An- Just like I had to rewrite the end of the last story, I had to rewrite the beginning of this one.

l.l.l.

"Holy shit!"

The girls looked around them in wonder, knowing that they were and not believing it. So that was only semi true because they knew they were in Middle Earth but not the exact location. Wherever it was, it was a beautiful woods.

Though not quite as thunder struck as the girls, the Fellowship was also stunned. Them returning was one thing, but how had the girls come back with them?

"Toto," Niori managed to say, "I don't think we're in Kansas anymore."

"Kansas?" Pippin asked in confusion, "but I thought you lived in-"

"It's an expression," Same replied in an annoyed voice, "from that movie we watched. The one about the shoes."

"This cannot be happening…" it was Jane, "this just cannot be happening."

"I think we said that when they fell out of the closet in the first place," Niori commented, being the first to gain back any composure.

"But how did they get here?" Boromir was the first Fellowship member to gain back composure, "if we were the ones fading, how did we bring them back with us?"

"We were touching," Niori thought out loud, "you took hold of my hand and then wrapped your arm around my shoulder when the light went off."

"And I was hugging Aragorn," Jane added onto Niori's idea, seeing the reasoning behind it.

"I was holding Erin's hand…" Frodo said.

"And I was helping Carla to her feet," Boromir finished.

"So it's because each of you were touching one of us," Legolas summed it up, "we physically bought you with us."

"Holy fuck we're in Middle Earth," Carla spoke again, still sounding dazed.

"Middle Earth…" Erin finally spoke, her voice barely audible.

"Wow."

That didn't even begin to cover it.

"I'm here…" Erin continued in the same voice as she looked at Frodo, "…with you…"

That seemed to shatter the awe and bring on the gravity of the situation; there was a brutal war going on and the Fellowship was on a dangerous quest…and the girls had just found themselves in the middle of it.

"Oh crap." Again is was Carla who articulated it first.

Again, that didn't even begin to cover it.

"We are in so much trouble," Jane stated what everyone was considering obvious.

"What are we going to do with them?" Boromir asked the next obvious question.

Though obvious or nor, Carla didn't like it very much.

"Do? You're not going to do anything with us."

"Carla, you cannot possibly come with-" Aragorn started to argue but Carla didn't let him.

"I can't say I'm exactly thrilled at the prospect of going up against any of the bad guys trying to take over the world, but none of you will be choosing for me. I'll make my own choices thank you very much."

"And logically Carla makes a point," Niori took up the argument, "we're going to be safer with you guys than by ourselves. Loathe as I am to admit it, we're probably going to need protection and you guys have that in spades."

"I'm not going anywhere without you guys," Erin's voice was stubborn.

"The three of you are completely insane!" Jane exclaimed at her friends, "You're suggesting we run head first into danger without an ounce of an idea of what we're doing! This isn't some sort of game! Game over means dead!"

"Then by all means Jane," Carla somewhat sneered, "wander around Middle Earth without a weapon or even the knowledge of how to use it. Let us know how that turns out."

"They're right Aragorn," Gimli told him, "and you know it."

"Let's ask Gan-" Merry began to say, but then everyone became aware of something.

Gandalf wasn't there.

"What the hell? Why isn't he here too? Did any of you see him fading?" Carla asked.

"I think he was on the top floor when it started," Niori said, "so I don't know…I never checked…I had to…"

Her voice trailed off and she bit down on her lower lip.

"Oh great!" Jane cried in irritated sarcasm, "the one person in this whole stupid place who could possibly get us out of this mess isn't here!"

"But why isn't he here?" Frodo sounded both worried and panicked.

"Maybe he was left behind…" Pippin guessed.

"Or returned at somewhere else…" Merry ventured.

"Well I vote we look for him," Jane once again.

"We don't have time," Aragorn replied mournfully, "we spent two months in your world, so we have no idea how Middle Earth has suffered in our absence. As much as we want Gandalf here, he would not want us to waste anymore time to search for him."

As horrified as everyone looked at leaving Gandalf's fate uncertain and continuing without him, no one could argue.

"Okay Aragorn," Jane sighed in resignation, "where do we go from here?"

"We're in the woods of Lorien. Perhaps we can seek aid from the Elves. That will give us time to make decisions," Carla looked ready to argue, "all of us time to make decisions."

"Sounds like a plan to me," Niori sighed, "lead the way oh fearless leader."

l.l.l

Erin was beginning to get annoyed; they had been walking for twenty minutes and Frodo had yet to speak to her without a prompt, and even then only used one syllable words.

Why wasn't he excited? Why wasn't he telling her how happy he was that they were still together? She sure was, but she was waiting for him to say something before she started gushing.

Finally she couldn't take it anymore.

"Why are you so quiet! Just tell me how great it is that I'm here!"

Frodo didn't reply for a long time, and Erin was ready to shake him out of pure frustration.

"I…Middle Earth is just so dangerous now…" Frodo finally said.

"I know that! But you don't get it! I'm here!"

Frodo was silent again, and now Erin went from irritated to just plain mad.

"How can you not be even remotely happy about this! You don't have to leave me! Now we can still be together!"

"But you're in so much danger here!" Frodo countered, "How can I be happy about that!"

"You'd rather me be pregnant and alone in my world?"

"Yes!"

