'Excessive unusual disturbances in the software are being reported.
Believed to be the center of the source of power failures and outages.
Severe drain on energy causing minor malfunctions.'
"Jones, access information on outages."
"Smith, they seem to be northwest of Chicago."
"Can you be more specific, Jones?" Smith asked irritated.
"No sir."
"I will investigate alone. There is limited power supply available. You will be an unnecessary drain."
"And Agent Brown?" Jones asked dejectedly.
"What part of ALONE do you not comprehend Agent Jones?"
"Yes, sir. I understand." Compliantly Jones left, though clearly disgruntled.
*************************************************************
"Elrond, if you will please give me just a moment to cover myself, I will be happy to explain where you are and answer any other questions you have as best as I can." She stated as calmly as she could considering she felt like she was in the middle of a weird nightmare fantasy.
"Very well."
"Could you close your eyes, please?" Generally she was not shy and tended to be perhaps a bit too open minded about most things, but in this particular instance she found herself feeling quite embarrassed and based on the sudden heat in her cheeks and other various locations on her body she knew she must be blushing profusely.
"As you wish."
She watched him close his beautiful grey eyes. Elegantly he lifted his robed arm and covered his eyes with his long slender fingers. She was entranced. Every movement was like a dance. Graceful, sweeping, refined. He was even more beautiful in person than he was in her imagination. Un- fucking-believable was the word that came to mind, but of course that was totally inappropriate, so perhaps something more like perfect would suffice.
She quickly donned her favorite jammies. A tee shirt with Pooh Bear on it and a pair of matching shorts. Over that she wore a thick fleecy robe. Quite unexpectedly she felt as if she couldn't cover herself enough, though she had always been somewhat shameless in her style. Dressing classy, but finding ways to subtly show off her best features was her specialty, but now she felt as if she should cover herself head to toe and leave nothing exposed. Vulnerable. She had not experienced that feeling since her childhood and was not enjoying its sudden return.
She found a pair of heavy socks in her drawer and put those on as well. She couldn't help but stare at him, sitting there in her bed, like he was the king of everything. Back straight, breathing quietly and evenly, waiting patiently, like a dream. She wanted to capture this moment for all time, something about it was so surreal and yet so very perfect, and he was just so damned beautiful it made her want to cry.
"Why can't you be real?" The sound of her own voice startled her. "Oh shit, did I say that out loud?"
"Pardon me?"
"I am so sorry." The heat returned to her cheeks and now she was beginning to perspire a little as well. "Um, I am covered now, if you like you can open your eyes."
She watched him again, still in her daze, fascinated with his every movement. He pushed the covers off his legs and stood up and walked about the room. Although the room was quite large it abruptly felt very small with his commanding presence. Her eyes followed his every action, not trusting herself to speak, she waited for him to say or do something.
Stopping across the room from her he examined a picture on the wall for a moment and then turned to face her. "You assured me that you would be kind enough to explain to me where I am and how I ended up here if I complied with your request to allow you time to make yourself presentable." His eyes traveled from her face to her feet and back up again. "It would be greatly appreciated if you would follow up on that at this time."
Her mouth opened but her voice wouldn't catch. She put her hand on her throat as if she was trying to find the words that were lost in there somewhere.
"I was perfectly able to hear and understand you before. Have you lost your voice now?" He approached her and reached his hand toward her throat. She backed up and fell over her glider's ottoman.
"I will not hurt you" He assured her. His voice was soft and lilting.
"Oh shit."
"You said that before." A gentle smile played across his lips as he reached out to help her up. Taking his hand she felt herself blush again. His skin was soft as a rose petal and his presence made her feel awkward and insecure.
A loud knock on the door caught their attention and they both turned. "Mom! Are you okay?"
Kat took her hand away from Elrond's and swiftly went to the door and opened it. She had all but forgotten about the others in her apartment. Her mind was completely focused on the Halfelven hunk in her bedroom.
"I'm fine."
"Mom, are you warm enough?" she asked sarcastically.
