A/N: Sorry for the long wait :)

. . . .

Dark. Pain.

Legolas flinched, panting in a cold sweat. He tore at the blankets holding him down until he was free. But his fight was with himself. He couldn't escape. Muffled voices in a thick, twisted blackness filled his head with strange mutterings.

Flaming hot and bitter cold. It was fever and fear.

Legolas couldn't understand. He heard whispers and felt touches that he couldn't fight, echoes of reality. Legolas tossed and twisted in vain agony, trying to breathe. He tried to cough; his mouth was on fire. Legolas wanted to scratch his throat out for the pain. The pain! It never stopped. The sheets were wet with sweat and he strained for air. The sky was falling and crushing him, suffocating him slowly. It felt like someone strangled him. The coppery taste of blood filled his mouth.

Legolas fought back viciously. It never stopped. It never ended. Chills wracked his body and someone warm engulfed him in blankets. But then he was on fire again and he kicked them off. It never stopped. They tried to force bittersweet liquid down his throat, but it screamed like fire and he spat it out, coughing up blood.

Then, in the midst of a bottomless void, through all the darkness…it began to lift.

His breaths were ragged, but they came easier. Legolas panted, chest heaving, and he sucked in clear air. There was the voice of a man, as he sank into unconsciousness and clawed his way out again. When this man came, the pain in his chest and his limbs eased. His hands were rough and calloused, yet nimble. They were the hands of a healer.

Darkness was his world. Feelings and nothing but his own thoughts were there to help him when he fell into black. He tried desperately to stay awake. The dark was terrifying and loathsome.

And then there was the woman.

Her voice was quieter. Her touches were careful and subdued. She was afraid of hurting him. But with her came soothing coolness. She touched wet, cold rags to his face, down his neck, his chest. She rubbed his body through velvety blankets when he shivered.

And then…when the agony and fire slowly lifted from him, he realized so did the healer. The visits grew less and less often. It took longer for his throat to heal, but he could swallow now. He could bear to breathe.

The woman stayed, talking to him in that quiet murmur. In a glimpse of awareness, Legolas tried to reach up once, to touch her hand as it stroked his face. But his arms were numb like dead weights. He couldn't move, so severe was his exhaustion.

He could only sleep…and breathe…and slip into the vastness of night, a night that never lifted.

Kristy sighed, holding her arms and staring at the man, the 'Legolas', on her couch. It was a roll-away couch. The pile of cushions in the closet and the back of the couch was his headboard. Somehow, it made her feel more comfortable this way. There were only two locked doors in the apartment: her bedroom and the bathroom. Kristy kept a 30,000-volt Taser on her bureau, just in case. And in the kitchen counter. Just in case.

Yes, the man was sick and exhausted. But who knew who he was? No one, it seemed.

It was seven days since she ran into him. Doctor Reiner just left from his last house call. Kristy used the first few vacation days to take care of him. Reiner said he needed someone there with him constantly. She used her lunchbreaks to watch over him from then. Kristy didn't know why she did it, but she did.

She sat on her knees in a leather lazy-boy, a cheese sandwich crunched nervously in her hands. Legolas was unconscious most of the time. Either that or delirious. He slept hard. Nothing could stir him.

But now he shifted. Instead of deep, slow breaths, he took short quick ones. He was restless. Kristy noticed it and it sent her heart racing. He was healing quickly… and she was alone. She'd barely even spoken to anyone: family, friends, anyone for a week now and she wondered if she was deadly wrong on this.

And then his eyes fluttered.

Kristy stared.

Somehow she hadn't prepared herself for this: actually waking up. It was ridiculous. Mr. Reiner was the finest old doctor in the state. He knew what he was doing. He said Legolas would be fine, with rest and care. It was stupid to think this was coming too soon.

He accepted water from her for days now, flitting his eyes open and closed in a haze. He was healing. He didn't pant and thrash, call things that made no sense. He didn't tear at the sheets and shout obscenities in a strange tongue. He was quiet.

It was time.

0~0~0~0~0~0~0~0~0~0~0~0~0~0~0~0~0~0~0~

Black.

It was the first thing Legolas felt. It wasn't a cold black, but a warm, fathomlessly deep one. He became...aware.

Legolas cracked his eyes open. A bleary haze of colors and semi-darkness filled the slit. There was wind outside, a dull hum above his head. The sound was strange and he listened to it, feeling warm air currents brush his face. It seemed to tingle on his skin, heat and comfort.

Legolas opened his eyes fully, shifting in the warm pillows and sheets enveloping him. It was a smooth, silky sensation. Exquisite.

Or not. His head felt like the pounding of a thousand drums, and his body was a useless pool of warm milk. Disgusting.

Where was he? Whathappened? He stared blankly at the bright glow streaming through the cracked curtains. And slowly, a sinking feeling hit the pit of his stomach.

By the spirits… He was dead.

The pain was gone. The chaos, fire, and fear were sapped away in a hollow, empty void. He was somewhere he'd never been. Legolas couldn't tell why or how, but even the air he breathed felt foreign.

"He lives!"

Legolas blinked in surprise, fully awake now. There, sitting frozen like an ice statue, was a female.

"Oh…um, I mean you're awake."

At least he thought it was. It was hard to tell, the way his vision blurred and fuzzed. But the voice was unmistakable. Some part of him had listened to it for...he wasn't sure how long. Days? Weeks. Hours.

"Hello," she said, and he glanced up.

