Since I haven't done this in a while, I would like to thank my wonderful beta, LtSonya. If you all read the first draft of this, you would thank her too. There are not enough nice words to express how helpful she has been and how grateful I am.

As always: Read. Enjoy. Review.

Carrie and Eowyn only spoke for a few more minutes until they both decided that it was time to retire to bed, since they had to ride to Edoras early in the morning. Eowyn promised to wake Carrie with enough time to make herself 'decent' before they had to ride out. Carrie found her way down to the room she was using and lay down, but sleep did not come to her right away. There were too many thoughts going through her head.

Carrie realized that she hadn't thought about home in quite a while. That scared her. She still believed that she wanted to go home, at least part of her did. She knew that the longer she stayed and the more people she connected with here, the harder it would be to go home. And the more time she spent with Legolas, the more difficult it would be for her if she indeed had to leave. But she also knew that she couldn't stay here. She didn't belong here and besides, she had a life and people who cared about her at home. Her family and her friends must be worried sick by this time.

Her thoughts turned unexpectedly to Trevor. He must have been completely traumatized that night when she just disappeared. How long did he look for her before he went home? Did he think she was dead? Had anyone besides him even noticed that she was gone? Carrie startled herself with that bitter thought. Of course people would have noticed. Her mother called her at least once or twice a week, and when she didn't hear from Carrie, she was sure to worry. She would be missed at rehearsal, and her friends would come by or call when they hadn't heard from her in a while. She felt awful about causing any of these people to worry. But the thought of going home and never seeing Legolas again also made her feel awful.

She shook her head at the fact that her thoughts always seemed to return to him. What would she do in Edoras? She wanted to confront him about his motives behind asking Eomer to accompany them to Isengard. But she didn't want to insult the elf, as Eowyn had thought it might. She didn't want to get into another fight with him. She wished she could go back to this morning. She didn't care if she had to jam toothpicks into her eyelids; she would not have fallen asleep, if she had it to do over. At least then she would have some kind of connection with him. Maybe then all of this uncertainty would be in the past. Or, if not, at least she would be able to rationalize to herself why she was feeling this way.

It had been so easy to talk to him this afternoon and she really enjoyed his companionship for the first time since they met. Every other time they had conversed with each other she had been overwhelmed by the powerful attraction she had for him, and how easily annoyed and insecure it made her. But this afternoon, somehow, she was able to push it aside and find that she actually really enjoyed his company. Maybe that was it; that was the trick, if she could ignore her feelings and just be friends with him...

'Yeah,' she thought and chuckled to herself, 'that'll be humanly possible.' No, not after all those things he had said when she asked him what he saw in her.

Thinking about their conversation that afternoon brought back that nagging voice in her head, the voice of doubt and unease. Why did he ask Eomer to go to Isengard, after telling her that he did not suffer from jealousy? Eowyn didn't think she could confront him about it, but Carrie knew in the back of her mind that it would plague her until she knew the reason.

'Well,' she thought drolly, 'at least I'm not going on about the whole 'unworthy' thing anymore.'

Slowly sleep overcame her and before she knew it, she was being woken up, the night having passed. She groggily got up and dressed, packing up what little material things she had accumulated since she arrived here. She left the room and wandered out into the hall to look for Eowyn. She spotted her and went over to see if there was anything she needed to do before they rode out. After being assured that she needed to do nothing, she sat and waited to depart.

The ride to Edoras was quick, although Carrie's bottom protested being back up on a horse. She thought she had remembered that in the story the journey to Helms Deep took days, but then she realized that they had walked it. Since the Rohirrim had returned, there were enough men and horses to let the women ride back to Edoras, considerably shortening the time between the two places.

When she saw Edoras, it took her breath away. It was beautiful. Set up on a mountain, the palace gleamed in the late afternoon sun. They rode the horses into the city and after they dismounted, Carrie followed Eowyn up to the palace. Once they were inside Eowyn turned to her.

"Welcome to Edoras, home of the Horselords."

Carrie gasped. "It's beautiful. It's so much more beautiful than I imagined." Eowyn looked at Carrie, taken aback by her reaction. Carrie saw pillars, intricately carved with horses and men. She slowly turned to take it all in, stopping when she heard Eowyn's laugh.

