Disclaimer: As much as I would love to own these characters, alas I do not.

Thank you to Katy, My very good friend and confidence booster!

Chapter Eighteen

Estel found he could not look away from those bright blue eyes. His mouth was dry as he tried to speak once more.

"Legolas?"

"F… friend? E… estel?" The voice was halting and faint and Estel felt his heart drop once more, for one minute, one glorious minute he had thought…

"Yes, Legolas, I am your friend." Thranduil had moved to stand beside him and was looking down at his son an unreadable expression on his face but his eyes showed the King's pain.

"A… ada?" There was a frown on the fair face as he took in the Elf at Estel's side. No one moved, no one dared breathe, every one thought the same irrational thought; that if they moved or spoke this illusion would break and vanish.

"A… ada, h… hurt." The pain in his eyes was startling and Elrond was the first to move.

"Where does it hurt, Legolas?"

"H… head." This was followed by a deep swallow as the colour on his face, a sickly grey worsened.

Elladan was nearest and handed a bowl, normally used for storing herbs, to Estel. It took them a while to settle him back down and for the nausea to end.

"Legolas, do you know who I am?" Elrond could not help the hope that rang clear in his voice in the quiet room.

"E… El… Elw…" He could not get the word out, but they all knew exactly what he was trying to say.

"Well done, can you tell me who this is?" He gestured to Thranduil.

A deep frown that quickly cleared. "A… Ada."

"Can you tell me his name?" Elrond was smiling now.

"A… Ada." The smile vanished before he looked once more at the Prince and incredibly found a spark of amusement in those eyes. "T… Th… Thwan…" All of them were smiling know, pleased beyond expression to have their friend and son back.

Legolas glanced lazily around the room; exhausted beyond anything he had ever felt before, taking in his family and friends. It was then he noticed the Maia standing close to Haldir.

"M… Mifw…" A scowl crossed his face as he realised for the first time that he was not able to get his words out properly.

"It is a pleasure to speak to you, Legolas; we have been worried about you." Mithrandir smiled calmly not wanting to upset the Prince.

Legolas' attention had already passed back to Elrond. "W… what?"

Elrond smiled down at him, pleased at how alert the younger Elf was. "You had a bit of an accident, Legolas and have been hurt."

"H… how?"

"That I am afraid we do not really now know. We can talk of that later, I need to have a look at you before you get some more rest." He looked at the others, every one who looked astonished. "Could we have a little time alone, just the two of us?"

It took some persuading, but eventually the others left the room.

When they returned a while later, Legolas was asleep. Elrond saw the worry as they took this in.

"He is only sleeping, nothing more."

"How is he?" Estel could not take his eyes of his friend.

"All things considered, very well. He has some left sided weakness that is affecting his leg and arm. We can work on that, I envisage that with some hard work on Legolas' part, that will fade with time. He is having some problems with speaking."

"He could not get some words out." Thranduil voice was quiet, as he listened to the healer.

"Yes, and he also has some trouble expressing what he is trying to say, that is also normal considering the injuries he had, we can also work on that. His memory is somewhat affected."

"His memory? But he seemed fine earlier." Elladan could not help but burst out.

"Yes, his long term memory seems to be intact, he could tell me or express to me who each of us was. It is his short term memory that is the problem." He turned to Thranduil. "He does not even remember leaving Mirkwood and as for the events surrounding the journey here, he knows nothing. This may return with time but equally it may never return."

"What do we do now, Ada?" Estel once more had Legolas' hand in his own.

"For now we support him. Over the next few days he will need a lot of rest. One of the side effects of this type of head injury and the surgery he has had to have is that the patient is exhausted beyond what is normal. We need to keep reminding him that this is normal and will pass. We also need to get him to do some bed exercises so that his muscles do not deteriorate anymore than they already have." Elrond had moved once more to the herb table and was preparing them, almost with out thinking as he talked.

"The thing you must all be prepared for is that he will have mood swings, he may get angry seemingly over nothing. This is again from the head injury; he will also be very frustrated. Try not to let it get to you, the more you react, the more upset he will become."

"In short we need to be his friend and help him as much as we can. For the next few days I would prefer him to keep on eating light food and soups, until I am sure that he is absorbing them with out difficulty.

What we must not forget is this on going outside threat. For the minute Legolas is very vulnerable. Probably more so than when he was unconscious. Eventually he will have to leave this room and begin to pick up his life. He will need every single one of us then."

It was a very sober group who settled themselves down to wait for Legolas to wake up. Thranduil and Estel would not go far from his side, both determined to help the Prince through the hard up coming days.

Estel sighed; this was getting no where fast. Legolas had woken up later that afternoon in a surly mood and it had only gotten worse since then. Nothing they had done seemed to cheer the Elf up.

His pillows were not comfortable, nom matter how they positioned them. His head hurt, but he did not like the herbs. The room was too hot and then it was too cold. He wanted to sit up but then he wanted to lay straight back down.

But the final straw came at the evening meal. They had all been patient and tried their best for Legolas; it just felt a little like it was being thrown back in their face. Thranduil had had to leave the room, seeing his son like that hurt. Elrond had sent him to get some sleep.

The meal for Legolas was a bowl of clear soup. Estel was trying his best to interest Legolas into eating it, but the Elf would not even try it. Not that Estel could blame his friend, the soup looked completely unpalatable.

"Please, Legolas, at least have a few spoonful for me?"

"N… no!" Legolas was adamant, there was no way any of that…mess… was making its way into his mouth.

