Hmm... I wonder what shall happen next? No I don't! I know exactly what's
going to happen! Wee!
Disclaimer: I don't own it... that's what I've said a lot lately isn't it? Hm... Yeah it's true... BTW: This chapter is in Chronological order! YAY! Also song lyrics used again belonging to the wonderful Josh Groban, who sings the credit song for Troy! YAY!
Chapter Eighteen: After All, The Eyes Have It!
Jericho stepped over the hobbit at her feet precariously. She slowly glided toward the mirror opposite the closet. Before her stood the reflection of a ghost. It looked back at her sadly under straight blonde hair streaked in black. A gash ran across its wrist and it clutched it with it's other arm. Pale empty eyes stared back at her and a solitary tear slid down its cheek. She reached up towards her cheek to feel the tear that had slid down her face.
"What do you have to say Mr. Brandybuck?" she asked turning toward him, a small hobbit, the size of a child, sat before her staring in disbelief.
"Speechless?" she sneered, "I have envisioned this moment more times than you would care to know. Time and time again I've heard you make excuses, plead with me, cry, and even laugh. This is pathetic." His lip trembled in sadness or fear she knew not.
"J-Jericho?" he stuttered.
"It is I."
"What happened to you?"
"And they thought I was blind," she scoffed. He flinched at her words.
"Just... tell me why, please?" he asked.
"Why? You wanna know why? There is only one reason for this and you should very well know and understand," she said shrilly.
"I don't," he answered quietly.
"You!" she screamed, "You are the reason I did this! How many times had you told me that I was crazy? You may have never said it aloud, but you meant it, you thought it. You never believed me, after all we had been through, all we had seen, all I could see! It never occurred to you that I just might be right, never! Strider even believed me, and he hated me! Frodo, Sam and Pippin were able to understand, but you... you just wouldn't believe." The hobbit stared back at her sadly. He stood up and took a step toward her.
"Don't you dare come closer Brandybuck!" she said thrusting her bleeding arm out at him.
"Jericho, you're hurt!"
"I suppose you want to know why I did that too?"
"You did this? TO yourself?"
"Yes," she sneered looking at him with contempt, "To think I used the sword of the one who loved me..."
"My sword!"
"It just seemed sooo ironic," she said glaring at him in hatred.
"Why?"
"Because I love you Merry! That's why!" she screamed again.
"I don't understand..."
"You wouldn't," she said looking toward the window. She walked toward it and looked out at the moon.
"Please Jericho," he pleaded.
"Such manners," she said quietly almost remorsefully, "I did it because I love you. That's the only way to explain. When I awoke, I realized what I'd done. I regretted it immediately and I planned to kill myself. First I went to see the stars one last time and there I found Boromir, son of Denethor. I spoke with him, and then returned here to kill myself with the sword that had been held by the one I loved. Of course, I was just about to slit my wrist when you knocked upon the door causing me to start, and cut myself. Technically it was you who did this to me."
"I-I would never hurt you."
"You would like to tell yourself that wouldn't you?"
"Jericho," he stepped toward her, "I love you."
"And I you, but look at me! Do I appear to love you? Haven't you heard the contempt in my voice? I love you and yet I still hate you," she suddenly began to sob, "My hate makes me want to die, and my love makes me want to live. I hate you and I love you, there is no medium, just both." She fell to the ground sobbing.
()
He stood there, staring at his love lying on the ground crying. The yearn for him to comfort her was so strong, but she had caused him so much pain with her words. He was torn.
"Look at me," whispered, "Am I still your love? Am I still your Sandy?" With name of his dead love she looked at him. She wiped her face with the back of her hand, smearing blood on her face.
"We should get you to a healer, you need to stop that bleeding," he answered avoiding the question.
"No," she croaked, "Not until you answer my question."
"Jericho we don't have time for this-"
"I will sit here and die bleeding unless you answer my question," she growled her eyes boring into his.
"No, you've never been Sandy, and you never will be. Sandy was a hobbit, she was a naive little child, and you are so much more," he answered slowly. She looked at him hard for a moment and then nodded. He approached her and looked down on the human girl he had loved as a hobbit.
"Come on, let's get you cleaned up," he said offering his hand. Jericho looked up at him; her eyes empty of the hate that had been there, but not full of love. She was numb, and he doubted she would ever feel for him again.
