A/N: Yay! Fourteen reviews so far! Thank you Mellon, for your idea. You'll see it used pretty soon! Just read. Hopefully this chapter will be longer than the past few. I thought they were pretty long, but I guess not. This one isn't that long either. Oh well. Surprisingly, no one asked for a translation of the French phrase Nicole said to Legolas. Which is just as well, because it wasn't a very nice thing to say.
Oh yeah, just a reminder: *Elvish talking* and ^Dwarvish^

Disclaimer: LotR isn't mine. And since I'm sure most of you skipped the Author's Note to read the chapter, I'll stop now so you can find out what happened. ~moi~

Home Sweet Home

Chapter Nine ~ Effects and Affections

...

As she was bringing her right hand forward, the dagger's blade was a tiny fraction of an inch away from the hair, her peripheral vision picked up on some movement. A split second later, her right wrist was in a considerable amount of pain and the dagger clattered to the ground. She gasped and noticed a prick of pain at her throat. Her brain finally registered what her eyes were seeing. Legolas had a hand clamped firmly around her wrist and one of his knives was pressing into her throat, and from the feel of things, the knife had just pierced her skin, causing a pinprick of blood to appear. His blue eyes were filled with a fierceness that terrified her. Nicole could barely breathe now, for fear of drawing more blood. Time froze as they each waited for the next move...

Nicole tried to back away slowly, fearful for her life. She hadn't expected that her prank could have gone so wrong. As soon as she moved, the knife came forward, keeping the point pressed to her skin. She stopped moving. She let go of the hair she had clenched in her left hand unconsciously. Using her only free hand, she lifted it slowly in a gesture of surrender. Nicole's fingers found the tip of the knife and pushed it gently away from her neck.

Legolas remained staring at her angrily, keeping hold of her right wrist, where she was sure a bruise was forming. However, as her fingers pushed the blade away, he took it back and sheathed it with one hand in a fluid motion. Her breath was shaky and her heart was pounding so hard, Nicole was sure she would faint in a second.

*Sorry,* Nicole was startled by the sound of a soft voice, and then realized it was her own. The Elvish words seemed unworthy on her tongue, as though, as a meager human girl, she shouldn't have the privilege of speaking Elvish. It had never been that way before, and she felt ashamed for using the language. Nicole lowered her head a little, so that she was staring down instead of holding her eyes locked with the prince.

Luckily, Legolas loosened his grip on her wrist, though not letting go completely.

*I am sorry,* she repeated, because the silence had stretched out and had begun to consume her. She used a more proper form because she was aware for the first time, of Legolas' royal status. Nicole was also painfully aware of the fact that she could be executed for what she did. It was not a comforting thought.

The silence grew again. The lack of acknowledgement of the apology had a devastating impact on Nicole. Her throat seized up, and she found it harder to breathe. Now she had to breathe through her nose in short pauses, and could feel the effects of not getting enough oxygen. Suddenly, the need to breathe in the immediate moment overtook the need to live through her possible execution. She blinked hard, trying to focus. C'mon Nicole. Breathe in, breathe out, breathe in, breathe out. The pressure on her wrist seemed more intense than before. I thought he had let go... Nicole's thoughts became confused and practically incoherent. Breathe in... the world is spinning... breathe out... don't faint, you're stronger than this.

She felt her muscles slackening and fought to stay conscious. Her mind lost control over her body, and for a split second, the two seemed separate. Nicole could see her self, but as a tiny person on the huge expanse that was Middle Earth. Her mind's eye could see the entire continent. As she looked on the land that seemed peaceful now, she grieved for what it would go through in the next year, as the Ring tried to take control. Her spirit looked up at the night sky, at the strange stars, and they brought no comfort. It was as if the world had been abandoned from the care of a greater power, left to care for itself. This entire revelation happened in less than a second, and then the feel of cold steel against her palm brought her back

Nicole had slumped forward, and her palm had landed on her dropped dagger blade. She blinked her eyes, and it seemed to her that an Elvish inscription on the blade glittered momentarily. Breathing came easily again, and her senses had come back to normal, so that she could now see that Legolas had finally released his grip on her wrist, and his blue eyes now held concern. That guy changes emotions faster than the speed of light. Nicole was happy to see that at least her way of thinking hadn't changed. She sat up straight again and pushed her hair out of her face. I'm going to have to do something about this hair. But now how am I going to deal with this situation? Talk about awkward. She was spared the trouble of figuring that out because Legolas finally spoke up.

*Are you all right?*

*Yeah, fine,* she mumbled, the two words toppling over each other.

A silence came again. What was there to say?

*Get some rest. First light is only an hour or two away,* he said with out emotion, and moved off to relieve Gimli of the night watch.

Nicole went back to where her blanket was and tried to fall asleep. Gimli soon came over and was fairly close to Nicole, which allowed for talking without waking others.

^What happened?^ the Dwarf asked gruffly, though Nicole could tell that he was truly concerned.

She smiled half-heartedly. ^A good joke gone terribly wrong.^

^How did it turn out?^

She sighed softly. ^Well, I'm pretty sure I've made a royal enemy.^

Gimli grinned, but she could barely tell through his beard. ^I could take care of him... a couple of swings of my axe. Your problem would be solved.^

Nicole grinned back. ^Good idea... but no thanks. I'm just happy to know that at least I have one person on my side.^

^I am happy to be on your side^ he replied.

She managed to fall asleep feeling somewhat better. The weird dream went away and she could sleep normally again. When she woke up again, it was first light and despite her lack of sufficient sleeping time, she felt refreshed. Or maybe it's just this cold mountain air.

"How are you this morning, Nicole?" Pippin asked her. She found the use of her name a bit odd. He pronounced it differently than how everyone else said it. She shoved it aside as meaningless information.

