Author's note: As many writers do, I enjoy listening to music as I write. Mostly instrumental songs.

The song "The Road Less Traveled" by Gabriel Lewis was instrumental (pun intended) in helping me write this chapter. To me it's now Kaitlyn and Legolas' song.

I urge you to listen to it on repeat while reading this chapter if you can.

It can be found on Spotify, iTunes and YouTube.

This chapter is dedicated to the author Scattered Logic. I only recently found out she had passed. Many years ago we spent so much time editing each other's stories and talking through AOL IM. I hope you are at peace my friend.

This chapter is for mature audiences only.

Chapter 47 Questions and Answers

"What did they say happened to me?" was the very first thing Kaitlyn wanted to know.

They were standing in her library holding hands. She could not keep her eyes from the Elf that stood in front of her. It felt as if she had been waiting for him for an eternity.

He was more handsome than she remembered. His straight silver blond hair had grown several more inches. It was half up and braided down the back. His warrior braids were gone. He was slim but still well built, dressed in green with gold scrolls on his tunic and very dark green pants. He wore no Elven bow or quiver of arrows. His pale blue eyes had not left her form.

She drank in the sight of him as someone who was parched. She had been afraid that being parted from him for over a decade might change the intensity of her love for him.

They had only known each other for a few months during the war. She had stressed about falling out of love with him. Many times she wondered if she had imagined their love story. With time, the emotions, the urgency had faded slightly with the threat of war gone. When the anxiety took hold she would touch the braid of his hair and would be flooded with crisp memories. Touches here, glances there. Warmth, desire. Seeing him standing before her made her realize it was all real. She loved him more than she thought possible.

Legolas did not miss the way Kaitlyn looked at him. He was humbled by the love he felt radiating from her. A part of him was still reeling at her being alive. He basked in her love ; the warmth of it was like the sun upon him after a century of darkness.

He swallowed hard. The day he learned of her fate was crystal clear in his mind. He had carried the pain of losing her since that day until now.

"Gandalf and Ammora told us that you had been attacked by orcs. Ramma told me himself that you saved his life."

"I wish I hadn't brought him out with me that day." she lost herself for a moment in the chaos of fighting for their lives on the edge of the forest.

"Yet he was the one who saved your life." Legolas traced her cheek with his long fingers. The warmth of her skin soothed him as he re-lived that tortuous day. His hand fell to her side where he reached for her hand and squeezed it gently.

"Gandalf said one of the orcs stabbed you with his sword before you finished him. Ramma went in search of help and Hasufel brought him away from Edoras. He found a group of Elves and they brought you to Lothlorien. Lady Galadriel sent for Lord Elrond, but your injuries were too severe. You passed from the world."

Legolas released her hand and once again brushed the back of the fingers on one hand lightly along her cheek, causing her to shudder at the touch. " Yet here you stand with me, alive and well."

Legolas' dark brows were drawn over his blue eyes in complete confusion. How could she be on Valinor? How had she survived? Why had Mithrandir lied to him and the others about her death?

Despite the questions he had, he was elated that she was alive.

Kaitlyn could only imagine what he must be thinking and feeling.

"I wondered and dreaded what they would tell you," she told him honestly. "They were mostly truthful to you." She gave him a sad smile.

"Most of those things happened. I was attacked by orcs and I saved Ramma. He brought back Elves and they brought me to Lorthlorien. I was severely injured but Lord Elrond healed me. I did not pass in the sense of dying. I passed by sailing from Middle Earth to Valinor with a group of Elves."

Legolas shook his head back and forth. His long straight blond hair settled about his shoulders.

"Manen an theled?" (How and why?)

"It has to do with how I came to be on Middle Earth."

The Elf's eyes grew wide. "Do you have the answers to how you came to be in Moria?" He leaned closer. His warm breath washed over her. His interest piqued.

"Yes, I do." She reached for his hand.

Legolas ran his thumb back and forth over the top of her hand as he waited for her to speak. He could not stop touching her. He was afraid if he ceased she would vanish into thin air.

"I ended up in Middle Earth by accident and yet I'd been brought there purposely."

"Ú-chenion" (I don't understand.) Kaitlyn was speaking in riddles as Gandalf often did.

"Sauron discovered or created an opening to my world. For more years than the Valar or Lady Galadriel know, he stole people from my world. Not just any people. He took women."

Legolas' dark brows lowered over his blue eyes.

"He brought them to Middle Earth and bred them to orcs to help build his great army. Human broodmares." She exhaled loudly and shook her head. " It wasn't only my world. He brought beasts and creatures from other worlds, too. By the time the Valar learned what was happening, they had no idea how to close the openings."

