Thanks to sofia, TieAillinAlcarion, and Iwarren for their reviews!  I loved them!  Keep up the good work! ^_^

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It turned out Erien’s father had been ill the last few days, and she had wanted to relieve her mother from watching over him in the House of Healing for awhile. She hadn’t stopped by at her house after leaving the palace and had gone straight to the House of Healing. Nor had she told anyone about her father or her reasons for leaving the palace early that day.

The girl’s appearance had been met with mixed emotions when she had returned home later that night from the House of Healing to find her house swarming with White Guards and her king worriedly waiting for her. Most were relieved at Erien’s safe return; her having encountered no mysterious, ill-looking strangers or anything else of the ilk during her walk both to and from her ailing father’s bedside. Others seemed to see this as reenforcement to their earlier skepticism as to why there had been any cause to think the girl had been in any danger in the first place. While still others remained perplexed and confused by Erien’s sudden and unforeseen return.

One from this last group of people was Legolas. Though he was overwhelmed with relief that Erien was alive and safe, he couldn’t deny that he was completely dumbfounded by how such a miracle had happened. He had seen her killer follow her down that lonely side street. He had heard the killer’s thoughts urging him to kill. How was it that she was not now lying dead in the back of some dark alley? How?!

Had his vision somehow been wrong? Had he somehow been mistaken? Or had he actually just hallucinated the whole thing?

These thoughts veritably tormented the confused and bewildered elf despite all attempts by Aragorn and Gimli to assure him he was not crazy. Despite all his friends gentle words of assurance and belief, Legolas knew they were now beginning to doubt his abilities of second-sight. As was he...

And it was in this growing shadow of confusion and doubt that Legolas sat alone in his room the morning after the night of Erien’s return, brooding in his favorite arm chair near one of the many windows lining the far side of his chambers. He had not left his rooms since returning to the palace the night before, utterly baffled and almost struck speechless with shock by the girl’s sudden appearance. Nor had he allowed anyone entrance into his rooms yet to see him.

He couldn’t stand the thought of facing Aragorn, Gimli, or anyone else right now. He knew what they thought of him now, what they thought of his abilities. He had just been so sure Erien had been in danger! But she had said she hadn’t seen anyone following her or encountered anyone else that seemed to wish her any harm. What had happened that he had been so wrong?

He hadn’t slept at all the night before despite the undescribable exhaustion that racked his entire withered body and seemed to seep down to the very marrow of his bones. All he had been able to do was restlessly lay there in bed and stare up at the ceiling as an endless storm of thoughts churned around his head until he had finally just given up on sleep and moved to his favorite arm chair near the window. At least then he could stare at something other than the ceiling of his room.

And so, there Legolas sat, swaddled in several thick blankets against the drafty chill seeping in through the nearby window and exhausted beyond all words as he blankly stared out over the sprawling, snow-covered city below with empty, bloodshot eyes, desperately trying to figure out how he had been so... wrong!

Had Erien somehow unwittingly escaped her killer? Had someone else somehow intervened just after the part where he had come out of his trance? Or had he somehow imagined everything he saw? But then how did both his visions – both the one in the palace and the one while they were trying to find her outside the palace walls– tell him she had been in danger? Had he somehow imagined seeing Erien’s attack because of left over memories from his vision in the House of Healing? But that really made no seanse... His vision of Erien had been nothing like the horror he experienced in the House of Healing. And then how had his vision of her killer stalking her through the streets been so vivid and real? Was this also part of his imagination or was there something else he still wasn’t seeing?

Ai! What’s happening to me? Legolas’ mind wailed. Am I slowly going mad?

But he was helpless to answer any such questions himself. He felt anaesthetized to the whole situation. Numb. Unable to understand or comprehend. He didn’t know what to believe or think anymore.

It was as the elven prince was sitting there by the window, lost in endless, self-questioning thought, that a soft knock suddenly sounded at his door.