()
"Let's go to the healer," said Pippin opening his eyes. He stood up not waiting for an answer and walked out of the room. Frodo and Sam followed with quizzical faces. As he walked into the room Pippin saw Jericho with her arm outstretched and her eyes clenched shut. An elf was sewing her skin together on her wrist. Merry sat on the other side of the room his arms crossed and his head lowered.
"Jericho what happened?" asked Frodo.
"It's nothing, an accident that's all, nothing to worry about," she smiled. Merry didn't move at all when she spoke, he sat there as if she wasn't alive. Pippin walked toward his friend and whispered in his ear.
"I know it wasn't an accident, you can tell me about it later," he said. Merry looked up at him, he could see the tears brimming in his eyes and nodded. His cousin lowered his head again and hid under his curls.
"Where have you been all afternoon?" asked Sam grasping her free hand.
"I've," she stopped and winced at the pain, "I've been collecting my thoughts lately."
"Is everything all right?" asked Frodo.
"Yes," she answered nodding, "There are worse things than my troubles."
"Jericho?" asked Pippin stepping forward, "Are you going to leave us?" She looked at him. He heard her thoughts.
'If only I could,' she said in his head.
"Never Pippin," she smiled. He could see that her smile was a lie.
()
Once the elf had finished sewing her arm back together she walked back to her room alone. The others had insisted that they join her but she would hear nothing of it. Merry wouldn't have let her had Pippin not assured him that she would do nothing. How Pippin knew she didn't understand, but... things were unexplainable here.
She lay on her back upon the floor, her arm raised in front of and illuminated by the moonlight. The stitches were so perfectly even; she would never have guessed they had been made in a matter of moments.
There was a knock on her door.
"Who is it?" she sighed.
"Uh... Boromir, I met you in the garden?" came the voice of the Steward's son. She leaped up and opened the door.
"How did you know where to find my room?" she asked as the door opened.
"I...uh...asked Elrond," he answered stepping in. He glanced down at her dress.
"Is that blood on your dress?"
"Oh!" she's forgotten about her dress, "Yes, I... uh..." She trailed off not knowing what to say. Slowly she showed him her arm.
"Was this..." he trailed off also not knowing what to say.
"Done on purpose?" she asked finishing his sentence. She contemplated lying to him, but instead began to tell him the whole story. She crossed over to the bed and told him to sit as she explained the entire ordeal from the moment she arrived in Middle Earth till the moment he walked into the door to her room.
"I don't expect you to believe me, only naive hobbits do, I'm just glad you listened," she said at the end of the tale.
"Of course I believe you. I don't even know your name, and yet you've told me the most compelling story I've ever heard, and I believe every word you've told me," he smiled. She looked at him thoughtfully.
"You mean to tell me that you never once doubted a single word I've said?"
"Of course, Madame," he answered. She leaned forward on the bed.
"My name's Jericho," she said placing a hand on his knee and smiling, "the human."
"I'm Boromir, also a human," he replied his eyes twinkling in the moonlight. She leaned forward and kissed him passionately throwing her arms around his neck. He placed his hands on her cheeks as they drew apart.
"Nice to meet you too," he smiled breathlessly.
()
Merry stood at the doorway of his room and saw them draw out of their embrace. Quietly he walked down the hall and back to his friends. Jericho had moved on, and now it was his turn. He knew he'd never be able to do so, but he would have to. The future was ahead, and who knew what lay there. Waiting, as he blindly walked into the room.
()
Jericho awoke that night; she rolled off the bed and crawled across the floor to the door. Quietly she opened it and escaped into the night.
She stood up and began to walk quickly down the hallway. She didn't know why or where she was going, she just felt so compelled to leave. Briskly she bushed past a couple of elves and into the gardens she wandered. Almost as if she knew where she was going she walked into one small clearing. There was a fallen tree lying to her left and a tree stump to her right. They couldn't have been from the same tree because of the distance and the look of the bark but she still recognized the place immediately. She walked hesitantly over to the stump and sat down. As if expecting someone she looked at the log.
"Come on out Sandy! I know you're here," she shouted, "I'm not afraid of you. You can have him, I don't want him anymore. He's all yours, now leave me alone!"
"Jericho?" asked Merry from behind her. She whirled around.
"What are you doing here?" she asked.
