**Authors Notes:
Eomer is back up to no good. Both men are strong in character and this chapter goes to show just how strong they both are.**


***************Chapter 12***************


Faramir awakes hours later when he feels the cart come to a stop. Opening his eyes he first looks around, then he looks at Eowyn as she sleeps in his arms. Smiling so himself he gently pulls away from her, careful not to wake her. He then touches her forehead, frowning at the heat there. Moving out from under the blanket he gets up and climbs out of the cart. He would ask Gandalf for help. Maybe he had something to bring down her fever, like he had done with his last night. He is just passing a tree when something goes off in his mind and he quickly ducks and spins around. He gets confused when he doesn't see anyone. But then someone grabs his arm and pulls him off into the woods. He looks at who it was and sees his beloved's brother. "Eomer? What are you doing?"

Eomer had seen the two of them asleep together and it didn't sit well with him. So he had planned to take Faramir aside and talk with him. When asked what he was doing as he dragged the older man along after him he shakes his head and just keeps going until they are alone. Then he lets go of Faramir's arm and spins on him. "What are your intentions with my sister? I asked you before I know but now I find you soiling her good name. So explain to me what it is you want. Because if it is her, you can't have her. Her people need her. More than you."

Gandalf watches as the two men walk off, shaking his head. He walks over to the cart where Eowyn was and looks into it at her. He had a small cup of medicine for her. It would help her, if she drank it. He had had to trick Faramir. He couldn't help wondering if he would have to trick Eowyn as well. He nods to the handmaiden sitting inside the cart and then climbs in and over to Eowyn. He gently shakes her shoulder, trying to wake her up. "Lady Eowyn? You must wake up. I have something for you?"

Eowyn doesn't feel Faramir leave her, her fever making her slightly delirious, pulling her into a deep sleep. It takes Gandalf a few more good shakes before she will open her eyes, eyes that are glazed over due to the fever. "Gandalf?" she whispers, confused. She didn't know what he meant, and when he holds the small cup up to her she gets a whiff of it and makes a face, not realizing what it was. "No, no, I do not need that. It smells foul, I am sure that it tastes as foul. Where is Faramir?" She looks around, struggling to get up. With Gandalf's help she sits up a little, once more he holds the cup to her, telling her it was for her. She realizes what it is and nods, taking it. She didn't need to be tricked, now that she knew, she had seen Gandalf's magic work wonders on Faramir, she would not fight him. She was hot and her head hurt her, she could barely see from the burning in her eyes. She drinks it down, gagging from the taste. It was the raunchy thing she had ever tasted. She pushes the empty cup into his hand and falls back into the pillows and blankets. She kicks at the blankets, pushing them off her, too hot, wanting more then that off but in the back of her mind she knew she could not disrobe, because she realized, if only for that instant, that she was outside. She feels the sweat pouring off her forehead, her body aching now, the medicine leaving a burning in her throat and gut, making her want to puke.

Faramir listens to Eomer and for some odd reason, he doesn't lower his eyes or nod. Instead he snorts and stares at the younger man. "May I ask why you seem so hell bent on keeping your sister and I apart?" He waits for Eomer to answer, but when he gets none he frowns. "Fine. My intentions with your sister, as I told you before, are not to soil her name, but to give her the love she deserves. For I love your sister, Eomer. And she loves me. Now should I use my sword to get that through your thick skull? Or would you rather settle this like civilized people?" He glares at the younger man, not about to back down on this. He was not going to let Eomer make him feel like his father had. Unworthy.

Eomer snorts, always the hotheaded one. He ignores Faramir's question and just waits for him to answer his. When he says what he does he instantly has his sword out, ready to fight this man who would speak to him in such a way. But he is shocked as he sees the tip of an arrow pointed straight at his head, Faramir's angry look behind it. He had never known Faramir to actually pull a weapon on an ally. But this just makes him more upset. He snorts and looks at Faramir, his sword pointed at his stomach. "So shoot then, Faramir, if you think that will be best. She does not need you. She has a home in Rohan, not Gondor." It wasn't that he didn't want to see his sister married and happy. It was that he had a sinking feeling that if she married Faramir that he would never see her again. No matter what she may say. "She would not like your life. The life of a Steward's wife would not suit her."

