24th chapter posted at the same time as the 23rd:

Legolas

How could someone so much younger than me be so much wiser?

Nothing had changed. Our relationship would face the same fate. Just in a shorter amount of time.

And while she was right about this, it made me no less prepared to face it.

I must have visibly calmed after her comment because she seemed to relax somewhat. She averted her gaze again however. Sighing again, I hesitantly crossed from the window and sat back down on the bed again. "So," I began hesitantly. "I should just accept this?" I looked up at her.

She reached over to finger a strand of my hair and a wistful smile flickered across her features. "What else can you do?"

* * * * *

It took some time before I was ready to leave Elwyn's room.

When she had finally fallen asleep, I stepped outside, tugging the door closed behind me quietly so as not to wake her.

I found Aragorn, and now Éowyn standing in the hall I had previously waited in myself, speaking with the healers. I stepped up silently behind them my arms crossed, and listened.

"I'm sorry, I don't understand," Éowyn said, shakily and the King slipped an arm around her shoulders as an obvious gesture of comfort. It did not seem to help much. "I thought you said sending her to the Elves-"

"I said it would help," Envinyata interrupted and I accepted the fact that I had missed a portion of this conversation before I had arrived. "Nothing more. I never said Elvish medicine could cure her. Only sustain her." I wondered here how long Envinyata had been treating Elwyn. Obviously since childhood; she had been in the North some years. Yet another person who could have informed me of everything and had neglected to. "Frankly, I'm surprised it helped much at all," she went on. "This is a mortal disease; you should be grateful the Elves could do what they did."

"And now?" Aragorn prompted.

The Elven healer sighed and continued with obvious reluctance. "Now…here…she's receiving less of it. I warned you that this would happen if she returned to Gondor; that safety from the immediate Orc threat by bringing her here would only mean a greater threat in the months to follow."

"If we send her back North?" Éowyn questioned eagerly. "Back to the remnants of the Galadrim?"

"You would buy her time, I suppose. Not much. Not enough for her to choose to be apart from you in the time she has left." Envinyata paused here, as though wondering whether or not she should continue further or if perhaps she had already ventured to far. "She will grow weaker, more so than she already has. Eventually she will become bedridden. Until the medicine we can offer…will no longer help."

I felt my jaw clench and my grip on the fabric of my sleeve tighten. I wasn't sure if Aragorn noticed this or not, but he glanced back at me before asking his next question:

"How long?" he demanded softly.

"I don't know." Envinyata shook her head. "A matter of months."

"Months," I repeated stiffly, striving to keep my face impassive. I kept my eyes off anyone who might have turned to me when I spoke.

For this reason, I did not see her nod, but I knew she had.

"Months."

* * * * *

More soon! (I'll try to get it up in a few days since this is kinda a cliffie and a lot to take in)