A/N: That was the longest chapter I have ever written and guess what I have just started on the next one and it hasn't even been an hours since I posted. I'm getting good!

Well, I certainly hope that the last chapter made up for the really bad chapter ten. That one was only written and posted because I had not posted in a while and thought I owed it to you guys. Well, like I said I hope I successfully redeemed myself.

I can not stress how happy I am with all of the reviews, I already have sixty. And to think I just started writing this when I got an interesting idea. As of right now I still have no idea where this is going but I think I must be doing something right!

*~*~*

I slowly woke up. I didn't want to but the sun was not going to let me go back to sleep. I opened my eyes and then clamped them shut again. Yep, it was bright.

This time I didn't start shouting profanities about being drunk. I could actually remember what was going on and what had happened. I shifted around, the hobbit on my lap had made my legs fall asleep and then I realized how damn sore and stiff my back was. The only high point I could think of was that my back got it worse than my butt and legs so I could walk and more around just fine.

As I was shifting I must have groaned because everyone but the hobbits, they were still asleep, were staring at me.

"Are you alright Lady?" asked Boromir.

"Yeah, I'm fine just really sore and stiff. Oh! By the way, it's just Emily, none of that Lady stuff."

"All right La—Emily."

"Thanks. Good morning to you too. Oh! Gandalf, how is your hand today? Not crippled are you?"

He grinned a little at this, "No, Emily I will be fine. But, thank you for your concern."

"No problem there."

I struggled into a better sitting position and then noticed how damp my shirt was. I looked down and pretty much the entire front of my shirt was damp. Damn Pippin could drool! Then I noticed both of my arms were soaked through. Frodo and Merry drooled on me too! I looked over to where Sam was leaning on Frodo and Frodo was just fine and dry.

"Great, the only hobbit that does not drool decided he didn't want to sleep by me," I muttered. But obviously louder than I had intended. All five of the 'men' were laughing at me, again.

I looked down at the hobbits who were still sleeping peacefully, I didn't want to wake them up. But, then Pippin snorted and out came this giant wad of spit, right onto my shirt. This just got the men laughing harder at my look of utter revulsion.

"Okay, that is it! Everyone up!"

All four of them leapt up from where they were sleeping. This gave me the chance to stagger to me feet and peel off the soaking wet shirt and chuck it away.

"That is really disgusting. If I wrung it out it would fill a swimming pool! I think I'm going to sleep in a tree from now on, just to be safe! Ugh!"

I looked up at the guys to see how they were taking it and all I saw were nine backs.

"What the hell? I was talking to you. This is not how you show someone respect!"

"Yes it is," answered Aragorn.

"Not unless the customs here are hay-wire, you do not turn your back on someone when they are talking to you!"

"Yes you do if the someone is a lady that has just thrown off her shirt!"

I looked down at myself and started laughing.

"Turn around," I managed to gasp out.

"No, we will not bring you shame," came the answer.

"Turn around!"

Slowly the hobbits turned around and started to laugh and then the rest of the Fellowship did.

"There now don't you feel foolish?"

Needless to say all of them were extremely red in the face. They were looking at me and saw I had been wearing my old tank top underneath the tunic. I was completely covered, if not rather messily. I noticed they would not meet my eyes so I figured I had to do something.

"But it does make me feel better to know that I am in the company of such honorable men as you nine."

Eventually they went on with their tasks and I was just reaching for the discarded tunic when I noticed my abdomen and arms were quickly becoming sticky with left over hobbit spit.

I stood up and asked no one in particular, "Is there anywhere I can take a bath? I'm beginning to feel sticky," I held a hand to my arm and then pulled it away, it made a sucking noise as I did, "literally."

"Yes, there is actually. When I left last night as you were screaming I came across a pond with a waterfall and very cool fresh water. I think it should suit your purposes nicely. As a matter of fact, we should all use it."

"Good, I was really beginning to feel filthy. I think I should get the Academy Award for Understatement of the Year on that one, don't you?"

They all just looked at me.

