An- This is an epilogue idea I had in 2003 for the second story we had yet to write. It's something I wrote a few versions of (5 years ago), but they're all at home (and I'm in University) so I rewrote it. It's short, but you get the idea. This is what I originally thought the epilogue might end like. I think I came up with this big idea for the epilogue of the second story even before Erin was pregnant in the first one, so therefore when I originally would have written this, Erin wouldn't have left her baby behind, and I don't think Carla had fallen in love with Eomer. But I changed that for this version of the Epilogue.

Obviously, it wouldn't have worked because we changed a fair bit from the original Tolkien storyline. I'm quite glad we didn't use it. Niori wrote that really emotional ending, AND had the brilliant idea of continuing it further. (We obviously have trouble letting go!)

..

All four of the girls were sitting in Jane's bedroom. Jane was sitting on the armrest of the armchair that Carla was curled up in. Erin and Niori sat on her bed.

"For the love of God, Jane, why the hell are you reading 'The Lord of the Rings'?" Carla said, a mixture of sadness and annoyance in her voice as she looked up at her friend.

Jane flipped through her huge volume, not really reading, but oddly finding some comfort in the huge book. "Because I miss it. We all do. And this is as close as we're ever going to get to being back there." She said quietly, sadness emanating from her voice. She longed to be able to jump into the beautiful forest depicted on the back cover of the book. She traced a tree with her finger.

"Please, Jane." Niori whispered painfully, her hand absently resting on her heart. "Can we not talk about this?" She exhaled loudly. "It's been two months. We need to...try to forget all of it, and... try to get on with our lives."

Erin remained silent, her arms wrapped around her legs. Her eyes showed nothing but regret and sorrow.

"We can't forget it." Jane answered forcefully. Niori looked at her, a frown creasing her forehead.

"I know the pain I'm feeling is nothing compared to yours," she spoke, looking at all three of them. "And I can understand why you all want to forget it ever happened. But I'll never be able to forget how amazing and magical that place was. We were there for over a year!" There was silence from the other three. The Jane added more gently with a little smile, "We don't even know exactly how old we are anymore."

That prompted Carla and Niori to both smile reluctantly. Erin's dead gaze didn't waver.

"This book is just my way of trying to be back there." She stroked the cover with her hand. "I guess its part of the...grieving process for me." Jane said softly, flipping open the book randomly to a chapter in "Return of the King" called "The Battle of the Pelannor Fields" and she felt a jolt of recognition and sadness in her stomach at the chapter name.

It was then her eyes found another, very familiar name, and she almost fell off the chair arm she was balanced on. "Holy fuck." She said loudly, balancing herself.

"What's up, Jane?" Carla answered, not really sounding like she cared at all.

Something had closed over Jane's throat, making it very difficult to speak. "Me! Me! – in – book." She pointed mutely at the page, her eyes huge.

"What?" Niori asked, her eyes widening. "You're in the book?" She asked, her voice getting higher with every word. She jumped off the bed and grabbed the book from Jane, where the girl was frantically pointing at the page.

"What?!" Erin and Carla yelled, Erin scrambling off the bed and running over to where Niori was holding the book.

"Oh my God..." Carla whispered, "I'm there too, on the same page. I watched Eowyn kill the Black Rider." her eyes scanned the page rapidly, too excited and amazed to be sad.

"Let's see it!" Niori said, grabbing the book from Carla, and flipping to a few pages later. "No fucking way..." She breathed. "It's me...with him." She looked at them in amazement, and Erin promptly took the book from her slackened grip.

"I can't believe this." Carla said, "Does this mean the entire series was re-written, or, I mean – written by Tolkien from the very beginning to include us? Because we were there?"

"It must." Jane had regained the use of her mouth, and was now beaming.

Erin flipped to The Two Towers, chapter "The Forbidden Pool", and promptly burst into tears. "It's me...I'm in the book with F- Frodo and Sam. And I'm pregnant!" She sobbed. None of them could tell if they were tears of happiness, sadness, or both. They all hugged each other fiercely.

"So, that means, in every "Lord of the Rings" book in the world, four girls are included by the names of Niori, Erin, Jane and... Carla." Carla spoke, her voice sounding choked.

Suddenly Jane's eyes widened and she looked at all three of them in turn. "What about the movies, then?" She whispered.

They all froze, and without another word, ran for the TV room.

.11.

An- And, in case anyone is curious, since the movie would have changed as well, here's Niori's Casting Choices for the four girls (feel free to picture them in your mind when reading- I do lol):

Jane: Alona Tal

Carla: Genevieve Cortese

Erin: Katie Cassidy

Niori: Lauren Cohan

(The cast of Supernatural? Pft! You're crazy!)