"I followed you, I felt we needed to talk."
"We've already done this, Merry," she sighed. All the anger she had felt had melted away and all she felt now was a cold void.
"I just need to tell you something, I don't want to lie to you anymore. I saw you with Boromir," he whispered.
"Is that what you wanted to tell me?" she asked quietly, almost timidly.
"No, Jericho, through the darkness of these days I can see your light. You'll always shine; I can feel your heart in mine. Your face I've memorized, I idolize, just... you. I look up to everything you are. In my eyes you do no wrong. I've loved you for so long and after all is said and done... you're still you after all you're still you. You walk past me and I can feel your pain. Time changes everything but one truth always stays the same, that you're still you. After all, you're still you, the one I look up to. I believe in you, although you never asked me to and I'll remember you, and what life put you through. And in this cruel and lonely world I found one love, you." He looked up at her with tears in his eyes.
"Merry," she said sadly, "I can't return your love... ever... again." She looked at him tears spilling down her cheeks.
"I know," he whispered, "I just wanted to tell you that... just... because." He looked away at the moon.
"Some say love is blind," she mused, bring his attention back to the earth, "And I think in our case they were right, I loved you from the moment I didn't see you. But blind love sees the truth sooner of later, and that's where we lost it." She laughed sadly, "I wouldn't take a moment of it back."
"I would," he answered.
"Never have regrets Meriadoc, Never. If you have one regret make it a good one."
"Then it is," he answered.
"What is it?"
"I regret lying to you."
"Merry, things work out for the best in the end. I believe that we are never given any more than we can handle and if we truly believe it and live each moment like it would be our last, then life is good."
"Yes, I believe you're right," he sighed.
"Buck up Merry, your adventure is just beginning," she chirped.
"How would you know?"
"The eye's have it my friend... the eye's have it!" She smiled and grasped his hand and ran out of the clearing and out of her old life.
And guess what? That's the end of the story... Thanks guys it's been a blast, just glad to have had such great reviewers as you guys. Keep an eye out for the sequel which will be posted as soon as I write it. I know what's going to happen, just don't have it down yet. Those of you who have not Author Alerted me then look out for a fic called A Blind Heart or something similar. Loves ya'll! –DB:')
Disclaimer: I don't own it... that's what I've said a lot lately isn't it? Hm... Yeah it's true... BTW: This chapter is in Chronological order! YAY! Also song lyrics used again belonging to the wonderful Josh Groban, who sings the credit song for Troy! YAY!
Chapter Eighteen: After All, The Eyes Have It!
Jericho stepped over the hobbit at her feet precariously. She slowly glided toward the mirror opposite the closet. Before her stood the reflection of a ghost. It looked back at her sadly under straight blonde hair streaked in black. A gash ran across its wrist and it clutched it with it's other arm. Pale empty eyes stared back at her and a solitary tear slid down its cheek. She reached up towards her cheek to feel the tear that had slid down her face.
"What do you have to say Mr. Brandybuck?" she asked turning toward him, a small hobbit, the size of a child, sat before her staring in disbelief.
"Speechless?" she sneered, "I have envisioned this moment more times than you would care to know. Time and time again I've heard you make excuses, plead with me, cry, and even laugh. This is pathetic." His lip trembled in sadness or fear she knew not.
"J-Jericho?" he stuttered.
"It is I."
"What happened to you?"
"And they thought I was blind," she scoffed. He flinched at her words.
"Just... tell me why, please?" he asked.
"Why? You wanna know why? There is only one reason for this and you should very well know and understand," she said shrilly.
"I don't," he answered quietly.
"You!" she screamed, "You are the reason I did this! How many times had you told me that I was crazy? You may have never said it aloud, but you meant it, you thought it. You never believed me, after all we had been through, all we had seen, all I could see! It never occurred to you that I just might be right, never! Strider even believed me, and he hated me! Frodo, Sam and Pippin were able to understand, but you... you just wouldn't believe." The hobbit stared back at her sadly. He stood up and took a step toward her.
"Don't you dare come closer Brandybuck!" she said thrusting her bleeding arm out at him.
"Jericho, you're hurt!"
"I suppose you want to know why I did that too?"
"You did this? TO yourself?"
"Yes," she sneered looking at him with contempt, "To think I used the sword of the one who loved me..."
"My sword!"
