Time Transcended
Over the Sea
Disclaimer: Own nuttin'.
Authors note: I worked VERY hard on this chapter to get it just right! I hope it is an excellent chapter and worth the ridiculous wait I made you all endure! I'm so sorry it wasn't done sooner, but I got really really really busy and had no time, and then I wanted it just so… Well, here it is. Please, enjoy!
"Everything packed?" Elrohir asked Rebecca.
"Yes it is! Shall I go ask about Elladan and Liz?" she replied.
"Yes. We have to leave for the…airport in fifteen minutes. I really should have tried to figure out a word for that."
Rebecca laughed as she walked out the door and to Elladan and Liz's room. She knocked as a warning then walked in the room. She didn't see anyone in there, and saw two suitcases sitting on a bench, mostly packed, with dresser drawers open and empty, and a closet standing open and empty. "Where are they?" she muttered to herself. She walked over to the door that led to his actual bedroom and pressed her ear to it. She heard them in there and smiled as she shook her head.
"We leave in fifteen minutes!" she yelled through the door. She almost laughed out loud when she heard Liz cry out in surprise, and the two thud onto the floor. Rebecca managed to keep herself silent until she closed the door to her room behind her.
"What are you laughing about?" Elrohir asked.
"Your brother and Liz. They are such klutz's." she paused a moment then said, "Do you think I should go warn Glorfindel?"
"He knows. He's been packed since the wedding."
"That explains why he has been wearing the same two robes for the last three weeks."
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"Is there room for this too?" Liz asked as she brought down her last bag.
Elrohir studied it as Liz held it out for examination. "What's in it?"
"Lotions and stuff like that."
Elrohir took it and shoved it into the last empty space in the back of his car. The three cars were stuffed full of everyone's belongings. Glorfindel, who was bringing the least, had in his car all of the treasures Elrohir and Elladan had been collecting and caring for during their long lives in this world.
The elf lord led the way out the driveway, followed by Elladan and Elrohir. An hour later they were in the airplane and saying their last good-bye's to the United States of America.
"So what are we going to do before we sail?" Liz asked Elladan.
"Sight-seeing mostly. Train rides through the country side, walking, whatever we wish."
"Are we taking a grey ship?"
"Of course! It has been there and waiting for us for years. If there is anything that needs repairing, we shall be sure to do that first thing, then off we go."
The entire flight from Detroit to New York, then on to London was spent talking about what they would do when they got to Valinor, and all they had done in the years prior to going. Somewhere between the hemispheres, Rebecca grew silent and lost in thought. To think, all of this had come about because she played hide-and-seek with her brother. In her mind flitted the memories of what she had done in Rivendell, that dear place she would never see again. Then the years between, and the reunion, the wedding, the honeymoon… It was all so clear and vivid in her mind. As if it had happened yesterday.
She then remembered all she had said her last good-bye's too. She had made a point of seeing all her relatives and giving them elaborate gifts between her wedding and that day. Her parents she had spoken to last. She didn't tell them exactly when they were leaving, but gave them the week in which they were going to England, and told them to consider that the end because she didn't know the precise day they were to sail. She was a little saddened though that Liz hadn't done the same. Liz's mother had changed her mind about being fine with her sailing, but it was too late. The deed was done. The last time Liz spoke to her mother, she had tried persuade her it was really for the best. They had a tearful good bye at a small coffee shop, and that was the end. Richard understood better than his wife that this would all be for the best, and he helped greatly in the persuasion of his wife to let Liz go, but it was never fully approved. It had been harder for her than it had been for Rebecca's parents. It was hard for them, for certain, but they knew she would be safer there than anywhere else, and happier than she could have ever been in this world.
"Mirë!" Elrohir called for the third time. "Are you with us?"
"Huh? Yeah. I was just thinking."
"About what?"
"Rivendell."
"Those glorious evenings in Rivendell with just us and the moon in a wooded garden?"
"And when you started to heal my broken heart," she replied. "I can't wait to get home."
Elrohir nodded. "Neither can I."
She leaned over and rested her head on his shoulder and gave a sigh. "Do you remember the first time we sat this way?"
"Honestly, I do not."
"Neither do I. That's why I asked," she admitted.
He chuckled then kissed the top of her head.
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"So how many days are staying here before we sail?" Glorfindel asked, a hint of impatience in his voice.
"It depends on how much we need to do on the ship, and what the girls want to do," Elladan replied. "You know that." He handed Glorfindel a particularly large suitcase of Liz's, the weight of which went unnoticed by the elf lord.
"I do, but I also know that I have waited many thousands of years to leave, and now I can wait no longer!"
Elladan chuckled as he went out to the rental car to get the last bags.
