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[youngestqueen]

Lucy sat on the grass near the school. She'd finished a class, and had some tutoring by Susan as well. Now she was drawing. Feverishly drawing in a way, one of the compound cats who had wandered outside for a while

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[onceaqueen]

"There you are," said Susan. The walk to the school had tired her, and she stretched, her back making a slight cracking sound before she sat beside her sister. Before long she would have to start limiting the length of her daily walks, but not quite yet.

[youngestqueen]

There was a moment she almost closed her sketchbook when her sister approached. She didn't though, added a bit more shading to the mane, and looking studiously at her drawing.

'I had a class this morning. I thought it was a nice place to sit and draw," Lucy smiled when she turned her face up to Susan, though it didn't quite reach her eyes.

[onceaqueen]

"It is a nice place to sit and draw," Susan agreed, glancing at Lucy's drawing. She didn't want to stare at a work-in-progress, and she didn't know anything about art to offer any advice, so she just said, "It's a spot that seems to suit you."

[youngestqueen]

"I like it here. Out of doors." Lucy breathed deeply, putting her pencil down. There was much she had been thinking on, and much she wanted to say to her sister, she just didn't know how. "I've been thinking of reading the next book."

[onceaqueen]

"I had wondered if you were going to pick them up again," she replied. Lucy had had the books for some time now, and Susan wondered how Lucy could stand not to read them all at once; though her own reading had been influenced by Peter's disappearance. She glanced at the cover of the book and added, "Caspian's read them too, you know."

[youngestqueen]

Oh, she'd wanted to read them all at once. She wanted to pick them up and devour them, see the tales that been written about their other lives. Something had stopped her. Some kernel of doubt or fear, something she was unused to. She wasn't used to being afraid of things.

"I've been carrying it about for days," she admitted to Susan, somewhat bashfully. "Has he? Oh, good."

[onceaqueen]

"Well, it will still be there whenever you're ready to read it," Susan reminded her. "It's not going anywhere. Take your time." She leaned back against the tree behind her, resting her hands on her stomach (which to her felt ridiculously large), and she felt a little thud against her hand as the baby settled.

[youngestqueen]

Lucy moved forward watching her sister carefully. "Does he move about a lot?"

[onceaqueen]

"These days, yes," said Susan. "When I'm up and moving, I think it lulls her to sleep - the motion of walking, I mean. But then when I stop, she wakes up and pokes me. She's probably just turning around or wiggling, but it all feels a lot the same." There was a push under her hand then, at the highest, roundest part of her stomach. "Put your hand just there," she said, indicating where she'd felt that last little push. "Then you can feel it too."

[youngestqueen]

Lucy looked at her sister intently for a moment before placing her hand on Susan's stomach. For a moment she felt nothing, then the strangest thing. All at once there was a bump to her hand. "Oh!" She looked up at her sister in wonder.

[onceaqueen]

"It's the strangest thing, isn't it?" Susan asked with a little laugh. "To think there's another person in there." She was convinced that the child could already hear and understand familiar voices; there always seemed to be increased activity when Jon was nearby, talking. "I think she's saying hello. Just three more months to go, and we can say it in person."

[youngestqueen]

"Did mother ever let you tocuh her belly? When she had me?" Susan would have likely been too young to remember Edmund she thought, but she was curious to know.

[onceaqueen]

"Yes, she did," said Susan, as the baby pushed against Lucy's hand again. "I was younger than you are now, of course, and I remember thinking that it was actually a little bit weird. It seemed so strange!"

[youngestqueen]

"It's still a bit strange," she admitted, looking down at her hand on Susan's stomach. "Only three months. It's so soon."

[onceaqueen]

"It seems rather soon, doesn't it?" Susan agreed. "Part of me is ready for it to be over with, and part of me isn't." She was large enough now that some things were uncomfortable, and she knew that would only become moreso the more she grew; and that she would be glad to be done with. But with her baby here safe inside her, she felt she could protect her from island tricks and the whimsy of disappearance. Once the child was born she would not have that ability to protect her anymore.

[youngestqueen]

There was a part of Lucy, a small part, that was jealous. That liked what they had now, Lucy and Susan and Jon. Part of her that was scared it would change and not for the better.

It was a very small part. Most of her was excited, and that's what showed as she looked up and met her sister's eyes. "It'll be alright. We'll all be here."