"Ookay…Never mind."

*~*~*

It was after breakfast and Gandalf just announced that there was going to be no traveling for the day—and everyone should spend the time bathing. When he said this I noticed he was looking pointedly at Gimli. Score one for the old fart!

"I think that is a great idea, but who is going to go first? Woman or men?" I asked as I was secretly praying they would let me go first.

Gandalf grinned at me, "Well I guess we can let the lady go first, but you should consider yourself lucky. Had the hobbits been present you would have been over-ruled and forced to wait."

I gave a mock sigh of relief. The hobbits had disappeared right after they had finished breakfast; Merry had claimed he had found some mushrooms. "Good, as it is I think I am going to need to burn these clothes when I am finished."

Gimli just looked at me, "Why would you want to burn perfectly clean clothes?"

I looked at him and then the others, whom were all trying not to laugh, "Um, it's a girl thing. Just leave it at that."

"All right, but it still makes little sense to me. So does bathing in general, why wash away perfectly good dirt? As you know dirt is good for many things. My cousin Balin always says that if you have no dirt…"

I just slowly started walking away. I don't think I needed to be dealing with that right now.

"Moving on," I said sarcastically once the five of us were out of ear shot, "So where is this pond. My pours are begging for release!"

Legolas cocked an eyebrow at me and beckoned us to follow him.

When we got to the bank of the pond we all gasped in amazement. It was absolutely stunning! There was a sandy beach almost all the way around the medium sized pond and where the beach-ended trees took over. Then beach wasn't even muddy from last night's downpour. It was picture-perfect. The water itself was crystal clear and it looked very welcoming. Then to top off the fantasy pond, there was a waterfall on the opposite of the water.

"Okay boys, this is mine for the time being. Skidaddle!" I made a show of shooing them away.

"We should post a guard for you, in case the orcs return."

"Sure, whatever works for you."

Gandalf glanced over the men, "Aragorn, would you be so kind as to watch over the woman?"

"Of course."

"Anyway, I am going to take this bath with or without you here."

I turned my back on them and started to undo my boots, I got as far as pulling off my socks when I heard the distinct footfalls of men moving off—very quickly.

"Jeez, I don't smell that badly!"

Aragorn, who had his back turned, answered for me; "They want to give you privacy, that is all."

"Yeah I know, I'm only kidding."

Seeing as how I was in the company of nine men, I decided going buck probably was not a very good idea, even if they all were honorable. Better to be safe then sorry. I took off my pants and was stripped down to my old shorts. When I was redressing last night I took the opportunity to replace them when I noticed you could see straight through to skin where the beast bit and clawed me. I then removed my torn tank top until I was in my bra. That should be good enough.

So I started to walk into the water. I gave a little shriek.

"What is it?!" Aragorn demanded.

"Nothing, it's just cold." I could have sworn I saw him roll his eyes by his body movements. I had to do something.

"I saw that."

He slumped his shoulders sheepishly. Yep, I thought so.

I walked into the water a little further, until it was up to my waste and then dived in.

I came up and floated on my back. Man! That felt good!

I swam out a little ways and treaded water. Then I went to the waterfall and walked underneath it. I felt along the back of the wall and didn't see anything. I had always wanted to find a hidden cave behind a waterfall, which just sounds too cool to be true. Obviously today was not my lucky day. I swam back over to where Aragorn was still standing with his back to me.

"Hey, Aragorn, how deep would you say this it?"

"I cannot say, I have not had an opportunity to study the water."

"Well you know you can turn around and check. I am covered."

I swam back into the shallows and stood up. He turned around and just stared. Finally he must have realized he was still staring and turned his back on me again.

"What's wrong?"

"You are not properly covered."

"Aragorn, where I come from this is being overly covered in some places. Besides, I feel comfortable with it so why should you not?"

He turned around again slowly and studied me more closely. I turned all the way around for him.

"See, nothing hanging out, unless I am sadly mistaken."

"How are your injuries?"

