A/N: Fun fact: when I first started this chapter, the power went out down our street for about three hours. And I hadn't saved it. Thank the Valar for the Recovery tool in Microsoft Word!

March the second. Ithilwen had known Payne for about two months now, and they had been in a relationship for a shorter time than that. In that amount of time, her psyche had been in knots that seemed impossible to get undone. The mortal had been nice and kind at first, though a bit of an idiot for his lack of tactfully chosen opinions. Then he began to change into what appeared to be a jealous boyfriend – especially recently when he took notice of the necklace and ring that Legolas had given her. He started speaking against everything that she took interest in, and furthermore proceeded to tell her that she was wrong on arguments where she was logically right. She didn't know what to do anymore.

Scratch that, she did. She just didn't know how to do it, and that was driving her nuts. It seemed like with each snide remark he made he was giving her an open opportunity, but when she would brace herself to speak, he would change and apologize, making her feel guilty for what she wanted to say. It wasn't her intention to hurt Payne, and she decided to wait for the day that he wouldn't apologize for running his mouth.

Part of her wondered if she could wait that long.

Ithilwen hung up the cell phone and dropped it carelessly on the kitchen counter. She had just finished talking to Payne about meeting up with some of his friends for dinner that evening. Not having other plans, and knowing these were the cosplay friends her and Fiona knew, she agreed. Then Payne decided to switch tactics and ask her another question pertaining to their relationship.

"So you know…it's been while since we've gotten together," he had said, working his way into the main point.

"Uh huh," Ithilwen had agreed, not really in the mood to play guessing games with him.

"Well, call me old fashioned, but haven't we waited long enough?"

"Long enough for what, exactly?" She was beginning to get a headache from the high pitch of the phone to her ear.

"You know," he urged. "Us. Waiting. It's definitely been more than three dates. Surely you're ready to go further?"

Headache was on. Ithilwen did her best not to groan out loud. "Oh, that." She replied nonchalantly. "I don't know Payne. I'm not sure if I'm ready just yet-"

And apparently her answer wasn't the right one, because he cut her off in an irritated tone, telling her that he'd be by to pick her up around 6 before hanging up. Ithilwen was left staring at the small contraption in disbelief.

Rubbing her face with both hands she mumbled out loud to the open kitchen. "I can't believe that little bastard actually hung up on me." She shouldn't have been surprised by his proposition. Payne had been eluding to that question for weeks; now he was just being more blunt. Something about him asking her if she was ready to sleep with him over the phone rubbed her the wrong way, bringing her to think about Legolas. Despite her headache, she laughed at the thought. He wouldn't do that to an elleth, she was sure of it. To her, Legolas seemed to be more gentlemanly than Payne ever thought about being.

Looking at the clock, Ithilwen noticed that she had a few hours before she had to worry about getting ready. Collecting a bag of Cheetos and a drink from the fridge, she went to find her laptop. The day was nice, and she suddenly felt like finishing revising her reincarnation story from the past summer.

For some reason, Legolas was battling a big fit of rage as they galloped to Edoras. He searched within himself, trying to find some reason for the strong emotions, but came up empty. That only left one possibility-

"Ithilwen," he stated under his breath. Gandalf and Aragorn turned to look at him.

"Is something wrong?" Gandalf asked curiously. Since he had reunited with the three, he had been caught up on the goings on between their resident elf and the granddaughter of the Lord and Lady of the Golden Wood. He still hadn't found a reason as to their connection, but it had solved the mystery that had plagued the family for centuries as to the whereabouts of their kin.

Legolas shook his head. "Possibly, but I am unsure. She is angry, and I feel that the reason is because of the mortal boy that is courting her."

"Wish I could get my hands on that boy!" Came from behind the elf. "Treatin' the lass like that!"

"Don't we all," Aragorn agreed, looking at Legolas. His friend's brows were drawn together in frustration because there was little that he could do at the present. "One thing at a time, Gimli."

"Yes," Gandalf nodded sagely. He looked out across the horizon to see their destination resting atop a hill not far away. "Edoras, and the Golden Hall of Meduseld. There dwells Théoden, King of Rohan, whose mind is over thrown. Saruman's hold over King Théoden is now very strong. Be careful what you say. Do not look for welcome here." He nudged Shadowfax forward and they sped off across the hilly plains again.

