Epilogue: Three Months Later

Kris moved up and down the moonlit porchway, just outside Minas Tirith's main banquet hall. She'd arrived with a host of elves come to pay homage to the new king of Gondor. She stopped, thinking about that. King. It was enough to read about it, to know that it was supposed to happen. But stars, Aragorn was a king.

Faces moved past her in a blur, headed for the smell of food and languid strings of music drifting from the lighted rooms. It was a formal affair. People from all across the map were here, celebrating, reuniting with loved ones. The war was over. Sauron and his evil had been obliterated. No matter how many times she'd read about it in Tolkien's histories, part of her never believed it was possible, not after seeing an army of orcs for herself.

They'd attacked Lorien three times since she'd arrived in the golden wood. The fellowship had already left by the time she woke. Legolas…already left. She was asleep for two weeks after jumping into that blinding rip of light, ripped apart and put back together a thousand times, hurtling through time and the void of space toward Middle Earth. Now here she was, three months older and yet, not older.

Kris reached up and poked her hair, fidgeting with it, making sure it covered her ears.

"Kristine?"

Kris whirled around, then froze. The shadow of bodies still blurred past, laughing, shouting, singing in tune with the instruments. It was Aragorn.

She opened her mouth and shut it, but nothing came out. He wore a circlet, silver metal against his wavy black hair. A crown. King, she had to remind herself.

Shit. What do you say to a king?

"Your highness? Uh-I-"

In two long strides, the king had pulled her under his arm and crushed her face into his shoulder. Kris let out a violent noise, a laugh, a shriek, she didn't know. The hug felt more like a headlock and it was cutting off her air.

"You made it."

Made it? Oh. The Lady of Lorien had said she sent word that Kristy would be with the arriving envoy. Kris just had no idea Aragorn would remember, or care, or even notice among all the other alerts a king must be privy to.

She tried to talk, to tell him how good it was to see him, how she was so happy it was filling her chest and pushing at her ribs until it felt like she'd burst at the seams. She dug her fingers into the soft gray robes draping his broad shoulders, but the men at his sides…advisors? Royal officials?...cut her incoherent babbling off short.

"It is time for the toast," they were saying.

He ignored them just long enough to say, "Legolas is behind me."

Kris blinked. A grin like that lifted ten years from his face. And just like that, he was gone, herded toward the raised dias at the head of the banquet hall. Before she could even acknowledge his words, elves were striding around the corner in blues and greens, grays and browns. Mirkwood elves. Legolas was among them. She barely managed to stagger back a step before he looked up, checking her gaze. He paused mid-sentence, leaving the tawny haired elf beside in utter confusion.

He froze. She froze.

Legolas stared, questioning his own eyes for a minute. He saw her in a crimson tunic and brown boots, her hair pulled back but loose, covering her ears. What—how? Aragorn had said nothing. They'd all said nothing. The Lorien envoy had already arrived?

That damn Dunedain.

Legolas suddenly realized he hadn't said a word, and there were expectant eyes on him. "Go on without me," he said, unable to rip his eyes from her wide ones.

Kris knew she should say something. Anything. But her heart had other ideas. It was tripping and stumbling in her chest, clogged in her throat, pounding in her ears and deafening her.

"Kristine…" Legolas said, so faintly she barely heard.

"Yeah," she whispered.

He glanced at her hip. No gun. But his dagger was still there, the one he'd given her their last night on Earth.

Then, as if snapped out of some trance, he was striding forward. She tried to step back, but instead, she was moving forward too. The last of the late arrivals were disappearing into the double doors now and she shrieked, burying her face in his neck. He was grabbing her off the ground, spinning her so hard her boots left the floor.

Oh fuck, he smelled good. Like pines and leather and the outdoors. Everything good.

Then he was pulling back, dropping her, knotting his fingers in her hair.

"Wait!" Kris grabbed him by the collar and he froze, a hair's breadth from her lips. "You left me. You left me!"

His dark brows slammed down. "What?"

"I wanted to help. I wanted to fight. And you left me. In Lorien."

"You're still angry?" he said, like he couldn't believe it. Three months was quite awhile to hold a grudge for Kristy. He knew she'd be upset when she woke. It's why he'd encouraged them to leave as quickly as possible while she recovered.

She stared at him, squeezing his shirt in her fists so hard her knuckles turned white. She tried to shake him, but he was an unmovable force. She just ended up shoving herself away, bouncing off his solid chest.

"Kristy." Legolas snagged her arms, pulling her closer again. "I am sorry."

"You're sorry?"

Legolas shook his head. "No. I am not. But I am sorry I'm not sorry."

Something vibrated in her chest. A growl. A furious, suffocated noise that made Legolas laugh no matter how hard he tried to keep it down.

"And I am sorry I didn't leave specific instructions that you should be kept locked in a windowless room and not allowed to fight. I've heard what they let you get up to."

Kris was turning pink now. Not a blush. It was fury.