"As fine as can be expected. I think…"

He nodded his head and then started to walk around the pond, or maybe I should be saying lake. It was probably too big to be considered a pond. And it was deep too!

Finally after some time Aragorn came back to where he started and answered my question, "My best guess would be about fifteen feet in the center." (Forgive me if you believe that they should not be using feet in measurements, it is all I could think of!)

"Okay, thank you."

Aragorn settled down on a rock nearby and lit up his pipe and just stared off into space. I was once again floating on my back when all of a sudden all hell broke loose!

Four very naked hobbits came running out of the bushes and into the water laughing and screaming. When they saw I was already in the water, their screaming became shrieking and they ran back into the bushes. I was almost drowning I was laughing so hard.

I could hear some distinct swear words coming from the bushes, most of which I could not repeat. Even Aragorn was still sitting on his rock laughing. Pretty soon our outrageous laughter brought the other members of the Fellowship to see what was going on.

Legolas was first, "What in the name of heavens is going on here?" Then he saw me and turned a violent shade of red and whipped around to face the other way. "My sincerest apologies!"

That got me laughing again so I was not concentrating on where I was standing and fell over off of a drop off. I came up spluttering and choking and that just got everyone laughing harder. I walked out of the water to where my clothes were and grabbed my cloak and tried to dry off my face but I kept coughing too hard to do much. Finally it subsided and I managed to stand up straight again, only to see their backs again and Aragorn's silent laughter.

"Okay, obviously I am going to have to do this again. Turn around! I am completely covered like I showed Aragorn."

They turned around again. Boromir was just starting to speak when I cut him off.

"Yes Boromir, where I come from many women where this or even less. I am completely comfortable in this. Don't worry."

Just then the hobbits came scurrying over to me and then turned their backs on me.

"Turn around for God's sake! If I have to go through this one more time I am going to kick some major ass!"

They turned around and looked at me. Pippin then said something that I swear my eyes popped out.

"Oh, I see you are completely covered. What was the big deal?"

I gave a scream and ran at him grabbed him under my arm and chucked him into the lake. "Take that you little…"

He wasn't coming back up.

"Let me guess, he can't swim can he?"

The hobbits shook their heads and looked at me terrified for their friend.

"Shit!"

I dove into the water and started swimming down; I had chucked the little guy off of the drop off! I saw him still sinking, he saw me and started to struggle up towards me. I grabbed him and started swimming up as fast as I could. It didn't help that he was so scared that he would not stop clinging to me so he was really hindering my movements. Finally I broke the surface and swam over to the shore. I set Pippin down on the ground and flopped down beside him.

"Don't you-gasp-ever-gasp-scare me like that-gasp-again! Do I make myself clear?"

He just nodded.

"Are you all right?"

He nodded again.

"Just a little shaken up?" I asked him.

"Yes."

That's when I noticed all of them were in different arrays of clothing. Boromir and Legolas were without their shirts (keep your minds on the story ladies!) and Aragorn was working on his boots. Gimli and Gandalf were sitting nearby laughing at them and the hobbits were doing the Reuniting bit. I sat there and looked at the expressions on their faces and then reached over to where I had my bundle of clothing and grabbed my camera.

Click.

"Now that I have that for posterity's sake…"

Legolas looked at me while he was straightening out his shirt, "What was that?"

"It's a camera, it takes pictures and then imprints it in the film inside of it."

"What does that mean?" asked Frodo.

"That means, my dear hobbit, I am going to have the look on their faces forever and ever."

All three of them groaned while the others laughed.

Boromir pretended to glare at me, "I'll get you back."

"Whatever, now that we have had our excitement for the day…"

I stood up again and started to walk back into the water.

"Does anyone have any soap?"

I was promptly hit with three bars of it.

*~*~*

A/N: Man! You people had better feel very special right now. I have done two of the longest chapters I have ever written in one day. I wrote both Chapter Eleven and Chapter Twelve all today. I need a break…

Please review!

(Does anyone think this is a Mary-sue? Just a thought…)