Please please, don't hate me for the late update!!! I'm really sorry!!

I made this chapter extra long to make up for the lateness!!! I hope you enjoy it!

Unfortunately I own nothing... :(

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Yes but if he would just own up and grow up enough to help us then it wouldn't be so bad, but this moping around feeling sorry for himself is just wrong Ed! He got her into this mess and he will not even lift a finger to help her! Oooh he has become simply infuriating!" Susan's tense, harsh whisper seemed to echo of the earthen walls of the corridor outside Sally's little hospital room.

Edmund was nodding along, agreeing with what his eldest sister said. They had been here for quite some time because- believe it or not- even they had been kicked out of their own hospital, as visiting times were over. For weeks Edmund had fumed over this because they were visiting a girl who was apparently asleep for the entire time and never woke up!

"Why do we need to be kicked out?!" he would grumble, "It's not like she needs the rest; she's asleep!" Susan would sigh patiently and say that it was probably more for their benefit than for Sally's and Edmund would just give an odd sort of grunt and walk away...probably to get food...

However it was always them and never Peter that would have his conversation, even Lucy would join in at times, sometimes for and sometimes against these visiting hours, knowing that without them Edmund would probably never leave, although neither would she!

At this precise moment though, Susan and Edmund were alone; they didn't like discussing their disappointment in Peter in front of Lucy.

"He just...I don't know...It's like he can't stand to be there for her any more...almost as though, once we returned from the castle, that he deflated and fell in on himself. I wish he would do more. I know that he could help in some way, but he isn't even trying." Edmund sighed shaking his head, feeling bemused and let down.

"I've been doing the best I can." Said a cold voice as someone came around the corner. Needless to say, it was Peter. He stood there in the gloom of the corridor and Susan sucked in a sudden lungful of air in shock and anger at his appearance. His head was now held high but in the dim light she could see that his eyes were underlined by deep black shadows. His once shinning golden hair was now lank and while clean, it had lost the shinning look of health it had once boasted. He was thinner than before and his face was gaunt, making his cheekbones stand out in high relief. Although his head was held up in a cold defiance his shoulders were slumped and an air of dejection clung to him. She hissed, furious; how dare he say he had been doing his best when he was never even there! How dare he look sleep deprived and ill when he had done nothing! He would know what she thought of his coping methods!

"Doing the best you can?!" her voice was low and dangerously calm. "You've been moping around your room while we've been down with Sally and her doctors trying to figure out a way to clean up your mess! We've been here every day! Ed and Lucy hardly ever leave! In case you had forgotten; if you hadn't been so cold and un-feeling and mean none of this would have happened! There's also the small matter of trying to defeat the Telamrines, or had you forgotten that too? Well let me fill you in. While you have been stuck up in your rooms gathering enough food and supplies to keep you up there for the next month, we have been helping Caspian to strategise and come up with ways to defeat them; countless scouts have been sent out and come back with little or no information and yet they get closer every day! We spent a whole week in abject terror because the wise women that we had sent for seemed to disappear along with their guards somewhere between the last enemy camp and our own camps! They were our last hope for finding cure for Sally and we thought we had lost it forever! Lucy is terrified, though she won't show it, that you're never going to come back to her again, that you're just going to stay up there and abandon us all! What do I tell her Peter?! Well? Should I tell her the truth? That you're a coward; that you embarrassed a girl, our adopted sister of sorts, so much so that she ran away from you and straight into the arms of our enemy who tortured her into this horrible coma-like nightmare! All because of you and now you hide from it all, all alone locked up in your room like a selfish little boy!" she spat it out in her anger and glared at him. Peter had paled in front of her onslaught and his jaw was tight, but his eyes were pained. He said nothing.

"Will you not even defend yourself?" Susan was defeated by this dead silence, and her voice was little above a tear filled whisper. "Have you nothing to say."

Peter looked away from her. Slowly and quietly a sad, broken voice escaped from his clenched mouth.

"Do you not think that I torture myself with those self- same accusations that you have just laid upon me?" He turned to face her once more and she was stunned to see the torture and anguish in his eyes. But he continued.

