Author: Mirrordance
Title: For Every Evil
Summary: Legolas is a policeman in 2004. His colleagues start to wonder why the 10-yr veteran doesn't age & more trouble ahead after he runs across the Fellowship & some friends in modern incarnations, resurrected along with a new world-threatening peril.
13: An Interesting Vacation
Los Angles, Mid-2004
Elladan and Elrohir stepped into the apartment to find Gandalf wearing the 'Kiss the Cook' apron and Anatalia beside him as they worked to prepare breakfast.
"Oh, honey, you cooked!" Elladan said with a smile, and she regarded him sarcastically and overly sweetly, so sweetly her face turned sour with her incredible ire over having been left behind in her sleep during the night and with the men going off on some wild adventure, leaving the old person and the woman behind.
"You are archaic," she told him darkly, "In more than one sense of the word." She practically shoved a plate of scrambled eggs into his hands.
"Did you put anything in it?" he asked her sardonically.
"Laxatives, why?" she retorted, "Is that going to be a problem?"
Elrohir glanced at the pair and decided to bite his tongue. He's already been in one crossfire today, after all. He strode for Legolas' laptop and immediately began to work; Adrian Aarons was coming by soon, and he's going to want some explanations.
The cops came over, because someone reported the sounds of gunfire. By the time they arrived, Legolas, Elrohir and Elladan wisely kept away, and Adrian remained to feed the cops some cock-and-bull story about how he's been having problems from fundamentalists who didn't appreciate his last journal and investigation into some new medical technologies.
They accepted it for now and advised him to take a few days off work and let emotions cool down a bit. They weren't incredibly worried, though they did fill his place with ballistics people who gathered bullet, after bullet, after bullet, after bullet…
Adrian shuddered at the thought of how closely he came to meeting his maker. He called Brad, who was still a bit hung over from their night out. His old friend was quick to sober up (as he had!) after the news, though, and as per Legolas' suggestion, the two of them, along with Fred, went to the Detective's apartment. They entered the building just as the sun was rising, and Greene met them at the door.
"They're with me, Joshua," Legolas said to the doorman, smiling at the three new arrivals with some reserve.
"You got a party going on up there, Detective?" Joshua asked him.
"It's all work," Legolas replied easily, ushering in Fred, Bard and Adrian to the elevators.
"Fancy digs for a cop," Brad commented, looking about the building and the opulent furnishings. Adrian was himself surprised, although he was trying to convince himself that nothing should be a surprise anymore.
"So where'd all this come from?" Adrian asked, "Not the taxpayers, I hope."
"No," Legolas replied, "I have other sources of income."
"Drug trafficking?" Adrian said dryly, "Bioengineering? Are you some kind of a crooked cop?"
"Don't be snide," Legolas said evenly, "All will be explained. The situation's changed. We need each other, and we need each other's information too."
"Freeze, LAPD," Elladan said the very moment Legolas stepped into the apartment.
"Very funny, mellon-nin," Legolas said wryly, leading Brad and Fred inside, "Really."
"What happened to the old, silent, stealthy warrior-elf, hm?" Elrohir asked.
"This is my town, you forget," Legolas replied, "I have responsibilities. And nowadays, they find a body in your house with your bullet in it even for whatever the reason, the headache is yours."
The group of eight crowded Detective Greene's spacious, minimalist living room. Elrohir had the stage, and he asked Adrian Aarons if he ever kept in touch with his relatives in Europe.
"I have relatives in Europe?" the doctor asked back, "Family's been in America as long as anyone cares to remember."
"Well you do have relatives in Europe," said Elrohir, "That's where you all came from."
"What does this have to do with anything?" Fred asked.
"Don't even let me get started on the pair of you," Elrohir muttered, "Um. Is your father still alive?"
"Later," Legolas snapped, not quite wanting to get into that other crazed situation just yet.
"Last year," said Elrohir, "All your distant male relatives perished in some strange occurrence or other. I am talking quite a lot of men here."
