Author's Note: While I didn't want to start posting this until after I'd posted a new (long-overdue) chapter of Trial By Fire, this one is coming much more easily than the other, which seems to be subject to an eternal case of writer's block.

Disclaimer: I own nothing recognizable. Fellow evacuees are mine, with the exception of Nancy and Jamie, who were borrowed for a short while from Doctor Who.

This Ordinary Life

Chapter One

The orders to evacuate the children came after the latest bombing on London. Notices were sent out and assignments were posted in central locations. And, while every effort was made to keep families together, sometimes those efforts were not always successful.

"What do you mean we're being split up?" Peter demanded, incredulously, as he looked over the travel orders that his mother had picked up only that morning.

Four pairs of stricken, horrified eyes stared at Helen Pevensie, and she felt tears welling up in her eyes, which she hastily dashed away before smiling determinedly at her children.

"There's not enough room at the Bixby House for all four of you," she explained. "Mrs. Bixby stipulated that she could only take in two children, so Edmund and Lucy are going to stay with Professor Kirke, an old friend of your father's."

"Can't we all go to Professor Kirke's?" Lucy asked, plaintively.

"He's already promised to take in another group of children," Helen said, "and he simply doesn't have room for all four of you. Not to mention the energy to keep up with so many children."

"It's not fair," Edmund muttered, scowling darkly. "We shouldn't have to go away, at all."

"I'm not going to have you in the middle of a war zone," Helen said, firmly.

"If Dad were here, he wouldn't make us go," Edmund argued, petulantly.

"If Dad were here, that would mean that the war was over and we wouldn't have to go," Peter snapped.

"What about you?" Susan asked, quietly, before her brothers could get into an argument. "You're going to be staying in the middle of a war zone."

"And you'll be working in a factory," Peter spoke up, before Helen could answer. "Everyone knows that the factories are the first-"

He trailed off as he noticed Lucy following the conversation, avidly, but Helen heard the rest of his words clearly: Everyone knows that the factories are the first to be targeted for bombing.

"I will be fine," Helen told him, firmly, her tone indicating that there would be no more discussion. "Now, it's time for bed. We have a big day, tomorrow."

--

The next morning, Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy, along with a couple hundred other children and their families, stood on the station platform, saying their goodbyes before they boarded the trains to take them to the country, away from London and the fighting. The noise from the crowds was nearly deafening, and the children could barely hear their mother as she leaned in close to hand them their destination tags.

"Make sure you have your right tags," she instructed, and they obediently looked at their tags to ensure that they had been correctly labeled.

"Everyone has their luggage?" Helen continued, and they nodded, wordlessly. "Darling, you need to keep this on," she added, to Lucy, refastening the tag that the girl was fiddling with.

"Are you warm enough?" she asked, pulling her youngest daughter's coat more snugly around her, and Lucy's eyes filled with tears as she clung tightly to her mother.

"Come with us, Mummy," she pleaded, and Helen wiped away her own tears.

"You'll be a brave girl, won't you?" she asked, instead, and Lucy nodded in reply. "Good girl," Helen murmured, kissing the top of her head.

She moved next to Edmund, holding her youngest son by the shoulders and looking him squarely in the eye.

"I want you to look after your sister and listen to the Professor," she told him. "Can you do that, Edmund?"

When he didn't reply, she frowned, slightly. "Edmund?" she prompted, quietly. "Will you do as I've asked?"

"Yes, Mum," Edmund said, finally, looking away from her to stare at the trains.

Helen tried to kiss the top of his head, as she'd done with Lucy, but he jerked away from her embrace. Helen closed her eyes, briefly, pain lancing through her heart at her youngest son's rejection, but she brushed the feeling aside as she went to hug Susan.

"Be a big girl," she entreated, and Susan nodded, blinking away tears as she hugged her mother.

"It won't be forever, Mum," Susan told her, returning her mother's comforting words. "We'll be home, soon."

"Yes, you will," Helen promised, giving her oldest daughter one last squeeze before letting her go.

She went to her oldest, last, and faced the young man who was still so much a boy. He gave her a tremulous smile, stepping forward to hug her before she had moved a step toward him.

"It'll be all right, Mum," he said, echoing Susan's sentiment.

"You'll look after your sister?" Helen asked, and Peter nodded.

"I will, Mum," he promised, solemnly.

"Good lad," she said. "Do you have your tickets?"

"They're here," he reassured her, showing her the slim slips of paper.

"Right," Helen said, stepping back to look at her children. "Now, all of you, on the train."

"Come on," Peter said, leading his brother and sisters across the platform to board the train.

Helen watched Lucy tugging fruitlessly at Peter's sleeve, trying to go back to her mother, watched Edmund resist Susan's guiding hand through the crowd, and, with a pang, watched Susan impatiently tug the tickets out of Peter's hand because he was too busy distractedly watching a group of soldiers come into the train station – a group of soldiers who were barely more than boys, themselves.

'This is why you're being evacuated, why you're going where it's safe,' she thought, fiercely. 'I won't have you touched by this war.'

When the train whistle blew, signaling its impending departure, Helen pushed her way through the crowd, across the platform, to wave good-bye to her children. Peter, Susan, and Lucy were all crowded at a window, hanging outside the train, waving frantically, their voices mixed in with the shouts of all the other children. And a few seconds later, Edmund's hand popped out from behind Peter's shoulder, and she imagined that she somehow heard her children's good-byes over all the other cries.

"Goodbye, my darlings!" she shouted out, as the train started to pull away from the station. "Be safe, and take care of each other. I love you!"