A/N: Hello, all! So, I'm glad I got this chapter out…I was working on it for a bit, and the very beginning and ending were really hard to figure out. ;) I had this one in my head for a while…but I'm trying to outline it before I get too much further along. I need to update TLC, but I haven't had any time to work on it yet…since it is a big chapter and all… ;) I apologize if this authors note is really confusing in anyway…it's currently 1:45am out here (PST), and I'm seriously tired… ;) I might try to nap after a counseling appointment tomorrow… ;)

DISCLAIMER I DON'T OWN LORD OF THE RINGS AND NEVER WILL I JUST LOVE TRYING TO SPEAK ELVISH AND FAILING! ;)

Once again, Belhadron is on loan from the fantastic Scribe-of-Arda, who is fantastically amazing! Also, there's a moment in this chapter that was inspired by chapter 8 of her "In A Field of Blood and Stone" (a.k.a. IAFOBAS), where Belhadron does…a thing… ;) Scribe, you'll recognize the moment-as will anyone who has read that story! For those that haven't I'll explain it later. It's a moment that gave everybody reading Scribe's story all the fricking feels, and so I thought I'd play homage to it here. ;)

Please enjoy "Ladies of the Night" Chapter 2!

"No-leave them alone!"

Belhadron was reclining against the window seat in Saelrin's room, sighing. The girl had been sleeping for a while with no nightmares or any other problems. It had seemed, for a while, that Legolas's worries were rather unfounded, and that the two young Elves were going to be just fine. It seemed that that was not to be, however, as the young Elvish captain was rollowing around on the bed with her face contorted in pain and fear. He wasn't sure what she had to be so scared about, but apparently it was something big, as she had started to almost writhe in the bed. Deciding that enough was enough, the older Elf crossed to her bed and placed a hand on her shoulder, shaking her a little while trying to stop her from moving around.

"You are safe, Saelrin. You are safe and protected-no Orcs can harm you here." The words startled her as she slowly awoke, and so she quickly reached her hand underneath her pillow, where she kept always kept a spare dagger. Before she could reach it, however, a hand caught hers in a gentle grip. It was not Hadassah's hand, Saelrin knew that for sure, but it was long and lithe, very similar to her second's. She tried to free her hand, but the grip remained gentle yet strong, and would not let go. "Be calm, Saelrin-you and all of your Ladies are safe in Lorien." Saelrin took a few seconds to breathe, slowly relaxing. After a few seconds, she looked up and smiled. "Oh…hello, Belhadron." She sighed, squirming a little to try to find a more comfortable position. "I'm sorry you had to see that, I just…"

"You have nightmares." It wasn't a question, and Saelrin nodded.

"Yes…usually the first night or so after a particularly hard mission. This one was…this one was definitely up there." She felt Belhadron's right hand (the one not holding her wrist) slowly-and almost shyly-move up to rub her shoulder. "Why was it so difficult?" he queried. Again, Saelrin sighed, trying to collect her thoughts. "There were at least two Orc attacks where we could possibly lost our lives-all of us-and barely managed to escape and return to face them later. Then the whole situation with the Orc poison happened, and it appeared that we could have been responsible for releasing a plague on mankind. Plus, we were ambushed twice on our way back…and Emilia, one of my Ladies, got shot by a sniper and was seriously injured…and then Brooke managed to get herself shanked in the knee and didn't tell me or Hadassah when it happened…"

"You didn't mention all of that earlier."

"For one thing, we had guests, and I wasn't about to mention it in front of you and Legolas when I didn't really know who you were. For another, Lady Galadriel and Lord Celebron both know that Hadassah and I put everything that happened in our Captain and Deputy Captain's reports, and so they will be able to read everything there. When we report in front of them, they simply wish to know an outline of what happened. Plus, we were all exhausted-especially myself, Hadassah, and Tasha."

"Tasha?"