"Do you need something Jess?"
"Mom, you are actually blushing! Ha, this was all worth it!"
Kat took a deep breath and shot her daughter a seriously pissed off look. Gandalf and Legolas stood behind Jess now.
"Master Elrond!" Gandalf exclaimed. "It is such a great pleasure to see you here."
"Yes indeed Gandalf, and I am too pleased to see you, though I would like very much to know where 'here' is."
Elrond made his way gingerly past the two ladies standing in the doorway and into the hallway. Legolas all but hugged him.
"Legolas, I am pleased to see you as well my boy."
"Lord Elrond. I was beginning to despair of ever seeing any of my people, yet you are here, as is Master Gandalf, so I feel sure all will yet be well."
The three wandered down the hallway as if they owned the place and Kat and Jess just watched them dumbfounded. "I suppose I ought to call in to work eh?"
"I think you just want to stay here and drool over Elrond."
Kat gave Jess a little shove. "You are in so much trouble little girl."
"I'll call dad. He'll fix the computer and then we can figure out how to send them back."
"Jess, I still am totally confused as to what is going on, but I gotta say, if you were gonna make someone suddenly appear in my bedroom, I couldn't have made a better choice."
"Mom, I gotta be totally honest with you, I don't get it either. I think maybe this is going to turn out to be one of those weird dream things where you wake up and go 'wow that was so real'."
"Hmmm. I think that theory makes more sense than your last one."
*************************************************************
Jess picked up her phone after she found it somewhere in her bedroom and bravely made the call. "Dad?"
"Hi JessiLee, How are you?"
"Hi dad, I'm fine, how are you?"
"I'm good JessiLee. But I've been sending you emails and IM-ing you and you have not responded. Is everything ok?"
"That's kind of why I'm calling, cause, I kind of crashed the computer again."
"Have your mom fix it."
"She can't. I didn't just crash it, it was smoking and black stuff came out and sparking and stuff. Maybe I need a better surge protector."
"How did you do that?"
"I don't know dad, but I really really really really really need it fixed or a new one or something ok? Please please please? If I don't have a computer, how can we chat?"
"The phone?"
"But daaaaaad, you know how hard it is to have a good phone conversation with your schedule and mine. Puhleeeeez come and fix my peeuter, puhleeez?"
"I'll just bring you a new one. I've been building one here with a new system where the processors have their own power supplies and cooling units. It's amazing. I'll open it up over there and show you and explain it to you."
"Ok dad" She rolled her eyes. The last thing in the world she was interested in was the complexities of a motherboard, dual processors, power supplies, network cards, sound cards, new and improved device drivers or any of that crap. She hated all of it. Just plug it in and connect to the real world out there. Then she could have some fun, hacking into computers, writing stories, and developing programs that would let her access details on all kinds of fun and interesting stuff. She loved a good mystery and the network world provided lots of mysteries to unravel. But as to how the hardware worked. BORING.
Oh well, it was the price she had to pay to get a new computer, and, she did love her dad and wanted to connect with him. He would not connect with her in her world, so it was up to her to make the effort. Mom had tried to explain that to her for years. Mom wanted her and dad to be close, but unfortunately she had been too angry with her dad to try. Now she really wanted to make the connection and her mom's advice made sense. Hoping against hope her dream was someday they would all get along again, or for the first time maybe, and dad would try to connect with them.
"I love you dad"
"I love me too." He said with a laugh and then added, "I love you too JessiLee. I'll be over in about an hour."
"Thanks dad you are the best! See you then. Bye."
"Bye."
He promptly hung up. It sounded to her like he had another call come in. She looked at her watch. A little after nine, he said an hour, he might be there by noon. She looked around her room. "What a mess." She sighed. She went to the kitchen and grabbed a garbage bag, broom and dustpan and dragged them back to her room. She glanced at the three strangers talking quietly in her dining room. Good thing mom wanted a big apartment or they'd all be tripping over each other by now.
