A/N:(Three reviews! It seems like a good start to me!)

Dragon Confused: Yeah, I reread the last chapter and I agree. So I rewrote it. I hope you like the changes

Tongue in cheek scribe: Thank you. I'll try, but between school and homework, it is kind of hard

Voldie on Varsity Track: Oh well, if you don't like it, don't read it. It was just an inspiration I had

NOTE TO READERS: I REWROTE THE LAST CHAPTER. READ IT FIRST!!!!

"I'm giving up

On everything because you messed me up

Don't know how much you screwed it up

You never listen, that's just too bad"

Lilly went back to singing under her breath, and from the doorway, Legolas could hear no more.

"Lilly?" she whirled around, almost falling off of the windowsill. Legolas rushed to her side, steadying her. She gave him a small smile of thanks.

"Why aren't you at the feast?" she asked him with a slight frown

"I could ask you the same thing" Legolas retorted, causing Lilly to look down

"Lilly, what happened to you?" he asked, tilting her chin up and looking into her eyes. Her green eyes told him of pain, suffering and sadness. She quickly looked away from his gaze

"I just want to help you," he told her. She sighed and climbed down from the windowsill, moving to sit Indian style on the floor.

"You should sit down, it is a long story," she told him and Legolas sat down across from her.

"I guess I should start at the beginning" she sighed

"Elsie and my mother abandoned us when we were maybe a day old. She left us on a stranger's doorstep with a note. The note said that she was 16 years old and couldn't afford to keep us, that she didn't have enough money. The couple whose doorstep we had been left on had no children, and they took us in, adopting us as their own. We even called them Mama and Papa.

Mama died when we were 12. Papa started drinking, and quickly got addicted. He would get very angry easily, and started hitting us. I would always get hit more than Elise, mostly because she was the quiet, very obedient one. I, on the other hand was willful, loud, and generally hyper. Now Papa considered my willfulness to be disobedience and set about breaking it. If I did one thing wrong or talked back to him, he would hit me" She rolled up the long sleeves of her shirt, showing him the many bruises that adorned her pale arms that had obviously not seen the sun for many years.

"Elsie couldn't take it very long, and one night he came home stone drunk. It was the eve of our 17th birthday. He hit her so hard that she flew back against the wall and got knocked unconscious. While she was unconscious, I did my best to protect her from him, and ended up near unconsciousness myself. He finally decided we had learned our lesson and went to bed. I carried her up to our room, and she woke up as I carried her.

Papa's lucky that he locked his door that night. We tried it, but couldn't get it opened. She told me that she couldn't take it any more. The next morning when I awoke to Papa's shouting, she was gone. We found out that she had killed herself, jumped off a cliff. Papa became very wary of what I might do, if I might go to someone and tell them. He forbid me to go to school and only hit me where it wasn't obvious. If I had to go out in public, I had to wear long sleeves and hide my wounds, no matter what the temperature outside. He said if I told anyone, he would kill whomever I had told and me.

I had taken more than enough shit from him. Elsie's death just added to my mind and I finally just slit my wrists one day. Unfortunately Papa decided to come back from the bar early, and found me. He took me to the hospital; he told the nurses there that I had gotten the bruises from falling out of the tree near our house.

While in the hospital, I was not even slightly deterred by the fact that I had been stopped one from committing suicide. I managed to get my hands on enough medicine to kill myself. Somehow the nurse found out and she took it away. I had to stay in the hospital for a couple months as all my injuries healed. They were some of the best months of my life. I finally got let out, and found that Papa was worse, and that he had a lot of pent-up anger.

I ran away from home, determined to make it on my own. He found me and took me home. He was angrier than I had ever seen him. He beat me with a whip" She lifted up the back of her shirt and Legolas could see whip marks, red scars against her pale back

"I stole his car the next day, and drove to the cliffs. When I jumped, I ended up here, where you found me." Lilly didn't want to look at Legolas; instead she picked a spot on the floor and began staring at it. If she had looked, she might have seen the anger in his eyes for someone that could do that to a young girl, breaking down her very sprit. Tears unconsciously slipped from Lilly's eyes as she stared at the floor. Legolas stood up and helped her stand, hugging her to him tightly.

"You are safe here," he whispered soothingly as her silent tears turned into sobs

"You are far away from him and you have a chance to start a new life, without him" Lilly sniffed

"I know, but I am so afraid that somehow he will find me and hurt me again" she whispered between her tears. Legolas stroked her long red hair,

"If he does somehow find you, I will be the first person to help protect you, and I am sure I am not the only one" Lilly looked up into his blue elven eyes, and seeing only the truth in them, smiled

"Thank you Legolas. I guess I am just being worried for nothing, but it is nice to know that there are some who would stand up for me." Legolas nodded and wiped her tears off her cheeks with his finger

"No more crying now. I have heard from your sister that it is you two's birthday" he paused and Lilly nodded

"And you should be happy on your birthday" he finished with a smile. Lilly nodded and sighed, yawning slightly.

