Note: First and foremost, I'd like to thank everyone for their extreme patience with me. I'm so terribly sorry it took this long. Damn storms. Anyway, now I'm back up and running. I hope you guys are still around.

This chapter is quite long, hope it's worth something. Thanks again guys! Love you all very much!

Chapter Seven: Left in the Dark

Haldir

"Ashk?" She was dead weight in my arms, not in the least coherent. My eyes darted back towards the hill her attacker and I had tumbled down. He was still down there, unconscious but there. If he came to, he'd have nothing to stop him from running.

"Ashk, wake up!" I demanded, caught between rage and worry. I'd seen enough of what happened but I didn't know if the blood that stained her face was hers or his. She'd bloodied him good before I'd even gotten involved. However, the hit he'd dealt her had been solid with real force behind it. I saw the bruise already forming.

I cursed brutally, my hand touching her unmarred cheek and feeling the snap of how cold she was. I couldn't leave her and detain her attacker. She could become sick with the cold.

"Hold on, Idril," I whispered, standing with her in my grasp.

I'd deal with the man later.

Later

I hadn't bothered to bring Ashk home, but instead went to the local healer. He was more than a bit surprised when I'd burst through his door with a limp body in my arms, but he went straight to work when he saw Ashk's face.

Gronig had come from the tavern and was more than solemn looking. He demanded that he do something to help. I sent him to gather any men he could to retrieve Ashk's attacker from the hill I'd left him at the foot of.

He returned empty handed telling me the only thing they found was bloodied snow that was quickly being covered by the fresh layer of falling flakes from the dark sky.

His trail would be lost and I knew it.

I'd left Ashk with the healer sometime still hours before dawn. Tracking her attacker had been useless as soon as his tracks led to the nearby river that fed to the creek of Lothlorien.

Walking back, I saw his tracks were already fading - gone to a human's eyes.

I was more than a little angry.

However, at the moment, I sat in silence. The fire was warm to the other side of the room and my chin was in my palm as I reviewed the night in my mind.

Things could have been worse…much worse.

Donavon watched from on in silence. His face was so bluntly white that it alarmed me slightly. It had been that way since he'd been called on from the house. His cheeks paled of all color as soon as he saw the healer cleaning the blood away from Ashk's face. It was as if he'd never seen blood before.

Or, I thought grimly, had seen too much of it.

I sighed as I peered at the large bruise on Ashk's cheek. She still hadn't even stirred. I was reminding myself constantly, as was the healer, that she had been in the freezing cold with enough trauma to give her body a trial.

I could only hope it would not show to be too much.

What if it was too much and she lost the children? Would I be free then?

I nearly stumbled as I shot to a stand while the sick twist in my gut made any fleeting thought of what would happen if she did. Disgusted with myself, I paced the floor.

There was nothing worse than wishing ill on a child, purposely or not.

I swallowed, convincing myself that the thought was accidental. The brief wish for things to return to normal, for me to return to Lothlorien and leave this woman and this nightmare behind, was an accident.

"Master Haldir," Donavon spoke up. "Are you all right, sir?"

I looked at the boy, carefully shielding any of my thoughts. "I'm fine, Donavon. Stoke the fire, would you?"

The boy nodded and went off to do my bidding. Not a moment after he was gone, Ashk's hand moved before her eyes opened.

I moved to the bedside as she peered around. She looked at me, or through me, for a moment before her eyes started to close again.

"Ashk." My voice was gruff with concern, my fingers curling around her chin. "Stay awake." She opened her eyes again fully then grimaced. "What hurts?"

Her hand moved to her temple where the bruise from the man's fist had spread.

Why hadn't I just walked her back?

My fingers grazed over the deep bruising and she jumped slightly, her eyes blinking several times.

"You'll sport a nice mark for some time," I told her.

"Where is he?" Her voice dragged over my ears roughly.

I shook my head. I wasn't going to tell her he was missing. "Don't mind after him, Ashk."

She shivered in silence even as Donavon came back into the room with an armful of wood from the porch. But, I knew she hadn't shivered from cold. Her eyes were flashing in the realization of how close she'd come to disaster.

"Try not to think about it," I told her quietly.

"Missus, are you feeling better?" Donavon's young voice drew her gaze away from me and instead to him. She offered a meek smile.

