Emily woke slowly and painfully. She knew that she wasn't dead, death couldn't possibly hurt this much, but she wasn't sure where she was. The last thing she remembered clearly was Merry and Pippin fleeing into the woods as someone, who she assumed were the Riders of Rohan, attacked the Uruks. Then a beating . . . From there she could remember snatches of conversation, most in a language she didn't understand, but nothing concrete had managed to break through her pain-filled haze.
She seemed to remember hearing the voices of the fellowship, but she may have just dreamed that. She had dreamt of rescue before. A sharp pain in her back caused her to jerk slightly and to fully awaken for the first time in who knew how long.
The first thing she registered was the sound of Aragorn's voice. It was quiet, but steady and filled with some emotion that she couldn't place. "Hold her still, Leoglas," he said. "I do not wish to cause more damage, but I must remove some of the excess flesh to minimize the scarring."
Aragorn and Legolas. That meant that the others had to be here too! If she was successful, that is. She slowly blinked her eyes open, the brightness of the day causing her to flinch again. Once her eyes adjusted to the light, she saw Gimli and Boromir sitting a little ways away. Boromir was showing Gimli the mechanism behind the handcuffs those damned Urks had put on her.
Both were so absorbed in what they were doing, in an effort to ignore what was going on to their left, that they did not immediately notice her eyes on them.
"Quite simple really," she heard Boromir explain. "When you push these two pins here, it allows this second pin to move and the last lever to slide. It prevents a guard from needing to carry a myriad of keys but, as the mechanism requires two hands to operate, it also prevents the one in the manacles from freeing himself, even if he is aware of how it is done."
"Too bad I didn't know that, or I could have had one of the hobbits do it," Emily said with a wry laugh that turned into a grunt of pain. She was surprised at the hoarseness of her own voice but dismissed it. Screaming would do that to a person.
The Man and the Dwarf looked up at her words and she saw multiple emotions flash across their faces in the span of a few seconds, but she hadn't spent enough time around Dwarves to be able to track all of them as they flickered across. She was, however, able to decipher the emotion he landed on: relief.
Boromir was easier for her; she had a lot more practice with human men. He started with relief, then joy, then progressed to pity and finally to guilt. "You never should have been placed in that position to begin with," he finally said, refusing to meet her eyes. "It should have been me in your stead."
She drew breath to answer, but released it in a hiss as Aragorn pressed something to the wounds on her back.
"My apologies," he said sincerely, "however I must clean these wounds if they are to heal. I regret the pain I will cause you in doing so." Though she couldn't see his face she heard the pain in his words and wondered just how much more it was going to hurt before he was finished.
She turned her head a little and nodded in acknowledgement that she had heard him and then continued her conversation with Boromir. "If you would have been there instead of me," she replied, her voice harsher than she meant because of the pain, "you would be dead." She paused to catch her breath then continued, "They only kept me alive because they figured that Sauroman would like to "talk with" a female Elf." She attempted to make air quotes around the words, but stopped with a gasp of pain as her broken hands protested the movement.
Aragorn sighed. He knew that he should have started by fixing her hands, but he had hoped that she would remain unconscious until he was done. Perhaps Éomer was correct in saying that hope is useless in these lands, he thought bitterly. He knew that he was going to have to re-break the bones and reset them properly. He was also aware that it was going to be extremely painful, but it had to be done. He caught Legolas' eye, and though to any one unacquainted with the ways of Elves he would appear calm, Aragorn could tell by the set of his jaw and the steel in his eyes that he was furious, though with whom the Ranger could not tell. He sincerely hoped that it was the Uruks who had done this that his anger was directed at. The last thing the fellowship needed was strife from within.
"Emily," Legolas asked, his voice betraying none of his rage, "how did you sustain these injuries?"
"Which ones?" she replied with a snort of derision that turned into a moan of pain. "Well, let's see," she started again, her breath coming in short gasps as she tried not to aggravate her injuries, "if we start from the beginning . . . I . . . well, my feet are torn up since I was stupid enough to hide knives down my boots. Which, of course, the Uruks checked and confiscated, leaving me shoeless. Actually stupidity factored into all of them," she said with a small painful laugh.
