I would like to throw out a big old thank you to Lauren Stargazer for her FANTASTIC and creative cover. It incorporates the new homes of our silly characters in an awesome way, and I love it bunches.

I need help, guys. I've got like ten stories going and I can't seem to get anything done.

Thanks for reading, guys. :)

"So, are we married yet?"

Boromir looked at me with a humored look. He was exhausted, having been awake ever since coming into consciousness after his injury. His sleepiness put him in an oddly good mood considering everything that had happened. "What?"

"You heard me." I replied with a grin. "Are we married yet?"

He seemed to think about the question for a while, chuckling here and there as I waited patiently. We sat on a lovely lounge chair in his room and munched on bread and cheese for lunch. I'd only just woken up and gotten done washing the morning out of my mouth when he'd walked in, and though I'd slept for ages I could stand to sleep some more.

"Forgive me, Sophie," He finally said. "But I'm afraid that I lack a proper answer, as I am still trying to understand your precise meaning. You are aware that we've yet to have a ceremony, correct?"

"Oh, of course."

"Then why would you ask such a silly question?" He asked.

"Because I find it hard to believe that a couple like us could go through so much and not be married." I sighed, really just wanting an excuse to cuddle. Kristy was gone, so best friend hugging was out. James was a male and so that would no longer be socially acceptable, and Collin had only just confessed his love for me, so that would just be heartless. Ugh, just remembering that declaration made me want to forget marriage and spend the rest of eternity banging my head against a wall. It was then that I felt the need to come clean- to be honest with my husband-to-be.

"We'll be married soon, if I have anything to say about it." Boromir assured me, though the knot in my stomach only grew larger.

How would he react? Would telling him jeopardize my relationship with Collin? What would I do without either of them? I was in love with Boromir, but Collin was my best friend and probably would have been my husband had things turned out differently. Despite all of my questions and worries, I felt like it was unhealthy to not tell Boromir. If we were to be married, we would have to be honest with each other no matter what.

"Boromir... You trust me, right?"

He raised an eyebrow; I had his attention. "Of course."

"Well..." I sighed, struggling to piece words together in my mind. "That's good."

"Is something bothering you?" Boromir asked, looking even more exhausted once concern was added to his already worry-worn face.

My girly heart problems are taking over my life when I should be worrying about more important things. I wanted to say, but of course that would be dramatic for a woman my age. Such complaining was only suitable for chick flicks and cheesy novels. Scratch that- they are never suitable, but everyone has the urge.

"Have you ever been worried about Collin and I being so close?" I decided to ask. It felt like a decent opener for the situation, and to be honest I was surprised that the topic had never been discussed more. For the time we'd landed in, it seemed strange for everyone to just accept our closeness so willingly.

Boromir didn't even hesitate to answer. "In the beginning, yes. Before I knew the depths of your feelings for me. Afterwards? No."

"Not at all?" I could hardly believe that. "Not even a little?" I'd been in very few relationships before Boromir, but in every one of them my boyfriend had always so paranoid about Collin. That is, of course, why none of them lasted. "Because I really appreciate how great you've been about it, but I want you to be honest about it. After all, we are going to be married. You might want to tell me now if there is a problem."

"I am being honest, and I honestly trust you." He assured me. "Collin came before me, and I can understand that your world is not like mine. There are many things that are different between our cultures, and I will admit that I once struggled to accept your friendship. You and your friends are very strange indeed, but I have found your odd ways to be most refreshing, and your attempts to assimilate into our society have been most admirable."

"I notice you said 'attempts' like we haven't succeeded." I interrupted, and Boromir laughed.

"No, of course you haven't. But you've done well." He teased, and I had to hide a childish pout. "Truly, in my heart, I accept your friendship with Collin willingly. He loves you, perhaps more than I care to acknowledge, but he is honorable about it. He sacrificed himself for me, and with what he thought to be his final moments he demanded that I marry you. I do not think that he would threaten our marriage. It is not in his nature, nor is it in yours to be unfaithful. I owe Collin my life, and I am not about to tell him to leave your life. Besides, it is unnatural for you two to be apart. It is better you remain friends."