"It just seemed sooo ironic," she said glaring at him in hatred.
"Why?"
"Because I love you Merry! That's why!" she screamed again.
"I don't understand..."
"You wouldn't," she said looking toward the window. She walked toward it and looked out at the moon.
"Please Jericho," he pleaded.
"Such manners," she said quietly almost remorsefully, "I did it because I love you. That's the only way to explain. When I awoke, I realized what I'd done. I regretted it immediately and I planned to kill myself. First I went to see the stars one last time and there I found Boromir, son of Denethor. I spoke with him, and then returned here to kill myself with the sword that had been held by the one I loved. Of course, I was just about to slit my wrist when you knocked upon the door causing me to start, and cut myself. Technically it was you who did this to me."
"I-I would never hurt you."
"You would like to tell yourself that wouldn't you?"
"Jericho," he stepped toward her, "I love you."
"And I you, but look at me! Do I appear to love you? Haven't you heard the contempt in my voice? I love you and yet I still hate you," she suddenly began to sob, "My hate makes me want to die, and my love makes me want to live. I hate you and I love you, there is no medium, just both." She fell to the ground sobbing.
()
He stood there, staring at his love lying on the ground crying. The yearn for him to comfort her was so strong, but she had caused him so much pain with her words. He was torn.
"Look at me," whispered, "Am I still your love? Am I still your Sandy?" With name of his dead love she looked at him. She wiped her face with the back of her hand, smearing blood on her face.
"We should get you to a healer, you need to stop that bleeding," he answered avoiding the question.
"No," she croaked, "Not until you answer my question."
"Jericho we don't have time for this-"
"I will sit here and die bleeding unless you answer my question," she growled her eyes boring into his.
"No, you've never been Sandy, and you never will be. Sandy was a hobbit, she was a naive little child, and you are so much more," he answered slowly. She looked at him hard for a moment and then nodded. He approached her and looked down on the human girl he had loved as a hobbit.
"Come on, let's get you cleaned up," he said offering his hand. Jericho looked up at him; her eyes empty of the hate that had been there, but not full of love. She was numb, and he doubted she would ever feel for him again.
()
"Let's go to the healer," said Pippin opening his eyes. He stood up not waiting for an answer and walked out of the room. Frodo and Sam followed with quizzical faces. As he walked into the room Pippin saw Jericho with her arm outstretched and her eyes clenched shut. An elf was sewing her skin together on her wrist. Merry sat on the other side of the room his arms crossed and his head lowered.
"Jericho what happened?" asked Frodo.
"It's nothing, an accident that's all, nothing to worry about," she smiled. Merry didn't move at all when she spoke, he sat there as if she wasn't alive. Pippin walked toward his friend and whispered in his ear.
"I know it wasn't an accident, you can tell me about it later," he said. Merry looked up at him, he could see the tears brimming in his eyes and nodded. His cousin lowered his head again and hid under his curls.
"Where have you been all afternoon?" asked Sam grasping her free hand.
"I've," she stopped and winced at the pain, "I've been collecting my thoughts lately."
"Is everything all right?" asked Frodo.
"Yes," she answered nodding, "There are worse things than my troubles."
"Jericho?" asked Pippin stepping forward, "Are you going to leave us?" She looked at him. He heard her thoughts.
'If only I could,' she said in his head.
"Never Pippin," she smiled. He could see that her smile was a lie.
()
Once the elf had finished sewing her arm back together she walked back to her room alone. The others had insisted that they join her but she would hear nothing of it. Merry wouldn't have let her had Pippin not assured him that she would do nothing. How Pippin knew she didn't understand, but... things were unexplainable here.
She lay on her back upon the floor, her arm raised in front of and illuminated by the moonlight. The stitches were so perfectly even; she would never have guessed they had been made in a matter of moments.
There was a knock on her door.
"Who is it?" she sighed.
"Uh... Boromir, I met you in the garden?" came the voice of the Steward's son. She leaped up and opened the door.
"How did you know where to find my room?" she asked as the door opened.
"I...uh...asked Elrond," he answered stepping in. He glanced down at her dress.
"Is that blood on your dress?"
"Oh!" she's forgotten about her dress, "Yes, I... uh..." She trailed off not knowing what to say. Slowly she showed him her arm.
"Was this..." he trailed off also not knowing what to say.
