"What?" whispered Legolas, feeling his heart pound throughout his entire body. Did Elrohir really say that he was pregnant, or was this just another sweet, cruel dream?
Elrohir wore an excited smile as he took one of Legolas' hands and guided it to his stomach. "Do you feel how hard that is?" he asked gently. "It's that way to protect the baby."
"Concentrate," instructed Elladan. "You should be able to feel it move."
Legolas closed his eyes, focusing on feeling the life that was growing inside of him. "Not it," he announced softly. "Him. The baby's a boy."
His eyes were glistening when he opened them. "I've been such a fool," he continued as the tears escaped and ran down his cheeks. "He's been trying to tell me that he's here for months now! Invading my dreams with his laughter, changing my body, and today...today I saw him. He'll look just like you, Aragorn, except he'll have my eyes and ears. All this time I thought I was being taunted with what I couldn't have! I'm so sorry, ion nin; your ada is just very stubborn sometimes."
He lowered his head as his entire body began to tremble. Elrohir immediately put a comforting arm around his shoulder. "Don't worry, Legolas," he soothed. "Everything is going to be all right."
Legolas looked up, revealing that the trembles were from laughter rather than crying. "Of course it's going to be all right," he guffawed, all the while tears still spilled from his eyes. "I'm going to have a baby! I'm going to have our baby, Aragorn!" he added, turning to his husband.
Aragorn stood rooted to his spot, absolutely dumbstruck, his mouth slack. "Estel?" prompted Elladan.
The mouth opened and closed a few times. "Very good," Elladan praised. He shook his head to rid himself of unsettling flashbacks to the time when he and his twin toilet-trained their two-year-old little brother and required similar encouragement. "Now try to make noises when you do that."
"How?" Aragorn got out with some effort. "How did this happen?"
Gimli looked at him, completely ashen-faced. "That seems to be the question of the hour," he declared.
Since Aragorn truly looked ready to faint, Elrohir decided to spare him the reiteration of the where babies come from lecture. "I don't know," he answered honestly. "How does an ancient gift, robbed from the firstborn by the rise of Sauron, return now to a mortal elf of all people? This really wasn't discussed in any of our lessons."
"Ada gave you some of his lore books before he left, right?" asked Elladan.
"They're – they're in the private library on the second floor of the citadel," stuttered Aragorn, still dazed.
"I think that we should start looking for the answers there," Elladan suggested to his twin.
Elrohir nodded his agreement. Sparing Legolas one last squeeze and giving his little brother a pat on the back, he followed Elrohir out of the room.
Aragorn didn't react to their departure; in fact, he hadn't moved at all. A horrible thought flashed into Legolas' mind: what if his husband wasn't happy about the baby? He never said that he wanted children. What if he'd always been secretly relieved that he couldn't bear children? "Aragorn?" he asked, suddenly feeling very exposed and uncertain. "Are you – do you – are you happy about this?"
"Happy?" Aragorn looked at him sharply and the elf's heart twisted. "I didn't want to have a child with anyone who was not my husband. But you aren't not my husband. You're him! And now a baby. Wow. I – never – thought – and – now – I –can't –"
"Sire!" cried Faramir, catching Aragorn as his knees gave out. "You must breathe. No good has ever come from not being able to breathe."
Eowyn grabbed the king's arm and hoisted it over Faramir's shoulder. "Perhaps he should lie down," she suggested emphatically. "Legolas, could you move over a little?"
The hobbits stared as Faramir led Aragorn to the bed and carefully laid him beside his husband. "Well," stated Sam abruptly. "You learn something new every day, as my old Gaffer always said."
"Yeah," agreed Merry, awed at the turn of events. "I never knew that male elves could have babies like this. Imagine what that's like!"
"How do you think the baby's going to come out?" Pippin whispered to them curiously.
"That's enough now," Gimli shot out hastily. "Let's give them a little privacy." He made his way to the bed, where Legolas was stroking Aragorn's hair as the Man tried to get his breathing under control. "If you need anything laddie..."
"I'll send for you," the prince assured him gratefully, leaning over enough so that the dwarf could plant a kiss on the top of his head.
"Good." Gimli gave Aragorn a long look and remembered with regret the things that he accused him of. He should know better than anyone how deep the love between Gondor's royal couple was; how could he think, even in such a state of emotional distress, that Aragorn would use the elf in such a cheap manner? 'Apologize,' he scolded himself mentally.
"I –" he started, but dwarven pride kicked in and he couldn't do it in a room full of people. "He might not be the best one to have around when the time comes for this laddie to come into the world," he advised gruffly. "Just a thought. Come, hobbits!"
Eowyn smiled as they passed by her and out of the room. "I think they have the right idea," she told her husband. "It looks like Legolas can handle things from here; let's give them a little time alone."
"Not quite yet," he answered. "First we need to figure out what to tell the people. You collapsed in public, Legolas, and in front of a good many people. There must be rumors that you're ill, dying, or the Valar-know what else, spreading like wildfire. Not to mention that the advisors' council heard the same account of events from Bergil that Aragorn did; I'm sure they've worked themselves up into a state by now."
