Course once I had really woken up, the warm fuzzy feelings from before, and the thoughts I'd had before... did not make it easy to relax. I lay there in the hospital, eyes on the phone, and stared at it. Waited. Waited. Turned on flight mode. Turned it off. Legolas may have softened me a moment, when I was on drugs, but …

But what?

This entire thing unsettled me and I wanted to pace up and down. I made Brian text me a photo of Boromir just to be sure that Boromir was really here and that he really was in hospital. The photo I got in return did NOT help. Not only he things in his arms, he had restraints on, some blood being drained into him, and some machine was breathing for him. Something to do with one collapsed lung and the other partially collapsed, water ingestion, an infection, two stab wounds, and worms. Seriously. He had worms. Worms that were significant enough to mention. Or maybe Brian had been so amused by it that he'd decided to add it anyway.

As for me, it had turned out that on top of ingesting water into my lungs, which apparently wasn't as simple as it seemed, my leg had been in worse shape than anyone had expected. Yes, Legolas had more or less stabbed it in the place I'd originally been injured, but it was more than that. Apparently something to do with a 'grade three rupture' which had half healed, I'd gotten lectured big time because it'd apparently needed surgery, and Legolas had just stabbed the area nearby. They saw it while they were going in to clean the wound out. One surgery to repair the stab wound had turned into two more, on the same day, to try and repair the muscle. I wasn't going to be walking anywhere for a few months unless it was in rehab. Doctor's orders. The baby? He just sat there, stubborn in the womb, and the contractions I'd had ceased before we'd even reached the hospital. It was probably his way of telling me to calm the fuck down. Or something. I'd have to ground him for that language.

I'd also hit my head hard several times. It would have explained why I barely remembered the water drain, or falling out of it, or hitting the grate that fed into the river.

Legolas acted weird too. He and Brian swapped hospitals, somehow, and I expected this to mean the Elf to be a fish out of water here. Apparently not. He seemed to adapt so well that I was stunned- one moment he was with me and then he was in a taxi and going to sit with Boromir. At first I generally slept through Brian's visits. It was more to do with 'I can't face you too' than anything. I'd always known I wanted to break up with him. That wasn't the issue. The issue was that I didn't want to hurt him. Crazy, yeah, but the guy had flown his entire bloody family out from the UK when he'd found out I needed someone to protect me.

The first time I really 'woke' he seemed as nervous as I did. Brian sat there, fidgeting, shifting in the chair like he couldn't quite get comfortable. When he met my eyes I saw guilt.

"You awake, babe?"

"Yeah." Yeah. I'd been awake for hours. But I needed to pee and … it was a really good time to talk. "Yeah. I ...think we should talk."

"I think so too."

I sighed. He sighed.

"I … I think..." Oh god. I hesitated. He had something too, he was bursting, and I couldn't get the words out. "You go."

"Sorry, babe. I cheated on you."

"What!"

"I mean... It wasn't … you were gone. A long time. And ...well, you know Jess. She lives with us. Lived. I mean, you don't really live there now... anyway." He fumbled, stumbling over words, guilt all over his face. "It's been going on a while. Since before... you went missing."

All I felt was relief. Sheer complete relief. I gawked at him as he started to ramble about her, about how he loved her, about how she completed him, and it wasn't me it was him, he'd always care about me, all the usual stuff. It was sad too, it really was, but … it was more than that. I'd never thought about this kind of thing as being a good thing. You didn't hear about 'good breakups'. You heard about the bad ones. The messy ones. I didn't even care that he'd cheated on me.

"Hang on. I need to ..." I stared at him. Wait. Hadn't Lord Elrond said 'same moment as you left'? "How long was I gone?"

"About three months. I've been paying for a storage place for all your stuff, don't worry, it's all safe." Brian responded. He blinked at me like I was mad. "Did you hear anything I just said? I'm still your friend, babe, but we can't..."

"Yeah. I was going to say the same thing." Three months? Forget the breakup. Elrond had been wrong. Wrong! The Elf had been wrong! I hoisted myself up, grabbed for the crutches, and swore softly. That was right. No crutches. Torn ligaments or something nasty in my leg. Whatever had happened at the battle had torn something in the leg, Legolas had just competed the damage beautifully, and I wasn't allowed to even WALK without rehab. "Get me the wheelchair. Or a nurse. I need to pee and then I need to go see Boromir."

"Are you allowed out? Wait, what do you mean, you were going to..."

"They've cut me open, sewn me up, what else can they do?" I carefully hoisted my leg out. They'd strapped it and strung it and it couldn't even bend right now. Okay. The drugs probably made it easier for me to move it. Regular morphine and I was ready to do star jumps. "I cheated on you too. With ...um. Lee." Lee. Legolas' name for this place. "And Ben. Anyway. I'm pregnant. I'm still your friend too."

"You mean Legolas and Boromir, don't you?"

God. Saying it out loud shocked me. I froze and tried to think. Yeah. It didn't even feel right now. I wasn't sure what I'd been thinking. I pressed the nurse call button. "Yeah. They call themselves that sometimes."

"They're real, aren't they?" His voice made me freeze. I turned to look at him. Brian had stood up and was coming around the bed, slowly, and there wasn't a trace of hurt on his face either. He looked as relieved as I was. "I don't mean cosplayers. I mean. Legolas. He isn't normal."

"I know." I watched him closely. "He's not."

"Boromir too."

I nodded. Brian stared at me like I was crazy. He was staring at something around my neck. I thought I must have been naked until I'd looked down. There, still hanging there as it always had, was Legolas' leaf.

"You were gone three months. You just appear, like that Legolas, wounded, stabbed, and there he was. Standing on the top of the manhole waiting for me, like he expected me, listening. He followed you two. I couldn't even hear the water underneath but he could …" Brian twisted as a nurse came in. He went quiet as she helped me to the bathroom, though I saw the questions flooding his face, saw him wait impatiently for her to bring me back. Only when she was gone he continued. "Kim, he could hear you through six metres of dirt and concrete. Then he just jogged to the end of the drain like he knew where you'd end up. A full two kilometres or some shit down the drain."

"He did?"

"Made the ambos go with him and everything." Brian shook his head. "Stole their ambulance with them in the back."

"What! He can't drive a car."

"He figured it out." Brian stared at me still. He was kind of white. In shock, I supposed, like he couldn't believe what he was remembering. "So it's true? You've been there?"

