My Narnian Tale

Chapter 12

Peter's POV

A few hours later, I felt Elizabeth moving. As I expected, I hadn't fallen asleep. How could I, when the woman that I love was scared to death? I had my arm around her waist and her head was resting on my chest. She stretched her body out and blinked her eyes open. She looked up at me with a small smile.

"Good morning." She whispered.

"Good morning, love" I smiled down at her. Her smile faded, realizing why I was here. She sat up and brought her knees to her chest, wrapping her arms around them. Her head rested on her knees and she took deep breaths. I sat up and put an arm around her back.

"Do you want to talk about it, Elizabeth? You should. I don't want you keeping everything pent up. But if you don't want to, I understand." I said, placing a kiss on her hair.

She took a deep breath before lifting up her head and responding. "I guess I should. If I can't tell you, then I can't tell anyone." She turned to face me and sat crisscrossed. I held her hand so to comfort her. "It's the same nightmare I had when you were away. You're in battle and I'm fighting alongside you. I kill an enemy and turn around to face you. You do the same and the enemy you had just stabbed lifts his sword up and stabs you through the chest. You fall to your knees and then slump onto you side.... You die... right in front of me... it's the same thing every time... I can't get the image out of my head." She finishes and starts to cry. I bring her so she's sitting on my lap, her legs off to one side of me. She buries her head in my chest and I rub one hand on her back and the other through her hair.

"Shh love, it's alright. It's just a dream. A silly dream. I'm alright and so are you. Look at me, please." Elizabeth picks her head up and looks at me. Her eyes are red and puffy from crying so much in the past few hours. I put my hands on either side of her face and wiped her tears with my thumbs. "Nothing is going to happen to me, Elizabeth. I will always come home to you." I assured her. This seemed to comfort her, at least for now, because she smiled and hugged me. We stayed in each other's arms for a while. Once we separated, I realized what time it was. It was nearly 10 in the morning. Luckily, I didn't have anything important that needed to be done today. I leaned forward and gave Elizabeth a quick peck on the lips.

"I love you Elizabeth Ryan, with all my heart. You are the most beautiful woman in the world." I told her, smiling. She gave me a puzzled look and laughed. I understood why. Her hair was a mess and her eyes were bloodshot. Her skin was blotchy from crying and she had some leftover makeup from yesterday underneath her eyes. To anyone else, she would have looked terrible. But to me, she truly was the most beautiful woman in the world.

"How am I beautiful? I know my hair is a mess and I am pretty sure my face is a mess as well. Do we need to get your eyes checked?" she asked me, teasing. I laughed and shook my head.

"Not at all. Perfect vision here. You are beautiful because this is who you are. You're not some prim and proper princess, but a regular woman who wakes up with messy hair and cries sometimes. I know you don't like other people seeing you cry but I don't care. In fact, seeing you cry makes me love you even more. It shows that you're real, and not just some figment of my imagination. Sometimes, you seem too perfect to be real. But when I see you looking like this, I am reminded that you are and that you are here, with me. And that is why I love you."

"Thank you Peter. You are the first person in a long time that I am comfortable crying in front of. I love you too, with all my heart." She replied before laying back down. I joined her and she rested her head on my chest.

"How about we just have a lazy day?" I offered.

"That sounds wonderful." Elizabeth agreed, wrapping her left arm around my waist.