It was a half hour past when Payne had told Ithilwen that he would be by. After his tone from earlier, she was half-tempted to call the restaurant and find out if he had just gone ahead alone. If he didn't show up soon, she was going to come out of her shoes and call the whole thing off. The shoes she had picked out were alright in small amounts, but she had chosen them thinking that she wouldn't have to wait to be picked up, and were quickly beginning to tire her feet.

The sound of a distinct car horn kept her from sitting down once more. Ithilwen hobbled over to the window to find that it was Payne who had blown the horn on the car. Hobbling back to collect her purse, she slowly made her way out the door and to the car. Payne didn't get out to open the door for her, nor even turn the engine off. Idly she wondered if she could get into the car without him peeling out of the driveway.

"Hey, how come you were so late?" she asked softly, buckling the seatbelt.

"Late?" Payne scoffed. "I'm not late!"

"You told me that you would be by around six. It's a quarter to seven!"

"I'm telling you that I'm not late! Rick called and said the reservations got pushed back to 7:30. I told you this."

"Actually, you didn't Payne. I would have remembered."

Payne shook his head. "I'm pretty sure I told you. I'm surprised that you didn't hear me with those ears of yours."

Ithilwen was about to snap back about his comment but decided against it. It already appeared that everything he said tonight would be the truth, even if he was wrong. Anyway, she didn't want to start a fight with him in front of his friends. It had been a while since their last convention meetup, and she wanted the night to go smoothly.

As her unfortunate luck would have it, Payne had other ideas.

When they arrived at the restaurant, which was really a high-dollar family eatery, Payne's friends were still waiting in the room for their table to become available. Payne's insistence that she hurry was unnecessary, and already her poor toes were threatening to strangle him. Not that he would have noticed. He barely seemed to look at her at all since she got in the car.

"Payne! Ithilwen!" Rick greeted. "How have you been, Ithilwen?"

"Actually, I'm-"

"-Great. She's great." Payne interrupted. "Sorry about running late. This Keebler elf here thought I gave her the wrong time, can you believe that? With those ears she should have heard me perfectly!" He roared with laughter.

Ithilwen pressed her lips together in a thin line, determined to keep her oath for the night. Rick grinned uncomfortably at her, noticing her mood and trying to appease his friend. Some of the others in their group laughed outright, the ones that rarely knew Ithilwen at all. The others chuckled, knowing that Payne was terrible with jokes and only went along to keep his mood lifted. Ithilwen was beginning to regret even leaving the house that evening.

She thought that things would have gotten better when they had been seated, but that was a fool's dream. More than once she wished that it was a nightmare created by Pitch that she could wake up from, but the pinches under the table were doing nothing more than making her arm sore. Ithilwen tried to tune out much of the conversation, but Payne seemed keen on dragging her into it, making her the center of discussion on everything from her ears to her body shape to how she dressed. Of course, listening to Payne, he was using her as an "example", but what he was really doing was comparing her – out loud, mind you – to every other female in the building.

On the drive back to her house, Ithilwen couldn't hold it in anymore. She told Payne of how she felt about the things he said during dinner, about how humiliated she felt, but he didn't listen. Instead, he chose to argue with her.

"Well, gee, you're a smart girl Ithilwen! If you've got a problem with the stuff I said, then why don't you change it!"

Ithilwen chose not to reply to that statement as he had pulled into the driveway. Her response to him and the whole evening was to slam the passenger door shut so hard that the glass leading into the door cracked slightly.

"D'ye think that this boy is going to hurt the lass?"

Gimli was perched atop one of the chairs in the room that was provided to the elf. Evening had set over the plains, and they were all turning in early. The funeral of Theodred and bring the king back to the present was tiring for everyone. The dwarf, however, could not retire for the night until he had spoken to his friend.

Legolas was sitting on the edge of the bed, pulling off his boots. "I fear that he may already be hurting her."

"If you could, what would you do?" Gimli could tell that this was really bothering him, and in a way, it unsettled him too. He still wasn't trustful of all elves, but to hear the way that Legolas talked of Ithilwen made him feel protective by association.

The answer Gimli received was one he expected, but he didn't expect it so quickly. "I'd kill him," Legolas responded with steel in his voice. The way he said it brought the dwarf's memories back to their first encounter with Eomer, and he knew Legolas was serious.