Faramir keeps the arrow aimed right at Eomer's head, his anger causing him to draw his weapon on the brother of his beloved. But he had to. After all, Eomer had drawn his sword on him. He moves forward as he feels the tip of the sword against his shirt, so that now the tip of his arrowhead was against Eomer's forehead. "I do not wish to kill you, Eomer, as I know how much Eowyn would hate me for it. I do not understand your hatred for me. But if I was to marry your sister, she would not be a Steward's wife. She would be MY wife. Free to visit you any time she wished. For unlike my father regarding my mother, I know Eowyn is strong and could take care of herself. I am not my father."

Eomer shows no fear at having Faramir's arrow tip against his forehead. And he doesn't pull his sword away when Faramir moves against it, though he does take not that he could run him through now if he just twitched. So he keeps perfect still. "From what Gandalf told me, no. I can see you are not. But that does not make you worthy of my sister. She has suiters at home. Ones who are her own people. Ones who won't take her from her people. Just walk away, Faramir. If you leave now I will tell her you had to return on urgent business. Leave now and it won't be so hard on her later when you are never around anyway."

Faramir grits his teeth. He was not going to leave! Not when he had just found someone who made him feel like he belonged. But....what if Eomer was right? What if he did turn into his father? What if he did keep Eowyn trapped? But no. No he wasn't like his father. He had no need to keep her trapped. He lowers his bow and arrow and finally drops them. Then he takes another step forward. A little one this time. He ignores the flare of pain as he feels the tip of Eomer's sword pierce his flesh. "Then kill me, Eomer. Finish what I have already started and drive your sword through me. Because that will be the only way you are rid of me. Only by death will I leave your sister for good. So strike, Eomer. Strike me down and then you may tell her I have left her. But you will also tell her that I left her for death. And that YOU caused it." He waits gritting his teeth against the pain in his stomach, but he waits. It wasn't a fatal wound. Hell it wasn't even deep. But it could be.

Eomer listens to Faramir's words and for a second he actually starts to push his sword into Faramir. But then he stops suddenly and pulls it out, frowning deeply as he sees the blood. He knew it wasn't a bad wound, but still. "I can not kill you, Faramir. It will bring nothing but more grief to my sister. But you, you can make her happy again. Why I do not know." He looks at the blood seeping through Faramir's shirt, suddenly concerned for him. "You will need to have that looked at. Come on. Before you bleed to death." He stops though and frowns. "I am sorry, Faramir. I did not truly wish to hurt you."

Gandalf smiles at the girl, holding the cup out to her. "Drink. Young Faramir is fine. He will be back soon." Unless the two of them kill each other. He didn't voice that though. Instead he smiles at the look on Eowyn's face. "Hmmmmm not as bad as Faramir's last night but still amusing. Lay back, M'Lady. You must rest. The nausea will pass. Just don't think about it." He nods to the handmaiden when she asks to be excused and then looks back at the young Shieldmaiden. "I did not intend to tell Eomer of Faramir's past so that he could use it against him. I was merely trying to help. Your brother is quite stubborn."

She shakes her head, but that just makes her feel sicker and she has to gulp a few breaths so that she does not puke. She didn't want to have to take that medicine again and she knew that if she puked now he would make her. That was the last thing she wanted to do. So she sits up and puts her head down by her knees, taking deep breaths till the nausea passes. Finally she is able to sit straight again and she looks around again. "Gandalf, where is Faramir." She feels dizzy and has to lay back against the pillows. "He was here, with me, but now he is gone. Is he okay?" She sits up suddenly worry all over her face as she looks for him frantically. "He was doing so good, please, where is he?" She noticed that it seemed they were stopped, for the night she wasn't sure, her vision not going very far beyond the edge of the cart, everything else was a blur, and it was painful to try to focus. He could be just beyond the horses and she wouldn't know.

Gandalf reaches out to get her to lay back down, smiling at her. "He is fine. He actually is looking much better. I will give him more medicine tonight. But for now you are the one I am concerned with. Faramir is fine. He is just talking with your brother. Calm down child."

She looks at Gandalf in shock. Did he just say that he was JUST talking with her brother. She groans and shakes her head. "I will lay down if you go find them. I do not trust my brother with him. Not when I have been lying in Faramir's arms all afternoon." She goes to get out of the cart, feeling Gandalf put a hand on her and keep her down. She looks at him questioningly, feeling really dizzy as she suddenly sees 3 of him and not just the one. "You will go find him?" She was about ready to faint, his medicine taking hold and causing her eyes to droop dramatically. She would get him for this if he drugged her and she couldn't get to those two and something happened. She had a bad feeling and she didn't think it was just the medicine making her sick.