"How would this state be different from the way they normally act?" groaned Legolas, not wanting to think about such unpleasant things at the moment. The advisors were not going to spoil his joyful mood! "Tell the people that I have been tended to and declared well enough to be released from the Houses of Healing." He paused to give Aragorn an indulgent smile. "Yes, tell them that, and share nothing more than that with the council. Aragorn and I should be the ones to make the offical announcement about my pregnancy."
A blissful look crossed his face as he mentioned the word. Pregnancy. Pregnant. He rubbed his stomach with his free hand, allowing his elven senses to connect with the little life inside of him. "I don't suppose that Men remember that male elves once bore children, do they?" he asked wistfully.
"Some may have read about it," replied Faramir, though his doubtful expression told otherwise. "But they probably think it is only legend and myth. I'm afraid that all of that is far beyond the memory of living Men."
"And I'm sure that if Cirion or some of the other advisors knew," added Eowyn, disgust evident in her voice, "they would have said something nasty about it by now."
Legolas frowned. "I wish there was some way to let them know at least that male elves could have the ability to bear children," he fretted. "Were I female, one of the rumors out there would be that an heir will soon be born. I fear that not all of the people will be ready to just accept a pregnant male when we make the announcement."
"I think we can handle that," Eowyn stage-whispered to him in a conspiratorial tone. "Just leave it to us. Let's go, my husband; I have an idea."
As soon as they left, Legolas leaned over and started planting butterfly kisses all over Aragorn's face. "Come back to me, my love," he urged, brushing their lips together. "I need you to come back now."
Slowly but surely Aragorn's eyes came into focus. "Legolas," he whispered, stroking his husband's face before letting his hands fall to rest on his stomach.
"That's our baby," Legolas told him, positively giddy.
"Our baby," repeated Aragorn, breathing the word reverently. He bent down to kiss the barely perceptible bulge. "I'm so glad you're here, my child."
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO"Tell me again, why are we looking for Ioreth?" asked Faramir as Eowyn dragged him all through the Houses of Healing in search of the old healing woman.
"How did everyone know that Aragorn was Isildur's heir before the final battle?" she asked him pointedly. "Because Ioreth saw the clues, heard the hints, and told everybody. And right now the people will believe anything that anyone who was in the Houses says about Legolas' condition. We just need to plant a little seed into her mind."
She paused at the sound of rustling in one of the nearby rooms. Peering in and confirming her suspicions, she gestured for Faramir to come closer. "It's amazing, isn't it?" she asked, projecting her voice so that Ioreth could hear her clearly.
"It truly is," agreed Faramir at the same volume, catching on quickly to his wife's scheme. "I plan on joining the Lords Elladan and Elrohir as soon as I address the nobles about the situation. It was good fortune that they were here to provide their knowledge of ancient lore when it was needed today, but the prince will need someone else to understand all of this, should they need to depart before the time comes."
Ioreth's ears perked up at the mention of the elf lords' names. Were the lord and lady discussing Prince Legolas' condition? She'd cursed herself several times after the twins informed everyone that they didn't know enough about elven health to properly attend to the ailing prince. Perhaps this was something she could learn, something that would better prepare her to care for him! She strained her ears to listen.
"It's an ancient gift," Faramir continued.
"Of course!" replied Eowyn. "If it were a recent one, I'm sure everyone would know about it. How could anyone miss seeing a pregnant male, even if the male happens to be an elf?"
Ioreth clapped a hand over her mouth to keep the gasp from escaping.
"It was too long gone for any to hope for its return," said Faramir.
"That's what they said about the return of the king as well," Eowyn reminded him.
"You are correct, my wife." Faramir gave her a loving kiss. "Now where is she? Ioreth!" he called out.
The sound of crashing could be heard as the healing woman knocked over everything in her path as she dashed across the room, putting as much distance between herself and the door as possible so that they wouldn't know that she had been eavesdropping. "I'm in here, my lord!" she answered hurriedly.
Faramir and Eowyn could barely contain their laughter when they saw her desperately trying to appear casual, as if she'd spent this whole time checking on the herb bottles on the back wall. "Greetings," said Faramir stoically. "Will you bring the Prince Legolas some tea in about an hour? Nothing too strong, mind you."
"Yes, of course," she nodded, failing to hide her eagerness. "Is the prince's stomach bothering him?"
"Not exactly," hedged Eowyn. "The Lords Elladan and Elrohir just think that he should be more careful about what he eats and drinks for a little while."
"We'll leave you to your work," Faramir couldn't help smiling as Ioreth practically bounced in place. "The advisors will be anxious for news about the prince's condition right away."
Eowyn leaned against her husband as they departed from the Houses of Healing. "I love it when you're all clever and deceptive like that," she teased.
"I'm flattered," he bantered back. "After all, Dernhelm is the authority on clever deception." He laughed as she tightened her grip on his hand in a playfully threatening manner at the mention of her old disguise. "I think we accomplished our goal."
"Yes," she smirked. "The people will be sufficiently prepared for the news now. In fact, they'll be waiting for it."
To be continued...