***************************************************************
"Did you call him Jess?"
"Yep mom, he said he'd be here in an hour."
"Good, thank you. Are you going to clean your room?"
"Yep mom, it's a disaster in there. Even more than usual." She smiled.
"Wow, I do live in a dream world."
"Ha ha ha mom"
She smiled at Jess and headed down the hall. She had called in to work and was dressed in jeans and a sweater. She headed for the kitchen. "What would you like to eat?"
"Good morning Mistress Katarina." Gandalf smiled warmly at her.
"Please call me Kat." She smiled back but opened the refrigerator and began removing large amounts of food. "Jess, do you want an omelet?" She shouted into the refrigerator.
"Sure mom" She yelled back from her room. "Thanks."
Elrond watched the odd exchange with a disapproving expression. Legolas joined Kat in the kitchen. "How does this work?" he was looking in the refrigerator again.
"How?" She studied him. "I have no idea. I never thought about how, just glad that it does work. For me, you plug it into the wall, set the temperature and when it isn't working right you call the repair guy. That's how it works for me."
"Plug it in?"
"Oh Legolas, I've never even given thought to any of this. I'm so sorry. I imagine you all must be very confused and frustrated right now." Her voice was sympathetic and her eyes gave away the fact that it was just beginning to sink in how complicated the situation really was. "Let me fix you a good breakfast and then we can talk. I don't do well in the morning without some coffee in my system. I'm one of those old-fashioned moms that believes any problem is less complicated when good food goes with it."
"May we be of assistance?" Gandalf had joined them in the kitchen.
Kat looked up at him. His face was weathered and worn. His eyes, lost in his face, revealed some kind of deeper knowledge she didn't understand. She backed up slightly once again overwhelmed by the sense that he was a force to be reckoned with and she wasn't up for reckoning. She didn't really feel afraid of him, for she knew he was one of the good guys, she had practically memorized the books, but she did fear the situation and his power and his presence.
"Maybe just Legolas helping me would be enough. The kitchen is rather small. I really am used to cooking alone, but I do appreciate the offer." She stammered out her thoughts that seemed incoherent to her. Legolas didn't intimidate her, but the other two did, and she wasn't used to that at all.
"Very well, Master Elrond and I will continue to discuss our options and wait for nourishment. Thank you," he paused as if he just could not stand to say it "Kat."
She smiled. "If you prefer you can call me Jacqueline. That is my given name. Jacqueline Isabella Katarina Lee. I think my parents wanted to make up for the short last name by giving me an excessively long first name. But please, no Isabella. Too many names wears me out."
"Jacqueline, I will use that name. It is much more appropriate for you."
She turned back to her work and handed Legolas a banana.
"Thank you." He peeled it and ate it.
"Okay Legolas. The next one I give you please peel and then cut up and put in that bowl there."
Grinning he took all the fruit she had out and quickly chopped it into bite size pieces.
"Wow, you could be a sushi chef"
He looked at her quizzically.
"I've just never seen someone cut up food that fast." She explained and then turned on the stove. He jumped back away from the flame. She quickly shut it off. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to startle you. This is our stove, it lights just by turning the knob here." She took his hand and showed him how to push it down and turn it to the 'light' mode. Once the flame kicked in, she led him through adjusting the height and then let him try it himself.
"Interesting, how does it work?"
"I just showed.." She stopped. "Once again Legolas, I have no idea how it works. I went to the store, picked the one I wanted and had the guy install it for me. Sorry, somehow I feel suddenly quite stupid."
"You are not stupid." He stated it with such certainty that she felt like he knew something she didn't.
"Why don't you take the plates and utensils out to the table and I will get the omelets cooked." Then she paused and said, "But first, want to cut up some other stuff for me?"
"I would be happy to." He took the vegetables and cooked ham she pushed his way and quickly cubed all of it.
"Amazing, you could do infomercials for knives. Everyone would buy them." She glanced at his face, "Of course everyone would buy just about anything you sold just because you were the one selling it."
