A/N: This is a long chapter. Sorry if some of the punctuation's been
off, it just didn't load right!
***
The next morning, Jackie woke up, refreshed from a good nights sleep. She looked at her watch. '8:00,' she thought. 'Good. I have two hours before we meet Legolas for sword lessons.'
She slipped into her third dress, a white one, and went outside. She found Alex outside. She raised an eyebrow at him as he greeted her enthusiastically.
"Hi Jackie! Ready for sword fighting?"
She rolled her eyes and groaned. She was not looking forward to being anywhere near Alex wielding a sword, especially after the experience in the room with the painting their second day in Rivendell.
"Where's Jenny and Andrea?" she asked.
"Andrea's in her room sleeping, and I haven't seen Jenny. She's not in her room."
Jackie frowned. Where could she be? It wasn't like her to go anywhere this early in the morning. She shrugged it off.
"We better go and wake Andrea up," she told him.
After waking Andrea up, eating breakfast and helping Alex get dressed again, they walked down to the gardens. It was quarter until ten, but Legolas was there already. A few swords were leaning against the wall next to him.
"Hello," he greeted them. "Where is Lady Jenny?"
Jackie shrugged. "We haven't seen her. But it's still early and I told her about it, so she should be here."
They waited. "Where is she?" Alex grumbled impatiently.
Finally, at five after, she came racing towards them, breathless. She was wearing a dark green dress, and her hair, which was in a bun on the top of her head, was disheveled. Jackie raised an eyebrow at her.
"Hi, guys!" she said. She appeared to be in an unusually good mood. "Sorry I'm late!"
"Yeah, so are we," Alex mumbled. "At least we can start now."
"Where were you?" Jackie asked. "We couldn't find you."
"Oh, I was out running," she said, pulling up her dress a little so as to reveal her Mizunos better.
"In a dress?" asked Andrea incredulously.
"You can run in anything," she said back, smiling. Obviously her good mood was not going to be ruined.
"Can we start yet?" Alex whined.
***
An hour later, the four were breathless from wielding the heavy swords. It was much, much harder work than any of them had thought it would be. However, Legolas was patient and willing to answer any of their questions and help them.
"No, grip it like this," he said, coming over to Jackie and placing his hand around hers, which grasped the sword. She smiled slightly at his strong hands guided her fingers around the sword.
"Oh that's much better," she said, swinging it carefully.
"AAHH!" Andrea suddenly cried, jumping back. Alex had seemed to lost control of his sword, and it had nearly sliced her arm off. "Damnit Alex, watch what you're doing!"
"Whoops," he said.
It was then decided that Alex would practice at a safer distance 15 feet away. He skulked over there, dragging his sword on the floor.
After a little bit more practicing, they all decided to call it a day. Jackie's arms felt sore from wielding the heavy sword, and Andrea was nursing a minor cut on her arm where she had poked it with her sword.
"You did good for the first day," said Legolas. "Much better that I thought you would. Alright, I'll meet you at the same place tomorrow." He stopped and Jackie saw his eyes lock with hers. "Goodbye," he said, and walked away, breaking the contact.
"Well," Andrea said, looking at her. "Is there something you want to tell us?"
"What?" Jackie asked, trying to sound innocent. It wasn't working.
Andrea rolled her eyes. "About Legolas," she said, as if it were the most obvious thing in the entire world.
"There's nothing between me and Legolas," she said, her eyes darting to the ground.
Jenny snorted. "Yeah, nothing. 'No, like this,' 'Oh, that's much better!'" she mimicked. "It's obvious you two have a thing for each other."
Jackie's mouth fell open. Had it been that obvious? "I.I." she started.
"HAH! So it is true!" Andrea shouted triumphantly. "You do like him!"
Jackie shot her a look. "Yeah, I like him, okay? He's amazing, sweet, gorgeous-"
"We get the point," Jenny cut in.
