Murphy's Law

Summary: Ivy isn't appreciated back home and needs a fresh start (don't they always?)…getting pushed into Middle Earth in a freak swimming accident wasn't exactly what she had in mind…BoromirOC.

Okay…I AM SO SORRY! I really am. Its been a while since I've updated this. But thanks to the numerous reviews from my other stories where my faithful reviewers pushed me to update, I have decided to make my new chapter! I mean, but I had a rough couple of months. The love of my life moved away…cries. I got my tonsils taken out and couldn't talk for about a week. I just completed my finals! Oh, and I added my MSN email address to my profile page, so if anyone wants to question me on my story with MSN IM, I'm more than happy to answer!

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"…sucks?" The man with gray hair repeated. I couldn't help myself; I giggled.

"I'm sorry," I said at his befuddled expression, and composed myself quickly. "You just sounded so weird…" I sounded so awkward, and I was nervous. Any idiot could tell. I cleared my throat and looked down. I was cold, nearly nude, and I had no idea where I was. How could I make this situation better?

"I need some help." I said after a moment. "You see, um…I don't know where I am."

Would that even work? I didn't know. Probably not.

A guard roughly pulled on my arm and dragged me over to the wall with many windows. He shoved me so that I was nearly being pushed out of them and I looked down. My jaw dropped.

I was REAL high up. I mean, the Sears Tower had nothing on this. It seemed that I was on top of a huge pyramid thing, because there was a ring of land sprouting out from the bottom of each layer, and grew and grew until the bottom half was HUGE. Even though there were only about four or five layers (that I could see, anyway), I was still REALLY high up. There were people moving around on the different layers, and there were little houses lining some of the rings. I could see horses and chickens and all kinds of animals too. Then I looked up beyond the weird city and saw nothing but dry plains as far as the eye could see and maybe an ocean-like body of water to my left. Even if I stretched my vision, all I could see was more field.

Funny…this all reminded me of something familiar…

"I still don't get it." I said, puzzled as a guard whisked me away from the window. "I've never seen this place before in my life…" Then I giggled. Yes I had. In the movie, Lord of the Rings. What was the town called again? Mona, Mena, Mina…

"Minas!" I suddenly cried out. "Minas…Minas what? Oh crap, it's been awhile since I paid attention to that part…"

"Tirith. Minas Tirith." The man with reddish hair next to the gray haired guy answered, seeming annoyed.

"Yeah, Minas Tirith…" Then I stopped. WHOA.

The next thing I knew, I was sitting in a chair, and the guard who had been watching me was fanning my face.

"Crap…"I breathed. "What happened?"

"You blacked out." The gray haired man answered grimly. I decided that I didn't like him too much. I swatted the guard's hand away, and winced. My face was beginning to sting.

"You are hurt." The guard pointed out unnecessarily. I glared at him.

"You think?" I moved my hand to my cheek. "Ow."

"Take her to the Houses of Healing." The gray haired man ordered, and everyone began to bustle around. He was obviously the man in charge. "But do not forget that a sound interrogation awaits you." He warned. I nodded with shock, stood up, and shivered. The guard noticed. After all, I was still a little damp.

"The Lady is cold." He said, motioning to me. I didn't expect anyone to care, really. I was probably just an insignificant speck compared to them. I was preparing for a cold walk down to wherever the Houses of Healing were when someone cleared his throat. The red haired man stood and extended a cloak to me, and it was the very same cloak I had discovered earlier. How 'bout that.

"Thanks a lot." I said, and eagerly wrapped myself up in it. He smiled gently and sat back down. Where had I seen him before? He looked awfully familiar. In fact, so did the gray looking fellow.

As I was led out of the room and walked down the hall, I wondered what I was going to do in this new place. Was it really Minas Tirith? If it was, I was in trouble. One guard was gone, and the other one whom I was more aquatinted with was walking besides me now, silent and brooding. I cleared my throat.

"I'm Ivy." I said conversationally, and waited. He glanced at me once, but continued to lead me down a lengthy corridor. I took this opportunity to study him. His face was old and young…he was probably middle-aged, or nearly middle-aged. His eyes were very brown and drooped slightly, and his jaw was very pronounced and triangular. He looked very noble with his little spear and his pretty armor…like he was preparing to run off to play Dungeons and Dragons with the other boys.