"I fail to see the humor in this situation," he replied harshly raising an eyebrow at the idea that she could, though he knew that she couldn't see it with the way she was held in his lap.
"Sorry," she apologized before continuing her catalogue. "The first layer of the bruise on my face happened when I tried to escape during one of our brief rest-stops. Which is also when they decided to cuff me," she paused then said with a small laugh that was more a sob, "I don't even know why I tried to escape. See, stupidity at its finest. That was also when I was warned by the leader of the Uruks that I could either behave or die."
"I do not mean to offend you," Legolas asked, "but if you took his advice, how did you sustain the remaining injuries?"
"That's just it," she answered. "I didn't." She thought quickly about how to explain what had come next. She had to explain how her hands had been broken but she didn't want to tell them what had truly happened. She didn't want them to know that she had been threatened with rape. It was too horrific to share. They did not need to know that.
"I planned another escape attempt," she lied deciding that them thinking she was stupid was better than them knowing the truth. "I stole a knife from the Uruk next to me, stabbing him with it before attempting to take out the leader, who was holding my leash. I only managed to wound him. In retaliation, he felt that it was only fair that since I broke his skin, he should make sure I couldn't do it again and broke my hands."
"How long ago was that?" Aragorn cut in. While he doubted that she had told them the truth, he was not going to argue with her. The truth would come out eventually and he was not sure that he wanted to know what had truly happened at any rate to make her stab an Uruk. Though he, like Gimli and Boromir had been silent, they had been hanging on her every word, wondering if she would mention what had happened to the hobbits.
"How many days has it been since the Riders destroyed the Uruks?" she asked in return.
"Not yet one," he replied. "It is just after dawn since the night they killed them."
"Then about a day," she answered. He felt himself sigh in relief. In that amount of time even the accelerated healing of the Elves would not have set them solidly. It would make what he had to do that much easier.
She didn't seem like she was going to continue, so Legolas prodded for the rest of the information. "What of the remaining wounds?" he asked.
"Those," she said, beginning to cry. "I got those protecting Pippin and Merry's retreat. When the Riders cornered the Uruks at Fangorn Forest, the leader threw my chain around a tree branch so that I could serve as a deterrent to the attack. Merry and Pippin tried to free me but they couldn't do it. They fled to the forest and . . . well, the fact that they were missing was noticed." She said no more but she didn't need to. The wounds spoke for themselves. The Uruks had questioned her about the whereabouts of the hobbits and resorted to torture when she wouldn't give them up.
"Emily," Gimli asked gently, or as gently as the usually gruff dwarf could, "Do you know what happened to the hobbits?"
"The last I saw of them, they had escaped the battle and run into Fangorn Forest, where they were supposed to go," she replied with a sad smile. "Don't worry, so far everything has gone mostly according to plan, so they should be fine."
"Why did they abandon you?" Boromir asked, looking at her for the first time since she admonished him, his tone edging towards anger. "They did not know that you were safe. In fact, they had to have known that leaving without you would place you in danger. Why did they do such a thing?"
"I told them to," she replied in a tone that allowed for no argument. "Do you honestly think that I could have run into the forest with them even if they could have gotten me loose from the tree? No. I knew it too. Pippin argued with me about it and it was only once I convinced Merry that they left. There was no other choice. And they needed to go there, more than I needed them to stay with me."
"Why was it so important that they go there?" Gimli asked. "Fangorn Forest has a dire reputation even as far as the Lonely Mountain."
"It was important because—" Emily cut off in a gagging sound that had both Aragorn and Legolas panicking that something else was wrong. As Legolas' hands began gently feeling her bruised throat for blockage externally, she waved away his hand and said, "I'm fine, really. Damned wizard. Apparently I can't tell you that. Just know that what they are doing is crucial to the success of this war."
