Legolas refused to believe there was no hope, Caitlin had taught him that much. Love is precious, and a connection between two spirits is rare, even for elfs.

Caitlin peered out at the beautiful design that lay before her. A suit of armor, her armor, from the elven people now was adorned with red, white and blue patterns, which covered the entire thing. All but a sun on the breastplate, the symbol of the king of Edoras.

"You spoke of your people, of their war, is your country at war?" asked Eomer.

"Yes. We are at war, though your warfare is quite different from middle earth." She responded as her hand traced the line of the designs.

"But people die?" he asked again.

"Yes, to many people die, on both sides of all war in my world." She said. With sadness in her heart.

"Then you must honor them, where this armor when you fight for our us, you fight for our home when you could be fighting to defend your own," he said.

He called forth three women who all bowed to Caitlin and stood before her. "These are the finest seamstresses in our land, tell them of your flag, and they shall create it for you. You will carry it into battle with us, a reminder to all of middle earth that the gods have sent you from a far away land because they mean for our struggle to succeed." He said.

"That is enough Eomer." Said a whispering voice from behind Caitlin. She turned to see king theoden, a bandage still draping his neck. "Surely this young lady has seen and talked enough of our gifts, so many gifts, and yet she still will have to actually use them, a far harder task." He said as he came up to her with a smile and took her hand.

"Will you walk with me."

"Of course my lord." She said. Eomer seemed disappointed as she left him, as though he had some other purpose for speaking with her.

"You are young girl." Said Theoden as they walked along the balcony.

"Some would say so my lord, certainly younger in years than any other here." she said, curious as to where he was going with his questioning.

"aah, yes. The key word being in 'years'" he said with a smile and a small chuckle. "You are older than even I am child."

Caitlin didn't know weather that was a compliment or not but she allowed the old king to finish without interruption.

"You carry so many burdens on your shoulders, you have your own purpose to discover here in middle earth I know, you also have to stay alive, these battles can be a tricky thing, you must be sharp, strong, wise, a leader of nations. You carry the hope of an entire world in your every word." Theoden stopped and sat on the edge of the balcony, playing with a flower he had plucked from the wandering vine. He paused and breathed in as a gust of wind blew by. "....and you have love to discover and work through. I am some what ashamed to find myself asking you to add yet another burden to your already weighted down mind, but I must ask you none the less." Caitlin could barely hear him now as his voice began to deteriorate from his wound. "I cannot lead my people without words, you are a seer, a wizard, will you ride with me into battle, wherever that may be. After all we are short one commander now that we have an entire dwarve army to coordinate with and I-I cannot be the king I must while my voice is gone."

"It will return my lord?" she asked

"No, the healers say it will soon fade away until I can no longer speak."

The thought unsettled her, to lead an army into battle, less than a year ago, all she was looking to lead was the yoga classes. "What of Eomer, can he not take this honor."

"No. Eomer must lead the second company. Will you help me."

Caitlin didn't quite know what to say, she didn't know weather she could do it. Would she be able to lead an army. "I don't know my lord, I love your people but this is something I must think on." She said, her voice was so tired, her heart was weary and her mind raced.

"Then I will await your answer when you are ready to give it." said theoden.

"Thank you." Said Caitlin as she headed out across the balcony. She had to get to her room, this, whole thing was just over whelming, she had to think, to sleep, to just slow down, it had been non stop since she had awakened and her leg was throbbing, she leaned more and more on the spear and every step became more painful than the last.

But perhaps it wasn't theoden, the dwarves, the war, it wasn't that at all, it was Legolas. She loved him so much, why did she have to even bring up the subject of their differences, why couldn't she just be content to be happy. To live without worrying about their future. Caitlin could die in the battles to come, why waist the time they were given now, she was so confused, and hurt.

As she made her way slowly down the wooden corridors she could feel the tears begin to form. She brushed them away from her face telling herself she would not cry.