"Yes, Donavon, thank you," she told him and I turned my head enough to look at him with a small nod, silently telling him to retrieve the healer. He glanced at me and nodded in return.

"Glad to hear it, Missus. I reckon I'll go get the healer now," he said.

He turned and scurried out the door a moment later and I returned my attention to Ashk. My head tilted slightly. "You can sleep after the healer takes a look at you," I told her, mostly to fill the echoing silence.

However, as she peered at me, I could still see the clouding fear in those doe eyes. It was the fading fear I'd seen in a woman's eyes before. This could easily have been avoided.

"I should have walked you back," I said quietly.

She stared at me a moment before taking a breath. "I didn't want you to know I needed your help. I should have told you why I asked."

Silence settled before the door opened and the healer bustled through. Nothing more would be said between my wife and I for now in the twilight just before dawn.

Four Days Later

Ashk

I sighed as I took a step back to look at my completed work.

Finally, the complete floor level was finished. No more scrubbing or washing or grinding. The floors looked brand new - which they happened to be in some places - the windows and walls were clean and the counters had been replaced in the kitchener.

Upstairs, the last bedroom needed to be cleaned and the floors finished with a sweep of grinding, but other than that the house was nearly finished.

Looking out the nearest window, the barn was another story.

I almost felt bad for Haldir and the number of men he'd recruited to work with him and his brother. He was a perfectionist to a flaw and it seemed only his brothers and I were the ones willing to speak up to him.

"Missus."

I jumped at Donavon's soft voice before I turned to face him. He was standing at the door with a wind-punched face and bitten ears.

"Master Haldir requests something warm for the men," he said. "Er - in your own time of course."

I smiled at the boy. He was sweet, yet so quiet one could easily forget he was there. I hadn't built enough trust from him yet to ask of his parents, or of the dreams I'd hear him wake from in the night.

"Of course, Donavon. Why don't you come inside and sit for a spell?"

He glanced back outside before doing as I said, removing his cloak that was far too small for him and entering quietly. I had already begun working on stoking the fire and putting a pot of half melted snow over it.

"You seem quiet today," I mentioned, glancing at the boy.

He looked at me and I offered a soft smile. He was so young looking. His ginger colored hair was short, and he had murky colored eyes that hid shadows I dared not to think of.

He seemed so troubled.

"'Fraid I'm tired, Missus."

I nodded. "Bad dreams?" I asked, trying not to sound as if I was prying.

He looked at me coolly for a time before slowly nodding. I nodded in return. "Dreams are tricky." I decided to end the subject there before I scared him off. "Now, if I know those men right, they'll love this." I dug through the freshly stocked cabinets and pulled free a bottle of whiskey I decided to have around for any guests.

I poured a bit - actually quite a bit - into the now boiling pot before replacing the bottle and removing the kettle from the fire's depths.

"How are you feeling, Missus?" Donavon asked then. I looked at him in question, vaguely wondering if he knew I'd been sick that morning. But, his hand brushed his own cheek and I knew what he was talking about.

"Oh, I'm fine," I told him, lying.

In body, I was fine. The healer had been the best of his breed, and he was almost too cautious with me. He nearly didn't let me out of his care the day after Septh attacked. Haldir almost agreed with him too, until he suddenly changed his mind when his brother rode into town again.

I didn't bother asking why.

Going back to that house that would be my home, Haldir tried not to outright and tell me to be afraid, but instead to be cautious. Septh had disappeared into the night before Gronig and the other men had gone after him.

And the babes. I had almost been relieved the morning after when I'd gotten sick. It proved my body was still reacting like a mother. I hadn't lost them, thank the Gods.

A brief thought had filtered through my mind. The fact that I had managed to have a fleeting thought of wonder as to what would happen if I had lost them swirled in my mind that hour before dawn.

I had cried alone silently when I realized there was a vague hope in me to be free of the infants I carried. The two innocents that I had helped create in light of a huge mistake.

For one brief, shameful moment - I wanted to be free of the burden that mistake put on me and it shamed me to no end to that for a small instant, I was selfish enough to want my life back; to want the children I hadn't even met be gone from me.

I'd wept until I convinced myself I hadn't meant to think of such things. That, in that brief instant, I fell into shadowed darkness.