He caught me looking and I turned away. After a few minutes of silence, he led me down another corridor.

"You interrupted a very important meeting." He said stiffly. I almost asked what it was about, but then it dawned on me that if it was such an important meeting, he wouldn't be allowed to tell what it was about. And besides, he was a guard. He probably wasn't even licensed to listen in on the big secret. As a matter of fact, I bet all guards had to go through some kind of training where when they were told not to listen, they somehow blocked out all the sound from their ears or something. It was like the aborigines, who trained themselves to breathe through their nose and mouth at the same time! You know what I mean?

I voiced these thoughts to my one and only friend. He listened patiently until we entered a building with flowers and herbs in pots on the inside.

"I mean, do they give you earplugs, too? Wait, duh. This is Middle Earth, of course they don't. There are no such things as earplugs. You probably don't even know what I'm talking about. Hold on, maybe you do have them but you call them by a different word…lemme explain."

I went into full detail the complexity of the earplug. When he got me to a bed, he sat me down and silenced me with a finger to my lips.

"You are very strange." He said bluntly, and whistled a nurse over. They exchanged words, and then he faced me once she had run off to somewhere. "You will stay here until you have been properly tended to." He said softly. Then he leaned down, once he made sure that no one was watching. "I am Halisthar." He murmured quietly, and then straightened himself up. The nurse returned and opened my mouth with her fingers. I didn't like that, so I closed my mouth again.

"What are you doing?" I asked her, eyeing the liquid she had been holding to my lips.

"It is a sleeping drought." She said kindly. "You look tired. I was going to tend to your wounds while you slept."

That didn't sound like too bad a plan. I stared at the light green potion. "What does it taste like?" I asked warily. She smiled.

"It might be quite unsavory," She admitted. "But it will do you well in the long run. Please, miss, you have to cooperate."

Seeing that I didn't have much of a choice, I pinched the bridge of my nose and let the lady help me drink the stuff. It wasn't too bad, but it was kind of chunky, like it still had mashed up leaves in it or something like that. When I let go of my nose, there was a sour aftertaste. I scrunched up my face.

"How long will it take to work?" I asked her. She set the cup on a stool and laid down some washcloths.

"A few minutes." She said softly, and began to hum. I dragged my tongue across the roof of my mouth, trying to rid myself of the evil tasting liquid. But I did feel a little drowsier.

When will it work? I found myself wondering. I bet I could go to sleep myself faster.

As I got bored, I found myself getting very sleepy. Okay, if this stuff doesn't work soon, I think I'll just go to sleep on my own…

I closed my eyes experimentally, and found that opening them again was too much work, so I just left them closed. I'll count backwards from ten. I thought stubbornly.

Ten…nine…eight…

I fell asleep before I reached the number five.

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I awoke to a humming noise. I turned on my side sleepily to see the same nurse, dipping a cloth in some purple powder. She looked at me.

"Oh, I didn't expect you up for a while!" She said worriedly. "I'm not finished."

"Its okay." I said, sitting up. "It's not like you were stitching me up or anything. I can take it."

She sighed. "Yes, you're right." She moved the powered cloth and let it rest on my cheek. "I managed to tend to the scrapes on your back and your neck. Hold this there, please." She instructed, and I did as I was told. Suddenly five people burst loudly into the room. The other occupants besides me gasped. The nurse stood up.

"Hail, Steward," She said, bowing low. "My Lord, you shouldn't be here…the sick and—"

"Where is the girl?" The gray-haired man demanded. I was wide-awake now. The woman trembled at his voice, but didn't answer.

Good for you! I cheered silently.

"Where IS SHE?" He asked with a commanding voice. The nurse looked over her shoulder and pointed a reluctant finger at me.

No! Thanks a lot!

The Steward walked towards my bed and I leaned deeper into my near flattened pillow. He stopped at my bedside and leaned down.