"But I know it's useless. I mean he's an elf, I'm a human. He'd never like me.It would be crazy to think so. Plus he's from a different time and place. It just wouldn't work," she ended sadly.
"That's not true," Jenny said quietly. "If you really love him, then it doesn't matter."
Jackie sighed. "Well it doesn't mean he likes me, anyways."
"Are you kidding me?" Andrea choked. "He's crazy about you. How could you not know that?"
Jackie looked at her apprehensively. "Are you sure?" she asked.
"YES!" Andi and Jenny said in unison.
Jackie grinned. "Well, I guess we'll see what happens," she said.
***
On the way back to the main part of the House, Alex pulled Jackie back to walk with him.
"Is it true that you like him?" he asked. Jackie had forgotten all about Alex's "crush" on her.
She looked at him sympathetically. "Yes, yes I do. I'm sorry, Alex."
He stared straight ahead. She had never seen him this serious before. "It's okay. I guess I always knew it anyways. Knew it wouldn't work out between you and me."
Jackie didn't know what to say to this, so she kept silent.
"I'm okay with it if it's going to make you happy," he said after a short time.
She smiled at this. If you looked past the goofy exterior, he was really sweet. "Thank you," she said.
"Don't mention it," he mumbled tonelessly.
"Oh Alex, you're still the coolest guy I know!" she exclaimed, throwing her arms around him. He seemed surprised, but happy. Jenny and Andrea turned around.
"Aww." Jenny said.
They hugged for a minute, and then broke apart, laughing. 'At least he's not mad,' Jackie thought.
"Can we get going?" asked Andrea, folding her arms.
'What's eating her?' thought Jackie.
***
The next couple weeks were a blur of preparation with Legolas. He was intent on teaching them how to defend themselves properly. The training was grueling, but Jackie was happy that she was able to spend so much time with him. They talked often too, not only at sword training. They more often than not sat together at meals, and he even came to visit her in her room once. Usually they walked down by the river, talking about their homes and other topics that came up. But nothing ever happened. 'I wonder if I'm just imagining it,' she found herself thinking. She noticed that Alex had recovered quickly from their talk the day they began sword fighting. Jackie knew he had liked her for some time, but she always brushed it off. She just now realized how deep his feelings had been. Despite everything, they were now becoming better friends.
One day, about 3 weeks later, she was sent for by Elrond. As she walked into Elrond's study, she noticed her friends were already there.
"The key has been successfully forged," he told them. They all grinned. This was good news.
"The companions who will accompany Frodo on his journey, and you on yours, have been selected," he said. "They are Aragorn of Arathorn, Boromir of Gondor, Gimli son of Gloin, and Legolas Greenleaf." He paused. "I believe you know Legolas," he said, looking at Jackie. She blushed and nodded. "Gandalf the Gray will also be going, of course," he continued. "Peregrin Took, Meridoc Brandybuck, and Samwise Gamgee, Mr. Baggins's hobbit friends, will also accompany him."
"When do you think we're going to leave?" Jenny asked.
"As soon as adequate preparations can be made. Probably in a month or so. It gives me great comfort that Legolas has been teaching you how to use a sword. I do think you will find it quite useful," he said.
Jackie nodded. She was afraid it would
***
They were walking to the dining hall from Elrond's study when Jackie suddenly noticed that Jenny wasn't with them.
"Hey, where'd Jenny go?" she asked Andrea.
Andi shrugged. "Haven't seen her since we left Elrond," she said.
Jackie pondered this. 'Where could she have gone to? And why didn't she tell us?' she thought. As she thought more about it though, she hadn't seen much of Jenny lately. She often left before Jackie woke up in the morning, and could rarely be found after dinner. Jackie made a mental note to ask her about it.
At the dinner hall, she found Legolas and quickly sat next to him. If nothing else, they had become close friends. There was nothing wrong with that, Jackie enjoyed his company, but she wished that it could be something more.
Twenty minutes after dinner started, Jenny came waltzing into the dining hall. She took a seat across from Jackie, and without a word about where she had been, promptly took a piece of bread and began to butter it.