I swore I wouldn't again. I couldn't blame the children I would bare for the mistakes of their parents.

Realizing I had stopped anything I was doing and Donavon was peering at me, I turned to face him with a pasted smile. "Donavon, I think it's about time you start calling me by my name and forget that 'missus' business. I am only a handful of years older than you."

He blinked a few times in surprise. "Oh, but Missus, I don't think Master Haldir would like that very much."

I laughed. "Why ever not?"

Donavon frowned. "Well, because Missus, he has a knack for becoming real unfriendly like when men start talking about you - And he can hear for miles, you know!"

I shook my head. Of course Haldir had become a bit more protective since that awful night, but it was nothing more than his training giving him a kick. He was taught to think ahead and that was what he was doing. He was only on edge now. It would pass.

"Do not worry about the Warden, Donavon. He won't be around much after a while and I'd rather have you as a friend than a servant, yes?"

He stared at me in uncertainty for a time. He then nodded. "As you wish, Mi– Ashk." His smile was slow, but it quickly beamed.

Evening

Haldir

"And that would be why we called him 'Happy Pants' for thirty years."

Ashk was making a good attempt not to laugh obnoxiously like my youngest brother was doing, but I was beginning to fear she would pass out.

Giving Orophin a fine glare, I sighed and stabbed my dinner with a little more force than necessary. I knew I should not have let Ashk talk me into having my brothers for dinner. I had a reason for denying it, I remembered now. However it had been forgotten when I had been shamefully enjoying her tagging after me everywhere I went while trying to win my vote.

At the moment, I wanted to kick myself. Orophin and Rumil always managed to bring out the worst stories at times like these. I hated it when it was dinner with a temporary interest, but now with the mother of my children I loathed it.

"Is that the last of it?" I growled.

"Last of what?" Rumil asked.

"These stories you find such joy in," I replied, tempted to flick my fork of cut potatoes at him.

"If I didn't know any better," Ashk said as she stood, gathering her plate and a kettle near her. "I would think that the March Warden is a bit embarrassed."

"You do not even know the half of it, my dear," Orophin said, standing as well to help clear the table.

"Well, take for instance, about a hundred years ago while we were all in Green Wood – Ouch!"

I quickly stood after my boot had collided with Rumil's kneecap and didn't look up to see Orophin and Ashk looking at me. However, I did give Rumil a fine smirk as he muttered an Elvish curse under his breath, still rubbing his leg.

Once the dishes were cleaned up and placed away again, Donavon came tromping through the door.

"You missed dinner," Ashk told him with a look of concern on her face. Donavon looked at her then to me.

"Well, I ... I'm sorry, Ashk - er," he shot a look at me, "Missus. I started playing rolls at the tavern."

Rumil raised a mischievous brow but remained quiet.

"Rolls?" Ashk questioned, however, I jumped in.

"Did you eat?" I asked.

"Yes, sir."

"Then nothing to worry about," I said. I was aware of Ashk giving me a look somewhere between question and irritation, but I ignored it.

"Well, I think we best be going," Orophin said, standing once more. "We will be back the morning after next."

"Thank you for dinner," Rumil said sweetly to Ashk, kissing her cheek and I found it amusing that she blushed.

"Yes, thank you," Orophin added. "We're fully aware that you fought for our places at the table," he told her with a grin before kissing her cheek as well.

"I'm sure it will happen again," Ashk said with a small laugh as I opened the door and stepped outside with Rumil in step and Orophin to follow. I glanced back as I closed the door to see Ashk speaking to Donavon.

"Do you think she will be all right here on her own?" Orophin asked, his voice was full of worry.

"I imagine so," I replied, my own worry roughening my voice. "She'll get used to it."

Rumil gave me a look. "Haldir, that man is still on the loose somewhere. You cannot tell me you are not a little agitated with your absence for the next week."

I was more than agitated.

When Orophin told me yesterday that I would be needed in Caras Galadhon to greet Greenwood riders the following week, I hadn't paid much attention to the churning of my stomach. However, now with only two days to go and no sign of Septh near the town nor in any other residing town nearby, I was a bit ...agitated.

"Does she know you're leaving?" Rumil asked, peering at me.

I shifted my weight. "No."

