Telhyadowen: Yay! Each time I update, I can't wait for your reviews. You always have something really interesting to say! I'm really glad that you like my story! I'm also glad that you like Natalie! She will be more important later, once Eowyn realizes her true feelings, well, after that, because that happens in this chapter. Yeah, he's dying again!

Omara Eldu: (laughs evilly) I guess you'll have to find out huh?

Picklesniper: You know I'm still welcoming your reviews! My friend is waiting for her cookies that I share with her! :-)

Everyone else: keep reading! Even if you don't review, I really want people to enjoy this story! Also, Sorry that this chapter was slow, I've been very busy, and now that Faramir's sick, I was sort of experiencing a writer's block. My love for Eomer and Lothliriel also kind of distracted me, so I sort of avoided writing this. Sorry!

Chapter Eight

Eowyn didn't even feel the shock wash over her. All she could think of was seeing Faramir. She hardly thought at all. She just acted on instinct.

Aragorn stood well out of her pathway to the door, but for some reason, Eowyn pushed him even farther out of the way. With the benefit of hindsight, she might have said that it was a symbolic gesture, pushing Aragorn out of her heart.

Eowyn didn't think about anything until she was well in the houses of healing, and at Faramir's side. He was unconscious, and the healers were working furiously to bandage his wound. It took many minutes for the full reality to hit. Faramir was going to die.

As Eowyn sat, the healers slowly dispersed. One came to her and suggested that she leave the room, for Faramir would be unconscious for many hours, if not days. Eowyn did not hear the man. She just sat, fear building in her heart, along with realization.

When Faramir had declared that he loved her, earlier that day, it hadn't meant much. She had found her paper, and held on to that. But now she realized what the paper was, what her love for Aragorn was. She only loved Aragorn because she was stubborn. She didn't want to admit that she had been wrong when she first saw him. The paper was the only thing that she could use to ward any other love.

But now, with Faramir lying upon what could be his deathbed, Eowyn knew she loved him. He was the only one she ever would love- and ever had loved.

Why did love have to be this way for her? Aragorn and Arwen found love happily. Apparently Eomer was happily in love. Why was she always stuck in love with those whom she could not have? She had thought herself to be in love with Aragorn, but he loved her not. Now, when Faramir is beyond her grasp, she realizes that this was whom she really loved. Why couldn't her heart turn at the right times?

Several people came and went, Eowyn did not notice any of them. Even when one would speak to her directly, she did not notice. Thoughts of Faramir filled her mind.

Memories of him haunted her. The first time she met him, when they would walk together in the gardens, when he would look at her with those sad eyes, the time they had raced to Emyn Arnen with Natalie, when he led the girls back on a different path than he had taken originally, those long nights when they would sit together and he would sing, The time when she lost track of time, how his father had yelled at him, how sad he was when they talked, the fight, the declaration, and finally, the last time that she had ever seen him well, in the stables grooming his horse.

She couldn't stop these thoughts. The flooded her mind. They were all she could think of. At one point, she tried to convince herself that she was merely dreaming, and that Faramir was not going to die. But it did not work. She knew the truth.

Eowyn remembered the song she sang in Faramir's absence. She hadn't realized it before, but that was the song that he had sung a month before. When she had first entered his room, enchanted by the melodies. She remembered how he had said that it was written for a dream woman, now she was sure that the woman was herself. For Faramir had freed her. He had freed her from the false love she had for Aragorn, but alas, only to bind her again. She was bound now to love Faramir forever, never to escape this time.

She knew that she deserved it. She remembered an old lesson that one of the men had always said. It went, "Never take one thing for granted. The Valar don't like that. They will punish those who do." That was what had happened here. She had taken Faramir for granted, assumed he would always be there to comfort her against the storms of life. But now he wasn't. Now he was taken by the afore mentioned storms.

And she was alone. At least when she was heartbroken over Aragorn she had Faramir and Eomer. Now, Eomer was too busy, Eowyn hadn't spoken to him for days, and there was no one else.

Slowly, the minutes passed thus. Eowyn did not weep. Her eyes did not react when she instinctively told them to weep. She did nothing but hold Faramir's hand and think.

And to think that he had been an afterthought! She had just assumed that he was well. Once again, she had assumed. She now knew that "assumed" was a ridiculous word. It never brought happiness. Only regret.

Suddenly, Lord Elrond's words came back to her. She had been so fixed on her love for Aragorn, the darkness, that she missed the light, Faramir's love. But now it was too late. Elrond had told her to take in all of her surroundings, but it was too late. When the riddle was finally solved, the answer was beyond her reach.

(new scene)

I stood next to Beregond and Belegmir, wondering what to do about her. I was relieved to see that she had beat us to Faramir's side, for I could now see that she did care after all. I think now that she cared all along, she just couldn't see it. I couldn't see it for sure.

I feel bad for her. She is so sad now. I only wish that her realization could come in a different way. I only wish that it did not have to include my best friend being hurt. Faramir. Why did it have to involve the man I love so dearly? He is like a brother to me. And in my heart, though I refuse to admit to it, especially now that he has found Eowyn, I know that he means more to me than a brother and a friend. He is the only one that I think I could ever feel this way about.

I needed to stop thinking these thoughts. He loved Eowyn. I just then realized that Belegmir had said something to me.

"Pardon?" I muttered, as to not disturb Eowyn. Not that it would have disturbed her. Even when I had gone directly up to her and spoke to her, she just looked at Faramir with that lost look of hers. She wouldn't hear me now.