Those were the last words that were exchanged for a time as Aragorn continued his treatment of the wounds on her back and the others sat in silence and wondered what could have been so important in the forest that Emily would be willing to give her life to insure that Merry and Pippin reached it. Eventually Aragorn finished cleaning and binding the wounds from her beating and move to care for the cuts on her feet. He knew that it was weak of him to tend to such small hurts before he reset her hands but he reasoned that the risk of infection was higher in the open wounds on her feet and that he would be better served to treat them first. Once that was done as well, he searched desperately for something else that he could treat. He had no desire to cause her yet more pain.
"Emily, when you take a deep breath does anything feel like it is rubbing together in your chest?" he asked both hoping—for his sake—that the answer was yes and praying—for hers—that it was no.
"Are you asking me if I have any broken ribs?" she countered a small smile on her face. "I don't think so. They ache but there's no grating. Not that I've ever broken anything . . . before." Her voice trailed off there at the end as she thought of all the things that had never happened before she was captured.
"That is good news," Aragorn replied with a sigh. "I am so sorry for what I have to do now. I only hope that you can remember that I do not cause you pain because I desire to do so."
"You're going to reset my hands, aren't you?" she asked, fear creeping into her voice. She remembered the pain of the breaks and knew that this would be little better. He only swallowed and nodded. He couldn't find the words to tell her that he was going to do it. She nodded, tears beginning to pool in her eyes.
"Do it," she whispered. "It has to be done so just do it. They can't stay like this."
"They cannot," Aragorn agreed. "Boromir," he said, walking toward the other man with a grim expression. His next question was a quiet on. Not meant for Emily's ears. "Do you know how to set bones?"
"I do," the Gondorian replied. "Why do you ask? Surely you do not intend for me to—"
"It will be kinder if we set them both at the same time," Aragorn cut him off. "Then the pain of the setting will not be drawn out."
"But it will be more intense," Boromir argued. "If we do that she will likely lose consciousness again."
"Precisely," the heir of Isildur replied. "If she is unconscious it will cause her less pain overall. It is much kinder this way. If I was not worried about doing her further injury I would have rendered her unconscious just after she woke." Boromir debated it with himself, his desire to save Emily pain warring with his desire not to cause her pain at all. Eventually the first desire won out and he stood with a deep sigh to assist Aragorn. Emily looked at them both with fear in her eyes as she realized what they intended.
"At the same time?" she breathed, Boromir nodded sadly and she closed her eyes in response. She had no desire to see pain coming. When she felt a hand close around her fingers it was not just pain that made her try to pull back. The memory of the last time someone had grabbed her fingers flared to startling life and panic flooded her veins. Her eyes flew open as she needed to reassure herself that it was her friends, and not an Uruk, that held her hands. But friend or foe was soon irrelevant as once more the sound of her own screams echoed in her ears as the bones were snapped free in preparation to be pulled back into place. She felt darkness reaching for her and instead of fighting against it she gladly embraced it as an escape from the pain.
All of them were relieved when the darkness claimed her yet again. Even the sight of her unconscious face was better than the screaming had been. Thankfully she hadn't begged them to stop. They weren't sure what they would have done had she begged. It wasn't as if they could stop, after all.
Once the bones were back where they were supposed to be, they bound them flat with some of the stiff stalks of grass from the plains around them for support. There was nothing more that they could do for her other than allow her body to heal the hurts she had sustained. With this in mind they turned their minds to other thing: searching Fangorn Forest for the hobbits. Despite Emily's assurances that they needed to go there, they were reluctant to abandon them to the dark forest. Too many rumors surrounded the place for them to leave the hobbits there in good conscience without at least searching for them first.
This presented yet another quandary. There were five of them and only three horses. Four of them would have to double up. The question was who would ride with whom. Gimli and Legolas quickly agreed to ride together, after Legolas' assurance that Gimli would not fall from the horse without a saddle. That just left the question of who Emily would ride with.
Aragorn knew that it would do Boromir good to have a chance to be near her and to care for her as a way of assuaging his guilt over her capture. The only trouble that he could see was how to convince the Man of the same. There was only one angle that he felt that he could try.
