Disclaimer: Me no own Tolkien's work.

Chapter Quote: "Well, I would like to meet my rescuer."

Chapter Twenty-One

I Will Save You

There is an annoying beeping sound... and voices... so many voices...

Someone is crying... but I feel too weak to move. I open my eyes... someone is holding my hand. "Victoria!" They cry. "Victoria!"

"She's coming out of it-"

"Get the doctor in here now!"

My vision is blurry and everything is so... confusing. "Mom?" I ask groggily... my voice is slurred and my tongue feels like sandpaper in my mouth- as if I haven't used it in a long time. I can see her now... laughing through her tears. She is holding me to her, her arms encircling me in a tight embrace. Dad is holding my hand... as I had held Zachary's. But there are so many other people... and the tingling in my arms and legs hurts.

...so confused... it's making my head hurt... my clothes feel scratchy and stiff... they have a funny smell... my shoulder aches horribly-

"You're going to be all right." My father says.. He squeezes my hand... my mom is still crying. Dad has tears in his eyes as I squeeze back... weakly. It's so hard to stay awake... so tiring.

More voices... loud voices. Fading.

I fall asleep into the comforting darkness away from the lights and the noise. I feel more peaceful then I have in a long time. But as I drift off... I feel the ache in my heart. A reminder. Because I made a promise never to forget.

I will always remember.

I drifted in and out of consciousness for a while. I couldn't feel anything, but I couldn't think of anything else other than the realization that I would never see Faerlain again, and that pained me worse than any bullet every could. It's as if he had really died... as if my sacrifice had been for nothing.

When at last I did wake up, it was to the sound of my mother's voice which, strangely enough, reminded me a lot of Mirlaic's. She started crying when I opened my eyes, and I blinked rapidly, blinded by the bright light overhead. And, even though I knew I had been sleeping for a while, I felt completely and utterly exhausted.

"Where am I?" I whispered hoarsely.

"You're in the hospital, sweety." She told me gently, caressing my hand and pressing it to her lips. I heard my dad now too, he kissed my forehead. "You're through the worst of it. The doctor says you're going to be just fine."

I looked around me, recognizing the mundane trappings of a hospital room. I had a tube in my nose, another in my arm, and I couldn't feel my shoulder at all. My eyes started to close on their own. I felt so tired. I tried to force myself to stay awake, but it was so difficult.

"It's alright baby, we'll see you later." I fell asleep to my parents' smiling faces as my mother caressed my face, my hair.

The ache, I knew, would never leave me. But, I realized as I drifted off, it did feel good to be home.

I was ravenously hungry the next time I woke up. Hospital food isn't exactly what I'd call... mouth-watering... So my dad smuggled me in a sandwich from my favorite fast food place. French Fries... I had forgotten how wonderful they taste. I couldn't explain this to my parents though, they would have thought me insane. After having been in Gilloth for so long, dream or no, the artificial lights in my room seemed harsh- obnoxious even. They gave me headaches and I napped often until I readjusted once more to this life I had been disassociated from for so long.

I felt a little sore otherwise, but whatever the nurses were giving me completely obliterated any pain I might have felt and conveniently dulled my senses at the same time. I sighed as I sank my teeth into the delicious sandwich. The nurses could dope me up on whatever they wanted, it still wouldn't ease the pain that pounded within me.

I was alone at the moment, my parents hadn't left my side in days since I had arrived at the hospital. I'd kept them in a constant state of anxiety, especially since, for them, Zachary had been dead for barely a week when all this had happened.

My mother refused to leave the hospital, but I told her she should, at least, get a decent meal and maybe take a nap for a little while. This was the first time I had been fully conscious and my parents were thrilled that I was eating a decent meal. I sat them down that day and asked them to explain to me exactly what had happened, I was hoping their answers would relay something to me of what had been going on in my head all this time, but I doubted it.

"A convict escaped, remember we were talking about it at dinner that night? He had robbed a local store." My father began. "Turns out he stole a rifle. When you ran outside like you did, he had positioned himself in the middle of the road, hoping to take down a car. When the driver of the first car he saw didn't stop right away, he shot at it and caused it to crash. The car was damaged beyond repair, but the driver made it out. He was a marine, but he was also injured, and the convict held him hostage at gunpoint and made him march through the woods, our woods to the first house he saw."

