A/N: Another chapter ready for your eyes. It brings with it misunderstanding and understanding and disappointment and romance and Aragorn. What else does one need? ;) PLEASE NOTE - I've reposted this chapter, I made a mistake - east/west mix up. Sorry.

R&R

Enjoy!

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Chapter Thirty-four

The days and nights began to blur together. Collectively the fellowship became increasingly grim; Legolas always looked on edge, his keen eye scouring the riverbanks as day after day they continued downstream. Even the hobbits were sombre, Merry and Pippin appeared awkward sitting in their boat with Boromir, who was ever more unpredictable, while Frodo and Sam were simply quiet and grave. Serafina did what she could to lighten the mood but as soon as Gimli became serious as well she lost all interest.

The night was still and chilly. Serafina had once again taken the first watch; she used the time to use the books Galadriel had given her. She'd even practiced lettering a few words but had been so disappointed with her unsightly script that she spent a lot more time on reading than writing. This evening however she'd been prevented from even taking out the books for Boromir refused to go to bed.

"Get some sleep Boromir," she urged again, "how do you expect me to watch the night properly when I'm constantly jumping at the sound of your pacing?"

"I will not rest," he answered with a shaky voice, "not until somebody sees reason. We must travel to Minas Tirith, for this path is folly. Do you not see the burden it weighs on Frodo? Have you no compassion for him?"

"I have told you, you are talking to the wrong person. Take this up with Aragorn," she said through gritted teeth.

"He will not hear me," he said looking at her intently, "but if you were to speak to him -"

"Me?"

"He will listen to you. He will consider what you say,"

"So that you can deliver the Ring to your father and put me in prison in one neat manoeuvre? Even if I wanted one of those things I would not ask it of Aragorn,"

"Then ask it of him for your life's sake; if you travel on your own you will not survive. Surely that must sway him,"

"You are operating under the assumption that I cannot survive on my own in the wild and that Aragorn must think the same,"

"Don't you remember how you came to us? Staving and injured? If you didn't die of starvation then the infection would have killed you in the end, Aragorn told me this. He restored you back to health. If you were to but ask him to take you to Gondor, I am certain he would oblige,"

"You think that Aragorn would put his concern for my safety above the fate of Middle Earth? If you think that then you know even less about the man than I,"

"He is not merely concerned for your safety Serafina,"

She grimaced internally, "I don't know what you are talking about,"

"Then talk to him for Frodo,"

Serafina did not answer him for a long moment. She took a breath to calm herself. The cool air filled her lungs refreshingly, "I will not," was all she said.

She remained totally silent for the rest of her watch, but Boromir did not take any rest. He sat crouched by the fire, fidgeting the entire time. Serafina knew what he was doing - the next watch was Aragorn's. She wondered whether she should warn him about Boromir when she woke him, but ultimately she decided against it; Aragorn knew Boromir's state of mind as well as any of them, he would not need warning. In any case Serafina felt as though she'd forgotten how to talk to the man, it had been so long since the two of them had had a discussion over anything.

Eventually the time came for Serafina to hand over the watch. Boromir's eyes followed her as she made her way over to Aragorn's sleeping form. She knelt beside him and shook his shoulder gently. A frown formed on her face as she took a moment to regard him; she was sure there was an extra line on his forehead than there was ten days ago. His shaggy dark hair fell across his face and her hand twitched to push it away. She reprimanded herself mentally, and flicked her eyes back to his to see if he was awake. Grey eyes stared up at her seriously.

"It's your watch," she said, and stood sharply. She stalked over to her bedroll, conscious of keeping her back as straight as possible. Once she was in her bedroll she focused on falling asleep as quickly as she could, not wanting to be privy to the conversation that was sure to follow between the men.

She had not long been asleep before tense voices woke her.

"I see the way you look at her!" she heard Boromir say, "Don't think I haven't noticed. How will you live with yourself after you send her away, never knowing what became of her, if she died, if she was taken advantage of?"

Serafina opened her eyes wide to watch the men. She started as Aragorn grabbed the man's shirtfront.