"Do you think that I lie up in my room happily eating chocolates and musing on how sad it must be down here? How Susan? How could you think that of me?" His eyes and voice were pleading and to his shame his eyes were filling with tears. Angrily he dashed them away. His voice got stronger; "I have been up there for weeks because I won't allow myself any nearer to her. Every time I go near her something bad happens! Do you not remember the day after we first met? I was with her and the sirens went off again, while running towards the shelters she was hit by shrapnel from an explosion, she would have died had we not been nearer! And then she got the news about her father while I was with her! Now this! I'm no good anywhere near her Susan; all I do is cause her pain. I was staying up and away from her for her own good!"

He looked back at his sister, shame and guilt oozing from his entire being. What he was afraid to tell her though: was that he had been visiting Sally...at least the odd day or week....; just not when any of his siblings could see him... He had been so full of guilt that it was his brother and sisters that he had been unable to face, he had found it much easier to go to see Sally alone and to try to help her form the sidelines, so to speak. He had also kept a close eye on all that had happened and knew that Susan, Edmund and Lucy had all individually sent away for various doctors to try help to find a cure. Although, come to think of it they had kept it quite silent about these new wise women!

Susan however knew none of what was going on inside his head and she looked at him, at first feeling pity for the once strong brother she had known and loved before all of this. Then once more she got angry.

"You're hiding Peter." She said coldly. "You're hiding behind stupid fabricated lies."

He looked at her, slightly startled that the bearing of his soul and his shame, which let's face it had been bared with the purpose of her forgiving him and thinking him brave and noble, could have produced such a cold reaction.

"You know very well that those other circumstances were outside your control and just bad coincidences. Yet you made up for those! You helped her recover from the injury and you were there when she needed the support her father couldn't give her. Why are you hiding from the one thing that actually was your fault? And the one thing that I'm sure you could be instrumental in fixing. You're a coward Peter Pevensie, a coward and a fool." With that she walked brusquely passed him with a withering glare and left the two brothers together.

Peter looked at Edmund for the first time. He looked tired and worried, but he was frowning.

"She has a point you know, I do think you're hiding, but I'm not sure from what, exactly." With a last calculating look at Peter, Edmund said nothing and left him alone.

Peter looked down the dark tunnelled hall, his addled brain confused. He wasn't hiding, was he? He was staying away from Sally to keep her safe! There was no way they would find the cure with him and his bad luck hanging around! Not that visiting the odd time could be considered 'hanging around'...could it? Or would he really be able to help? No he'd just make things worse surely!

But what if...? He had spent many slow torturous hours reflecting on how he had acted towards Sally when she kissed him. He hated to think of it. He had been so cruel and harsh and he wished it had never happened. Then they wouldn't be in this horrible situation and perhaps Sally would be all right; he should have let her kiss him. He felt cursed; many sleepless nights had been spent thinking and reflecting on all of this and then even on those blessed nights when h did fall asleep he was haunted by the image of her turning in the tent, writhing and screaming in terror and agony. But in his dreams, she was calling out his name. She was calling out his name in fear; he was the one in her mind turning her against everyone and torturing her.

Once again, he was the reason. On those nights he wished that he wouldn't sleep, but the number of real sleepless nights made him too tired to stay awake and eventually he would sleep whether he wanted to or not. And so his days had passed in a cyclone of pain, exhaustion and anguish. But he was sick of it; he had always hated moping around doing nothing. He just felt like couldn't help himself right now.

"Wait a moment!" He was startled out of his reverie by a sudden thought; "What was that Susan had said about the wise women? ... Something about them being the last hope to finding a cure?" Hope and a dreadful conviction began to flood his body; "See, she was fine without him!" then his bubble deflated slightly; "But what exactly was going on? And what did she mean by last hope?"

Peter paused for a moment to think; when was the last time he had heard some real, recent news? Not just about doctors being sent for and all failing in the end. He was shocked to find out it had been just after they had arrived back from searching for Sally! But how long ago was that?!

Peter started to get angry with himself; "What on Earth have you been doing?!" He asked himself questions that he had been afraid to ask before, and this time he gave them an honest answer; he had been hiding from the fact that he had behaved abominably towards his best friend. And after he had spent weeks tirelessly searching for her and when Edmund had finally found her, she had been completely destroyed. It had destroyed him in turn because Susan was right; it was his fault!

But now, a new conviction and adrenaline surged through his fatigued body; he would hide no more! He would get back up and again be the Peter everyone knew; Peter the Magnificent, High King of Narnia!

But first he had to go see his favourite girl! If, of course she would allow him...

He knocked nervously on the large, solid wood door and waited nervously.

"Who is it?" a tired, weary voice came from within.