Those words sounded almost too good to be true, but I wasn't about to complain. "So, you knew that Collin loved me all along?"

"Sophie." Boromir looked at me with the most animated 'you serious?' face I'd ever received. "Everyone knows. Everyone has always known. Was I supposed to let another man's affections for you trump my own? No, I should think myself far too stubborn. But you chose me, and I always took comfort in that."

"I could kiss you you're so darn logical." I said, hardly able to process that he was totally cool with the situation. "Why haven't we talked about this before? You know, this is the kind of thing that usually comes up."

"Why complicate things?" Boromir shrugged. "When I first told my brother about you, after you'd left Minas Tirith when we'd just met, he cautioned me on the matter. I had told him that I had fallen for a strange, otherworldly girl traveling with Gandalf. For one, he told me that Gandalf was of interesting character, and any woman traveling with him must be strange, indeed. Then, he suggested that I reevaluate my feelings. After all, our cultures would be very different, and such differences could injure our relationship."

"Remind me to give Faramir a good punch one of these days." I thought the days of getting called strange were over. Suppose not! "But at least it was sound advice. I am beginning to wonder if I'll ever truly fit in."

Boromir chuckled and gave me a kiss on the cheek. "Oh, you fit in well enough. This is your home, now. However, there is something else we need to speak of on the topic of Collin."

My mind immediately shifted Collin's sudden fatherly urges. "Did he tell you that he wants to adopt Nesta?" Honestly, that had been on my mind ever since he brought it up. I even had a dream that night about Collin changing diapers, which was weird since Nesta is far from a baby. Unfortunately, my mind always jumped to the wrong conclusion.

"He what?" Boromir exclaimed, his eyes wide as though I'd just told him I was pregnant. Apparently, I wasn't the only person who had trouble picturing it. "Collin wants to adopt who?"

"Nesta, the little girl we were taking care of. The first one. Her family is dead and he wants to adopt her."

He seemed to ponder this a moment, leaning back in the couch and staring intently at the ceiling. "Well, I am sure that it can be arranged. My only real concern is that he's never really had an occupation or a permanent residence of his own. I am also having a difficult time picturing him settling down. I always assumed that he would be the man to go adventuring all the time..."

"That's what I'm saying! But good for him, I guess." Maybe every best friend has the same doubts as me. I mean, when you grow up with someone you never really think about growing up. "Anyways, what did you want to talk to me about? Something about Collin?"

Before Boromir could so much as collect his thoughts, there was a swift knock at the door. It ended up being Legolas, and his James/Gimli posse.

"Aragorn requests your presence." Said the elf bluntly.

"For different reasons, of course." Added Gimli.

"Your dad's getting pissy and Aragorn's uncomfortable." James explained, and the three resolved to standing in the doorway with some strange expecting stares.

Boromir let out a deep sigh and closed his eyes. Poor man was running on fumes, and though I felt bad for him I couldn't help but chuckle. Nothing ever seemed to go right. He pushed himself from the couch and slowly followed the three friends from the room. He turned and gave me an apologetic look, but to me he just looked plain helpless. I wanted to apologize to him. A good wife would have shooed the intruders from the room, locked the door, and let her man sleep for the next twenty years. He was exhausted and no doubt in pain from his wounds. Heck, I'd slept a good long while and was still ready to fall back into bed. Alas, he had work to do, and I needed to get back to Nesta. I'd promised her I'd be there for her in the morning, and I wasn't about to let her down. After enjoying the silence of Boromir's room for a few moments I stretched out my legs and walked right on to Gandalf's house.

I had hardly walked through the door when Collin nearly plowed me over, darting behind me to close the door as quietly as possible. He held a finger to his lips and tip-toed into the kitchen, leaving me with no choice but to follow his lead. He sat himself down at the table and sighed as he rubbed his swollen eyes. He looked absolutely terrible.