Gandalf sighs at her. "They will not kill each other if that is what you are worried about." He smiles and gets her to lay back down. "Eowyn, I will go find them. You stay here." He then climbs out of the cart and heads off into the woods, his gray cloak that he wore over his white robes, billowing out behind him. When he finds them he instantly notices the blood on Faramir's front and on the tip of Eomer's sword. "Fools!!! What have you done?" He rushes to Faramir who tries to explain but he snorts and shakes his head. "Fools are both of you. I thought you were better than this, Faramir." He instantly regrets what he says, knowing those words were usually heard by Faramir coming from Denethor's mouth. With a deep sigh he shakes his head. "Well nothing can be done here, come along back to the cart. Eowyn is quite worried about you both. Best not to tell her who gave you your newest scar." He smiles at them both, noticing Eomer's hurt look. "You shall come too. And you can tell me why you young men are such fools." He picks up Faramir's bow and discarded arrow and then leads the two men back to the group. Once there he puts Faramir's weapons back into the cart they he would be riding with Eowyn in and then has the young man sit down on the end so he could check his wound and see if it needed stitching.

Eowyn lays back when, her eyes closing of their own accord. It must be what was in the medicine to help her fever come down because suddenly she was just so very tired again. She lay there, half asleep, going in and out of it as she listens to the men around and the horses. She can hear Crystal whinny and she thinks that she better get her some food or water, and in her head she gets up and feeds the horse. But then she hears a commotion and she can hear her brother's voice. "Eomer," she calls out, her eyes still closed, her voice soft. She can't hear him any more but she can hear Faramir and Gandalf. This time she is certain that they are talking, that they are right there. "Faramir? Gandalf? Eomer?" She moans and blinks, taking deep breaths and shutting her eyes instantly at the sun that was pounding in them. It was so bright. She struggles to sit up and finally she just rolls onto her side and looks at the end of the cart. She can see a figure sitting on the end, it was Faramir, and Gandalf was there with him. She smiles softly. "What took you so long? Eomer?" She couldn't see him, but then she couldn't see past Gandalf who was bent over Faramir. She frowns, wondering why he was bent like that. It didn't make sense. "Gandalf?" She was starting to think that the whole thing was a hallucination because nothing was making any sense. She feels her eyes fill with tears. She was going insane, that was what it was. She was going insane and she would wake up sooner or later and no one would be here. She didn't like that feeling.

Eomer comes and looks over the edge of the cart, reaching in to touch Eowyn's hand. "I'm here. Do not cry. He is fine. We'll be going on again in a minute." He smiles at his sister and then lets go of her hand and heads back to his horse.

Gandalf looks at the girl and sighs, then he looks back at Faramir who was holding up his shirt. "It is a good thing he did not wish to kill you, Faramir. NEVER be so stupid again." He sighs at the young man's look, shaking his head as he finishes bandaging him up. "Now go calm her down." He shakes his head again, muttering something that sounded like, worse than Pippin, and then heads back to Shadowfax.

Faramir smiles and shakes his head at Gandalf, then he moves over to sit beside Eowyn. "You look lovely even sick, Eowyn. No need to cry, Beloved. I'm here." He pulls her against him, ignoring the pain. "I told your brother." He says it as if it was an after thought.

She lays against him, closing her eyes, feeling the world spinning the longer her eyes were open. When she feels his chest under her head and hears his heart beating, she calms down. Knowing that he was there and he was okay was all she needed. She was breathing a lot easier when she hears his last statement and it wakes her up, her eyes flying open to look up at him in shock. "You told him?" She blinks again, then closes her eyes and lays her head against his chest again. Something was out of place, something seemed different, but she couldn't put a finger on it. She struggles against the drugs that Gandalf had given her, struggling to waken and to figure out what was wrong.

Faramir gently starts to stroke her golden hair, kissing her hot forehead gently. "Rest, my love. Be calm. I am here and I won't leave you till you are well again." He kisses her forehead again, then rests his cheek against it. "Yes I told him. I had to. He said he would allow me to leave now, so that your heart may heal, but he would not allow you to wither away like my mother had, lonely, a Steward's wife. So I told him I was not my father and it would not come to that for I would never cage you like my father caged my mother. I would allow you to travel home when you wished to. He didn't believe me till I uh....till I nicked myself on his sword. I told him if he wanted me gone he had better finish the job I had started and kill me, because that would be the only way I would leave you forever."

