"Come with me," he said gently, standing up and pulling her up to him.

"Where are we going?" she said, wiping her tears and sniffling a little.

"To the Grove. We need to talk, and rest. Besides, I am famished!"

He gathered the picnic basket and blanket where they still sat from a moment ago. Six months ago? Oh, this part always made his head hurt.

She led the way back to the grove. Both were silent remembering their laughter and playfulness as they chased each other through this forest right after he had proposed and she accepted. They had found themselves in a strange glade and had journeyed to Narnia. It all seemed like a very bizarre dream now, especially after spending at least six months in Narnia. They would need the timeless aspect of the Grove, a magical and unique grouping of trees in The New Forest, to sort through all of their questions and to make plans.

Entering the Grove Peter shivered. There was too much for his tired brain to handle. They ate in silence and as April cleared away the mess he spread the blanket out further.

"We need to sleep, love. Then, we will talk."

She nodded and came over to lay beside him. He held her close in their favorite way to sleep together in Narnia and kissed her forehead.

"It will be okay. We will figure this out together," he said just as much to comfort himself as well as her.

They awoke much later. Of course, they had no way of knowing just how late it was, for in the Grove time stood still for those with a Narnian connection.

April sat up and wrung her hands. He was surprised she was able to sleep as well as she did with the stress they were under. She looked at her hand.

"Our rings! Peter? Yes, you still have yours too. How is that possible?"

He looked down at the wedding ring still on his finger and shook his head in wonder. "I...I'm not sure. When we came back from Narnia the first time, we had jewelry, swords, and our court clothes on and none of it came with us. We were more prepared the second time we returned so we weren't wearing any Narnian jewelry. This has to be a gift from Aslan. One I am very thankful for. It is a reminder that it...we, were not just a dream or a fantasy."

She smiled and looked around at the trees. "Peter, I need to dance. I want to wake the trees."

He stood up too and smiled at her look of surprise when he walked with her to the middle of the clearing.

"May I dance with you?" he whispered into her ear.

She shivered and looked at him with wide eyes. She couldn't speak, but she smiled a shy smile. By now, he knew the steps well enough from having danced with her in Narnia. With him fully engaged it was a slower, sensual version of the dance, where they could not take their eyes off each other and he held her closer than before, bringing their bodies to meet whenever possible. It was reminiscent of the dryad's dance in Narnia during those late nights when the rhythm of the Narnian magic was under their feet, and the music beat in their hearts, and their bodies touched as they moved as one.

When the steps were finished they stood close together looking at each other, both knowing that one of her dreams for them had just come true. There was a rustling in the leaves above their heads and the trees were swaying, moving more than they ever had when April danced alone and before she had ever experienced Narnia in such a personal and intimate way.

They walked up to her Grandmother's tree and April knelt.

"Grandmother, I have been there...to Narnia. It is all we ever dreamed of and so much more!" She looked up at Peter with her eyes shining. "Peter and I were married by Aslan, He crowned me Queen! Grandmother, I made wonderful friends of fauns, and dryads, and..." her voice broke, "good beasts."

Peter's hand landed on her shoulder in support. Glancing up at him she drew a deep breath and continued.

"I am carrying Peter's child."

She broke down at this point and was barely able to speak through the fast tears sliding down her cheeks, "This is the heir, the heir that will never be King or Queen!"

She could not continue, he gathered her in his arms and held her, letting her cry and shedding a few hot tears of his own. A large leaf drifted down to them, a sign that her Grandmother's "spirit" had heard and understood.

April smiled, a rainbow through her tears and Peter smiled with her.

"Come," he whispered, leading her back to the blanket and making her sit.

"Why, Peter? I don't understand! Why bring us back now? Before...why did He just not heal you there?"

"I don't know. I thought about that while you were sleeping. I think that my...our job there was done. I must have killed the pirate captain, thus finally eliminating that threat. Lucius was revealed as the traitor and Oreius will bring him to justice. The Parliamentarian Government is in place. The one piece that does not make sense, is the child. Unless, Aslan never meant for me to have an heir..."

"But," he continued, his voice gaining strength. "I am alive. I will not regret that, and we are together. He could have left you in Narnia and brought me here, would you have wanted that? To have raised our child without me?"

"No!" she cried, tears threatening again at just the thought.

"Then we have to be grateful for the time we had there. We have to take what we learned and let it bring us closer together here, to strengthen our love, our bond. We have to love in spite of being back in Spare Oom."

She smiled at his last words. "To love in spite of....that was what Aslan told us the last time we saw Him."

Peter nodded. "I have not forgotten and perhaps it was for our coming back here that he said that."

"But what does that mean for us, now, here?"

He took her hand. "Do you want to be married to me here?"

"Yes, of course, I do," she said looking into his eyes not surprised to see them shining with love...and desire. She shivered again, the grove was working its magic of amplifying emotions.

"Then we will have our ceremony in mid-June as we had planned before Narnia." He drew her closer to him.

"But, are we still married then? I mean you were a King there, but not here. We were married there, so that means we are married here?"

Her confusion was obvious and he had no answers other than the one that he wanted to believe. Bringing his hands to her neck he pushed aside her hair and leaned to kiss her there.

"My heart," he kissed her lips, "my mind," he kissed her cheek, "my body," he kissed under her ear, and breathed the next words into her ear, "are all married to you." She sighed as his hands slid down her arms to her waist.

"Do we need to leave the Grove to have this discussion?" she asked breathlessly. He knew she felt the need to ask since the Grove amplified emotions.

"Do you want to leave?" his hands were moving up her back.

"No, but perhaps we should wait...until after the ceremony, that was our plan...before."

His hands stopped at her neck, so close to the zipper, (not buttons he thought happily), to give her the choice. "I can't even comprehend going back to just kissing you again, not after what we have experienced. I can't not touch you. Being with you is like breathing to me. But I will not force, nor coerce you. If you truly feel like we should wait, I will stop."

He pulled away to emphasize his point and to look in her eyes. He could see her reaction to the loss of his lips and hands. In her eyes he saw his desire mirrored, she had always been able to match his passion. It was one of the things he loved about her. She pulled him back to her.

"I can never say no to you Peter, nor do I want to. A life without your touch is not a life I want to live even for a few months."

He smiled and sighed and kissed her lightly. She had said yes, now he would tell her why he pushed her to make a choice.

"I love you April, and, I am married to you! Here or there, it makes no difference to me. Consequences be damned, after all...you are, already pregnant."

She giggled and he continued, his voice changing from light to husky and deep, "I want to be Narnian with you at least one more time before we go back and face our world. I need to connect what we had there to this world or I think I might just unravel. The adjustments we are going to face will seem insurmountable especially being separated and I...need...you."

As he spoke his hands were pulling the zipper down. She spoke, teasing him as she lifted her arms over her head so he could slip off the dress, "By being 'Narnian', you mean lying naked on the ground in the forest, and..."

"Exactly!" he enthused remembering the times they had done just that while in Narnia.

He had deftly removed the rest of her clothing and was running his hands slowly over her body, while she worked on his clothes.

"I love you Peter. I will always be glad to be 'Narnian' with you!"

He kissed her then and they melted together sinking to the ground like a puddle of molten metal poured out, on fire for each other with the heady knowledge that they were in a timeless, soundless, sightless bubble, only for themselves and for as long as they wanted. It was a dream come true for both of them to be together in that way in that place. How long they made love they would never know or care. Touching, feeling, loving like it was their last time together and very well could be with the circumstances that might soon separate them.