The first thing she becomes aware of is a warmth that she wasn't expecting, she remembered of course being hurt, she remembered being in the caves and so she couldn't understand why she was so warm. Then the pain, a dull ache which quickly becomes much stronger as her senses return to her and her eyes flutter open a hiss of pain escaping through already gritted teeth.
"I'm here melamin, you must stay still," the voice is hushed and urgent and yet it sounds like the most incredible thing she had ever heard and for a second all pain is forgotten as breathes a sigh of relief. He is safe. He is alive and he sounds well, if a little concerned.
"Aragorn," she murmurs and she can almost hear his smile as she says his name,
"I am here Medui, I am here," he replies as he shifts closer to her, as close as he can possibly get without pulling her into his arms as he so wished to do but knew he couldn't.
"Did we win? Did we… tell me everyone is safe," she asks as she opens her eyes fully and turns her head slightly to study his face in an effort to find some answers.
"We are okay, Gandalf came just in time and we won," he smiles and though he looks weary and battle worn he also looks happy that the members of the fellowship had survived.
"And Haldir?" she asks hesitantly and he nods his face becoming slightly more serious as he does so.
"He is well and preparing transport of the elves as we speak," he says before sighing heavily, "why did you do it Medui? Why did you leave the caves to fight? he asks and she tenses slightly having known this question was coming and dreading it slightly.
"I had to," she says after a moment before wincing again as pain and exhaustion washes over her once more.
Both Aragorn and Meduineth know that the conversation is far from over but he decides to let it go for now because she is wounded and despite his frustration at her for leaving the safety of the caves his love and concern for her outshone everything else and she was for too exhausted to worry about anything other than trying to sleep and make this pain go away. For hours he sits by her side while she sleeps fitfully, Haldir returns with the healer and leaves elvish medicine with Aragorn before travelling back to his home. After the first night they carefully move her to one of the rooms where Aragorn takes up his vigil once more by her bedside.
"We must be leaving soon my friend," Gandalf's voice startles Aragorn out of his doze and he turns to see Gandalf standing just inside the doorway.
"I cannot leave her, you cannot ask me…" he starts in an almost panicked voice unable to comprehend how the old wizard could even think of asking him to leave her when she is so gravely ill.
"She will be well, I too have spoken to Haldir, her wound is healing quickly with the elvish medicine and Lady Eowyn has vowed to keep watch over her on the journey back to Edoras but we must make haste to Isenguard," Gandalf's voice is firm and brokers no argument but just looking at her pale and vulnerable face tears at Aragorn's heart.
"I cannot…" he begins again, his voice hoarse and defeated and Gandalf lets out a heavy sigh and sits in a chair by the fireplace of the room as he watches over the two of them for a moment.
"She would tell you to come with us and laugh at you for being so over protective of her," he says eventually and Aragorn chuckles slightly as he looks down at her and nods his head.
"Yes I suppose she would, I just do not like to leave her, I came so close to losing her when she fell, I… I am not sure I could survive it," he admits knowing that he could trust Gandalf with his inner most thoughts and feelings almost as much as he trusted Meduineth.
"You have a strong bond and I know she feels the same way, she will be waiting for you in Edoras when we return, it will be but a few days and she should be walking around again by the time we do," he reassures and so sighing Aragorn nods and turns briefly to the old wizard who is already on his feet again.
"I will be ready within the hour, I will just say goodbye," he says quietly and Gandalf briefly rests his hand on the rangers shoulder before he leaves to make the preparations to ride to Isenguard.
For a moment Aragorn is silent as he sits beside her, watching her breathe and thanking the Valar that she had survived and that she would be well. In this moment he is struck by how much had changed since they had met and how much was yet the same as it always had been. Ever since the first moment he had laid eyes on her there had been a pull towards her, something that led her to protect her at all cost. He almost laughs as he remembers the frustration and confusion he had felt when he had first been forced to part with her, the other rangers tired of carrying a child around with them and the journey to Rivendell.
"What shall I do with you?" he murmurs eventually a small smile appearing on his face as he watches her own seem to finally settle a little out of the frown of pain that had been painted across it since he had first seen her in the caves. "I must leave now melamin but I will be with you again soon I promise. You must focus on getting well and please do as Eowyn tells you and be patient," he pleads before leaning forward and pressing his lips to her forehead, his hand resting on her check. He lingers there for a moment, brushing her hair from her face and tucking it behind her ear as he pulls away.
"How is our little warrior?" Gimli asks with a grin as Aragorn approaches them and mounts his horse before pulling the dwarf up behind him.
"She is still unconscious, she has not awoken since I spoke to her in the caves but she is healing and will be well," he replies, his voice heavy with worry for his love.
"She is in good hands my friend and you may be glad that she is asleep as we leave for she would be beyond forgiving you if you left while she was awake and unable to come with us," Legolas smiles and Aragorn chuckles slightly as he sees the truth in the elf's words.
"Then let us make haste so that we may be with her again soon or she is sure to murder us all for abandoning her, as she will surely see it," Aragorn's voice is lighter as he speaks now and soon the small group are galloping towards the tower of Isenguard.