"You really do care for her, don't you?"

"Of course. She is my friend, just as you and Aragorn are."

Gimli shook his head, feeling the weight of his unbraided hair move about in the process. "No, I speak of something else entirely, Master Elf."

"Then explain," Legolas asked with curiosity. His request went unanswered though. Gimli had risen from the chair and moved across the room for the door.

"You'll figure it out in time, lad," he replied instead. "I just find it peculiar how a 'friend' would go to the lengths that a father would for his daughter." Then he bade the elf goodnight and departed for his own rooms, leaving Legolas to contemplate his words.

When she met up with Legolas in her dreams that night, Ithilwen decided not to give the specific details of the things that Payne had said. She knew that he knew that she wasn't saying everything, but he chose not to comment, and for that she was thankful. Ithilwen wasn't sure if she could recount everything without somehow giving herself a nightmare in her own dreams. Legolas drew her into his arms in a comforting hug in reply as he told her about his news.

Ithilwen was fascinated to learn about how King Theoden had been brainwashed and wondered if this Saruman was the one that had cast the spell centuries ago. She almost wanted to ask, but for the first time all day or night she felt relaxed as she hugged her friend back. That was something else she liked about these dream meetings. Besides the friendship that she had made with Legolas, she also discovered that he gave really good hugs. They were few and far between, since both were still getting comfortable around the other, but each one was cherished.

Too bad that the dream didn't last long.

Legolas had been woken by Gimli, alerting him that they were to begin preparing to travel to Helms Deep as soon as possible. He rose rather reluctantly, wishing that he could have told Ithilwen of what he was to head into that day, but the emotions that he felt radiate off of her in the dream quelled those thoughts. With everything that she had gone through that day, he couldn't do more than attempt to comfort her.

As he was collecting his belongings to bring to the horse in the stables, he noticed that one of his silvery tunics were missing. He knew right away that he had not unpacked much, so it should have been with his other things. Legolas was about to do a sweep of the room again when a slip of something forest green on the bed caught his eye. Walking to the bed, he reached into the folds of the covers to extract the contrasting fabric. It was soft, and bore a lace trim. Confused, he spread the fabric out across the mattress. Eyes widening upon realization of what it was he was looking at, he felt his cheeks turn pink and was almost positive his ears matched.

He wasn't sure how he would explain this to Haldir if he saw him in the near future. He wasn't even sure how it happened to come into his possession. However, he was pretty sure where his tunic disappeared to now.

"Gagh! Where are they!?" Clothes were flying around the room. Pillows smashed against the wall. Covers were strewn about the floor around the bed. All in all, the room was a disaster.

Ithilwen was already annoyed that she had been woken up from a good dream. She was even more annoyed to find that it was because of Payne calling, wanting to go out to dinner again, just the two of them this time. Even though she didn't detect his snotty attitude from last night, she had made her decision and was not going to turn back.

Back to the matter at hand, she had dug through her drawers for her emerald green bra and panty set that she would put on after she showered. She found the bra, but she couldn't find the hipster-cut lace panties. Groaning in frustration, her pajama'd bottom plopped down on the bed, accepting defeat. She'd just have to either mix it up or choose a different set instead. Before she rose to stand again, she saw something silk balled up where one of her pillows normally lay.

Ithilwen reached over and flattened the material out to discover that it was a shirt, but not one of hers. This one was larger, and clearly not from any store in this world. Lifting the fabric to her nose, she instantly knew of the woodsy scent engrained in the threads. The question was, how did she get it? She didn't remember anything strange happening in the dream. Although now she was hoping that the tunic she held wasn't the only one he had in his possession.

A/N: I think I told one reviewer a chapter or two back that the fallout between Ithilwen and Payne would come to a head in about five chapters? Turns out I miscalculated by a few. The way things are looking, the anticipated chapter some of you have been looking forward to is coming up next. I'm honestly not sure whether it say 'Yay" or 'Nay' cause I'm conflicted about it myself.

And a little humor there towards the end, can you see it? Spring break is here for me, so I've got the time to get the next one out sooner. It may be the longest yet, but I can't be sure. If it isn't, it's gonna feel like it is (to me, anyway). And the poll is still open on my profile for this story, if you want to vote on the rating change. It'll be open for a while, so there's no rush; I'll announce when I get ready to pull it down.