"I'm good, how are you?" she replied politely.

"Well, I wasn't sure, but now I am having a good day," he answered.

Ok... she thought, that's a weird answer. Whatever, he's short, so he must have a smaller brain too. She laughed at her thought. Pippin thought she was laughing at his humor, but she let him keep thinking that.

This day's walking was harder, and Nicole's muscles definitely felt the difference. Added on to yesterday's walking pains, she now had a headache from the thinning air. As they climbed higher, the temperature dropped and by noon, the whole ground was covered with about three centimeters of snow. Their lunch break was five minutes long.

"With any luck, we'll reach the summit in only a few days," Gandalf said, looking up at the jagged peak of Caradhras.

"Only a few days? And then what?" Nicole asked.

"We have to descend the other side, which will also take four or five days," Boromir replied.

"Oh. So basically, I'm spending another week and a half as an ice cube?" Nicole said. They looked at her blankly.

"You don't even know what an ice cube is?" she asked. Apparently they didn't so she just made something up about it being a delicacy in the land where she came from.

During the day, Nicole tried to observe the way that Gimli, Boromir and Legolas acted. Hmm, so Gimli and Boromir are kind of like my brothers. That's sweet. Now I don't have to fight for myself... this could work out as a benefit. Legolas... huh... well, he hasn't freaked out on me yet, so that's a good sign. But he hasn't talked to me at all. That's not different, though. He never talks to me. Whatever, if he forgot about the whole hair incident, then I can forget about it too.

Nicole's observations of the three of them were informative, so she watched the rest of the Fellowship. As she had always known, Sam was incredibly loyal to Frodo and he showed it too. Aragorn was really serious most of the time, but she was pretty sure he knew how to have fun. Gandalf was old... and not much else, other than being Wise, which deserved a capital W, in Nicole's opinion. She noticed that all of them had rubbed off on her, and she was starting to become more "Middle-Earthian". Merry was surprisingly smart and clever. And a practical joker, but he had been kind enough not to play any jokes on her... yet. But when Nicole observed Pippin for a while, she noticed that he was observing her. In fact, he was staring at her.

"Hey buddy," she said, trying to get him to snap out of it.

"Hello."

"Whatcha lookin at?" she asked.

"..." silence from his end.

"Hello? Earth to Pippin?" she asked. Geez, this guy is a regular weirdo, isn't he?

"What?" he asked, finally snapping out of it. "I'm sorry, what did you say?"

"Just asking if you've ever seen a person before," she replied sarcastically.

"Of course," he replied. "What a silly question."

"Well, have you ever seen a girl before?" maybe he had stayed hidden in a closet all his life or something.

"Yes," he replied, obviously not getting it.

"Ok. Great." Much to Nicole's dismay, Pippin kept looking at her.

"Are you ok?"

He nodded.

"Are you deficient?"

He nodded.

She started laughing. "Haha, you're deficient." He kept staring. "Ok buddy, now you're freaking me out." He kept staring. Nicole moved away and started walking more towards the other, more normal, hobbits.

"Hello Nicole," they greeted her.

"Is Pippin ok?" she asked, truly concerned.

"Course he is," said Merry. "He's a bit slow, but he's fine."

"Ok, if you say so," she answered.

"Why do you ask?" Frodo said.

"Well, he's been acting weird lately. Have you noticed?" she asked.

"Maybe he's been eating something. Some plants can be very dangerous," offered Sam as an explanation.

"Maybe the mountain is getting the better of him," was Frodo's explanation.

Merry laughed. "No, I know! He's taken a fancy to you!" he said, laughing.

Nicole paled. "You can't be serious," she said, not quite sure what to make of it. The hobbits seemed to agree. I'll just keep away from him for now... hopefully he'll get over it. "You are serious... Do you think maybe it will wear off or something?" Nicole asked, moving even farther away from the already distant Pippin. Eventually she just left the hobbits and sought out the protection of Aragorn, because they seemed to be scared of him.

"So... how much longer are we going to be walking?" she asked out of pure boredom.

"If you are tired already, then I have only bad news for you," he answered. After Nicole took a second to translate his weird way of talking, her shoulders slumped.

"Meanie," she grumbled. "It's like this whole day has been designed to make me mad... it's so unf--" she cut off her sentence abruptly with a sneeze. "You've got to be kidding me!" She sneezed again. "Great, now I'm sick." Another sneeze. "Let's look at the bright side of this," she said to Aragorn. "At least I can still talk normally." Sneeze. And then a coughing fit. "Oh this is just swell," she rasped through her itchy throat, which promoted another cough.

Nicole's sneezing and coughing had attracted the attention of the other members of the Fellowship. They all looked amused, especially Legolas. Stupid idiot... I'll get him... somehow... she thought.

"Yeah sure, hahaha, let's all laugh at Nicole," she said. "Honestly, is there anybody here that is normal?" The looks that they gave her clearly said that she was the not-normal one. She glared back at them. "You and your stupid immune systems."

A/N: get it? Effects- getting into a fight with Legolas.... Affections- lol, Pippin.... another effect is she's gotten sick from the mountain... Oh yeah, there's going to be something in the next chapter that you guys might think I stole from another author (the Elfin Child... v. good author!) but I actually thought of it a while ago... but whatever, put Nicole and the Fellowship on a mountain, and its bound to happen.

Now I know that all of you are very dedicated readers and you love me very much, so maybe this time we can actually make it all the way to 15 reviews? We're at 14 already... just one!

And, finally, I want to let you all know what this story is doing to me: I've actually gotten sick, just like Nicole. My marks have dropped a LOT, except in English. And I have a ton of projects due in the next few days (one is due tomorrow), none of which I have started.

REVIEW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ~moi~