They were staying at the very house where it all had started, and Elrohir and Rebecca were in the room it all happened. In the little elven cottage they were all crammed, and happy to be so because they knew soon enough they would have more room than they could handle.
"Elrohir," Rebecca said with a quavering voice.
"What mel nin?" he asked as he walked up behind his standing wife and put his hand on her back.
"I… I hear the Sea. Calling me home," she whispered. "I hear gulls wailing sweet songs, not those obnoxious squawks I once heard, but melodies enticing and fair."
"And what do they say?"
"That I do not know. I do not understand their language, but I know its message the same. Will you tell me?" she asked.
"The Sea cries the same song it has cried for thousands of years, and gulls cry much of the same:
O! Weary pilgrims, white shores call
Where sit thy kindred one and all,
Where white shores are and country green
Where rain turns into silver sheen.
O! Wayward children of First born
Why struggle so and be forlorn?
On a Grey ship sail the Sea.
Go where thy kindred wait for thee!
O! Wanderers from elven-lands
Stay not where only mortal stands
Follow the ones that've gone before
And stand in peace on Valinor.
'and the song goes on and on, reminding us of what is there, and tempting us to abandon all and sail. It rings loudly in the ears of Glorfindel, and each day it grows louder in mine. Elladan, however, is not so affected by it as he was. He has found another song that is louder at the moment."
Rebecca did not quite understand what he meant by another song, and went to ask, but then realized he meant Liz. So love could be more powerful than the Sea, but only for a short time.
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"And you promise this won't hurt?" Liz asked for the third time.
"I swear to you Liz, this will cause no pain," Elladan pledged for the third time.
"And you waited until now because…"
"Do you not recall the last three weeks?" he asked with a raised brow.
"I do, but… well… I want to talk to Reb first," Liz insisted.
"Very well," Elladan said, and opened the door for her to leave.
Two steps it took to cross the hall, and two knocks it took for Elrohir to open the door.
"I need to talk to Reb," Liz said as she walked past Elrohir. He sighed and left the room, shutting the door behind him, and opening before him the door to his brother's room.
"She is nervous?" Elrohir asked.
Elladan nodded. "She is thoroughly convinced I shall hurt her."
"No, not that you shall hurt her, that whatever you do shall hurt even though you do not mean it to," Elrohir corrected.
"Thank Elbereth you married a human too, or I wouldn't know what to make of Liz. She is so hesitant to trust anyone, just like every other human. I marvel that Rebecca ever learned to trust you."
"She had to though. It was life or death out in the Wild."
"True. Do you think Rebecca shall persuade her to trust me in this matter?"
"Yes," Elrohir replied. Just as he said that, the door opened and there stood Liz.
"I think I'm ready," she declared. Elrohir took his leave, and returned to his own room.
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"What did you say to her?" Elrohir asked as he sat down beside Rebecca on the bed, and placed a hand on her back.
"I told her how it felt to me. Then she realized that it wasn't pain or discomfort, just odd and almost enjoyable."
Elrohir nodded as his hand slowly moved up and down. His brows knit together as his hand stopped on her lower back. He began searching it with his finger tips, starting with a wide area, then narrowing it down to one small spot. "Has your back been bothering you at all?"
"A little stiff from all that lifting, but otherwise no."
He grinned. "I know just how to relieve that stiffness."
Rebecca stretched herself out, face down on the bed and grinned. "Oh to marry a healer!" she thought to herself. The discomfort and pain melted away under his warm touch.
"You're welcome," he cheerfully said.
"I haven't said thank you yet!" she replied.
"But you were thinking it," he pointed out.
She only sighed contentedly in reply.
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"Daddy! No! Please no Daddy!" Liz cried out as tears began to stream down her face.
Elladan, awoken by her cries, sat up and checked Liz. She was sobbing, but asleep. Liz was dreaming of the day her father had died.
"Liz! Liz! Mel nin! Awake!" Elladan called, shaking her gently. She continued on in her sad dream, until he called her name sternly, then she awoke as suddenly as if a spell had been broken.
"Oh Elladan!" she bawled as she sat up and hugged him. "I was having the most terrible dream!"
Even though he knew the subject of her dream, he said, "Tell me what it was about."
