Welcome and thank you for choosing to read my story. Just a few notes before we begin, I don't own anything that belongs in middle earth that's all Tolkiens obviously. Second I have to say bear with me if you like this story cuz I have a problem with writing in sequence so it may take me a little bit to update. Lastly, I know this chapter is a bit confusing but I hope everyone can see what I'm trying to do, if not just go with it. Now with out further ado I give you……………… Runya
Charlie stood watching the smoke leave her lips and rise into the sky.
"Thank God its Friday" she mumbled to herself before taking the last drag of her cigarette and going back into the huge building.
" Hey Charlie, did you get that display up yet?" She smiled warmly at the curator of the museum as she walked by him. He was a nice guy but he was a bit creepy to her for some reason. Maybe it was his greasy hair or something.
" Yea Howard, I just need to put of the finishing touches. There are a few masks that need to go up still before I take off." She continued walking to the closed off section of the Museum which was her workspace.
It was a mess. She knew she'd probably be there at least another half-hour before she could leave. She sighed and opened up the remaining boxes to take the masks out. She put them up where she had originally planed for them to go and then rearranged until she had it to her liking.
"Wow Charlie, it looks good." She turned and smiled at the other woman.
"Thanks Suzie. I'm glad to be done with it finally," Charlie replied softly.
" Hey, do you want to go get a drink with Jane, Ryan and me after work?" Suzie looked hopeful. She had been trying to get Charlie to go out with them for some time now. She thought that maybe it would be a good way to get her out of her shell, she was just so shy.
" I can't. Dave's coming home tonight." Suzie nodded. Another excuse.
" That's too bad, maybe some other time then."
" Yea, that'd be fun."
" Have a good weekend Charlie."
" You too." Charlie sighed and started to put all her boxes back in the storage before heading out.
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Elrond stood in the doorway watching her. She was hurting, anyone could see it, and it hurt him to know that she was. She was so beautiful, the Evenstar of her people, he could not let her fade. " Arwen." She turned her sad eyes on him and he could almost not say what he had been planing to. " Arwen, you must leave soon. The ships for Valinor are dispersing quickly."
"I do not wish to leave. I have hope still that Sauron will be defeated." She held so much conviction in her voice he almost found himself believing the same thing though his hope was fading. " Arwen," Elrond walked to her and touched her face lightly, he couldn't loose her, " he will never be ready. You shouldn't wait for him." He is human, he is weak.
"I love him." With that simple statement Elrond knew that he had little hope in keeping his daughter. "Do you love me as well?"
" Oh atar," Arwen wrapped her arms around him in a tight embrace, " Of course I do." Elrond hugged her back enjoying this time spent with his only daughter whom he feared would be gone from him soon. " I do not wish for you to be taken from me." He whispered.
" I do not wish that either," She replied. Why did she have to choose between the man she loves and her family? Life was not kind. " I love you Arwen, I do not want to see you hurt."
" I know atar, I love you too."
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Charlie tied her long red hair back before setting the table with two candles and her nice silverware, instead of the plastic she used every other day. She was putting the plates on the table when she heard a car door close and she smiled knowing that any minute Dave would be walking in the door. She heard the front door close and bags hit the floor. "Hello?" he called rounding the corner.
" Hey Dave," Charlie smiled happily at him and gave him a hug and a quick kiss. " I missed you." She told him leading him to the table.
" Yea, did you make dinner?"
" I did. I made stir-fry."
" Stir-fry?" he snorted as if disgusted by the thought. He sat in the seat she had instructed for him. " Why couldn't you've made steaks or something?"
" I'm trying to loose weight." Charlie replied putting some food on each of their plates. Dave looked her over noting her slightly rounded figure, " Yea, you could afford to loose a few pounds. I remember when you took care of yourself, back when we first started dating. I liked you at that size. What do you weigh now like 160?" Charlie sat down and stared at her plate for a moment, "I weigh 138." She couldn't believe people would think that she looked almost twenty pounds heavier than she was.
" Whatever, you still should loose weight." She watched somewhat disgusted as he shoved food in his mouth and as he chewed food spilled back onto his plate. " I'm leaving again in a week." Dave told her food falling out of his mouth.
" What? You just got home."
"Yea, well, that's what happens when you have a real job. You have responsibilities and obligations and not a lot of choice as to what you have to do." Charlie rolled her eyes knowing full and well what he was getting at.
" Can we please not have this conversation again?"
" What?" Dave asked feigning innocence, " I'm just saying that you would understand if you had a real job."
" I have a real job thank you. And I have responsibilities there believe it or not, and I love it. So what is the problem? I get paid for doing something I love. What about you? Do you love selling hospital machines?" Charlie was furious. He always seemed to manage to do that when they tried to spend time together.
"I'm not going to get into this with you, yet again. I just got home and I'm not in the mood," Dave put down his fork and stood up, "I'm going out. Don't wait up." Charlie sat stunned as he walked out of the room and out the door. A moment latter his car started and he was gone.
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"Arwen." She didn't move but kept staring out her balcony into the night sky. The breeze blew by her and she closed her eyes and smiled as it blew her dark hair around. It was gone as soon as it came and she stared back up at the stars. It comforted her to know that Aragorn was under that same night sky. "Are you all right?"