Reluctantly pulling himself out of his thoughts, Legolas looked over towards the closed door to his rooms. He really didn’t want to see anyone right now. He just wanted to be left alone. He was almost considering not answering whatever worried friend had come to check in on him (probably either Aragorn or Gimli, he was sure) when another more insistent knock sounded, echoing loudly through the cavernous interior of his massive guestroom.

Sighing in resignation, Legolas slowly turned in his chair to face the closed door. “Come in,” he called, his weary voice cracking ever so slightly in exhaustion from his long, sleepless night. It wasn’t like he could hide forever anyway... If he denied his friends access any longer he would probably be facing the wrath of one less than enthused dwarf who would no doubt probably use his axe to break down the door of his room to get in if need be.

But the one he saw standing there in his doorway as the door slowly swung inwards to reveal his mysterious caller was no one Legolas ever expected to see.

It was the lady Eowyn.

The White Lady of Rohan was dressed in a loose-fitting white gown that comfortably flowed down over her now heavily pregnant stomach. Her long golden hair was meticulously pulled back away from her face in a single plait that hung down the length of her back like a thick coil of rope. But although the valiant shieldmaiden of Rohan carried herself with all the poise and pride fitting that of one of her rank and station, Legolas could detect a certain air of nervous hesitation hiding just below the surface of her otherwise calm facade.

“Hello, Legolas,” she greeted softly, her voice low and almost tentative in tone.

Legolas sat for a long moment of silence. The last time he had really seen and talked to Eowyn was when she and Faramir had brought Theomir to see him almost two months ago when he had still been in the grips of his first depression that had claimed him shortly after waking out of his coma. He had not really seen her since, or Theomir, for that matter, except when Faramir managed to sneak him away from Eowyn for a short visit from time to time. He knew she made a point of avoiding him whenever she could and only really tolerated his presence at dinner with the rest of the household out of social courtesy. He knew she was afraid of him, afraid of his strange, supernatural powers. They frightened her, especially after the incident with her missing necklace... And so, out of respect for her, he had chosen to keep his own distance, and not encroach on the lady’s space. So what was she doing here?

“Hello,” he finally greeted in turn after a noticeable pause, not quite sure what else he was expected to say.

Eowyn must have sensed Legolas’ surprise and confusion at her unexpected appearance and nervously shifted her weight from one foot to the other under the elf’s careful scrutiny. Realizing the lady was waiting for him to actually invite her inside, Legolas inclined his head towards the chair sitting opposite of his own by the window. “Would you like to sit down?” he offered, not quite sure if the lady would actually accept his offer or decline and keep her usual safe distance from him. So imagine his surprise when Eowyn nodded her head gratefully in acceptance and slowly made her way across the room to sit opposite of Legolas, waddling slightly as she moved because of her cumbersome girth.

Settling herself back in the comfortable arm chair, Eowyn nervously went about arranging the folds of her gown over her knee before finally clasping her hands together over her swollen belly and turning her eyes to stare out the nearby window, as if trying to find anything else to do except actually look at the still slightly bewildered prince sitting across from her. An uncomfortable gulf of silence formed between them, neither elf or lady seeming able to find the right words to break it.

“I– I heard about what happened yesterday... With the girl, I mean...” Eowyn finally said, breaking the tense silence of the room just as it seemed to reach almost unbearable levels. She slowly raised pale blue eyes up to meet those of the elven prince.

“Yes... I’m sure most of the palace by now has heard of the wild goose chase I led everyone on yesterday...” Legolas murmured despondently under his breath as he shifted his gaze away from Eowyn and back out over the city below. “This latest incident only proves what I’m sure most everyone is already thinking: that I am crazy and delusional. Everything I see is nothing more than hallucinations brought on because of my head injury and coma, not because of powers of second-sight...”

“How can you say that?” Eowyn questioned incredulously, “How can you say that after everything you’ve seen and experienced? The Glittering Caves, your vision with that girl in the House of Healing... my necklace... How else can you explain those things?”

“They were only hallucinations,” Legolas muttered, still staring hard out the frost covered window, “I can see that now. I know now why everyone thinks I’m crazy...”

“No one thinks you’re crazy, Legolas,” Eowyn protested softly.

