Author's Note: Another fast update? That can only mean one thing...school's over! Yea! And since I know most of you are in the same position, let us pause for a moment to mourn the passing of yet another school year....forget that, let us celebrate the passing with, you guessed it, a new chapter! And I thank you all so much for the response to the last chapter, that was my personal favorite as of yet and I'm glad most of you felt the same way. Poor, poor Legolas, whatever is in store for him next? (evil laughter) Right then, I still make no money from this, which is why I need to find a summer job, so there's really no point in suing over it. Enjoy!

Chapter 12

"Well we will certainly not have you staying in there," Gimli said as soon as the door was closed and he heard Aragorn and the guard walk away. The dwarf walked over to the wall and pulled down the ring of keys.

Legolas saw his intent.

"No," he said softly.

Gimli stopped in his spot.

"Why not?"

"I do not want to cause anymore trouble for Aragorn," Legolas replied in the same quiet tone he had been using as of late. "If somebody were to come in and see me loose you would no longer be entrusted to be with me and they would question Aragorn over his authority. Trust me, they are waiting for the littlest sign to overthrow Aragorn's kindness."

Gimli looked frustrated. "Fools," he spat out, "ingrates would not know a murderer if he came right up behind them with a knife."

Legolas sighed and sat down heavily on the poor excuse for a bed, resting his elbows on his knees. "They cannot be blamed for what they do not know."

Gimli snorted, he was not willing to give into any sort of logic. "They might not know better, dim-witted beings that they are, but Aragorn certainly knows better! I cannot believe he is doing this."

"Do you not suspect me at all?" Legolas asked warily, turning his eyes upwards to his friend.

Gimli dropped the keys and pulled the wooden chair over nearer to the bars, seating himself directly in front of Legolas and returning his somewhat unnerving gaze. "I do not suspect you because you said yourself that you did not kill that man. I believe you."

Legolas leaned back until his back was against the rough stone wall. "And what of the knife and the other two murders? The ones that happened in the woods when I was out there?"

Gimli squinted as if Legolas had just told him the sky was green. "What of them? I know the woods are a large place, you can be in them without being anywhere near where anything is happening."

Legolas briefly closed his eyes and took a breath. When he re-opened them, there was a hard glint in them, as if he wanted to warn or scare Gimli.

"What if I were to say that I was there?" Legolas questioned, his voice more intense but no louder than it had been. "What if I told you that I was there with the woman when she died and that the bloodied dagger was hers?"

Gimli sat back slowly in his chair, carefully taking in what Legolas had just told him.

"I would say that there is more to it than that," he replied after a few moment's silence.

"And I would agree," Legolas immediately answered, his voice tired and soft again, "only I know not what it is."

Gimli squinted again. He was trying desperately to understand what his friend was trying to tell him, but he suddenly felt very lost, and the elf sitting behind the bars in front of him was not sounding like his old friend.

Gimli took a breath.

"Something happened last night," he started slowly, "I know not what it was, or how it came to be, but for a few moments this morning, you were back to your old self. You were the ever prideful and annoying elf that I have grown to love, not the shadow that you have been for some time now. You had your old spark back in you, that old confidence that assured yourself and anyone around you that nothing could touch you, nothing could get to you, and you would also destroy anything that tried to touch those closest to you. For a few moments this morning, I truly had my old friend back."

Gimli paused for a moment, allowing a small break for Legolas to intervene if he so wished. Only the elf remained quiet, his eyes locked on Gimli's, and the dwarf could tell that he was listening intently to everything that he was saying.

Gimli continued. "The only thing I do not know is what happened last night for you to get your strength back, and most importantly, what happened before for you to lose it. You said you would tell me all I wished to know today, and I know you well enough that you always keep your word."

Legolas still did not reply, but Gimli could almost see some sort of inner struggle going on within the elf as if he were weighing his options. The dwarf knew that it was mainly pride that kept Legolas from confiding everything to the dwarf, for that would mean that he was not strong enough to handle his own affairs. But Gimli would never hold it against him, he knew himself that everybody had a breaking point, and it was amazing that it had taken so many years for Legolas to finally reach his.

Just when Gimli was about to mention something about Legolas averting his eyes, that unblinking stare of his was getting out of hand again, Legolas sighed, dropped his gaze and pushed himself up so that he was sitting up straight. Gimli knew this was a sure sign of Legolas coming to terms with himself, he would tell Gimli what he knew, at least the important facts if not everything.

"Ever since I have returned here from Ithilien," Legolas started, "I have felt out of place with myself. It is truly an odd feeling, one that I have never had before, and I only accredited it to the fact that I had been feeling useless for some time now and had lost some sort of inner touch with myself." Legolas stopped and glanced over at Gimli, no doubt wanting to see what his friend's reaction would be to such a confession. Gimli's face revealed nothing, except for the fact that he was listening without any judgments until he heard everything.

Legolas fixed his eyes on a spot on the wall beyond Gimli and continued.

"I was feeling a mix of emotions that I hardly ever experience, among them bitterness, melancholy, and fear. Fear of what I was not sure of, until I finally came back here and the first murder took place. Then I understood, I was afraid that I could no longer control myself, that so many years trained to be nothing but a warrior were finally beginning to take their toll. I was meant to be an assassin, and little else. And without having assignments or anything to defend, my talents were wasted.

"Now I know that you are probably thinking that I had the restoration of Ithilien to keep me occupied and such, and that was what I thought too. But even with that I was growing restless. All I could think of were past battles, and especially mistakes made in those battles. Particularly when I was young, I made too many mistakes, and usually others had to suffer for them."

Gimli was aware that Legolas had gone off on a tangent and was almost babbling, but he also realized that this was probably exactly what Legolas needed to get off his chest, so he let him continue with no interruptions.

