Summary: What would happen if Arwen went to the Grey Havens? Where would that leave Aragorn and Eowyn's relationship? And Faramir? Aragorn/Eowyn or Eowyn/Faramir. AU

A/N: READ ME! I categorized this under Eowyn and Faramir, but I don't really know what it's going to be. I don't know if it is E/A or E/F. I just can't have three characters. However, I suspect it will be E/F. This begins in the camp of the Rohirrim in RotK. I think I will follow parts of the movie verse, but this is AU. Also, I will include the Evenstar, as much as I hate that thing.

I finished chapter one! Yay! I am working really hard on 2, and I expect it to be up in the next week. However, it's hard to tell cause school's coming up next week.

Someone To Catch My Tears

Part One: Aragorn

I woke and suddenly knew. She was gone. Everything was gone. All hope was lost. Tears streamed down my cheeks as I questioned how this could happen. I whispered her name in my misery. Gone forever.

I had been angry with my foster father before in my life. I had even been angry with him over Arwen. But I never hated him. Never.

Now I did. I despised him for ruining my life. I needed Arwen as much as he did. She was my life. Everything I did was cloaked in thoughts of her. I swore then never to return to Elrond's, whom I thought of as my father, house. Never would I see him again. I would never speak to him again, for he had stolen what I loved. It should have been her choice. But he had stolen that from her and made it for her.

I rose from the cot that I used for a bed. It was the nicest bed I had had in a long time, for I had chosen the life of a ranger, in hopes of making myself worthy of her love. I exited my tent and glanced at my surroundings. Eomer sat nigh Gamling. I saw Eowyn storming away. No, she perhaps could understand my pain of being abandoned. She knew what it was like to live her entire life for one cause, and then to be denied it ere the end. I chased after her, knowing that she could help me. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Eomer following me with his eyes. He did not trust me near his sister. He knew I loved her not, and I would break her heart. Perhaps he was wiser than I, sometimes. It was something I didn't deem possible, but perhaps it was. Eowyn turned at the sound of my footsteps. I had made no move to silence them for I wished to announce my presence without the use of words; I did not trust my voice. She smiled at me, in that wan way of hers, but I could see disappointment in her eyes. She had wanted her brother to come and apologize for something he had said. I knew this. But I also knew that she was fond of me and would not mind speaking to me.

"My lord, I did not know you were still awake," she said gently. Eowyn always spoke to me in that soft, frightened way. It saddened me to hear it. I was different from anyone else she had known, and I knew it.

"Nay, Milady, I failed to sleep. I wished to speak with you," I said hoarsely. I spoke as quietly as I could, so that perhaps she would not hear the tears behind my words.

But she did. She closed her eyes, and sighed. Maybe she knew what I felt. Maybe she knew what I needed to be understood. Maybe she thought it was something else. I don't know, but she paused, and then said, "Come, milord. You may speak to me in my tent."

I hesitated, ere following her through the tent flap. Who was there to care whether this was appropriate? I needed help, and I only trusted Eowyn enough to understand.

Eowyn gestured for me to sit down on one of the two chairs that were placed at the small table. She took the other. She raised her eyebrows and waited for me to begin. Suddenly, I felt like we were playing psychologist and patient. Never before had I been the patient, and it was an uncomfortable experience.

My eyes begged her to begin somehow, and make all of this easier on me. She lowered her gaze to the wood grain of her little table, and sighed again.

"She's gone, isn't she? Your love. You are playing with her gem, and your eyes spell your agony. I know how you feel. Love never follows through with its promises. It whispers the sweet oaths in your ear at night, in the hardest times of your life, but then, just when you are finally ready for the promises to be fulfilled, it flees like the wind, laughing in your face, just out of your reach; mocking you. You want to scream, cry, rip something to shreds, but you can't. You blame whatever you can for your misfortune and misery. Your father, your brother, whatever you have that at one time held you back, for good or bad. And you blame the person himself…herself for having left you torn and shredded as she did." The entire time she spoke, Eowyn had kept her eyes upon the rough wood, never straying. I wondered, I could not help but wondering, if her heart was as steadfast to me as her eyes were to that table.

Then I realized she had ceased to speak. I had heard every word, and knew she was right. Indeed, I found I was fiddling with the Evenstar. And, aye, I did blame Elrond for this, though I still thought that it was his fault, even more than Arwen's. But it was also true that Arwen could not have gone. She could have defied her father. She was a grown woman. She did not have to obey him if she felt strongly enough about me.