"Do you know what it was like on the battlefield, wondering if you were off in the wood somewhere being chased by an orc pack?"

"Well, I was. Only I was doing the chasing." Kris shoved his hands from her arms, folding them across her chest. "Yeah, I had enough ammo. The Lady of the Wood let me fight with the border guard. So, your little stunt did you no good."

"And yet here you are."

Kris was about to snap something back. He saw it in her eyes. Then, she stopped. "I have to tell you something."

Legolas went still. He glanced at the massive double doors, then shifted back from the noise of clinking plates and whooping laughter. He drew her toward the stone rail of the porch. The moon was full, and they could see the city dropping out below, every tier and tower, every lantern flaming in the night. The moon was rusty red, glowing amber in her hazel eyes.

"Who is it?" he said.

She blinked. "What?"

"Who did you meet? One of the guards who arrived with you? Kristine, I am sorry we left you. I swear to Vala I didn't wish to hurt you. I will make it up to you-"

"What?" Kris shook her head, cutting him off. Then on an impulse, she moved closer, touching his arms. He glanced at her hands on his biceps, the muscle flexing under her fingers. He glanced back up, flickering over her stubborn jaw. Over the shadows from flaming torches flickering across her skin and through her eyes, turning them luminous.

"I didn't meet someone. That's not—I…" She started to breathe fast, and Legolas moved into her, scanning her features.

"What is it? Are you hurt? Did-"

"No. No, I'm fine-"

"What's wrong?"

"I'm not human anymore!" she burst out. Kristy squeezed his arms so hard, her shoulders shook. "I'm not…I'm not the same." Then, she pushed the hair behind her ears and…Legolas blinked.

They were pointed. Well, angular. The gentle slope of her ears were now ridged and slightly peaked.

"What in the…" He looked at her. "What in Vala's name happened?"

She shook her head.

"Galadriel." Legolas snapped his head up. "She did this. Our bond, the magic from her ring."

Kris nodded slightly, drawing back from him a little. The back of her thighs bumped the rail. "I came back with you and it…it linked us somehow, and not just our minds. It blended our DNA, something. I'm sorry. I-"

"What?" Legolas shook his head. "What do you mean?"

Kris swiveled her palm across the hilt of the long-knife, as if out of habit. The pummel was shiny and polished from the movement.

"I think…I think we're stuck with each other. I've tried, but I don't know how to break it. Galadriel, she said-she said your immortality is blended with my mortality. I can't age. And there's no stopping it. It weakens you. Every time you were hurt out there, every time you were hit or tired, I felt it, Legolas. I know it will be the same for you. It's not just my thoughts you feel, now. Whenever I'm weak, or-"

Legolas shook his head, cutting her off. "The war we fought? I've never felt stronger. Kristine, you are looking at this all wrong."

She started to say something, and he moved forward, snatching her chin and pressing his mouth to hers. Kris froze, suddenly hit with the sheer…heat of it. By the stars, he was warm. She exhaled hard against him, fisting her fingers in his shirt until he broke away. She tried to follow, ratcheting up onto tip toe. But he lifted his chin, laughing low in his chest when she tried to reach him and failed.

It was a warm, throaty sound that sent shivers all the way up her spine and tingling across her scalp.

"I have never felt stronger. More alive. You are not burdening me with your weakness, Kristine, with your humanity. You bleed your will into me and it…" He brushed his thumb across her chin. "Your will is a fire. I will take it with whatever weakness you have any day, every day. If you're prepared for mine."

Kris made a noise in her throat. It was either a snort or a laugh, or maybe a sob. She wasn't crying, but there was something passing through her eyes that shook him.

He said it before he even realized the words were passing his lips. "I love you, Kristine."

She nodded a little, still with that look in her eyes that he couldn't quite name.

"Kristine?" he pushed, feeling a grin tugging at the edges of his mouth. "Are you going to say something?"

She nodded, then shook her head. Then she made the noise again, this time with more laugh than sob. She laughed again, and there were stinging tears clinging to her lashes when she blinked.

"I'm so happy you're not dead," she burst out.

Legolas grinned, placing his palms on the rail on either side of her hips. "That's it? That's what you have to say?"

She glanced at his lips, then pulled him low enough for a kiss. He allowed it for a moment, grazing his tongue along her bottom lip. She tasted like warm breeze and sunshine. He tugged back then, running his hands up the muscle on either side of her spine. He fisted the soft cloth of her tunic, so close their breaths mingled.

"Tell me," he said under his breath.

She glanced at his lips.

"Tell me," he insisted, pushing his mouth to hers for a brief, demanding kiss.

She looked at him like he'd just asked her to vault off a bottomless cliff with him.

"Tell me," he said again. "Tell me you love me."

With a squeeze of her fists that choked the life out of his shirt and made him grin like a maniac, "I love you," she whispered like it was ripped out of her. "I love you. I-"

He kissed her, threading his fingers through her hair and pulling her into him.

Hey guys, I realized I had this epilogue written and never posted it. Sorry.)