Legolas stayed only a few minutes after escorting her to her new chamber. Carrie changed and freshened up, pulling the rest of the leaves out of her hair and pinning it back with the clip she had been wearing since Helms Deep. While she was sitting on the bed pulling on her shoes she heard a knock at the door.

"Come in." she called.

Elrond entered the bedchamber with a large chalice in his hands. Carrie stayed where she was on the bed and looked up at him.

"My lady Carrie, I bring to you a gift, or a burden, depending on how you will look upon it." His voice was even, but not without compassion.

Carrie regarded him quietly before asking, "And what is that, Lord Elrond?"

He sat down next to her and handed her the chalice, which she took hesitantly. "I have brought to you a draught, prepared by the Lady of Lorien. Should you choose to drink it, upon falling into sleep tonight, you would be returned to your home."

Carrie stared at him in shock. This was really happening. She was being given a way home, and yet as Elrond had said, it was not just a gift, but also a burden, the burden of decision. The burden of knowing that after tonight, she would either never see her home again, or never see Legolas again. But why? Why did it have to be tonight? She turned to Elrond.

"But why? Why tonight? Why can't I just stay a little while longer, a week, a month, a year maybe?"

Elrond raised his eyebrows at her. "Do you really believe that it will be easier for you to return home after more time has passed? If you cannot bring yourself to leave now, why do you think you will be able to in the future?" He shook his head at Carrie. "No, my lady, now is the time. You may choose to stay or choose to return home, but the choice is made tonight."

Carrie sunk down on the bed. "What if I choose to stay?"

Elrond regarded her carefully. "Then, I would stand by my previous observation that you are much like my daughter. However," he continued more sternly, "like her, there would be great sacrifice for you in such a decision, as well as great risk."

Carrie thought about that for a minute before speaking again. "And if I decide to go?"

Elrond sighed. "I am afraid that neither decision will be an easy one."

Carrie hung her head. She did have a life at home, and people she cared about, but nobody had ever effected her they way Legolas had. And the War of the Ring was over and done with, and she had no apparent effect. What harm would there be in staying here? Her stomach flipped uncomfortably. Well, there was the fact that it was a completely foreign place to her, not one she was entirely comfortable in. What place did she have here anyway? Legolas had implied that she would be welcome with him in Ithilien, but would the elves ever accept her? She also had to consider that she was a descendant of Aragorn. Would that put her in contention with any of his and Arwen's children? Or should she go home and turn her back on what was possibly the greatest thing to ever happen to her? Oh, why did she have to decide tonight? Elrond was being so unfair, she thought childishly.

"I don't know what to do!" she whined uncharacteristically.

Elrond took the cup from her and placed it on the table next to the bed. He turned back and smiled kindly at her. "You do not have to decide this moment. Go, enjoy the feast tonight. Enjoy the company of the friends you have made here. At the end of the evening, listen to what your heart tells you." His eyes grew sad. "For your heart will guide you to the right decision."

He closed his eyes momentarily. When he opened them he stood and turned back to look at Carrie. "Quel Marth, Lady Carrie, good luck. It was my pleasure to know you." He bowed his head and then looked back up at her. "May your paths be ever green." With that he turned and left the room.

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Carrie stayed where Elrond had left her for a while, mulling over what he had said to her. She came to the conclusion that the longer she could put off this decision tonight, the better. Not that it would make it easier, but at least she wouldn't have to face it just now.

She walked down the corridor to find the hall of the citadel, which was crowed with people enjoying the Coronation feast. She looked around the crowd for a familiar face. Upon seeing none, she aimlessly wandered around the room until a voice called her from behind.

"My lady Carrie." She turned to see Aragorn, arm in arm with Arwen. She smiled shyly at the elf and turned and grinned up at Aragorn.

"Lord Aragorn," she said formally. "Or should I call you 'King Elessar'?" He bowed his head modestly.

"There is no need for that formality. 'Aragorn' will be sufficient." He smiled back at her and then turned to look at Arwen.

The elf looked up at him adoringly. "I will leave you two to speak. I believe I saw my brothers across the hall." With a quick kiss to Aragorn's cheek, she turned and walked away.

Carrie watched her walk away, once more awed by her grace and beauty. She looked back to Aragorn who was watching her as well and smiled. She followed his gaze back to Arwen, who had not found her brothers, but had ran into Legolas and was talking to him halfway across the room.