"I have no choice!" he said fiercely.

"There is always another choice. Let us take her to Gondor. In my city she will be taken care of,"

"And what else will you take care of in Minas Tirith? The ring?"

"It should be kept safe by those who would use it for our cause!"

Serafina roused herself quickly, not trusting either of their tempers.

"I will not lead the fellowship to your city!" he said vehemently his face an inch from Boromir's.

She forced herself between them, "Aragorn, leave it" she said in a low voice, putting her hands on his chest to steady him.

He looked down at her where she stood facing him between himself and Boromir. The other man looked over the top of her at Aragorn, his face angry.

"She will not be so quick to defend you when she is lost and alone, or dead. Remember that Ranger," he said turning from them.

"Don't listen to him," she whispered to Aragorn when Boromir was out of earshot.

"And what if you die?" he asked rounding on her, "Would you prefer me to have heeded him when you're dead?"

"I have no intention of dying," she said dryly, "besides, you will not know if it happens. There is no use regretting actions you could not have taken even if you wanted to."

They were silent for a moment and Serafina took a few steps away from him. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Boromir get into his bedroll.

"You have been avoiding me," Aragorn said quietly.

Serafina lifted her chin and met his gaze strongly, "You haven't exactly sought me out,"

Aragorn nodded noncommittally, "Promise me something,"

"What?" she asked dubiously.

"Promise me that each morning before you set out you will practice the sword forms I taught you. Promise that you will practice them with both arms - neither are yet strong enough."

Serafina nodded, she shifted her feet. The distance between them felt awkward to her. They stood as strangers would on a first meeting with a respectful span separating them.

"If you meet anything hostile, hide. If you hear anything like a warg, promise me you will run as far and as fast as you can. Whatever you do - do not throw your sword. You hold onto it," he said earnestly.

Serafina swallowed and looked at him with hard eyes, but her voice was soft by comparison, "And if you hear a warg will you promise me the same in return?"

He looked at her curiously, "You do not need to worry yourself."

She looked away from his face and stared fixedly on his chest.

"Fia," he whispered, "where will you go?"

"I don't know," she answered, still unable to look at him.

"Not to Minas Tirith?"

"No,"

"What is waiting for you there?"

"Nothing that I want to meet!"

"Then why does Boromir think there is?"

"Boromir does not know what is waiting there," she whispered back harshly, her eyes meeting his, "Boromir speculates that I might find answers there, but they are answers that I have never looked for and that I can certainly go without."

"Would it be so difficult to speak plainly so that I may understand?"

Serafina looked at him and frowned. She was leaving soon, possibly tomorrow if they crossed to the other side of the bank, after the night she might not see him again. No, it wouldn't be so hard.

"It seems as though I am the child of a once prisoner of Gondor, a woman from the cells in Minas Tirith. She was pregnant in jail and by some mistake, or for some unknown reason I was, this child was taken from the mother and set adrift on the Anduin. Boromir was there when it happened. He thought the child, I, was dead, but now he thinks otherwise. It's all very uncertain. I don't know if I even believe him or not."

"Why does he think this child was you?"

"Because it happened at the time I would have been born. Because Garth told me he found me in the Anduin. Because the person who set me adrift is the person Garth sent me to kill when I was a child - Arnudor, the advisor to Denethor."

"I see," he said, his brow furrowed, "and he wants you to go to Minas Tirith so that you can find what? Your mother?"

"So he says," she paused and her mouth twitched into a smile, "he says that a name might be remembered in the prisons of a pregnant woman from twenty years ago. But somehow I think I would be asking for the name from behind the bars rather than as a visitor,"

"He would not do that to you."

"Really?"

"Do not mock me,"

"I do not mock you!" she cried in laughter, "But I think you are confusing Boromir with yourself!"

"Are you sure that you are not?"