"Yeah." I was surprised he believed me. But then, I realised, Brian had always believed me. About everything. "Yeah."

"So when I called you and you were half naked. That was ..."

"In Edoras?"

"I knew it! Shit, I want to go get their autographs now!" Brian laughed, this gleeful childish laugh, clapping his hands together. "Holy shit. That's amazing. What were you doing there? Screwing Elves?"

"Hey!" I protested. This time though, he wasn't trying to insult me, I could see it. Brian was relieved and relaxed. He was actually joking with me like he used to years ago. It was amazing. Had we gotten so stressed out? Pretended for so damn long? " Elves don't screw around."

"Soul mate?"

"Yeah." Yeah. Guilt. Oh man. I hid it. "Something like that. Anyway. Can you ask them for me what I have to sign to get out of here?"

"Think I can manage that, babe. But they'll want somewhere. An address. You can stay with us."

"In that share house? With Legolas and Boromir?"

"Na." Brian smiled, cheeks flushing, traces of guilt still there. "Told you. I'm with Jess. We moved into this place together, just the two of us, and … I didn't want to break up with you on the phone. There should be room for you three if you share the bungalow, you know, till you rent a place of your own. Legolas has already been sleeping there. All of Jess's plants are now blooming like crazy. Oh. I forgot." He stood up and went for something, some 'man bag' as I'd used to call it, pulling out a newspaper. Brian held it up and I stared at my own smiling face. "Newspapers are all over the story now."

'Olympic darling's miracle survival'. Me, with a gold metal, and then a smaller photo of me being taken into an ambulance. They were fast.

"What?" I blinked at my own photo. Honestly, they'd ignored me most of the time, the swimmers more glamorous than the archers. "When did they-"

"Literally were all over it the day after. You should have seen the papers when everyone thought you were dead. I saved them." Brian sat down beside me on the bed, dropping the newspaper, and he smiled wider still with every second. "Now there's all kinds of rumours. People think you hit your head and were living with the homeless community in the storm water drains."

"There's no such thing, is there?" I blinked at him.

"Fucking oath there is. All the newspapers have been doing reports on them ever since you returned. Charities and stuff are raising money for them. I may have ...suggested it to them." He added, sheepishly, "In case you're wondering who had the idea. Jess's idea. She used to live there. It's getting them attention."

"When were you such a big charity promoter?"

"Lots of teenagers go down there to escape domestic abuse at home." He responded softer. "I was going to tell you, when Jess told me, except you vanished. We looked for you down there. Look. When we were together... I was pretty nasty. I'm sorry."

"It's okay."

Brian shook his head fast. "No, it's not, I ...I shouldn't have behaved like that. It's weird. I don't get like that with anyone else. But around you I got angry so much. You were always so quiet and meek and … It made me so angry." He scratched his head again. "I've been going to Uni over the summer. Learning to be a community worker. And I … I guess I realised it was your way of coping. So. Um. Sorry."

We went quiet. He sat there, staring ahead, and like before I saw very little of Legolas. I did see traces of the Brian I used to know, my old friend, before … things got ugly. I breathed out slowly.

"Anyway. The papers have been hassling the hospital for interviews so if you want to stay with us, we'll make sure they keep away, but if they do grab you-"

"I don't remember because I hit my head."

"May as well say that."

The phone alarm went off in Brian's pocket, he grabbed it quickly, and read it. "Boromir's surgery."

"Wait, how many has he had?"

"They're doing little ones because his body is weird with the anaesthesia. Don't panic. I think today is the last one. They found all kinds of weird shit in him." He laughed. "Shit. Broken bones that didn't set properly. Ribs that didn't heal straight. They repaired his arm- it had some kind of fracture that healed crooked- and they found some arrow tip in him. I can't believe you brought Boromir of Gondor to fucking Brisbane, Australia, of all places. They can't get enough of him. They asked him if he wanted them to do it over time and he said 'heal everything so I can get out of this damn bed. Anyway, today is the last one. It'll get him off the breathing machine."

"Oh. Good." I wasn't sure what to say. I hadn't even thought about Boromir's history of injuries or the Middle Earth healing ...that it wouldn't even be close to what doctors around here liked. "How long have I been in and out of it?"

"About a week." Brian stood up. "I'll talk to them about the discharge."

It turned out that they weren't that upset with the idea. Private health insurance, rather than the public, were more eager to please me apparently. That was one thing I remembered- that my mother had paid for my health insurance right up until I was thirty. Private. Dad had thought it was a waste of money, as I earnt some money as an archer, but she'd been stubborn about it. Maybe she'd been afraid of what Dad might have done to me. I didn't know.

It was that afternoon when I'd successfully eaten lunch and not vomited, that they let me out, and Legolas had returned fast for that. With him walking ahead, Brian pushing the wheelchair, and Jess distracting the media, we slipped into Brian's car and were gone before they could blink.

Elrond had been wrong. The words still echoed in my head, as I resisted the urge to stare at Legolas, because Brian was right. It had been three months since the flood that'd nearly drowned me. Was it because I'd talked to Brian and so … the world kept happening? I didn't know. Maybe it just worked this way. What about Legolas? Did I have to kill him too? I wasn't sure about that.

We stopped long enough at Brian's house so that I could shower, which was a painful experience now that the morphine was wearing off, and it involved me sitting on a chair in the shower, bad leg wrapped up in plastic, trying to wash in a seated position. Still it was a relief to feel hot water pounding on my shoulders and back, a relief to smell soap, shampoo and conditioner, and I spent a long time enjoying it. Like usual- Legolas stayed close. Literally on the other side of the bathroom door. I only kept him out of the bathroom while I dressed because of the lock, I was sure of that, sure that he preferred to stay close. It was as if he hadn't seen me for years- he was surprisingly 'clingy'. It didn't matter though. We had to wait till the surgery was finished anyway.

Twenty minutes later and we were back in the car.

This time I did notice Legolas struggle, just a little, notice that on the highway he refuse to look out the window. He kept his eyes down, his hair shielded, turned towards me. When I grasped his hand he clutched to it with surprising strength. It wasn't that he wasn't affected by cars. It was that he was hiding it. His fingers dug into mine every time a car passed us. As soon as Brian had parked he was out of that car and I followed him close behind.

Boromir was in a bad way still. They must have sedated the crap out of him because all he could do was grunt when he saw me, he didn't even try to lift his arms, Legolas moving to stand on his other side. But at least he was all right.