"It was the day my dad died. It started out so much better though! It started when I was eight and dad took me to the park every day that summer to teach me how to pitch for softball. We'd toss around a softball for a while, then he'd let me go play on the swings. I loved the swings, and to this day I can't go on one with out thinking about how he used to push me on them, or swing next to me. That was great summer… nearly every day after he came home from work he would take me to the park, or to his friend Steve's house. His friend Steve had a pond in his back yard, so me and his two daughters would go swimming while our dad's sat on in lawn chairs and watched us. Sooner or later we'd convince them to join us. That was always the most fun… then they'd toss us up in the air and let us flop into the water, or they'd play Marco Polo, or teach us how to dive off the diving board on the dock on the deep end. Anyway, in my dream I dreamed of the day we tossed around the softball and went swimming. Afterwards we had hotdogs and slept out in the back yard under the stars. Suddenly the dream shifted to the next year. That's when Dad was diagnosed with cancer. We goofed around a bit, but he felt sick so often. I didn't understand it all then. Mom didn't want me waking Dad up while he was sleeping, so I spent a good deal of the summer over at Steve's. That wasn't bad, because I really liked Lindsey and Bethany, but I knew something was dreadfully wrong.
'I really didn't understand what cancer was then. Mom and Dad explained it as a sickness that would take a long time to get over. They also told me there was a slim chance he wouldn't make it, but that I shouldn't worry about that. I couldn't help it though, I did worry. Dad always was upbeat and positive, but as summer turned into fall I saw Mom looking more and more concerned. Right after Christmas, not a month after I turned ten, he died. I dreamed of the day he died. I relived it. It was so terrible!" she said, starting to cry even harder. "As happy as the first part was, the second part was so awful! I walked up to his bedside in the hospital. All those tubes and things attached to him… he looked so miserable, but his eyes still sparkled. Just like the day he died, he looked me in the eyes and said, "Liz, why do you cry? We'll meet again. Come on now, watching you cry hurts me more than this sickness does or ever could." Despite my valiant efforts, I kept crying, so he told me my favorite joke. "A piece of rope got onto a bus, and the bus driver said to him, 'are you a string?' and the rope said, 'I'm a frayed knot.'" And he pulled the funniest face, and I laughed. Then he took my hand and said, "Liz, promise me you'll marry a good guy, or I'll come back from the dead to haunt him!" I laughed a little, but then his heart stopped beating, and the doctors and nurses came rushing in, trying to revive him. A nurse had to pull my mom and me out of the room as I screamed, "Daddy! No! Please Daddy!" That's about when you woke me up.
'Oh Elladan! It was such a vivid dream," she ended, trying to stop the tears that flowed so freely. He held her tight and rubbed his hand up and down her back. Slowly the grief left her and the tears stopped, but she held on to him and let him continue calming her. Once she calmed down, she thanked him.
He smiled as he said, "Any time." She laid down and tried to go back to sleep with very little success.
"I can't sleep," she announced after five minutes.
"Do you want to go back to sleep?" Elladan asked, sitting up and facing her.
"Not particularly," she added as she propped herself up on one elbow.
"Then what do you want to do?" he asked, beginning to play with her hair.
"What you're thinking!" she grinned.
"Oh good! I'll go dig the Uno cards out of our luggage, while you-" he was cut off by Liz as she kissed him and knocked him backwards onto the bed.
"Wha-haha!" she cried. "That felt weird!"
"I told you it would!" he replied. "Don't worry," he added, "I'll kiss you softly."
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Glorfindel was out on the roof, gazing at the stars. Suddenly, from the ground, he heard a voice calling up to him. "Glorfindel! My friend! What day do you sail!"
He climbed over to the edge of the roof to see Cirdan standing there in full elvish garb. They smiled at each other as Glorfindel jumped off the roof. They exchanged greetings, and walked down to the Sea.
"I have finally been told I can go home," Glorfindel said. "I leave the moment the Sons of Elrond decide they are ready to leave with their wives."
Cirdan smiled. "I have been told the same! I am to leave with the five of you."
"Excellent! I can hardly wait til we leave."
"Same here. I have been forced to stick around because of you, you know. The Valar would not let me leave until you went home. They decided if Elrond's sons wanted to stay, they could have a mortal's fate and join their sister and grandmother."
"It is so sad about those two."
"Bitter and sweet, my friend. Just as our long lives are bitter sweet."
Glorfindel nodded. "I cannot wait to get to Eressea!"
"Neither can I."
The two old friends laid upon the shore and watched the stars drift by. They pointed out the constellations by their old names, and told stories about their time in this modern world, and then watched the moon sink behind the horizon… just where they both wanted be. In the grey between moonset and sunrise, they stole back to their respective houses and changed into the garb of common man.
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That morning, Elrohir and Elladan awoke at the exact same moment and bolted to the Sea facing windows of their rooms. Rebecca and Liz, unbeknown to the other, got up and stood beside her husband.
"What do you see on the horizon?" Rebecca asked.
"White shores. I had a dream last night. A dream that said we should sail today."
"Why?"
"I do not know. I just know we must sail. That is all. I must go tell Elladan."
He crossed the room and opened the door just as Elladan was about to knock on it.
"We need to leave today!" they said in unison. "Wait, you had the same dream? Let's go."