Trying to remember which path led to her room, Caitlin passed by two hallways. All the doors looked the same, every hallway looked the same. How was anyone supposed to find their way around. The sky must have been dark by now, because the only thing lighting her way was the torches.

Thinking perhaps she had taken a wrong turn and getting frustrated, Caitlin turned around to go again in the other direction. Her foot caught on a jagged stone in the floor tile and she went crashing down, sending the spear sliding down the hall.

"SHIT!!!" she screamed. Caitlin was so upset, frustrated, and sad. She was so lost, in this maze, her leg was so painful and now her toe hurt like hell also. She sat up onto her rear and leaned against the wall, the tears couldn't have been stopped by anything short of a miracle now, and Caitlin was glad to stop fighting them. There was nothing for her to do other than cry.

"I think you dropped something." Said a familiar voice.

Caitlin looked up to see Legolas holding the spear. Caitlin put on a smile as the tears ran down her face. "You know..sniff... that damned thing is...sniff... more trouble than help." She said between the sniffles.

"Yeah, didn't do much good for Gil Galad either," he said.

Caitlin laughed a bit at his playfulness for a moment until her tears came back again. "Oh, Legolas, I....i just...im so..."

Legolas leaned down and kissed her, sweeping her up into his arms before she had even the slightest chance to tell him how miserable she was, how frustrating this whole thing was, how much she wished everything to be simple, for their love to be easy.

"shshsh, just don't think about it now, just let it be, for one more night." He said.

How eagerly, she accepted his words, how wonderful it was to simply feel, not think, just feel. Just let go and find herself hanging in the peaceful embrace of his arms. Where no war could interfere and reality was only what they made it.

Legolas felt content with her their, and he too happily doused the flame of reality in her warmth, at least for now.

They both understood that sooner or later they would have to face the truth, but each also needed time to love first, they needed eachother.

Legolas was an elf, a race which took joy in love and in making love. And yet, through the thousands of years he had been alive; to be spiritually inspired through love had always been something no other being could manifest in him. To love so dearly and truly as to awaken the soul of another.

Caitlin opened gates of his heart that he never knew existed. She showed his spirit what love was. She took his breath away every time she grazed her hand against his, every time she stared at him. Her strength inspired him, and her vulnerability showed him flawlessness like he had never thought of it before. It was her imperfections, which made her so perfect for him.

And as they both lay together on her bed. She closed her eyes. Feeling his arms resting around her. She fit so nicely in his grasp. As her head rested close to his chest. She moved her face to breath in the scent from his shirt feeling the soft fabric with her nose, as his chin rested lightly on the top of her head.

The room was quite, with the nighttime breeze blowing softly through the curtains from the balcony being the only sound. The moonlight shown a dull blue through to the room illuminating their bodies with a soft sheen. A few candles were lit next to the bed, which flickered as the cold night air blew in.

Caitlin snuggled closer to legolas as the night became colder and he lifted the heavy down blanket up over their bodies.

"I will always love you, Legolas." She said as she opened her eyes. Kissing his chest.

Legolas released her a bit and moved his head to face hers. "You have never had to speak it my love, it seems now an injustice, to call my connection with you love. Such a simple word, to small to show our true meaning." He said kissing her forehead.

"It is more than words." She said, holding him tightly. "I want to make love to you Legolas." She said as she buried her face in his chest. Running her hand up his side, to his back...

"And I you," he said as he kissed her deeply. "No more words." he ran his hand up from behind her back to her side, caressing her stomach....

IMPORTANT: i seem to have been churning out chapters by the day lately, though none of them are very long. I don't know how long this trend will last, but I haven't been receiving many reviews, I hope to get more in the near future so please, please review, tell me if I suck or you like where I am going with all of this....

Ok, I know this is a rated R fic, but I couldn't quite understand the line that I could and couldn't cross, so I decided to make a love scene as tasteful as I could. I hope no one was offended if I crossed any lines and that no one was offended if I didn't cross enough lines. But either way, this is what was the result.