"He will live." Legolas said softly. He smiled, meeting my eyes over Boromir, and added, "There is no doubt."

"Good. Or I'd kick your ass." I stared at Boromir though and felt … I didn't know. Concern, yes, I felt that. But I ...I'd started to question it. It was like that night, that night when I'd given into him, it wasn't enough somehow. I hadn't even been able to really accept in my mind that I was going to marry him. It wasn't real. The further we got from his home, his family, his friends, from the Elves that judged me, the less real it seemed. The less like something I could face. Yeah, I could see myself living a life with him, but ...I didn't know.

It didn't seem fair to Legolas to keep changing my mind. Or Boromir. I had to accept it. I had to stop pretending there was a choice anymore. I had to … locate lots of oranges. A couple of coconuts.

"He will not wake until tomorrow." Legolas moved around the bed to come stand beside me. "His body is healing that which they have done."

"Yeah, and tomorrow he'll be silly with pain killers." I sighed and rested my head against Boromir's hand. It had been the right thing to bring him here, even if they had repaired a bunch of things he probably had forgotten about, but at least … he had color in his face again. He wasn't dying. "It was the right thing, wasn't it?"

"Of course. He will live a long life now with his children and grandchildren."

"Mine?"

Legolas stared at me, confusion, and then ...some shadow crossed his face. I couldn't explain it. He looked old again, ancient, and his hand tensed on my shoulder. "You have not yet decided, have you?"

"No."

Legolas sighed. He gazed down at Boromir and the open warmth vanished slowly. He was hiding something from me again, for a moment, before he shook his head, "I long learnt to stop hiding things. No. They are not your children."

Not my children. I stared at Boromir. What did that even mean? "Then who-"

"I cannot tell you."

Had he cheated on me? Or something? I stood up quickly. "You saw his future?"

"I know that much of it. You did the right thing to bring him here." Legolas didn't offer anything else though, no more information, no hints, nothing. Just that Boromir would have children and I wasn't going to carry any of them.

It was strange how fast my mind and heart reverted back to 'pre Minas Tirith'. That night I lay there, staring out the window in a camp bed that Brian had found for me, watching as Legolas on the other side of the room reading. I hadn't even realised how caged in I'd felt, how trapped, how wound up and tied up I had been by everyone else. How I couldn't walk out the door without feeling like someone might be offended by my pants, or my hair, or ...and how I'd started to try and blend in. Head down. Yes, that was nice, or no, I didn't want that if they didn't like it.

I'd even let someone SHAVE me.

What the hell had I done that for?

Now, even a wheelchair was frustrating, and Legolas had to lower me into bed himself. Without the pain killers my leg remained painful, throbbing, and I had to be so careful of it the first night- I kept waking myself up by jolting it, or twisting, or moving wrong.

Or I'd have a bad dream that Legolas didn't exist. And I'd have to check that he was still reading in the dark nearby. Somehow this was the worst possibility ever- that I'd be alone here with Boromir.

This didn't improve when we went back to the hospital and found Boromir. Awake. Furious, I could see it in his face, but hiding it. He caught sight of me and suddenly all the pent up frustration FLOWED.

"Woman, what is going on? What is this?"

"Calm down."

"I am tied to a bed with objects caught in my arms!" He swore, trying to lift his arms, and I saw the nurses beyond the glass eye each other. Uh oh.

"Boromir, calm down. They're healers." I hissed, bending over him, voice soft. "Those lines put drugs in your arms. To aid healing."

"It is safe." Legolas added. "There is nothing to fear."

"Fear? Tis nothing related to fear, Elf, I assure you of that!" His rant, although it had strength, took ten minutes. Ten minutes for him to say all of that, his eyes closing, and yet no one inturrupted him. When Boromir went silent for longer than a minute, his eyes opening and closing slowly, I breathed out.

He was afraid. He just didn't want to admit it. I wriggled the wheelchair closer, lifting his hand carefully, and felt his hand curl around my hands. "It's my world. They have healing techniques and … it's painful but you'll feel better after."

I wasn't sure if he heard me or not. He seemed to slip in and out of sleep. I met Legolas' eyes.

"We have not left him alone a moment where possible." He said softly. "Sometimes he wakes. Often he forgets that he has before. Many a time he has spoken to me as if I were you."

Uh oh. "What has he said?"

"Mostly he is caught in dreams and memories." Legolas gazed away. He sighed softly. "This was never a surprise, Wenduin, I knew it was happening even as it did."

"You-" I trailed off, staring at him, and he refused to look at me or Boromir. How did we even get to this point? It wasn't just guilt. He looked so old again, so tired, and I flinched when he made eye contact with me.

"It's all right." He smiled , a tired smile, "It was something I had been warned to expect."

That didn't make it any easier.

Legolas slumped down in a chair beside me, reaching for his pocket, and drew out a chocolate bar. Without hesitation he'd peeled it and started to eat.

"You shouldn't eat that." I muttered.

"Because it is not healthy?"

"Because when we return to Middle Earth you'll spend the rest of your life looking for more chocolate." I tried to smile as I slumped back in the wheel chair. To my relief Legolas did smile then, even if it was kind of sad, and when he held out half the chocolate bar I couldn't resist. "Got an orange somewhere?"

"No." He smiled and bit into the chocolate.

Brian hadn't spoken during this exchange. Only now did he mutter something, something about needing to buy groceries, and left us alone.

It was strange to sit there all day, Boromir in a hospital bed alternating between wakefulness and a drugged sleep, Legolas so calm as he sung softly in Elvish, and myself in a wheelchair. Occasionally Boromir would demand to be 'let free'. Sometimes he barely seemed to see me at all. Most of the time though, when awake, he seemed to be semi-concious and would lie there staring at me or would chatter away about the most random things. Food he liked. His first pony. The man had actually once ridden a pony. It was like he thought he was dead and I couldn't blame him- compared to Minas Tirith this place was like an alien planet.

That night it was hot. Not unusual in Brisbane, a semi-tropical climate, and Brian lent us a rotating fan for the shed in the hot night. Like other nights, Legolas had to help me get into the shower, help me get to the toilet, because the wheelchair and the shed just weren't designed to go together. At least the pain killers helped deal with the pain. I knew I couldn't keep popping them like pills... but for now, at least, they helped.

