A/N: As always, I own nothing.

***Chapter 35***

**Deirdre's POV**

We had been playing in the water, smiling brightly as we did so. I know, I probably shouldn't be too happy about getting to play in the ocean when I found out that I was dying and made a deal with whoever this elf was that I would spend eternity in pain and suffering so that my friends could be happy. But, this was probably the only time I was going to get any time soon where I could be happy and enjoy myself.

Suddenly, the elf stopped moving and turned to face me, letting a wave strike into him full force but he didn't even take a steadying step back. The smile had disappeared from his face and I was afraid that I knew what was going to happen now.

"It's time, Deirdre." He announced in a serious tone. I nodded back at him. "Lay down in the water."

So I did. I took one last deep gulp of air before sinking my head and body beneath the surface of the water. My lungs began to burn from not getting fresh oxygen and the water seeped in through my nose. Forcefully, I kept myself under the water and tried not to struggle for the surface and oxygen. The red of my eye lids from the light filtering from the water turned to black and finally I gave way to unconsciousness.

**Legolas' POV**

I sat against the wall outside of Deirdre's room, my head resting on my knees as I tried not to think about what was going on within the room behind me. As soon as I had returned with Gandalf, I was ordered out of the room and had since been sitting waiting for news of how she was faring.

Time passed towards the afternoon and I was vaguely aware that Saffron and Nimiwen were both sitting in the hall as well. The sounds of movement and talking within the room had changed over the time. Gandalf's advice had halted a few hours previously and Aragorn was now giving the orders and trying to control the damage to Deirdre. The healers had both left the room a few times already, rushing off to get the requested herb. And so I waited, for Aragorn to come out of the room. Anxious for news of whether she was likely to wake or not.

Eventually, Gandalf opened the door to look at the three of us in the hallway. He shook his head lightly, amused that we had all waited at the door without stirring.

"You can come in now. There is nothing more that Aragorn or the other healers can do for her. The taint has left her. Now we will just have to wait and see if she will recover." Gandalf said as he moved back into the room, making space in the doorway for the three of us to pass him and enter the room.

We resumed our normal seats. I took Deirdre's hand into mine once more. It was cool from the lack of heat that I had fed it over the hours previously. Saffron sat by her head on my side of the bed while Aragorn took a cloth and slowly washed her face with cool water, brushing away the traces of blood.

As he worked, we all studied the visible differences in Deirdre. There was a flush to her cheeks, even though the rest of her face remained pale. My hand moved slightly toward her wrist, and for the first time since she had been brought here, I felt a strong pulse through her veins. A shuddering breath sounded through the quiet of the room, and looking up I saw that her lips had parted slightly.

A smile flashed across my face as I first met eyes with Saffron and then Aragorn. She must have been waking up. And now, it was only a matter of minutes before she would be back in the world of the living with us.

**Deirdre's POV**

Agony. I definitely understood what the elf had meant when he said that the exchange would involve pain and suffering. Because from the burning throughout my body as well as the awful feel of blood returning to my limbs, which I absolutely hated, I was definitely in pain. My lips parted as I felt oxygen returned to my deprived lungs. It helped to relieve a little bit of the agony searing my body. The red tinged light filtering through my closed eyelids returned me to consciousness and I took another deep breath, mentally bracing myself, before opening my eyes.

Instead of salt-water stinging my eyes as I expected, I was met with the sight of a dirty Aragorn. His grey eyes were staring directly at me and he had a worried expression on his face. When he saw my eyes open a smile broke out on his face and I returned it only to wince at the pain in my cheek.

I had to admit, this was a pretty creative way of putting me through hell. Definitely not what I was expecting, but cruel nonetheless I admitted to myself. That damn elf putting me back in a created world where I could see replications of the people I cared about and would never see again. I was quite impressed with his creativity.

"About time you woke up. You had us all worried." He commented looking away from me and over in the direction of my right side.

"This isn't real." I commented, shutting my eyes to try and avoid the pain searing through my throat and sides.

"What do you mean this isn't real?" Saffy questioned, drawing my gaze over to her. "You've been out for six days and the first thing that you think of to say is 'this isn't real'?"

I shut my eyes again and shook my head back and forth. Not wanting to look to where I felt pressure on my right hand, for fear of seeing the Legolas creation. So instead I re-opened my eyes and looked back at Aragorn.

"If we've been in Gondor for six days, then why haven't you washed your hair?" I asked Aragorn.

"I've been in the houses of healing this whole time. I didn't think washing my hair was that important." He retorted, rolling his eyes at me.

"Deirdre?" Legolas' soft voice came from beside my bed and I couldn't resist looking over anymore.

When I did however, I couldn't help but regret it. He looked awful. His hair was disheveled from running his hands through it too many times and his eyes were encircled by deep purple bruises. Overall, he simply looked exhausted.