" Yes Elladan, I am all right." He moved to stand next to her marveling at the stars. Even after thousands of years of being alive their beauty still moved him. He turned to look down at his sister, sadness washed over him, "You aren't going to depart are you?" She shook her head slowly and looked up at him. Her eyes told him everything she was feeling. Sorrow, pain, guilt, love and fear. "I'm sorry my brother, I cannot. I do not think I could live with out him." Elladan looked back up into the sky. It hurt him to hear her say such things but deep down he had known all along that it would turn out this way. "I shall miss you dear sister, when it is my time to go. I have faith that will not be until the new king is placed on his throne and married to his Queen." He paused and turned towards her once again, " He loves you Arwen, he will wait for you." He kissed her on the forehead, " You will be the most beautiful queen among men and all shall have joy to have you as their queen." He turned to leave her there.
" Elladan."
" Yes?"
" You shall forever be in my heart."
" And you in mine," He smiled lovingly, put his hand to his heart and bowed.
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" Hey mom," Charlie pet her cat Frankie and put the bookmark in her book.
" How'd you know it was me?"
" Because you're the only one that calls at this time of night." Charlie yawned and stretched before snuggling back into the covers.
" I'm sorry did I wake you?"
" No, I was just reading. Did you need something?"
"I was just calling to see how your new job was going."
" Good actually. I love the people I work with and I just finished a display on the Maori's."
"That's great. Have you heard from your sister recently?" Charlie sighed and rolled her eyes. She knew her mother had another reason for calling. She didn't usually call unless she wanted something or to pass on gossip. " Nope, you?"
" Yea, she called the other day. I guess she and Derek are getting married."
" Really?" Charlie was a bit surprised to say the least.
" Yea, isn't that great? She said that the wedding would be sometime in September."
" That's only four months away, don't they think there moving a bit fast? They just started dating."
"They've been together for about nine months now. And why don't you try to be happy for your sister? It wouldn't kill you, you know."
" Okay mom." She rolled her eyes once more, " I gotta go I gotta get up early tomorrow."
" Oh, all right. Take care of yourself."
" Yea mom, I'll talk to you latter."
" Love you."
" Love you too." Charlie hung up the phone. Why her mother felt the need to inform her of every wonderful thing her sister did was beyond her, but it was getting old quick. She lay in her bed for a bit before drifting off to sleep.
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Arwen wandered through one of the many beautiful gardens of Rivendell finding comfort in the smell, one that brought many good memories to mind. Memories of her father and mother sitting on a bench, having light hearted conversation causing both to laugh warmly. Her brothers Elladan and Elrohir chasing her through the winding paths when they were still children. It was good to think of other things besides the fellowship and Aragorn as well as her fathers wish for her to depart to Valinor. She had made her decision, she would not leave, she couldn't leave, no matter how much it hurt her and the ones she loved. She sighed and stepped into a thick spot of trees and continued walking ignoring the fact that she felt much warmer than she had only moments ago. Her beautiful eyebrows scrunched together when she saw a tree she had never seen before, then another and many others all around her. She ran her fingers over the jagged bark and looked up at the umbrella like branches that came out of the top. She stepped through a small clearing and looked around. In front of her was some sort of house she figured and beside her was an odd stone pond or some sort of bathing pool. She stood slightly confused as a women emerged from the stone pond wearing some odd, very revealing clothing. Arwen stepped further into the clearing intent on finding some answers as to where she had found herself. " Excuse me." The woman slowly turned around and looked at Arwen with a confused look she was sure matched her own. "I am very sorry to intrude on you but I seem to have stumbled onto your home while I was out walking. I have never been here before, I'm not sure which way I should return."
" Well, where are you trying to get to?"
" My home is in Rivendell."
" Uh, I don't think I know where that's at. Is it a housing community?" Arwen looked around her to make sure she didn't recognize anything. " Rivendell is not a housing community it is my fathers city."
" Your father's city hu? Well I've never heard of a city in Florida called Rivendell."
" What is Florida?"
"Uh, it's where we are." Arwen didn't look as if she understood so the woman continued, "Miami Florida, good ol' USA?"
" I'm sorry, I do not quite understand." Arwen was getting a bit frightened. How could she have ended up in a place she never heard of?
" Where are you from?"
" I am from Rivendell, home of my father the elven lord." At that the woman interrupted.
" Elven? You mean like elves?"
"Yes, elves."
" Your fathers an elf?" Arwen nodded smiling a bit. The look on the woman's face was quite priceless. " Half, actually but yes as am I, my brothers, and all our kin."
" You're an elf? How do I know you are and not some freak who's trying to scam me or something?"
" I realize that in appearance we look like humans, all but our ears." She told her walking closer. She pulled back her hair to reveal her very pointed elven ear. Arwen waited patiently while she inspected her ear to make sure they were in fact real. " You are an elf." She breathed out in awe.
" Yes. My name is Arwen."
"My name's Charlie." She paused and looked once more at Arwen's ears. "What exactly are you doing in my back yard?"