"Surely you can't be that impressed; you come from Rivendell. I'm sure your architecture is far superior to ours."

Carrie looked at her for a moment. "I do not come from Rivendell," she blurted out. "I only visited there shortly."

"Oh." Eowyn furrowed her brows at Carrie. "I was mistaken. Where do you come from?"

Carrie's eyes widened. She didn't know what to tell the other woman. Could she dance around the question? No. It was a simple enough question and Eowyn was sure to tell if she was avoiding the answer.

"Bree," she lied. It was the first place that Carrie thought of that was far enough away and not Gondor. She didn't want to say she was from Gondor and end up back there for the big upcoming battle. She just hoped that Eowyn didn't ask the dreaded question, 'Oh, if you're from Bree then do you know...'

Unfortunately, the question Eowyn asked was much worse, for it caught Carrie in her lie. "Didn't Lord Aragorn say that you were their friend from Rivendell?" Her eyes narrowed as if she were trying to remember back to what had been said.

Carrie opened and closed her mouth once. "Did he?" She knew she was blatantly stalling, but she needed a moment to get her wits together if she was to get out of this one.

Eowyn nodded at her. "Yes, he did." She folded her arms across her chest. "Am I to believe that he was mistaken about the home of one of his close friends?"

'Shit.' Carrie thought. One of the reasons she was so uncomfortable with lying was that she was so dreadfully bad at it. "No, no, he wasn't mistaken." She sighed. "He must have just meant that I had ridden from Rivendell."

Eowyn eyed her skeptically, but let the matter drop. Carrie breathed a silent sigh of relief, even thought she could tell that there were many other questions dancing around in the other woman's head. She was sure they would come out sooner or later, preferably later, but for the time being, she did not have to come up with any more lies. Eowyn showed her to the guest chambers that would be hers for the duration of her stay and left her there to change and clean up for the celebration that night. Carrie explored around the rooms and found an amply stocked closet with dresses in many different sizes and a large tub with jars sitting next to it. Upon further examination of the jars she found that they contained what appeared to be bath salts. Carrie smiled and succumbed to her desire for the girly pleasures that she had been denied now for almost two weeks.

Once she felt that she was sufficiently clean, she got out of the tub and toweled off. She went to the closet to find a dress to wear that evening. There were a few in her size and she picked one out and put it on. It was a nice enough dress, which reminded her of a costume she wore in a show once. The costume was a lot more comfortable to wear, she reflected, since she was expected to be able to dance in it. Still, she supposed it could have been worse. At least there was no corset or anything.

She finished lacing up the sides of the dress and her thoughts turned to her hair. "Should I braid it? Should I let it hang?" Carrie asked no one in particular. She missed her mirror. She looked around the room for anything shiny that she might catch her reflection in. She didn't find anything to see herself in, but succeeded in finding a clip. She pulled the top part of her hair back and secured it to keep it out of her face. She sighed, realizing that this was probably the best she was going to look with no mirror, no blow dryer...

"No makeup, no hairspray, no lotion..." Carrie's list of missing necessities echoed in her chamber. She sighed again and left the room to go see if she could find the main hall.

Wow. Three weeks to update. I think that is my longest, and for that I'm very sorry. This was a difficult chapter for me, since it is a lot of exposition, and not a whole lot of dialog or action. Plus, I have managed to get myself sick (again) and work has been a nightmare and my show opens this week, so life has been hectic. I know, excuses, excuses. But the next few chapters should come a little quicker and I hope you will all bear with me.

Thank you reviewers! Your comments keep me motivated!

XxgemxX - I'm glad you liked the chapter. There will be more interactions with Eowyn later in this story - I hope you like them as much.

Jack-Sparrow-Lover - As long as Legolas and Carrie are good, nothing can go wrong? Whoa! Big assumption! smile And I wouldn't worry too much about Eowyn's heart. I'm sure a shieldmaiden of Rohan can get over a little broken-heartedness. And besides, we all know that she ends up with Faramir, which isn't too shabby, if you ask me…

nap-003 - I've always felt a little bad for Eowyn, but she didn't really know Aragorn, did she? And like I said before, she ends up with Faramir, so I can't feel too bad for her…

PsychoPixie - I'm glad you liked their talks. There will definitely be more to come.

Warning: Blatant Self-Promotion:

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