An- Sorry it took so long, but blame Jane cuz she was so damn slow in sending me her parts! LOL! Enjoy the long awaited chapter!

Chapter 53

Lying on her bed, Jane pressed her pillow into her face (not suicide!) and watched as colorful stars exploded before her closed eyelids. It was afternoon, and she was alone in the bedroom the three (Erin shared a room with Frodo) shared. They were all gone now. Gone with their lovers, and she was so very much alone.

"Why do I always have to be so Goddamn stupid!" Jane muttered, her bitter tears falling onto her pillow. "Niori thinks I'm a bitch, Aragorn hates me (to put it nicely), and everybody else won't look me in the eye…they all have someone to love…."

Jane took the pillow away, propping herself onto her elbows. "…Niori and Legolas…Carla and Eomer…and of course, Erin and Frodo…" she smiled humorlessly, "And then there's me. The only virgin left in the group who just can't seem to get a man because they always seem to be taken! God, I was drunk and I still couldn't get laid!" Jane stopped whispering and realized with a bit of surprise what she had just revealed to herself, "…Yup, I'm hopeless…"

The girl stood up and wiped the last few tears from her pale face. I've got to stop crying and do something about my issues, Jane vowed silently, getting out of bed and strolling over to the trunk at the bottom of her bed. She opened it and started strewing her clothes all over the room.

Pulling her magnificent sword out and tying it around her waist, Jane opened that door and left for Legolas' sleeping quarters, knowing perfectly well she'd find Niori there.

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"Who's the- Jane?" Legolas opened the door and looked at Jane apprehensively. "Can I help you?"

"I'm looking for Niori, and I know she's here." Jane spoke, watching Legolas shake his head unconvincingly.

"No, Niori left a while ago," Legolas lied.

"No, Legolas, Niori is here and she told you to say that, because she doesn't want to speak to me."

"Well-"

"Never mind Legolas, I'll talk to her." Niori's voice floated up from behind Legolas. Soon Niori was standing beside him and looking at him critically, a smile on her lips. "I never knew you were such a bad liar!" Legolas rolled his eyes and disappeared behind the door, leaving Jane and Niori to talk. Niori closed the door behind him and looked at Jane expectantly. "You showed up here because…?"

"Look Niori, I know you hate me-" Jane began, and Niori nodded, "-and I know you have a reason, because I should never have done what I did to Aragorn at his wedding…and I want to thank you for lying to him for me, and jeopardizing your friendship with him." Jane paused and took a breath. "Our friendship is much more important to me than some stupid schoolgirl crush I have on him. That's why-" Jane unsheathed her sword, looking at Niori seriously," I want to give you my sword. You don't have to forgive me…but I want you to understand how important our friendship is to me." She held out her gleaming elven sword, her most precious possession on this earth.

Niori gave Jane a blank look, and then she took the sword and began admiring it from every angle. "It's nice…." She began, gazing at Jane, trying to comprehend whether she was really serious. When Jane's serious stare didn't falter, Niori shook her head and placed the sword back in Jane's hands. "Jane, I can't take this from you…it means so much to you…"

"Will you forgive me, then?" Jane asked, sheathing her sword and mentally thanking the Lord that Niori didn't take it.

Niori nodded reluctantly. "Okay, fine…but I still think what you did was selfish and stupid."

"I do too…I'm going to go apologize to Aragorn now." Jane said, a smile on her lips. Niori smiled back and shut the door behind her friend.

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Erin sat nursing Elijah inside the room they shared, staring out the window as the stars twinkled in the coal colored sky.

" Oh my…Elijah," she sighed, looking away from the stars and to the top of her son's curly head of hair, " whatever am I going to do?"

As expected, the baby gave no reply, but continued to suck out of Erin. Erin smiled down at her beautiful son for a moment before letting her mind wander back to her problems.

The problem, as horrible as it was to say, was Jane. As much as Erin hated seeing her friend so miserable, she knew that Jane would have to grow up pretty damn soon. What she had done at the wedding was childish…and had gained no respect from anyone.

Elijah's little cry of impatience brought Erin out of her thoughts. She looked back down to him, and with a laugh, realized that he was done eating by the impatient waving of his small arms.

" Okay, okay!" she spoke, her voice sprinkled with laughter, " I get it! You're done!"

With a small shake of her head, Erin rose to her feet and gently placed Elijah into his crib (which had, Thank God, come with the room).

" Time for bed junior," she told him as his arms flailed wildly as he lay on his back, " maybe this way I'll get a few hours of sleep before you wake up and want something again!"

She walked away from the crib, leaving the gurgling baby lying there, and returned to sitting on the bed.

" Oh Jane," she whispered, her thoughts going back to her friend, " what are we going to do with you…?"