"Sorry about that odd welcome." He whispered. "I think that Nesta finally fell asleep, and I don't want to wake her. You have a habit of slamming doors."

"I do not!" I whispered back angrily, though he was probably right. "She's been up all night?"

"Yeah," he sighed. "I've been up with her. The poor girl's absolutely panicked over her family. She was up crying all night."

My heart broke to imagine how the little girl felt. I too had lost my family, though in a different way. "Well, at least she's getting some rest. I think that everyone within a hundred mile radius should just lay down and take a nap. I feel like we'd all be much happier if we could just relax."

"I'm afraid that napping is out of the question." Collin said with a frown. "I heard they're having a meeting today to decide what to do next."

Great. No breaks for the good guys. I wasn't even physically fighting and I was sick of it all. "When all of this is over, I'm getting drunk. I don't even care. I'm going to find myself a barrel of wine, steal it, and pretend that I'm at college on freshman weekend."

"That makes two of us." Collin agreed, and we high-fived. "And we can take my camera and watch our old videos. I miss Theodred. I miss not knowing how to wield a sword. I miss when Gandalf was grey. I miss Rohan. I miss my youth, I feel so old. It's like I'm rapid-aging. Wouldn't it suck if we just woke up in our bedrooms back in America?"

"DON'T EVEN SAY THAT." I groaned. I don't think that I could cope with it. Sure, toilets and showers would be great, but in all reality I'd probably die of a heart attack. "You, go to bed. You're done for the day, I'm cutting you off."

"Cutting me off from what?"

"Thinking! Now go to your room." I was about to head to bed, myself. I said that I wanted sleep, and with Nesta snoozing away I could finally get my wish.

Boromir was more peeved than I care to admit, but I was sighing with relief.

The armies were to ride off once more, only this time they were to fight Sauron on his own turf. It was a last-ditch effort, and probably one of the most terrifying ideas I'd ever heard. My heart dropped into oblivion when I heard the news, especially when I was told that all of my able-bodied friends would be leaving to fight. James, Gimli, Legolas, Aragorn, Gandalf, Eomer, and even Pippin were to be in the army. Of course, I wasn't the only woman who had loved ones riding off to what felt like their doom. Eowyn could lose her brother, and since Theoden and Theodred had already fallen victim to Sauron and his minions, she was risking everything. I'd decided to count my blessings and resolved to be happy that Boromir, Collin, and Merry were to be spared. Faramir was staying behind, too. He'd gotten a nasty back wound, and I was a bit appalled at myself for not noticing the day before. I was glad that he was to stay, for Boromir's sake. I only hoped that Kristy would arrive in Minas Tirith before James went away.

"You've done more than enough, you stubborn man." I tried to convince Boromir that his staying was a good thing. "You joined the Fellowship on your own accord, and you fought as well as you could. Just accept the fact that you're not going and do what you can to help around here."

Boromir grunted, too tired to argue. He'd marched right into my bedroom at Gandalf's house and fell straight into my bed. After relaying the bad news to me, he'd decided to bury his face into a pillow.

"Your people rely on your guidance, Boromir. They need you." I sighed as I plopped myself down beside him and ruffled his hair. "I need you."

What should have been a tender moment was cut short when I tried to turn Boromir's head to look at me and realized that he'd fallen fast asleep. He was gone, his weary brain finally shutting down on him. I gently removed his boots and covered him with a throw blanket. He looked quite precious for such a dangerous man, and a little twinge of pride welled in my soul. I snagged that dangerous man. Sophie: 1, World: 0.

I was going to add more to this but I feel like I'm stalling. I am, of course. I don't want this story to end and it's getting pretty close. So, I'll just leave it here. Review if you would, and let me know what you think of the story thus far. I really like feedback. All writers do. I'm also having a case of writers-block, so please. Help me with my life.

Kristy's coming back soon. Wahoo!