AN: I would have gotten this up hours ago but the document manager was down...sigh. Well, it's working alright now so here it is, the last chapter of "The Leather Bound Journal"

The next morning, I awake to find myself much more comfortable than when I went to sleep. The bed I am on feels incredibly soft, very much like the one I used to sleep on during my rein as High King of Narnia. Also, I can feel heavy satin sheets and velvet blankets piled on me. My wife is still in my arms, snoring into my chest.

This is almost exactly how I used to wake up in Narnia and I know this must be a dream and all of the wonderful warm feelings are only memories. Soon, I will wake up and have to leave her.

Not now though, now we are together. If only it could stay like this for ever just the two of us so warm and safe...sighing, I kiss the top of her head near the hairline and breathe deeply. Soon she'll wake up and wont know me; this lovely dream is mere moments from fading away.

I realize something very odd. My face had still been bruised from Susan slapping me during one of her recent fits and although I have long grown used to it, the scars on my knuckles from beating up that man who'd wanted to hurt Susan have always felt sort of numb, calloused even. Now however, I find I don't feel the numbness nor the pain. It is as if I have been healed from all my wounds.

From above the bed, I hear a small gasp. "Oh, your majesties!"

"Hmm?" I mutter, opening one eye a crack to see a startled familiar-faced faun hovering above me.

"You came early." He says.

"Master Tumnus, is that you?" I open both eyes and blink rapidly.

"Yes, your majesty, it's me." He answers.

What in the world? I turn away from him and glance down, Susan is still sleeping in my arms. Her nightgown has become Archenland silk with Narnian lace and looking at my right arm I can tell, I too, am no longer dressed for England's world.

But wasn't Tumnus dead? I thought he had passed away long ago. Part of me wants to stick with the 'this is a dream' theory but I know it cannot be. It feels too real, you can't sense a memory like this.

"I wouldn't have come in without knocking but we hadn't been expecting you yet." Tumnus tells me.

"You were expecting us?" I whisper, my eyebrows sinking deeply into my forehead from intense confusion.

"Not yet." Tumnus shrugs his shoulders. "Shall I get you something to eat?"

"What is this place?" I blurt out, making sure to keep my voice low so as not to wake Susan. "Where am I?"

"You are home, High King." Tumnus says in a tone that suggests both that he thinks I should have known that already and also that he doesn't really mind explaining the situation. "This is Cair Paravel."

"The last time I saw it, it was in ruins." I remind him. "Did someone rebuild it? Also, Aslan said I was never to return to Narnia; this is Narnia isn't it? Not some place else that just feels like it perhaps?"

"This is Aslan's country." Tumnus explains. "Narnia is no more."

"What happened?"

"That world ended." His voice is rather grave all of a sudden.

"Is all of Aslan's country like the place we called Narnia?" I want to know.

He shakes his head no. "All worlds are here. There is an Archenland and an England here too."

"What did you mean when you said you were expecting us?" I ask him.

"Aslan said you and Queen Susan would be coming to him soon but he didn't say when. We thought it might be years still before your arrival. Also, he never said if you would both come at the same time. We were on the look out for either one of you, really." His explanation makes so much sense and yet no sense at all at the same time.

"Why are we here?" I ask, still keeping my voice down. "Did our world end, too?"

Tumnus shakes his head. "No, I don't think so." He motions to the window. "Every time a world ends, our sky flashes with deep scarlet lightning. Only for a short moment; still it always happens. Today though, the sky has been nothing but its regular fair blue."

A large golden paw appears in the doorway, followed by a full gold body of the Lion. Aslan himself has come to see us.

"Hullo, Aslan." I lower my head respectfully to make up for the fact that I cannot get up and give him a proper reception.

"Welcome, High King Peter, Son of Adam." He says, coming over to the bedside.

I smile weakly at the lovely golden Lion. Aslan is wonderful, yet he seems to have some deep love for tormenting me. First he gave me Narnia to rule over and then sent me away from my kingdom for ever. Now, He is showing me this wonderful vision; my heart's desire. He must plan on sending us back sooner or later and whenever we go back, I'll lose Susan again.

