This chapter is named straight from the book. Page 530 in The Two Towers. I DON'T OWN IT!

- - - Aragorn - - -

We had been travelling for some time. Grace was sleeping gently on my chest and Legolas and Gimli had ridden ahead with Gandalf and Théoden King. His men were scattered around us. Gandalf had decided that we would travel to Isengard. The travel had been long already and it was almost nightfall.

We set camp beside the Isen river. It had long ago dried up from Saruman's works. Grace woke as I handed her off the horse to Legolas. He held her gently and she stretched and opened her eyes.

"Hey, where are we?" she asked.

"We are near the Isen river, arwenamin," Legolas said, letting her go as she started to become fully conscious.

She patted him on the shoulder and wandered toward Arod's head. Petting him gently and making small cooing noises, Grace looked serene and untroubled by anything. Almost the opposite of when she had fist come into our midst. I could remember several days after we had arrived in Lothlórien I had found her crying bitterly in the middle of a clearing, all alone. Her eyes were haunted looking and she had looked miserable. Now she looked so much different, almost unrecognizable from the depressed, lost young girl I had stumbled upon that night.

She yawned and I could see she was weary still. A fire had been started to give us warmth and light until we decided to sleep. Grace wandered over to it and seated herself beside Éomer. He handed her a rough cup and she looked into it briefly before sipping, grimacing, and passing it back.

"She has changed much," Legolas said to both me and Gimli.

Gimli smiled at her. When Grace had first set out with us, he had thought she was odd and would betray the Fellowship. Although I had tried to assure him otherwise, I know he didn't succumb to her childish charm until after Boromir's death. I had told him about her attempted suicide and he had backed away for a brief period.

Legolas on the other hand, had been falling for her the whole time. I had long suspected it before Grace had confirmed it for me. He wasn't one to fall in love with any girl that walked past him. I think it was the mysteriousness of Grace that had first caught his attention. The fact she didn't open up to us right away and she hid something for the first while made him want to open her up and find out what hurt her. He wanted to heal her. And although I'm sure Grace didn't know it yet, I could see her opening and becoming more willing to be healed.

Grace had not been part of the Fellowship when we left Lothlórien. And although she hadn't been then, she was now.

- - - Grace - - -

I yawned and then realized how tired I actually was. There was no reason I should be tired. I had slept for a good portion of the trip on Aragorn but still I wanted to sleep. As soon as I removed myself from the presence of all the men of the Riddermark, I felt more at ease. I didn't like the way some of them watched me. As long as Aragorn, Gimli or Legolas were around, I knew none of them would try anything. I had felt safe with Éomer originally. But since we had left Helm's Deep, he had also been watching me in the way that scared me. Often I had caught Legolas watching me but it had never unnerved me the way it did when the other men did it. For one thing, Legolas' eyes didn't hold lust or some other greed. I trusted him. I had the feeling that, though the men of the Riddermark were kind, they wouldn't hesitate to take what they wanted if I was caught alone with no one there to stop them.

Shivering, I wandered over the Gimli. "Hello, lass. Cold night, is it not? You should sleep soon, we will be leaving early in the morn."

I smiled at him. He was such a sweet man. I bent a bit and hugged him. He patted my back gently before I stood up to leave. I found Aragorn brushing Arod down and Legolas had wandered away to commune with nature or something else just as elf-like. Telling Aragorn I was going to sleep, he nodded and handed me a blanket we had draped over the horse.

I took it and set it down on the ground. Wrapping my cloak tighter around me, I sat on the ground. I was about to lay when I saw a figure approaching me. Éomer. He came and sat near me. Unconsciously, I leaned slid a bit farther away from him.

"Grace," he said, nodding his head. I nodded in reply. I watched him scan my body with his eyes and I tried to suppress a shiver. "You are very brave, coming with your brother and these men on such a dangerous journey. Are you bound to any one of them?" I had to think for a second to understand him.

"Oh," I said. "No. I'm not 'bound' to anyone."

As soon as that was out of my mouth I cursed myself. I should have told him I was with someone! Then he might have backed off. Instead he leaned in a little closer to me. I was getting a bit unnerved and was about to open my mouth to call for Aragorn when I saw Legolas coming up behind Éomer. Breathing a sigh of relief, I relaxed. Éomer seemed to sense someone behind him and he turned quickly. The look in Legolas' eyes was enough to make him stand. Nodding his head, Éomer left.

"Legolas," I hissed up at him, more frightened than I would ever want to admit, "stay with me, please."

Of course, Legolas, being the amazingly perceptive elf he is, sat with me and touched my shoulder gently. He looked into my eyes for a second and I turned my eyes to the ground, not able to look at him any longer. "You are uneasy around them." It wasn't a question. I nodded and he said, "I will stay with you while you sleep."

I stretched out on the blanket and felt Legolas lie beside me. I turned so I was facing him. After closing my eyes for a while, I realized that sleep wasn't coming, I was too cold. I moved closer to Legolas and that seemed to be all the permission he needed to throw an arm around me and pull me in close. He was warmer than Aragorn and I automatically relaxed.

After being warm I had expected to fall asleep quickly but I didn't. Gimli and Aragorn joined us and I sat up. Legolas came up with me and all four of us sat there talking quietly. Then there was a cry from one of the men.

It was dark. And when I say dark, I don't mean, night-time dark. I mean DARK dark. It was like a black mist creeping around us. I grabbed Legolas' arm and he looped an arm around my waist. I heard Aragorn starting to unsheathe his sword and I reached for my blades.

"Stay where you are!" said Gandalf. "Draw no weapons! Wait! And it will pass you by!"

We waited for a long time. There were voices coming from the mist. I was so frightened. Legolas had an arm around me and Aragorn had a hand on my leg while Gimli clutched one of my hands. Without them there, the darkness would have been unbearable.

My grip on Gimli's hand relaxed and I started leaning into Legolas, almost asleep when a loud noise came again. I jumped about a foot in the air and Legolas tightened his grip on my waist. I put a hand on his to assure him I was okay. The noise came from the riverbed. It had been dry when we had arrived; Saruman had been using it for his own uses. But now water was rushing through as if it had been there all along.

- - - Gimli - - -

As the sun rose we departed from that cursed place. They were smart enough not to put Grace and me on the same horse, so again, I was riding with the elf. Grace almost fell off her horse on the way to Isengard and would have, if Aragorn hadn't have caught her.

Then I realized why she had almost fallen. She had got a glimpse of Isengard. The stories I had heard were of a beautiful place. This was nothing of the sorts. Ugly and mutilated it was. Trenches filled with water were everywhere. I heard a shriek from beside me when we stopped moving.

"PIPPIN!!!!"

(A/N: Okay, I have a lot to say about this chapter so please, bear with me. I didn't mean to make Éomer look slightly freaky in this chapter but it's how it turned out. There isn't really an excuse for it except he's a man, and he's been stuck with only men for who-knows-how-long… I hope that explains itself. And if you haven't read the books and don't want spoilers, don't continue reading! This has already gone past the second movie and I'm not going to wait for the third movie to come out. You have been forewarned: my story will differ from the movie; it's based on the books! Last but not least: REVIEW GUYS! I wanna have 200 reviews after this but I know that's incredibly unlikely so I'll settle for 175. I know you guys can do it, you rock!!!)

¹ The Two Towers, page 539