Authors' Note: *Blushes* Sorry. * waves white flag of truce at rabid mob* It's actually not our fault this time. One of our betas has had this chapter for over three weeks and she only returned it to us tonight. But here it is, a great bid chapter that clocks in a ten pages. Part two should be up tomorrow, or by the end of the weekend at the latest. Also with the end of exams and the Christmas holidays almost upon us, we should start to write and post a bit more....really. Anyway, please don't abandon us, as some of you have threatened. We love all of you, and we really do try to post as often as we can. Life just seems to happen to us a lot.
Cheers, The Nightrunners.
P.S : Lembas cookies to those who spot the cheesy pop culture reference and the really bad pun in this chapter.
We'll always have Paris- Part I
Soundtrack : Life in A Nutshell (Barenaked Ladies)
When she was three
Her barbies always did it on the first date
Now she's with me,
There's never any need for them to demonstrate
She's like a baby, I'm like a cat;
When we are happy, we both get fat and still
it's never enough, it's never enough,
it's never enough
Chorus:
But I don't tend to worry about the things that other people say,
And I'm learning that I wouldn't want it any other way
Call me crazy, but it really doesn't matter
All that matters to me is she
Her life, in a nutshell
No way would she want it to change me
it's not that easy 'cause
My time is often decided for me
For me
She memorized every pencil crayon colour in the box
Her blue-green eyes complement the burn sienna in her locks
She's at the movies, I'm on the phone;
When we're separated, we're never alone, but still
it's never enough, it's never enough,
No it's never enough
Chorus
I fell down
With no one there to catch me from falling
Then she came 'round
And only her tenderness stopped me from bawling my eyes out
I'm OK
And that's why
Her life, in a nutshell ...
Gabe ran an admiring hand over the marble balustrade in the lobby. A moment later, Glorfindel noticed that he was no longer following, and stopped accordingly halfway up the ornate staircase.
"This stonework is beautiful," Gabe said, reverently tracing a pattern with a finger. It was truly stunning work, with all the whirling elven grace that had been perfected by countless millennia of practice.
Glorfindel smiled, but the reply came from a newcomer.
"Ah, but does this assessment come from a good dwarven miner, or the eminent geologist Dr. Gleason?"
Gabe inclined his head respectfully towards the speaker. "My lady. An honour."
Galadriel descended to greet him, inclining her head in return. Glorfindel disappeared discreetly as she reached his level, leaving the two alone. She broke the solemn atmosphere with a sudden laugh. "It's wonderful to see you."
"I wouldn't have missed it for the world."
The elven queen gave him a penetrating stare, then broke once more into a wide smile. "Perhaps not," she agreed.
"Reading my mind, Lady?"
"Just a little bit," she replied, her tone mischievous.
"Find anything interesting?" he asked, smiling slyly.
She laughed again, a sound that was at once ancient and wonderfully youthful. Gabe revelled in it. "If I had, I certainly wouldn't tell," she admonished. "Presumptuous dwarf." The brightness in her voice robbed her words of any possible sting.
Galadriel pushed him away, her laughter still echoing through the lobby. She waved a hand once more towards the stonework. "And you never answered my question. Were you speaking as Dr. Gleason or the Lord of the Glittering Caves?"
He shrugged, still smiling. "A little bit of both, I think," he confessed.
The Lady of the Golden Wood nodded. "A wise answer," she replied. Her tone reminded him forcefully of the beautiful enchantress he had met thousands of years ago. Her face was slowly regaining its more customary serene expression, though her eyes still sparkled. "You know, there's an old friend of yours here. We're patching him up."
"Thank you, Lady." The reply was simple, but Galadriel heard within it a world of gratitude and relief. To her it was a balm, as soothing as her laughter had earlier been to Gabe.
"Gabe!"
The older man turned to see Mark skidding across the lobby. Tractor-treaded boots had no grip to rival the sheer shininess of the lobby floor. The rocker looked extremely annoyed at this development, but one of his hands caught the stair rail and he grinned, thankful to regain his balance.
.
"Catch." Mark lobbed something to Gabe. It glittered as it flew through the air, and the other man caught it one-handed. He took one look and his eyebrows hit his hairline.
"Mark, where did you get this?"
Mark gave him a smile that was pure Hobbit. "Peter and I did some shopping today."