"It's short for Natasha, just like we all call Hadassah Dassah and they all call me Sael." She smirked slightly, before continuing. "Tasha is our Medic, and she was working on Emilia for two straight days and nights. I'm just glad that we're back, so that we all can get some sleep." Belhadron smirked down at her, and Saelrin rolled her eyes. "I know, I know… I will too. Or, at least, I'll try to…" She sighed, straightening out a little, before closing her eyes, taking a deep breath as she did so. After a couple of minutes, however, she began to toss and turn in her sleep. Belhadron sighed, gently resting his hand on the side of her head. He then closed his eyes, slowly reaching out with his own consciousness until it reached Saelrin's. Even from barely touching it, he could tell that it was panicking and fighting itself. "Legolas was right…I do feel a sort of kinship with her. I'm never admitting that to him, though." He quietly breathed out, before slowly and gently beginning to merge his consciousness with hers. He had done this sort of thing a few times with Legolas, when a mission had gone extremely south, and the Prince was unable to relax or calm himself down. Saelrin briefly fought against him, but he quickly stopped her, before sending out pulses of relaxing, calm energy. The only downside to what Belhadron was doing was that he could see all the memories that were giving Saelrin nightmares…and he completely understood why. The memories that were plaguing her were extremely dark and terror-filled, and even Belhadron-with all that he had seen-could hardly look at some of them for very long. As he moved throughout her consciousness, he carefully quieted the memories and helped her to relax, almost silencing every dark thought that ran through her dreams. Finally, he telepathically whispered, "No more dreams will plague you tonight, Saelrin. You may sleep in peace. Rest now-I am watching over you, and no harm shall come to you." The younger Elf sighed, and then fell asleep, her dreams no longer haunted by her memories, but full of good memories from her past. Belhadron withdrew from her consciousness then, wincing as he did so. He didn't do that often, because of the headache as it brought on. Apparently, the higher Elves-Galadriel and Elrond, for example-could do it without pain, but he still couldn't do it. Thus, he rarely did it unless he felt he really needed to. "Owh." he murmured. "Forgot how much that hurts." Still in pain somewhat, he moved back to the windowsill he had been sitting on, his senses extended again in order to keep watching over Saelrin.

The next morning, Saelrin and Hadassah both woke rather late. It was around nine in the morning before either of them came out of their rooms. Legolas and Belhadron had both left the girls' rooms once they were sleeping deeply, and were able to get some sleep themselves before returning to the captain's chambers. "Good morning, Saelrin, Hadassah-I hope both of you slept well." Legolas said. He caught Saelrin's eyes flicker towards Belhadron and a brief smile appear on her face before she nodded. "I did, yes…and now I'm kind of hungry."

"I did too-and you're always hungry, Saelrin." Hadassah teased. The young Elvish Captain looked to be trying very hard not to slap her friend as she replied, "I'm not as bad as Tasha or Lyria, though. They can't go ten minutes without some sort of snack." Both of the younger Elves moved towards the couches, Legolas and Belhadron following. "I have a question for the two of you," Legolas began, "how do the Ladies of the Night work? We have nothing like that in Mirkwood, and I am interested in how you all work."

"Of course." Hadassah answered. "Basically, every Tribe of Ladies is made up of six members, five of whom are specialists in a certain field. There is a Captain, a Deputy Captain, a Medic, a Sniper, a Tracker, and a Rookie. The Rookie shadows the member of the Tribe whose job they feel competent enough to perform in another Tribe once enough of them have passed. Brooke is shadowing Emilia, who is our Sniper."

"Who are the others?"

"Natasha-or Tasha-is our Medic, and Lyria is our Tracker."

"So you all are trained to do everything that the Ladies of the Night do, but you each have a specialty inside of that?" Both girls nodded, curling up on the couches (and Saelrin under a blanket) as they did so.

"Yes. I was a Sniper, and Dassah was a Tracker. We did that for a few centuries before we became a Captain and Deputy Captain. We've still got our skills, though." A knock on the door startled everyone, but the panic faded a few seconds later when one of Saelrin's Ladies stuck her head through the door. She had dark red hair and bright green eyes. "Hey, Sael, Dassah-Lady Galadriel had some of the others send us some food. Can we all come in and eat with you?" She smirked. "That way you actually know that we're resting." Saelrin huffed gently, rolling her eyes and nodding.

"Yeah, come on in. We'll be joined by a couple guests, but sure." The younger Lady nodded, almost heading out the door before Hadassah called out, "Lyria, is Brooke still in the hospital wing, or did she escape again?"