Aragorn looked back at her, and seeing where her gaze lay, smiled in much the same way Carrie had just done. He let her be for a moment and then spoke gently to her.

"Come walk with me."

Carrie looked to Aragorn and gave him a huge smile. "It would be an honor, my lord." She curtseyed and saw him grin broadly at her. They walked around the hall in silence for a while, Aragorn nodding acknowledgement to various people, before Carrie spoke.

"I still can't get over the fact that you're king."

Aragorn smiled modestly at her again. "Neither can I."

The walked again in silence for a bit more before Carrie had worked up the nerve to venture to the subject she wanted to talk to him about. "So," she began timidly, "I have a big decision ahead of me tonight, apparently."

Aragorn nodded at her, "I would think it would be an easy one." Carrie looked away. Aragorn followed her gaze across the hall to where it rested on Legolas, who was still talking to Arwen. He turned back to her. "Save for one individual."

Carrie caught his glance and smiled. "Not just one individual. I would miss all of you." Her expression turned thoughtful and she asked him the question that was weighing on her mind. "Aragorn, what should I do?"

He grasped her shoulder affectionately. "That, my lady Carrie, is wholly up to you."

Carrie swallowed and ventured a bolder question. "If I were Arwen, and I asked you that, what would you tell me?"

Aragorn looked at her intently for several moments, weighing his answer. When he finally spoke, his voice was quiet. "I would tell you to go with your people, with your family."

Carrie paused for a moment. "Even though I would not be with you? Even though you love me?"

"Carrie," Aragorn glanced again at Legolas and then back at her, "he would want you to be happy. He would not want you to be torn away from your home and family."

"Wouldn't he want me to be with him?" Carrie asked plaintively.

"Not at the expense of your own happiness."

Carrie thought about that and realized it was true. Legolas had initially pushed her away so that they wouldn't get close, to prevent her from this situation she currently found herself in. It hadn't worked, but still, she knew that he wanted her to be happy. And if that meant her going home and them being apart, well, that is what he wanted. The problem was, Carrie was at the point now that she didn't think that would make her happy.

Aragorn's words pulled her out of her thoughts. "I do not want you to think that you are not wanted here. You are most welcome to stay and live out your years here in the white city." He glanced sideways at where the two elves were talking and then looked slyly at Carrie. "Or wherever your heart may take you." She smiled shyly at that and dropped her eyes as he continued. "I am very glad to have had the chance to get to know you Carrie, however briefly." He smiled affectionately at her. "I am happy to know that my daughter was loved by the people around her, and lived a good life to the end of her days. That is more than most parents get." He looked deep into her eyes, and when he next spoke it was almost half not to her. "I understand Lord Elrond now."

Carrie looked at him questioningly. "What? What do you mean?"

"You have to go home, Carrie." Her eyes widened in shock at his words. "For everyone's sake." He looked over at Legolas and back at her. "You're still going to leave him, even if you stay here. He is immortal. How much more will it hurt after years of being together compared with a few short weeks?"

Carrie stared at him in shock. "I can't believe you're telling me this!" She glanced quickly at Arwen and Legolas. "You of all people!" This conversation and the direction it was taking was starting to make her feel sick to her stomach.

"Listen to me." He looked intensely into her eyes. "If you stay, it will be for selfish reasons. If you do indeed love him, you will go home."

"Is that what you would have said to Arwen?" Carrie's shock overcame her discretion. "It follows, then, that you do not love her, for you are not forcing her to leave."

She saw Aragorn's eyes flash and rethought her harsh words. But it was the same situation. Arwen would experience the same thing as Legolas when Carrie's and Aragorn's time had passed.

Aragorn regarded her dully, for she obviously stung a still-open wound. "I have told her to go with her people and choose immortality, but she will not." His eyes bored into hers as he continued. "There is a difference here. Arwen has chosen mortality and although it pains me to think of it, she will have respite from her sorrow when the time comes. Legolas does not have the same choice laid before him, being that he is not half-elven. He will bear his grief for eternity."

Carrie stood there at a loss for words. It made sense to her, what he was saying, but it was not what she wanted to hear. She really wasn't sure what to do now. Both options seemed like a bad choice, but she had to choose one, and it had to be tonight.