Rebecca couldn't help but smile at hearing them talk in perfect unison. It almost was like looking in a mirror to watch them talk and then walk away into their room to get ready.
"We must be swift. The sooner we leave, the better," Elrohir said to Rebecca as he began to pack hurridly. "Go tell Glorfindel to be ready to sail by this afternoon."
A strange note of urgency was in his voice, so she asked no questions and simply ran out of the room to tell Glorfindel. She returned from the errand and asked, "What happened in the dream to make you so anxious to leave?"
"I… I don't know. Just, I remember learning once we got there that something bad happened and we barely avoided it."
Wanting to avoid anything bad, Rebecca began to pack quickly. Then she realized she packed up her dress that she was going to wear to Valinor, so she unpacked it, put it on, and packed up her pajamas.
The whole morning was spent with hurried packing, and moving of things onto a grey ship. Cirdan was there to meet him, and said he had had a similar dream while he was catching a short nap until the sun rose. He said that he heard a fierce wind in his though.
Upon hearing that, Elladan got online and started looking at whether maps.
"What are you doing?" Elrohir cried when he saw his brother surfing the internet.
"That comment about wind got me thinking, and my thinking was right! A massive storm system is heading towards us rapidly. The general consensus seems to agree that it will hit sometime this evening. The winds are suppose to be quite strong, and if we get caught in that, we'll be entering Valinor by the Halls of Mandos," Elladan said.
Elladan looked out the window, all was clear, but far, far in the horizon, almost beyond his elven sight, he could see a thick, dark line.
Elladan turned off his laptop and ran out the door with Elrohir to deliver the news. Rebecca and Liz looked at each other, and started rattling off the luggage they really didn't need to bring with them.
By noon the boat was packed, and after a farewell lunch, they boarded the grey ship and sailed off. Elladan scanned the horizon and said, "Well everyone! We shall miss the storm completely! It is still a few hours off, we are on our way, and we shall be in sight of Eressea before the winds even begin to pick up!"
The girls breathed a sigh of relief and hugged their husbands. The last thing they wanted to do was die when they were so close to reaching Valinor.
They all relaxed, and stared out to Sea as the sun began to make her westward journey. The winds of Manwe carried them on swiftly, and the song of the Sea grew louder, stronger, and far more inviting than it had been.
Almost home, you travelers are
Never again shall you wander far.
In elven-home you'll rest your head
And on shining shores you'll tread.
Liz laughed. "I hear the song of the Sea! I hear it Elladan!"
He smiled and gave her a kiss. "We are almost home my love!"
She gave a contented sigh and leaned her head on his shoulder.
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"Look at this! It says, 'Six lost at sea. Last night a gale struck the coast of Great Britain, damaging or destroying hundreds of homes and businesses. Despite the warnings posted by the coast guard, six people, five American tourists and a former member of the Royal Navy set sail yesterday afternoon. It is assumed they were caught in the storm and killed because wreckage from the former navy-man's grey sailing vessel were found floating just off the coast. No bodies have been found, but the coast guard says there is almost no chance they could have survived in a life raft. They are being presumed dead and their families are coming to claim their possessions.' Isn't that great? We got a whole paragraph on the front page of the London Times!" Liz exclaimed.
"Yeah, that is pretty good," Rebecca replied.
"Hello! Where did this come from?" Elrohir asked, snatching the news paper from Liz's hand.
"It drifted right up to me this morning as I walked along the beach."
Elladan walked over and asked what everyone was looking at.
"Liz found a news paper drifting on the beach," Elrohir said, holding up the soggy evidence. "I'm surprised it isn't in soggy pieces."
"So am I!" Liz said. As she did, the news paper fell into tiny, soggy pieces. Elrohir washed his hands in the Sea water to get the last pieces off, and then dried them off on his robe.
"Well that was interesting!" Rebecca said. They all agreed and walked back towards their houses in Valinor.
Remember
I'll
never leave you
If you will only
Remember me
Remember
I
will still be here
As long as you hold me
In your
memory
Remember
When your dreams have ended
Time can be
transcended
I live forever - remember me
Remember me, remember
me
THE END!
Authors note: And this is why this chapter took such a ridiculously long time! It was the last one, and I couldn't figure out how to end it. I took about three of my ideas and blended them together for it. Well, I'd love to say look out for another fanfic, but… I'm heading off to college in the fall, and I have a TON of stuff to do between now and then, so you might get some shorter ones or one shots, but no long stories for a while. Sorry! I'll put up stuff as often as inspiration and time allows! You all have been marvelously patient and wonderful readers! Thank you VERY much for reading this story!
P.S. The song "Remember" is not mine. It's someone else's. Go Josh Groban! :o)