Adrian Aarons frowned. "I am very sorry for that. Truly I am. But you could very well be talking about strangers to me. Accidents happen all the time. I could hardly feel greatly bothered by the deaths of strangers."
"I'd be pretty damn bothered if I were you," Elrohir said as he swiveled the LCD of the laptop his way, showing him the faces of his dead kin. One after the other, they resembled Estel in some manner. One after the other, they resembled him.
"They look nothing like me—" he was lying, except the two companions who sat with him cursed and muttered.
"Holy crap!" Brad breathed, "Holy crap."
Fred shook his head in disbelief looking at the faces closer, wordlessly commandeering the laptop for a closer inspection. He looked at the pictures, looked at the dates, looked at the profiles of some. He found them believable enough.
"They do look an awful lot like you," he said To Adrian in a low voice.
"Last night and this morning's incidents," said Elrohir, "Were not aimed at ruining, or stealing the samples that came from us. They were geared toward your demise."
"Well I don't know what the hell for!" Adrian retorted.
Legolas frowned. Where do I start…
"They are after the heirs of a man named Aragorn," said Elrohir tentatively.
"Heirs?" Adrian asked, "Does this mean my mother could be in danger?"
"They do not touch the women," Legolas said, "But just in case, her house is being watched."
"Her house is being watched?" Adrian's eyes widened in barely-restrained anger, "Her house is being—"
"I'm going to tell you something you need to hear," Legolas said to him sternly, "And you can either believe it or not. But I am telling you, expressly, that one way or another, whoever is behind this will try and get you, and at this point you can rely on nobody else but us."
"Try me," Adrian declared boldly.
And Legolas did. With great earnestness, and using just the most necessary of details (i.e., leaving out the rather difficult parts of Boromir, and Faramir and Denethor), he told the War of the Ring, and the passing of the years ironically to one of its greatest movers. When he concluded, he waited for a reaction with bated breath.
Adrian Aarons laughed, and heartily at that.
"I know," Anatalia sighed, "That's what I thought."
"You think," Adrian struggled as he caught his breath, "You actually think, that I am some… some reincarnation of this great guy? A guy so great, whose done so much, that he's not even in our history books, hm? And that we're all back here to stop some big weird evil? And you want me to believe that you guys are a bunch of elves? God! You'd better be glad I have a good sense of humor, because otherwise, I'd really be pissed at you, not only for wasting my time, not only for making light of a really bad-assed situation on my part, but also for thinking I'm an idiot and expecting me to buy this crap."
Legolas looked at Elrond's twins helplessly, with ill-concealed grief in his icy eyes. There was so much disappointment there, so much powerless anger. How can one be made to believe?
"Listen to me," Elrohir said suddenly, "You," he pointed to Fred and Brad, "Are brothers, right? I'll play you a mean card because I need you to get this into your heads. Does your father's name begin with a D? Is he a bit of an a-hole?"
"You will not talk about him this way!" Brad snapped.
"You would say that," Elrohir said boldly, "Because he likes you more. Oh, you all know it and if you ask him blankly, he won't deny it. He's kind of stern, and well, since you're all doctors you likely took up psychology as a pre-med, you know he's got an issue or two."
"This does not prove anything," Fred pointed out, irked at how annoyingly close the observations/guesses/assumptions were.
"This might," Anatalia piped in. She tossed the three gentlemen Legolas' photographs. No one even noticed her slipping out of the room for a moment. "These were auctioned off by a reputable auctioning house, which means they've been dated and are beyond reproach. If you want the papers, I can have them faxed to you." she gave them her card. "This is who I am and unlike the other shady characters here, that you can really look up. I know how you feel. I found out about this just days ago. It's fantasy, its fiction, yes. But think about it. What if it's not, hm? What if they're right? What if you're supposed to be doing something? Tell you what. Practically speaking, it's a fact that you don't have a lab right now, do you? And you've been advised by the cops to lay off work for a while? So my advice to you is ride with it. If it yields nothing, then you had an interesting vacation. If it yields something, then you did something right."