"Really? And how many shops in Paris carry jewellery *this* antique?"
Mark shrugged. "If we told you, you wouldn't believe it. Will you take it? I feel kind of weird carrying it. It was in the same pocket as Mom's ring used to be, and it didn't feel right. Sorry."
"Don't worry about it." Gabe turned to Galadriel. "Will you take care of this? I don't want to get pulled into this thirty thousand year love affair, not if I can help it. Besides, I lose everything I put in my pockets."
Galadriel nodded. "I'll handle it."
Mark trotted off down another hall, presumably in search of Peter, who'd vanished some time ago. The Elven Queen smiled at Gabe.
"Perhaps you would allow me to offer you a tour of Goldenwood? I understand it can become rather confusing to visitors."
"I would enjoy that." Gabe offered his arm to the elven queen, which she accepted with becoming grace. Together they ascended the sweeping staircase, heading deeper into the maze that was Goldenwood Enterprises.
But when they passed Erestor in the hall, Galadriel tossed him something surreptitiously. It glittered in the light, and *clinked* against his palm.
**********
From Erestor to Galdor:
"Don't you dare, Erestor. There's no way I'm taking that thing."
"Galadriel told me to tell you to handle it."
"What in the name of Elbereth am *I* supposed to do with it?"
"I don't know, you figure it out! But you shouldn't let Estel see. He's already had a pretty good breakdown today, and that would definitely add to it. And don't give it to the Twins. Or Elrond or Celebrian. Or even Arwen, for that matter."
"You know what'll happen if any of the Peredhel find me with this thing? The Twins will kick my ass, Elrond will have me shot, Celebrian will give me that *look*, and Arwen will probably electrocute me." He sighed. "I hate you, you know that?"
**********
From Galdor to Rumil and Orophin:
The two brothers stared at the little glittery object between them like they expected it to explode.
"I don't want it."
"Well, I'm not taking it."
"We can't just leave it here, you know. Someone might step on it. One of the Elflings might choke on it."
"I hate Galdor."
"Me too. Let's go find Haldir. He's paid more than we are, anyways. Let *him* deal with this."
**********
Alice was dead tired. Metabolizing vast amounts of alcohol to treat oneself for the shock of nearly being run over by a train was fine, but you did eventually come down off the buzz, and it left you feeling more drained than before.
" So beautiful lady, would you care to join your admiring people for song and drink around the fire?"
"Piss off, Haldir. I'm tired. I've been chased around Paris, used myself up in terms of magical energy, was almost run over by a train. Then I got home to find a pissed off dwarf and our elf missing. I'm not in the mood for foppish flirtations."
"He doesn't mean it like that, Arwen. We've just missed our Tinuviel, that's all."
Alice gave the tall elf a small, tired smile. "Thank you, Glorfindel. If you could show me somewhere where I could crash for a couple of hours, I'd like very much to join you after I've had some sleep."
"Of course, m'lady."
Haldir and Glorfindel led to Alice in a well-appointed room with a large cushy couch, just down the hall from the common room. About twenty seconds after they'd left her, the elves heard twin screams of surprise ringing down the hall.
"That sounded like the Twins."
"It did." Glorfindel paused. " Elrond *did* tell them that Arwen was arriving today didn't he?"
"Apparently not."
"Elrond did tell the Twins that Arwen was *alive*, didn't he?"
"Apparently not."
Rounding the corner, Haldir saw his younger brothers appear at the end of the hall. They grinned when they saw him. Little alarm bells began ringing in his head.
Rumil tossed something that was small and sparkly. Glorfindel, woefully ignorant of the fate to which he was consigning himself, snatched it from the air.
When he realized exactly what it was, he swore repeatedly in elvish, then in a few dead languages for good measure. Haldir felt euphoria rise within him as he realized exactly what he'd just avoided.
Orophin grinned, then, in an annoyingly sing-song tone: "Galadriel said you could handle it."
**********
"This place is fucking *enormous*."
Peter Taylor, reincarnated hobbit-rocker extraordinare, walked the halls of Goldenwood Enterprises with this thought firmly in mind. Of course, was getting a rather circuitous *self*-guided tour, having managed to wander away less than four minutes after Glorfindel had led them through the main entrance. A record, even for him.