He cocked his head slightly and looked at her sweetly. "I do not understand what you are talking about, Kat, but I do feel that it was a compliment. Thank you."
Grinning she shook her head at the incomprehensibility of the whole situation and went back to her cooking. She served them a huge breakfast of omelets, fruit salad, orange juice, ham, coffee, milk and muffins. Looking at the food she realized she cooked for ten people not five but she loved cooking so she didn't mind. Jess joined them and they ate quietly for a while.
"Where are we?" Elrond stated abruptly.
Jess and Kat exchanged glances. "We are in Schaumburg Illinois, a suburb just northwest of Chicago, in the United States of America, on the continent of North America. If my understanding of middle earth is even remotely clear, we are an ocean away from it, and several thousands of years away from it as well." Kat stated as matter-of-factly as she could.
Elrond's eyes bore into her as she spoke. She had a hard time trying to put thoughts together when she was in the room with him, but when he stared at her she felt totally intimidated. She picked up her fork and pushed a strawberry around her plate. He put his hand on hers to stop her, as if it annoyed him. She looked up at him again and swallowed hard.
"Jacqueline, what do you mean by several thousands of years away?" he asked her sternly.
"Oh shit."
He withdrew his hand and shook his head and then rubbed his temple as if he had a headache.
"Hey mom, that's the same look you get when you are mad at me."
Elrond smiled at Jess and resumed eating.
Kat got up from the table and went to her room and shut the door. She sat on the bed and buried her face in her hands and cried. What the hell was going on? Nothing made any sense. Jess seemed willing to accept this entire bizarre situation with a grain of salt but she was the mom. She was supposed to be in charge and control and take care of her daughter. She wanted so badly to wake up and find out none of this was real and that she was just having some raging fever-induced hallucination, but she was scared to death that this might just be happening and if it was, what the hell did it all mean?
Suddenly she felt very ill and ran into her bathroom and vomited. When she had emptied the contents of her stomach she flushed and undressed and turned the shower on to cold and climbed in. She sat on the tub floor while the cold water beat down on her and she cried.
"Jones, access information on outages."
"Smith, they seem to be northwest of Chicago."
"Can you be more specific, Jones?" Smith asked irritated.
"No sir."
"I will investigate alone. There is limited power supply available. You will be an unnecessary drain."
"And Agent Brown?" Jones asked dejectedly.
"What part of ALONE do you not comprehend Agent Jones?"
"Yes, sir. I understand." Compliantly Jones left, though clearly disgruntled.
*************************************************************
"Elrond, if you will please give me just a moment to cover myself, I will be happy to explain where you are and answer any other questions you have as best as I can." She stated as calmly as she could considering she felt like she was in the middle of a weird nightmare fantasy.
"Very well."
"Could you close your eyes, please?" Generally she was not shy and tended to be perhaps a bit too open minded about most things, but in this particular instance she found herself feeling quite embarrassed and based on the sudden heat in her cheeks and other various locations on her body she knew she must be blushing profusely.
"As you wish."
She watched him close his beautiful grey eyes. Elegantly he lifted his robed arm and covered his eyes with his long slender fingers. She was entranced. Every movement was like a dance. Graceful, sweeping, refined. He was even more beautiful in person than he was in her imagination. Un- fucking-believable was the word that came to mind, but of course that was totally inappropriate, so perhaps something more like perfect would suffice.
She quickly donned her favorite jammies. A tee shirt with Pooh Bear on it and a pair of matching shorts. Over that she wore a thick fleecy robe. Quite unexpectedly she felt as if she couldn't cover herself enough, though she had always been somewhat shameless in her style. Dressing classy, but finding ways to subtly show off her best features was her specialty, but now she felt as if she should cover herself head to toe and leave nothing exposed. Vulnerable. She had not experienced that feeling since her childhood and was not enjoying its sudden return.