In a sudden change of mood, Aragorn smiled encouragingly at her. "I apologize. I did not mean to speak so harshly." He grasped her shoulder. "You should enjoy the rest of the evening regardless of what you will decide." He squeezed her shoulder and turned as Legolas approached. "Go now with him. He may help to ease your decision." He smiled in parting and walked away in the direction that Arwen had gone, leaving Carrie with Legolas.

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Legolas must have noticed Carrie's anxious manner, because he almost immediately suggested that they go outside. They walked out of the hall and down the steps into the courtyard in silence and stood by the white tree. Not ready to talk about what was bothering her, Carrie looked up at the clear night sky.

"It's so strange." Legolas looked at her when she spoke. "I mean, there's Orion, the Hunter, see?" She pointed up at the familiar constellation. "There's his belt and his sword."

Legolas followed her gaze and Carrie continued, "According to Greek myth, Orion died when he stepped on Scorpio, so the gods felt sorry for him and put him in the sky with his dogs." She frowned in thought. "I don't remember the dogs' names. But anyway, the gods put Scorpio way over on the other side of the sky, so he couldn't hurt Orion again." She glanced at Legolas who was looking at her in wonder and somewhat in awe.

She shrugged at him. "I wanted to be an astronomer when I was little." He tilted his head and frowned at her, not understanding. "You know, someone who watches the stars." She shook her head in disbelief. "It's just strange that the stars are the same here."

He regarded her wordlessly for a few moments before speaking. "Here those stars are called Menelvagor, the Swordsman of the Sky," he told her. "They were given their shape by Elbereth," he raised his eyebrows and smiled at her, "whom you spoke of when we first met." Carrie dropped her eyes and smiled demurely, remembering how annoyed that particular conversation had made him. When he began speaking again she looked back up at him.

"He represents to us, the Firstborn, an eternal guardian of the world, protecting us from the return of the first Dark Lord. Menelvagor forebodes the Last Battle that shall be at the end of days." Now it was Carrie's turn to look at him in awe. He smiled at her expression. "We too are star watchers."

Carrie studied him intently. "So similar, and yet so different." She shrugged. "It's amazing." She shook her head again.

He studied her for a long time before speaking. "You knew, didn't you?"

Carrie frowned at him, puzzled by this abrupt change in conversation. "I knew what?"

"You knew the outcome." There was no accusation in his words, but Carrie hung her head anyway.

"I'm sorry I lied. But I couldn't tell you," she said apologetically. She looked back up at him. "Who knows what it would have done if I had told you what I knew. I couldn't be sure of the impact, so I didn't tell you." She smiled sweetly at him. "So, who finally won?"

"The battle?" he asked, confused.

"No." She smirked at him. "Gimli and your little competition. You know, who killed more orcs..."

"You knew of that?" He sounded almost embarrassed. Carrie just laughed. "Who do you think?"

"Well," Carrie began slyly, "judging by what I know about elves and dwarves..." she put her hand on his arm, "It's ok. You'll beat him next time," she teased, and then couldn't help but laugh at the expression on his beautiful face.

They stood for a moment in silence before Carrie once again changed the subject, still skirting around the issue she knew she had to discuss with him. "You didn't tell me Estella was your sister." She folded her arms across her chest.

He raised his eyebrows at her. "You didn't ask," he said with a smile.

"Ha," she said. "Touché!" He frowned when she said that and she realized he probably didn't know French. "Nevermind. So, what was she doing in Rivendell anyway?"

Legolas looked at her with sad eyes. "My mother was slaughtered by Orcs." Carrie's eyes widened in shock at this admission and then filled with compassionate tears. She put a comforting hand back on his arm as he continued. "After that, my father did not feel it was safe for my sister to remain in Mirkwood, so he sent her to live in the protection of Lord Elrond." He smiled reminiscently at Carrie. "I spoke with her when I was last in Rivendell, but have not heard news of her since. Is she well? Does she send a message?"

Carrie looked into his hopeful eyes and suddenly regretted that she had not known him much earlier in his life, before any of this had happened. She sighed and nodded in answer to his question. "She sends her love and hopes to see you again someday."

"But she was not among the folk from Imladris who you arrived with." He frowned at her. "Why would she remain?"