"My guard says you have been talking of strange things," He began. "things that have never before been heard in all of Gondor. Tell me, where did you hear of such nonsense?" I looked over his shoulder to see Halisthar, looking slightly guilty. I mouthed 'you suck!' in his general direction. Then I turned my head to see a very unhappy Steward.

"I heard those things in World History," I said slowly. I didn't wanna make him madder. "Like, we had to study all sorts of countries and their military. Like, how Queen Elizabeth hired a double agent to decipher and send her the codes that her cousin Mary was writing in order to take the throne—"

"Who is this Queen Elizabeth?" He asked sternly. "Is she a threat to me and my country? Are you a royal spy? I know if you are lying."

I let out a smile, and then a bark of laughter. "Um…I think she died a LONG time ago." I said, through my giggles. "Like, nearly four hundred years back or something…" At his serious expression, I stopped. "Ah…well…what else do you want to know?" I asked.

"What is your name?"

"Ivy Elaine Brooklyn. I'm eighteen."

"Where are you from?"

"Connecticut, in the United States of America."

He snapped his fingers. A man with shaggy reddish hair appeared next to him.

"Father?"

"Faramir, have you ever heard of a place called Con…Connet…"

"Connecticut." I supplied helpfully.

"Yes. Well?"

Faramir thought for a moment but ended up shaking his head. "Never, my Lord."

"Is it on the maps? Is it an island?"

"I do not know."

The Steward was silent and several seconds, and he stared at his son. "Well go find out!" He snapped. Faramir looked momentarily hurt, but nodded his head curtly and left the room. Another man with darker hair watched him leave with a pained face. It was the guy who lent me his cloak.

"Are you Denethor?" I asked slowly to my interrogator. The gray haired man looked at me.

"How would you know?" He questioned. I gulped. His gaze was unwavering.

"Father, let her rest." It was the man with dark hair. "She has been through much toil." I looked at him in surprise. Denethor turned his head around so fast that I expected him to have whiplash a few days later.

"Boromir," He said softly. "This is none of your concern. She is a prisoner, and therefore by my law she is to be questioned and, if need be, executed."

"Executed?" I whispered. Like, with guillotines and a noose? Or would he just line up a bunch of archers and have them fire on his command? I was feeling slightly sick.

"If I may, my Lord, let me interview her." Boromir suggested. "We could be somewhere private and I shall need to know how to go about things of this nature if I am to be a Steward like yourself one day." Denethor was considering this request. I took into account that he was far calmer when he was talking to Boromir. It was as if just looking at Faramir made him agitated. He sighed.

"So be it." He said. He straightened up and left my bedside. Boromir took his place and pulled up a stool to sit on.

"May we have a curtain?" He asked the nurse. "It would be far more easier to answer questions with privacy." He said to me. I nodded and the nurse went into a separate room. She came out holding two screens, and another man followed her carrying a third one.

"We have no curtains at the moment, but these will do just the same." She said, setting one up on either side of my bed, and one at the end. They were just plain and white canvas screens. On the other side of them I could hear her requesting to the Steward that he leave the Houses of Healing. I heard a door slam, so I assumed that they had left. I turned my attention back to the man sitting near me. He was watching me curiously.

"I am only supposing that you are frightened." He said softly. His voice, now that it was closer to me, sounded very deep and masculine. I looked away. "Naturally, anyone would be frightened in your position." He continued. "Since you have been asked so many things of yourself already, I am leaving it to you to ask anything of me that you wish." He folded his arms and silently waited.

"Would I really be executed?" I asked, saying the thing that had been crowding my thoughts for the last few minutes. He looked down.

"Only if we find a reason to." He said. "And knowing my father, he will find every reason to. That is why I am hoping you are not a threat." He looked up at me.

"I'm not." I assured him. "I don't even know how I got here."

"Where did you say you were from, if you do not mind my asking?"

"Connecticut." I repeated. It felt nice to say it, like just saying the word made me feel closer to home. "It's in the United States, which is part of a continent called North America. North America is part of the world, Earth."

"I have never heard of any of those places." He said, confused. "And believe me, little one, I have heard of many places in my existence."

"Well, you shouldn't have. It's on EARTH. This is Middle Earth." I folded my arms, identically to his. "Two different worlds." He looked at me skeptically.