"Why do you seem so unhappy, Peter?" He inquires gently, lifting a golden eyebrow up in a concerned expression.

"I don't know if I can bear to lose her again, Aslan." I confess, my eyes filling with tears, some of which fall on my sleeping wife's nose.

"What do you mean?"

"Aren't you going to send us back to our own world?" I look over at Tumnus and then back to him brokenly.

"Oh, son of Adam, haven't you guessed?" Aslan's expression now seems somewhere between a comforting glance and a slightly amused smile.

"Guessed what?" I whisper breathlessly, daring to hope just once more.

"You aren't going back." He tells me. "In your world, you died last night; both of you."

"We went together..." I realize, leaning down to kiss her cheek.

"Yes." His golden mane sways up and down as he nods slowly.

"In our sleep?"

"Yes."

"Aslan?"

"Yes?"

"Will she still remember me?" I hold my breath, waiting for an answer.

"I think she will." Aslan says reassuringly. He turns around and pads softly out of the room, the door closing behind him with a weak thump.

Susan's eyes shoot open and she let's out a gasp. "Peter, what happened?"

"We went in our sleep." I tell her, watching her free herself from my grip and sit up in the bed. "Last night."

"Oh..." Her eyes widen and she gazes at me blankly for a moment.

"We should get up." I say, pulling the covers off of myself and dragging myself out of bed.

"I'll spread word of your arrivals, sire." Tumnus tells me with a little bow before scampering out of the room, his goat-hooves making a slight click clack on the marble as he enters the hallway.

As if in a dream, Susan creeps over to her closet and pulls out a long gown the colour of the moon itself with pale blue lace and bright glittering silver buttons in the front. She dresses herself quickly but in a savory fashion-glancing over at me as I take off my night-shirt, replacing it with a dark blue and purple tunic.

Once dressed, we go out into the hallway ourselves. Coming toward us is a fair-haired girl who's face I recognize at once. "Lucy!"

Her eyes meet mine and a wide toothy grin spreads out on her face reaching nearly from ear to ear. She squeals and practically throws herself at us both tightly clinging to our shoulders.

"I've missed you!"

"Oh, Lu, we've missed you far more!" Susan weeps, pulling her little sister into another hug.

I am just about to reach down and hug them both again when I notice a young man wearing a silver crown on his head coming towards us. It is Edmund but not as I last saw him with burns and bruises on his face; his whole body covered in gray ashes. Rather, it is King Edmund the just, healed of all his wounds and happy to see his sister and brother-in-law returning home.

For a moment, we stare at each other, unsure of exactly what to say. I cannot put my gratitude for what he did into words.

"Did you read it to her?" He asks finally.

"Yes," I say in a choked up voice. "Every day."

"And did she come back to you?"

"Yes."

"Good." He seems satisfied. "Welcome home, Peter."

"Edmund, thank you!" I throw my arms around him and hug him tightly.

"My dear poet." Susan murmurs, planting a kiss on the top of his head.

"I most certainly am not a poet." Edmund huffs jokingly.

"Not this argument again!" Lucy rolls her eyes and grabs onto my wrist. "Come on, Peter." She tucks her other hand under Susan's arm. "You, too. There's so many people for you both to meet."

That night, crawling into bed, I find myself wondering about the people at the clinic back in our world. I wonder what we look like to them now. Did they find two corpses (shudder) or did we simply disappear? Will they ever know that we are alright? That we are happy and have simply been called home? At the very least, I hope they have the leather-bound journal with them; to remember us by.

My thoughts melt away as my wife leans close to me and kisses my cheek. There will be more time to reflect on other worlds some other night, right now I can't concentrate on that. I pull her close to me and kiss her lips and then her neck. I drag my fingers along the front of her dress and, ever so slowly, start to slip the silver buttons through their little holes, one by one.

AN: Please review!