"You need to eat, Mellon-nin, Ada has already said that if you can eat this without any problem you can have something slightly more appetising later on." Estel tried to coax his friend.

"N… no, w… wotten."

Estel frowned what the? Wotten? What did… oh, rotten! "Just try it; it may not taste as bad as you think."

"Y… you."

"Me? Me what?" This was worse than trying to feed a small Elfling.

"E… eat, y…ou e… eat." The stubborn set to the Prince's chin told its own story.

"It is not my food, Legolas, and you know it! You can not get out of this, stop being stubborn and childish!" The minute he said it Estel could have groaned. If there was one way to push Legolas' stubborn button it was a stupid comment like that. There was no way he could remedy the situation know.

He was right. With one dark glare, Legolas used his left arm to sweep the table clear of all of its contents, no matter what it was. Once done he sat back right arm crossed over his chest and a look on his face that spoke so eloquently what he could not put into words. It was a look that said "There enough!"

The crash of falling china brought the guards into the room and woke Elrond from the healing sleep he had fallen into. Elladan, caught up in the game of chess with Glorfindel, caught the board and sent it flying across the floor. Chess pieces flew everywhere.

"Now that is really going to help is it not? If you are going to be so childish may be I should just treat you like a child. How would sending you to bed without any food sound?" Estel's voice rose as the stress of the last week caught up with him.

Legolas said nothing, just glared at him; Glorfindel had to admit he would not like to be in Estel's shoes at that minute, the glare could kill an Orc on sight.

"Oh, that's not good enough? How about being grounded? Sent to your room? We all have to do things we do not wan to….."

"That is enough, Estel." Elrohir was helping his father sit up.

"No, Ada, the cook tried his best to make that for Legolas and the ungreat…"

"I said that is enough, Estel. This is unnecessary. May be you should leave and calm down for a while."

"I do not need to calm down. I am perfectly calm!" Estel span around to face his father anger clearly written all over his face.

Elladan stood and walked over to him, catching his arm as he moved past him. "Come, Estel, I think we both need some fresh air. We will be going for a walk, Ada." He winked at Legolas as they left the room.

When Estel returned two hours later he had to admit that he really had needed the time to him self. He also felt more than a little guilty. They had been warned that Legolas would not be acting like his normal self for a while, so why would Legolas not wanting to eat his soup send Estel into a rage.

He shook his head; he was tired, very tired. Since this whole mess had started it had been like a roller coaster ride. It had been one up and down after another. It was not Legolas' fault, if any one had a right to be angry over what had happened it was he. He needed to apologise to everyone, but definitely to Legolas.

He opened the door after taking a deep breath and stepped through. He felt a sense of relief and disappointment when he found Legolas fast asleep, as was his father.

His brothers and Glorfindel were still in the room and Haldir sat reading a book. Sitting on a chair between the two pallets.

They all looked up as he entered and he gave them a smile of embarrassment. "I am sorry; I do not know why Legolas set me off…"

"You have no need to apologise, Estel, at least not to us." Glorfindel's smile was sincere and Estel felt a lump he had noticed in his stomach ease. "Speak to them when they wake, they will both understand."

"Did he eat anything?" Estel was watching Legolas as he slept.

"Yes, but not the soup." Elladan's voice was sardonic.

"No soup?" Estel's grin was side.

"No, he through the bowl over Elladan." It was then that Estel noticed his brother was in different clothes. "The cook prepared some very light eggs, which he ate with no problems."

"Good, I have to admit the soup did look pretty awful." The admission brought a smile to all their faces.

"We did find out what was wrong with him, though. He was in pain from his head; the herbs have helped once more."

Elladan's admission made Estel feel guiltier that he had ever felt. He should have known what kind of friend was he?

He would make it up to his friend that he promised.

Their plans were moving along very well. The Orcs had started their way towards Rivendell and would not be stopping overnight. Another twenty four hours and the action should begin. Another twenty four hours and they could make it into Rivendell and see to the Prince.

The leader looked around the cave, it would be nice to get home and see his wife and Elfling. How he missed them! He deliberately pushed down the voice that spoke in the back of his mind telling him that he would be separating another family permanently.

The night passed peacefully and slowly. Legolas woke in pain around midnight, the pain in his head making it almost impossible to speak. Elrond's wonderful herbs came to the rescue and the Prince had slept once more.

As the day dawned and the world once again began her day, the room in the Halls of Healing began to stir. The morning meal was taken in silence so that they would not disturb the still sleeping Prince.

When Legolas did wake up the first thing he did was turn to Estel to apologise for his behaviour of the past evening.

To be continued

May I once more thank my wonderful reviewers? Thank you!!

Elanor8: Thank you once more for your kind words and no cliff hanger on this chapter either!

Gozilla: Thank you, here you are…

Gemini969: Again, thank you, I hope you enjoy.

Deana: Thank you. As you asked so nicely, here is chapter 18!

Azla. I hope you like this chapter too…

Valderian: Wow thank you, I am honoured. I hope this chapter lays to rest some of your concerns?

Jopru: Thank you, glad you liked the cliffie.

Shadow Fox777: Here you are I hope you get this before you leave for your vacation, Mellon-nin. Have a nice timer, are you going somewhere nice?

Coolio02: Puts the key board down and backs carefully away… No projectiles please, I'll be nice, I promise… No cliffie on this one either, just for you!

Thank you once again for joining me and I will up date very, very soon.

Love,
Shell