Where could this child possible be? Legolas scanned the ground beneath and around the window and saw no trace of the child any where. He had yet to decide whether or not this was a good sign. There wasn't a doubt in his mind that the lack of a squashed baby on the ground was good. At least he knew the little guy didn't fling himself out the open window, open because he stupidly decided that it made sense. He rested for a moment, thinking where Estel could have gone off to, what could have happened to him. It's not like babies just, poof, disappeared.

"Oh, no." Legolas muttered to himself. Maybe because Estel was a human child, the Rivendell elves took offense to him and some plotted to rid the kingdom of this problem. Right now a group of renegade elves could be drowning the babe in the river or something, all because he was a bad child sitter. He just killed a baby, on accident. This was awful. He suddenly began to get a sense of what humans feel like when they get sick, as his stomach gave a lurching roll.

He pushed that all out of his mind. Keep hope, he thought, he couldn't give up now. That was the worse case scenario, but what could be the best. Maybe one of the girls took him, that could have happened. Or maybe he was crying and one of the servants heard him and took him for a feeding or something like that. If that was the case, all that would happen was he might get punished. He laughed to himself, since when was that a best case scenario? Perhaps he was growing up: putting the welfare of others before himself. Well, he had to put Estel's before himself, he was a baby, a baby that needed him to find him.

"This seems to be quite the walk Legolas has taken your brother on." Elrond observed, scrutinizing both his boys squirming in their seats. "Do you two have plans?"

"What? Why? Why would we have plans? No plans!" Elrohir spurted out, much to his brother's chagrin.

"No plans ada." Elladan replied attempting to cover up his brother's nervousness.

"Well you seem jumpy, itching to get out." Elladan took note of that and attempted to calm his physical demeanor. The sooner they proved to their father nothing was up, the sooner they could join the search for their little brother. He swallowed the lump in his throat, his lost brother. Maybe Legolas had already found him and was bringing him back right now. Yes, that was right, everything was completely okay now. With that sense of optimism he settled into his chair and readily looked his father in the eye. But once he did that, his guilt overwhelmed him once more. Whether or not they found was Estel was only part of issue. They were lying to their father. They had messed up worse than they ever had before, they put their baby brother in danger. That was unforgivable in his mind. He just couldn't take it anymore.

"Ada, Legolas is not taking Estel out on a walk." Elrohir's eyes nearly popped from their sockets. The least his brother could have done was some how warned him that he was going to do this. Now he felt unprepared and all his anxiety spilled out into his own confession.

"We left Legolas alone with Estel and then he went to find us and left Estel all alone and then we came back here and Estel was gone. And we were going to go looking for him with Legolas but then you came in here and then we didn't know. We are so sorry adar! We're going to find him and he is going to be fine. Promise, we promise and we are sorry. I can't tell you how sorry we are." He stopped short as his father raised his hand, a scornful smile on his face.

"I know that you left your baby brother alone. He started screaming and one of our attendants came and found me when they found him, alone, I might repeat. " Elrond stated. The twins' faces fell. And though they felt a great burden lifted, they felt a certain doom spread over them. Now came time for a punishment to beat all punishments.

"You have him then? He's okay?" Elladan asked.

"He's sleeping. Arwen and Sildulin are watching him right now. I'm certain they are still there with them, since they are responsible. I can trust them, which is more than I can say for the two, no let me correct then, three of you." Their father's previously light behavior as he tortured them melted away into a serious, deathly serious air. His words stung the twins more than any action could.

"We're sorry adar," Elrohir said again, his eyes glued to the ground.

"I'm certain you are, but that doesn't change what you have done." Elrond took a breath, the look of his boys said more than any of their words. At least he knew that they had behaved wrongly, if wrongly was even a strong enough word. "Go find Legolas and bring him back here. We'll discuss this tomorrow and come up with a suitable punishment for your actions."

There was a pause, the twins not sure what to do. Elladan got up, Elrohir followed his brother as they both defeatedly left the room.

"Ada?"

"Yes?" Elrond asked, surprised to find Elladan standing in the doorway still.

"Are we still allowed to see Estel?" His voice was pitiable.

Elrond gave a gracious smile. "Of course, but it will take some time till I trust you alone with him."

Elladan nodded and then exited to find Legolas whom he had no doubt direly needed to be relieved of his worry for Estel.

