Author's Note: Bleh! Forgive the quality and the total lack of plot, but I figured that while I worked on finished the rest of my three main projects I would sift through my musings, tidy them up a bit, and upload them on this website. I think some of them are also on dA, but I haven't yet put many on here. So, here is something for my LOTR-verse that I had an idea for but decided not to role with it. Well, that's a lie, in the Mentalist, the Artist, and the Archaeologist I am sort of going off elements that were in this unwritten story, but pairings, circumstances, and basically everything else is different. So, here is basically what came out of my head when I was contemplating the story that I never wrote. :) Enjoy!

"My Lady, I am so sorry," muttered Legolas while he stroked her tear stained face.

Brianna sniffed and shook her head, "Stop, stop trying to comfort me. I know what I am. Look at me! I'm not fit to be some elf princess! I can't even control the light that I'm supposed to wield! I'm supposed to use fire and lightening, but I can't even get a spark out of each of them! I'm clumsy! I have no etiquette! I… I… I've failed at learning everything! I can't do it!"

He cupped her cheek, "Shh, my lady, I should be the one to apologize," he leaned his head forward until it was centimeters away from touching hers, "I hadn't realized that there were other types of darkness out there and I should have. Your fears are consuming you. Your pain, anguish, anger, hurt, torment- it is all piling around you. I am sorry. I have let the darkness take root inside of you. To be honest, from everything you have told me about your past, it took hold of you at a very young age. This was what I was supposed to protect you from and I have let it begin to consume you. My lady, please forgive me?"

When he opened his eyes to meet hers, Brianna saw pain in their sky blue depths. She sniffed and a sob caught in her throat which caused a crackled croak to come out instead of a high pitched whimper.

"Legolas," she crackled out before fresh tears dripped out of her eyes and rolled down her cheeks, "Legolas… don't… don't blame yourself."

His smile was bitter, "But I must. From the moment I realized that you were the daughter of Galadriel, I should have seen the darkness already trying to drown you. That business with that… boy scarred you the most I fear, but everything else you experienced tore at your soul. I should have tried to heal that while gaining your confidence instead of watching for the outer darkness I knew to be approaching. Every time you held in a tear, every feeling of anguish, every brief look of hopelessness that I caught a glimpse of should have been wiped away by me. I made the arrogant mistake of thinking that I was adequate for your protection. They should have sent someone else. I am nothing."

The words coming out of his mouth were bitter and full of self-loathing. Brianna could see every emotion he was feeling reflected in his eyes. His face, normally chiseled in a passive good nature, was drawn. It was still, she noticed, a beautiful face.

Brianna almost laughed at how foolish that thought was; especially at a time like that.

"Legolas, if you weren't here, I would have gone insane by now," she muttered truthfully.

The change was almost instantaneous. Confusion flickered into his blue eyes and he cocked his head to the side. His face became less drawn.

"After all of my own failures…" he whispered.

Brianna laughed a hollow, ironic, laugh, "Your failures? So minimal! I can count them on one hand! Mine were, and always will be, more than yours."

He smiled, "Clearly, I need to fill you in on all eleven hundred years of my life."

His thumb gently caressed her cheekbone and Brianna pretended not to notice it.

"You haven't failed me, I failed myself. This is all me. You shouldn't blame yourself for my own stupid choices. I never had to get involved with that… that individual and I never had to withdraw from the people who cared about me. I never had to gain a mountain of arrogance and pride. There is so much that I never had to do that none of this stupidity can be blamed on you. It's all me, Legolas," she said in a faint, tired, voice.

Legolas sighed. Clearly, Brianna wasn't getting the bigger picture and was too focused on the small details. The gift of compassion, he recognized, every claim of fault that he made would constantly be shot down because of that gift. It was, he realized, a double edged sword that came around to bite her. How one could form compassion and arrogance at the same time Legolas would never know, but she managed to do it. Before he met her, Brianna told him that she was trying to take those mountains of pride and arrogance down so that she could feel more compassion for others. The problem was that she got it into her mind that, if something went wrong in someone's life where she was involved some way, all of it was automatically her fault.

It wasn't the case here, no matter how right she was. The point of the matter was that Legolas should have seen it all. He was many years older than her. He had experienced life. He had known what was coming and what was expected of him by the Ainur. The blond elf prince was assigned to protect Galadriel's second daughter and heir and he only did half of his job. He hadn't started off strong with her and he hadn't realized what he should have all along; that darkness was not always something anyone could see. There were inner devils piling around to attack her and he arrogantly believed that she was safe from them.

Living in this fallen, dying, world got to people including the daughter of Galadriel born in the Undying Lands of Valinor and Legolas Thrandurilsson was foolish enough to think that it wouldn't.

"My lady, I am trying to point out that I should have seen it all. Because I did not, you are now paying for it," he attempted to explain.

Brianna averted her eyes from his, "And I'm trying to point out the fact that, despite you not recognizing the human pre-condition out of your ignorance of this world, I still made the stupid, moronic, degrading, self-hurting choices even though I knew better. Poison goes where poison is welcomed and I welcomed it in with open arms. Don't you dare deny this!"

She took responsibility for it and Legolas realized that whatever sins she committed Brianna was not prepared to let go of the fact that they happened.

He saw it all. Every hurt she suffered, she never fully got over. Brianna placed it all into a box and stored it away in the back of her mind where she pretended that it didn't exist. Apparently, that was her definition of letting things go. But, it was still there and it was weighing her down. It was letting the darkness in.

"My princess, you have not made it across that bridge yet. You've allowed the current to carry you and have yet to find a rock to latch onto," he muttered.

Judging by the way her body was beginning to quiver, Legolas realized that he hit the sorest spot in her heart.

"That's not fair. You've only known me for four years! You can figure me out so fast," she gasped out a sob and leaned her head forward while bowing it to try and hide her red, blotchy, face, "I'm strong, Legolas, I'll find a way…"

"Really? How?" he asked simply.

The way he asked the question was mean and held barely disguised contempt. He couldn't help it. She was irritating him with her constant refusal to at least admit that he was somewhat at fault for not trying to help her both inside and out. But, the words came out anyway and they were left to be taken however they would be.

She clenched her fists and gritted her teeth. Everything, she realized, was beginning to flood out of her control. She didn't want that to happen. She had to fight it. She was strong. She wasn't going to let her troubles bother her.

"My lady. Brianna. Sometimes the strongest thing to do is allow others to see your pain," he whispered into her ear after leaning down to it.

Everything burst the dam that she had constructed for herself over the years and rushed out her in one heart wrenching (for Legolas) cry. For the first time in her life, Brianna leaned on someone other than herself. Legolas simply sat there with his other arm encircling her small waist while the hand that was on her cheek shifted to the back of her head and pressed her gently against his shoulder.

It was a step and one that he should have taken four years earlier, but it was never too late to remedy that blunder.

He hoped.