The three men did not say anything for a long while. She said things that were admittedly true.
"I'm aiming for an interesting vacation," Adrian said sardonically.
"Good," she breathed, glancing up at Elladan, "Good."
The whole bloody apartment was cramped.
Leland Greene was not going to let the three new members of his curious, crazy crusade out of his sight. The good thing was, they were only staying thus for a night; they needed the libraries (not to mention the space!) of Imladris, and they were jetting off to Austria the very next day. It was all relatively smooth sailing, since Fred, Bard, Adrian and Anatalia had certifiable passports. Elrohir, Elladan and Legolas had papers that were crafted by the best of the underground. Elrohir and Elladan had their contacts in Europe but Legolas, for one, has been with the same running U.S. company for years and paid handsomely for the unquestionable quality of the contraband work. It was in this way that Legolas made a few calls, and secured a passport for Gandalf in no time. They were going to Imladris yet again.
Unable to sleep, though, Anatalia found herself drifting toward the bar for a night cap, and was surprised to find her lover's brother making good friends with a bottle of Legolas' finest brandy.
"Come over and join us," Elrohir told her with a smile.
"Is that your girlfriend?" she teased.
"Brandy," Elrohir declared, "Anatalia. Anatalia, brandy."
He poured her a glass, which she took gratefully, saying, "Thank you. I cannot seem to fall asleep."
"Oh this will knock you out real good," he promised her, "Legolas goes only for the very best."
She took a sip, watching his lonely, lined face. He looked troubled. "Aren't you supposed to be the funny one?"
He looked at her ironically. "I'm finding fewer and fewer things to laugh about. Elladan and I… we should have taken more care. Now they are all dead."
She knew now what it was that had bothered him. Elladan, the night previous, had told her of the events that was told to Adrian Aarons just this morn. But Elladan also told of how he and Elrohir stayed to look after the heirs of their younger brother.
She could not dispute that a lot of them were dead. She wouldn't insult his intelligence, or trivialize his hurts. Instead, she said, "But there is one still. Elladan knows this. So do you."
"Aye," he agreed, "And I'm sure you know by now what I mean if I say that… that there really isn't anything new about that. One little shred of hope against fantastical odds. All it takes is one."
"I do know what you mean," she affirmed, smiling slightly.
"You did good this morning," he said, "Especially for one who's been plunged headfirst into this herself."
"I love your brother," she told him easily, "I care about the things that mean greatly to him."
"Do you have a twin?" he asked her jauntily.
"No," she laughed, "At least, not that I know of."
He sighed melodramatically. "Well you know, with reincarnations and strange acquaintances popping out of the woodworks, one can always hope."
"As you always have," she said wistfully, taking in a huge gulp of her fare, "But I am wondering… what in the world I am doing here."
Elrohir frowned. "What of it?"
"Everyone here," she replied, "has either lived forever, or lived once before, and have this… this definite place, this great part to play. I'm like… I'm like… this spectator, an accessory, this… this… incidentally-here character. You know, like one of those 'girlfriend' roles in the cinema."
He smiled at her knowingly. "I hate ending up sounding like Gandalf, right? It makes me feel old. But anyone here is meant to be here. Wait and see."
TO BE CONTINUED…
Hey guys!!! Massive thanks for reading and the reviews!!! I have a feeling I'm nearing completion of the story… I'm working on chapter 24 :) hopefully I'll be done soon and it turns out as quality work. Everytime I read reviews I just get so excited to post the next parts and to write it until I end. I've not left a fic unfinished yet so thank you very, very much for the fire :) so two chapters this post… have fun with it, review if you find the inclination :) Chapter 15, my next post after this pair of chapters, welcomes more familiar faces, this time from Rohan :) 'til then!!! :)