Then it came to me. The whole time that Eowyn had spoken, she had been telling me how she felt about me. I had done the same thing to her that Arwen did now to me. Well, not exactly the same, I never held her under any delusions that I felt for her the way she felt for me, but it was in general the same. She felt the same way I did.

"She left you alone when all you wanted was someone to catch your tears for you," Eowyn murmured. It was so quiet, that I wondered if perhaps I wasn't even supposed to hear it. But hear it I did. I heard the pain laced through the words. I heard the resentment. I heard the pleas. I heard the reason why Eowyn loved me. I heard the reason why I loved Arwen, at the same time as hearing the reason that Arwen never understood me. She did not need me for comfort. I never really knew why she needed me. Elves keep their grief inside and never let it out for any others to see. They hide it under their merry songs, and their songs are the one place where one might even begin to see their sorrow, if he knows where to look. Sometimes I saw it. But I was never able to do anything about it, for Elves don't take comfort like mortals. Arwen knew this, and I knew this. We understood our differences, and loved each other nonetheless. But, now I see that perhaps Arwen realized that I, a mere ranger, could never fulfill her needs, for I could not eve begin to understand them. She saw that I would never be King, and that I would die ere the end of this war. She saw that she would be left alone, and she decided instead to leave me alone.

I glanced over at Eowyn and saw that she was still staring at the table. I wondered if she had looked anywhere else this entire time. I saw her eyes flicker and knew my answer. She had been watching me.

"Eowyn?"

She glanced up in response. Like me, Eowyn did not take to using words when she did not have to, which was a rather rare occasion for her.

I paused. I did not know what I was going to say, for I didn't know what to say. She had expressed my every pain, and my every lack. She probably knew what I was thinking right now.

"I must leave, I would like to talk to you on the morn, if it would not be too much trouble for you."

She smiled me her response. I smiled mine back.

I departed from her tent, and strode quickly towards my own. I saw Eomer coming to speak with me, but I reached my tent ere he reached me. I'm not called "Strider" for nothing.

"Lord Aragorn?" Eomer called from outside. I didn't answer as I removed my tunic and boots. As I bent to unlace my boots, the Evenstar fell forth and glittered even now, without any extra light. Arwen, how I loved her. No, I decided to remove it forever, never think of her again. Perhaps I could find a new love. Someone to replace the light of the twilight. Sunshine, perhaps. Only sunshine can replace the light of twilight, for darkness would be too alike to it. Who held the light of sunshine about her? I did not know.

The next morn, I arose early, for I had failed to sleep the entire night. My headache was so great that I pondered for a moment as to whether I actually should visit Eowyn. My condition made me dizzy, and Iluvatar only knew what I might do in such a state. I felt drunk. Arwen told me once that I always embarrassed myself when I wasn't thinking clearly.

Of course, Arwen also told me that she loved me.

That decided it of course, I was going to go to Eowyn. Again, I needed someone to cure my pain, and obviously Eowyn knew how I felt.

I hesitated, recalling the words she had spoken the night before. She told me that love mocked her. It had laughed in her face; eluding her like wind. She said that she blamed everyone who had ever held her back; she said that she blamed me. She blamed me for something I could not control.

Yet, I had as much control over how I handled the situation as perhaps Arwen did. I followed my heart. Perhaps Arwen did the same. She saw things in a different light. It hurt me to hurt Eowyn, and perhaps Arwen felt the same. I felt that Eowyn could never be what I wanted her to be, and perhaps I wasn't what Arwen wanted, needed, me to be.

I groaned and rolled off of the pallet. I yanked a tunic over my head and laced it up, and then bent to pull on my boots. The night before, I hadn't bothered to put on my boots. I had gone as a hobbit would, in my bare feet.

I sighed and ceased my lacing, for thinking of hobbits had led my mind to other things. Frodo. Where was he? Was Sam with him as we thought he was? Eru I hoped so. Pippin? How did he fare? Was he still with Gandalf? How was Gandalf? I hoped that my old friend had not gotten into more mischief. Really, Gandalf and Pippin was a dangerous pair, for Pippin was rather dull-witted sometimes, and Gandalf could be more naughty than every child in Middle-Earth mixed together.

"You wished to meet with me again, milord?" Eowyn's voice drew me gently from my reverie.

I smiled at her my greetings; she returned the gesture.

"Please, milady, sit down. You are welcome here," I said.

She smiled and sat next to me on my bed. "You were thinking of her again, were you not? You were fingering it again, you still are."

I looked down at my hands, and saw that indeed I was rubbing the Evenstar between my thumb and forfinger. I smiled and said, "Nay, I was thinking of my companions. I thought naught of Arwen." I bent my neck and brought my fingers up, searching for the clasp. Eowyn moved behind me, realizing my intention, and reached to help me; I let her.

