Crossroads

Alternate Ending. "Welcome Back."

Hey guys!

I'm adding chapter 2. Hope you guys like it!

Disclaimer: This characters don't belong to me.

Alternate Ending. "Welcome Back."

Everything was dark.

And suddenly, she began to feel again. Her senses regained life once more, slowly getting used to the new enviroment.

She could feel the grass beneath her, tickling her slightly as she lay on the ground. She could feel the breeze gently caressing her cheeks and dancing through her hair. She could feel the gentle sunlight grazing her entire body.

She felt her strength and resilience finally coming back to her after long years with weak, brittle bones and limbs.

Hearing came back then and she was overjoyed of hearing the birds chippering around her. She heard feet running, distant music and water coursing.

She was entranced. All of those noises were familiar, as if they belonged to a dream of hers. Or a dream of a dream.

Slowly, smell joined in too. She could smell the forest around her, the smoke of a bonfire near her but most of all, she could smell home.

For the first time in so many years, she felt secured for deep down, she was sure that place was where she belonged.

Soon taste followed. She could taste warm sunsets, merry forest' rides and elegant feasts. She tasted things from her past, things she couldn't forget as much as she tried and things she forgot she had experienced but deep down still absolutely craved for.

Finally, her eyes blinked open.

Susan gazed around squinting as she'd been too used to the dark to face the light right away.

As she familiarized with the brightness, she noticed she was laying in the middle of a clearing of what appeared to be an ancient forest.

Susan smiled. She was back at home.

She stood slowly, not because of exhaustion or pain, but because she needed to savour every moment there. She had dreamed of it for too many nights, always so full of heartbreak and sadness.

And finally, finally, it was no longer a dream or a fading memory. It was a reality.

She twirled gracefully, laughing delightedly when her dress flowed in an ample circle around her.

Susan was wearing the same white dress she wore on her last day in Narnia, when she said goodbye to her home, her friends and the man he loved.

Susan sighed as she looked down at her hand. She still wore her wedding band but if she's honest, as much as she had loved her husband and her English family, she had never forgotten her Narnian one.

And Caspian? Caspian never had any competition. No matter how many years she went without seeing him, regardless of how firmly she convinced herself she'd moved on, the truth was she never did. Not really.

Susan started walking towards the music, hoping to find someone who could tell her where she was and how she could get to Cair Paravel when she felt a presence behind her.

Susan immediately froze, her breath halting. She didn't need to see who stood behind her. She knew.

It was incredible, truly, how for everything she erased from her memories, she could never make herself forget anything about him.

"You've kept me waiting for a long time."

Susan shook her head with a teary smile before taking a deep breath and slowly turning around, fear and love pushing almost painfully through every nerve of her being.

She needed to be with him and she was afraid of what he would say to her. And those two sides of her were slowly tearing her apart.

Finally, she dared to look at him. And what she saw, it took her breath away.

He was a few years older but still the same boy she'd fallen in love with. He wore a shinning Narnian armour, red cloak above it and a sword strapped to his side. His golden crown rested proudly on his head.

Susan was sure he thought the same of her. Both so different, yet so smilar to before, almost as if no time and an eternity had passed at the same time.

He climbed down Destrier and looked at her with the same warm, brown eyes who had stubbornly starred in her dreams even when she'd managed to block out everything else.

Caspian gulped before chuckling nervously. He stood by his horse, as if afraid to move forward. "Are you okay?"

"I am." Susan tried not to focus too much on her voice. It was regal and clear again, not the tired whisper she'd become so used to during her last months in England. "I'm sorry, where are we?"

Caspian frowned in confusion. "Aslan's country, of course!"

Susan gazed around, shock filling her every thought as she internalized his answer. Aslan's Country.

Where those who believed went when they died.

Finally, she turned towards Caspian again, unconsciously taking a few steps forward. "It-How am I here? I stopped believing, Caspian, I...I tried-."

"To forget, I know." Caspian replied seemingly even calmer as the queen before him began to panic. He took a few steps forward too. "Your family told me but Edmund never quite believed that you forgot and I agreed with him. This, you coming home, this means we were right! You never stopped believing, not really."

Susan hesitated as she studied the love of her life. Tears rolled down her cheeks as she rememored her life and the guilt she felt. In England for remembering Narnia and there, finally at home, for having tried to forget about it.

"I could never forget about you." Susan finally whispered. She looked down shamefully as words just started pouring out, her control finally slipping. "I tried so hard and I even got married but you were always the one I truly loved and no one could take that away from me. I just..my life away from home was so exhausting and sad and I needed to survive, however I could."

Even then, after decades apart, Susan knew the man before her but still, her eyes were wide with shock and apprehension as familiar hands gently cradled her head and titled it upwards.

Caspian's eyes and voice spoke of nothing but love and forgiveness. "For survival, I married too and I loved her, but she could never compare to you. I tried to forget about you too but I never could. Susan, the past doesn't matter anymore. What we did and why we did it, it's behind us. Now, we stand here and we can be together for all of eternity. Would you consider it?"

Susan smiled slightly before resting her head on his chest. She sighed tiredly as the last tear of sorrow fell down her cheek. "I've missed you so much, my love."

"Aye, me too." Caspian replied. He kissed her shoulder lovingly before smiling. "But you're finally home and we can all be together."

Susan pulled back then, her eyes no longer frantic, but having regained the confidence of the queen she was. She was yet again the Gentle Queen, but better, since there was no reason to shield herself.

Her family and her love was here.

Her heart was in pieces, yes, but slowly mending itself and this time, there'd be no need for walls to be built around it.

She was at home, and she could now breathe freely.

Susan kissed him lovingly. "Yes. We're finally together."

Caspian took her hand with an excited grin and pulled her towards Destrier. "Come love, everyone's waiting."

Susan followed but as she placed her hands on the stallion, she looked up at Caspian with a frown, as if remembering something. "You came to save me. The last tine we were here, you came on Destrier to save me from telmarines, right?"

Caspian smiled at that and kissed his beloved joyfully. "Welcome back, my love."