The official headquarters of GW Enterprises was located in Wellington, New Zealand, Peter had learned, but the Paris branch was the largest. It rose for hundreds of stories, from the very bowels of the Paris, towering above the streets and the pedways, soaring into the frozen world above. Inside, it was a rabbit's warren of tree-lined corridors, offices, atriums, living quarters and gardens.
At the moment, Peter guessed he was on one of the office levels. He was wandering down an endless corridor, empty at this late hour of even the most fanatically workaholic elf. Many people would have been nervous at this point; Peter, however, was a child of the Necropolis streets, and one who had recently spent an entire day in subterranean Paris. Comparatively, Goldenwood Enterprises was a cakewalk.
"Probably shouldn't have gone up those stairs." It had been a little spiral staircase smack in the middle of one hall, and he had followed it on the assumption that he couldn't get any more lost. Peter had, occasionally, a very relaxed attitude towards his own personal safety. It usually got him into trouble.
"Who puts a staircase in the middle of the hall, anyways?" It had ended two floors up, with no way to get off on the middle floor. You could tell the place had been designed by elves, because it was unfathomable to anyone with a mortal brain.
His footfalls didn't echo in the big corridor. Years in the streets and a lifetime's worth of hobbit-memory had taught him how to go quietly. So he counted doors as he went, practising drum taps in his head, wondering where the hell Merry, Glorfindel, and the rest of the bloody elves had gone.
Then the big hall was slightly less empty. Some distance ahead, a tall man with brown hair exited one of the offices, carrying a stack of files. Whistling, he strode off down the hall, Peter trotting behind him.
The big man was walking fast, but not so fast that Peter couldn't catch up. Being the gregarious soul that he was, he wanted the company. Plus, he really didn't know the way out of here, or, more importantly, the location of the nearest toilet.
When he was about ten steps behind, realization slowly began to dawn. Something about the way the man moved, the easy grace of his stride, how he seemed to fit seamlessly into the surroundings- all this stirred recognition in Peter's mind. He followed the path of the memory, a smile growing across his face when he discovered exactly where it led.
So he hurried up soundlessly behind the man, and caught hold of a shirt sleeve.
"Hi."
Barry Stuart, moderately happy with his current existence, had gone to fetch some files at the request of Celeborn upon leaving Adam and Finn. He'd gone three quarters of the way down the hall unaware of his shadow, a realization which would later annoyed him.
Fortunately for Peter, the other man didn't lash out at the unexpected intrusion; his voice bypassed all of Barry's aggressive instincts, flying deeper and triggering a very, very old affection that surfaced very suddenly.
So Barry turned, smiling at who he knew would be there. And unconsciously, looked downwards.
So it was somewhat jarring to see the face at eye level with his own, hazel eyes sparkling, and a grin more common to Cheshire Cats than human beings. Barry was equally unprepared for the pair of arms level to his own, and then Peter was hugging him hard enough to crack ribs.
He laughed while trying to draw breath at the same time, the files tumbling from his arms as he returned the favour.
"Nice to see you too, Pippin."
************
Finn paced around the somewhat overbearing waiting room. He was quite bored, and didn't see any chance of said boredom being relieved any time soon. Barry had left him with the still shell-shocked Adam, while he went off to run an errand for Celeborn.
"All right, that's it. I'm going to see if I can get a decent cup of coffee, and possibly try to find my wife or someone else we know." He turned to look at Adam, who was sitting on the brown leather couch, head buried in his hands. " Will you be okay if I leave you here?" Taking his friend's lack of response as a positive sign, Finn quietly left the room in search of caffeine.
Adam eventually gave up trying to puzzle out the meaning of life, the universe and why he'd left Arwen alone several millennia ago. He vaguely recalled Finn saying something about coffee and decided that a nice cup of java would probably make his world look a lot clearer.
He wandered up and down several corridors, all decorated in what he now recognized as tasteful elvish style. He wasn't quite sure how he *knew* that this was considered to be tasteful elvish, but considering he felt like someone had unscrewed the back of his head and dumped a second person into his brain, he figured he was lucky to be recognizing anything at all.
The hallway in which he found himself was lined with photos and portraits, most of them showing elves dressed in clothing from various time periods. One painting in particular caught his attention.
It was an old canvas, showing man and a woman with dark hair, wearing crowns and formal clothing of an archaic style. It looked like a wedding portrait. Under the frame, a discreet brass plaque read 'King Elessar Telecontar and Queen Arwen Undómiel'. Recognition dawned in Adam's eyes.
