A/N: Just to warn you all that I am VERY excitable at the moment for lots of reasons:

1) I'm not single any more!!!!!!!!! YAY! I'm sooooo happy! ^_^ 2) ARGH! OME! Tafi, I know what you look like!!!!!!!!!! ARGH! I can't believe it!!! I am soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo happy you wouldn't believe it!!!!! I was doing my happy little hobbit dance when I saw the pics! I can't believe I know what you look like! OMEOMEOMEOMEOMEOMEOMEOMEOMEOMEOMEOMEOME!!!!!!! I'm so happy! You look absolutely NOTHING like I expected you to! WOW! I know what you look like! YAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAY!!!!! WOO HOO!!!!

3) Yay! Moj, you're better (ish) now! Woo hoo! Hehehe! Armadillo! Lolz! Inagimary! LMAO! That was funny! (Apologies 2 everyone else, I realise you have no idea what I'm talking about!) But 3 months tops the lot! Lolz! Then again, the lust calls was quite funny! And Sauron lives in a Walkman! Hehehe! My tree's bigger than your tree! HAHA! I'll look it up this weekend! The nightgown! And the dying trees! OME! See what you do to me! All this non-sensicle stuff happens when I talk to you! I've never had a serious conversation with you, you know! But that's a good thing! HA! I turn my boss into a tree! YAYAYAYAY!

OK, I'll stop now. I think I'm freaking all my other readers out! 4) It's Saturday night and that's always a good thing! 5) I have the house to myself next weekend! YAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAY! 6) I got away with not doing three pieces of French coursework today! 7) I got 4 new Orli posters!!!!!! YAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAY! Um, I think that's it now, but as I think you can all see, I'm very happy and hyper for like a hundred billion reasons!!!!!! YAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAY! I'm so happy! Hmmm, should I stop saying that now? Luvs Elfie xXxXx PS. Moj, I've suddenly decided I want Silva to be able to play a harp. Don't ask why, I just do. I think it'd be really cool to play a harp. It's such a pretty sound. Like silver, that's a pretty colour. shall I not start that again? Ooh, you could add that to the beginning. Anyway, and I have a name for my sword: Tailltui. That's T.A.I.L.L.T.U.I Make sure you remember all this and update soon! Luv ya! (e'mellon men!) PPS. Ash is so damn weak! PPPS. Reviewer notes at the end!



Chapter 4

"What do you mean, gone?" said Michelle.

"Exactly what I said," replied Robyn. "He's gone! One minute he was there, the next he'd completely disappeared. I thought at first maybe he'd got annoyed when I shouted at him and walked away, then I realised this is Ash we're talking about. He would never do that. He likes it when I'm angry. He's a freak!"

"Well, he can't have just disappeared," said Legolas. "He's got to be somewhere."

"But where?" said Robyn. Her tone was changing now. They could tell she was starting to stress about it. "He isn't in the Palace. I asked all the servanty people and they said he isn't anywhere. I'm worried."

"Look, he probably just went for a walk or something," said Michelle.

"He's been gone for three hours!"

"Maybe he went home," said Legolas.

"Ash wouldn't do that without telling me first!" Robyn was becoming hysterical. They had to calm her down quickly.

"Robyn, look, just calm down," said Michelle. "I'm sure there's some perfectly reasonable explanation to all of this."

"But what if." she trailed off the end of the sentence.

"What if what?" said Michelle. She thought she knew what her daughter was about to say, but she wanted to make sure.

"What if Clare and Becky got him?" she said quietly. Her voice was trembling. Legolas put an arm round her shoulders.

"I'm sure it's nothing like that," he said, but there was a slight edge to his voice that said otherwise. If he was honest with himself, he had thought of that immediately. It was the first thing to flash through his mind. It would be a good way of getting at Robyn. And what got at Robyn got at Michelle too.

"Look, we'll go to Ash's house now," said Michelle, hearing the 'extended truth' in Legolas' voice. "I'll bet that's where he is. But I'll have to have a word with him about leaving you. He was told specifically not to."

"Oh, let it be, mom," said Robyn, a little calmer again. "I'll just be glad to see him. I don't want you ruining it."

"As if I would," she said, mocking surprise. Robyn rolled her eyes, linked her mom's arm and the three of them set off to find Ash. (A/N: Which is gonna be kinda hard, but I won't spoil their fun!)



"What things?" said Ash, warily. "What could you possibly tell me that I don't already know? You've been in prison for Eru knows how long!"

"Four months," muttered Clare, grumpily.

"Anyway," said Becky. "We just wanted to have a little chat."