Legolas slept that night, the fan twisting to blow air on both of us, blankets discarded in a pile on the couch at the other side of the shed. While Legolas slept, it was my turn to feel restless. Instead of sleeping I searched for real estate. Something to rent. It was nice, sort of, to sleep in a shed... but I kind of wanted to get Boromir somewhere cleaner. Safer. There were power tools out in the other room in this shed. What if he picked one up? What if he found a nail gun? The world wouldn't be safe if Boromir found out what those babies did. He'd probably stuff it into his leggings in an attempt to take it back to Middle Earth and use it against some Orc. I had this sudden image of him hunting zombies...

Yeah, he really had to get out of here before he discovered what a gun was.

I wanted to cook. I couldn't- it wasn't my house- but the urge to cook and eat rose. I couldn't even really stand up without help, to be honest, and I glared at the wheelchair as if it was the cause of all my stress. It wasn't. And I wasn't upset that they'd fixed my leg, exactly, just … that I felt restless and frustrated with this whole thing.

"Wendy..." Legolas spoke up, soft in the dark, and I heard him shift up. Saw his shape as he leaned up on his elbow on the little camper bed. "Do you need the medicine for pain?"

"It's okay. I took it an hour ago. I just can't sleep." I muttered.

"Do you need help to sleep?"

Help? I groaned softly. "If you mean knock me out, sure."

"I was going to sing." He stood up, slowly, and came to sit beside me. It was still summer and I watched him move to me in the dark, half-naked, the light of a street light casting a weird glow across Legolas as he crossed the room to me. I gawked at him, it was hard not to, but I found myself seeing other things. New scars. Old scars, really, but new to me. Legolas had changed. His entire body had changed somehow. When he came to kneel beside me I reached up to touch a particularly nasty looking slash across his stomach. It had to be an ancient scar, really, but to me it may as well have been fresh and new.

"How did you get this?"

"It was from a angry spider. I'd taken her prey." He responded softly, reaching up to brush my bare shoulders, tracing them. Legolas had that look on his face again. That look … it was hard to explain, as if he was staring at me, as if he was memorising every detail or something. He kept doing that. Kept stealing glances. Long stares. "You have not changed much from the moment we met."

"Except I got thin."

"No, you did not."

Ow. I twisted over, or tried to, but my already drugged leg refused to move with me. Legolas shifted to my side and helped me, lifting my leg, and I shifted onto one side. His hands started to run up and down my back in the darkness, along the muscles, and he murmured, "You are stronger. But you have not changed. You make me feel young again."

"You're only, what, five hundred?"

He didn't answer, breathing out slowly, and I heard him start to sign again in that soft voice he always had when he sung. Somehow this tune seemed more familiar but the massage was relaxing me. That, with the feel of cool air blow across me from the rotating fan, was so ...calming. But it wasn't fair. It wasn't fair to let him think this was okay. The worst part of my guilt had to come up.

"I slept with Boromir."

"I told you. I knew. I did not stay far from you and ... I know you have trouble saying no to him." Yeah, well, okay. That may have been true. I sighed again, trying to relax, as he lay down on the ground beside me. Legolas continued to sing softly as his long fingers danced across my spine. "There is no blame. Sleep and feel peace."

It wasn't easy to feel peace. But I slept at least. The whole 'I have to marry Boromir' thing seemed less and less in my mind, now there was no pressure, and I was starting to realise. The second Legolas left, the second Elrond left, and the pressure was off... I'd resent Boromir.

There would probably no real way around it. Even though it wasn't his fault, he'd be the one left to deal with it, and it might grow worse. I'd see Legolas frequently. I'd miss him. But … it didn't answer the big problem of how he'd do his thing and still not die with me around.

These thoughts did not go away with sleep.

They didn't go away after a week. A week, of going to the hospital to sit with Boromir, who was getting more mentally alert and back to himself by the day, and a week of coming home and eating dinner in the back shed with Legolas. We'd sit there and watch bats, eat, even listen to music. It stunned me that he was so comfortable with everything, with the laptop, with music coming out of a little plastic box, with the microwave, and he didn't even bother to pretend as if these things bothered him. They didn't. I'd find him outside talking to the lemon tree before he picked a couple of lemons. Or to the neighbor- discussing weather.

It wasn't just that Legolas was comfortable here, although that in itself was strange, I would have thought it'd be Boromir who had an easier time. He still seemed slightly strange to me. Older, like before, but also tired sometimes. A lot of the time. He slept almost every second night- a record for Legolas- and seemed to feel the cold.

It took me a while to really see all of it and when I put it together, a week after we'd literally fallen into my world, a horrible thought crossed my mind. Had he decided to go mortal after all?

The weirdest afternoon happened literally the day we took Boromir home. I needed an orange urgently, I couldn't live a second without one, so Brian had reluctantly paused on the way to the hospital so I could get myself an organic orange. Of the right colour. I'd had to take Legolas- I needed his help with the wheelchair and Brian was at work again- and left him sitting on a bench in front of the shop.

When I'd come out, he wasn't there. I'd panicked for about three minutes, wheeling around, until I'd caught sight of the Elf bent over a fish tank in the nearby pet store. Just tiny goldfish, nothing special, but he stared at them as if they were the most fascinating creatures he'd ever met. And they stared back. They'd all, all sixty or so of the tiny things, gathered in one spot just inches from his face. It'd given me the weird impression that they were listening to him.

"I would like to adopt them." He informed the man, as I stood there fingering one of the oranges, Legolas glancing at me. "All of them."

"Seriously? We live in a shed."

"Have you not made arrangements for a home?"

I had, just that morning, and I supposed he'd overheard me with those magic Elf ears of his. I'd searched for rentals in the country, found a house they were willing to rent to me long term, and would be literally there tomorrow to sign papers and move in. Apparently in the country they didn't care about waiting- they were fine with me to just go ahead and move in. It would have been today if we hadn't had to pick up Boromir.

But house aside, there were other problems. Such as Legolas, who wanted the stupid things, returning to Middle Earth soon. I sighed. "But-"

"They were born just to die." Legolas muttered. He ignored the weird look he got from the pet store owner. "We must take them home."

They were? I glanced at the fish tank and sighed. They were. Goldfish for bigger fish. All bred just to feed large fish. But … "Leggy, we don't even have a place to put them..."

"Can we not pay for them and take them home when it is time?"