Eowyn listens, her eyes closed, that is until he mentions 'nicking' himself on her brother's sword. Her eyes fly open and she pulls away from him, noticing the blood on his shirt, she grabs it and lifts it up, the bandage Gandalf had put on there showing a little red through it. "That is not a 'nick', Faramir." Her eyes shoot to his face. "This is not funny, Faramir. What was it that you two were doing?" She drops his shirt and wraps her arms around him, more carefully this time as she lays her head on his shoulder, unable to stop herself, Gandalf's medicine making it hard for her to even speak much less think. "I will talk to him, Faramir. Do not worry, he will not bother you again. I know that you would never cage me in. It is not in your heart to do so. You have been caged enough as it is to never want that of another."

Faramir smiles at her worried look, truly happy that someone cared enough about him again to worry about his health. Someone other than Boromir or Gandalf. "No no. Just a scratch. I assure you. Gandalf took care of it. Though I think I spooked your brother. No. You rest. I will tell you all that happened." And he does, every word and action, looking ashamed when he speaks of the part where he had his arrow drawn and ready against Eomer's head. "I do not believe I would have hurt him, Eowyn. I would not want to break your heart by harming your beloved brother. I am sorry if my actions did do some harm. I just did not like being compared to my father, even if I do love and forgive him." He kisses her forehead again. "I do believe we came to an understanding where you are concerned, Eowyn." He sighs and rests his cheek against her forehead again. "Would you like me to read to you again? Perhaps something elfish?"

She nods, her eyes still closed, his words seeming to come from a far way off. "Please, Faramir." She would like to hear something Elfish right now, she loved the language almost as much as her own. As for her brother and him, they had acted like children. Two boys fighting over what they thought belonged to them. She speaks out loud, not realizing she was. "I am not an item to be passed from one person to another. Eomer doesn't own me and neither do you. I am my own person and I will always be my own person. The only thing you both have of mine is my heart. Him as my brother and only family and you as the man I love and my future. Both of you need to realize what that means and stop fighting like two boys fighting over a favorite toy. I am far from a toy, I can get up and walk out when hurt."

He stiffens at her words. He never thought of her as a possession. To do so would make him like his father and he did NOT want to be his father. "I know you are not a possession, Eowyn. I would not treat you as such. If you wish for me to leave I can. If you wish it. The only reason I did what I did is because he pulled his sword on my first and then accused me of being my father. I am not my father. Though I fear the day will come when I am him." He pulls away from her slightly, gritting his teeth. Wasn't it true? The old saying that boys become their fathers? What if he was turning out to be like Denethor. He shivers at that thought. No. No if he had a son who wasn't strong he would not love him less. No he wasn't like his father, would never be like his father. He just had to be careful. Careful to remember his own childhood. Even if it was painful to remember. He reaches over into his bag, ignoring the pain in his middle when he leans forward, and pulls a book out. This book was different. It was covered in a soft green leather cover. He sits back beside her and opens the book, then starts to reading, hoping the book would take his mind off his father.

She waits until he gets the book and starts to read before she wraps her arms around him again, pulling him closer, not caring how it looked. She was sick and she could use that excuse for her actions. His words bothered her, she could hear the pain in them. She knew that he really didn't think of her as an object, she didn't know she had said that out loud, it was because they had been acting like boys fighting over a favorite toy that she had had no choice in the matter. She can feel the cart start again, glad they were on their way. The fever was lessening and a cool breeze had come into the forests they were currently going through. She would still have to have a talk with her brother because she would not have him treating Faramir like that. As she starts to fall asleep again, her head resting against his shoulder, she whispers close to his ear. "I love you, Faramir." Then she slips into dreams, unable to fight Gandalf's medicine any longer, her body unable to fight to stay awake, no matter how much she loved listening to him. She would definitely have to talk to Eomer about the fact that she loved Faramir and that nothing he said or did would change that. Killing him would only make her hurt more. Because right now she hurt, she hurt that the two men she loved could not get along. It would make her life harder, but it was something she was willing to deal with, for the love of both of them.

He smiles at her words, his angry thoughts instantly leaving his mind. "And I love you, Sweet Eowyn." He kisses the top of her head, and then goes back to reading, speaking perfectly the elfish language of the book. It was his most favorite language to speak. And it came naturally to him since he had elfish blood running through his veins. Though it was only a little, it was there, from his mother's side of the family. But as much as he loved reading the book he was still sick and recovering from his fever last night. So once again he finds himself yawning. Unable to keep the page in focus he shuts the book and puts it carefully back into the saddlebag with the other. Then he settles down beside Eowyn and with his arm around her he falls into a light sleep again.