Lizzy did not wake up with a smile on her face to everyone's extreme discomfort. As she stomped around the camp, she found it vaguely amusing how the supposedly macho warriors scurried out of her path. All except for Eomer that is, who had woken up that morning looking distinctly cheerful, which of course only annoyed Lizzy more. The one person in the whole of Middle Earth she'd wanted to avoid decided to make it his personal goal to engage her at every turn.

"Beautiful morning, isn't it Lizzy?"

"Would you like to go wash in the pool again, Lizzy?"

"Are you sure you're feeling alright, Lizzy?- you don't look well at all."

"Now, Lizzy put the rock down. I didn't mean it! You look wonderful you always do!"

No matter how many times she'd snarled at him Eomer had just kept coming. He'd even been reasonably polite to Legolas only making an excuse to shove him once that morning. She just wished he'd leave her alone. Couldn't he see how embarrassed she was from her little episode last night? Looking back she couldn't believe the way she'd blubbered all over the poor man and for nearly twenty minutes! Where had all her poise and grace gone? Where was the dignified, reserved corporate business woman?

When everything was packed and ready to go, Lizzy spied Eomer making his way toward her. Panicking, she desperately looked about for an escape knowing he was going to make her ride with him again and she dreaded being in such close quarters with him after last night. Spinning around she saw Aragorn mounting his horse and with a hopeful glint in her eye she quickly strode towards the ranger. Just as she reached his side she heard Eomer's voice behind her.

"Come on, Lizzy, it's time to head out."

Glancing over her shoulder in mock surprise, as if she'd just noticed him, she said in a falsely apologetic voice, "Oh, I'm sorry, Eomer. Aragorn already asked me to ride with him." Ignoring Aragorn as he sputtered behind her she smiled as Eomer. "You understand."

"Actually, I don't," he said in a hard voice and stared at Aragorn. "Now, Eomer, of course I didn't-" Aragorn began only to break off with a grunt when Lizzy reached up to pinch him hard on the leg.

"Of course you did, silly!" She muttered with a bright smile and gave Aragorn's leg another twist. "Don't you remember?"

"Well, I . . ."

"There it's all settled then!" Lizzy cut him off again and was extremely grateful Eomer was too busy glaring Aragorn off his horse to notice her 'persuade' the ranger.

Eomer gave a little masculine sounding huff and marched off.

Sighing in relief she turned and found Aragorn glaring down at her and almost winced in guilt.

"You, milady, are evil."

"Oh, come on Aragorn, it was only a little pinch!"

"With all due respect, Lizzy, you really should trim your nails before trying that line again," he replied with a small grimace on his lips. "Eomer told me you liked to pinch when you're not getting your way, but I thought he was joking!"

Lizzy's cheeks flamed red with anger at the thought of them talking about her. "I've been thinking about getting Legolas to show me how to use one of his fancy daggers. Yes," she paused, as if considering the matter, "yes I think it'll make much more of an impact next time I'm not . . . what did you say? Getting my way?" And with that she whirled around and began to stomp away her hands clenched into fists at her sides. The nerve of them talking behind her back probably having a good laugh too! They'd pay oh yes, they'd pay dearly. Not only was she going to ask Legolas, but Gimli too. I'm sure he had some interesting, useful things he could show her with an axe.

Suddenly, a pair of strong hands came around her waist and she had the strange sensation of floating above the ground then the world revolved for an instant before she landed hard in front of Aragorn on the saddle.

His laughter boomed loudly in the silence of the morning and Lizzy clenched her teeth resisting the urge to pinch him again as that would only make him laugh harder, the idiot.

"Temper, temper, milady. Now I really don't want the, I'm sure to be painful, bruise currently forming on my leg to go to waste, now do I?" She could almost feel his grin of amusement behind her. "Besides you don't want to lose face in front of Eomer, do you?"

"Of course not," Lizzy replied a touch of relief in her voice. She hadn't thought of that.

"And if you're going to make Eomer jealous might as well do it right, right?"

"It wasn't my intention-" she began hotly, but Aragorn cut her off his voice infused with good-natured cheer.

"Doesn't really matter your intentions does it? That's going to be the end result." He went on, "And in the process you've probably turned Legolas against me as well which I'm also sure wasn't your intention."

Lizzy twisted around and stared behind them. Sure enough if looks could kill Aragorn would probably be a small pile of ash right about now. For once, Eomer and Legolas seemed united in something even if it was shooting daggers at Aragorn's back.

"I can almost feel their stares," he gave a mock shiver and grinned down at Lizzy.

She grinned back forgetting that she was angry at him. It was kind of funny even if Eomer alternated between glaring at Aragorn and at her. Her grumpy mood having lifted as surely as the sun climbed the horizon, she leaned back to laugh up at Aragorn.

"Well, the least we can do is make the best of the situation, right?"

"My thoughts exactly," he replied with a conspirator wink, and for the rest of the morning proceeded to engage her full attention. They whispered and laughed together trying to project the image of being totally absorbed with each other, which wasn't all that hard, Lizzy admitted to herself. He was a very charming man, but then to be a King you'd have to have that quality, she supposed.

Not daring to look again, Lizzy could nonetheless feel Eomer's unblinking attention focused on them. It was starting to make her a little nervous.

"Aragorn, you'll protect me when the time comes to get down, right?"

"Only if you promise the same, darling," he said with a teasing not in his voice.

"Only fair," she agreed. They were nearing the edge of the forest when she abruptly turned to Aragorn.

"Why do they act like this anyway? They barely know me!"

"Sometimes it takes years, like it did me, sometimes days or only minutes. There's no rhythm or reason to love, Lizzy it just is," his voice was oddly serious.

"Love?" she scoffed, "we're not talking about love, Aragorn that takes years and a certain degree of similarity."

"Maybe, but not in every case."

Lizzy opened her mouth to continue the debate when a blast of sunlight hit her. They had reached the edge of the forest and her eyes had become so used to the dark interior that the bright blue sky almost blinded her. Opening her eyes cautiously she found the sunlight had lessoned in its intensity. Gandalf walked toward the front of the group and let out a high- pitched whistle that somehow seemed to have a mystical quality and echoed around the clearing. Even with the knowledge of what was coming she still stiffened slightly with awe at the sight of the gorgeous creature that came galloping over the ridge. She felt Aragorn's sudden indrawn breath and knew she wasn't the only one affected.

Hopping down, Lizzy quietly walked over to stand by Gandalf to wait for its arrival. As it neared she lifted a hand up to gently stroke the horse's nose and heard Gandalf whisper softly in its ear though she couldn't make out the words.

"Gandalf, can I ride with you?" She asked him, a pleading look on her face.

He shifted uneasily on his feet and shot a look behind her.

"Um, Lizzy, I don't think that's a good idea . . ." he trailed off when Eomer spoke up from behind her making her jump in surprise.

"No, Gandalf, that's not a good idea." She slowly turned around to stare at his hard and unyielding face. "You'll ride with me," and with that he once again grabbed her hand and pulled her toward his horse.

Lizzy shot a desperate look at Aragorn, who didn't move from his saddle, just grinned down at her like a moron as she was pulled past. 'Looks like I'm on my own,' she thought bitterly.

Traitor.