The journey is not along one but it feels as though it lasts forever to Aragorn, each hour he feels more separated and desperate and it makes his face twist into a frown as he wonders on this new development. He had always felt torn when he left Meduineth, true, but this was different. It could of course be because he had come so close to losing her, in fact the more he thinks about it the more he comes to the conclusion that this is indeed the reason for his distress. The battle weary ranger and heir to the throne struggled to come to terms with all that had happened in the last few days. In the past things had always moved so slowly, he would track parties of orc for months on end before battle would break out. He would leave and not see her for months and years at a time as she grew and changed. Now though, since the fellowship had set off, everything had changed! There was a large part of him that hated her being with them, being in harms way so much but an equally strong, no, a stronger part of him loved and treasured her being beside him throughout this journey. He wasn't sure he would be strong enough to complete it without her. He was beginning to think the Valar had sent her to him all those years ago knowing that things would turn out this way, that she would save him, push him to be who is was born to be, for he was beginning too, to realise now that he must eventually become that man and no longer hide in the shadows. She deserved better than a life in the shadows, she deserved to be treated like the queen she was born to be. He was scared though, scared for Frodo, scared for the rest of the fellowship, scared for Middle Earth but more than anything he was scared for her, for them and what would happen to her if he died. In those days after she had fallen he had felt like he died too. It was as if the reason for living had been taken away from him and an ache had settled in his stomach that made it difficult to even breathe. He knew that she loved him just as much as he loved her and the idea that he could leave her to feel that way made him ill.
Shaking himself out of these dark thoughts, the ranger is shocked to realise that they were now picking there way through the water and wreckage of Isenguard. Both Merry and Pippin sitting and eating and smoking whilst they talk to Gandalf until they see Aragorn that is.
"Aragorn," Merry yells happily whilst holding up a piece of what looks like meat of some kind and Aragorn can not quite hide the small smile that makes its way onto his face as he watches them.
"Where is Meduineth? Is she with you?" Pippin asks and the ranger's smile slips as he thinks of when he last saw her.
"Aragorn? Where is she? Please… she isn't? Tell us she…" Merry's voice is fully of shaky worry as both he and Pippin look for answers in the faces of their friends and those who were with them.
"Calm yourselves my little friends she is well," Gandalf says after a moment and they both visibly relax slightly.
"But where is she then?" Pippin asks after a beat and Aragorn stiffens again slightly,
"She was wounded in battle and has returned to Edoras to heal where we shall join her when we have finished here," Gandalf tells them as he and Legolas pull the two small hobbits onto their horses with them.
When Meduineth wakes it takes her a while to get to grips with her surroundings, she was not in the caves any more, that much was obvious but she felt that she was no longer at Helm's Deep at all and that confused her.
"Meduineth, awake at last my little friend," she turns her head to see Haldir standing in the doorway, the march warden looking as regal and elf like as ever.
"Haldir, what are you doing here? Where are we? What's going on?" she asks, questions spilling from her mouth so quickly they nearly blur into a single sound.
"We are at Edoras, you were brought here to recover and I decided to join you and oversee your recovery," he replies almost deliberately slowly as he walks further into the room and sets about checking her dressings.
"Where are the others though? Where is Aragorn?" she asks worry creasing her brow as she looks around for them. She knew they had survived, she remembered speaking with Aragorn after the battle but he would surely be here. Maybe he had been ashamed of her weakness. She knew she was. It was humiliating, raised and trained by elves to be a warrior, to be strong and deadly and yet within minutes of running into battle she had been wounded because she was too stupid to remember her training. Tears burned in her eyes as she thought about the shame she had brought to her family through her actions in the battle at Helm's Deep.
"They rode to Isenguard but should be returning soon, I expect them in the next day or two," he says as she fusses with the blankets to avoid looking at him. "What is wrong?" he asks with a sigh as he finishes re wrapping her dressings and sits on the chair beside her.
"Nothing," she responds quickly, too quickly for he raises his eyebrows at her to let her know he doesn't believe her.
"Meduineth," he reprimands gently and she sighs heavily before turning tortured eyes on him.
"I am ashamed of how weak I was and I am scared that he will be too, that you all will be," she admits in a whisper and he sighs again reaching forward and grasping her small hand in his much larger one, as he had done when she had felt defeated by his training over the years.
"You have done nothing to feel ashamed of my little friend," he says, "you ran into battle when you were still weak and injured from a fall that should have killed you. You thought nothing for your safety as you protected those around you and you saved my life. Tell me Meduineth, do you think me weak?" he asks when he sees her shaking her head in disagreement with him and she looks up startled.
"No! Of course not, you are one of the strongest and bravest warriors I have ever known," she says emphatically as she stares at him.
"And yet I nearly died in that battle, I would have perished alongside many of my kin had you not been there," he says and she suddenly sees the truth in his words, "injury in battle is inevitable if you fight in enough of them Meduineth, it is how we chose to deal with those injuries that do not kill us, it is whether we are strong enough to return to battle that truly shows our strength or weakness so, tell me, will you fight again in this war?" his face is serious and his eyes intent as he asks her and she stares back at him for only a second before the answer slips from her mouth.
"Of course I will," she says in determination and he smiles as he leans back slightly and looks more relaxed than she thinks she has ever seen him.
"Then you are not weak and none will ever think you are," he says as if it is obvious, "let us now focus on your recovery so that you are well enough to meet our friends when they return," she smiles too then and laying back is able to close her eyes and drift into a more peaceful sleep than she had had for a long time.