A/N: Nothing about Lord of the Rings or any Tolkien character is mine and I'm not making a penny off of this. All original characters are mine. Thank-you once again to the reviewers. They help make writing worthwhile.
*****
Time and Space
Chapter 5
It was a simple thing, really. I mean, it was so simple that it never occured to me until now.
He needed a bath.
"How would you like a shower?" I offered.
He didn't say anything.
"Do you know what a shower is?"
He only sighed, continuing to stare at the dull gloom of the city.
"It's a simple process, actually. Water comes out..."
His eyes brightened a little. I grinned a bit.
"The water comes out and you lather up with soap, cleaning away all the dirt. How does that sound?"
He purposely faced me. "Like the rain?"
I nodded. "Yes, but not like the rain you felt a couple days ago. This rain is inside and clean."
"That would be good."
As much as I would have desired to watch that beautiful man shower, that would have gone way beyond the patient/doctor relationship, beyond in leaps and bounds. Then again, I'd done that already just by getting this close. I'd been taught to maintain a certain distance, to not become closely involved in my patients' live. Somehow, though, this man, this Legolas, needed just that.
But I think what he needed now was privacy.
After a little finagling, he managed to get the water to a desirable temperature. "And you do this every day?" he called.
"Pretty much," I answered. "We like to keep as clean as we can."
The water continued to pour.
After fifteen minutes, I yelled in. "You doing okay in there?"
"Yes."
Okay, he seems to be taking to the shower part of our society well enough. "You know, there probably isn't much hot water left."
"I'm not using any."
Huh? Well, if that's how he wanted it, so be it.
Another ten minutes passed. "Maybe you should come out now. You probably look like a prune."
"What's a prune?"
I chuckled. "A small fruit. Kind of dried up and wrinkly."
"How could I be dried up in the water?"
"Well, what I mean is the...Look, why don't you come out now."
"If you desire it."
The water turned off and seconds later, he stood before me. Wet, dripping and completely naked.
I surpressed a gasp and quickly diverted my eyes. "You might want to towel off." I pointed to the rack just inside the door. "And maybe put some clothes on."
I think he smiled. "At least human modesty has not changed." He went back in and dried off his wonderfully handsome body. Stop that! I scolded myself. He's your patient!
"What am I to wear?" He appeared once again, dry, but still nude. I grabbed the towel from his hand and quickly wrapped it around his waist.
"That'll do for the moment. I'll get you something in a minute. Come over here." I directed him towards the table and handed him a brush. "Here. You might want to brush out some of those tangles."
He took the brush and began pulling it through his long blond hair. But there were no tangles. The brush went through as thought running through silk. I stared at this phenomena. It was then that I noticed a few other features. He seemed very nearly hairless. Nothing on his chest, arms or legs. He didn't even have much facial hair, just eyebrows and lashes. His limbs were also unique, appearing slightly longer than the average. He was slim, yes, but not skinny. There was strength and power in his slender body. He could endure hardship for quite some time.
"I am finished." He placed the brush back onto the table. "Do you have any leathers to hold my hair in place?"
"Uh, no, not leather. I could probably find an elastic."
"Elastic?"
"A piece to hold your hair." He merely nodded. "Is your family built like you?"
He looked at me curiously. "How do you mean?"
I pointed at his arms. "Long limbed. Slender."
He nodded. "Yes. All my people are like this. But you are human. You must have heard of elves before."
Little, chunky Keebler elves flashed through my head. Remember, I thought, he thinks he's a character from a novel. "Sure. Come on. Let's get you some clothes, or at least something more than a towel."
A while later, Legalos was clothed in pale blue pyjamas. He liked their comfort, but found the material chafed his skin. I informed him that he would get used to it. He seemed to doubt that, but I then reminded him of his previous attire, the gown. He quickly accepted his new clothes.
"Have you any luck in finding my companions?" he asked quite suddenly as we went back to the room.
Do I lie to him? "No." I left it at that and he seemed to accept the answer.
We were about to enter the room, when he stopped. "I do not wish to go back in there. There is too much sadness and grief." He laid a hand on my shoulder. I could almost feel a tingle, a sense of familiarit in it. "Please."
"I know it's not the best place in the world, but..."
"There you are," Mike jumped in. A couple of trainees were behind him. "We've been looking all over for you and your patient." He quickly scanned Legalos, but said nothing to him. "We need to get him down to radiology."
"Now?"
"Yeah. This is the only time we could get." He moved for Legalos' arm. Wrong thing.
He jumped back, his face full of suspicion.
"They just need to do some tests, Legalos. Take a look at your head."
"My head is uninjured." He continued to glare at Mike. I watched the two of them. They acted like adversaries, adversaries who had met before.
I shook my head. "It won't hurt. They just want to see if everything is working normally inside your brain, that's all."
His eyes widened in horror as he turned to me. "You will look inside my brain?"
Right, he thinks we're going to cut him up. "Oh no. We're just going to take pictures of it. No cutting. It's perfectly safe."
He debated on what to do. Did he trust me?
A few moments later, his body relaxed a little and he willingly went down to the exam room.
"You know, Lin," Mike said a few steps behind Legolas, "you shouldn't be playing his game. Calling him 'Legolas', letting him go outside. That's only playing into his persona, making him think it's okay."
"I know what I'm doing." Did I sound convincing? "How's that extension coming?"
"It's in the works as we speak."
We made our way up to radiology. Legolas' eyes once again widened in wonder. I seriously began entertaining the notion that maybe this guy was really who he said he was. I mean, he had to have seen television or movies showing the big white machines. His reaction just seemd too naive, too innocent.
"Just lie down here," the technician instructed. Legolas did as told, but immediately jumped off when the table moved into the tunnel.
"Legolas," I said, coming in from the observation room, "you need to be inside the tube there. That's how we take pictures."
He shook his head. "I will not be kept in such a close area. No."
"I will be right in there." I pointed towards the room. "You won't be alone."
He looked down at me, his now drying hair falling forward. "I am alone."
What do you say to that?
"You asked me to believe your words. Now I ask the same of you. Do you trust me?"
He paused a long while. "You have never spoken untruths to me. I will do as you ask." He carefully laid down on the table.
"Thank-you," I said. He only closed his eyes, I presume to think of something comforting to him.
The scanning lasted about five minutes. We got about ten different shots. And none of us knew what we looking at as each one came up on screen.
"Well this is a pickle," Mike finally said after peering at the images. Green where red should be. Four instead of two. "Must be something wrong with the machine." He straightened and looked at the technician. "Well?"
She shook her head. "Been working normally all morning. It's running fine."
"So what are we looking at?" He munched on an apple. "You're boy doesn't appear to be human."
I know.
"And given his blood results, we could be looking at something very unusual here." He crunched another bite.
"What are you suggesting?"
He shrugged. "Don't know. But if this gets out, you know what will happen to him."
I shuddered, knowing full well what would. Men in white labs coats, needles, drugs, tests, experiments. Pain. "So what are you going to do?"
Mike looked at Legolas, now coming out of the tunnel. "We need to do some serious one-on-one with this guy."
"No. What are you going to do with this information?" I gestured towards the screen.
"For now, it's our little secret. Until we figure out just what we're dealing with."
His words did little to calm the growing fear in my stomach.
Leaving the little room, I met Legolas in the scanning room. "You okay?"
"I am unharmed, but I do not wish to do that again." I could see that his hands were lightly shaking. "What did your pictures tell you?"
"We're not sure. But we'll worry about that later. Let's get some lunch."
To be continued...