"Boromir," he said suddenly, his tone brooking no argument, "Emily needs to ride with you." The Man opened his mouth to protest the impropriety of such a thing since his intrest in her had been made known but Aragorn shook his head and continued. "There is no other option," he said. "I may have to dismount to check for sign of the hobbits. It will not do to continually shift her. It would be better for her to remain on horseback as long as possible. Legolas already has a riding partner. That leaves you. She must ride with you." Even though Boromir disagreed with Aragorn's final statement, he could not fault the Ranger's logic. Aragorn was the best tracker in the group, it would not do to have him burdened with Emily and it would also not due to have her passed between them when Aragorn needed to dismount. With a sad nod, Boromir climbed into the saddle.
"Pass her to me," he sighed resignedly, leaning down to carefully take her from Aragorn and Legolas as they lifted her into the saddle in front of him. She moaned as she was transferred and the sound hit him like a blow to the stomach.
"Aragorn," he breathed, "are you certain that she should be riding with us? I fear that—"
"As do I, my friend," Aragorn replied. "However I fear what will become of us if we divide ourselves. Either way carries a risk. I feel that the risk to Emily of keeping her with us is less than the risk to us all if we divide the fellowship any further." Again, Boromir could not argue the logic of Aragorn's words and turned his attention instead to trying to keep his mount at the smoothest gait it is capable of to minimize her discomfort as they made their way to Fangorn Forest.
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It did not take them long to reach the eves of the forest or to locate the site of the battle. The ground was still coated in the black blood of the Orcs and the piles where they had burned the bodies were still smoldering. They did not make camp at the site of the battle itself but rather made camp out of sight of the grizzly place. Once they had selected a site Aragorn was faced with a difficult decision: he now had to decide how to divide the fellowship. Even though he was loathe to do so there was now no other option. Emily could not go with them into Fangorn and she could not stay alone. At least one of them needed to stay with her and the horses. He was trying to decide which of them should stay when Boromir made the decision for him.
"I will stay," Boromir said as if he had heard their leader's thoughts. "I will remain here with the horses and Emily. I will guard them both with my life." He offered because even though being near her pained him and he knew that any of the others could protect her, he saw how it pained them to see her as well.
None of the others deserved the pain. It was his fault, after all. He would endure it for them. For her.
"We will return," Aragorn said with a nod before gesturing with his head towards the site of the battle and leading Gimli and Legolas away from camp. Boromir settled back to the ground next to where Emily lay with a sigh. She seemed peaceful in sleep, despite the bruises that marred her skin. With a shaking hand he reached out to move her hair back from her face, pulling it rapidly back when she moaned at his touch.
He looked at her sadly as she slept. There had been nothing that he could do to spare her from what had happened after she had been capture. He had caught her lie that morning as well. He knew what it was that she had been reluctant to tell them. They had broken her hands because she tried to resist when they raped her. It broke his heart to think of the fear she must have felt. He also knew that she had concealed it for fear that he would cast her aside, but he would not. If she would still have him, he would not hold what had been done to her for his sake against her. Even if . . . even if the truth of what had happened to her in captivity became apparent. He would stand by her until such a time as they could be rid of the proof.
There was nothing that he could do for her about that particular trauma but he could try to help her feel more normal. With gentle hands he removed the strange band that held her braid. He looked at it for a moment in confusion. It was . . . odd. It stretched like nothing that he had ever seen before and seemed to be welded like iron. With a sigh he set it aside and began the task of undoing the matted braid. He was so focused on the task, untangling the knots with gentle fingers, that he didn't notice when she woke.
He hadn't noticed that he was humming quietly as he worked. That was what had allowed her to remain still when she woke and realized that someone had their fingers in her hair. When she heard his voice she knew that rescue had not been a dream. She waited to speak until he had finished, not wanting him to stop in the middle and leave her hair unbound and knowing that it was a very real possibility if she startled him. She had seen his face when she awoke.
When she heard the sound of the elastic snapping back into place and his quiet curse she smiled. "Thank you," she whispered turning her head to look at him. He felt embarrassment flood through him that she had been awake. And that she could look at him with such soft eyes even after what had happened.