Jackie waited expectantly for a moment, before saying "Well?"
Jenny glanced at her. "Well, what?" she asked.
"Well where were you?" Jackie asked exasperatedly.
"Oh I um.forgot something in the room," she said quickly.
"Oh yeah, and what was that?" Jackie asked.
Jenny paused, frowning at her. "Ce n'est pas tes oignons!" she said.
"Okay Jen, no reason to go speaking French on me. It's just that you've been going off a lot lately and not telling anyone where, and I was just wondering."
"Aren't you-" Legolas started before Jenny gave him a fierce look. He immediately stopped.
"What? What are you two talking about?" Jackie asked wildly. She hated being left out. But both of them were silent, and refused to talk. She peered at them suspiciously. Something was up, and she was going to find out what it was.
***
Late that night, just before midnight, Jackie creaked open her door. Seeing that no one was outside, she crept quietly over to Jenny's room. She was determined to find out what was going on. She opened Jenny's door a crack and peeked inside. Sure enough, she wasn't there. She shut it and then tiptoed quietly down the stairs, heading to the main part of the House.
Everyone was asleep. Jackie heard nothing but silence, except for the gentle trickle of the river below. The moon shone bright, as it almost always did in Rivendell. Light poured from it, illuminating everything so that she could see very clearly where she was going.
She didn't know where to begin. She had no idea what Jenny was doing, and no idea where she would be. She first wandered through the halls near the guest part of the House. She had never realized before how many rooms there were. It was enough to be a hotel. 'A very, very nice hotel,' she thought.
Finding nothing there, she walked to the main part of the House, where the dining hall and Hall of Fire were. She stopped briefly in the Hall of Fire, gazing at the orange and red blaze that danced in it. Nothing.
She walked down to gardens where Legolas taught her and her friends how to swordfight. She saw the place where Alex had fell into the garden during one particularly difficult maneuver earlier that day. The flowers were still flattened in that spot. She laughed silently to herself, and kept walking. Then she saw them.
Two figures walking down by the river. She descended quietly as she could down the stairway that led to the grass by the river. She hid behind a tree. She could hardly believe what she saw.
It was Jenny, walking hand in hand with Frodo Baggins, the hobbit who carried the Ring.
Jackie gaped as she tried to comprehend the sight. First of all, he was a hobbit, and he was nearly two feet shorter than Jenny. Seeing them walk together was a pretty funny sight. It looked like a small child walking with an adult. Second of all, how could she befriend, or fall in love with (if she was in love with him), someone connected so closely to the ring, which was so dangerous? Jenny knew very well how bad one of them could mess things up if they messed with anything. The whole fate of Middle Earth was on the line. What if she was tempted by the ring? Thirdly, she felt a little miffed that Jenny hadn't told her about it. This had apparently been going on for a few weeks. 'Then again, on the other hand, I didn't tell them about Legolas until they guessed it. But still, nothing was going on between me and him, and something is obviously going on between them,' she thought, as Jenny stooped down to give Frodo a kiss on the forehead. She silently laughed to herself, and then climbed back up the stairway.
She walked quickly in the direction of her room. She blessed her luck that Jenny and Frodo hadn't seen her. She glanced behind her. Big mistake. She ran into something. A person.
'Uh-oh,' she thought.
She looked up and swore out loud. It was Legolas. How did he know where she was? She stepped back and looked meekly up into his face, trying to read it.
"You know," he said coolly, "You really shouldn't be meddling in other people's business. You're bound to get caught."
She gulped. She didn't know what to say. She was guilty as charged.
"But, now that you do know about Master Frodo and Lady Jenny, I am going to have to ask you to keep quiet about it for now."
A thought came to her. "Hey, how do you know about this? You're supposed to be in bed too now, you know!"
He looked at her for a minute, amused. She thought now that that was probably not an accurate accusation, and felt like hitting herself.
