Notes: I really can't tell you how encouraging your comments and follows are. I really appreciate them! I'm pretty sure I'm starting to diverge from cannon a little bit more, but I'm trying to keep everything relatively feasible. Also, some adorable brothers being protective of their sisters reside below. You've been warned!
Ella avoided Éomer when he arrived to the Houses of Healing late in the night four days later. She did not meet his eyes when he walked it. There was even a moment where she was sent over to Éowyn with a sleeping draught and several tinctures and Ella managed to place the tray down, give all the instructions for the order of drinking each thing on the tray, and wish Éowyn a good night without ever acknowledging Éomer.
For his part, he had been doing the same. One of the reasons he had come so late to see his sister was his hope that the princess would have been sent home from the infirmary by then. Éowyn laughed at him, No she said, the princess was making herself incredibly useful and slept in a cot in the back between work. Ioreth was tasked with making sure any of the men who could could march to Mordor were ready to do so by the end of the week and Ella worked as her personal assistant. Lothiriel was still not allowed to set bones or stitch wounds, and she was absolutely not allowed to brew anything that humans were expected to drink, after all one did not become a healer over night. Despite this, Ella kept the accounts and managed inventory. She helped soldiers and civilians with their simpler problems, and with the madness of battle again on the horizon, there was no end to the tasks she could find to busy herself.
Furthermore, when Ioreth did attempt to send Ella home, the girl would go to her cousin Faramir and spent hours just talking to him, half laying on a wooden bench with her head on her elbow as they reminisced about some prank either of their brothers had played on the two of them, who were the youngest of the family. Once Faramir drifted to sleep Ella would present herself ready to work again.
She's working off a debt Éomer thought. From a distance he could see she was pale and dark circles seemed permanently etched into her skin. Her smile didn't come out at all. Not even for those she liked the most.
Éowyn told him that Ella had introduced her to Faramir, "Who is half in love with me." But she admitted she liked the man. He was kind and well spoken, and when Éomer wasn't around, he was good to pass the time with. Both of them were almost done their healing but from such grievous injuries that it would not do to march with the rest of the armies. "We're the left-behinds." Éowyn said with only a hint of bitterness. "How go the preparations?"
Not too badly, he wanted to say, but some of these men are worms. They want more and more and more and they do not care for our beautiful country. Rohan might as well have been another world to them. He had grown to hate the debates that happened at almost every meeting. He had grown used to jumping to his feet in anger, only to have someone pull him down again. They called him the Lion at times but he did not take it as an insult. "We leave soon." He said instead.
He heard Ioreth again call to Ella, and again the woman dismissed her for the night. "Your father hasn't seen you for three days, Princess. Your brothers thought I had hidden you in some cupboard and locked you in. You'll be twice as useful once you've slept."
Ella shook her head, "Faramir needs me."
Ioreth was having none of it. "He doesn't. He worries too."
Ella shook her head again but seemed to acquiesce, "Let me bid him good-night then."
An hour later, she was still not gone. Faramir was half asleep and it was obvious that Ella was keeping him from slumber though she also looked poised to drift off. Her hair was down and hanging off the bench, while she made herself small to keep from falling.
The first three of the tinctures made Éowyn drowsy but did not quite lull her to sleep. Both Éomer and her had grown still by then though, hand in hand, companionable and warm and silent. It was deep night and the Houses were quiet. He could hear Faramir and Ella whispering to each other.
"You look as though you fight Sleep himself, cousin. Let him win, I beg you, for both our sakes."
Ella smiled softly at Faramir, but she shook her head. "I've had such terrible dreams, cousin. Such darkness, and such terror. Bid me sleep, and I fear I'll never be free of it. It will consume me and I'll never wake again."
"Forgive me. I need to rest." He reached over to his cousin and offered her his hand.
"I could never be upset with you. Much. Not terribly upset, at least." Ella sighed and pressed his hand to her lips for a moment before letting it go.
Despite her protests, she soon fell asleep, her hand hanging over the bench to graze the ground, and herself only a sudden movement from falling entirely from the make-shift cot. Éomer stood to leave but was caught by the sight of her. Her brow furrowed and relaxed and she moved, causing the bench to tip then settle. She whimpered, reaching her other hand blindly for something that did not exist.
Ioreth caught him watching her. "Take her home if you head that way, Your Highness. She is useless to me until she manages to keep her eyes closed for the rest of the night. I was aiming to get her to drink some poppy milk, but the damned girl hasn't drunk a thing all day that I've seen."
He was not headed that way. He was headed to a pub with Gamling, the Gondorian Soldier from the battlefield, but he was late as it was, and Ella was not a heavy burden. He would be only a half hour later. What was a half hour?
She protested sleepily when he lifted her from the bench, but she quickly quieted back into his arms. At least this way her limbs were supported and that was enough to keep her still. He couldn't exactly put her on a horse so he was forced to walk her all the way to the Prince's quarters, past the mountain of rubble they had climbed which had now been cleared, and past the entrance where her maidservant had met them and chided her.
