A/N: I'm SO SORRY!!!! It's been a while since I posted for this story, but my school work needs a LOT of catching up.... my marks are sliding thanks to this story. Oh well, it's too fun to stop! **The rating of this story was moved up because Nicole has a feisty temper... which means, she's gonna be swearing. But probably in French, and I won't translate unless you e-mail me. morgaine@myst.net **

Disclaimer: obviously, anything from Lord Of The Rings is Tolkien's and not mine. Nicole is mine. And The Hill. And Nicole's dagger. And anything else that is pertaining to her... duh.

*Elvish talking*
"English/Common"
^Dwarvish^
~old language that only Aragorn and Gandalf can understand~

Anything written in another language, will be written in that language. For example: if Nicole wants to say something in Japanese to Pippin, like hello, it will be written like this, "konichiwa". I won't put translations unless you e-mail me for them!!!

Ok, enough of this Author's note. On with the story! ~m~

Home Sweet Home

Chapter Six ~ A Knife In The Leg? Isn't that supposed to be "Dark"?

Nicole dug into her meager rations as though it were a feast and a half, full of any kind of food you can imagine, as long as it tasted good. The hobbits watched her with some fascination and only a little bit of anger (that was slowly going away) since it seemed that they had found a kindred spirit who enjoyed food as much as they did. She noticed at one point that they were looking at her.

"Um... yeah?" she asked.

Pippin shifted uncomfortably. "Gandalf wasn't that angry with me...." he mumbled.

The hobbits sensed that their friend wasn't going to say much else without prompting, so Merry stepped in. "What we mean to say is, we'd like to be friends. There's no use in us being all war-like, when we're going to be traveling together. We might as well be friends."

"Aww...." she said, tilting her head to one side. The hobbits look so cute.... standing there all sad and everything. Aww... She snapped out of it and replied. "That's so sweet you guys. I'm sorry for telling on you Pippin, but you have to admit, it was a life and death situation. It'd be great to be friends," she replied. The hobbits smiled broadly. This prompted an outburst of, "GROUP HUG!" from Nicole, which ended up in four hobbits being smushed by one very over-enthusiastic girl. Alright, I knew that Elijah Wood was really cute as Frodo, but the real hobbits are so much nicer... except for their feet. She straightened herself out. "Sorry.... I've had too much sugar.... or actually, I haven't had enough," she said. "Do you guys ever get that? I mean, if you don't eat enough, you get really REALLY hyper... because that's how I am now. I feel like I could run a marathon, only I can't because of my leg."

The hobbits stared at her for a moment. Then the whole group started laughing, and they continued that way for a while. They exchanged stories after the meal, and when they finally went to sleep, Nicole decided that the second day was way better than her first day on Middle Earth.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Gandalf came over and poked Nicole with his staff. She groaned and rolled over, mumbling something about a back ache. He stooped down beside her and shook her shoulder.

"Come now," he said. "It is time that we were moving on. We have much traveling to do today, and we must set out within a few minutes."

Nicole finally managed to pry open her eyes, but when she saw that it was Gandalf, she shrank back.

"I'm sorry about yesterday," Gandalf apologized, "but these are dangerous times, and you can never be too careful."

Nicole accepted his apology and they began to move out for the day of trekking after having a light breakfast. They left The Hill, after Nicole had a teary goodbye with her boulder, and they headed for Caradhras. Just like, Nicole noted, in the movie. The order of the Fellowship went like this: Gandalf, Legolas, and Aragorn leading them, followed by the hobbits, then Nicole, and finally, Boromir and Gimli bringing up the rear. Nicole drifted between the hobbits and the man and dwarf, slowly learning more and more about Middle Earth and the people in the Fellowship.

Meanwhile, at the front of the procession, Gandalf, Legolas and Aragorn were having a heated discussion.

"It is ridiculous to have that girl tagging along," Legolas stated. "You know she will only be a cause of trouble."

Aragorn objected, "She knows enough so that she may handle herself. Besides, you yourself called her a girl, can we simply leave her in the wild, left all alone with no defense and no direction?" Despite his long friendship with the Elf, Aragorn found that he could not understand his friend's rationalizing in this instance.

Gandalf cleared his throat, and wisely commented. "She will most likely be troublesome in certain circumstances." Legolas looked triumphant. "But Aragorn has a valid point." It was Aragorn's turn to be the winner. "Both arguments are valid. But having Lady Featherhall with us does not change anything we are doing here. She cannot know about anything, and she cannot suspect that there is anything to hide. She will stay with us until we can find a suitable transport for her back to her homeland. Until that time comes, we will have to deal with her. Politely," he added, as an afterthought. They agreed and the talk changed to other matters.