"She's still there, actually…but I have a feeling that she won't be there much longer unless we get to her." Saelrin and Hadassah locked eyes with each other, sighing exasperatedly. Saelrin called back out to the Tracker, "If the healers-and Tasha-approve Brooke to move, then she can come and join us."

"Roger that!" a voice-that wasn't Lyria-called out, coming from behind the other Lady. Lyria looked behind her, and then rolled her eyes. "Tasha's behind me, and she's heading over for the hospital wing right now. Emilia's still out here with me, though." The door opened, and both of the Ladies walked in, followed by a couple other Ladies who were moving a couple trays of food. Almost immediately, Legolas and Belhadron jumped up to help them. The tray was pretty full with food, and the two Ladies looked very glad to be rid of it. "Thank you, sirs." one of them murmured, before the they left the room. As they returned to the table, the two Mirkwood Elves got their first real look at Emilia, who had dark blue eyes and light blond hair. She seemed to be fully unable to settle down, having to visually check every space in her line of sight that could be a sniping point for an enemy. Once she was done, she finally turned her gaze towards their guests. "I don't believe I've introduced myself…I am Emilia Cylin, our Tribe's Sniper…and the only sane person on our team." All three of the other Ladies immediately started protesting, but Emilia just leaned back and watched them, a slight smirk on her face. "Gets them every time." she smiled. While the group was bantering and eating, Tasha and Brooke entered the room. Tasha had dark blond hair with some black highlights in it and green eyes, while Brooke had brown hair and brown eyes. The teasing stopped for a moment, as both Saelrin and Hadassah headed over to Brooke and checked her over. "Sael, Dassah-I'm fine. All of the healers checked me over and approved me to move around-"

"-very slowly-"

"-yes, very slowly, but I am allowed to move. Then, they let Tasha double-check me after that, and she approved me to move as well. I'm still going back to my room after this, but I wanted to hang out with you all before I get stuck in my room for a week." Her fellow Ladies chuckled as Saelrin and Hadassah patted her on the shoulder. "Come on, then, Brooke. There's still some food left." The youngest Lady rolled her eyes, before coming over and sitting with the other Ladies-as well as Legolas and Belhadron. The group stayed together for a while, eating and joking around. At some point, Hadassah ended up sitting on the floor, leaning against Tasha's legs, while the Medic slowly re-braided her hair. Saelrin was lying with her head in Hadassah's lap, quietly rubbing a worn cloth over one her extremely curved knife. After a few minutes, she fell asleep, the knife slowly slipping out of her hand. Hadassah gently smirked down at her friend, picking up the knife and handing it to Brooke (who was closest) to put it away in Saelrin's nearby weapons belt. She then moved the older girl around a bit so that she would be more comfortable, before pulling her blanket further around her body. "She always falls asleep first…don't know if it's because she's a captain and they have a lot to think about…or because she's just always tired." Lyria joked. The others laughed, and Saelrin jolted, almost waking up. Before she fully woke up, however, Hadassah leaned down slightly, until she could reach her friend's head. "Ollo vae, mellon nin." Her words quieted the older girl, and Saelrin let out another deep breath, swiftly falling back into sleep.

The rest of the day was spent in Saelrin and Hadassah's room. The six Ladies enjoyed teasing the crap out of each other, but they also began to get to know Legolas and Belhadron a bit better. Saelrin and Hadassah also started looking over the maps that the Mirkwood Elves had brought with them, and started coming up with a few plans. They would go more into depth in the morning, however. The other four Ladies were sent back to their own rooms later that night, and Saelrin and Hadassah went to sleep pretty soon afterwards. Legolas and Belhadron sat up in front of the fire for a while, eventually leaving for their own rooms.

As each person fell asleep, they had one thought in common:

Tomorrow was going to be a big day.

For everyone.

A/N 2: Well…I'm super glad with how this chapter turned out! I would write a bit more on this note…but it's literally almost 2am, and I have to be in a class by 9am…so I have to get some sleep… ;) I hope this chapter's ending made sense…and that you guys actually like it!

I hope you enjoyed the chapter, and I'll see you all later!

God bless,

1monster2

P.S: Hadassah's Elvish sentence basically translates to "Sleep well, my friend".