He looked away from her. "I," he said, "happened to be walking in the gardens the other day-in the broad daylight-" he added, "when I came upon them talking behind a tree. I figured it out, but did not say anything to either of them. When Lady Jenny tried to hide it from you at dinner tonight, I figured they wanted it to be a secret. But," he said, grinning slyly, "I figured you would come out tonight and try to find out anyways."
Jackie gasped. She felt slightly bewildered and also indignant. "So you followed me?" she asked incredulously.
"Yes, I did," he said slowly. "I felt you might need a little explaining to."
"Explaining to?" she asked, piqued. "I think I can figure out what's going on by myself, thank you very much."
"I talked to Elrond after dinner today, and questioned him about it. He said that he had known about it for some time, although they attempted to keep it unknown. He told me that there's no harm in it, at least for now. And please, do not let either of them know that you know what is going on. They will tell you, and everyone else, when they are ready."
Jackie stood there thinking for a moment. "Okay," she agreed, "I won't tell anyone. Even though you should have told me anyways," she muttered. She saw Legolas smile, and then slowly start to walk towards her.
'Oh God, what's he doing?' she thought.
He came over to her and encircled her waist in his arms. She looked up at him, surprised. He was staring down into her eyes.
'Oh God, oh God, oh God,' she thought frantically. 'Is this really happening?'
She gazed into his eyes, which were calming and questioning at the same time. They were so beautiful. She remembered the first time she had seen them, when she had first came to Rivendell. They were stunning and lovely. And now that she knew the wonderful person behind them, they captured her even more.
They stayed like this for a moment, staring into each other's faces.
Then, he kissed her.
The kiss swept through her like a jolt of electricity. For a moment she was shocked, then she tentatively placed her arms around her waist. After a moment they pulled apart.
"Whoa," she breathed. Legolas looked at her, smiling softly. That was better than she could have ever imagined.
"I'd really like to-" she started but she was cut off as he once again pressed his lips to hers. She smiled, and felt him smile against her.
'Finally,' she thought. 'I guess Jenny isn't the only one getting any action around here.'
***
***
The next morning, Jackie woke up, refreshed from a good nights sleep. She looked at her watch. '8:00,' she thought. 'Good. I have two hours before we meet Legolas for sword lessons.'
She slipped into her third dress, a white one, and went outside. She found Alex outside. She raised an eyebrow at him as he greeted her enthusiastically.
"Hi Jackie! Ready for sword fighting?"
She rolled her eyes and groaned. She was not looking forward to being anywhere near Alex wielding a sword, especially after the experience in the room with the painting their second day in Rivendell.
"Where's Jenny and Andrea?" she asked.
"Andrea's in her room sleeping, and I haven't seen Jenny. She's not in her room."
Jackie frowned. Where could she be? It wasn't like her to go anywhere this early in the morning. She shrugged it off.
"We better go and wake Andrea up," she told him.
After waking Andrea up, eating breakfast and helping Alex get dressed again, they walked down to the gardens. It was quarter until ten, but Legolas was there already. A few swords were leaning against the wall next to him.
"Hello," he greeted them. "Where is Lady Jenny?"
Jackie shrugged. "We haven't seen her. But it's still early and I told her about it, so she should be here."
They waited. "Where is she?" Alex grumbled impatiently.
Finally, at five after, she came racing towards them, breathless. She was wearing a dark green dress, and her hair, which was in a bun on the top of her head, was disheveled. Jackie raised an eyebrow at her.
"Hi, guys!" she said. She appeared to be in an unusually good mood. "Sorry I'm late!"
"Yeah, so are we," Alex mumbled. "At least we can start now."
"Where were you?" Jackie asked. "We couldn't find you."
"Oh, I was out running," she said, pulling up her dress a little so as to reveal her Mizunos better.
"In a dress?" asked Andrea incredulously.
"You can run in anything," she said back, smiling. Obviously her good mood was not going to be ruined.
"Can we start yet?" Alex whined.
