Chapter Text
These certainly weren’t the circumstances Buck wanted to bring him back to this old manor. He wished he wasn’t here to clear out the late professor’s stuff so the house could be sold.
He wished he’d kept better in touch. They talked over the phone every few months, but he hadn’t actually been to visit in person since he was a kid.
Professor Kirke basically raised Buck and Maddie after Daniel died. He was a friend of their grandfather’s, who kindly opened his doors to the Buckley kids nearly every day when they wanted to escape their parent’s grief. He was usually in his study working, but occasionally he would either come out to tell them stories, or allow them in and teach them about his research.
Buck always liked Professor Kirke. He was kind, and patient, and when they came to him with an absolutely unbelievable story, he listened.
The first time he and Maddie found Narnia, they were eight and twelve. They were hiding from the housekeeper after breaking a window when they stuffed themselves into an old wardrobe full of fur coats.
That hiding spot led to another world, a golden lion, a war with a witch, and 15 years of ruling the golden ages from their thrones in Cair Paravel. For 15 years they forgot about the world they came from. They forgot about cars, planes, computers and primary school. They forgot about Daniel, his cancer, his death, and how awful their parents had become after it. They lived in a world void of the modern problems they’d dealt with before. 15 years until they stumbled across that lamppost again, went back to the land of spare oom, where the wardrobe closed behind them.
The second time Buck went alone. He was sixteen, and Maddie was with Doug. She’d tried to tell him about it, but he wrote it off. Gaslit her into believing they’d made it all up. It was another thing Doug took away from her.
So Buck was alone the second time he went to Narnia. To make it all worse, what had been 8 years for him was hundreds in Narnia. The golden ages were ancient history, Cair Paravel was in ruins, and Narnia was under threat from a wicked king. He was summoned from his bus stop by the call of his sister’s horn, blown by a young Prince Caspian. He helped him raise an army to defeat his uncle and take the crown as the next ruling king of Narnia. They’d even had a little fling in the weeks he’d been there, but when it was time to go, Buck knew long distance really wouldn’t work for them. He kissed the prince goodbye and let Aslan send him back to his world.
He hadn’t been back since. He desperately wanted to go, to be pulled back never forced to leave. Living with his parents was a nightmare. So much so that when Maddie gave him a chance to flee, he took it. He took her jeep and went out to find adventure in his own world.
Eventually, after trying out everything from country life to the SEALS, he found his home at the 118. The feeling of home was something he hadn’t felt in years, not since Narnia. For the first time in his life, he wasn’t spending every moment wishing for another fantastical adventure. He didn’t want to leave his home. He didn’t want to leave the 118, or Maddie, or Christopher and Eddie. He felt at home here.
He never stopped believing, though. He never once doubted his journeys in Narnia. Maybe it helped that the second time he was older, and he knew he could distinguish his imagination from the truth. During the lawsuit, he’d started wishing again, he figured if no one in LA wanted him, someone in Narnia might. It wasn’t until he finally started to connect with the 118 again did the wishing stop.
Even after Doug was dead, Maddie still didn’t believe. Buck tried at first, but after a bit of pushing he realised it wasn’t going to happen. Not without Aslan’s intervention anyway.
He did still talk about it though. He would tell Chris bedtime stories about his adventures in Narnia. He told him all about Mr Tumnus, the Beavers, the White Witch. It became tradition for him to tell Christopher about how Santa gifted him a sword and a healing elixir every Christmas Eve. Even though he was getting older, he still seemed to enjoy the stories. Eddie always told him he would have been a great author, asking him how he came up with it. He was content to let them believe it all came from his imagination. It’s not like they’d believe him anyway.
It was unexpected, getting the call about Professor Kirke. He had been in great health the last time Buck had spoken with him.
Brain aneurysm, in his office. Nothing anyone could have done about it.
Buck wished he’d had a chance to say goodbye, and to thank him for always believing him. He always had a feeling the Professor had also been to Narnia, but he had never asked.
He wished he did.
Now, here he was, standing outside the doors to the house that changed his life in a way no one would ever understand. Maddie had, but she’d forgotten. Professor Kirke had, but he was dead.
He didn’t reach for the handle. He just stood there, staring silently, lost in the memories of his past life as a king.
“You can knock if you want, but I don’t think anyone’s gonna answer.” A voice cut through the static of the memories.
Eddie.
He had been nice enough to volunteer to help Buck clear out the house on their day off. He’d come to pick up Buck after dropping Christopher off at school.
“Sorry. It's just, lot of memories. I basically grew up here. After Daniel died, our parents kinda stopped being parents. They were always so paranoid something would happen to us.” He looked up the Professor’s manor. “This was the only place we really got to be kids.”
“Sorry man, this has got to be tough for you.” Eddie placed a hand on Buck’s shoulder.
“Thanks for doing this with me. Maddie’s working, and I really didn’t want to do this alone.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out the key.
“No point waiting out here all day.” He turned the key and pushed open the door.
Besides the newly formed layers of dust from lack of care, the house looked the same as it did when he was a kid.
“Where do you wanna start?” Eddie asked.
“Let's start with the study upstairs. Most of his work and research is in there, we should go through that first.”
“Alright, lead the way.” Eddie gestured towards the stairs. Buck stepped past him and up the stairs. He turned around the corner at the top and entered the study. Eddie followed behind him, closing the door once he was in the room.
“It's in pretty good shape, considering no one’s been here in a few weeks.” He threw the keys onto the desk. He looked around the room. There was a layer of dust on just about every surface. An old grandfather clock was ticking away behind the desk. 10:45AM. They had the whole day ahead of them.
The bookshelves were still full of old novels and manuscripts, and the walls were covered in old paintings of castles and battlefields.
“Damn, this guy was a collector. Look at all these paintings.” Eddie stared up at the walls.
“He painted most of them himself.” Buck smiled.
“Do you want to keep any of them? We can load them in the truck, bring some life to the walls of the loft.”
Buck looked around at walls, spinning in slow circles, until his eyes landed on. It was a rectangular picture of a ship at sea. To Buck, the ship looked distinctly Narnian. Its purple sail stood tall against the blue waves.
“This one.” He gently lifted the painting off the wall. Eddie walked over to look at it more closely.
“Wow, this professor had talent. It’s so detailed, it’s like the waves are actually moving.”
Buck stared intently at the painting. Eddie was right, the more he stared at it the more the waves seemed to crash into the side of the small boat. The small boat that seemed closer than it was before.
“Am I crazy? I feel like it’s actually moving.” Eddie squinted at the painting. Buck got this feeling, about what was happening, a feeling he’d only felt twice before.
Once in that wardrobe, and once at the bus station.
“There’s no way.” He whispered. Something was definitely happening, the waves were crashing against the frame of the painting, and cold water started to jump out at him. Buck dropped the painting when the water hit his hands.
“What the fuck?” Eddie took a step back. Water surged from the painting and began filling up the room. It was already at their ankles.
“Buck, what is happening?” Buck looked over to Eddie. He looked scared. He also seemed confused as to why Buck wasn’t. He trudged through the water over to Eddie and grabbed his shoulders.
“If it is what I think it is, we’re—“ he looked down. Water kept coming, it was already up to their waists.
“You remember those stories I told Chris? About Narnia?”
“Buck-“
“Just trust me.” The water was up to their necks. Books from the shelves floated around them.
“I trust you.” Eddie took a breath, so did Buck, and soon they were completely submerged.