Hey all! Got another short chapter here, and an excuse, if you care to read it. If not, thanks to all my readers/reviewers, and you can just skip on down.

All right. Anyone there? My excuse: I Still don't have a working computer, and I have four jobs this summer. While the work is so far very boring, I can only write on my lunch break, basically, and then only long-hand, which takes me so much longer to do, because I'm used to being able to type about as fast as I come up with things that need to be typed, that I'm three pages ahead while I'm still writing. I'm getting used to hand cramps, though, and I do have several chapters written ahead now... there's just the matter of finding the time to get them into a word document and uploaded. So... expect delays.

And yes, the chapter isn't the longest I've ever written... but it's not the shortest, either.



Chapter 33

Since Leaf had left a few days after I arrived—off somewhere with the dwarf, of all people—I was quite comfortable in Gondor for the next few weeks. Joy was caught between wanting to go, and wanting to stay. He liked that Estel and Arwen could work together to keep me from doing much, assuring I would heal… but it was hardly Mirkwood. For some reason he seemed to feel he had to stay as long as I was there.

I told him several times he didn't have to stay, but he would insist he would stay with his friend as long as he was needed. I would usually roll my eyes, but smile. It was nice to have a friend again, one that I'd known longer than a few years.

The hobbits had left before I'd arrived, so I had to irritate Estel for the story of the quest, since Mithrandir had left not long after Leaf and the dwarf. He glossed over some things, his eyes going distant or glowing with flame, but it was no doubt a true telling, showing of his respect for his fellow walkers and his amazement at the inner strength of the hobbits. When he was finished, he sighed softly and shook his head, switching to elvish to exclude the men around us from the conversation. "Legolas thought of you often, during the quest. He would slip off somewhere in his memories, a slight smile on his lips. I watched him when it was all done. He watched the horizon as eagerly as I did for sight of elves… but you never came, and we received no word. Not until you came did we have any idea of what had happened to detain you."

"Arwen knew," I mumbled.

He sighed. "And why she stayed silent, I may never know. But when he speaks to you—as it is his place to do—listen. Remember he knew nothing that would have kept you."

I sighed, searching for some response, when the doors opened to show a short being beaming for all and sundry to see, his much taller companion watching him with a familiar look of amused affection… But there was something in his eyes that made him look a bit… lost. I looked up at Estel, and slowly nodded. "But if you say anything, I will make sure you are the last of your blasted line."

He chuckled softly and nodded, accepting my threat and the sentiment behind it. "This sort of thing is difficult enough without interference," he agreed, before turning his attention to his approaching friends, rising to greet them.

Leaf smiled faintly to him, bowing his head slightly before his eyes fell on me. "Alyeni," he murmured, looking me over, "you are better?"

"Time is often a great healer," I agreed faintly.

"Well?" The dwarf boomed, startling us both. Leaf turned, lifting a brow. "Talk to her already! You've been moping for weeks! Take the lass aside and get everything straightened out."

Leaf's ears tinged pink as I glanced between him and the dwarf. When he seemed fit to enter a staring contest with the dwarf rather than look at me, I rolled my eyes and walked out of the room in no small amount of annoyance, finding my room without hearing anyone behind me. I shook my head, wondering at my own sanity when I realized I'd been wanting him to follow me. I considered packing up and going back with Joy… but I wouldn't run this time. If one of us was going to run, this time it would be up to him. Hadn't he run, too? If not in the purely physical sense, then yes—every time it got hard, he reverted to being a possessive, overbearing orc of an elf instead of trying to find an effective way of dealing with things.

When I emerged for dinner, he quirked a brow at me, but said nothing.

In fact, he didn't say a word to me after that for two weeks.

Finally, I couldn't, in good conscience, stay any longer. Joy obviously had someone in Mirkwood, as he was forever looking homeward, but he still refused to leave me alone. Well, alone with Leaf, Arwen, and a city of humans, anyway.

"Are you well enough?" Arwen asked when I told her we were planning to leave in two weeks, frowning slightly, a flicker of a glance taking in Leaf's silent position across from me.

"I made the journey here," I answered with a slight smile. "No doubt we will be taking our time getting back… But Joy refuses to leave without me, and he desires to return."

"I…" Joy broke off and flushed. "That's true enough. I didn't know it was so apparent, though."

"I've known you quite a while," I reminded with a smile.

"Yes," he agreed, and there was something so sad in that single word that I looked at him questioningly. "I suppose… we could stay a bit longer."

"To what end?" I asked. "I came to see Arwen and Estel marry, but it was too late for that. It is time for us to go home."

Joy opened his mouth to say something, but then closed it with a frown. "Perhaps you're right," he said slowly. He pinned Leaf with a look I couldn't quite interpret… and truth be told I didn't spend any time thinking about it. I was wearied with thinking. "There appears to be no reason to remain."