"It's me." He said.

Silence. The door creaked open. A small face and large brown eyes gazed up at him from the other side.

"Peter?"

"Hello Lucy."

"Peter!" Lucy ran out with an enormous smile on her face and lunged at him, flinging her arms around his neck.

"Peter I thought you were never going to come out of your room! You were up there for so long and I never saw you even in the hospital! But I knew you were just sad over Sally and that you were going to see her when you could be alone, because she's your best friend! Oh I knew you'd come back down!"

Peter hugged his youngest sister tightly as he felt guilt assuage his innards. Once he felt her hold loosening he released her and bending down to look at her in the eye said; "Lucy I have behaved appallingly, can you forgive me?"

Lucy smiled, gave him a peck on the cheek and a squeezy hug.

Peter laughed for what felt like the first time in years and playfully pretended to choke.

"All right, all right; enough!" Once released from the squeezy hug Peter began to ask Lucy some questions.

"Ok Lu, so what can you tell me about these wise women that Susan sent for?"

Lucy frowned and tried to think; "Well, they're from the mountains to the south, I think we had an allegiance with them last time, but I can't remember about what. Susan wanted them because they're quite clever and do you remember they had that medicine of their own that was really like the flower cordial Father Christmas gave me? Only theirs was made from herbs and things so that they'd never run out! Well, they came a couple of days ago but we were really worried because they stopped sending letters to us about where they were with their centaurs just before they arrived and we thought they had been killed!" Lucy's eyes were round and full of the memory of the fear that they would never see the wise women and then never see Sally right again. "But then Reepicheep found them near the lamppost hiding in the forest and he brought them home!" she smiled at the happy ending to her little story.

Peter took all of this aboard, but it hadn't told him what he really wanted to know; "What did they say? About Sally?" his tone was urgent and the smile faded from Lucy's face.

"Well, they were in with her for a whole week! There were strange smells and sounds and funny coloured smoke coming from the entire hospital wing! It was a bit scary! They came out then afterwards and told Susan and Ed that Sally was in some giant nightmare. They tried everything they could think of but none of their remedies were working. They said we might never get her back." Lucy's lower lip trembled as she tried to keep back the tears that were filling her eyes, eyes that had seen too much already, and too much of that was Peters own fault. Again.

Overcome with guilt, he pulled his little sister into his arms and hugged her tightly, whispering fiercely that it would be ok, and that they would find a way to bring her back. Lucy just cried as children do when they are too overcome with too many different emotions and Peter held her and rocked her until she fell asleep. Then he picked her up and carried her to her bed. When he tried to lie her down she just gripped more tightly to his clothes and refused to let go.

"Don't leave!" she whispered.

"I won't." He promised and got into the bed beside her.

Hours later when he was sure she was fast asleep he slipped out of the bed and out of the room. He made his way straight to the hospital wing feeling rejuvenated but highly ashamed of himself for how he had been acting. But now he was determined to put right his wrongs and fix it all! ...perhaps easier said than done...

On reaching the hospital wing he saw that there were now guards stationed outside the doors and when he tried to go in they refused and wouldn't let him in! Not even when he told them exactly who he was! No he was just told to sit still and be quiet and to wait until the women were finished. He was most infuriated!

However he did not have long to wait until Edmund came down; when Peter saw to whom the echoing footsteps belonged, a sense of dread filled him. How was he going to explain himself to his brother, normally neither were great ones for talking; especially about feelings!

He needn't have been worried though, for Edmund just smiled slightly, nodded and sat down beside him against the rough stone wall; no awkwardness and no blame! Peter sighed, a sigh of relief and gratitude for his brother, who always remembered never to judge others by their mistakes, after all; he himself had made rather large ones in the very beginning of their relationship with Narnia!

They sat in silence for what felt like hours until finally the doors to the hospital wing opened and out stepped what Peter could only assume was the wise mountain woman. But she looked like no wise mountain woman he had ever seen or heard of! Wise woman was usually a nice way of saying "crazy yet unusually smart woman", with emphasis on the crazy because they would always be short, fat, old crones with large humpbacks, wearing furs or something equally horrible and have terribly matted hair. This woman was not like that at all. This woman had a fabulous body, it was the first thing Peter noticed because she was wearing a long piece of cloth that draped around her body, artfully accentuating every curve and skimming gracefully over her. Her hair was rolled up and pinned in a strange bun: it was an odd purplish colour but seemed to shimmer with violet and lavender lights. Her eyes were a deep blue that accentuated her hair, her lips were a deep red and her face was delicate and classically beautiful. It held such an expression of knowledge that there was not a question of her being crazy. Peter was bowled over...completely!