//Have you been here all along?//
In the darkness behind his eyes Adam could see the man from the picture smile at him and shake his head. //Of course I have, you fool. You've just been too dense to listen to me.//
"It's a lovely picture, isn't it?"
Adam turned to see Glorfindel standing just behind him. "Yes, it is."
"Of course, it's not the original. I think we've had it repainted nearly a hundred times over the years. "
Adam smiled at the older elf. "I remember wearing that outfit. The collar itched."
"You know that you can't avoid her forever, even by thinking about itchy collars."
"I know that." Adam sighed, and ran a hand through his hair. "My first problem would be finding find her. This place is like a rabbit's warren, and I don't quite know where *I* am, much less where to start looking for someone else."
"Perhaps your heart has already led you to where you need to be," replied Glorfindel, pointing at the door in front of them. Then he burst out laughing " God! I sound like a bad fortune cookie. Next thing you know, I'll be calling people 'grasshopper' and saying stupid things like 'wax on, wax off'. Remind me to never watch old movies with the Galadrhim again."
Adam gave him a blank look.
"Never mind, it was before your time." He paused to think. " In fact, it was both before and after your time. Weird." He shook his head , then continued. "Just go talk to her, and try not to screw things up too much this time, will you?"
"I think I can do that."
"Good boy." said Glorfindel, giving Adam a slight push in the direction of the door. Then he stopped, wincing. "Wait a moment." He pulled something out of his pocket and tossed it to the other man. "For luck."
Adam glanced at his hand. Small and glittering, blade-sharp facets that cut the light. He pocketed the trinket, and took a deep breath as the door swung open, revealing Alice Starr looking back at him from a chair across the room.
"Hello, "melisse"."
************
After the initial shock had worn off and they'd finished screaming their heads off, Elladan and Elrohir had quite enjoyed getting to know the woman who was their sister. When Adam walked into the room, however, they got a definite signal that visiting time with Arwen was over. It had something to do with the way neither Adam nor Alice responded to anything, including Elrohir shouting into their ears. It was also the way they didn't take their eyes off one another even when Elladan waved his hands in front of them.
"Yes, well, we'll just be going now, shall we?"
" That might be a good idea, brother. Their brains are off in bluebird. We'll close the door behind us."
************
"Peter, there you are! Where the hell did you go? I was -oh, hi Boromir, how've you been?" Mark, apparently, could switch mental gears like other people switched shoes.
Barry shrugged. "Well, I was dead. Then I was dead some more. And then I got reincarnated, by a stroke of luck, as an incredibly rich and handsome bugger, and now I'm probably going to help save the world. Hopefully without dying again."
Mark grinned. "No kidding? Me too!"
Barry grinned back. "So, where are your friends?"
"Sam and Felix?" Mark shrugged. "Dunno."
Peter rolled his eyes and mumbled, "Probably off in a broom closet together..."
"*Peter!*"
Barry watched, bemused, as Mark poked Peter. Hard.
"What?" Peter said defensively, rubbing his arm. "They probably are."
"Actually," said a mild voice from the end of the hall, "they found the kitchens, and decided to be kind and bring food to their hungry friends."
Sam and Felix came into view, led by Haldir. They were both carrying what looked like a portable three-course meal in cardboard take-out cartons.
"However," Sam added, "after the 'broom closet' comment, we're not feeling inclined to share."
"Nonononono! Share! Please?" Mark's tone was downright whiny and Peter's expression was edging towards downright hysterical.
The other two were unmoved. "Not a chance," Felix replied.
"If you don't share willingly, we take it by force!" With this, both Mark and Peter charged their companions.
Sam quickly tossed all the food to Felix, who set off down the hallway at a dead run. Meanwhile, Sam stayed heroically behind to delay the attackers. "Go Felix! Protect the food at all costs!" he shouted before being overwhelmed by two hungry oversized hobbits.
Haldir stepped delicately to one side, where Barry was watching with both eyebrows raised. "Dammit. That old saying is true, isn't it?"
"What saying would that be?" Haldir asked, watching the scene with amusement.
"The more things change, the more things stay the same."
" *Could* you be more cliché?"
"Force of Hobbit?"
"Shut up, Barry"