Hi everyone and welcome back for part two! Writing has been going well but I'm not as far as I would have liked to be before posting chapter 1 but promises are promises so here we are! I want very badly to get part two finished by the end of the year but with so much on my plate I don't know if I'll be able to manage it.

Part two will expand on Natalie's developing relationships both friendly and romantic. We will touch on some very adult content so consider yourself warned about graphic sexual content, torture, blood, guts, suicide and the whole gambit.

That's it for now! This first one is a bit short, but content length will even out quickly.

Thanks, and enjoy!

She woke with her hands cradled together brushing her lips. Her room had gone cold, but the scent of smoke lingered. Chilled, she rose and rekindled the smoldering ashes. Nat crouched and rubbed her chilled hands together, warming them over the embers. There was no more wood left to burn for warmth.

Her thoughts drifted back to her dream. A flame caught and in its flickering gaze she remembered vividly.

Blood soaked and in complete despair, she'd found him kneeling in the burning woodland that had been his home. She could still feel his heated skin beneath hers. His pounding heart held against her own and the utter despair that had shattered her as soon as she'd touched him.

Nat swallowed hard; it was only a dream...but it had felt so real.

He had felt real.

She shivered as the chill from the room enveloped her. Restlessly she poked and prodded the hot embers in the hearth. She rubbed a weary hand across her face. An image of his own came to mind from her dream. She'd never felt such grief, but she had felt his more acutely than any emotion she'd ever had. She had nearly wept for him. Her breath had stalled in her lungs. Her heart had stuttered to a standstill for him. She'd never felt like this, so much and all at once.

She needed some fresh air.

Casually, she wrapped herself in an additional fur and made for the door. The cool stone beneath her bare feet made her feel steady and grounded. Solid. She breathed in a deep calming breath as she exited into the hallway. She made her way quietly through the hall and then out toward the main entrance. The hall was littered with men and women sleeping heavily on makeshift cots and bedrolls. Nat passed by them unnoticed. Exhausted beyond reason she was sure many of them had succumbed to much-needed rest.

The dim torches that were lit guided her way as she climbed up stair after stair. Outside the cold air whipped around her. Her cheeks and bare feet were icy cold, but the temperature did not penetrate her warm fur wraps. Higher and higher she wound up a stairway until she reached the great horn Gimli had blown so fiercely just a few short days ago. Edging carefully around it she made for the open ledge of a small window carved smoothly out of the stone. She wound her furs even tighter as the wind whirled wildly past her and tucked her feet up into them when she sat.

Glancing up, the night sky was cloudless and lit brightly by a strange moon. The stars seemed to hang only just out of reach, but she knew their true distances. That those flaming balls of gas were millions of miles from her reach. Somewhere, out there, amongst them was Earth. Somewhere, her home and her makeshift family were hopefully still standing, still living.

The deep sadness she had felt earlier reared its ugly head again but this time she knew it was her own. Haldir had opened up a well of feeling inside her, one that currently seemed bottomless.

She choked out a small cry but quickly covered her mouth at the sound. Down and down she went as Clint, Laura, and the children flashed before her. The faces of her mother and father. Her grandmother. Marina. Tears, genuine tears, her first in decades fell carelessly from her lashes.

All of them were lost to her.

Forever.

It hit her all at once, a desperate feeling of singularity. She had no home, no people, and no purpose. She cursed herself as more tears fell. She had kept them under lock and key as best she could, as she always had, but now they simply overwhelmed her. Weak of body, spirit, and mind; her lifetime of grief assaulted her. Was she destined to live her life as a lonely vagrant drifting from one place to another, blood soaking whatever path she wandered?

Cursing again she angrily swiped at the tear stains on her cheeks. She drew a great breath and sank into the wall beside her. Something inside her had cracked open and try as she might she couldn't seem to weld it back together. Nat had always been self-aware of her mind and body but this...this was new to her. Her chest ached, a dull throbbing ache of despair.

Her free hand absentmindedly rubbed at the corners of her furs. She dropped her head to the side. The fine hairs of the pelts she wore brushed her cheeks and lips. Her eyes drifted closed and she buried her face against her shoulder, catching his lingering scent. It was not the furs that brushed her cheek but the memory of the gentle carcass of his hand. His heated breath upon her ear.

