Well, this is the last chapter guys. I was thinking about writing an epilogue, but I don't know quite yet. It was a good run we had. I've been writing Narnia for the better part of my life and I was crying while I wrote this because I love these characters so much and it hurts to say goodbye. I love you guys too. Best wishes.

(Natalie)

Aslan picked a really shitty time to send them home. Not a day after Caspian's funeral and he couldn't even be bothered to show up. Darius woke them all that morning claiming to have received a vision from the lion in the night. So Aslan was using as kid as his spokesperson now. Natalie kicked at an innocent flower in the garden where they all waited. There was an archway decorated with purple vines only just beginning to show neglect. Darius waited directed beneath it still covered head to toe in a respectful white—for rebirth in Aslan's land, the Narnians claimed. His little hands were folded nervously against his chest and he kept pressing up on the balls of his feet as if that would coax the sun into high noon faster.

Natalie had made her decision the moment Caspian hit the floor. She couldn't tell them. They'd suffered enough grief without her. She knew it was just an excuse, but she also knew she didn't have to go through that archway. She could just continue on exactly as she was. Without her family. Without Eustace. In a land where she belonged as much as a fish in outer space.

"So, I wasn't going to say anything," Jessie's sweet, soft voice came from behind her.

Natalie thought about bitterly snapping that Jessie never said anything, but she managed to swallow it down like sour bile. "What's up?" she muttered.

Jessie folded her hands worriedly then reached out to the younger woman with them. "No one else has put it together because they don't have all the pieces. But Natalie, you died. The only reason you could come back would be if you're already gone in the real world. Aslan can only bring back people in his land." She shook her head sadly and tried to hug Natalie close. "I'm so sorry."

Natalie ducked away, face hardening as she warded off tears. "I'm not going anywhere," she said stubbornly.

Shock flashed across Jessie's face before she concealed it with something like pity. "I know it's scary. But Natalie, his land is so much more than anything ours could offer. And Caspian's there now. I think…I think Aslan also wanted you to wait for him. So you two could go together and neither had to do it alone."

Natalie's rage fizzled out like a smothered fire. Why did Jessie always sound so practical, so right? She had a way of wording things that would take Natalie weeks to piece together on her own. One word fell out of her gnawed raw lips, "Goodbye." And it was like breathing for the first time since she'd gotten here. She had been holding her breath, terrified to accept the truth. With that one admission, she severed the anchor that had weighed her to this world.

"I don't know you very well, but you should know that you are loved and you will be missed."

Now Natalie fell into her slender arms. She let the woman stroke her hair almost like a mother and whisper silent encouragements before gently nudging her towards Sage. The Queen Mother took one look at her friend and burst into a wide smile. "Took you long enough," she said. "Aslan told me when he appeared over Caspian…"

"Fuck me, does everyone know?" Natalie grumbled, allowing a more reluctant hug now.

"Not the one who actually did fuck you," Sage replied making Natalie snort with laughter.

"Tiny ears," Natalie chastised into the crook of her shoulder though the youngest and oldest of Sage's children were not present at this farewell.

"Watch out for him will you? Don't let him wander off waiting for me," Sage instructed.

"I'll keep Cassie out of trouble," Natalie winked.

Sage pushed her away playfully before grabbing at her hand. "Thank you," she said fiercely.

"For saving Rillian? For keeping Caspian company?"

"For being my friend. You're the best one I've ever had and I love you more than I could ever tell you. So thank you."

Sage let go of her hand then. Jill was easier, with her stony acceptance and unwillingness to become teary eyed like the others. Peter was easier still. He offered a playful punch to the shoulder, so Natalie retaliated by actually punching his chest. Her knuckles ached afterwards and he barely reacted, but still it felt good to joke around one last time. She hoped it would bruise so he would have something to remember her by.

Eustace was sitting closest to the archway, tearing apart flowers with idle hands. Natalie plopped down beside him. He glanced over but didn't speak. They sat in silence for a long while. Finally, with the sun beating down on her back from high above in the sky, Natalie tugged off her graduation ring. It was an old thing with a simple emerald stone set in the center. She set it on Eustace's knee and watched as he delicately picked it up. "Is this you proposing or something because this won't fit me," he teased.

"This is me saying goodbye," Natalie whispered, voice choking around the simple words.

His eyes cut over as cold as ice and as hard as diamond. "This isn't the end. We can still come back. Aslan said we would…"

"Not me." Natalie cut him off. "Eustace I'm…"

Now he cut her off, in a much more sensual manner. His lips molded against hers, chasing away her words with the single action. Natalie shuddered against his hot open mouth, swearing to keep her sinful, dirty thoughts even after she went to heaven of this intoxicating man. Her nails scraped his back as she knotted them into the fabric of his shirt and practically pulled him onto her lap. His laughter broke off the moment and Natalie was left sitting before him very much at peace. He would be alright. For that matter, so would she.

"The day I got here, I was dead in my own time," Natalie said stoically.

Eustace's laugh melted away into something so sad Natalie's resolve nearly shattered. It was already such a fragile thing. He worked his jaw slowly, chewing through responses. "I suppose, I'm dead in your time." A strained smile. "The time we got was more than I could have ever asked for. I am glad to have spent any portion of my life with you, Nate." Natalie would have gladly given up a forever with Aslan to stay right there with Eustace even just a few more moments. But then Darius was calling them forward and the archway trembled with fantastic magic.

Jill stepped forward, casting an expectant gaze down to Eustace. Eustace went to stand but Natalie snatched his wrist. She cupped his freckled face between her hands and made sure those pools of blue were locked on her own before she spoke. "I do love you Eustace. So, go live your life. Okay?" He was nodding vigorously before she even finished her statement. He pressed a kiss to her hair as he got his gangly legs beneath him. "Goodbye, Nate," he said before pulling Jill under the arch.

They were gone like wisps of smoke caught up in a strong wind. Before Natalie could even process their departure, Jessie was patting her back reassuringly and pushing Peter through. A strangled cry escaped her lips as they too disappeared. Too fast. She wasn't ready. Natalie spun around to beg Sage for more time. Just one more chance to make a new memory. When she met Sage's judicious gaze, she was back on the Dawn Treader.

It was the middle of the night, yet they lay awake exchanging stories of embarrassing moments. Sage spoke of spilling art class paint all down her hot teacher's trousers. Natalie brought up the evening she miserably missed a theatre performance because she was convinced it was happening the next week. Her fill in had been a boy that operated the sound booth. The audience loved his impersonation of Dorothy so much, Natalie actually lost her starring role. Though, she did have to admit he looked better in the ruby slippers. The scene melted and was replaced by a typical family meal. Her multitude of siblings were crawling on top of each other to claim the first slice of homemade lasagna. Her father was telling them all a story of a protest he started in college and only her mom was listening with doting eyes.

Moment after moment raced past and suddenly Natalie knew why lives flashed before people's eyes. To remind them not what they would miss, but to show that she would be missed. Natalie blinked up at the woman who'd ruled Narnia for decades—who'd given up everything to be with the man she loved—and she smiled. She wasn't giving up anything. Aslan was offering her an eternity and she would seize it with a steadfast grip. "You're getting old Sage. Maybe I'll see you soon."

Sage rolled her eyes as Natalie turned and ran into the archway.