Carrie closed her eyes and exhaled, not wanting to tell him why his sister had not come. "She didn't remain." She opened her eyes and looked down at the ground. "She … um… sailed west."

Legolas was silent. Carrie looked up at him and saw his eyes filled with pain. Trying to console him, she stroked his arm where her hand lay. He smiled gratefully at her and guided her quickly into another subject. "You were troubled when we came out here," he said softly. Carrie took her hand back and looked at the ground. "Do you wish to speak of the cause of your upset?"

Carrie fiddled with the ring on her finger as she walked a few paces away from him and turned her gaze back upwards, realizing that the time had come. There would be no more delaying the matter and she would have to talk to him about the one subject she was loath to bring up.

"Everything is so different here," she said finally. "But when I look up and see the stars, the same stars I'm used to, it's like I'm home." She turned back to him and saw the pained expression on his face. "I have to choose, Legolas. I can't just hang in limbo forever."

"I know," he said quietly.

"So," Carrie continued softly, "everybody else has weighed in on this decision. In speaking to Aragorn and Elrond, my decision is to go home. But Arwen and Eomer are very persuasive for me to stay. Although," she grimaced, "I tend to question Eomer's motives." She looked resolutely at Legolas. "So the deciding vote lies with you. What say you, Legolas?"

He walked over to her and gently took her hands in his. "You should not base this decision on a vote."

She bit her lip and smiled at him. "I don't. I base it on you. Tell me what you would have me do and I will do it. Tell me to stay and I will. Tell me to go, and although it will break my heart, I will drink the draught Galadriel has prepared."

He smiled at her compassionately. "I can not make this decision for you."

"Please do." Carrie begged desperately. "Or at least tell me what you want." She looked intently at him and noticed something in his eyes that she had been too bothered to see before. He seemed…distracted, and sad. Concerned that she had perhaps said something wrong she dropped his hands and wrung hers nervously. "Or, you can tell me what is bothering you."

"It is nothing. Pay it no mind." Even though he schooled his features into elven blankness, Carrie had spent too much time around him and the other elves these past few weeks to be fooled.

"It's not nothing if it bothers you. What is it?"

His gaze intensified and Carrie fought the desire to drop her eyes. "I do not wish to speak of it."

Knowing when to let a matter drop was never one of Carrie's strong points, and she continued to press the issue. "It might help," she said with a shrug.

Legolas broke their gaze and stared out at the horizon. He took a deep breath and seemed to Carrie to retreat into himself at his next words. "Alas, during our journey to Gondor, I beheld the gulls over the Anduin. It has awoken the sea longing in me, the gift and the curse of my people."

Carrie gasped and her mouth gaped in surprise. The sea longing! How had she completely forgotten about that aspect of the story? From what she knew about it, from now on, no matter what happened, whether she remained here or went home, Legolas' heart would be over the sea.

At her prolonged silence, he turned back to her. "I will not depart. Not while my mortal friends still inhabit this land."

His words were meant to comfort her, but she found no solace in them. "But, you will not be happy. You will never be content."

He didn't answer, but the fact that he turned his gaze back out towards the horizon was all the answer that Carrie needed. Fighting back tears and clenching her fists, she spat out her next words. "It's getting too cold out here for me. I'm going back inside." She turned and walked back into the hall without a backward glance, her eyes burning with unshed tears.

When she got inside and found that Legolas had not followed her, the decision she had to make became firm in her mind.

We're closing in on the end of this story. Only a few chapters left. I hope you are all still enjoying it! It should all be posted within the next week or so, barring any unforeseen computer problems.

Lainfaer: I did increase the rating to R right after I posted the chapter. It may not have taken effect by the time you read. It was really only the last chapter that was R and I made a note of that in the comments. I'm glad you liked the scene though.

Jack-Sparrow-Lover: I'm glad you liked the chapter and that this story is one of your favorites! We'll have to find you another one for when this one is done!

crimson7319: Don't worry – your secret is safe with me! I'm glad you found it entertaining.

PsychoPixie: I'm so happy you liked the last chapter. Don't worry about not reviewing the one before, as long as you got to read it, I'm happy.

moonbunny77: I'm glad you liked how I handled the "situation," but like I said, I had some help. You get a glimpse in this chapter of one of the things he wanted to talk to her about, and the next hits on the other thing. Important stuff, but I guess he was a little distracted…