Peter's POV
A year and a half later, May 8, 1945 (April is 20 and Peter is 18, will turn 19 in August)

"April! April!" Peter yelled bursting through the door.

"Peter! My goodness! Are you okay? What's—"

Her words were cut off as Peter caught her in his arms and spun her around so quickly, the room was still spinning when he set her down and kissed her deeply.

"Oh my," she breathed when he finally loosened his grip. "What on earth, Peter?"

He was grinning from ear to ear. "The word came through right at closing time."

"What word?"

"The Axis Powers have unconditionally surrendered! Hitler committed suicide a week ago. Germany surrendered today! They are calling is V-E Day, Victory in Europe. Churchill made the announcement to Parliament."

Peter was gleeful and a smile spread across April's face.

A roar came from outside. They rushed to the windows to see scores of people from the apartments around them celebrating in the street.

"Oh, Peter! This is wonderful! How...I mean life will change. Oh, I am so happy!"

She hugged him tightly and he felt it to his core. They had never known life together in a world that wasn't at war. Since 1939, when the bombings in London began, his life had been one change after another. Although it was the bombings that lead him to Narnia, the war had been a constant stress on his mind, even though he had never fought in a battle, here, anyway.

"My parents..." he said softly.

"Will come home," April replied placing her hand on his cheek tenderly.

He hugged her close and glanced out the window.

"What are they doing?" Peter wondered.

April turned and saw people dragging tables and chairs out in the street. Peter raised the window.

"Ho there! What is happening?" He yelled.

A boy in a news cap looked up. "Why sir, it's a party. Come join us! Bring your supper and celebrate. 'Dem Nazis are finished. Done for!"

April and Peter laughed at his enthusiasm. Peter looked at April with raised eyebrows and shrugged.

"Sure. Why not?" she laughed.

They ran to the kitchen. April gathered the potato soup from the stove and some bowls. Peter filled a rinsed out milk bottle with water from the tap and they went out to celebrate the end of the war with the rest of London.

~~0~~

9 months later...

Peter sighed and stretched his legs under the seat in front of him. It had been a long day, but he wouldn't have traded it for the world. It was still cold out there, but he knew that Spring was coming soon. It was February of 1946, he was 19 years old but felt like he was 30. That thought made him chuckle, for who knew actually how old he really was if they counted the years in Narnia. He was in his third year at the London School of Economics and Political Science and was ready to be done.

April had been working hard and was lucky to not have suffered any major injuries in her dancing career. Her hard work had paid off. She was getting solo roles more regularly now. In fact, it was the opening weekend of the Sleeping Beauty ballet with Margot Fonteyn starring as Aurora. April had gone on and on about Margot and her dancing. She said it was just an honor to dance on the same stage with her. April had a major solo role in the production and he was sitting in the front row waiting for the curtain to rise.

Her company, the Sadler's Well Ballet had been named the official ballet company of the royal opera house and now that the war was over, performances were more regular and had grown very popular. Her parents and sister were due to come in tomorrow for a few days to see her dance and he knew she was thrilled about their upcoming visit.

The tuning of the orchestra reminded him of the war. How glad he was to be done with that. It had taken a while since V-E Day was celebrated with the street parties in London for the rest of the world to come to peace. Officially the war had ended in May, but it took until August for things to end in the far east. The United States of America really had been the 'sleeping giant', racing to build the atomic bombs and then dropping them first on Hiroshima and then on Nagasaki on August 6th and 9th. On August 15th the Japanese surrendered to the Allies bringing V-J Day (Victory in Japan). He remembered how solemn and still the parliament floor was when the news came in about the bombings. So many lives were lost, it was sobering still to think about. It was worse after the numbers starting rolling in, so sad to realize that it took over 200,000 people being killed or injured to bring an end to the war. On September 2nd it was formalized and the second world war was over.

The orchestra paused and the audience stilled readying for the curtain to open. Peter sat up straighter. Ever since the first time he saw her dance in her school performance, he had been memorized by her dancing. Several memories flashed through his mind. The first performance he saw her in where he first realized she moved like the dryads, her dancing by candlelight on the stage while he watched in the darkness, her dancing for him in Narnia, him standing against the mirrors talking to Andre watching her glide across the floor while he vowed to never hurt her that deeply again... The pictures moved like the wind through his mind, mimicking the characters on stage during the christening of the baby, Aurora.

He watched expectantly as the six fairies presented their gifts to the princess. The dramatic entrance of Carabosse, the overlooked fairy who curses Aurora, intrigued him. After all, he had sat through many practices and opening night already. He knew it was almost April's turn to dance. His heart started beating faster in anticipation of her solo. She was the seventh fairy, the Lilac Fairy who cannot take away the curse but can soften it. He watched his love glide across the stage and spin around the cradle. She was so beautiful.

He smiled at her gentle and graceful movements and grinned in anticipation of the leaps she would complete in just a moment. She always appeared to fly during this sequence. There she went. He counted the steps with her, one step, step, step, run, leap, pirouette. She prepared to do the sequence again, one step, step, stop run, leap then...

Time slowed down. He saw her run, slip, then hurtle through the air and try desperately to land correctly as she slipped again, her ankle twisted abnormally, then she was on the stage in a heap.