Hello? Was that her name? Was it his, or the name of this place? Or was this some kind of greeting he was expected to respond to?

Somehow, he barely managed to swallow, much less provide a greeting. Obviously, he concluded, this was not the undying lands of trees and happy hunting he'd always learned the forefathers departed to upon death. And then he thought about it.

Where had he heard such a thing?

"How do you feel?" Kristy asked, more subdued.

The words sounded garbled. Legolas didn't understand. Where was he? What happened? He grimaced and glanced down, realizing he was swathed in cool sheets and shirtless in the midst of a… living room?

His mind was an empty slate. Images and random things came to him. Wandering. Empty Sick. Legolas remembered screeching blurs of metal and towering masses, feeling confused and desperate. Then the woman... It was faint, distant like a dream, but definite. She came before the black fell.

"You," he rasped, wincing at his voice. It was croaky and pained. He remembered her, her hand…strange hallways. "I remember you."

"Um, I'm sorry. I don't understand." Kristy said, before carefully feeling his forehead with a cool palm. Legolas froze under her hand, staring, before she reached out and slipped some kind of thin, silver rod from the tableside. She held it in front of his mouth.

"What-" He eyed the thing blankly. "What has happened to me?"

Kristy stared. Then, she tapped the rod in her hand pointedly.

Why didn't she answer? Legolas gazed at her in a steely, frozen way.

"Come on." Kristy sighed, before reaching out and tapping on his jaw, asking him to open. "Your temperature please? Reiner can't come up until morning! Your fever only broke yesterday. So...um, are you going to cooperate or not?"

It was near impossible with the waves of exhaustion weighing down his limbs, making it hard even to move, but he managed to inch away. He wasn't sure if he liked this woman touching him after all.

"Oh all right." Kristy moved the sheet and placed the thing between his arm and his side. Legolas shivered. "I know." She smiled, getting up. "…cold."

And Legolas coughed...hard.

The girl was half-dressed! Some kind of flimsy sleep shift wrapped around her waist, and it barely reached her knees. Quickly, Legolas blinked away, grimacing in confusion and embarrassment. It was too late. She was gone.

Where in Elbereth's name was he? Elbereth…who was Elbereth? Why did he think of that?

Legolas sighed. At least the throbbing in his head was fading. He was warm, comfortable, and apparently cared for. It was hard to think about anything else.

"Here." The woman said when she finally came back. Legolas pointedly avoided his eyes. "Reiner gave this to me."

Kristy came around to sit at the bedside, before taking his face in one hand and placing a small, fist sized object against his ear. He recoiled at the touch, staring at her in surprise, before a click snapped in his ear and he flinched.

"You know, they use this on stubborn babies, don't you?" She stared at the screen. "So dividing the difference between the two is…a near perfect 98.6 degrees!" Then, she smiled at him, relief shining in her eyes. "I'm glad you're better."

Was he going to reply to something he had no idea of? Or should he just- Sweet Eru! Legolas suddenly grabbed the sheets and looked down. And to his flooding relief, he still had pants on.

Legolas summoned the strength to shuffle down deeper anyway, glowering. He wasn't prudish. But lying half-naked in bed with strange females was unbefitting.

"Oh…sorry about that." Kristy said quickly, "Your old clothes were really wet and- um, nasty. Reiner had some pants to spare, and… Well, sorry they're too short."

He stared at her a little darkly, before nodding and looking away. Judging by her penitent expression, at least there was an apology somewhere in that monologue.

Afternoon light poured through the windows and he found the floor was carpeted. Legolas tried to focus. The room was large and spacious, cluttered around the edges bookshelves. Objects and things he couldn't even guess at scattered the place. A great window and a table piled in papers, coats and pens stood in the corner. It was all very strange.

"You're going to be as good as new in no time," Kristy said quietly, looking at him. Staring at him intently, she thought of all the ways she'd have to tell him as soon as he was well, that he had to leave. But she didn't. It was too soon. "I…I guess you'll be able to find your home, then. And family and friends and stuff, right?"

Why did she look at him so guiltily? Legolas stared, before losing interest and turning away. It was too hard keeping his eyes open. Besides, the fact that he wasn't dead, and this wasn't the land of the dead only narrowed down the possibilities of his location by one.

Kristy sighed. "Kay then. I'll go call doc and tell him you're fine."

Legolas let his eyes slide shut in response, before sliding deeper into the warm sheets with a heavy sigh. The pillows he sank in were soft, clean, and laundered. Somewhere, Legolas knew the things around him were remarkable, but he was too tired, too confused... He didn't know what to think about it, what to feel.

So he didn't.

"I…have to go take Alice's shift." Kristy looked back. "But I'll be back in a few hours."

Legolas didn't answer, not even a blink. The clock ticked away the time and the hum of distant traffic filled the silence. Yet Legolas heard her on the carpeted floor. She slowly came back to stand over him, looking at him. Legolas pretended not to know.

"Don't die, okay?"

Then Kristy leaned down and lifted the stray hair from his face. Very gently, she combed it back over his ear…and he flinched. He should have felt that. Legolas froze where he lay. His ear should have been more sensitive to such a touch. Somehow, he knew it. He should have felt a tingle shiver through his entire body. There was something missing…something terribly wrong.

And then Kristy was gone and he was alone. Legolas' heart thudded in his chest. Something was wrong, terribly wrong. And he didn't know what!

He was not the same…

He was not the same.