Legolas slowly looked back up at the lady sitting across from him and stared at her for several long moments of tense silence. “What about you, Eowyn?” he asked softly, “Didn’t you think me crazy when you came to visit me all those months ago and I told you where your necklace was? Wasn’t that why you’ve avoided me since– because you thought I was crazy? Because you didn’t believe me when I said I could see things?”

Eowyn shamefully looked away from the elven prince. “I didn’t avoid you because I thought you crazy...” the lady replied softly with the barest hint of guilt in her timid voice, “It was not doubt or disbelief that kept me from visiting you.” She slowly looked back up at Legolas and held his gaze. “It was fear. It was fear because I did believe you. Because I did believe in your powers. After you found my necklace the way you did, I never doubted your abilities again.”

“And now...?” Legolas asked, his voice low and barely even audible to the white lady’s ears, “After my failure yesterday, what do you believe now?” he asked softly, his eyes silently imploring her answer.

Eowyn held Legolas’ eyes for several long minutes of silence before finally answering. “I still believe you,” she said. Legolas stared at her for a moment as if unable to believe her. But neither the lady’s voice nor eyes revealed any sign of lies or deceit, only honesty for the lonely and confused elf.

“Legolas, I came here today because I wanted to apologize for how I acted towards you with Theomir,” she forged on to say, holding the prince’s unsure and questioning eyes with her own pale blue gaze, “I wanted to tell you how sorry I am if I somehow hurt you because of my own irrational fears. I want you to know that I still believe you just as much now as I did before...” Eowyn then paused for a moment, as if mulling something else over in her head. “Though I cannot see how you can see yesterday’s events as a failure if you managed to save the life of that young girl...” she then said, her voice soft and low.

Legolas’ eyebrows knitted together in confusion. “What do you mean?”

“You saved that young girl’s life by having one of your visions did you not?” Eowyn questioned in a knowing tone.

“I do not see what you are trying to get at,” the elven prince replied with a small shake of his head, “I did nothing. My vision was wrong. Erien said no one tried to attack her. She was never in any danger...”

“Are you sure of that?” the lady questioned, her gaze unwavering from that of the confused elf, “What were your visions telling you when you were having them?”

“That she was in danger of being the killer’s next victim,” he replied without even a moment’s hesitation.

The White Lady nodded her head slowly . “Then I believe you when you say Erien was in danger of losing her life to this man,” she said. The elf looked ready to protest this, but Eowyn quickly cut him off. “Legolas, everything we do in life changes the world around us. Even the smallest little thing somehow effects everything else. Perhaps by seeing your vision of Erien being attacked and then alerting Aragorn to it, it might have somehow changed something in the present just enough for her to be saved in the future. Even if you cannot yet see how that happened or what you might have done to change it. I believe you, Legolas, and you should too. I believe now that you were given these powers for a reason. You cannot turn away from your destiny. You must use these powers of yours to help people– just like you used them yesterday to save this girl’s life. You should not doubt or hide from gifts given to you by the Valar. Because if you do, they will most likely just force you to accept them anyway whether you like it or not...”

Despite his previous melancholy and lingering doubt, Legolas could not help the small smile pulling at the corners of his lips from spreading out across his face at the lady’s last statement. “I thank you, Eowyn. Those are words of wisdom greater than even those of Lord Elrond,” he said, letting a small smile brighten his weary face, “Your words are of great comfort to me right now.”

The lady nodded her head, returning the prince’s smile with one of her own. Though Legolas and Eowyn had never been very close before Legolas’ accident, they could both feel a strong sense of mutual understanding begin to form between them. One originally born out of miscommunication and fear. But no more. There was no more reason for them to shy away from each other and hide. Without any other words spoken, they felt they could once again understand one another, and find strength and comfort in the knowledge that they didn’t have to face their fears alone by avoiding the other anymore.