"Done on purpose?" she asked finishing his sentence. She contemplated lying to him, but instead began to tell him the whole story. She crossed over to the bed and told him to sit as she explained the entire ordeal from the moment she arrived in Middle Earth till the moment he walked into the door to her room.
"I don't expect you to believe me, only naive hobbits do, I'm just glad you listened," she said at the end of the tale.
"Of course I believe you. I don't even know your name, and yet you've told me the most compelling story I've ever heard, and I believe every word you've told me," he smiled. She looked at him thoughtfully.
"You mean to tell me that you never once doubted a single word I've said?"
"Of course, Madame," he answered. She leaned forward on the bed.
"My name's Jericho," she said placing a hand on his knee and smiling, "the human."
"I'm Boromir, also a human," he replied his eyes twinkling in the moonlight. She leaned forward and kissed him passionately throwing her arms around his neck. He placed his hands on her cheeks as they drew apart.
"Nice to meet you too," he smiled breathlessly.
()
Merry stood at the doorway of his room and saw them draw out of their embrace. Quietly he walked down the hall and back to his friends. Jericho had moved on, and now it was his turn. He knew he'd never be able to do so, but he would have to. The future was ahead, and who knew what lay there. Waiting, as he blindly walked into the room.
()
Jericho awoke that night; she rolled off the bed and crawled across the floor to the door. Quietly she opened it and escaped into the night.
She stood up and began to walk quickly down the hallway. She didn't know why or where she was going, she just felt so compelled to leave. Briskly she bushed past a couple of elves and into the gardens she wandered. Almost as if she knew where she was going she walked into one small clearing. There was a fallen tree lying to her left and a tree stump to her right. They couldn't have been from the same tree because of the distance and the look of the bark but she still recognized the place immediately. She walked hesitantly over to the stump and sat down. As if expecting someone she looked at the log.
"Come on out Sandy! I know you're here," she shouted, "I'm not afraid of you. You can have him, I don't want him anymore. He's all yours, now leave me alone!"
"Jericho?" asked Merry from behind her. She whirled around.
"What are you doing here?" she asked.
"I followed you, I felt we needed to talk."
"We've already done this, Merry," she sighed. All the anger she had felt had melted away and all she felt now was a cold void.
"I just need to tell you something, I don't want to lie to you anymore. I saw you with Boromir," he whispered.
"Is that what you wanted to tell me?" she asked quietly, almost timidly.
"No, Jericho, through the darkness of these days I can see your light. You'll always shine; I can feel your heart in mine. Your face I've memorized, I idolize, just... you. I look up to everything you are. In my eyes you do no wrong. I've loved you for so long and after all is said and done... you're still you after all you're still you. You walk past me and I can feel your pain. Time changes everything but one truth always stays the same, that you're still you. After all, you're still you, the one I look up to. I believe in you, although you never asked me to and I'll remember you, and what life put you through. And in this cruel and lonely world I found one love, you." He looked up at her with tears in his eyes.
"Merry," she said sadly, "I can't return your love... ever... again." She looked at him tears spilling down her cheeks.
"I know," he whispered, "I just wanted to tell you that... just... because." He looked away at the moon.
"Some say love is blind," she mused, bring his attention back to the earth, "And I think in our case they were right, I loved you from the moment I didn't see you. But blind love sees the truth sooner of later, and that's where we lost it." She laughed sadly, "I wouldn't take a moment of it back."
"I would," he answered.
"Never have regrets Meriadoc, Never. If you have one regret make it a good one."
"Then it is," he answered.
"What is it?"
"I regret lying to you."
"Merry, things work out for the best in the end. I believe that we are never given any more than we can handle and if we truly believe it and live each moment like it would be our last, then life is good."
"Yes, I believe you're right," he sighed.
"Buck up Merry, your adventure is just beginning," she chirped.
"How would you know?"
"The eye's have it my friend... the eye's have it!" She smiled and grasped his hand and ran out of the clearing and out of her old life.
And guess what? That's the end of the story... Thanks guys it's been a blast, just glad to have had such great reviewers as you guys. Keep an eye out for the sequel which will be posted as soon as I write it. I know what's going to happen, just don't have it down yet. Those of you who have not Author Alerted me then look out for a fic called A Blind Heart or something similar. Loves ya'll! –DB:')