"Connected enough for you?" she teased him after they woke for the second time still entwined and still very "Narnian".

"Mmm, yes," he mumbled, nuzzling his head into her neck. "Can we stay here forever?"

"We could, but I would expect you might get hungry."

As if on cue his stomach growled, and they laughed.

She took a deep breath. "We need to get you some food, but I suppose we should talk about the baby."

Peter's handed reflexively went to her stomach. He sighed, "This child, our child, is a blessing here or there, but still creates a lot of questions. I could quit school. Your father would give me job at the stone mill."

"No!" she cried, "I have watched my parents scrape and scrimp all of their lives. I don't want that kind of stress for us. No, you need to graduate and go to University. You will need to make a living for us."

She put her hand over his and continued, her lip quivering, "I will have to quit school. They won't let me stay in this condition. Perhaps I could audition for the stage next year, although I am not sure who would take care of the baby while I danced and you study..."

"April," his voice was tender, "I don't want you to give up your dream..."

A hard edge came into her voice. She was resolved. "I don't have a choice. Things happen for a reason Peter. This is not all just some accident. And this child is not a mistake. I...we...will be fine!"

He sighed again, there was no more to be said. He hated this. This was not the way it was supposed to be. They should still be in Narnia eagerly anticipating the arrival of their child. They should not here where their child would be considered illegitimate and a burden, even if he and she, and maybe their families, knew different. At the thought of her family, he knew it was time to leave. They still had a couple more days of break left, perhaps they could come back.

"We need to leave now, let me clean us up a bit."

She smiled at his thoughtfulness but then sat straight up in alarm at his words.

"April! There is blood. Has there even been blood, before...when we? Was I too rough, was it too much?" His voice grew anguished and panicked.

She kept a level head, "No, Peter, there has never been. You were fine, you could not have caused this. It must be the coming back, perhaps the stress? I think it is time we go and talk with my Mother.

~~00~~

Miranda Treed, April's mother, smiled and hummed to herself as she kneaded the dough for the loaf of bread she was making. April and Peter had just left and Peter seemed very nervous this morning. Had she ever seen that boy anything less than self-assured? She didn't think so. She smiled again. Unless she missed her mark completely, he and April would come back all smiles. She was glad that her daughter's future would be set. Peter was a good boy...man, although the whole Narnia aspect made the situation very strange, but he was perfect for April. She was glad that April would not be stuck in this small village. Even if her dancing did not work out, there would be more opportunities for her in London than here.

The dough was finished and she left it to rise. As she washed her hands she thought of the other tasks that needed to be done this morning. April and Peter would not be back until late afternoon she supposed. She was surprised to hear voices outside the kitchen door and even more shocked when they both walked in, not with the rapturous joy of the newly engaged but with worried concern on their faces.

"Mum!" April cried, running over to give her a hug. April hugged her as if she had not seen Miranda for months rather than just a few hours.

She looked at Peter over April's shoulder. He had a small smile on his face but worry was in his eyes.

"What is it April?"

April backed away and held out her hand. Miranda trembled a bit in excitement. He must have given her a true engagement ring. She looked down and had to lean against the edge of the kitchen table. There was April's promise ring with a diamond mounted in the center, but next to it was the most delicately wrought wedding ring. She looked at April in confusion and then over to Peter, who gently placed his hand over April's revealing...his wedding band. Oh mercy! She was fumbling for a chair and then Peter was there helping her to sit.

"Mum, we have been in Narnia," as if Miranda needed that explanation. She knew about Narnia, had always known. Her family was the keeper of a book that was older than she knew. It chronicled the reign of the four legendary Kings and Queens of Narnia. It wasn't until she met Peter that she truly believed they were more than just legends. Her own Mother believed and always said that April possessed the spirit of her dryad ancestor.

"How long?" she managed to ask.

"Almost six months," Peter supplied. "We have been married all but two weeks of that."

Miranda lifted a shaking hand to her hair and looked at the two of them standing next to each other, April looked the same...yet different. She glowed with a light that was stronger than before. She matched Peter in that respect. And yet, there was still something in their concerned worry that rang familiar, all too familiar.

"And..." she prompted, terrified to receive the answer.

"I'm pregnant," April said and then her voice dropped to an anxious whisper, "and bleeding."