"Yes! I am sure!" she said in good-humoured disbelief, "You are the one who protects me. You are the one that would help me to escape whatever justice I brought upon myself. That is who you are. Boromir is the man who has always hated me; he even hated the newborn baby that was me before I was called Serafina. But now he does not know whether he should go on hating me as he has done or give into stringent self-opinion and take responsibility for the monster he could have prevented! You see - the child haunted him. He wanted to pick it up, to hold it. He thinks that if he did he would have found it was alive, that I was alive, and then my life would have been different. He blames himself for who I am. But that is not enough to not want to bring me to justice, though he may not find my company quite so disgusting as he once did, I do not believe for a second he would hesitate to lock me in a cell."

"He feels guilty?" Aragorn asked, his face incredulous.

"More guilty than I have ever felt, I assure you. I think it comforts him though that I am not entirely evil," she said with a smirk.

"You are not evil at all Fia," he said darkly.

"No?" she asked, eyebrows raised.

"No,"

Serafina quailed a little under his intense gaze, "What on earth did you think was motivating his sudden protectiveness?"

Aragorn shook his head and looked down, "I thought he had fallen in love with you,"

"You are joking,"

"Not at all,"

"And what did you think of me?"

"I thought you were fighting feelings for him," he said, a sheepish smile forming on his face.

"What gave you that idea?"

"You," he said looking at her intently.

"I never meant to," she said, stumbling slightly over her words with the sudden serious tone of the conversation.

Aragorn paused for a second before speaking. Eventually he cocked his head to the side in a shrug-like gesture, "We are not taking you to Minas Tirith. On your own you might be able to find some answers without arousing Denethor's notice. You might be able to hide until this is all passed, then I would have your name cleared,"

She blushed at the proposal but her voice was steely, "If I go to Minas Tirith Denethor will find me,"

"That is not certain,"

"It is!" she countered insistently.

"How?"

"I saw it!" she hissed, "I saw it in Galadriel's Mirror,"

Aragorn looked at her for a long moment. She held his gaze.

"Do not ask me what I saw," she warned.

"You looked without permission?"

"I did not know what it was,"

Aragorn shook his head in disbelief, "And Lady Galadriel?"

"I do not believe she was displeased,"

Aragorn sat on a log by the fire and rested his elbows on his knees, "This is why you will not go to Minas Tirith?"

"Yes," she answered curtly.

"Where will you go?" he asked ignoring her tone.

"As far as I need to prevent the futures I saw in Galadriel's mirror,"

Aragorn did not answer straight away. He looked down at his hands. The cold air blew around them and her high-spilt skirt flapped in the breeze. Immediately she gathered it together and sat down beside the man.

He smiled at her, "They will miss you," he said nodding towards the hobbits. He spoke so quietly it could have been a groan of a tree or the murmur of the wind, "as will I, as will we all,"

"I can think of two at least who won't miss me, possibly three,"

"Well, Boromir for one, I suppose you mean Legolas perhaps, and…" he trailed off.

"Sam," she answered dully.

A smile broke out on Aragorn's face and he chuckled as he looked at her, "He has a good heart,"

"And a mistrustful nature; his scepticism will serve him well. If I had met more like him I would not have survived as long as I did in Bree," she said with a smirk.

Warm hands covered her own and she looked down. His hands, which were still familiar to her after so many nights of wound dressing, gathered her right hand between his own. She swallowed at the intimacy of the gesture, even though it was not the first time he had held her hand, she had barely spoken to him for ten days. Emotion stirred in her throat.

"I'm sure you would have risen to the challenged," he bantered lightly.

Serafina tried to force a smile, but one would not come. His hands encasing her own sent an overwhelming sense of loneliness through her.

"Fia," he murmured raising a finger to her chin. She looked up obligingly. His eyes didn't seem to search hers; instead they simply looked. Under his gaze she could not help feeling exposed. She pulled her head away but his hand gripped her chin and held her there. She swallowed again under his now forceful scrutiny, scared about what he might see in her face, scared about how she would survive without his protection.

His hand opened up on her chin and cupped her cheek, "You will be alright," he whispered fervently.

She nodded into his hand. She wanted to admit that she was scared but she still needed her pride, instead she said with a half smile, "What makes you say that?"