"Eru…" his thumb continued to move against the skin of her hand.

"They attempted to close the opening to my world, but that didn't work. So they tried to block the women Sauron pulled through. That also didn't work. The woman that was brought through before me died when they attempted to send her back."

Legolas tightened his grip on her hand. He was grateful she had made the crossing safely from her world to his. He could not fathom never knowing her.

"Instead of trying to push me back into my world, they allowed me to come through."

Her crossing had been difficult because the Valar had wrestled control of the opening from Sauron. The voice she had heard when she had been taken had been Lady Galadriel speaking an ancient language. She had worked with the Valar to change Kaitlyn's fate. She was forever grateful.

"They were able to pull me away from Sauron and to a place where I would be found."

"Moria…" Legolas whispered.

"Yes." She nodded. "It was not where they originally wanted me to go, but it worked. The Fellowship found me."

Legolas' gaze became intense. The emotions he felt were clear on his face. His love for her shone as bright as the sun. "I could not be more grateful. I knew not that day I first saw you in the darkness of Moria how much you would mean to me."

She blushed but then he felt her mood change as he watched it happen before his very eyes. Her lips turned downward into a frown.

"There is more," he realized.

Kaitlyn licked her lips, which had become dry from speaking. "The Valar's plan was to have me remain in Lothlorien while they figured out what to do with me. But then it was foreseen that I would save Aragorn."

She lowered her head. Legolas placed his fingers beneath her chin and gently lifted it so he could look into her eyes. They were full of tears. He felt his heart tighten with the pain he felt radiating from her.

"Pedo an nin, melethril." (Speak to me, beloved) He desperately wanted to know what hurt her so that he could help carry the pain for her.

"Hain ú-forse le a im talt meleth."

(They did not foresee you and I falling in love.) Tears fell from her eyes.

Legolas felt his chest tighten. The pain in her eyes was more than he could bear.

"Lady Galadriel told me when I returned to Lorthlorien, that you had a fate on Middle Earth separate from mine."

The breath caught in Legolas' throat as he suddenly understood. "They removed you to separate us."

She nodded, the tears streamed down her cheeks. Having to sail away to an unknown land and future while Legolas remained on Middle Earth had nearly destroyed her. If she had not become friends with Thunin and Elslyn or been reunited with Haldir on Valinor then she shuddered to think what would have become of her.

He pulled her to him and held her tightly. He felt anger rush through him. They had allowed her to stay to save Aragorn, but had ripped her away from a life with the Elf she had fallen in love with because it was not a part of what they had foreseen. The Valar and others had used her with no care for her life and her wants.

"This is why you are here?" His voice was firm with his anger though it was not directed at her. His normally bright blue eyes appeared dark in color, a reflection of his mood..

"Yes and no." She wiped the tears from her face with the sleeve of her tunic. He wore his emotions openly. She could see him seething with anger.

"As angry as I should be, as I once was, I have let it go."

"I am angry for you! For us!" he shouted. "We have lost so many years! Am man theled!?" (For what reason!?)

She put her hand over his heart. She could feel it beating fast and strong.

"Yes, we have lost many years. It was so that you could help rebuild Middle Earth for the future."

"We could have done that together!" his blue eyes flashed with pain and sadness.

"Maybe…maybe not. We will never know since we were never given the choice." she told him calmly.

She waited for his anger to subside. It happened gradually just as sea water receded at low tide.

"They gave me two choices. The first; that I could go home to my world."

Legolas parted his lips in surprise. "You said the Valar could not send you home."

"With Sauron defeated, they figured out a way to send me home to the correct time and place and then the opening would be closed forever. If I went, I would not remember anything about Middle Earth… or you." she added softly.

Legolas felt his chest tighten with the thought that in one future she would have never known the love they shared .

"The second choice was that I would be welcome to live out my life on Valinor. A peace offering for what Sauron did to so many of my people."

She looked deep into his eyes. "Lady Galadriel filled me with such hope when she told me I could wait here for the day you finally sailed and came to Valinor. There was the chance we would be reunited and we could make our own fate."

"That is what you chose." Legolas realized, his tone quiet and full of comprehension.

She reached into the neckline of her tunic and pulled his silver blond braid from beneath the fabric. It was frayed from all the years she had worn it and touched it.

"I told you I would wait for you… I kept my promise, " she whispered softly.

Legolas exhaled loudly. He remembered their promises to each other in Edoras and their parting in Dunharrow. He reached into his tunic for the matching brown braid of her hair. His eyes were glassy with emotion.