She found a pair of heavy socks in her drawer and put those on as well. She couldn't help but stare at him, sitting there in her bed, like he was the king of everything. Back straight, breathing quietly and evenly, waiting patiently, like a dream. She wanted to capture this moment for all time, something about it was so surreal and yet so very perfect, and he was just so damned beautiful it made her want to cry.
"Why can't you be real?" The sound of her own voice startled her. "Oh shit, did I say that out loud?"
"Pardon me?"
"I am so sorry." The heat returned to her cheeks and now she was beginning to perspire a little as well. "Um, I am covered now, if you like you can open your eyes."
She watched him again, still in her daze, fascinated with his every movement. He pushed the covers off his legs and stood up and walked about the room. Although the room was quite large it abruptly felt very small with his commanding presence. Her eyes followed his every action, not trusting herself to speak, she waited for him to say or do something.
Stopping across the room from her he examined a picture on the wall for a moment and then turned to face her. "You assured me that you would be kind enough to explain to me where I am and how I ended up here if I complied with your request to allow you time to make yourself presentable." His eyes traveled from her face to her feet and back up again. "It would be greatly appreciated if you would follow up on that at this time."
Her mouth opened but her voice wouldn't catch. She put her hand on her throat as if she was trying to find the words that were lost in there somewhere.
"I was perfectly able to hear and understand you before. Have you lost your voice now?" He approached her and reached his hand toward her throat. She backed up and fell over her glider's ottoman.
"I will not hurt you" He assured her. His voice was soft and lilting.
"Oh shit."
"You said that before." A gentle smile played across his lips as he reached out to help her up. Taking his hand she felt herself blush again. His skin was soft as a rose petal and his presence made her feel awkward and insecure.
A loud knock on the door caught their attention and they both turned. "Mom! Are you okay?"
Kat took her hand away from Elrond's and swiftly went to the door and opened it. She had all but forgotten about the others in her apartment. Her mind was completely focused on the Halfelven hunk in her bedroom.
"I'm fine."
"Mom, are you warm enough?" she asked sarcastically.
"Do you need something Jess?"
"Mom, you are actually blushing! Ha, this was all worth it!"
Kat took a deep breath and shot her daughter a seriously pissed off look. Gandalf and Legolas stood behind Jess now.
"Master Elrond!" Gandalf exclaimed. "It is such a great pleasure to see you here."
"Yes indeed Gandalf, and I am too pleased to see you, though I would like very much to know where 'here' is."
Elrond made his way gingerly past the two ladies standing in the doorway and into the hallway. Legolas all but hugged him.
"Legolas, I am pleased to see you as well my boy."
"Lord Elrond. I was beginning to despair of ever seeing any of my people, yet you are here, as is Master Gandalf, so I feel sure all will yet be well."
The three wandered down the hallway as if they owned the place and Kat and Jess just watched them dumbfounded. "I suppose I ought to call in to work eh?"
"I think you just want to stay here and drool over Elrond."
Kat gave Jess a little shove. "You are in so much trouble little girl."
"I'll call dad. He'll fix the computer and then we can figure out how to send them back."
"Jess, I still am totally confused as to what is going on, but I gotta say, if you were gonna make someone suddenly appear in my bedroom, I couldn't have made a better choice."
"Mom, I gotta be totally honest with you, I don't get it either. I think maybe this is going to turn out to be one of those weird dream things where you wake up and go 'wow that was so real'."
"Hmmm. I think that theory makes more sense than your last one."
*************************************************************
Jess picked up her phone after she found it somewhere in her bedroom and bravely made the call. "Dad?"
"Hi JessiLee, How are you?"
"Hi dad, I'm fine, how are you?"
"I'm good JessiLee. But I've been sending you emails and IM-ing you and you have not responded. Is everything ok?"
"That's kind of why I'm calling, cause, I kind of crashed the computer again."
"Have your mom fix it."
"She can't. I didn't just crash it, it was smoking and black stuff came out and sparking and stuff. Maybe I need a better surge protector."
"How did you do that?"