"Are you suggesting to me that you've traveled through worlds?" He asked. I shrugged.

"I don't know what I did. I'm still trying to find out." Boromir looked to be in deep thought. "What is it?" I asked worriedly.

"There seems to be a strange phenomena of unnatural occurrences lately." He pondered. "My brother, Faramir, and I, both had a similar dream."

"About Isildur's Bane." I confirmed, nodding. He looked at me oddly.

"How did you know?" He exclaimed. "We have told no one!" I bit my lip.

"Are you going to the Council of Elrond?" I asked him instead of answering his question. He narrowed his eyes.

"No one outside of the Royal Council has known of that." He said darkly. I blinked and shrugged.

"Like I said…two different worlds." He watched me carefully.

"I am going to the Council alone." He said stiffly. "My brother would have accompanied me, or better yet, have gone in my place. But I must accept my responsibility as future Steward."

His death, something I had seen over and over in the movie, flashed before my eyes. I suddenly felt sad for him.

"Yes." I said after a second. "You should." There was a tense silence, where we were both in deep thought.

"Take me with you." I spoke up. He looked me in the eye.

"Why should I?" He asked, smirking.

"Because there is no one to help me here!" I reasoned. "There are far more wiser beings in Rivendell."

"Are you implying that my father is an incompetent Steward?" His temper flared. I raised my brows.

"I'm thinking no such thing." I said, trying to convince him. "But speaking to Lord Elrond or Gandalf might answer my questions. They've been around far longer than your father has." Boromir gazed at me intently.

"Gandalf the Gray? What an old fool." He nearly spat. I cocked my head.

"Who told you that?" I asked, shocked at his reaction.

"My father." He said. "Gandalf is nothing more than a foolhardy magician with preposterous ideas that he pulls out of his pointed hat." My mouthed dropped open.

"Have you even met Gandalf?" I stuttered.

"Faramir has, but I'm not to go by his word. He's taken a liking to him."

"You'd trust your father over your brother?" I was astounded. He didn't answer me.

"If your dad told you to jump off the Beacon of Gondor right now, would you do it?" I watched his face. "No…" I stared harder. "Oh my God." His face remained indifferent. I leaned into my pillow.

"My father is a wise, powerful man." Boromir said coldly. Uncomfortable with the way this conversation was heading, I touched my cheek. The powder I had been using to disinfect it was sitting next to me, long forgotten. I picked the cloth back up and held it to my cut once again. I wasn't sure if I was getting it all or not, and I was very frustrated. A hand on top of mine made me glance up. Boromir had stood from his stool and was taking the cloth from me. He doused it in powder and gently held it to my cheek. His face was blank and a mask of concentration hid his features. His eyes, however, were soft, and so very green. I found myself looking into those eyes that were only inches from my face. They met mine and turned from soft into entranced.

I couldn't look away from him. His hand was still atop mine, dusting my cheek with the powdery cloth. He was right there.

"This is a very long cut." He observed, breaking the silence. He removed his hand from mine. "And you're wrists are very swollen."

"From my father." I said with a blank face. His face grew pitying.

"Perhaps…" He started. "…perhaps I could take you with me." I was surprised.

"That's a very nice thing to do." I said gratefully. "But isn't that an important decision to make?"

"Aye." He nodded. "It is. But certain circumstances have proved to be far more insistent." I looked down at my wrists, which were indeed bruised and reddened.

"But I won't be executed, right?"

He smiled. "For what I can tell, you will not."

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YES! Nice and long, was it not? Please review, I'd like to know if I should keep this story going or not. The only way I'll know is with REVIEWS! P.S. Merry Christmas, Happy Kwanza, Happy Hanukah, and Happy New Years to everyone reading this story…and um, yay for Epiphany, if anyone still celebrates that day!

And now for some lyrics from one of my FAVORITE Christmas songs:

Its gonna be a Merry, Merry, Merry Frickin' Christmas!
All you New York Yankees fans can kiss this!
The tree, the gifts, the mistletoe kiss,
Swing, a miss, Steinbrenner's really pissed…
Have a Merry, Merry, Merry Frickin' Christmas!