"I told you I would return for you."

She smiled as happy tears fell from her eyes. "And here you are."

He used his thumb to wipe the tears from her cheeks.

"There is more, meleth nin," she told him.

Legolas did not think his heart could take much more. They had both been through so much heartbreak.

"Due to the torture and loss of so many of my people the Valar granted me a gift."

"This land and cottage?" he guessed, glancing around quickly. "It is lovely."

She shook her head. Her green eyes bore into his blue ones. There was a brightness in her eyes that had nothing to do with the sun streaming in through the windows.

"They cannot make a mortal immortal. But they can extend life."

Legolas inhaled and exhaled sharply. His heart began to beat hard and fast. His posture became rigid with anticipation.

"As they did with the Númenóreans so long ago, The Valar have given me a longer lifespan. I could live to be 300 years old. Even as old as 500. It's pretty crazy to think about. I'm only 40."

The Mirkwood Elf could not believe what he was hearing. "It is a most wondrous gift.." he told her, tears clouding his eyes. She would still perish one day, but that was many years away. He now understood why she had let her anger go. She had been granted an unbelievable gift.

Kaitlyn did not tell him how she had wept for all of the women who had been sacrificed so that she could have these gifts. Sometimes she still felt guilty. She had been the lucky one.

"We have waited so long to be together," she smiled sadly "but here at last we are."

Legolas looked at her in wonderment. Then he laughed. The sound echoed joyfully in the room.

"I thought Mithrandir had sent me on a mission to bring back fish for a feast! He knew exactly what he was doing when he sent me here as soon as Gimli and I arrived."

"Gimli came with you? He's still alive?" she asked incredulously.

Legolas nodded. "He will be astonished to see you. He has become my dearest friend. He kept his promise to you and has looked after me all these years."

"I owe him a great deal of gratitude. When I asked him, I had no idea all that would happen."

Legolas nodded. "None of us knew."

"Gimli was going to visit Lady Galadriel while I came here looking for a fish merchant."

Kaitlyn laughed out loud. The sound was music to his ears.

"Well, you found her. I actually am a fish merchant. I fish and trade my catch for other supplies from the Elves."

The blond haired Elf grinned. "I am not surprised. Especially after learning you hunted for the people of Edoras."

She beamed, proud that she had made something of herself. "Yes, I was known as the Huntress, if you can imagine that. It was a much better title than 'fish merchant'.'"

He stroked her cheek with his fingers. Such happiness flooded him. He never in all his years would have imagined he would be standing on Valinor with the love of his life.

If he had known she was here, he would have sailed long ago. He understood why they had been separated, when he thought of all the good he and Gimli had done for Gondor. If Kaitlyn had stayed on Middle Earth would he and Gimli have grown as close as they had? Would they have accomplished so much? Kaitlyn would have had a normal mortal lifespan, she would have passed well before now. Here she could live hundreds of years. He was grateful and now he understood the choices that had been made.

But the war was over. Middle Earth was healing. Now, it was their time.

"We have so much to talk about. I want to hear about what you and Gimli have been doing. Some I have heard from Elves that arrived and helped in Gondor. I want to hear it from your own lips."

"I will gladly tell you. We have much more time to talk," he realized with gratefulness.

His expression turned serious. His body was full with warmth and love and something more primitive stirred within him.

"Although, I wish not to speak any longer. At least not with words."

Kaitlyn's mouth went dry at the raw love and hunger in his eyes. She had little time to contemplate his words as he pulled her to him. His arms encircled her and his fingers buried themselves into her hair as he brought their mouths together. His lips hungrily sought hers. She pressed back against his mouth and the soft moans of pleasure were nearly his undoing.

She pressed herself closer to him.

Scorching heat shot through him faster than any arrow could ever fly.

Their breathing was harsh and heavy as they discovered each other again.

There was no one in a golden hall that might stumble upon them on the steps outside. They were not in a tent on a mountain side on the eve of battle. There was no more war.

He pulled his mouth from hers and leaned his forehead against hers.

"Le melin." (I love you) He told her.

Her lips curled into a smile at the admission of love.

"Le melin" she repeated. (I love you)

"Leston na mest le… " (I wish to marry you…)" Legolas told her breathlessly. "na gwedh an le." (to bond with you )

"Ni mestathol sen calad?" (Will you marry me this day?)

Kaitlyn's eyes widened with his question.

What Legolas asked of her was binding for all time. Once they joined physically, there was no way to undo what was done.

She felt as if this was a dream. Her green eyes became glossy with happy tears.