"Oh, my darling girl, no!" Miranda was out of her seat and holding April, sad for the journey that she was sure her baby girl, no, she was a woman now, had to face. A journey she herself had walked many years before when her own child was stillborn. A journey she had walked with others as doctor's helper.

"How far along?"

"A little over four months," April replied.

"Is there anything you can do?" Peter asked.

Miranda stepped back and wiped the tears that were welling up in her eyes and slowly shook her head no. She invited them to sit and went to put on the tea. They would need it. She talked as she worked.

"I have thought all of my life to try to figure out the quandary of how, when you four came back from Narnia, that your bodies were the same as when you left. I questioned about sicknesses and scars that you may have and I have never asked..."

She trailed off when Peter unbuttoned his shirt and revealed to her the newest scar on his chest. She looked shocked and confused.

"It is the reason we are back, Mother, Aslan brought us back to save Peter's life."

Miranda put a fist to her mouth to keep from sobbing, she had to continue. They needed to know her theory. Miranda regained control.

"When you come back to this world your bodies are exactly as they before you left, except for just a remnant of your life there, such as a scar. April, your body has returned to the exact form that it was six months ago, except for the life that lives inside you. I am assuming your breasts are no longer rounded and tender?"

April's eyes grew wide and she stared at Peter, shocked that they hadn't noticed it earlier.

Miranda sighed. "Your body, as it is now, cannot sustain life, the hormones that readied your body for the child and gave you the ability to sustain the pregnancy, are not there any longer. The child cannot live. If you have been back longer than a few moments..." she eyed them carefully and seeing their exchanged glances knew they had been back longer, perhaps more than a day. "Then likely the child has already passed. But even if you had come to me sooner, there is nothing that I could have done to stop this. You are miscarrying, my dear."

"Oh no!" April jumped up and Peter caught her in his arms.

"It's okay, love. We will get through this," Peter said bravely. Although Miranda could see by his expression, that he was not sure how.

April ran to the lavatory and they heard her exclaim, "I had forgotten...indoor plumbing!"

Peter smiled and chuckled in spite of the situation, and said wryly. "Spare Oom does have its advantages."

"Tell me how you came back, Peter," Miranda urged.

Peter sat and briefly told the story of the struggle with the pirates, who in the middle of the night had raided their bedchamber, the traitor that was revealed, his being stabbed through the chest by the Pirate Captain, the feeling of dying and then waking up here. He told her of the 2nd mate brutally punching April in the stomach to purposefully kill his heir. He and April had hoped that damage had been healed upon their return, just as his had.

Miranda nodded and waited. Peter groaned and put his head in his hands, after a moment he lifted his head and with tears in his eyes said, "It's my fault! Aslan brought us back here to heal me, and the cost was my child. He made the choice to heal me, knowing that my child would not survive the journey."

Peter got up and started to pace, "How? How can I live with myself, knowing that I killed my child, that I get to live while he or she doesn't? I would not have chosen that!"

A voice came from the doorway. "Stop Peter! Just stop! How can you say that?! Of course, Aslan chose you to live! This is NOT your fault. It is the pirates', or even Aslan's for letting this happen! Whoever's fault it is, the right choice was made!"

She came before him and held his chin so he would look her in the eye. Miranda was stunned watching this woman, who was her daughter, and yet was not. She could only stare in awed silence.

April's voice was strong and loud, as if it were trying to reach the darkest recesses of his mind. "It is the choice that I would have made! A child is precious, but you...are much more important. You have a mission in this world too. Our time together has just began and I would NOT want you to be taken from me!"

Her hands moved to his cheeks, and she said softly, intimately, "You...are my world Peter, my rock. I need you, now more than ever!"

Miranda, with tears running down her face, because of the situation and the beauty of the love she saw radiating from her daughter, slipped out of the room to give them the privacy they needed. If she hadn't believed they were married by seeing the rings, she knew they were now. She sat on the couch and silently sobbed thinking of what they had been through and what they had to face. She hoped their marriage would survive, for the loss of a child, by any means, was the most difficult kind of grief anyone could face. And she knew from experience, it was a grief that one could never fully overcome.

~~~~~~

(A/N: Hi, so sad! I am sorry. It was so hard to write. Sigh. What did you think of Miranda's theory? Is it plausible at least? Stay with me. I will try to update weekly. Life is hard, too hard, but we can persevere,always!)