Paying for them wasn't a problem. One benefit of my 'career' had meant I'd collected a reasonable amount of money, which would last me a few years more even with the house I'd agreed to buy, so yeah. I could have afforded a tank. I HAD a place to put them too.

But... A bunch of tiny goldfish? And how would I even get them to our house? It was a two hour drive from here. Brian would have to help. He was going to anyway- I needed to move my stuff there in a couple of days. And maybe if the baby was anything like Legolas he could become a goldfish whisperer too. As my hesitation faded, Legolas smiled, and I knew I couldn't say no. Not even to Legolas.

"Fine." I sighed again. It was worth it though.

Legolas smiled, hugging me, kissing my forehead. "Thank you."

It was on our way out that things got really weird. Yes- the fish thing had been kind of amusing. But the weird part didn't come till after. Legolas had been wheeling me out to the parking lot to meet Brian. He froze, the wheelchair slowing as he did, eyes going up over Brian's car to someone across the street. Legolas frowned and he said softly, "You will have to excuse me. I will meet you at the house."

"Wait, what about-"

Brian was getting out. "You sure?"

"I need to talk with someone." Legolas nodded. His smile had faded now. He almost looked angry, which was weird, and I tried to sit up higher to see.

The problem with wheelchairs was that they were short. I couldn't see over the car who Legolas was eye-balling. He released the chair, Brian grasping onto it, and carefully lifted me into the back seat. Across the street I caught glimpses of someone, sort of, someone tall and ...well, as crazy as it sounded, Elf-like. They reminded me of Elves. But the cars kept passing by the shopping centre so fast that I couldn't really see much. The person had retreated back into a shop.

"Leggy, come on." I muttered.

"I know how to get a taxi. I have some money." Legolas responded, his eyes still across the street, but his attention on folding the wheelchair up now. He slid it into the spot beside me. "I will be there when you get home with Boromir to help. I promise."

"Good, because we'll need you." Brian muttered. "If he's as strong as he looks."

"How did you guys get the hospital to take him anyway?"

"Brian can explain." Legolas stood up and closed the door. I hurriedly wound the window down- Brian's car was OLD- and he leaned down to kiss my forehead in a quick tender gesture. "Relax. There is no problems."

And like that, he'd crossed the street and vanished to talk to that stranger.

"How did you do it?" I asked quietly as Brian pulled out of the car park slowly. I started to peel the orange slowly, juice going everywhere, cringing.

"Fake ID. How else?" He sighed. "Not easy to get hands on. Seriously. It worked though. Relax. We took care of it."

Boromir was wide awake by now, the restraints off, he'd more or less wizened up to 'Panic and that means sleep'. He was sitting up eating lunch when we came in, grinning a wide grin as I was wheeled in, holding his arms open. "Woman! You have come to rescue me."

He got off the bed, slowly, cringing as his body struggled. Boromir bent down to hug me in the wheelchair, moving slowly as he walked, his hug no where near as strong as it used to be, betraying just how weak he still was. At least he was alive. I had no doubt that if I'd left him in Middle Earth he wouldn't be here.

"Yeah, it's time to go. Did you sign the papers?" Brian asked as he lifted up a bag of things. Boromir's clothing, most likely. Or what was left of it.

"Just like you suggested." Boromir stood up slowly with a wince of pain. He lifted the tshirt to stare at the bandage. "This itches."

"It's a good sign. It means it's healing." A nurse was coming in. "All right. He's safe to go home. Don't take those bandages off for a week, wash with a cloth, you know what to do."

"I do." Boromir grinned , winking at her, and looked pretty smug when she flushed. "We'll visit."

"We won't." I muttered, reassuring her, but she didn't seem the least bit worried about the idea that Boromir might visit. "We're going home soon."

"When?" Brian asked quietly. He knew what I meant.

"In a few days, I guess, when the house is … you know. Signed and stuff. Sooner we get this one home the better." I nudged Boromir with my good foot. "You ready?"

"Aye. Show me to your home."

He was slow, even with his enthusiasm, walking beside the wheelchair and breathing in and out in slow measured paces. Boromir had pain killers too, clutched in one hand, his face white with pain when he had to lower into the car, looking just about ready to sleep again. It took him a few moments before he got his breathing back under control. By then I was in the car as well, wheelchair in the front seat beside Brian, and trying to breathe through my own pain that came with moving.

"Is this a carriage?" He asked,gazing around with faint interest when he'd gotten his breath back, adding, "Where's the horses?"

"Don't need them."

"What about the Elf?"

Brian climbed into the front seat. He glanced back at Boromir, then to me, muttering, "Let me know when you've prepared him for this."

"Okay." I responded. I twisted to Boromir. "It's like a carriage. Our worlds have some big differences and this thing... It moves very fast. It might be frightening at first..."

"Woman, I have lived much of my life upon the back of a horse, I have no fear of this." He was gazing out the window at the buildings. "This city is made of the strangest stone that I have ever seen."

"Most of it is made of metal." I said quietly. My mind was still on Legolas. Taking to someone. And the fact that he was older hung on my mind too. How old was he? Had Galadriel sent him here further back? Why would she even bother doing that? But what other possibility was there? As Brian turned the car on, causing Boromir to flinch, I added quickly,"Seat belt, Boromir."

"What do you mean?"

"Ah, shit, didn't think of that." Brian muttered. He swung out of the driver's seat, the car rumbling, and opened Boromir's door. "Sorry. Um. My Lord..."

He actually flushed as he bent in over Boromir, clearly still very star struck by the whole 'They're seriously them' thing, and fumbled as he showed what I meant. Boromir stared at the thing and scowled. "This is painful."

"Yeah, but it's a law here. We wear it while the car's going. It saves lives."

"How!"

"Because if we crash then we don't get flung out of the front." I responded. I probably should have been more ...sensitive or something.

Boromir blinked at me. "Crash?"

Brian was back in the front seat by now and starting to drive. Boromir went pale as the car started to speed up. We weren't even going at normal speed yet- Brian had to get out of the parking lot first- but once we were on the road Boromir's face drained of blood and his hand grasped for mine hard.

"Faster than a horse, isn't it?" I muttered.

Boromir was trying to keep his eyes open, probably fighting with his ego, but it took him about three minutes. A massive truck passed us within inches on the highway. Boromir shut his eyes and twisted towards me, his hand tense around mine, flinching. No faking it, no attempt for my sympathy, this was probably hard for him to take.