" You could try talking to her," a voice spoke from behind her, " instead of avoiding her like you all have been,"

Erin turned her head and saw Frodo standing in the doorway leading into their room. Erin smiled brightly as she saw him and he stepped into the room, closing the door behind him.

" That would be too easy for us," she replied with a slight shake of her head, " and besides, if we did, we wouldn't be having all this fun,"

Frodo gave a small laugh and came and sat down beside her.

" Yeah, I suppose where your four are concerned, everything has to be hard," Frodo laughed.

" Excuse me!" she spoke, " Way to insult us!"

" I'm not insulting you," Frodo told her with a small smile, " I'm just trying to take your mind of Jane…"

Erin's smile faded as Jane's name was mentioned.

" I feel so bad for her Frodo," Erin spoke, looking at her lover, her heart wrenching as she thought about her friend's pain, " she's the only one without someone to love…without someone to love her. It's not fair…she deserves so much more than this,"

Without pausing, Frodo replied, " Jane does deserve more than to love a man who does not return that love. Jane is a wonderful woman, one that any man would be lucky to have…but she just hasn't found that man yet. But if she wants, I know that Pippin thinks she's attractive,"

" You know," Erin laughed at the image of Pippin and Jane together, " you're always good at saying the right things…"

Frodo smiled before speaking, " Is the baby asleep?"

" Yeah," Erin told him, an inviting smile crossing her lips and a glint entering her eyes, " he is…"

Frodo's face looked mildly surprised " Are you sure…?"

" Hunny," Erin smiled, starting to unbutton his shirt, " as long as we're quiet and don't wake the baby, I'm always sure,"

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Throwing open the front doors of the hall, Jane shielded her eyes against the harsh midday sunlight. It seemed to her that every day since they won the battle for Middle-Earth, the weather in Gondor had been spectacular.

The girl sprinted across the well-manicured lawn to the stable. She reached out to open the door, when suddenly the door flew open and Aragorn stepped out-almost colliding with Jane.(A.N.Talk about good timing)

"Oh! God-!" Jane yelped, jumping backwards, losing her balance and falling hard on her butt. "Aragorn! Um.."

"Goodbye Jane." Aragorn spoke tonelessly, walking right by Jane, who was still sitting on the cold ground.

She jumped up, rubbing her bruised bottom. "No, please wait!" The girl cried desperately to his back. He stopped instantly at her words, as if waiting for her to continue, but he didn't turn around.

"Y-your highness," Jane whispered loud enough for him to hear, lowering her head,"…p- please forgive me, for I have disappointed you…and myself as well…I sincerely ask for your forgiveness, but I understand if you won't forgive me…" She turned around and slowly began to walk away, when a hand grabbed her wrist, making her stop,

Aragorn shook his head, smiling faintly. "Jane, I have been through...how would you say it…'hell and back' with you. I've known you and your friends since the beginning of our story (A.N. figure of speech people!), and I can see that you're very sorry for what you said or did to disappoint me. "

Looking up into his deep gray eyes, Jane felt some sort of violent explosion occur in her chest. "Oh, thank-you my Lord-" Jane started, but Aragorn held up his hand to stop her (like she did to him so very long ago) ,"Jane, like I just said, we've been friends for a very long time. Call me by my name. I'm the Ranger, remember?"

Jane smiled, relieved that his use of the word "friends" didn't upset her like it would have a month ago. "Gladly," she said," So, I haven't have the opportunity to fight in a very long time, thanks to my bloody arm-" she reached down and unsheathed her sword with a melodramatic flourish. "So, master" Jane said with a very fake British accent," would the teacher dare dual with the student?"

"Are you challenging me?" He said, grinning and also unsheathing his sword. "Well, I'll try not to kill you."

Jane smirked, knowing full well he was a fantastic swordsman. God, she was just glad he was talking to her again! "Bring it on".

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" What the hell…?" Carla asked, sitting up on the bed, pulling herself out of Eomer's arms.

There was a pounding on the door, pulling Carla out of sleep. Beside her, Eomer gave a groan and sat up on his hunches.

" Wha…" he started, but was cut off by Niori's voice.

" Carla!" Niori's voice pierced the silence, " I know you're in there! So pull your butt out from under Eomer and open the door!"

Carla muttered a curse and swung her legs over the side of the bed. At this moment, she wished she could wring Niori's scrawny little neck!

" You don't have to answer it," Eomer told her, wrapping an arm around her to stop her.

" If you ever want her to go away, I do," Carla told him with an irritated glance at the door, wrapping a small sheet around her body.

When she reached the door, she pulled it open and found Niori standing there impatiently, arms crossed over her breasts.

" Took you long enough!" Niori spoke, rolling her eyes.