"No!" he gasped and leaped to his feet as she fell.

The orchestra played for a few seconds more, not having heard the sound of her body as it crashed to the stage, the crowd as it gasped, or his shout. As he rushed from his seat, shouting her name, the music faltered. Not realizing he still clutched the bouquet of roses he had brought for her, he ran through the doors and up to the stage just as the stage manager who has also reacted with lightning speed, brought her into the wings. He barely realized the music had started back up and the dancers began to move as nothing had happened, even though, they too were concerned. They danced while the love of his life, unconscious in someone else's arms, was placed on a stage prop couch.

Someone yelled for an ambulance to be called, then he heard his name as if he was in a tunnel. He looked up. Andre watched him as he straightened April's unconscious form and grabbed a pillow to prop up the ankle which was already swollen twice it's normal delicate size and twisted in a way that made him want to throw up.

"Andre! How...why...what...is she?" was all he could manage, as he reached for April's limp hand and felt desperate for a pulse.

"She's fainted from the pain. I saw it, Peter. Rare, so rare, especially for her to slip."

Andre unwound the ribbons and ran his fingers over the pointe shoes. He muttered absently under his breath.

"No wearing, no rips...," he turned the shoe over, "no grease. It must have been something on the stage."

He looked over to where they could see the dancers through the curtains as if he could explore the spot where she slipped. "Maybe some sweat? Unlikely though, this early on."

He sat back on his heels, gazing at April, and ran his hand over his face, obviously grieved.

"It's a damn shame, Peter," he said softly. "A damn shame. I just stopped in to watch her solo and now this...she has worked so hard."

A moan escaped from her lips and Peter moved closer and put his other hand on her cheek. "I'm here, love. I'm here."

The rest was a blur for him. How strange this crisis was from all of the others in his past. His clear mind, the immediate tactics in the heat of a battle, all disappeared when it was the one he loved more than life, lying still and pale before him.

The medics came in with a stretcher. He rode in the back of the cramped bumpy ambulance, and did not even remember that her beautiful bouquet was left sitting on the floor backstage, kicked out of the way by the stage crew, crumpled and forgotten.

~~0~~

"Extra, extra, read all about it!" The newsboy called from the corner as Peter placed the pence in his hand and turned to go back upstairs.

With a heavy step on the stairs, he paused outside their door and flipped to the inside glancing at the headline in the bottom corner article. His breathing stopped.

"Up and Coming Ballerina has Career Crushing Injury During Performance."

He opened the door quietly and then closed it. He leaned back and read the words that only added to the stones in his stomach.

'April Pevensie, a soloist ballerina of the Sadler's Well Ballet Company, was performing a lead solo during the opening weekend of the Sleeping Beauty Ballet at the Royal Opera House. In the first act, she slipped and fell to the stage landing directly on her ankle. Sources say her injury is a complicated internal fracture and there is speculation she will never dance again. One of the youngest first soloists in the history of the company, with a promising future and a bright career ahead, she is only 20 years old. David Webster, general administrator of the Sadler's Wells Ballet stated, "April has an 'otherworldly' talent that we will miss. We wish her the speediest of recoveries.'

Peter sighed and ran his hand over his face. What a nightmare. April had stayed unconscious until after the surgeons had reconnected her ankle bones. The look on her groggy, pain-filled face when she woke, would forever be imprinted in his memory. She knew she would never dance again. He saw the truth in her eyes even before the doctors gave their final verdict a few weeks later.

"Peter?" her weak voice called from their bedroom.

He shook his head free of the terrible memories. She hadn't talked about the future yet.

"Yes, love... coming."

He threw the paper on the table and grabbed a glass of juice for her. He sat on the bed in the darkened room and set the juice on the bedside table. He reached for her hand.

"Does it hurt much?"

"Terribly," she whispered. "Peter... do you think? I mean, this is a bad break..."

"I know, love. I know."

He looked at her then, saw the tears running down her face and he couldn't help the tears that flowed down his cheeks as well. He knew, better than anyone, what the death of a dream felt like.

"Don't leave me," she whispered. "I can't... I can't go back down that hole again."

"No, love. You won't be alone. This is not like Narnia. I am not out chasing renegade dwarves this time. I am here. And, your mother is coming. Remember? I wired them after the accident. The train was delayed due to an accident on the tracks, but she will be here soon. Know that I will be here every minute I can."

"Thank you," she said softly.

It was quiet in the room, as it can only be quiet between two people who know each other inside and out and are grieving together.

Then a sob escaped her and he moved to gather her in his arms against the headboard.

"What is it, my love?"

"It's the same ankle, Peter. The one I broke in Narnia. Do you think..." her voice trailed off.

"Aslan healed it."

"I know. But what if...it has had a...a crack...ever since? I mean...I have been so careful of it, always wondering..."

He held her tighter. "I don't know. What I do know is that everything happens for a reason. Aslan...Christ has a plan for you...for us. Whether that includes you dancing or not... He is with us. Always. You have to trust in Him, in that. He won't fail us.

A/N: So very sad and hard. But hard things in life are necessary for certain blessings to come about.