"Did you watch any TV?" I muttered, as he sat there, eyes on me.

"I didn't think it was a good idea for him to watch it." Brian answered from the front. "Relax, mate, we'll be home soon."

Boromir didn't answer for a while, leaning against me, his breathing growing harsher. Then he suddenly muttered, "Why does this cart make me want to …"

Oh, shit. Something plastic was shoved at me, I only had enough time to recognise it as a plastic bag and to open it, before Boromir was sick.

He hung onto the bag right up until the moment we got home, stumbling out of the car, the bag tossed aside. Boromir headed for the garden and knelt there a long time. It took me a while to get out of the car with Brian's help and I had to wait on the path in the wheelchair while he stood with Boromir.

"You doing okay?"

Boromir didn't answer. He had his face almost pressed into the bushes. I sighed and twisted the wheelchair around, slowly, wheeling along the path for the shed. "Okay. Well. We sleep in here."

"Where? Wait a moment, woman, I'm coming."

I rolled into the shed, careful about the little step down onto the concrete ground, wheelchair dropping. It wasn't long before Boromir had followed, Brian close by, Boromir's face still white and tense. He stared around slowly. Then, to my shock, he turned and slammed the door.

"Hey, relax."

"I want everything that is strange out of here." Boromir snapped. He was staring around, face still tense, his breathing shallow.

"You in pain?"

"I have been sick with wounds all over. I am. That is not the problem. Wendy, please, where can I put those objects?" He was eyeing things, the lamp, the laptop, the rotating fan, and there was this surprising amount of ...panic. No, not panic, but close to it. Culture shock. Boromir didn't even wait for me to answer. He was lifting objects, flinching as power cords snapped out of the wall, and ignored me as I told him to stop. Boromir dumped them in the other room, ignoring power tools, cringing as his weak and pained body protested. Fuck.

"You're supposed to be resting. Relax. What are you doing?"

"I need … these objects out." Boromir growled softly. When he lifted the laptop I was quick to snatch it off, him, balancing it in my lap, because as much as I understood... there were some things too costly to break. He scowled at it. "Hide it."

Where was Legolas? I groaned, wheeling the wheelchair closer, tempted to risk pissing my doctors off a little by getting onto the crutches early. Two weeks, they'd said, but they didn't have a culture shocked Boromir tearing …

"That's a light bulb, you have to twist, not pull!" I hissed, as he reached up, the tall man easily finding it in his fingers. I got it just in time, Boromir was about to tug, and breathed out in relief as he twisted the lightbulb the right way. The last thing he needed was cut fingers. "What are you doing, you mad man?"

He didn't answer. I sighed and hid the laptop under the little sofa, sliding it there carefully with my good foot, and Boromir was only satisfied when the room was completely empty of every last object. He sunk down heavily onto the couch, breathing hard, lifting his shirt and throwing it aside with a soft growl.

"Don't take off the pants."

"I have no intention." Boromir muttered. He gazed at his stomach- it was covered in gauze, in tape, his fingers touching the edges. "I could not stand a moment longer in a room filled with strange objects."

"Well, we're going to need the lamps back if we need light.."

"Do you not have candles or a lantern?"

"I don't know. Maybe we'll have to go buy some." Probably some fruit and vegetables too, and some meat, if he didn't want strange objects. My idea of dinner had been instant noodles- the shed had a kettle and I had little instant noodle cups. Fantastic. The idea would have to be scrapped now. I sat in the wheelchair, feeling kind of exhausted, and Boromir eyed it. Oh yeah. Wheelchair- also modern.

"Do you need that?" He muttered.

"I'm supposed to stay off my leg."

"Why?"

"They've repaired the muscle. I'll be able to walk if I'm smart. But I'm supposed to stay off my leg for a few more days."

Boromir frowned again, crossing his arms, tension on his face as he potentially ignored the wheelchair. I could see it – his body starting to grow tense again.

I sighed and stood up, slowly, careful to keep my weight on my good leg. Leaning on the edge of the couch I sat beside him, grasping for his hand, stroking it. "Boromir?"

"I am not ungrateful for … for the healing." He muttered. Boromir stared down at our hands, stared a long time, before he sighed and all the tension vanished in his body. He leaned against me, letting go of my hand so that he could wrap an arm around my shoulders, drawing me close. "I feel strange. Afraid. I feel as if I am going mad."

"Mad?"

"I lay there, seeing pieces of metal within my arm, blood vanishing into my body, watching strange lights dance across mirrors that had little reflection. Instruments and sounds with no origin. The healers, however, were kind. They helped me relax with their small pills. Now I cannot do it."

"Relax?" They'd sedated him, in other words, for the entire time he'd been in hospital. I supposed that made sense. "No more pills?"

"I have you. I need no more." Boromir's lips brushed my shoulder, his breathing slowing, other arm draping across his lap to grasp my hands. "What they did to me still hurts. Are you sure they are healers?"

"Baby. Of course they are. Your body won't heal straight away."

His hand slid up to turn my head towards his, Boromir kissing my forehead gently, leaning against my forehead as he breathed in and out slowly. "You cannot walk yet?"

"They said it might be a few months before I can do it properly. I can wheel around in that," I nodded at the wheelchair I'd somehow managed to get out of, "Or I can lean on crutches. Those things." I pointed at where we'd leaned the crutches.

"And this is … a home many live in?" Boromir's eyes went over the shed, the tiny beds, the couch, raising an eyebrow. Yeah. Even his home, however little I'd seen of it, was nicer than the shed. "Is this your home? I will build you one better."

"It's a shed." I responded. "It's where people store things. But this is Brian's ...um. Land."

Land was a stretch. It was a suburb, the land was barely bigger than the house or the shed, and Boromir actually leaned up to stare out the window.

"Brian is the man on your ...phone. Yes?" Boromir muttered. "I believed him to be the kind of man I would dislike but he would often come and read to me, to entertain me."

"He's not that bad." He'd improved since I'd gotten back. I'd actually seen Brian laughing, something I realised I hadn't seen him do for months before I'd vanished, and he seemed to be ...happy.

"No, he is not. It is funny what a man may say when he is in a bad place within his heart." Boromir agreed. His voice had grown soft and he leaned against me again, head against mine, hand stroking mine slowly. "I have longed to hold you once more."