Amrothos stood in the hall outside the Prince's house, his arms were crossed over his chest but they uncrossed once he saw who it was. "We saw you coming up the path. Has she finally worn herself out?"
"She clung to waking like a lioness to her prey. I was half worried she would wake when I lifted her and claw me for my trouble."
Éomer liked Amrothos. He was a man grown and the youngest of Prince Imrahil's sons which gave him that same impishness that Ella had. As the third son, he knew he would not inherit much, no titles, no commands, but this did not turn him bitter. To the contrary of all The Prince's children, Amrothos was the kindest and brightest, the sort of man who made others happy simply being being around them. Amrothos would have no trouble finding a position in the city. He was well like by the rich and poor alike.
"It was good of you to bring her." Amrothos held out his arms for his sister and Éomer stepped closer to pass her over but the moment they shifted her weight over to Amrothos, she began to stir and quickly they stopped. It took a second, but Ella settled again. "... Perhaps I will show you to her rooms..."
Éomer had the sneaking impression that this did not align closely to the 'propriety' that Gondor seemed to love. He had been in women's rooms before, he and Éowyn had shared their room until he had become a man. There had been women in Rohan that he liked and he had been in those rooms too. When he and his men had travelled, they would sometimes have to sleep in bedrooms whose occupants would sleep in the main halls or kitchens.
Amrothos didn't seem to find a problem with it, but then again, Ella was his sister. He spoke quietly to
Éomer as they walked, but he seemed to be describing someone that Éomer had seen only glimpses of.
"She's been a bit ridiculous since the dinner. Father thinks that she regrets her actions, not that she'll admit it. She's apologized to no one, and asserted that her sources are good. Barmaids, serving girls, cup bearers, all her little spies and she trusts them and will not name them. Of course there was some outrage, and our little bird told them to stuff it and disappeared to the healing houses. It's left a mess for Father, but with our marching orders so near, I imagine her timing could not have been better, this will be forgotten, as all little things are in the eye of destruction."
Éomer looked down at the sleeping girl. She didn't seem unmarred by the trouble she had stirred up, her face was drawn and pulled tight with worry even in sleep. It almost made him regret the harshness of his words. Was this why Amrothos told him this? So that his sister might earn forgiveness? In truth, Éomer had forgiven the girl. Or rather, perhaps with the rest of his command so heavy on him, he had let go of what might have once been a grudge. She hadn't exactly been wrong and though the manner of her plan has been too public by half, it had put in the open what everyone had wished to hide. He could appreciate that, even if he didn't have to like it.
"I didn't think anything would make her grow up." Amrothos was still talking as he opened the doors to Ella's rooms, and then another set into her bedchambers. "And now she is as old as the stones of our city. I would give anything to see her smile again."
Éomer looked up sharply, was that the thought of brothers everywhere who had failed to protect their sisters from the horrors of these times?
"You put words to my mind's thoughts." He said quietly as he set Ella down on her bed and stepped quickly away.
Amrothos fixed her covers and tucked the blankets under her feet and around her shoulders. "Our brothers are wed and their own children and duties concern them. Their own families grow strong. Ella and I have always been together, the youngest with the least import. I would take responsibility for her pranks and she for mine and we would bring dinner to each other when we went to bed without."
Éomer saw that sadness passed over Amrothos face. It was not an expression the man wore often, and never one that lasted this long. Perhaps the shadows made him feel safe to show it.
"I was set to wed a maid from Osgiliath, you know. She was fair and rich, and carried sunshine in her hair like a crown. I thought 'now Ella will be alone, but... she'll marry soon and understand.' I did what my brothers had done before me, and waited for my wedding day, waited to see how I would grow up. How the last of our family would grow up."
Éomer knew that Amrothos was not wed and there had been no talk of betrothals. Perhaps the wedding had been delayed.
"She died in the attack." Amrothos turned from his sister to answer the question that Éomer did not ask. "Our brothers could not come to mourn with me. Only Ella. Men would tell me it was good that our wedding had not come to pass. That I had not learned to love her before her death. Ella locked our doors against such men and made the dogs bark when they approached. She understood. We love those who our heart compels us to love whether we have known them for years or for moments. It was the response of a child. Of children. We locked out anyone who disagreed with us." Ella murmured in her sleep and turned in the bed, causing the blankets to twist around her legs. "She sleeps in darkness now. She fears for us. For our city. For her family. She senses that which is evil and makes herself hold it tightly so it might not touch others. I would do anything to lock out that darkness for her."
He cleared his throat. He knew brothers must exist who would not step in front of their sisters if an arrow came towards them, but he did not think he would care much for those sorts of brothers. Éomer put a hand to Amrothos' shoulder and invited him to drink. 'Your ale is water compared to ours, but if we drink enough we may yet find some peace."