"What about?" said Ash. Becky picked up a chair and placed it in front of Ash. She sat down and looked at him for a moment.

"About Robyn," she said whilst staring him straight in the eyes. A deep uneasiness swept through him. He broke the eye contact.

"What about her?" he said.

"She doesn't treat you very well, does she?" said Becky. Ash looked back up at her.

"She loves me," he said, fiercely. "And I love her. She treats me no differently than anyone else would treat their boyfriend."

"Are you totally sure about that?" said Becky. "Can you tell me you are 100% sure that she is the girl you want to spend the rest of your life with?"

"Of course I am," he said without hesitating.

"Then why haven't you 'popped the question' yet?" she said.

"I'm waiting till I've got the ring," he lied. He truly did love Robyn with all his heart, but he knew they were both too young to marry. But he wasn't going to tell Becky that.

"Hmm," she said. "Well, I suppose if you're sure, you're sure. But, marriage is a big commitment, Ash. Have you though through all the pros and cons?"

"There are no cons," he said. He was getting fed up with all these stupid questions. He wanted to marry Robyn, just not yet. There was nothing more to it.

"But have you been witness to one of her mood swings yet?" said Becky. "I tell you, it's not a pretty sight. In that respect, there is no difference at all between her and her mother."

"I like Michelle," said Ash. He knew where this was heading. They were going to start dissing Michelle next.

"I'm sure you do," said Becky, "but are you sure you can handle a mother- in-law like that? I'm not sure I could. She's very possessive over her daughter. I mean, just look at when you temporarily split up with Robyn because of the pregnancy. Michelle went wild! Are you sure you can handle that every time you and Robyn argue?"

"Robyn and Michelle are just very close," said Ash, though doubt was slowly creeping into his mind. He tried his hardest to push it out, but it kept inching its way in.

"I can understand why she was so upset," he said, trying to justify Michelle's actions. "And how do you know about that? You were locked up then."

"I was regularly updated with info on the outside world," said Becky. "But that's not the point. The point is, if you marry Robyn, you'll have a psycho mother-in-law that's going to keep tabs on your every move."

"Michelle isn't like that," he said, though they all heard his voice waver. "She. she trusts me."

"I'm sure she does," said Becky. "But does Robyn?"

"What do you mean?" he said, cautiously. What did she know that he didn't?

"Are you sure Robyn is completely happy with you?" asked Becky. "I mean, look what happened to Michelle when she was her age. I know for a fact that Michelle has drummed it into Robyn to be very careful when it comes to men. In fact she probably still does it now. And Robyn was very wary of men for a number of years, when she was younger. Maybe she still has some lingering doubt. Maybe she still doesn't completely trust men."

"Robyn knows she can trust me," he said quietly.

"Are you completely happy, Ash?" said Becky. That was a very sudden change of subject. It threw Ash out slightly. He thought about the question. Yes, of course he was happy! But for some reason he couldn't voice it.

"Think of all the times she's shouted at you," said Becky. She stood up and started pacing the room. "In the past week, how many times has she had a go at you because of a names you've suggested?"

"How do you-" he began.

"She automatically presumed you would take on the responsibility of a child," continued Becky. "When you left her, you left for a good reason, yet you went back to her. Did you go back because that was what you truly wanted? Or was it really because you wanted Michelle to stop harassing you? To get your mother to let you back in your house?"

"Don't lie to yourself, Ash," said Clare. "Be honest. She forced you back! Both Michelle and Robyn made you come back. Made you undertake the role of a father. Can you really do that? Are you really strong enough to face all that?" Ash stared at her. Why was all that they were saying making sense? It shouldn't be. He knew, without a trace of doubt, that he and Robyn loved each other more than could be put into words. Sure they had argued a lot recently, but they were still extremely close. But what Becky and Clare had said was having an impact on him. What if Robyn did still have doubts? What if she didn't trust him completely? Had she really forced him back? Now that he thought about it, perhaps Michelle had been the reason he went for that talk with Robyn. In fact, he was pretty damn sure that was the reason.

"She made me come back," he said, confusedly. Becky looked at Clare and flashed a grin that said: 'He's breaking!' "Why?" he said. "Why would she do that to me? How could she do that to me? I thought she loved me." A voice in the back of his mind screamed at him. 'She does love you! She does love you!' But he was past being reasoned with. He was quite angry now. He didn't know why, but Robyn no longer seemed to matter. Becky and Clare had the right idea. They needed to be taught a lesson.

"What did you have in mind?" he said. Becky took the knife from the table, cut the cords from around Ash's wrists and then walked back round to face him.

"Listen very carefully, my friend," she said.