Legolas seemed to catch himself as well and he stopped, taking a small breath before continuing.

"But that was not the strangest thing. That first night, when I left you early to go back to my room, I could have sworn that I did go straight to my room. Yet the next morning, I could not fully come up with what happened the night before. I heard of the murder with you of course, and I saw the body along with you and Aragorn, and as much as I hated to admit it, it did look like the style of an elf. For some reason, this angered me, and I felt very defensive, and it was not until after you asked me what I had done the night before did I realized why I was so angry." Legolas had to pause for another breath before continuing. "It was because I was afraid that perhaps I had somehow unknowingly done it."

Gimli exhaled sharply and fidgeted as if he wanted to say something, but Legolas rushed on with what he had to say, he could not want to hear what Gimli had to say just yet. He knew that once Gimli started to speak, Legolas would lose his nerve and not say the rest that he meant to tell him.

"I know that you are thinking it odd, and so do I. I thought to myself that surely my momentary mind block had absolutely nothing to do with the murder, but the fact that I could not even explain the mind block was worrisome by itself. Nothing like that has ever happened to me, and I have heard no tales of such a thing happening to others. I wanted nothing more to dismiss it, but then the other murder happened. Only this time, I fully remembered being there.

"The next night after I separated from you, I went to do my rounds near the woods, as I had said. This time, I encountered the young victim, and at first I was trying to help her, she was looking for her brother. And then we were attacked."

Gimli finally interrupted.

"But do you not see? You just said it yourself, you were attacked."

Legolas was shaking his head and he held a very distant look in his eyes, as if he was not fully there. And in truth he was not quite there, for he was finally beginning to remember more of what had happened that night. Small pieces were falling into place.

"No," Legolas whispered, his eyes sweeping back and forth as if watching something. "That was the strangest part. We were attacked, and I turned to defend us, but it was not coming from behind." Legolas paused briefly, waiting for his memory to catch up to him. "The attack was from beside us, and before I even knew it there was a knife in my side. I looked to the side to see the attacker, but there was only the woman, and she was screaming, and the knife in me was the one that the young woman had carried, the same knife later found in my chambers."

Legolas' breath was coming more heavily.

"Yes, the blood on it was my own, but it did not stay that way. I took the knife out from my own flesh, made the wound worse even, and I turned to the side, the side that the woman was standing on."

Legolas stopped.

He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. A small grimace passed over his fair features.

He opened his eyes again, "And that is as far as I can remember."

Gimli stood from his chair. "Yet you know there is more to it than that," he said, a mix of excitement and anger coming through in his voice. "You remember that you were attacked, you were even wounded. The blood on the knife can be explained, there is nothing that can be held against you now."

Legolas looked up at the dwarf, "There is more to the tale," Legolas told him, "I cannot remember what it is."

Gimli began to pace. "That does not mean that you did anything more, save perhaps fighting with the true murderer." Gimli halted his pacing, standing right in front of Legolas. "You already said that you did not kill the man last night."

Legolas nodded, "Yes, that is because I clearly remember last night. I was in the woods, but nothing happened, and I had no black-outs. Though it is odd that the night I choose to go out another murder happens."

Gimli's eyes widened. "That is not such an odd thing to the one who is trying to frame you."

Legolas waved his hand. "I have thought of that," he muttered, "but that in itself makes no sense."

Gimli sat back down in the chair, fairly bursting from excitement. "It does make sense. Another elf could easily try to frame you, perhaps one with a grudge against you. That would explain Bergel seeing one who looks like you, he did not say that it was you, only that it was somebody who looks like you. And to a mortal in the darkness of night, I can easily tell you that you elves look alike."

"But I know of the elves in this area," Legolas tried to dismiss the idea that is was another elf, "and not a one of them would do such a thing."

"Then it is a rogue elf," Gimli replied.

"I would have heard of such a rogue long before I even came back to Gondor," Legolas said, "I am informed immediately of all matters concerning elves both in Gondor and Ithilien."

Gimli grunted. "Then it is a mortal who knows elves well and is miming the ways of the elves with the wounds on the victims."

"It would be very difficult for a mortal to do that," Legolas said.

"Aye, I will agree with that," Gimli answered, "but that does not mean it is impossible. It is easy to make such neat and efficient wounds when the victim is already incapacitated. He could have knocked the person out and then made the wounds."

Legolas recognized that the enthusiasm for explaining the murders would not be doused within his friend, so he merely sighed. "I suppose that anything is possible."

Gimli nodded and abruptly stood. "Good, then I will go get Aragorn. You can tell him what you just told me and he will let you out of here and then we can concentrate on finding the real killer."

"No," Legolas said as Gimli started to turn away.

Gimli stopped.

"No what?"

A small flicker of panic crossed over the elf's eyes, but the look was fleeting and Gimli could not swear to it.

"I cannot tell Aragorn what I have just told you, especially about my being there when the young woman was killed."

Gimli snorted. "That is a ridiculous fear. Aragorn will trust you and understand, he might even have an explanation for the mind blocks or whatever it is you have."

Legolas stood, grabbing onto the bars and almost pressing against them in his desperation to not have Gimli leave and get Aragorn. "Strider would understand, I entirely agree with you, but he is no longer simply Strider of the Dunadain. He is Aragorn, the king of Gondor, and he has a responsibility towards his people. He cannot release a suspected criminal and the fact that I was present for at least one of the murders will count against me, not help me."

Gimli looked as though he wished to argue some more, but he took notice of the near desperation in his friend's voice, so he slowly turned back and sat down in the chair. Legolas relaxed and released the bars, taking a step back and seating himself back on the lumpy bed.