"I don't know dad, but I really really really really really need it fixed or a new one or something ok? Please please please? If I don't have a computer, how can we chat?"
"The phone?"
"But daaaaaad, you know how hard it is to have a good phone conversation with your schedule and mine. Puhleeeeez come and fix my peeuter, puhleeez?"
"I'll just bring you a new one. I've been building one here with a new system where the processors have their own power supplies and cooling units. It's amazing. I'll open it up over there and show you and explain it to you."
"Ok dad" She rolled her eyes. The last thing in the world she was interested in was the complexities of a motherboard, dual processors, power supplies, network cards, sound cards, new and improved device drivers or any of that crap. She hated all of it. Just plug it in and connect to the real world out there. Then she could have some fun, hacking into computers, writing stories, and developing programs that would let her access details on all kinds of fun and interesting stuff. She loved a good mystery and the network world provided lots of mysteries to unravel. But as to how the hardware worked. BORING.
Oh well, it was the price she had to pay to get a new computer, and, she did love her dad and wanted to connect with him. He would not connect with her in her world, so it was up to her to make the effort. Mom had tried to explain that to her for years. Mom wanted her and dad to be close, but unfortunately she had been too angry with her dad to try. Now she really wanted to make the connection and her mom's advice made sense. Hoping against hope her dream was someday they would all get along again, or for the first time maybe, and dad would try to connect with them.
"I love you dad"
"I love me too." He said with a laugh and then added, "I love you too JessiLee. I'll be over in about an hour."
"Thanks dad you are the best! See you then. Bye."
"Bye."
He promptly hung up. It sounded to her like he had another call come in. She looked at her watch. A little after nine, he said an hour, he might be there by noon. She looked around her room. "What a mess." She sighed. She went to the kitchen and grabbed a garbage bag, broom and dustpan and dragged them back to her room. She glanced at the three strangers talking quietly in her dining room. Good thing mom wanted a big apartment or they'd all be tripping over each other by now.
***************************************************************
"Did you call him Jess?"
"Yep mom, he said he'd be here in an hour."
"Good, thank you. Are you going to clean your room?"
"Yep mom, it's a disaster in there. Even more than usual." She smiled.
"Wow, I do live in a dream world."
"Ha ha ha mom"
She smiled at Jess and headed down the hall. She had called in to work and was dressed in jeans and a sweater. She headed for the kitchen. "What would you like to eat?"
"Good morning Mistress Katarina." Gandalf smiled warmly at her.
"Please call me Kat." She smiled back but opened the refrigerator and began removing large amounts of food. "Jess, do you want an omelet?" She shouted into the refrigerator.
"Sure mom" She yelled back from her room. "Thanks."
Elrond watched the odd exchange with a disapproving expression. Legolas joined Kat in the kitchen. "How does this work?" he was looking in the refrigerator again.
"How?" She studied him. "I have no idea. I never thought about how, just glad that it does work. For me, you plug it into the wall, set the temperature and when it isn't working right you call the repair guy. That's how it works for me."
"Plug it in?"
"Oh Legolas, I've never even given thought to any of this. I'm so sorry. I imagine you all must be very confused and frustrated right now." Her voice was sympathetic and her eyes gave away the fact that it was just beginning to sink in how complicated the situation really was. "Let me fix you a good breakfast and then we can talk. I don't do well in the morning without some coffee in my system. I'm one of those old-fashioned moms that believes any problem is less complicated when good food goes with it."
"May we be of assistance?" Gandalf had joined them in the kitchen.
Kat looked up at him. His face was weathered and worn. His eyes, lost in his face, revealed some kind of deeper knowledge she didn't understand. She backed up slightly once again overwhelmed by the sense that he was a force to be reckoned with and she wasn't up for reckoning. She didn't really feel afraid of him, for she knew he was one of the good guys, she had practically memorized the books, but she did fear the situation and his power and his presence.
"Maybe just Legolas helping me would be enough. The kitchen is rather small. I really am used to cooking alone, but I do appreciate the offer." She stammered out her thoughts that seemed incoherent to her. Legolas didn't intimidate her, but the other two did, and she wasn't used to that at all.
