Brilliancy – part 3

By skaia7

Wow. I actually finished one! I can't believe it. So, now is the time to tell me if it was worth the hours and hours I spent working on it. Thanks so much for those of you who review! You are the reason we write!

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I awoke a short while later when Haleth gently touched my shoulder. The children were to be put to bed, she whispered softly, and would not be quieted until they had seen their mother.

I ever-so-slowly eased myself from Faramir's embrace, careful not to wake him. After so many years with the Rangers, it is a testament to how complete his exhaustion that he did not stir when I left. Most mornings he is awake long before I, getting an early start in his study or simply sitting quietly watching myself or the children sleep.

I had asked him once – when first we were married - why he always woke so early.

"I have never been one to lie abed when there was daylight by which to labor," he had replied, his voice low, grey eyes soft as he lay beside me in our bed. "And lately I have discovered that watching my lovely wife is a much better pursuit." He had leaned in to kiss my brow, murmuring, "I cannot seem to get enough."

I can guess what he did not say: that Denethor would never have allowed one of his sons to lie in sloth, that if he had been caught still asleep his father's wrath would have been swift and terrible. Once more, my heart ached for the boy he had been, for the wounded man he had become…

I slid a pillow to take the place of me under his head and smoothed his dark hair back from his cheek. His skin felt cool 'neath my touch, the lines of worry having disappeared in the peace of his rest. He looked almost boyish in sleep, and I could not help the warm smile that came as I gazed upon the man I loved.

How close we had come! I shuddered, thinking back over the past two years. How close we had come to ruin! We had been given a precious gift, not once, but twice…

We would not be so careless with it again.

Haleth's hand upon my arm brought me back to myself, and I followed her noiselessly from the room. We entered the chamber our children shared, Morwen running to meet me, her winter nightdress fluttering around her legs. I picked her up and held her close, breathing in the clean scent of her hair. Elboron was already in bed, his grave eyes watching us shrewdly. For all the pride in my motherly influence on my children, there were times when something of them gleamed as unmistakably their father's. Though I had not thought it possible, when I saw these inherited charms, I loved them all the more. They and their adoring father.

Elboron was as spirited as I, and yet with a serious bent that was all Faramir. Morwen was by far the more serene child, content to sit and keenly observe as her father was wont to do, but with a happiness about her that I recognized from my own childhood. In these last few months, our family had grown close in such a way as I had once despaired would never be possible. Elboron had nearly forgotten our separation, and of course Morwen was much too young to know it had occurred. I began to sing softly, a lullaby of Rohan, as my daughter laid her head on my shoulder and I rocked her gently.

Would we ever tell them? I wondered. What possible purpose would it serve for them to know how grievously we each wronged the other - whom we claimed to love - and how hard we fought to tear our precious family in two? I closed my eyes. Perhaps when they are older, when it might serve them to know how important it is to talk… to listen…

I laid Morwen down in her cradle, her eyes drooping. Still crooning softly, I went over to kiss my son, letting his soft, dark hair slip through my fingers. So like his father's… Soon, he began to drift off as well, and I slipped out quietly, leaving Haleth in her chair by the fire mending a tear in one of Elboron's breeches.

Out in the hall, I leaned against a window, staring out at the dark wintry night. The sky was clear, the moon full and crisp and bright, wisps of clouds barely brushing its round edge. It reminded me of a night we had spent in Edoras, after we were troth-plighted. The moon had been full, and we had walked the length and breadth of the village hand in hand, talking quietly. He had kissed me that night, sweet and stolen, under the blossom-laden branches. It was the first time we had kissed since that morning on the ramparts of the Houses of Healing, when he had asked for my hand. I had burned with a heat unlike any I had known, and only his gallantry had kept us from going any further than that most chaste of kisses.

Turning, I crept slowly back to our chamber, where I could admire both the moon and my sleeping husband.

The cold light glinted softly on his raven hair, his bare arms spread across the white sheets. I smiled, leaning against the wall, and simply watched him sleep. It was nice, for a change – to watch him instead of waking to find him watching me. He looked so at peace.

As if he sensed it, his eyes fluttered open, finding me in the moonlight. His heavy lids slipped closed again for the briefest of moments, then parted to me once more. My husband did not speak, but stretched his hand, palm up, out to me. I smiled and went to him, clasping his calloused hand in one of my own, and allowed him to draw me down to the bed.

He pulled me close, wrapping one arm around me, and buried his face in the dark hollow between my hair and my neck. Our hands were still clasped between our breasts, and I could feel both our hearts beating where our hands bridged our bodies.
Faramir issued a languid sigh, his entire body relaxing with its release. He gently kissed my neck, once, then stilled. I could not help the shiver that coursed through me at his kiss – he has ever known that sensitive spot! Then, I allowed my breathing to match his own, and soon began to feel the fey tug of slumber, my dreams beckoning…

"…thank you…" I heard his low murmur, so soft I thought for a moment I only imagined it. Then, he spoke once more, "…for loving me… healing me…"

I turned my head to lay a soft kiss on his brow, squeezing his hand.

And then we were both asleep.

Finis.