***
An hour later, the four were breathless from wielding the heavy swords. It was much, much harder work than any of them had thought it would be. However, Legolas was patient and willing to answer any of their questions and help them.
"No, grip it like this," he said, coming over to Jackie and placing his hand around hers, which grasped the sword. She smiled slightly at his strong hands guided her fingers around the sword.
"Oh that's much better," she said, swinging it carefully.
"AAHH!" Andrea suddenly cried, jumping back. Alex had seemed to lost control of his sword, and it had nearly sliced her arm off. "Damnit Alex, watch what you're doing!"
"Whoops," he said.
It was then decided that Alex would practice at a safer distance 15 feet away. He skulked over there, dragging his sword on the floor.
After a little bit more practicing, they all decided to call it a day. Jackie's arms felt sore from wielding the heavy sword, and Andrea was nursing a minor cut on her arm where she had poked it with her sword.
"You did good for the first day," said Legolas. "Much better that I thought you would. Alright, I'll meet you at the same place tomorrow." He stopped and Jackie saw his eyes lock with hers. "Goodbye," he said, and walked away, breaking the contact.
"Well," Andrea said, looking at her. "Is there something you want to tell us?"
"What?" Jackie asked, trying to sound innocent. It wasn't working.
Andrea rolled her eyes. "About Legolas," she said, as if it were the most obvious thing in the entire world.
"There's nothing between me and Legolas," she said, her eyes darting to the ground.
Jenny snorted. "Yeah, nothing. 'No, like this,' 'Oh, that's much better!'" she mimicked. "It's obvious you two have a thing for each other."
Jackie's mouth fell open. Had it been that obvious? "I.I." she started.
"HAH! So it is true!" Andrea shouted triumphantly. "You do like him!"
Jackie shot her a look. "Yeah, I like him, okay? He's amazing, sweet, gorgeous-"
"We get the point," Jenny cut in.
"But I know it's useless. I mean he's an elf, I'm a human. He'd never like me.It would be crazy to think so. Plus he's from a different time and place. It just wouldn't work," she ended sadly.
"That's not true," Jenny said quietly. "If you really love him, then it doesn't matter."
Jackie sighed. "Well it doesn't mean he likes me, anyways."
"Are you kidding me?" Andrea choked. "He's crazy about you. How could you not know that?"
Jackie looked at her apprehensively. "Are you sure?" she asked.
"YES!" Andi and Jenny said in unison.
Jackie grinned. "Well, I guess we'll see what happens," she said.
***
On the way back to the main part of the House, Alex pulled Jackie back to walk with him.
"Is it true that you like him?" he asked. Jackie had forgotten all about Alex's "crush" on her.
She looked at him sympathetically. "Yes, yes I do. I'm sorry, Alex."
He stared straight ahead. She had never seen him this serious before. "It's okay. I guess I always knew it anyways. Knew it wouldn't work out between you and me."
Jackie didn't know what to say to this, so she kept silent.
"I'm okay with it if it's going to make you happy," he said after a short time.
She smiled at this. If you looked past the goofy exterior, he was really sweet. "Thank you," she said.
"Don't mention it," he mumbled tonelessly.
"Oh Alex, you're still the coolest guy I know!" she exclaimed, throwing her arms around him. He seemed surprised, but happy. Jenny and Andrea turned around.
"Aww." Jenny said.
They hugged for a minute, and then broke apart, laughing. 'At least he's not mad,' Jackie thought.
"Can we get going?" asked Andrea, folding her arms.
'What's eating her?' thought Jackie.
***
The next couple weeks were a blur of preparation with Legolas. He was intent on teaching them how to defend themselves properly. The training was grueling, but Jackie was happy that she was able to spend so much time with him. They talked often too, not only at sword training. They more often than not sat together at meals, and he even came to visit her in her room once. Usually they walked down by the river, talking about their homes and other topics that came up. But nothing ever happened. 'I wonder if I'm just imagining it,' she found herself thinking. She noticed that Alex had recovered quickly from their talk the day they began sword fighting. Jackie knew he had liked her for some time, but she always brushed it off. She just now realized how deep his feelings had been. Despite everything, they were now becoming better friends.