In the back of the procession, Nicole was in the process of complaining about her old life to Boromir and Gimli.

"And I had this horrible teacher for History..." she trailed off, remembering the class she had attended only two days ago.

Boromir noticed her far-off expression and said quietly to Gimliy, "She is rapt. She must miss her home very much."

Gimli agreed gruffly. "Aye, but she talks as though it was torturous. She is a very strange girl."

Boromir nodded. "Indeed." He tapped Nicole on the shoulder right as she was about to walk into a patch of some prickly type of bush. She noticed the bush and side stepped it, bumping into Boromir. "Nicole, are you alright?"

"Huh?" she asked. "What, me? Yeah... why wouldn't I be?"

Boromir looked to Gimli for help. "Well," Gimli began, "you seem very saddened by your departure from your land. It must be difficult for you to talk about it so freely."

Nicole looked at them in wonder. She blinked suddenly and looked away quickly. "No, I'm fine..." she seemed sad for a moment, sad or distant, but then went back to being her usual self. "So! What's is like to be such royal people?"

They laughed. "But milady would now, seeing as she herself is a princess," Boromir replied.

"Well, yeah, technically, but titles don't matter as much as wealth does in my land. It's a stupid system. I want to hear more about you guys!"

They laughed merrily and talked about their lives in Middle Earth, Nicole listening attentively. When the talk progressed to such matters as politics, which Boromir and Gimli found fascinating (Nicole thought, why would Gimli like politics???), Nicole left that conversation, and joined the hobbits, who were singing various songs. Their singing was horrible, mainly because they were impersonating Bill Ferny, and some of their less-liked friends and relatives (do I really need to mention that the Sackville-Bagginses were impersonated too?). Many days passed in this manner, and Nicole eventually lost track of time the way it had existed in her old world, where everything was so structured. Nicole also forgot her slight case of homesickness, except for sorely missing comfortable beds.

On one day, not so distinguishable from the others, Aragorn noticed that Nicole was still limping a little. As they were settling down for the night, he examined her wound again.

Aragorn traced the scar with a finger. "Hmm..."

"Hmm isn't a good thing, is it?" Nicole asked, beginning to get worried. Apparently Aragorn's healing skills were in need of a second opinion, because Aragorn had to call Legolas over to examine the wound too.

*What did you do?* Legolas asked, obviously blaming Nicole for it.

*I fell on a rock... duh* Nicole said, but then had to hide a smile. The word "duh" sounded so weird in Elvish.

Legolas ignored her and instead directed his speech towards Aragorn. *It's infected.*

*That's what I though,* Aragorn replied thoughtfully. *But I'm not sure how much, how long it'll last. Can you think of anything to keep it down, or how to heal it?*

*We don't have the supplies we need to treat it properly. It seems deep, because below the skin the muscle is too hardened. The best we could do for now would be to cut the wound open again and wash it with boiled water and some ______* (A/N: the blank is where Legolas said a word in Elvish that Nicole couldn't understand, and since the story is told mainly from her point of view, the reader *you guys* doesn't know the word either)

Nicole reacted immediately. *You are NOT cutting me open! It was bad enough when it was an accident, now you want to do it on purpose? Hell NO! And furthermore, do you have any idea how much boiling water is gonna hurt? And then you want to put whatever you said into it too? Wherever did you get the idea that I would agree to this?*

Legolas turned his back to her. Aragorn spoke, *It is a good idea. The wound might heal faster. Lady Nicole doesn't seem to agree to this. Do not worry, the plant is not poisonous.*

*Do you think I care if it's poisonous or not? The point is, it's gonna hurt a lot more than I care to withstand!*

Legolas began speaking in rapid Elvish to Aragorn, clearly frustrated, and Nicole was only able to catch a few words, such as "tie her," and "necessary to cut the wound." Needless to say, this did not make her the happiest person. She quickly rolled her pant leg down again and moved away from the ranger and Elf. Legolas noticed this movement and before Nicole had gone even half a step, his hand was clamped on to her wrist, really hard.

Nicole whimpered in pain, since that was the same wrist that she had sprained. Sure it had healed, just not completely. *Ow... that's gonna make a bruise. Meanie...* Legolas ignored her, as did Aragorn, who (Nicole noticed, to her dismay) was taking a dagger from his pack. *Oh... oh.... oh..... oh no! nonononononononono! Eek! Get away!* She tried to squirm away from him, but Legolas was still holding on to her wrist.

