Faithfulness
He was the first from the Exiles to come back from the Halls of Mandos and he honestly had no idea what to expect. He was told someone would come to meet him and help him adjust back to life.
She was waiting for him by the gates of the weird land of dreams the gardens of Lorien were. Before he decided to join her, he stood for a long time, hidden from her sight and he watched her, trying to remember what it meant to live. He stared, overwhelmed by the emotions he had been deprived of for a long time, listening to his own heartbeat.
He could see none of them were like they had once been when they had seen each other for the last time – in darkness and fear, when their paths were about to part for long centuries. Though his fea and hroa had been healed from all harm, the memories remained and the journey through Helcaraxe and the life in Middle-Earth had changed him irreversibly. And she, though she had been living in the safety of Valinor, had had to face the loneliness and critique because she had remained faithful to him, even though they had not been married.
When she saw him, she reached her hand and the smile that appeared on her face was the one that had helped him survive the captivity and made him challenge the servant of Morgoth.
"I knew you would come back."
Finrod Felagund returned the smile and crossed the gates. For her – it was worth it.