One day, about 3 weeks later, she was sent for by Elrond. As she walked into Elrond's study, she noticed her friends were already there.
"The key has been successfully forged," he told them. They all grinned. This was good news.
"The companions who will accompany Frodo on his journey, and you on yours, have been selected," he said. "They are Aragorn of Arathorn, Boromir of Gondor, Gimli son of Gloin, and Legolas Greenleaf." He paused. "I believe you know Legolas," he said, looking at Jackie. She blushed and nodded. "Gandalf the Gray will also be going, of course," he continued. "Peregrin Took, Meridoc Brandybuck, and Samwise Gamgee, Mr. Baggins's hobbit friends, will also accompany him."
"When do you think we're going to leave?" Jenny asked.
"As soon as adequate preparations can be made. Probably in a month or so. It gives me great comfort that Legolas has been teaching you how to use a sword. I do think you will find it quite useful," he said.
Jackie nodded. She was afraid it would
***
They were walking to the dining hall from Elrond's study when Jackie suddenly noticed that Jenny wasn't with them.
"Hey, where'd Jenny go?" she asked Andrea.
Andi shrugged. "Haven't seen her since we left Elrond," she said.
Jackie pondered this. 'Where could she have gone to? And why didn't she tell us?' she thought. As she thought more about it though, she hadn't seen much of Jenny lately. She often left before Jackie woke up in the morning, and could rarely be found after dinner. Jackie made a mental note to ask her about it.
At the dinner hall, she found Legolas and quickly sat next to him. If nothing else, they had become close friends. There was nothing wrong with that, Jackie enjoyed his company, but she wished that it could be something more.
Twenty minutes after dinner started, Jenny came waltzing into the dining hall. She took a seat across from Jackie, and without a word about where she had been, promptly took a piece of bread and began to butter it.
Jackie waited expectantly for a moment, before saying "Well?"
Jenny glanced at her. "Well, what?" she asked.
"Well where were you?" Jackie asked exasperatedly.
"Oh I um.forgot something in the room," she said quickly.
"Oh yeah, and what was that?" Jackie asked.
Jenny paused, frowning at her. "Ce n'est pas tes oignons!" she said.
"Okay Jen, no reason to go speaking French on me. It's just that you've been going off a lot lately and not telling anyone where, and I was just wondering."
"Aren't you-" Legolas started before Jenny gave him a fierce look. He immediately stopped.
"What? What are you two talking about?" Jackie asked wildly. She hated being left out. But both of them were silent, and refused to talk. She peered at them suspiciously. Something was up, and she was going to find out what it was.
***
Late that night, just before midnight, Jackie creaked open her door. Seeing that no one was outside, she crept quietly over to Jenny's room. She was determined to find out what was going on. She opened Jenny's door a crack and peeked inside. Sure enough, she wasn't there. She shut it and then tiptoed quietly down the stairs, heading to the main part of the House.
Everyone was asleep. Jackie heard nothing but silence, except for the gentle trickle of the river below. The moon shone bright, as it almost always did in Rivendell. Light poured from it, illuminating everything so that she could see very clearly where she was going.
She didn't know where to begin. She had no idea what Jenny was doing, and no idea where she would be. She first wandered through the halls near the guest part of the House. She had never realized before how many rooms there were. It was enough to be a hotel. 'A very, very nice hotel,' she thought.
Finding nothing there, she walked to the main part of the House, where the dining hall and Hall of Fire were. She stopped briefly in the Hall of Fire, gazing at the orange and red blaze that danced in it. Nothing.
She walked down to gardens where Legolas taught her and her friends how to swordfight. She saw the place where Alex had fell into the garden during one particularly difficult maneuver earlier that day. The flowers were still flattened in that spot. She laughed silently to herself, and kept walking. Then she saw them.