"Aye, Le mestathon." She told him without hesitation.(I will marry you.) "Mín gar darth an farn." (We have waited so long)

"I have no ring to give you, here and now." Legolas realized sadly. He had told her many years ago of the elf custom of silver rings that married couples wore.

"You gave me a ring long ago. The ring of your hair…it's all I need."

His lips curved into a smile. He had something in mind to give her later but for now he wanted to join with her. To make her his in every way possible.

Legolas kissed her gently and lifted her easily into his arms. He walked toward the bed on the other side of her home. The home that would become their home.

There was a beautiful elven quilt made of greens and blues upon the feather mattress. Outside the window, the sea could be heard as waves crashed and its blue expanse went as far as the eye could see.

He put her down onto her feet. The back of her legs were pressed against the bed.

He reached to the ties at the base of his neck to undo them. Her fingers covered his.

"Sevin?" (May I?)

He nodded. White hot heat washed over him as her fingers fumbled to unlace the ties of his tunic. He fought to keep himself from trembling as her fingertips brushed his skin.

She had never seen him without a shirt. The men and elves of middle earth had been modest.

When the ties were unlaced, she reached for the hem of his tunic. He assisted her by lifting his arms. Together they worked to remove the soft green fabric

Her fingers brushed against his warm pale skin as the shirt was lifted over his head.

Kaitlyn nearly gasped at the sight of him. He was beautiful. His chest and arms were muscular from all the years of drawing back a bow. He had very little hair on his body. What little he had was as blond as his straight hair that spilled down his shoulders and back. Her eyes wandered lower. She licked her lips in anticipation at the slightly darker hair that formed a line from his belly button and disappeared into the waistband of his pants.

"If you continue to look at me in such a way, this will be over before it begins." His tone was low and raspy.

The lust in her eyes made him shiver in anticipation. It caused a physical reaction he had not expected. He had never been aroused before. He was not so naive that he did not know how life was created. He had never experienced it for himself. The rush of blood, the heat and desire. The feeling was overpowering. His body wanted to mate with her now, but his heart wanted to go slow and savor every moment.

Her eyes shot up to his and she flushed bright red.

His mouth found hers as he pressed himself closer to her. He wanted her to feel what she did to him.

Kaitlyn moaned at the feel of him between her legs. Of all the times they had kissed or held each other in Edoras or Dunharrow, she had never felt this way.

She realized while they had kissed and explored many times, he had never reacted in this way before.

Legolas wasn't prepared for the rush of emotion and desire he felt from her. Combined with his own feelings, it was overwhelming. He grasped her brown braid of hair that he always kept on him. For the first time in over a century he removed it and allowed it to fall to the floor with his tunic.

He reached for the hem on her tunic and he felt panic overtake her.

"Man na neitha, melethril?" (what is wrong, beloved?)

She looked down at the floor as she crossed her arms over her chest. "You are perfect and beautiful. I am covered with scars."

"You are beautiful to me just as you are. The scars you carry are testament of how brave you are."

He touched her hair and she looked up at him.

She had never looked at her scars as a way to show she had survived so many situations. They had always been ugly to her.

"Trouble yourself no more," he bid her.

She lowered her arms and placed his hand on the hem of her tunic.

He lifted it slowly and she raised her arms as he removed it. Her tunic joined his on the floor.

She turned slightly and he saw where the orc had stabbed her in the back. His fingers traced the jagged scar near her shoulder blade. Just an inch or two to the right and the foul creature would have pierced her heart from behind.

"He nearly took you from me…" he admitted softly. His voice was full of raw emotion. "For so long, I thought he had."

"I killed him," she told him with venom in her voice. She remembered it all as if it happened yesterday. Seven filthy orcs ambushed them by the forest. She had been surprised by the attack but with Ramma present she went into defense mode. She shot arrows first and killed four of them. When they came closer she used her sword until the last orc remaining stabbed her in the back. He turned his attention to Ramma. She used her dagger and finished him off. Because of the adrenaline rush she had not felt the pain of her injury until they were all dead.

"Even though his sword was in my back I couldn't let him hurt Ramma."

"You cared for him."

Kaitlyn turned to face him fully. "He was a good kid who lost so much. I felt responsible for him since I took him out riding with me."

Legolas ran his thumb along her hairline. "You sacrificed yourself to save him. He named his first born daughter after you and he cared for Hasufel until the stallion died of old age."

Kaitlyn's eyes widened in surprise at the impact she had made on Ramma's life.

"This scar should never bother you. It is proof of your skill. You killed seven orcs and saved a boy's life to earn this scar."