" This better be pretty damn good!" Carla spoke, sending a glare at her cousin.

" Yeah well," Niori replied, a small smirk on her lips, " we've been summoned. Gandalf says he needs to talk to us in the big hall ASAP. I was told to get you 'cuz nobody else knew where you were. I was the only one smart enough to realize you'd be in Eomer's room. So yeah, Come on!"

" You gonna leave so I can get dressed first?" Carla muttered sarcastically.

" Oh, I don't know, I might just stick around…I mean, Eomer probably looks pretty hot naked," Niori replied with a wink.

" GET OUT!" Carla cried angrily, slamming the door in her cousin's face.

Niori just started to laugh and walked back down the hallway towards the great hall.

" Oh yeah," Niori cried back over her shoulder, yelling loud enough so Carla could hear her through the door, " you're supposed to bring lover boy!"

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By the time Carla and Eomer arrived at the great hall, everyone else was already present. Erin and Frodo stood near a table, Elijah sleeping in Frodo's arms. Jane sat in a chair, talking quietly to Merry and Pippin. Sam was walking towards Erin and Frodo. Niori was sitting snuggly on Legolas's lap as the Elf talked to Gimli and Aragorn and Gandalf stood at one side of the room, talking.

As Carla and Eomer entered, Niori looked up and smirked. Carla glared right back at her cousin, still pissed off that Niori had woken her up.

" Looks like somebody finally decided to join us," Niori called out with a smirk, causing everyone else in the room to turn and watch as the pair entered.

Carla felt a blush travel up her cheeks as a knowing smirk settled on all of their faces. She wanted nothing more than to kill Niori right then.

" Niori," Carla spoke as she reached where Niori sat on Legolas's lap, " I'm going to kill you!"

" Carla," Niori told her with a laugh, " you've been telling me that you were going to kill me since we were five. In fact, if you believe our mothers, ' I'm gonna kill you' was the first full sentence you ever said to me,"

Carla opened her mouth to reply, but Gandalf cleared his throat and cut her off.

Everyone turned their attention to the old wizard. Each of them wondered why he had called them all here. It was pretty random…nothing insanely big had happened lately.

" What's up Gandalf?" Niori asked, swinging her legs over to the other side of Legolas so she could clearly see the wizard.

" My friends," Gandalf spoke, surveying each person in the room with his gray eyes, " I have called you here this night to tell you some news that will be considered sad…or perhaps joyous by some. Tomorrow something very joyous indeed must end…those who do not belong here must return,"

" What do you mean Gandalf?" Erin asked, her head cocked to one side in confusion.

" What I mean, my dear Erin," Gandalf spoke, his eyes going over the four girls sadly, " is that you…Niori, Jane and Carla also, will all have to return to your world. Tomorrow, the four of you will go home,"

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Niori sat in her bedroom (or, more accurately, the bedroom she and Legolas now officially shared), knees pulled up to her chest and a look of deep concentration on her face. She was trying to decide what she was going to do.

All four girls where off somewhere, trying to think. Trying to decide what they were going to do. It was all too sudden, to unexpected…Gandalf had just thrown this on them as if leaving would be no problem at all.

It wasn't that they thought they would never leave…it's just, they never expected it to actually come. This was their life now…

Niori sighed heavily and leaned he head back against the wall. This was crazy…she just couldn't decide how she was going to live the rest of her life.

That's what it really came down to. There were two possible futures for her…for all of them. One, go back to her world, to her family and her old dreams, finish high school and go into her uncertain future in 2003. Or two, stay here, live the adventure she always wanted to live with a real life prince charming.

She knew that if she said she didn't want to go back, Gandalf wouldn't make her. She could stay here, and nobody would try to stop her. It was the same with all the others…if they wanted, they could all stay.

But she missed home. As much as she loved Middle-Earth, she could never call it home. She missed her parents, no matter how bad they treated her sometimes, and her 'perfect' little sister. She missed all of her other friends…hell, she even missed school.

This isn't fair! Niori thought with tears coming to her eyes, How can I decide this before tomorrow…? How can I give one of these up forever? How can I choose? How?

With yet another sigh, she closed her eyes. She had to make a decision…and she had to do it soon. Sooner or later, she'd have to tell the others what she had decided.

She knew with almost certainty that Erin would stay. Carla most likely would too, because of Eomer, but she could see Jane wanting to go home, considering she had no love interest to keep her here like the rest of them did.

But…what about me? Where do I stand? Can I really give up all of my old dreams, my old life? I want to stay…I want to stay here and live happily ever after with Legolas, but…but staying here just doesn't seem right somehow…

" So I go home," Niori whispered to the empty room, feeling tears coming to her eyes.

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An- Well...it seems the story is coming to an end...Niori is going home, but will the others?