Two figures walking down by the river. She descended quietly as she could down the stairway that led to the grass by the river. She hid behind a tree. She could hardly believe what she saw.
It was Jenny, walking hand in hand with Frodo Baggins, the hobbit who carried the Ring.
Jackie gaped as she tried to comprehend the sight. First of all, he was a hobbit, and he was nearly two feet shorter than Jenny. Seeing them walk together was a pretty funny sight. It looked like a small child walking with an adult. Second of all, how could she befriend, or fall in love with (if she was in love with him), someone connected so closely to the ring, which was so dangerous? Jenny knew very well how bad one of them could mess things up if they messed with anything. The whole fate of Middle Earth was on the line. What if she was tempted by the ring? Thirdly, she felt a little miffed that Jenny hadn't told her about it. This had apparently been going on for a few weeks. 'Then again, on the other hand, I didn't tell them about Legolas until they guessed it. But still, nothing was going on between me and him, and something is obviously going on between them,' she thought, as Jenny stooped down to give Frodo a kiss on the forehead. She silently laughed to herself, and then climbed back up the stairway.
She walked quickly in the direction of her room. She blessed her luck that Jenny and Frodo hadn't seen her. She glanced behind her. Big mistake. She ran into something. A person.
'Uh-oh,' she thought.
She looked up and swore out loud. It was Legolas. How did he know where she was? She stepped back and looked meekly up into his face, trying to read it.
"You know," he said coolly, "You really shouldn't be meddling in other people's business. You're bound to get caught."
She gulped. She didn't know what to say. She was guilty as charged.
"But, now that you do know about Master Frodo and Lady Jenny, I am going to have to ask you to keep quiet about it for now."
A thought came to her. "Hey, how do you know about this? You're supposed to be in bed too now, you know!"
He looked at her for a minute, amused. She thought now that that was probably not an accurate accusation, and felt like hitting herself.
He looked away from her. "I," he said, "happened to be walking in the gardens the other day-in the broad daylight-" he added, "when I came upon them talking behind a tree. I figured it out, but did not say anything to either of them. When Lady Jenny tried to hide it from you at dinner tonight, I figured they wanted it to be a secret. But," he said, grinning slyly, "I figured you would come out tonight and try to find out anyways."
Jackie gasped. She felt slightly bewildered and also indignant. "So you followed me?" she asked incredulously.
"Yes, I did," he said slowly. "I felt you might need a little explaining to."
"Explaining to?" she asked, piqued. "I think I can figure out what's going on by myself, thank you very much."
"I talked to Elrond after dinner today, and questioned him about it. He said that he had known about it for some time, although they attempted to keep it unknown. He told me that there's no harm in it, at least for now. And please, do not let either of them know that you know what is going on. They will tell you, and everyone else, when they are ready."
Jackie stood there thinking for a moment. "Okay," she agreed, "I won't tell anyone. Even though you should have told me anyways," she muttered. She saw Legolas smile, and then slowly start to walk towards her.
'Oh God, what's he doing?' she thought.
He came over to her and encircled her waist in his arms. She looked up at him, surprised. He was staring down into her eyes.
'Oh God, oh God, oh God,' she thought frantically. 'Is this really happening?'
She gazed into his eyes, which were calming and questioning at the same time. They were so beautiful. She remembered the first time she had seen them, when she had first came to Rivendell. They were stunning and lovely. And now that she knew the wonderful person behind them, they captured her even more.
They stayed like this for a moment, staring into each other's faces.
Then, he kissed her.
The kiss swept through her like a jolt of electricity. For a moment she was shocked, then she tentatively placed her arms around her waist. After a moment they pulled apart.
"Whoa," she breathed. Legolas looked at her, smiling softly. That was better than she could have ever imagined.
"I'd really like to-" she started but she was cut off as he once again pressed his lips to hers. She smiled, and felt him smile against her.
'Finally,' she thought. 'I guess Jenny isn't the only one getting any action around here.'
***