"You are most welcome," he replied. "I know that I should have asked permission before touching you in such a way however . . . "
"It's fine," she said. "I would have asked if I thought that you would do it if no one had by the time I woke up. I . . . I know that it's really a little thing in the grand scheme of things but . . . it helps. Thank you."
He didn't reply. It felt wrong to him for them to try to talk as though nothing had happened. As if she hadn't been captured, tortured, violated . . . as if it wasn't his fault. Suddenly he had to know why she had done it. Legolas had given him one explanation but he needed to hear it from her own lips.
"Why?" Brormir asked suddenly, looking at Emily levelly. His voice was choked with emotion and he seemed to be near ready to cry. At first she had intended to explain why having her hair rearranged helped but then she processed his tone and realized that was not what he was asking about.
"What do you mean?" Emily asked. She though that she knew what he wanted to know but wanted clarification before she started bringing up things that neither of them really wanted to talk about. She wanted to forget what had happened to her, not to keep having to discuss it.
"Why did you do it?" Boromir asked again. "What possessed you to attempt to save my life through offering your own? Did you think that I would . . . why?"
She sighed before attempting to take a deep breath that ended in a wince as her injuries protested the movement. She saw him finch at the wince. "It's not your fault," she said with a sad smile.
"I disagree," he replied looking away from her again. "If you had not been attempting to keep me alive you would not have been injured. For this reason I am at fault for your injuries as much as if I had inflicted them myself."
"You're wrong," she whispered fighting the urge to reach out and place a hand on his arm only because she knew how much it would hurt. "I made the choice to do it. No one is at fault but me and the Uruks. But mostly me. If I would have been smarter, I would have given y'all the note earlier rather than going off on my own. Or I would have tried to draw less attention to myself. If I had . . ." she trailed off with tears beginning to form in her eyes as memories of what had happened surfaced once more.
"You have yet to explain why you chose to do it," Boromir said, his tone making it clear that he felt there was more than enough blame to go around and that she was leaving out a good deal of it. His eyes were boring into her and it was Emily's turn to look away. She couldn't stand the intensity of the anger in his gaze, even if it wasn't directed at her. She had seen too many angry eyes to be able to endure them gladly.
"I don't know," she finally said, looking at the stream they were sitting beside rather than at him. "I can't explain why I did it." She paused and looked back at him and met his eyes before she continued. "I just couldn't let you die. Not if I could stop it. I couldn't sit by and let it happen."
"Why could you not," he asked sadly. "I do not know how things are where you come from but in this world it is my responsibility to care for you. I should have been the one to risk my life for your safety, not the way it occurred. I should have—"
"Died?" She offered sarcastically. "'Cause that's what would have happened. And where I come from people who are in love care for each other. Or at least that's how it's supposed to be." She had to pause to catch her breath before she could continue but he waited, seeing from the set of her jaw that she was not yet done.
"You did not ask me to do it for you," she continued. "You didn't hide behind me and tell them 'here! Take her instead.' I chose to do it. They chose to beat me and you are here to help me pick up the pieces. And you can either sit there and angst over it or you can forgive yourself for it and help me. What do you intend to do?"
"I . . . I do not deserve you," he said finally with a wry smile.
"Probably not," she agreed with a grin. "But you have me anyway. Speaking of . . . where are our chaperones? What with me being unconscious I'm shocked and appalled that they left us alone. What about my honor?" She had been joking but she felt her stomach twist uncomfortably as his smile fell away and his eyes took on the haunted look that they had had moments before.
"Oh," she breathed as she realized why they had not needed chaperones. The fellowship believed that she had no honor that needed protecting any more. They believed that it had been taken from her.
"Boromir, I—" She said, her tone apologetic before he cut her off.