By now they were practically screaming at each other, and try as they might the others couldn't help but listen in (not to mention it was completely silent besides their words). The three other girls winced at Frodo's response; they knew it was the wrong thing to say.

"So you don't care! You didn't really care that you were leaving you child behind!"

Frodo look like he didn't know if he should apologize profusely or keep arguing his point.

"It's not that at all!" Frodo went for argument, "You know I want to be with you! Here you could die Erin, and that means the baby too! How am I supposed to like the fact that I've brought you into this situation," his voice grew soft, "if it wasn't for that, having you here with me would be the most amazing thing that I could ever wish for."

"Really?"

"Of course."

Erin wasn't angry anymore; in fact she was touched by Frodo's proclamation. No one had ever said something so adorable to her.

"That's so sweet."

"And you're so bipolar," Carla muttered under her breath, but Erin heard her. She turned and glared, to which Carla just shrugged.

"Or so hormonal," Niori interjected innocently.

Everyone, despite the serious situation, couldn't help but snicker.

"If they give me a sword," Erin told the two other girls, "I'm practicing my swings on the two of you."

"If they give you sword," Jane said, "they'll give us all one. In that case, my bets on Carla. Then Niori.

Erin pouted.

"Can we please not talk about you needing a sword?" Frodo asked, "I'd rather be able to believe that, for at least a little while longer, it won't come to that."

Erin nodded, though she had already accepted it; whether or not she liked the idea and whether or not the danger was too great, Erin was in this knee deep. And she couldn't get out. That meant she was probably going to get a sword.

l.l.l.l

"Okay, we've been walking for a few hours, are we ever going to get to wherever it is we're going?"

Aragorn chose not to answer Carla's question, which Niori took as a sign that Aragorn wasn't exactly sure himself.

Which was unfortunate, because Niori was getting tired. Not to mention everyone, besides Gimli who kept going on about some supposed Elf witch (though Legolas couldn't be hearing because he wasn't getting ready to kill the Dwarf), was ridiculously quiet.

Never in a million years would Niori had believed that here she was walking around in Middle Earth and she would rather be back at Carla's eating pizza and watching reruns of ancient TV shows.

"Niori," Legolas spoke suddenly, "may I please speak to you for a moment?"

"Umm….sure?" Niori replied, and then realized what he meant, "Oh. You meant alone."

"Yes I did."

Niori began to panic; she had been hoping that he would forget about those few moments pre bright light. For a little while she had because of the shock, but once that had worn off and she had remembered, she had been trying to forget again.

It wasn't something she particularly wanted to discuss…but she didn't think Legolas was going to give her a choice.

"Shouldn't we really stick together as a group…" she was grasping at straws and she knew it.

"Niori," Legolas replied, his eyebrows raised and an amused smirk on his lips, "are you really suggesting that you're worried I'll get lost in the woods?"

Niori couldn't help but laugh at herself; it was a lame excuse in general, but against an Elf is was completely laughable.

"You have a point," then she spoke to the others, "I guess we'll catch up."

They nodded and continued along, and with every step away they took Niori felt a certain amount of dread mounting.

What was he going to say to her?

When the others were out of earshot Niori was standing there awkwardly, waiting for him to say something. For some reason he didn't seem nearly as awkward as her, which was a first.

"Niori, before the light brought us here, you had begun to say something…"

He let the sentence trail off, and Niori realized he was waiting for her to finish it. He was letting her make the decision, which she both hated and was grateful for.

But what was she going to do? When she had been losing him she had regretted all she hadn't done with him, and here she had a chance to change that. Yet not that she wasn't losing him all the same walls went up.

Would she risk giving into nothing more than a lustful crush? Because that's all it was. It's all it had to be. The same arguments were running through her mind and they still made sense.

"I was just saying goodbye," she finally replied, looking him straight in the eye, "you know, because we're such close friends."

"Of course," if her answer bothered him he didn't show it in the least.

See, Niori assured herself, it really is for the best; he isn't upset so we are just close friends. My stupid sex drive doesn't have to mess that up. Trying anything would just be a mistake. I've been right all along.

"Then we better get back to the others," he was smirking again, "unless you're still sacred I'll get lost."

"Shut it Legolas," was her curt reply, "and stop making fun of me."

"Now would I ever do that?" he faked innocence, and she retorted by sticking out her tongue.

Everything was back to normal…and Niori was glad.

She turned to continue in the direction the others had gone in, and prompting found and arrow pointed in her face. She was so stunned that she didn't even feel fear, but just blinked and let out a small 'oh'.

There were five people around them, and all five had arrows ready to shoot.

"So ah Legolas," Niori managed to say in a squeaky voice, "I'm going to assume these are the Elves Aragorn was talking about."

"That would be correct assumption Niori."

And here they were on the brink of shooting her. Next time she saw Aragorn she was going to ask him why he had been so keen given their reception. So far her stay in Middle Earth wasn't going so great; the first people she met threatened her with pointy weapons. God she hoped this wouldn't be a common occurrence.

l.l.l

An- So in the first one everyone was all 'Yay…let's run into danger!'. I mean, Carla and I are crazy, but not that insane. So I wanted to show that they're not all gung-ho about risking their lives. I also wanted someone in there to be the voice of reason, and Jane does that the best of us all, so I made her actually argue instead of point things out. So there it is! Bai bai!