A satisfied chuckling brought him back to his senses and he turned to see Edmund laughing at him. Edmund had already met the wise women and was used to their effects on men, but being the only male had never seen the effects on anyone else and was highly amused by the dumbfounded look on his elder brother's face! It was also why he hadn't warned him of their effects!

Colouring, Peter cleared his throat and turned away.

Still smiling Edmund turned to her and said; "How is it going Dr. Galeria?"

She turned to look sagely at him and replied in a calm musical voice; "We may have found something."

The two brothers instantly perked up and gave her their full, undivided attention.

"It seems that the girl responds to happy stimuli, for example; a feather in ticklish places, a simulation of sunshine. Through this we have been able to surmise that these stimuli bring out happy memories in her disturbed nightmares and that they have the opposite effect; they reduce the nightmares and a few times we have even been able almost to bring her to the surface, although fleetingly."

"What does this all mean?" Edmund demanded, not quite understanding what the strange vision of perfection was saying.

"We think that good memories reduce the power and hold the nightmare has on her. It is as though the happy memory is a nightmare for this enchantment that makes it shrink away from the girls conscious."

"Bu what does it mean? What are you saying?" asked Peter cautiously, wanting to be explicitly clear on this subject, refusing to get his hopes up for nothing.

The woman turned her beautiful face towards him.

"We believe that if you have a strong enough stimulus for a strong enough memory then it may be possible to bring her back. At least for a while"

A stunned silence followed her statement.

A memory.

That was it? A memory!? All this searching and hunting, paying for more and more doctors, with varying talents in such a wide areas and all they needed was a bloody memory!?!??!

Edmund was unable to deal with this and flopped down onto a chair with a frustrated sigh and ran his hand through his brown hair.

Peter stayed where he was. A memory. Wow. But he was still rather confused.

"Excuse me ...eh...doctor, but how could it be that simple?! After all the expense that my family has gone to find all these doctors...how could they all have missed out on that?? It's so simple!"

The woman smiled knowingly and shook her odd head. "These so called doctors were looking for poisons and pollutants, toxins and venoms. The answer is simply that whatever was given to your friend was untraceable if you were looking for such normal things. In all likely-hood, we believe that one would need to know of the Telmairne's own wise men and women to search for this particular pest. It is a little known technique that the Telmarines have evidently perfected. It is brewed from the compilation of several poisonous herbs. The poison of each herb battles with and eventually counteracts the other, transforming the potion into a type of sleeping draught that puts the victim to sleep. It brings to the forefront of their minds their worst fears and makes them live it in a sort of constant living nightmare. I have to say I have never seen such a perfectly brewed specimen in all my long years. We were almost about to give up when one of our elders ran her hands over a ticklish spot on her body, then we noticed a slight easing in her brow and we were able to work from that."

Peter narrowed his eyes at her. Was that admiration he heard in her voice? But he soon dismissed it. This was excellent news! There was a cure! Sally would be saved! It was all going to be ok again!

Edmund interrupted his happy imaginings with slightly more practical questions.

"This is all very well and good, but how exactly do we get her to remember?"

Peter's stomach dropped slightly at the most obvious complication that he hadn't even thought of...

The woman looked thoughtful for a moment as she considered the question. Having come to answer she soon replied; "I think it would have to be something physical. It was when she made contact with a solid object that we got the best results."

"A solid object that contains a powerful memory", why did that phrase sound somehow familiar to him? Peter had a niggling feeling in the back of his head but couldn't grasp fully where it came from or what it was. Deciding that it mustn't be anything important, he dismissed it and tried to concentrate on the conversation.

"...so there's nothing you can do to keep her more comfortable until we find a definitive cure?" Edmund was asking.

She shook her head, "I am afraid that the effect lessens the more you use the same object. What is needed is something extremely powerful. So powerful that it will blast this curse in one go."

"But," said Peter, "How will we know what is powerful enough?"

"We won't." She replied simply; and rather unsatisfactorily in Peter and Edmund's opinion!

"But then how is this to work?!" demanded Edmund angrily, losing his patience when they were so close and yet still so far!

