.

"They're being mean to Da-Da, Stevie. What should we do?" Peter asked the four-month-old bouncing on his lap; he received a gurgling giggle in response. "He laughed. Did you just hear that? He laughed!"

"Yes, Cousin; we all heard the baby laughing at you," Eustace teased.

Peter didn't seem to mind that everyone else was now laughing at his expense. Everyone, except Edmund who had remained silent since the toast. Meri could see the glassiness of his eyes and that far-off distant look in them. She knew the pain he was feeling; it had been ten years since her husband had died and there were still times she turned expecting to see him but found his spot empty. Meri reached over and took Edmund's hand and gave it a gentle squeeze. He took in a deep breath, as though he had just remembered to breathe, and returned her squeeze.

The conversation carried on around them. Every now and then Meri would pipe in and say something; Edmund would not. He sat there, squeezing Meri's hand, and twirling the drink in his glass.

"Alright, Meri, I think I've been patient long enough." Lucy set her empty glass on the table next to the empty bottle. "I want to know everything. How long? What happened? Who happened?"

"Oh! That sounds like we're going to talk about Narnia again," Holly said excitedly.

"Lucy, maybe now isn't the best time," Eustace said, casting a wary glance at Edmund.

"And besides, it's a bit of a long story," Meri added.

"I think we could all use a bit of Narnia right now," Susan argued.

"And I'd like to hear about this 'Queen Mother' business," Peter added.

"Queen Mother? I like the sound of that," Lucy said. Holly and Jill agreed.

"There are far more pressing matters to attend to, Brother," Edmund said stiffly. He took a sip from his glass and cleared his throat before turning to look at Meri. "I want to know who this Teagan fellow is that you mentioned in the hospital."

Meri smiled fondly. Everyone else smiled in relief.

"Teagan? Sounds handsome," Holly said.

"He was very handsome," Meri confirmed. "He was a spice trader from the island of Doorn. He was tall, broad shouldered, dark-skinned with big blue eyes. And he was a very good kisser."

"I don't need to know that much about him." Edmund frowned.

"He was a good man, Babbo, and an even better father. You would have approved."

"Did he treat you well?"

"Very."

"Did he respect and agree with your decisions?"

"Respect? Yes. Agree with? Not always."

"Did he make you happy?"

Meri smiled. "The happiest."

"Hmm. Good. Then I approve. And a father you say?"

"Yes, of two. Edward and Elaine"

"So I'm a grandpa then?"

Meri's smile deepened. "A great-grandpa actually." Edmund's eyes widened.

"Now you have to tell us everything," Lucy insisted.

Meri laughed. "Well, about a year after you left there was a hurricane..."

*John chapter 14 verse 2, KJV