"They were headed up the hill with the convict's apparent intention of raiding our house when you showed up. The marine tackled him when he heard him prepare to fire, at which point I had run outside and your mother called the police. The bullet caught you anyway, but, after disarming the shooter, he tended to your shoulder until an ambulance could arrive."

"Bless the man." My mother added. "He saved your life."

I blinked, amazed at all that had been going on here while I was off dreaming. For that was the only logical explanation I could come up with. A vivid dream, albeit, a very vivid dream, it must have all been in my head. What other explanation was there? I hated to discredit Faerlain like that, but he would remain, literally, the man of my dreams.

The events of the past year, as real to me as any memory, had never happened. The people I had met, and loved, had never existed. I found that a harder pill to swallow than anything else that had happened to me, even the pang still fresh from Zachary's death hadn't hit me as hard as this. I cleared my throat and fought back the tears that burned in my eyes.

"Uh-wow. I don't know what to say..." I noted the black clothes my mother wore. My poor parents, losing their only son and then this mess. I could never explain to them what had been happening to me while they had sat here, by my side for the few days I had been unconscious. My mother kissed my cheek.

"We're just glad that you're now."

"Well, I would like to meet my rescuer." I said at length. "I need to thank him- for everything."

My father's face brightened. "I think he might still be in the hospital. He injured his leg in the crash I think, as well as dislocating his shoulder and bruising a few ribs." Dad rose. "I'll go ask the receptionist." Dad left the room and I turned to my mom. She seemed to have aged overnight. I couldn't imagine what the past two weeks had been like before. She smiled and stroked my hair.

"Zachary would have been so proud of you." She said quietly. I smiled, but didn't answer as I noted how her eyes watered. She cleared her throat, coughing politely before continuing. "Anyway, he's the nicest young man, this marine. It almost sounded like you had met him before- the way he kept talking about you.

I frowned. "I don't ever remember meeting a marine before... what's his name?"

"Frederick Gillin. Perfectly lovely, such a gentleman."

At this point, my father re-entered. "What a good man, he was released yesterday but he'd come back today to see how you were doing." He said. A rather tall man followed my father into the room, and my heart stopped as he stood in the doorway and stared at me from across the room.

His hair was shorter, buzz cut via military style, and his uniform was unmistakably modern. But that face, those eyes, I'd remember him anywhere. So I stared, dumbfounded, as he smiled. My parents continued talking, but I couldn't hear them. "Hello,Victoria." He said softly.

I had no words to say, I felt light-headed.

"Speechless, darling?" Teased my mother. "Didn't you want to speak to Mr. Gillin?" She glanced curiously at me, and both she and my father fell silent.

I found my voice at last, thought it was a tad hoarse. "Could I speak to Mr. Gillin alone for a moment?" I managed, my eyes wide in astonishment. My parents looked surprised at my request, but complied without question and left the room, looking curiously over his shoulder as she did so. I sat up, my bandaged arm laying stiffly at my side. I didn't know what to say, I figured that I must have been dreaming.

Maybe I saw his face before I drifted off when he had saved me. It wasn'tpossible... "I- I wanted to thank you." I stammered. He stepped further into the room, still smiling, approaching the bed with a definitive stride. He walked with a slight limp, and he had a cut above his right eye but, other than that, he looked fine. But he looked so utterly happy... and I didn't even dare to hope.

He sat down in the chair next to my bed and he leaned in closer to me. I was alarmed at first by his boldness- especially when he reached out to touch my face and I could feel his warm breathe on my skin. "In his heart, he called her Tinúviel, that signifies the Nightengale, daughter of twilight, in the Grey-elven tongue, for he knew no other name for her."

My heart stopped and I gasped, jerking away from him to gaze into his face with wonder. "Faerlain?" I breathed incredulously. He smiled and stroked my hair,

"I told you I would save you, my Tinúviel."

TO BE CONTINUED...