Knowing she had fulfilled her mission for coming to visit Legolas, Eowyn awkwardly pulled herself up onto her feet, struggling slightly to do so with her protruding belly. “I must be going now,” she said, looking back down at the elven prince still sitting in his chair, “Faramir will be wondering where I went.” She then paused for a moment, softly studying Legolas’ face. “If you would like, I could bring Theomir around to see you sometime. He really likes you, you know. He always talks about how he and Faramir sometimes visit you whenever I am otherwise preoccupied...”

“You know about that?” Legolas whispered guiltily, wincing slightly at the lady’s knowledge of her husband’s and three year old son’s secret visits to him.

“I see, hear, and know more than Faramir thinks I do,” she replied with a rather smug grin. “I just never said anything because I wanted to let Faramir think he was actually getting away with something I didn’t know about... And because I trust you with Theomir though I might have never given you any reason to think that I actually did,” she then timidly added, shifting her weight slightly between her feet in embarrassment.

“I thank you, Eowyn,” the elven prince said softly, “I would love to see Theomir whenever you wish to bring him around.”

Eowyn smiled warmly and then turned as if to leave when she suddenly stopped mid-step and slowly turned back to face Legolas. She nervously meet Legolas’ gaze again and held it as though she desperately wanted to say something else but was torn by indecision to actually do so.

“What is it, Eowyn?” Legolas asked, sensing something wrong.

“Well...,” she began, but then seemed to reconsider, “No, no, it’s nothing,” she shook her head as she hastily turned back towards the door.

“No, Eowyn, please, tell me. What is it?” Legolas persisted, curious as to the lady’s sudden nervousness and odd behavior.

The lady noticeably hesitated but slowly turned back to face the elf. “It’s just that...” she struggled to explain, “I was just wondering if you could somehow use your powers to tell me what kind of baby I am going to have,” she quickly spilled out, nervously playing with the edge of her sleeve.

Legolas stared up at her in surprise, his mouth dropping open in shock. He had not been expecting this kind of request from the lady.

“I’m sorry...” she quickly apologized, seeing the elf’s reaction, “I didn’t mean to have upset you... I should have known you would be reluctant to use your powers for such a foolish thing... I’m sorry. Please forgive me... I shall go now,” she said, quickly turning to make a hasty retreat for the door. But she didn’t get that far.

“Eowyn, wait. Come back,” Legolas called after her, leaning forward in his chair, “It’s alright. Please, come back.”

Eowyn reluctantly turned back around to face him, her face flushed and turned down in embarrassment. “I’m sorry, Legolas... I shouldn’t have asked you that... I know how you must feel about your powers, especially after yesterday–”

“Just come here,” the elf ordered, motioning her to him as he scooted forward to the edge of his seat. The lady reluctantly obeyed and came to stand in front of the sitting elven prince. She looked at him inquiringly, but got no answer as Legolas slowly reached out and gently laid his hands on the shieldmaiden’s rounded belly before she even realized what he was doing. Eowyn at first jumped at Legolas’ touch, startled by the prince’s actions, but then slowly relaxed again.

For several long moments of silence they stood there like that; Legolas leaning forward in his seat and Eowyn tentatively standing there, unsure of what else to do as the elven prince sat there with his hands gently resting across her swollen belly and staring at her stomach with a fierce look of concentration on his face. Eowyn stared at Legolas, closely watching his face for any kind of reaction. Finally, after what seemed like an endless eternity of tense silence to the anxious shieldmaiden, Eowyn saw Legolas’ eyes suddenly darken to a sharp, obsidian black color, before then seeing a faint smile slowly spread out across the elf’s weary face.

Smiling softly, Legolas looked back up at Eowyn, his eyes once again bright, sapphire blue. “Faramir will be happy,” he said, his tired features brightening with a light Eowyn had not seen on Legolas’ face since first meeting Theomir all those months ago. “It’s a girl...”

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To Be Continued....

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Ok, Ok! I know this didn’t really answer any questions about Legolas’ vision with Erien, but I kinda felt Legolas needed a little break from all the endless angst I’ve been putting him through so far. And plus I didn’t want to leave a permanent rift between Legolas and Eowyn. They need a little bit of bonding time.

So did you like it? Hate it? I appreciate any and all kinds of feedback and response.

‘Till next time!