"I..." There was that peace again, it wasn't something I could help, the peace that came with knowing things were okay. Boromir was okay. I slid my hand across his stomach, feeling his muscles contract, or the bumps of the stitches underneath. I had missed him. I sighed, leaning against him, his arms coming around to hug me hard. "Careful, you'll hurt yourself."

"You are the one not allowed to walk." Boromir muttered. He was sliding my pants up, slowly, the baggy pants easily and picked at the bandages there. "How long has this been on?"

"A while." I admitted. It itched too. I wanted to get the stupid thing off. "It keeps it safe. They said to only take it off when I started using the crutches. I've been wanting to take it off though. Take it off. I'll re-wrap it."

Boromir released me and started to undo it, pausing to check with a glance up to me, before he carefully undid the sticky tape that held it there. The tape had gone funny on the edges, already peeling somewhat, and I itched so much underneath. It was such a relief when I felt air against the hot skin underneath, felt the bandages slowly unwind, Boromir careful as he slid the bandage off.

We both stared at my leg, at the long line of stitches down the red and pink skin, still with flecks of dried blood underneath the wound from where it must have bled after. But it was sealed.

"What did they do?" Boromir asked quietly, fingers sliding down the side of my leg. "It is very straight. I do not recall it being so neat."

"They cut it open and sewed the muscles back together where they're meant to me. I think they did the same thing with you. You had a rib that was broken and healed wrong and... something to do with your arm."

Now that I looked closer, I did see it, this thin plaster on his lower arm.

"Aye, I remember." He responded. He leaned up to touch the arm that was bandaged, Boromir fingering it, blinking at it. "I agreed. This is a stiff bandage."

"You're lucky they didn't plaster it." I muttered. So maybe it wasn't such a bad fracture. I tried to smile, be happy, but I couldn't. I felt so awkward, tense and tired. I was happy to see him well but … I kept glancing outside, wondering where Legolas was, I felt frustrated and upset somehow.

Boromir stood up slowly, his movement slow and careful, and he reached down to touch the bandages. Before I could stop him he'd started to peel them off, one after the other, each of his stitched wounds much fresher than mine. I even saw blood still oozing... but that could have been related to his earlier attempt at making the shed 'middle earth friendly'. He stared at his body. "They have sewn my skin."

"It makes the wound heal faster." I explained. "Don't take it out." Come to think of it... Legolas had done the same thing to me. Did that mean Elves knew about it but men didn't? I stood up slowly, balancing carefully on my good leg, and tested the bad one. I nearly fell over, the pain of putting weight on it was not fun, and I fell back onto the couch. Nope. However healed the outside was... the inside wasn't going to heal as fast as I wanted. "Boromir, cover it up again. Yours isn't healed. It could get infected."

"I will re-wrap it. Where is Legolas?" Boromir pressed his fingers against the wounds, cringing, reaching up to touch another one. "They found the arrow in my shoulder, I see."

"How the hell did you fight with a fractured arm and an arrow in you?" I muttered. "Crazy man."

He grinned at me. "Hungry man. Where is my meal, woman?"

"We have to buy it. I don't really have anything." This was at least a relief from the massive elephant in the room and how conflicted I felt. It was a good reason to get up and to get out again. I stood up slowly, leaning on the edge of the couch, and managed to get into the wheelchair without it rolling away under me. "You can wait here, read a book or something, I'll be back. I'll go to the supermarket quickly..."

"I'm coming. Markets? How different can they be?"

"You'll see. Put your stupid shirt back on and we'll go."

Some part of me hoped that Legolas would reappear before we left for the supermarket. It was a short walk, at least, no more than ten minutes down the street from the house Brian lived in. Boromir stopped every time a car passed, which was often, but at least he seemed to cheer up somewhat. The prospect of food usually did that to people.

We entered the supermarket, beautifully cool compared to the heat outside, and Boromir breathed out in relief.

"Tis wonderful and cool in here." He said softly. Boromir gazed out across the supermarket ailes, the fruit and vegetables piled high, his eyes widening. "Is this really a market?"

"It's called a super market for a reason. Every thing's here. Look. Grab one of the baskets." I pointed at the little hand basket things. "You carry whatever I decide to buy. Um. Okay. This is how it works. We pick things up off shelves or off the tables. We don't bite them, eat them, open them or do anything more than collect them. Then we go there-" I pointed at the cash registers, "-where I exchange coin for what I've picked. It's easy."

Boromir nodded. He smiled, leaning down to kiss my head, cringing as his body had to bend low. "Then we will buy food. You must tell me what this is!"

And before I could stop him, he'd rushed into the fruit section to pick up a pineapple.

It took me about three seconds to realise I needed to get a trolley instead. Boromir wandered from vegetable to fruit and back again, pacing up and down, his energy starting to build up as his excitement grew. Maybe it was because there was no real viable technology, except for the hot chickens he stood for ten minutes admiring, or maybe because it was closer to something familiar. I was glad I'd reminded him to put a tshirt on. Even with it on, people gawked at the tall man, girls openly checked him out, and Boromir thrived in the attention. He haggled with the people at the deli- I'd thought a roast chicken would be a quick easy thing for all of us- and got us THREE chickens for the price of one.

"Boromir, I don't even know where we'll put this stuff." We didn't have a fridge in the shed.

"I am hungry. I will eat them." He responded, lowering the bags into the trolley, before Boromir pointed at fish. "Those as well."

"Fish?"

And before I could protest, he'd started to haggle for a couple of fish, as he admired their 'ice keeping skills', blissfully unaware of the fridges environment they were in. I had to put a stop to it before he bought EVERYTHING. We hadn't even left the vegetable and fruit area yet- the deli was next to it- and I cringed as I thought about what he'd be like in the asiles.

It was at this point that I caught sight of a woman with her children. She looked stressed, as they raced around picking things up, darting backwards and forwards in an attempt to rescue loaves of bread and other things. With a loud whisper that must have been heard by everyone in the area, she hissed, "One thing each. It's either the bread roll or the chocolate bar. NOT BOTH."

It gave me an idea.

Once he'd gotten the fish, I grabbed his arm, tugging him down to my height. Boromir bent down with a swift kiss, hard and affectionate, his eyes crinkled with a genuine smile again. "Yes, my love?"

"From now on, you're allowed one thing. Anything you like... but only one more thing."

"Anything?"

"Yes, and you can explore looking for it," That way I'd get five minutes to get the stuff we needed, "-but don't leave the building and bring it back. To me. I'll pay for it."