"Do not trouble yourself with such explanations, Emily," he said gently, placing a hand on her arm and looking at her with soft grey eyes. "If you wish to talk about what occurred while you were a captive I will listen but you owe me no apologies or explanations until you truly wish to give them. Much as you hold me blameless in what happened to you, I hold you faultless in anything that may have been forced on you. Do you understand? Nothing that happened to you in the camp of the Uruks was your fault, Emily. No matter what comes of it." He looked at her levelly as he said the last part and she felt tears fill her eyes. Even if she had been spared that horror it touched her to know that he would have still loved her had she have been forced to endure it. Even if . . . she shuddered at the thought of being forced to carry a half-Uruk child to term only to . . . Even though it was not a fate that she was at risk for, it could have been.
Suddenly she was overwhelmed by the sheer good luck she had actually been blessed with. True, she had been beaten and brutalized but she was alive and there were always fates worse than death. Fates that she had escaped. As that realization sank in, she felt a sob of relief rise up her throat and she wept. At the first sign of tears Boromir was there, his fingers on the back of her head, tangled in the braid he had just plaited as he sought to comfort her without aggravating her injuries.
"Hush," he whispered gently into the top of her head as she rested it on his shoulder. "You are safe and the monsters that did this to you are dead. Hush now." Despite his kind words, it was some time before she stopped sobbing and then it was only because she had fallen asleep once more. Rather than lay her back on the ground, he leaned back against the pile of packs and cradled her gently against him before slipping into the first restful sleep he had had since she and the hobbits had been taken.
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Here we are all, a new chapter. Thanks to popular request, you received a very large chunk of Emily/Boromir goodness this time around :) I hope that you enjoyed it!
As always, thank you to everyone who took the time to read this chapter or to add it to your alerts or favorites.
And a special thank you to those of you who reviewed. Y'all really make my day!
UntilNeverDawns: Thank you so much! And it will :/ poor dear. I hope that you enjoy the way I handle it!
KrystalSky: Yep :) a rescue. Glad that you enjoyed it!
Katia0203: I'm glad that you are still pleased to see new chapters! And if you don't mind, can you tell me where it drug the most? I will go back and see what I can do to adjust it to make it less cumbersome. Thank you for telling me that it had issues!
19seventythree: Thank you! And there were more Emily/Boromir bits in this one and more to come ;) I hope that you enjoyed it!
Baroque: Amen to that! And thank you so much! And you're right. Despite his fine words here, he will still feel guilty for quite some time. It'll just be a bit more subtle. And the better she gets the more it will fade . . . until later events will bring it back to the surface with a vengeance. And I agree! Sad pandas are not particularly hot and Boromir is no real exception :/
Kilataia: I'm glad! And poor Boromir indeed! And both! Both is good ;)
Estelle Lumene: Yep . . . a sad one :( and you're right. No one is going to ask because they don't really want to know. But with all the tiptoeing around it, it shouldn't pose too much of a problem :) And thank you so much! I was trying to keep their minds and speech patterns slightly different. I'm glad that it worked! And thank you for your wish of luck! I now have a new one so things should be back on track!
Padme4000: I'm glad that you got around to it! I worried that I lost you with the dark turn it took. (even light non-con is enough to turn some people away and with good reason) and thank you! That was very hard for me to write and I'm glad that it at least served some purpose even if that was to boost my ego through your kind words :) And I'm glad that you loved the way that I handled the characters! I was a bit worried (especially with Eomer . . . he is a bit of a favorite and I was worried that people wouldn't like me having him grudgingly save her for political reasons)
Lira-leigh54: Thank you! I'm glad that you loved the interactions and Gimli's little paternal streak. . . I almost pity Boromir. Emily has 3 surrogate fathers . . . poor Man. So how did you like Emily's little common sense chat with Boromir?
Angel Bells: Thank you! I'm glad that you loved it all! I thought that the Boromir/Eomer relationship would be an interesting one to explore and am glad that you liked my take on it! And there is more than enough guilt for them all to share and they all need to do their part :) And yeah . . . Gimli may get more than he bargains for ;). So what did you think of their reunion?
Well, that's all for now folks! I hope you enjoyed it and would love to hear what you thought (even if you hated it) so please leave me a review if you have time and/or feel so inclined.
Stickdonkeys