"Very well, Master Elrond and I will continue to discuss our options and wait for nourishment. Thank you," he paused as if he just could not stand to say it "Kat."
She smiled. "If you prefer you can call me Jacqueline. That is my given name. Jacqueline Isabella Katarina Lee. I think my parents wanted to make up for the short last name by giving me an excessively long first name. But please, no Isabella. Too many names wears me out."
"Jacqueline, I will use that name. It is much more appropriate for you."
She turned back to her work and handed Legolas a banana.
"Thank you." He peeled it and ate it.
"Okay Legolas. The next one I give you please peel and then cut up and put in that bowl there."
Grinning he took all the fruit she had out and quickly chopped it into bite size pieces.
"Wow, you could be a sushi chef"
He looked at her quizzically.
"I've just never seen someone cut up food that fast." She explained and then turned on the stove. He jumped back away from the flame. She quickly shut it off. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to startle you. This is our stove, it lights just by turning the knob here." She took his hand and showed him how to push it down and turn it to the 'light' mode. Once the flame kicked in, she led him through adjusting the height and then let him try it himself.
"Interesting, how does it work?"
"I just showed.." She stopped. "Once again Legolas, I have no idea how it works. I went to the store, picked the one I wanted and had the guy install it for me. Sorry, somehow I feel suddenly quite stupid."
"You are not stupid." He stated it with such certainty that she felt like he knew something she didn't.
"Why don't you take the plates and utensils out to the table and I will get the omelets cooked." Then she paused and said, "But first, want to cut up some other stuff for me?"
"I would be happy to." He took the vegetables and cooked ham she pushed his way and quickly cubed all of it.
"Amazing, you could do infomercials for knives. Everyone would buy them." She glanced at his face, "Of course everyone would buy just about anything you sold just because you were the one selling it."
He cocked his head slightly and looked at her sweetly. "I do not understand what you are talking about, Kat, but I do feel that it was a compliment. Thank you."
Grinning she shook her head at the incomprehensibility of the whole situation and went back to her cooking. She served them a huge breakfast of omelets, fruit salad, orange juice, ham, coffee, milk and muffins. Looking at the food she realized she cooked for ten people not five but she loved cooking so she didn't mind. Jess joined them and they ate quietly for a while.
"Where are we?" Elrond stated abruptly.
Jess and Kat exchanged glances. "We are in Schaumburg Illinois, a suburb just northwest of Chicago, in the United States of America, on the continent of North America. If my understanding of middle earth is even remotely clear, we are an ocean away from it, and several thousands of years away from it as well." Kat stated as matter-of-factly as she could.
Elrond's eyes bore into her as she spoke. She had a hard time trying to put thoughts together when she was in the room with him, but when he stared at her she felt totally intimidated. She picked up her fork and pushed a strawberry around her plate. He put his hand on hers to stop her, as if it annoyed him. She looked up at him again and swallowed hard.
"Jacqueline, what do you mean by several thousands of years away?" he asked her sternly.
"Oh shit."
He withdrew his hand and shook his head and then rubbed his temple as if he had a headache.
"Hey mom, that's the same look you get when you are mad at me."
Elrond smiled at Jess and resumed eating.
Kat got up from the table and went to her room and shut the door. She sat on the bed and buried her face in her hands and cried. What the hell was going on? Nothing made any sense. Jess seemed willing to accept this entire bizarre situation with a grain of salt but she was the mom. She was supposed to be in charge and control and take care of her daughter. She wanted so badly to wake up and find out none of this was real and that she was just having some raging fever-induced hallucination, but she was scared to death that this might just be happening and if it was, what the hell did it all mean?
Suddenly she felt very ill and ran into her bathroom and vomited. When she had emptied the contents of her stomach she flushed and undressed and turned the shower on to cold and climbed in. She sat on the tub floor while the cold water beat down on her and she cried.