"Am I interrupting something?" Elsie asked with a wicked smile from the doorway. Legolas and Lilly broke their embrace and looked over

"No sister, you are not. I have just merely told him about our history, and of course that got me crying again, so he was comforting me." Elsie's grin faded

"It is still fresh in your mind. The pain will fade with time away from him, and although the hurt will probably never go away for good, it will still become easier to deal with" Elsie assured Lilly, who nodded, yawning again.

"I think it is time I take my leave." Legolas said with a smile "Lilly should really get some sleep" Lilly smiled at him and gave him a hug. He hugged her back and left the room, walking silently away down the hallway.

"So did you tell him the truth of what really happened?" Elsie asked. Lilly nodded

"Everything that I told him was true. I omitted a few things that I am not ready to talk about yet, but I told him almost everything"

"What exactly did you omit?" Elise asked curiously

"Mark, the knife" Lilly broke off with a faraway look in her eyes "The child" she sighed sadly. Elsie nodded, knowing her sister's pain and knowing that she could never come close to touching it, unable to help her.

"Come with me" she ordered Lilly, who turned towards her. Elsie stood in the door and glanced over Lilly's room

"I would tell you to bring your stuff, but I don't think you have any" Elsie commented, stepping into the hallway. If she had been a moment sooner, she would have seen Legolas, who had lingered in the hallway near the door. Elsie walked through the hallway, followed by Lilly. She stopped at a door a ways down the hallway and put a key in the lock.

"You can stay in my room" she informed Lilly, opening the door. Lilly gasped in awe and amazement. The room was beautiful. The walls were painted lavender, and there was just a plain wooden floor. The ceiling, however, was awe-inspiring. It was painted to look like the night sky, stars dancing across a black sky. Elsie smiled at her reaction and walked in, going over to a small dresser and taking out two nightgowns.

"Here" she threw one across the room at Lilly, who recovered from her shock in time to catch it. Lilly stepped in and closed the door behind her. She held up the nightgown and smiled faintly. It was long sleeved and went down to about her ankles. She undressed and put it on.

"Thanks" she said softly to Elsie as she slipped into bed. Elsie nodded as she put on a nightgown too, but hers was short-sleeved and shorter, only barely going past her knees. Lilly looked up at the ceiling. The stars looked so real from their perches on the ceiling. She felt Elsie lie down next to her, and soon fell asleep.

Lilly screamed in horror as her father advanced towards her, a kitchen knife in his hands.

"I can't believe a daughter of mine turned out to be a whore! You've known him for less than a year and you have already slept with him at least once! Look where it got you! He left you for someone else now, you little slut" The thing that hurt the most was the knowledge that he was right. He slashed at her with the knife, catching her in the stomach. Lilly gasped as she collapsed in a pool of blood

"Lilly...Lilly...wake up! A frantic voice called, she barely heard it, as if the voice came from afar. Lilly sat straight up and the room swam around her. Elsie was kneeling by the bed, face taunt with worry. A tall elf that Lilly didn't recognize rushed into the room, followed by Legolas and Aragorn. All wore worried expressions.

"Are you okay?" Elsie asked her from her side. Lilly nodded, still gasping for breath.

"It was just a bad dream." Elsie assured her, putting a hand on her shoulder. Lilly looked down

"No it wasn't," she said in a soft, sad voice "It was a memory" Elsie's face clouded with understanding

"Lilly, this is Lord Elrond," Elsie gestured towards the elf that Lilly had not recognized. Lilly nodded her head respectfully, glancing over the tall elf.

"Are you really okay?" Legolas asked from her side, voice thick with worry. Lilly looked up at him and he looked deeply into her eyes. He could see pain that was deeper than physical, emotional scars that she had hidden deep inside herself. She nodded sadly and looked away

"I will be" she said, not really believing her own words, playing with a piece of her hair, twisting it with her fingers. "Someday" she said in a voice so soft that only Elrond and Legolas could hear with their elven hearing.

So people, review please! If you don't like it, you can tell me, but unless you offer CONSTRUCTIVE criticism, I am going to tell you that if you don't like it, don't read it. Oh, and by the way, I do not consider "This is not original and I think you should delete it" to be constructive. Anyways, I will try to update soon. Belinda