What has come over me? She thought as she drew the earthy elements of his scent deeper, pleased beyond measure to find that he was still with her in some small way.

A heated throbbing awareness washed over her, and she knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that he was close. Gods above she could feel him nearing. Shaken to the core she opened her eyes just as Haldir emerged from the halls of Helms Deep.

She drank in the very sight of him. If she thought he'd been handsome in the light of day, it was nothing compared to him now. Clad in the simple linen of his bed shirt, the first few buttons undone, paired with fitted grey trousers; he looked pleasantly disheveled. Haldir had very obviously woken up only a short time ago. He had yet to even plat his hair and it hung loosely around his stern face now set pensively.

She smirked; he could be expressive when he thought no one was looking.

Nat watched closely as he made for the deepening walls. His fingers drifted over the tops of the stones at his waist, and she wondered at the nature of his thoughts. He neared the opening that had been blasted into the wall and paused. He seated himself with ease. His long strong legs cast over the edge with the casual grace of the elves. His hands were set in front of him and she watched closely as he ideally fiddled with something between his fingers before casting his gaze back out over the open battlefield.

She could still feel him, a subtle presence in her mind, as if someone was standing just outside of her peripheral but she still knew they were there. The longer she watched him the more she focused on that feeling. The initial heat she'd felt drew her in deeper and out of curiosity she let it lead her. Nat gave herself willingly to its pull. Something more hung between them an attachment beyond the normal had formed. Some magic of the elves had enchanted her, beguiled her, and now it throbbed in her. Whatever it was pulsed back between them, a firm mental nudge of pale golden light that had her jolting away from it in shocking surprise. A small tendril of fear flared in her belly.

Somehow, it seemed that he'd managed to forge a connection between them when he'd embraced her. Nat swallowed hard her thoughts instantly flipping through the many reasons how and why he would have done this to her. Every possibility and its probability categorized itself in her mind. Each one making her more and more unnerved. He couldn't possibly have planned to do this. How could he when he hadn't even realized the extent of her condition until she'd been in the thick of it?

Which only left a few options.

One was that he had seized an opportunity to gain some power over her. To make her question herself, her feelings, and her mind and use his influence over her to secure her to their side of things. She imagined him sitting over her before she'd awakened, remembering the way she'd nearly killed them all. Thinking of the dangers she presented and the complications.

What had the others told him about her?

What did he know?

Secondly was that he had done this completely on accident. That somehow when he'd gone to heal her, he had forged a bond between them he'd never intended to make. That he too was struggling to comprehend what was now between them. This was a difficult proposition for her to absorb given how careful Haldir was in all he did. He was composed and exacting. He moved and conducted himself with intent.

Thirdly was that their connection was completely one-sided and that she happened to be the only one aware of it. The possibility that he had healed her and left some magical imprint of himself in her, or on her, was terrifying given the effects it had on her. Could something this intense and consuming really be one-sided? She shuddered at the thought. This option was the only one she could hope for; it was the safest and the most manageable. She doubted her ability to contain herself if he looked at her with half the intensity that surged through her when he was near.

This was a complication she hadn't expected and of all the things she was trained in she was least prepared for managing her own heart. She swallowed hard as her fear spiked and her stomach dropped. How could she even know this was real? Was it? Or just the passing result of what he'd done to her?

She could deny herself, she thought, she'd done it for years. What good would her pursuing him do her? She had nothing to offer a man like that, not at a time like this.

No, to be her was to be alone. The last eighty years had taught her that well enough.

Steeling herself she tightened the furs around her and glanced one last time at the handsome delight that was Haldir only to find his gaze set to her. She stilled for only a moment. A small indulgence of what would only ever be in her own mind. Silently she turned from him, leapt from her perch and made for the stairs.

It was nothing, she repeated to herself. Nat let her instincts lead her back to her rooms. Perhaps tomorrow she would have a better grip on things. She needed to be alone and she needed more rest.

After all, spiders were solitary creatures.