"I said, I think that we should get a healer in here. She has been sitting there for six hours now. She needs rest; she needs food. Only a healer can get her to leave his side at this rate," he whispered. "Natalie, Do you think she has truly fallen in love with him?"

I shook my head. "No, she was already in love with him. She has loved him since she met him in the Houses of Healing. She just didn't know it. No one knew it. Except perhaps the king."

Belegmir nodded. I glanced over to Beregond, our other companion; he was staring at Faramir with a look that could break ones heart. His heart was broken. Beregond saw Faramir almost as his son. He loved him to no end, and he would do anything to save his captain. I am sympathetic for him as well.

In fact, there is not a person in this room for whom I do not feel badly. Everyone here grieves. Everyone in the streets grieve. Everyone in the citadel grieve. I briefly even wondered if Denethor grieved for his son. I don't know. I can't understand Denethor.

Finally I looked at Belegmir. I realized that he had been watching me.

"What?" I asked rather sharply, but softly.

"Are you going to answer me about the healers?" he answered just as softly, but without the iron in his voice that I had used.

Oh, I had forgotten about that question. I knew I shouldn't have snapped at him, especially now that I knew why he was watching me. But it was too late. I have little to much pride to apologize for something that could be forgotten in an instant.

"I think you are right. I think that we better send for the healers. Not only does she need food and rest, she is working herself up into an emotional depression. Might as well send for them now."

Belegmir nodded and exited the room. I knew that if we made Eowyn leave, we would probably have to leave too. I didn't want to leave, but I knew I should. I just shuddered at the idea of Faramir, left alone.

I decided that someone should be there to watch over him, so when the healers came to expel everyone from the room, I made sure that Beregond would stay. He was the one with the most sleep of all of us, and he also was the one whom I trusted most to watch over my friend. Once I had rested, I would take over the guard, and then, at some point, Belegmir would relieve me.

As I walked to my rooms dejectedly, I thought back to the look on Eowyn's face. Then an idea sprang into my brain. What if Faramir did heal? Obviously there was a chance; otherwise, what were we all hoping for? Even the healers were hoping for something, perhaps Faramir might live. If he did, then he would be happier, because now Eowyn loved him! If luck was with him, then things might go for the best.

That is, for the two of them. I was still stuck on my own. But I knew that I could sacrifice my love for Faramir, in order to make the two of them happy. After all, what else are friends for?

(new scene)

Belegmir was exhausted by the time he reached his room. He mourned for Faramir and all the other hearts that would break from his death, but, by the time the healers ejected the group from the room, Belegmir couldn't help but be secretly relieved.

His heart particularly wept for two people: Eowyn and Natalie. Eowyn, whose new found love was crumbling as she entered it; and Natalie, who had loved Faramir not-so-secretly for many years, and now was surrendering that love to Eowyn, and losing her best friend at the same time.

But life was hard. The same was true when his grandfather died from a wild boar. The same was true for him when his parents died from pneumonia. The same was true when his sister, three brothers, grandmother, and fiancee had all died, along with all of his friends, in the village fire that had broken out while he was hunting.

What life was easy? Who could ever die and say, "I never regretted or wept for one minute of my life. And now I can say I'm happy"? No one. That wasn't the way life worked. All creatures, Elves, Men, Dwarves, Ents, Hobbits, even Orcs, where made to suffer. None had it easy. That was just the way life was.

Even now, Belegmir struggled. He fought many battles; he was wounded many times, yet no one besides his fellow rangers was there to weep for him. What if he was lying where Faramir was now? Would anyone have mourned? No. Those who might have mourned for Belegmir of Tarlang's Neck, son of Belegras and Silmi, were long dead.

(new scene)

Darkness stole through the air. No part of the room was visible. Slowly, dressed in black so as not to attract attention, she slipped from her room and into the hall. She listen, there was no sound.

She lightly paced down the hall and out the great door. In the city, there was not any great activity. The only movement came from a stray cat or two.

The door to the Houses of Healing was always unlocked. A guard sat on duty, to keep unwanted visitors out, but, with a little bit of acting on her part, she was allowed past.

Eowyn wiped the last bit of red dye off of her shirt, and listened at Faramir's door. It seemed that nobody occupied it besides the wounded man. Eowyn stealthily opened the door, revealing Beregond sitting in a visitor's chair.

Eowyn froze. This was it. Now she would be taken to another room that someone could watch over, she wouldn't be allowed to see Faramir again for another day probably.

But she quickly realized how silly she was being. Beregond was sitting in the visitor's chair, snoring gently. Eowyn crept farther into the room, and then took a place by Faramir's side. There she stayed until midnight, when the door opened again.

"Eowyn?" someone murmured. Eowyn knew immediately who it was. There was only one person who might be in Faramir's room with that voice.

"Natalie?"

"Eowyn, what are you doing in here? The healers told you to rest. You really need it. You are leading yourself to an emotional collapse! You should go and rest now. If you rest until tomorrow afternoon, then I won't tell anyone," Natalie whispered.

Eowyn rose and tiptoed her way to the door. She really owed Natalie for helping her so often, but she was also irritated. Surely Natalie, a woman of arms, knew how difficult it was to rest for that long. But then again, perhaps being a woman of arms is what taught Natalie that Eowyn really did need to rest that long. Even though it irritated her, Eowyn knew that Natalie was right, and she would thank her for it later.

So Eowyn returned to her rooms. Last time she had gone back to her chamber, she had merely paced and worried. But this time, she actually undressed and lay down on her bed. This way, when her handmaiden came in, she would believe that Eowyn had actually slept.

There was another detail that would make the handmaiden believe; the moment Eowyn was beneath the warmth of the blankets, sleep claimed her entirely.