"I never looked at it that way before."

Legolas was no longer looking at the scar. His eyes greedily took in the sight of her. Tall, thin and muscular for a mortal; she was in the prime of her life and would be for many decades more. Her skin was pearl white where the sun never touched it and bronzed where it had. The circular braid of his blond hair rested against her breasts. He gently removed it and it fell to the floor with the braid she had given him.

His eyes roamed over her flat muscular stomach. Would it grow round with their child one day? Would they be blessed? Or were they both too old to create life?

Even if they were never blessed with creating a life, he was grateful she was in his life at all. On Middle Earth, he had felt cursed when he lost her. Now he felt as if his life had been given back to him.

His hands cupped her flesh. He marveled at how she fit perfectly into his palms.

Her head tilted back and she moaned at the contact. His warm hands were like fire on her skin. Her dark wavy hair spilled down her back.

He kissed her neck and her pulse beat heavily beneath his lips. He trailed his kisses down her skin until he reached one of her breasts.

She moaned at the feeling of his mouth on her. Her hands explored his back and she pulled him closer to her. The feel of his warm mouth on her was exquisite torture as was the feel of his arousal hard and strong against her. It was proof that he wanted her as much as she wanted him.

Her hands found their way into his silky blond hair and her thumb stroked the sensitive pointed tip of his ear.

His masculine moan of pleasure filled the air and he drove his hips against her. Her leg snaked around his to bring him closer.

He gasped breathlessly at the exquisite torture she had granted him.

She made the motion again, stroking his ear and it nearly brought him to his knees. His hands cupped her face and his mouth found hers. He kissed her hard, almost desperately.

Her hands trailed all over him. In his hair, down his back, across his chest.

He wanted to go slow their first time but there would be time for that in the future. He desired her too much to draw things out. Her chaotic motions made him realize she felt the same way.

He pulled back to bend down to undo his boots and remove them. He reached for the ties of his pants and untied them. The soft leather pooled at his feet. He stepped from them and watched the wonderment and lust in the love of his life's green eyes as saw him fully unclothed for the first time.

Her eyes took in his entire body. His narrow waist, his arousal, his muscular legs.

He was perfection.

"Le bain." She told him as she reached out and brushed her fingers down his chest. (You are beautiful.)

As her fingers trailed lower he caught her hand within his own and placed it over his chest.

She could feel his heart pounding beneath her palm.

"What's wrong?" Kaitlyn asked, puzzled why he had stopped her exploration. She suddenly felt nervous.

"Nothing is wrong. Everything is right.. I feel as if I am in a dream… " he whispered. "The beautiful woman I love more than life itself is about to become my wife. I wish to savor the moment. " his eyes roamed over her form.

One of his hands glided over the flat of her stomach and his fingers danced upon the waistband of her pants.

His eyes found hers, silently asking for permission.

She covered his hand with hers. His fingers undid the button and he helped her lower her pants. She stepped out of them. His eyes took in her unclothed form.

He kissed her and she fell back onto the bed and her hands pulled him down with her. For the first time they met completely skin to skin as he lay carefully on top of her. He was unprepared for the urgency within him to drive himself into her. It was primitive.

His mouth found hers in an effort to stall the needs of his body.

They kissed and explored; their hands and mouths everywhere.

She thrust her hips against him in invitation. He responded by rocking his hips in return.

He could wait no longer. He wanted to make her his.

He kissed her tenderly as he held himself above her. Their eyes met. Her green eyes were full of her love for him and his blue eyes were full of the same for her. He reached for one of her hands and entwined his fingers with hers.

"By my own will, I bind myself to you for all time." He told her. "Repeat it back to me, if it is what you desire. Once joined, this binding can never be broken."

She cupped his cheek with her palm. She continued to stare into his eyes.

"By my own will, l bind myself to you for all time."

He kissed her.

Then he pressed himself against her and forward. She lifted her hips up and met him. Her body accepted him as if they were made for one another. He was woefully unprepared for the feeling of being at one with her. He could feel her pleasure as it mixed with his until it became theirs.

This was music more beautiful than anything that could be sung. They were not joined solely in body, but forever in love, spirit and now marriage by the act they partook.

Instinct drove him and they moved together in a dance older than time. Their moans of pleasure echoed through the quiet house.

He would not let himself find release until she found it first. He lowered his mouth to her skin. She arched her back and cried out. He felt the waves of pleasure wash over her as she found her release.

It immediately sent him over the edge. He thrust forward, stilled for only a moment and joined her into oblivion.