Sooo… I've rewritten this chapter, because quite honestly, the previous one left me feeling immensely dissatisfied. Mostly just added extra stuff, but basically the same stuff happens. :P

Disclaimer goes here. ;)

Time's Call

Chapter One – The Mugging

On a bright, cheery morning, eighteen year old Susan Pevensie was in the living room of the house she lived in with her family, when her siblings Edmund and Lucy came running downstairs.

"Susan!" Lucy greeted. "Are Peter and dad still home? Where's mum?"

"Peter's off with dad to visit some of his army buddies," Susan said as she packed her bag with her class papers, "and mum's gone to the store to get some groceries. We're out of eggs and beans, and nearly out of milk."

"What about breakfast?" Edmund asked, and Susan rolled her eyes.

"Ed, you're definitely old enough to make breakfast for yourself," she said. "And for Lucy too."

Edmund made a face at that last bit, but trudged into the kitchen, followed by Lucy and, once she got her bag sorted, Susan as well. "Are you headed off to your classes?" he asked as he rooted around the kitchen for some breakfast. "Bit early, isn't it?"

"Ed, it's almost half-eight," Lucy said as she watched him move about.

"Exactly!" he said as he sat down, pouring milk onto the cereal he'd found. "Too early to go anywhere! In fact, I don't even know why I got up…"

"You're more than welcome to go back to bed," Susan said as she made some toast for herself and Lucy, since Edmund had finished off the milk. "Though if you're still there when mum comes home…"

"Yeah, yeah," Edmund said as he got stuck into this breakfast.

Lucy then reminded Susan, "Don't forget that you, me, Pete and Ed are having lunch together on Saturday, without mum and dad."

"Without them?" was Susan's question.

"Yeah," Edmund piped up from behind a mouth full of food, swallowing when his sisters glared at him. "Dad said something about him and mum doing some couple-y stuff together, so we should have the house to ourselves then."

"We can talk freely about Narnia, then!" Lucy said enthusiastically.

Susan's smile was stilted. "I guess so," she said, then noticed the time. "Alright, I've got to get going. Don't forget, I'll be back a bit later than usual today, since our assessments are being marked. Remind the others for me, would you both?"

Lucy nodded, then Susan hugged them both before leaving.

As she walked the path to the train station, Susan thought on what she'd been doing this last year. While she'd been in America, she'd struck up a friendship with a couple of nurses, who'd sparked in her an interest in nursing. She'd already left school, later than the minimum age requirement, but before finishing completely. But she'd always had good grades, and that had allowed her to successfully apply to study nursing when she'd returned to England.

Peter was returning to college soon, majoring in politics and economics. He'd made sure to finish high school with the best grades he could. Edmund was still unsure of what he wanted to do, though a very worried Susan had caught him sneaking glances at army recruitment pamphlets. Lucy was the only one of them still in school now, and Susan thought she would probably finish all of school as Peter had as well.

Susan sighed as she thought about what Lucy had said. It was getting easier, she couldn't deny, to live here, rather than in Narnia, her home. Even though she missed it terribly, missed him terribly. Getting away from London had been good for her, she knew, and she'd felt better coming back. And then of course, she found out that Edmund and Lucy had been back, and even their cousin Eustace had gone with them.

She'd seen her cousin once or twice since then, and she had to admit, the way he was now was a vast improvement on how he'd been before. Though, unlike with the rest of her siblings, Eustace had never really had any issue with her, once claiming that she was the only 'sane' one of her lot. Now though, he got along with them all, Edmund especially, a whole lot better. Uncle Harold and Aunt Alberta were, naturally, horrified.

In thinking of Narnia and him, Susan did her best not to think of what she'd heard when Edmund and Lucy had told their tale. She put away all thoughts of their assumptions that he had most likely moved on and married a woman they'd met on an island. A stars daughter. Susan knew that Narnian stars were very beautiful, and she had a feeling that lunch this weekend was going to be filled with Edmund gushing about her, again.

Quite honestly, Susan had been toying with the idea of stopping all this. Of taking a step back, away from Narnia. She nearly had, in America. But then, she found she just couldn't bring herself to do it. She mused and ruminated on the train, then on the brief walk to the building where she was taking her course. Their teacher, Professor Sheppard, took her papers, as well as others, and then Susan settled in to learn.

Lunch was spent with others who were there learning, though Susan got along better with Molly Peterson and Anna Macgregor better than any of the others. After lunch were practical lessons, and they spent the afternoon administering mock medicine to fake patients. Then at half five, Susan was packing up to head home, all with a nice 'pass' mark on her assessment that a professor had graded during the day.

Molly stopped her on her way out. "Susan!" she called.

"Hey, Molly, what is it?" Susan asked.

Her friend held out a silver bracelet, and Susan instantly recognised it. "Anna must have dropped this," Molly said. "I won't see her until next week, could you give this to her tomorrow?"

"Sure, it's no problem," Susan said, pocketing the bracelet.

The two of them walked to the train station together, chatting along the way, before Molly caught one train, and Susan another. Susan spent the trip back home reading one of her text books, before the train pulled in to Finchley station. As she walked home, Susan was quite distracted as she went over procedures in her head, so she didn't notice the man that started following her. It was only when her handbag was suddenly snatched from her grasp that she was brought out of her musings, and reflexes she thought she'd left behind in Narnia had her grabbing tightly to her bag as the man tried to take it from her in a brief tug of war.

"Hey!"

A voice called out, distracting the mugger and he lashed out, his fist catching her on the side of her head, her head cracking painfully against the concrete of the wall behind her. He took off with her bag, making a run for it even as a man took off after him. Susan dazedly slid to the ground in shock, her head throbbing as she watched dispassionately as the mugger was tackled. She weakly brought a hand up to her head, pulling it away to stare rather dumbly at all the red that now coated her fingers.

"Miss? Are you alright? Can you hear me? How many fingers am I holding up?"

Susan's vision was rapidly blurring, and she couldn't seem to form words. Faces stared down at her, their voices now a rushing sound in her ears, like the ocean, and slowly, her blurred vision faded into black. The last thing she heard (and she wasn't quite sure if she imagined it or not) was the sound of a horn blaring.

So what did you think? Review please!