"Do you think she'll be happy to see me? Or do you think she'll be resentful for the fact I didn't trust her?" Kaimelar squeezed the bridge of his nose, noting that he would need to find a new best friend when he got back to Mirkwood. How could marriage and pregnancy so change a person? Tulcah was always so carefree and wonderfully frivolous. Ever since he had taken Sildulin as a wife, it seemed as though she had tamed him. It was always about her now. Not that Kaimelar didn't adore his wife, but he doubted he was so obsessive about her. Or was he? Would he be if they had a child? He didn't want to think about it, it made him nervous. Brought up too many questions.

"Of course she'll be happy to see you. You're married right? That means you love each other and that you're happy when you see each other, therefore she couldn't help but be pleasantly surprised that you came to see her. Traveled so far just to be in her presence."

"Even if it is just to check up on her?" Tulcah poked the now dying fire.

"You don't tell her that. You tell her you missed her so much you had to come to see her." Tulcah's face lit up. That sounded really good. Who would have thought that Kai knew about woman? It was as though they were living in some parallel universe where Tulcah was the nervous wreck and Kaimelar was the one who was calm, cool and collected.

"That sounds really good. She'll love that, she'll think that's really sweet. And I do miss her." Tulcah leaned in, "I've never told any one this, but sometimes we'll be lying in bed and I just keep my hand on her stomach and I can feel the baby. Do you know they can move inside of them. It's the most intense thing. I just love it. I can loose hours touching her baby tummy."

Kai frowned, this could not possible be the elf who had fought at his side on numerous occasions. How could an elf so intense on the battle field, turn into this? He morphed into a big softy. Wouldn't trust him on the battle field anymore, probably wouldn't kill an orc. Would think it was too cute to hurt. Oh, what a cruel world it was.

"I am getting really tired, I think I'm going to go to sleep." Kai said, faking a yawn.

"Sorry, too much information. It's just, well, it's amazing." Seeing the look on the prince's face, he quickly stopped. "Alright, I get it, no more. I'm done. What's happening to me Kai? I think I used to be normal and now to hear me talk, I can barely believe I'm saying the words."

"Well, thank Valar for that. For a moment there I thought I had lost you forever."

"Do you hear that?" Thranduil asked. Verya lifted his head, straining his ears to hear anything, but there was nothing. He looked back confused. "It's silence. No yelling, no running about. Nothing. For the first time ever, these halls are empty of children." No sooner had he said the words than they rang dully in his mind. As much as he cherished silence, his home was no home when it was this empty.

"They'll be back soon enough, and then you can regain those terrible stress head aches you're so prone to getting." Verya replied, knowing what his good friend was thinking without need anything vocalized. He himself was feeling the vastness of the palace when it was so empty of the ruckus that Thranduil's children created.

"They certainly grew up fast, didn't they?" He thought back to the moment when he first held Kaimelar, never feeling such a fright. Spending hours of worry on all the ways things could go wrong, the chance he could drop him. But for all the bumps and scrapes, all the problems along the way, things turned out all right. They all survived, well almost all of them. She had left him with enough knowledge that he was able to raise their youngest. She left them all with enough to keep them going without her.

"Aye, but they are still like children all the same." They both laughed at some of the antics that had taken place just weeks before. Yes, children they would always be.

Legolas looked around, for the first time realizing that perhaps he was now lost. The irony was too strong to miss. How could someone lost find someone else that was lost? And then, if he did find Estel, they would just be lost together. Where were the twins? Was this just some joke they were playing on him? He looked around once more, feeling extremely small and extremely helpless.

So, there it is. I suppose it ended abruptly, but I didn't know what else to write so I just stopped. But I hope you liked it all the same. I'll try to post soon, please review!

espergirl04: Oh gosh, I am so glad you like, I really appriciate your kind words, it made me smile. I liked making Legolas a little bit clueless, it's part of his charm. Hope you continue to enjoy the story. Thanks so much for your reviews!

grumpy: Of course they lost the baby! What else would the twins and Legolas do, it'll be a great story to tell Estel one day when he's all grown up. I hope this chapter was enjoyable and that you continue to keep reading.

daw the minstrel: I think it would be great if Elrond got them a puppy to train them on how to be responsible, but I would feel bad for the puppy. I think they all kind of wised up a little, we'll see if it carries over into their behavior. Especially since babies seem so much harder to care for then those cute fourlegged fur balls. Thanks for the review!