I reached my hand out to him and my fingers brushed along his cheek, soft as always. He leaned into my touch and closed his eyes. There were tears welling up in my eyes. He wasn't supposed to be suffering. That was my place.

"Why aren't you happy?" I questioned. "You're supposed to be happy."

His eyes opened and his blue orbs bore into my tear filled ones. He made no movement for a long moment, before he took a seat on the side of my bed, abandoning his chair. His hands stroked through my hair, smoothing it down.

"You've been at death's door for six days. Why would I be happy?" he asked me.

"Because he promised," I whimpered out. "That was the agreement. You would be happy and I would suffer."

His face turned into a frown as he heard my words and noticed the lone tear streaking down my face and spilling onto the pillow.

"Why would you make an agreement like that?"

"Because he told me I was dying and wasn't going to get to come back to say goodbye. So he agreed that he would make sure that you and everyone would be happy. But in return, I had to be in pain." I replied simply.

"You're not going to go anywhere, melethnin. The only way that I could ever be happy is to have you by my side." Legolas said before leaning down and pressing his lips against mine.

His lips were soft against my own chapped lips. Reflectively I reached my hands up and tangled them in his hair. Pain erupted from my left hand causing me to gasp. His tongue snaked into my mouth and began a duel with my own, while I pulled him closer to me. Legolas' hair was silk-like against my calloused fingers and I never felt more battle-worn and roughed up than I did when I touched him. He stole away the oxygen from my lungs leaving me breathless as he pulled away.

My eyes slowly re-opened. When he kissed me like that it was a little hard to believe that I was in hell and supposed to be in agony right now. I glanced around the room looking for the others only to find that they weren't there anymore. I suppose that they must have left either before or during Legolas' miniature make-out session.

"Do you promise that this is real?" I whispered once I had caught my breath.

"On my life."

With those words, I pulled him back in and kissed him once more. He returned it eagerly, running his fingers into my hair and tracing the tip of my ear, earning him a moan. His lips abandoned mine and I was just about to protest, when they made a reappearance dancing along the flesh of my neck. As he nipped where my neck met my shoulder, I sighed out his name. But he was brought back to reality by something that I don't know what was and was now angry with.

"You're injured." Legolas commented, earning him an eye roll for stating the obvious.

"No shit, Sherlock."

A confused expression crossed his face before he quickly wiped it off, clearly deciding that the comment wasn't as important as filling me in on my injuries.

"You somehow managed to stab yourself with your own swords, get sliced by another that was slicked in Nazgul blood. And Aragorn picked out chunks of armor from various locations around your body." He commented, slightly mocking that I had gotten stabbed with my own swords. "Care to tell me how that happened?"

"Um, for the record, Witch-kings don't make very good sheaths for my swords?" I offered with a slight smile on my face.

After a raised eye-brow from Legolas prompting me, I told him the story. Taking special pride in the ability to ride a horse while shooting with my bow, as well as my ability to take down an Oliphant and I protested the fact that they only counted as one.

"So, what was your final count?" I asked him, hoping that since I had been fighting longer I might have a larger number than him.

"Fifty-seven." He announced with a proud smile.

A massive grin broke out over my face and I couldn't help but jump off of the bed and do a victory dance, which I then regretted when my side felt like it was being ripped to pieces.

"Ow." I remarked, sitting back down on the bed with a pout.

Shaking his head, Legolas took a seat at the head of the bed and spread his legs out so that I could sit in the space between them. Doing so, I leaned back against his chest and laid my head against his shoulder.

"I have to ask, why did you do a dance?"

"Cause I have a higher total than you!" I announced, grinning and causing a burn in my left cheek.

"And what was your total, melethnin?"

"Sixty and one-third."

"How did you get one-third?" he asked me, moving so that he could see my face better.

"I think I have to share the Witch-king kill with Eowyn and Merry. Otherwise I would be at sixty-one."

Chuckling quietly for a moment, Legolas leaned down so that his breath tickled across my ear making me shiver.

"What would you like as a prize then, Deirdre?" he asked, forming my name lovingly. I adored it when he said my name, the pet names and melethnin were sweet but it made me feel like he was only thinking about me when he said my name.

"You," I stated simply before turning my face to his and capturing his lips.

The next morning, I woke in Legolas' arms. There was a dull ache coming from various points of my body, reminding me that I had gotten assaulted by shrapnel, but the pain wasn't quite as unbearable as it had been the previous day. Just as I was about to wake Legolas up by showering kisses on his face, there was a knock on the door to my room.

"Come in." I responded, rousing Legolas from his sleep as I did so.

The circles that had circled his eyes the previous day were less prominent now, and he seemed less weak. I was glad that he had rested the night before, as it seemed that he hadn't had a good night's sleep since we had gotten to Gondor.

