"All right, you two, behave yourselves," Kathy warned. "I'm off for my interview, and I'll be right back after that, okay?"

Patrick nodded. "Don't worry, we're not going to kill each other. At least, I won't kill him."

Kathy rolled her eyes and left the house, glad to be out by herself for a moment, even if it was to go for an interview.

Patrick put his feet up on the table, closing his eyes for a moment. It was good that Kathy had finally found a suitable job for herself, it had been a week already. Soon he would really have to get back to work, or he would be fired.

He sighed, opened his eyes, and almost jumped a foot to see TWG sitting right next to him, in the exact same position: feet up on the table, head leaned back, eyes closed. TWG cracked one eye opened and asked, "What?"

"What on earth are you doing?"

"It feels nice," TWG explained patiently, then closed his eyes and went back to his state of meditation.

Despite himself, Patrick grinned. Then he did the same, and the house was quiet, a first in a really, really, long time.

"Let's see what CDs Kathy's got," Patrick muttered to himself. He and TWG were sitting on the floor of Kathy's room, feeling rather bored and rifling through Kathy's CD collection. "Hmm… she has a rather large collection of CDs, I must say."

Suddenly TWG sat up straight. "What's that?"

Patrick shut up immediately, and the room was plunged into a deathly silence. Then he heard it too, a light, shimmering sound that seemed to be coming from somewhere next to the cupboard.

TWG picked up a CD (The Best of LeAnn Rimes) and flung it at the wall. It disappeared into the wall.

"Hey, what did you do that…" Patrick began to say, then cut himself off. "Hey, where did it go?"

"That's it!" TWG began to shriek in excitement. "The portal! To Middle-earth!"

"Do you mean to say that The Best Of LeAnn Rimes is now somewhere in Middle-earth?"

TWG gave Patrick a look that he must have learnt from Kathy, and Patrick raised his hands in defence. "All right, all right! So… you're going home then?"

TWG frowned, looking at the wall. He seemed to be having a hard time deciding.

"OW!" Deon yelled as something large and square hit his head, coming from nowhere.

"Oh quit it, Deon, it's just plastic," Nat said. Then she gasped. Plastic? She rushed towards him to pick up the offending item. "The Best of LeAnn Rimes… oh my gosh, this is Kathy's CD!"

"Who's Kathy?" Deon asked, rubbing his head. "If I ever see her, I'm going to give her a piece of my mind. Who throws things at people? What's that anyway? Where did it come from?"

Nat pushed Deon aside, and strained to listen. Yes, there it was. That shimmering sound. "The portal's open! The portal that leads to Earth! That leads to my best friend's home!"

Deon stopped his grumbling. "Oh… oh… erm… that's good… so… are you going now?"

Nat frowned, looking at the rock. She seemed to be having a hard time deciding.

"You know, if you didn't want to go, you could always stay…" Patrick suggested. "I don't think Kathy would mind."

TWG looked at the wall again. "Middle-earth is home," he said. "And we wants to go home." He looked back at Patrick, and for the first time, smiled at him. He stuck out his hand, and Patrick took it cautiously. They shook. "Tell Kathy Sméagol says bye." Then he charged at the wall, and was gone.

"AHHHH!" Deon yelled again, jumping back as something came leaping out of the rock at him.

"AHHHH!" yelled the something.

"AHHHH!" yelled Nat. "It's Sméagol!"

Sméagol looked up. "It's Nat!" He grinned and waved at her, then noticed the CD in her hands. "Sméagol needs to take this." He snatched The Best of LeAnn Rimes back, and threw it at the rock. It disappeared. "Okay."

Deon looked shocked to see Sméagol, but he turned to Nat again. "Well, I guess I have to say goodbye to you now."

Nat frowned at the rock once more, then made up her mind. She grinned at Deon. "I think I can afford to stay a little longer."

And I have finally finished the story! Thought it would be fun to have Nat stay in Middle-earth. And I don't know why the CD is The Best of LeAnn Rimes, I was just trying to think of a CD and I looked up and that was the first CD I saw on my computer table.