*Greetings! I don't own anything from LOTR. I have no idea where this will go either, so that is why I didn't add a great summary. I will let Rayah decide where it goes.*

Rayah Ellsworth took a deep breath before reaching for the little white stick sitting on her bathroom counter. She was late. Not just late, but very late and after a solid month of denial and nausea, she forced herself into the drug store to buy the pregnancy test. Cole Dentin had been her boyfriend of six months and, if she gave herself a bit of a reality check about the entire situation, was not what one would call "husband material". Sure, he was tall and athletic, very handsome and charming. But the gym teacher wasn't the brightest star in the night's sky and had a wandering eye for prettier girls in town. She had known that he was most likely talking to other women behind her back, but a fear of confrontation had pushed the issue aside for months. Rayah was an American literature teacher at Coldman Memorial High School. She was also in her last year of her master's program and planned to start doing adjunct professor work at Heritage County Community College in the summer. She loved her students, but she was ready to move on to be a college professor.

The results were ready, all she had to do was look and there would not be two little blue lines. She could go on with her plans as usual. She forced her eyes downward, and her stomach dropped through the floor. Two blue lines. She was pregnant.

Pregnant. That word was asinine to her! She had never ever given having children a moment's consideration. She had always been too busy, too focused on what she was doing in the present. Gathering the last bit of courage, she had in her body, she got up off the bathroom floor and walked out into the living room where Cole was playing video games.

"Hey babe… there is something I need to talk to you about." Rayah breathed, barely above a whisper.

"Can it wait? I am right in the middle of a mission." Cole mumbled over the sound of gunfire. Rayah didn't respond, but just sat down on the couch and waited mutely. Twenty minutes later, Cole finally put down the controller and noticed his pale girlfriend sitting next to him, staring off into space.

"What is wrong with you? You look like someone ran over your granny." Cole joked and put an arm around her. Wordlessly she handed him the pregnancy test. He looked at it a long moment before standing up and throwing it across the room. "ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME?!" He shouted. "I thought you were on the pill?!"

Rayah shook herself out of the stupor she had been in at the sound of his loud angry voice. "I am on the pill… Something must have gggone wrong." She stuttered.

"Something went wrong? Yeah, I can tell that for myself Ray. Jesus…" Cole ran a hand through his short hair. "What are you going to do about it?"

Rayah looked up and shook her head. She really hadn't thought about it yet. She knew that she couldn't 'get rid of it'. Adoption was on the table… or she could raise the baby. Baby… she was going to have a baby. "Cole… I am going to continue the pregnancy." She squared her shoulders, getting ready for the fight that was on the verge of happening. Cole looked at her, dumbfounded.

"You can't keep a houseplant alive and you want to have a kid? Are you insane?" He paced the living room. "I am not ready to have kids… so you need to make a choice. It or me." There it was… the ultimatum. But she had already decided, hadn't she? There was no real need for an answer and Cole knew it. He grabbed his cellphone, wallet and keys and walked out without another word. As soon as the door slammed, Rayah burst into deep sobs. She was about to become a single mother, just like her mother before her.

In the following weeks, Cole moved his stuff out of the apartment without sparing as much of a glance towards Rayah. Rayah went to her first ultrasound appointment alone, ignoring the pitying looks of the nurses and techs. When the little bean appeared on the screen, with a strong heartbeat, she let out a breath she didn't know she was holding.

She kept her pregnancy to herself at work, being vague about her frequent trips to the bathroom and her growing wardrobe of loose-fitting blouses. Once she reached twelve weeks, she finally sat down with the principal Malcom Kinney and confessed her situation. Malcom was in his fifties and had a mop of white hair and crystal blue eyes. A heavyset man with a handlebar mustache and a Santa Claus type personality, he was beloved by teachers and staff alike.

"Rayah! Congratulations!" he beamed. This was the first positive reaction Rayah had received and she couldn't help but burst into tears and his genuine sweetness. "Oh honey, you are gonna be just fine! Don't worry about it. These things happen for a reason and I know you are going to be an excellent mother." Malcom enveloped her into a bit hug and patted the top of her head.

After her meeting with Malcom, Rayah ducked into the bathroom close to her classroom for a bit of freshening up. The kids could smell tears like sharks could smell blood in the water and she did not have the energy or mental fortitude to explain anything right now. She splashed cool water on her face and looked at herself in the mirror. Rayah was petite, a small framed woman barely over 5'3 with long dark brown hair and alabaster white skin that went from white to red back to white when exposed to the summer sun. She had grey eyes framed with long dark eyelashes. "Cute" had always been the word that was applied to her, ever since childhood. She never had the body or sophisticated looks that pushed her into the realm of "beautiful". Rayah straightened her clothes, ran fingers through her tangled locks and gave herself a mental shake. "pull it together, girl." She told herself.

It was last period of the day, a balmy February Monday. Rayah's class was discussing Edgar Allen Poe's The Raven.

"Amelia." Rayah called on a red-haired girl with braces in the front row. "If you were to explain this poem to someone who had never read it, break down the story. How would you do it."

"It's about grief. The guy really loved his Lenore and he wants the raven to tell him that she is okay in the afterlife, but the only answer he gets is 'Nevermore'. This makes him mad and upset because he really just wants a sign that he will be reunited with her one day but in the end. the raven is just a bird." Amelia spoke in a slightly nasally voice, with a hint of a cold.

"Very good. Anyone want to add anything else?" Rayah beamed. She looked around to the raised hands and was about to call on Mason when the alarm started ringing. "Okay everyone… looks like a fire drill. Everyone please leave everything where it is, just take yourself! Single file, just like we practiced." She led them to the door and opened it.

There was an extremely bright light surrounding her. She felt calm and warm but confused. There was something she was supposed to be doing, wasn't there?

"All na-eithel dilthen er"

Rayah turned her head towards the sound of a beautiful voice. She had no idea what he said, but it made her feel calm and sleepy.

Siniath cuil iar cuil."

Then she was falling.