The door swung open to reveal Saffron and Nimiwen standing there. Both of whom were wearing smiles on their faces. I barely had time to sit up in the bed before Saffy had pounced upon it, wrapping her arms tightly around me.

"Ow, Saffy too tight."

"Sorry, forgot that your broken." She explained as she pulled away from me and looked at my face, her hands never leaving me as she was ensuring that I was really here.

"Not as broken as the Witch-King." I offered with a smirk. "Legolas was saying how they had to pull chunks of him out of me."

"So are you still convinced that this isn't real? Or are you ready to face reality?" she asked, somewhat rhetorically. "Cause, we have stuff to do and we both know that you were the one who was obsessed with this and know pretty much everything that happens."

"Right. So fill me in, what have I missed. Have you guys had the meeting about what to do next yet?" I returned, switching into massive nerd mode.

"Nope, we were kind of hoping that you would wake up before we did that. So that's the plan for today, figuring out the next step." Saffy replied, having kind of stopped paying attention to either Legolas or Nimiwen, just as I had.

"Alright, well, I'm going to clean up a little and then we can all meet and figure out what we're going to do." I proclaimed.

Saffy nodded her head and stood from the bed taking Nimiwen's hand as she walked toward the door.

"I'm glad that you're awake, Deirdre." Nimiwen said as she exited the room.

I turned my attention to Legolas, who was still lounging in the small bed. I leaned down and softly pressed my lips to his before climbing off of the bed slowly so as to avoid most of the pain.

"So did Aragorn leave any guidelines about whether I can bathe or not?" I asked Legolas while slowly beginning to stretch my back and arms.

"Just take your bandages off before hand and I can rewrap you up afterwards." He responded, relaxing back into the bed.

After leaning over and pressing a kiss to his lips, I headed out the door in an attempt to find a room where I could bathe.

"Frodo has passed beyond my sight." Gandalf stated as he paced across the floor of the throne room in Minas Tirith. "The darkness is deepening."

Those words sent a shiver of despair through everyone assembled in the hall. Even though Saffy and I knew the outcome of the war, it was hard not to feel the knot of worry forming in my stomach as we contemplated how to proceed in these dark days.

"If Sauron had the ring, we would know it." Aragorn insisted, trying to remain optimistic.

"It's only a matter of time. He has suffered a defeat, yes, but behind the walls of Mordor our enemy is regrouping." Gandalf rebutted.

"Let him stay there! Let him rot!" Gimli threw in his opinion from the steward's throne with his pipe still in his mouth.

"Because 10,000 Orcs now stand between Frodo and Mount Doom." Gandalf rebuked, throwing a glare slightly at the dwarf.

"You know most people generally would think that the more distance between a person and Mount Doom was a good thing. Why are we the weird ones again?" I questioned in a teasing tone, earning me a smack upside the head from Saffron who had apparently decided that I was better enough to damage again.

"I've sent him to his death." Gandalf concluded grimly, totally ignoring my comment.

"No." Aragorn responded hastily not wanting to admit defeat of the quest. "There is still hope for Frodo. He needs time and safe passage across the plains of Gorgoroth. We can give him that."

"How?" Gimli asked, removing his pipe from his mouth and leaning forward in his chair intrigued by what Aragorn may be proposing.

"Draw out Sauron's armies. Empty his lands. Then we gather our full strength and march on the Black Gate." Aragorn pondered aloud, drawing up his plan of attack. It was fairly brilliant really.

At the sound of a choking noise, I glanced over at Gimli and saw that he was coughing on his smoke as he had started choking when he heard Aragorn's suggestion.

"We cannot achieve victory through strength of arms." Eomer added, worry marring his face at the idea of declaring war on Mordor on its home turf.

"Not for ourselves." Aragorn conceded, sparing the horse lord a glance before continuing his pacing. "But we can give Frodo his chance if we keep Sauron's eye fixed upon us. Keep him blind to all else that moves."

"A diversion." Legolas commented, obviously thinking that it might work. I smiled and rose up to give him a kiss on the cheek.

"Certainty of death, small chance of success, what are we waiting for?" Gimli remarked with a grin.

"I like the way you think, Gimli." I told him with a grin.

"Sauron will suspect a trap." Gandalf warned Aragorn. "He will not take the bait."

Aragorn turned to face him with a smirk on his face. His eyes shone brightly with a mischievous twinkle.

"Oh, I think he will."

With that Aragorn began to head towards the door, planning to use the palantir to communicate with Sauron and declare his challenge.

"Hey, Aragorn" I called, causing him to turn around to look back at our group. "Hand over the Evenstar pendant."

**End Chapter 35**

Alright, there is Chapter 35. Hope you all didn't think that I was gonna let Deirdre stay dead for too long. I don't know if I will be able to have the next chapter up by next Saturday cause I have barely started it and don't have much time now. But I will try and get it up soon.

Read and Review please