"Vala, Haldir! When are you going to tell her?" Orophin groaned. "The morning of?"

"I'll tell her when I think its best," I replied shortly, growling the words between my teeth. This extreme fondness my brothers had towards Ashk was wearing thin on my nerves.

Rumil sighed but nodded, tagging our brother on the shoulder. "We best go," he said. "We'll be back after tomorrow."

I nodded, bidding a brief farewell and stayed on the porch to see them ride towards Lothlorien before turning inside.

I walked in just as Donavon was going upstairs and Ashk was warming a pot full of goat's milk. She must be feeling well, I noted as I walked into the kitchener.

I knew better than to wait. I had to tell her.

"Ashk." I sounded a bit gruff, but I ignored it as I pulled out a chair on the table. "Come here a minute."

She had turned to look at me, but paused. I smiled at her. "Come - I am not going to bite you."

She looked like she was going to follow up on that comment, but decided against it as she tossed the towel in her hands to the counter. Once she sat, I did as well.

"Well, this can't be good." She looked at me, her eyes mixed with amusement and anxiety.

"It's nothing to lose sleep over," I told her. She smiled slightly and leaned forward on the table separating us.

"Well, out with it, then."

My smile was small, but I felt it as I didn't always. The minor relationship between this human and I was slowly growing on steadier grounds. I knew she still felt a bit of resentment from those first days we were thrown together, and I still held my silent will to blame this on her, but it was fading.

Ashk wasn't the enticing temptress I had nearly convinced myself she was those first days.

She was...She was just Ashk; just a human.

I cleared my throat and leaned back into my chair, away from her.

"I have business to attend to in Caras Galadhon soon," I told her. "I will be gone for a few days."

Surprise filtered over her face for a brief moment before it disappeared. Her ability to hide her feelings was growing more and more troublesome of late.

"Oh?" She made great effort to sound as though she didn't care. "How long will it...How long will you be gone?"

"Only for a few days. A week at the most," I told her. "I only have to meet incoming Greenwood riders. They have requested my presence."

Ashk pulled a small smile over her lips. "Well, you are the Warden," she reminded me and I favored her with a smile just as fake as her own.

She paused a moment as if to see if I would say something more. When I did not, she took a small breath and said, "Donavon and I will manage fine for a week or so."

"I know," I assured her.

She moved and stood. "Do you need anything for the trip?"

"No, I will be fine."

"All right. When are you leaving?"

"The day after tomorrow," I replied, watching her remove the kettle from the smoldering cooking flames. "Do you need me to stock anything before I leave?"

"No," she said with a shake of her head. "I can manage just fine."

There was an edge to that last comment and I thought to say something about it, but instead decided to ignore it. Motherly moods, Elrond always referred to it as. I would take him seriously.

"Ashk." My voice was quiet in the way that I spoke to someone I needed to sooth. I didn't need to sooth her or comfort her from the anxiety I saw creeping into her eyes. I didn't have to, it wasn't my place, my responsibility, nor my duty.

I knew she found a safety in me she shouldn't; one that she just couldn't afford to have.

I saved her from Septh, but I couldn't protect her from everything. She had to know that. But, for now would it hurt to leave her with the assurance of words?

She looked at me in the gentle light that caressed her face and swam deep in her eyes.

"Are you cold anymore?"

There was a tired smile in her voice and I glanced down to see her looking at me, a smile lazily across her curved lips. The last embers of the fire reflected somewhere in those deep, doe-like eyes.

"No," she told me. "I don't think I will be for a long time."

Any intention on assuring her that nothing would happen while I was gone vanished and instead I felt the sting of the memories I'd forgotten...and would rather leave them forgotten.

"Good night."

We both nearly flinched at my sudden, sharp declaration. Ashk stared at me in confusion for a moment before looking away to pour her glass.

"Good night," she replied.

I stood there for a brief instant before turning and going up the stairs. I glanced down at her from near the top only to see that she'd moved to the table again and was sitting in silence in the cool air. The last of the smoldering fire faded away, leaving her in the dark.

And so did I as I turned and went silently to my own chambers and closed the door.

- -

Hope it was somewhat enjoyable. Not my best. Sorry, I am quiet distracted with clean-up still an ongoing process.

Thanks for everything, guys!