And like that, he vanished.

As difficult as it was to wheel around with a trolley, it was peaceful, and the supermarket manager was quick to turn up with one of their employees to help me out. More oranges, a pineapple for the poor Boromir, a coconut for me, pregnancy vitamins, pasta and bottled sauce, whatever I could get that didn't need a fridge or that we'd use that night. It was a bit of a waste, yeah, but till I actually BOUGHT that house...

I did buy chocolate. Chips. I needed relaxation and I suspected so did he.

Boromir reappeared seconds after I heard alarms go off, trailed by a red faced security person, grinning as he held something out. Alcohol. Whisky, to be exact, a massive bottle of it. "This."

"Where did you get that?"

"Sorry, Sir, you have to pay for that … in the liquor department!"

Oh, bloody hell. I groaned and rubbed my head. Supermarkets usually had separate areas for this stuff. This store, because it was illegal to sell alcohol in a supermarket within Queensland, had a separate shop OUTSIDE. Same building, sort of, but different entrance. Different shop.

"I told you to stay here!"

"In the building!"

"Boromir, it's the ru... the law to pay for this kind of thing in the other shop. That way they can stop kids from buying it." I groaned. The poor security guy was red faced, young, maybe it was his first real 'conflict. "Sorry. He doesn't know the rules here."

"Ah, of course. A law!" Boromir was surprisingly cheerful. Maybe the idea of laws was something he got, seeing as he tended to enforce them in Minas Tirith, and to the poor security guy's shock he banged the back of the poor man, who nearly fell over, clearly happy. He liked laws. "Then I will wait. We will come purchase your liquor soon."

"I'll … uh. Put it behind the counter for you." The man didn't seem to know what to make of Boromir.

I decided it was best to just continue to shop. Get it finished, get out of here, and get home. Give Boromir a bag of chips and hope he'd be distracted enough to relax. Behind me, Boromir followed, trailing after me, exclaiming softly with every new fruit and vegetable. Red potatoes? Yep. Red potatoes. Apples of three kinds! Yep, that too. I ended up having to modify my 'one item' rule and I let him choose three fresh fruit or vegetables to try. His interest was infectious.

His muscles came in handy by the time we got out of there. I shoved the bags at him, let him carry them as I bought his choice of booze, which was naturally one of the most expensive whiskeys there, and we headed out into the hot sun. The chocolate bar I'd bought him kept him distracted from the traffic.

Still he looked relieved to get out of the back of the car, standing quickly, and we headed inside the shed. Fan. With a wave of another chocolate bar, Boromir carried it back inside, and even plugged it back in for me. With a sigh of relief I had Boromir turn it on and instantly he was relaxed.

He stood there in front of the fan, eating chocolate, the cool air drawing his hands to the metal cage around the fan. "This is wondrous."

"Don't touch the spinning blades."

"I am no child, woman." He grunted when he caught me watching him. Boromir turned and flopped near the fan. "I know fast blades are dangerous."

"You probably feel like I did in Rivendel." Sort of. Maybe times several million, sure, but it was similar. I slowly lined up the food we'd bought on the little crooked table in the corner, stuffing bags inside each other, and checking my phone for news of Legolas.

Legolas didn't return before it got dark. We ate, Boromir was exhausted fast, the pain killers kicking in as he ate. But somehow it didn't stop him from finishing all three of the roast chickens, half a salad, and a large bottle of water. Once I'd re-dressed his wounds- I refused to let him lie down till he did- he dropped onto the couch and fell asleep within minutes.

It was late when Legolas returned. I hadn't been able to sleep, I'd been so worried, but Brian had promised me everything was okay- that he was with Legolas or something. Weird. I leaned up in bed, book aside, watching as he came into the dark shed. He held his finger to his lips as he slipped in, walking across to run a hand across my shoulders, kneeling beside me.

"I am sorry. You ate?"

"Boromir ate. I wasn't that hungry. Did you get lost? Did Brian find you?"

"No. I did not get lost. Brian wished to show me food from 'your world'. " Legolas rested down on the ground beside me, shutting his eyes, sliding his hand into mine. "He seems as flushed around me as a young girl in love. He could not stop talking of this world. I am exhausted."

It was the final straw- this simple touch, even with Boromir here, and I knew that even if I married Boromir... this was exactly how I'd feel. Torn. For the rest of my life. Every time Legolas came to visit his baby or Aragorn, he'd be there, and I'd be unable to leave his side a moment.

"I can't do it, can I?" I said quietly. "Leave you."

"You never did. Did you?" Legolas said softly. It was true though. He leaned up to kiss my hand, lying on his back, gazing up. "But you are right. There were other things I had to do. You could not stay with me as I did them. I do not doubt you love Boromir but … I do not think you realise why you feel you need him so much. Not yet."

His words confused me. I stared at Legolas, but he wasn't looking at me, and the awkward angle of the bed made it hard to read his face anyway. "What do you mean?"

"It will come to you."

There it was again, that weird feeling, and I twisted over slowly, my bad leg carefully resting on the edge of the bed. I gazed down at him. He had shut his eyes, his fingers entwined around mine, and even in the dim light of the streetlight outside I saw the lines on his face. Remembered my feeling earlier. The feeling that … maybe he was different now.

"Leggy, are you mortal?"

"No. I am still blessed with the gift of my kin. But I am older."

"Why are you older? Did you come here earlier than me?" Another thought was growing in my mind. An impossible thought. One that I couldn't even bring myself to believe.

"Because I am. It is true- I have been here longer than you know." He responded. Legolas stood up, slowly, and crawled onto my bed, lying in his bed beside me. "I have missed you. But... you are distracting yourself from that which really upsets you. Think on what I have said and rest. When you understand, I will explain, but not tonight. I need to rest and sleep."

"Know? How?"Legolas was falling asleep, avoiding me, and I was trying to avoid what I'd have to say to Boromir tomorrow. I groaned softly. That OTHER idea wouldn't go away. "Leggy..."

Legolas didn't answer. His breathing had slowed. If he was faking it, he was doing a good job of it, and I didn't want to wake Boromir. I had to let it go for the night. Had to focus on the positives. Boromir wasn't dying, he was healthy, and he had booze. Tomorrow... we could talk. All three of us.

I swallowed the two painkillers for the night, curled up, and let the drugs help me sleep.