He mirrored her smile, "Elvish wisdom,"

Her face split into a grin and for a moment she let her guard slip. She enjoyed the feeling of his hand on her cheek and the other holding her own. Her eyes closed and instantly a flash of a naked shoulder pressed up against her teased her. She opened her eyes quickly to banish the vision, but in front of her Aragorn's eyes had darkened to match the colour of his in her mind.

Suddenly his hand was very hot on her cheek, and the heat from the fire made it unbearable.

"If you tell me where you are going, I will find you after this is over," his voice was husky.

Serafina was only able to shake her head and look down. His hand slipped off her face, over her neck and came to rest on her shoulder.

"What are you so afraid of Fia?" he breathed over her bowed head.

Her head snapped up to rebuke him, but her flippant comment died on her lips. They were so close. For the first time in days she was able to see the lines on his face; those weathered by the elements, and those caused by the cares he carried. Her eyes darted from his, to his lips, to his jaw, to his nose and cheekbones, then back to his eyes and lips. He inched closer. She could smell his breath and his scent, her lips parted.

A splashing sound came from the riverbank. Serafina froze, her eyes wide.

"Wait here," Aragorn whispered and stood silently.

She took a steadying breath and watched him walk away. As soon as he was out of sight her hand flew to her open mouth. She squeezed her nose in agitation between her thumb and forefinger. What was she doing? Angrily she stood up and began to pace before the fire.

Aragorn returned momentarily, "It was Gollum, I am sure. But he is gone now,"

Serafina looked at him and jutted out her chin, "When will we reach the western shore?"

"We cross the river tomorrow, we should reach the falls by midday. You will be able to leave us then,"

"I need some rest," she said flatly, "Goodnight Aragorn,"

"Goodnight," he said giving her a slight bow of the head as she turned. She caught a confused look on his face and felt guilty. But, she reminded herself as she slipped into her bedroll, she was doing it for his sake - distance was the answer.

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As the boats hit the western shore, Serafina's stomach was in knots. It had finally hit her just how unprepared she was to walk through the wilderness on her own.

Merry and Pippin had stuffed her rucksack full of food and an extra blanket, and other miscellaneous items that had made it twice its usual weight.

She said a brisk goodbye to each of the fellowship, embracing only the dwarf, Merry and Pippin. From the others she kept her distance. Frodo smiled at her kindly and she sent up a prayer for him as she turned to leave.

Aragorn took her arm and led her away from the party, as soon as they were a short distance away and behind a large boulder he stopped.

"You do not have to leave this minute,"

"It is better that I go now,"

He stepped closed and put his other hand on her arm, "Will you not tell me where you are going?"

"I don't know," she said, eyes on the ground.

"You don't know where you are going or you don't know if you will tell me?"

She looked up at him and searched his face. The visions from the mirror danced before her eyes, laughing at her because she was giving away her future.

"If I told you and you came looking for me, what if you didn't find me? Would you then wish I hadn't told you?"

"I don't know," he whispered sadly.

She looked away from his eyes, "It's time for me to leave,"

Aragorn sighed heavily, "Be safe Fia,"

She nodded in reply; she wanted to wish him well but her mouth would not open. Slowly he lowered his lips to her forehead and kissed her skin solemnly. Her eyes closed and she bit her lips. His lips were soft and gentle and his beard scratched her skin slightly.

"Aragorn!" yelled a frantic voice, "Aragorn it's Frodo, he's gone!"

The pair turned to see panic-stricken Pippin staring at them.

"We can't find Boromir…" he added.

Serafina's head whipped back to look at Aragorn. He'd closed his eyes momentarily, and when he opened them his face was hard.

"Serafina, go."

"But Frodo?"

"Go Fia," he whispered bringing a hand to her cheek, "I cannot bid you farewell a second time,"

"Aragorn!" urged Pippin.

He brought his forehead against hers; Serafina's eyes widened and her cheeks flushed red. His scent enveloped her and she could feel the warmth of his skin. And then he was gone. She watched him stride away to look for the hobbit. With a heavy heart she turned to begin her own journey, hoping the guilt for leaving her friends would abate with time.

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