Boromir came over, amused by her struggling and panicked speech. "I suggest you do as they say," he said to her, taking hold of her other arm.

"That's a big risk, ya know," Nicole informed him, as he led her over to the boiling water with that elvish plant that Aragorn had prepared remarkably quickly. "I mean, if you're holding on to my arm, I'll grab yours. And as they're pouring in boiling hot water into my freshly opened leg, I'll grab your arm, and squeeze so much that it'll break."

Boromir shrugged. "I doubt that you could break my arm. Besides, you know it's for your own good."

Nicole mumbled under her breath, "Yeah? As in my good being my bad."

Nicole sat down by the fire, holding Boromir's hand very tightly. She felt like a little kid. It's like going to the dentists... or for a shot to the doctor. Nothing to worry about. Just a little pinch, and it's over. Except they're slicing my leg... I hope I get out alive... I hope they get out alive too. Unluckily for her fellow companions, they didn't know about Nicole's extreme fear of "medical stuff" as she put it. Anything that was poking her, or slicing her, or even an eye exam, she feared with a passion. Though, Nicole was kind of hoping for Legolas to be close to her legs, so that the second he cut her, she could kick him with her free leg. That would be fun... and he deserves it too. Besides, he's an Elf and he won't feel a thing. Nicole sat imaging it, so caught up in the joys of kicking Legolas in the head, that she suddenly became aware that the dagger was poised dangerously close to her skin. She gripped Boromir's hand tighter and shut her eyes. "Oh, I can't look, I can't look. Just get it over with. I can't look."

Nicole didn't have any super-duper Elf hearing, or even somewhat enhanced hearing. In fact, some people could argue that she was deaf. But by some fluke of nature, she managed to hear her skin being sliced open. It was a sick sound, kind of like a rip, but then a squish because blood came from the wound. A split second after she heard it, she felt the pain. Lovely, comforting, nice, happy PAIN. Yeah right, more like horrible, bone-breaking, I'm-not-going-to-live-through-this PAIN. She felt a scream welling up inside of her, so she brought up her other arm, the one that wasn't squeezing Boromir's hand, and bit down on it hard.

Then came the boiling hot water mix... surprisingly, the heat of the water was so great that it actually numbed the wound. Or maybe that was the elf-plant. Nicole didn't really figure it out, because she chose that moment to fall asleep.

Yes, you read right. She fell asleep. She didn't faint from the pain. She didn't black out or anything. She just fell asleep.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Boromir looked surprisingly at the girl. His hand had just been in a considerable amount of pain, and now it was fine. Lady Nicole had fallen asleep and was now slouched on the ground, breathing softly. Her face was bereft of all signs of pain and she seemed perfectly fine if you ignored her still-bleeding leg. He turned to Aragorn and Legolas. "What did you do?"

Aragorn surpressed a laugh. Legolas looked relieved to be ridden of Nicole. Oddly enough, Gandalf was the one to speak up.

"It's quite alright. She's only asleep," he said, and they all looked at him quizzically. "I slipped in a herb that induces sleep into the water for the wound. It worked through her body and made her fall asleep." Legolas looked hopeful. "She'll wake up in the morning." His face fell.

"Any particular reason why you chose to do so?" Boromir asked, still uncertain about the reason for all of this.

"Excellent question! I suppose the answer should be quite clear, especially with the wind." Gandalf's message clearly didn't get across to Boromir, so he explained further. "We're going up the mountain tomorrow. We all need our rest, and I'm quite certain that we would all rest better if Lady Nicole was quiet, and stronger tomorrow to avoid too many halts."

His clear, simple reasoning finally made sense. But all the talk about sleeping had gotten everyone ready for a rest. They moved Nicole away from a batch of rocks that she had fallen asleep on, and covered her with a blanket. The hobbits had already fallen asleep and soon the camp was quiet. The only sound left was the cold wind of the mountain whistling through the rocks.

A/N: Oh...my...goodness..... *pants* that was SO much work. I feel like I just ran a 5k race. *faints* Ok, well, I'm very sad to say this, but I have to write up a story for my friend, so I don't think I'll be posting to this for a while. I guess maybe in the last week of April, I'll be able to start typing again. Until then... um.... amuse yourselves by thinking of as many different insults as you can for Nicole to say to Legolas... and e-mail them to me! ~m~