"Ah, so that is her name. 'Tis a fair name. She is not a woman," She commented as she removed the Evenstar from its place around my neck. I sighed as I took it from her, refusing to look down at it.

"Aye. She is an Elf. The fairest of all Elves yet living. She is likened to Luthien Tinuviel, notorious for her loveliness." I sigh again as I almost slip into a dream, remembering how I had called out to her, "Tinuviel, Tinuviel!" and her sweet voice rung in my ears, replying, "Why do you call me by that name?" But I wouldn't. I refused to let myself become lost in hearing her voice, if only through a memory.

I set the Evenstar on the little table beside my bed, dragging my eyes away from it. I would not look at it. That life was over. I turned back to Eowyn.

"Eowyn, you said last night…"

She blushed and interrupted me. "Heed naught what I said last night. I was tired and ill. I am sorry."

Concern and my healing instincts flared up within me, but I hushed them, and told myself that if Eowyn were truly ill, she would tell someone. It was probably due to too much stress or something. Besides, she looked well enough now. She wouldn't risk becoming ill just ere war, for she would want to be well enough to fight.

"Nay, Eowyn, what you said truly matched my heart. Only, I wished to ask: have you ever had someone to catch your tears?"

She turned away from me and said, "When they weren't busy my uncle and brother were there for me, but too often they didn't see what I saw. A snake haunted me. as he climbed the ladder towards the king's high advisor, I was powerless to fight him. My cousin, Theodred, saw more than anyone else. He saw Grima attempting to advance upon me. He even comforted me as much as he could. He taught me what he could of love, but Grima knew that he saw him. He knew what he saw, and what he did not see, what he could not see. He also knew me better than I would have liked. He knew that I would never call for the aid of a loved one, that I would never called him from his duty. He knew how far his power over me extended. So he sent Theodred away. I could not bring him back, I hardly saw him after that. Eomer also was sent away, and I was left with my uncle. Grima thrust Theoden under his sway, and I was lost. I had no one to protect me from Grima. No one to, as you asked, catch my tears."

I swallowed my anger. This was the man I had commanded Theoden to spare. I had thought myself noble and forgiving at the time, but now I saw myself as a fool who had failed a friend. Was Eowyn just a friend? A friend who was potentially more than a friend.

"Eowyn…"

She turned to me, her eyes alight with tears. I wondered if mine resembled hers. She looked so beautiful. Her hair tumbling around her face, I realized what a hurry she had been in to reach me, for she had not even bound her hair in any way. Her lip trembled at the effort to keep her tears inside. She didn't have to. I was here. I would hold her while she cried. I realized then that perhaps, just as I was wrong for Arwen, Arwen was wrong for me. I loved her, yes, and I knew she loved me. But Eowyn loved me too, and I wondered if perhaps I could love her. It would be different, certainly, from loving Arwen, for Arwen did not see the world the same way men did. She saw it through an Elf's eyes. She did not worry as much as we did about a war. To us, it was fatal, to her, it was just another skirmish that would pass someday, and scar one more tree. Eowyn knew my fears of things, for she lived them too.

Without being fully aware of what I was doing, I leaned over towards Eowyn and kissed her. She hesitated, and then gently pulled away.

"Aragorn, you know not what you do. Let this rest. You will come to peace with it soon, and things will be clearer to you then."

"Nay, Eowyn. I know what I am doing. I love Arwen, yes. I fear I always will. However, I can still give you undivided love, for the love I give to Arwen has been given, and rejected. It will always burn in a tiny part of my heart, never to be reopened. You are of the same mortality as I, and you value many of the same things. Arwen drifts, she does not value days or minutes during which things could be done. She values centuries during which things could be learned. We are of the same race, and we know what we both want. Eowyn, I ask you now, should we both survive this war, will you marry me?"

She hesitated, and I wondered which answer I wish for. I decided that I knew, I wanted to marry Eowyn, for I could be happy with her.

"Aragorn, I shall not give you a yes, or a no, for I wish for this to settle for both of us first. I shall give you an answer ere we break camp. Until then, Aragorn, think and decide if this is what you really want. I shall understand if you change your mind for many act out of desperation and pain in a situation such as this."

I nodded.

With her hands, she swept all of her long golden hair back out of her way and then rose and made to leave. Just as she was stepping out of the tent, I stopped her.

"Eowyn, both you and I can do something for each other that neither of our previous lover's could do, Theodred, because he was taken from you, and Arwen because she did not understand the pain of men. When we cry, we can catch each other's tears."