"That, King Edmund must be up to you. Normally in cases such as these we would use a Forget-me-not cordial, something like what your sister Queen Lucy has, but that would not be strong enough here; she has been under its control for too long. You must find something else."

Just then the door was opened by another stunning woman, but this one had red hair the colour of a glorious sunset and it matched the hidden fire within her perfectly.

This time, it was Edmund who was bowled over! He had never met her before and was unprepared for her. His jaw fell slack and he stood gaping at the woman. She was tall and elegant, but in a fierce way, like that of a powerful warrior. Her body was long and taut, like a rope, but she still managed to look very feminine. Edmund stood as though slapped, drinking in her fiery radiance from her hair to her jade green eyes. Her creamy, almost beige skin glowed with health and vigour and the deep midnight gown she wore accentuated everything about her while simultaneously making her look magical and dangerous.

Peter, who had been far too involved in the conversation with Dr. Galeria to be effected by the new arrival, caught a glimpse of his awestruck brother and grinned triumphantly and evilly to himself before turning to the two women, trying to hide his grin and said;

"Hello, I'm King Peter, have you anymore news for us?"

The new woman turned towards him and had he not been High King he would have quailed beneath her fearsome gaze. Her eyes raked over him in an obvious scrutiny, but betrayed no hint as to the result of her study.

"No." She said at last, "We have no more news for you. For Galeria, however, we have news." Then she turned away to dismiss him.

Peter felt her slight and was quite taken aback and angered by it.

"Excuse me! I am the High King! What you have to tell Dr. Galeria you may tell me also!"

She looked at him once more but this time with a very different expression on her face and Peter found it hard to read; pity, perhaps, or was that mockery? In fact what the woman felt towards the High King was anger and condescension. How dare he address her like that? He was NOT her leader! She was a powerful warrior and she could crush him with one hand! Her anger was flaring at his impertinence when she felt a strong hand on her tightened arm. Startled, she turned to glare at whoever it was that had dared to touch her and was met with a pair of fabulously dark, deep brown eyes.

Edmund had noticed that Peter's big mouth and even bigger ego had gone and gotten him into trouble again!

Seeing the insult he had caused, he came up to make it clear to this strange woman that he had simply let his grief and worry for Sally run away with him. He walked slowly up to her had put his hand on her arm, noticing as he did that she was the same height as himself and for some reason felt oddly impressed by this alone! Once his hand touched her arm he could feel the power and will pulsing in her tightened muscles. He knew then that this was a woman to never get on the wrong side of!

As she turned to face him, he found himself caught in her enrapturing gaze and it was all he could do to choke out a garbled excuse; "Please...forgive my brother...he does not know... when to stop and pay proper respects to...such a warrior..."

Her eyes probed his own until she was satisfied that he was being truthful and then she relaxed and inclined her head towards Edmund. He seemed to glow with pleasure and she tried to hide a smile at his reaction.

Peter looked on in surprise; he couldn't believe his younger brother had totally diffused the situation and distracted her so. For some reason he felt oddly proud of him!

Galeria, meanwhile just rolled her eyes discretely for she was well used to the effect that her race and this young woman in particular had on young men! Coughing delicately she drew the flushed attention of Edmund and the defiant glance of her young protégé. Peter looked amused as he again looked to her.

"I think my dear that it may be time for us to get back to what it was you came out to tell me." She said pointedly, raising a graceful eyebrow.

"It must be told to you inside the room as you must see it for yourself." She answered; her voice slightly less defiant than her appearance.

Nodding, Galeria turned to the two brothers; "I will let you know of any developments." She said before turning back to re-enter the little hospital. The other young woman however, seemed to hesitate for a moment as she sent a veiled glance towards Edmund and on perceiving his gaze still on her she lifted her head and quickly turned to follow her superior, leaving a dumbstruck Edmund in her wake.

Peter turned to his brother as soon as they left. He grinned at Edmund and then began to walk away. Soon he heard the hurried footsteps of his brother behind him. How Peter longed to tease him, but knowing how he had behaved recently knew that he really shouldn't, he would save it for later and build up his arsenal!

"Wow," Said Edmund eventually, "a possible cure found at last! We must tell the girls at once!"

So what do you think?? I hope it doesn't look like I just skimmed over the weeks following their arrival at the How with Sally because I was bored or something...I just didn't want to dwell for too long on the depressing stuff anymore. So anyhu, tell me what you think! :)