Title: Go Ask Susan

Author: Evil Little Dog

Rating: Teen

Disclaimer: This is a derivative work, and, as such, I make absolutely no money writing this. Darn the luck.

Summary: Susan meets another traveler in an unexpected place.

Warnings: Mental Health Issues.

When Susan returned from her travels, she felt a discontentedness she couldn't explain. If she let herself know the truth, she'd felt it while traveling, though she tried very hard not to think that. It was only when she was alone, late at night or early in the morning, that the sensation had overwhelmed her, the same sort of sensation that bothered her when her siblings talked about Narnia.

When her family died in the train accident, a certain numbness overtook her, leaving her in a fog for months, almost a year. She couldn't remember how she'd survived it - someone must have taken care of her, made sure she ate, made sure she left her bed and dressed and walked about. Susan remembered once going to the London Zoo and staring in at the lion pen, at the great beasts behind the bars. She remembered tears and cries (shrieks and exclamations? Had those come from her?), people staring and people running to help, someone eventually dragging her away to a doctor who wanted her to talk about her family and her childhood, and all the things Susan didn't want to examine.

He suggested a sanatorium until she felt better and Susan didn't really have a reason to protest.

So she wound up here, with some other gentle people, and nurses, and doctors, and one, a strange girl who reminded Susan of (a dryad) Lucy suggested Susan speak to another girl, Alice. "You two remind me of each other," she said with a curious smile.

Susan didn't take the advice, no, instead, she drew images of lions and her siblings as royalty and a knighted mouse and herself as an archer with a handsome, dark prince with a kind but sly smile.

"Those are lovely," an unfamiliar voice said over her shoulder and Susan turned to see a young blond woman, one who made the familiar sanatorium clothing seem to glow. "What are they?"

She hadn't said the word without derision in years, but this time, Susan said, "Narnia," and it sounded wistful.

"It reminds me of Wonderland." The blonde smiled at Susan, leaning in to whisper warmly in her ear, "But Wonderland is all mad."

Rather than retreating, Susan nodded and smiled. "Narnia was sometimes dangerous. There were wars, we had to fight in battle. Mostly the boys," she added. "Peter and Edmund didn't like us to fight."

"But it's necessary sometimes, isn't it?" The blonde smiled and curtseyed to Susan. "Your Majesty, I am Alice Liddell, a White Queen of Wonderland."

Susan rose from her chair to bow as she'd learned in Narnia. Queen meeting queen. "Well met, Queen Alice, well met."

~ end ~