Author's Note: Guys I am SO sorry this took so long to get out. I've had a lot of massive changes in my life recently, and for a while lost sight of this story, and writing in general. I think I'm starting to find my way in it again, I hope. Hopefully I'll be able to get a somewhat regular updating schedule going for this. I'm also considering posting a Marvel story sometime soonish. I haven't decided for sure yet, but I figured I'd test the waters and see if anyone was interested. :)

Anyway, I hope you enjoy this chapter. It's a bit shorter than the others, but if I didn't stop it there it would have been a rather massive chapter and would have taken me even longer to get out.

"How exactly are the two of you not freaking about getting to meet Gandalf today?" Tessa asked from under the quilt she had buried herself in. She had announced this morning that she was not coming out from underneath the quilt until either the sun went down or the wizard arrived, as the sun made her eyes and head throb even worse than normal. "Aren't you excited? I mean he's a character-"

"So are most of the dwarves," Lillian cut her off with an awkward smile. "And we're trying to think of them less as characters from a story we loved and more as actual people. It makes things a little less uncomfortable."

"The novelty has started to wear off," Sadie agreed while running a brush through her hair. She grimaced when she felt how oily her roots were. She was not remotely used to this nonsense about not bathing every day. Hell, they typically did not bathe every other day, either. And the lack of disposable razors! She refused to even think about the current state of her body hair; when she had thought about how cool it would be to live in Middle Earth as a child she had not taken these type of things into account.

"But even I know who Gandalf is." Tessa's statement was muffled and a bit hard to hear, but Sadie found herself smiling. Tessa finally seemed to have the excitement that she and Lillian had experienced during their first few days in Bree. Two weeks later, however, that excitement had diminished.

"Don't let anyone know that," Lillian warned quietly, going so far as to peel back the quilt to stare down the girl beneath it. "Even if you recognize someone or their name, you can't let them know."

"Why?" The look of childlike confusion on Tessa's face softened Lillian up a bit. Her body relaxed and the menacing tone fell from her voice.

"Dwarves are a bit paranoid when it comes to people outside of their race," she explained gently, continuing when Sadie nodded in approval. "If they found out that we know people or things we shouldn't, they'll get suspicious. I don't think they'd take it well."

"They wouldn't trust us," Tessa said thoughtfully, looking between her two friends with a frown.

"They probably would want nothing to do with us," Sadie added with a sad smile. "They certainly wouldn't take us with them."

"And we need them to do that for our plan to work." Sadie narrowed her eyes at Lillian, who realized her mistake only a second later. Tessa's head had immediately shot up and Sadie let out a defeated sigh. She had not really wanted to bring Tess into their mission, if you wanted to call it that. If they could not pull it off, it would crush her and she would blame herself, and her mental and emotional stability was fragile enough as it is. She didn't need to bear the weight of what Sadie and Lillian intended to do.

"We want to tweak some things," Sadie explained to her carefully, not wanting to give too much away. "So certain things don't end up how Tolkien wrote them."

"Like what?"

"We want to try to give a happy ending to some people that deserve it," Lillian cut in, narrowing her eyes when Tessa waited for more information. "Don't worry about specifics, you don't know the story anyway."

"If you would explain it, I could help," Tessa said hopefully. Lillian only snorted at her in amusement and shook her head.

"I doubt it. You'd probably overreact over something silly and fuck it all up."

Sadie could have smacked her for saying that. She nearly did when she saw how hurt Tessa looked. She half-expected her younger friend to lash out, but instead she fumbled out of her bed, stopping only long enough to clumsily throw her dress on over her shift and left. She was out so fast that she was still lacing her dress on the way out the door.

Sadie had only just caught the tears in her eyes as she left.

The moment the door slammed shut, Sadie turned her gaze to Lillian.

"That was completely unnecessary."

"It was a joke," Lillian defended.

"It was mean."

"Oh, come on," the shorter woman groaned. "It's not my fault she's a drama queen."

Sadie stood up abruptly, nearly toppling her stool over as she leveled the smaller woman with a cold glare. "You know that insinuating she was a screw up would hurt her, and you said it anyway."

"It was a joke," she repeated a bit desperately, only just beginning to understand the impact her words had.

"Really? Tell me then, who is laughing?" Sadie snapped as she began to pace the room. "Dammit Lil, you crushed her."

Lillian picked at her nails, unable to meet her friend's eyes. She was beginning to feel like a scolded child. "She knows I didn't mean it, not really."

"Didn't look like it to me," Sadie scoffed, causing Lillian to wince. "Of all the things you could have said-"

Her rant was cut off prematurely by a sharp knock on the door. The blond took a deep breath to compose herself before answering it. "Yes?"

"Wizard's here," Gorn grumbled, scratching at his heard and looking quite unhappy. "Thorin wants you to come to the dining room to meet with them."

"I thought we were going to meet in your room for privacy?" Lillian asked, just as confused as Sadie about the sudden change in plans. Gorn practically growled.

"Aye, we were. But the wizard brought elves," he spat before turning on his heel and stomping down the hall. Sadie and Lillian blinked at each other for a moment before broad grins spread across their faces. Elves! In Bree! They were going to get to meet elves!

It became a race to see who could get to the dining room faster. While meeting Gandalf had been an exciting idea, meeting Gandalf and getting their first glimpse at an elf was infinitely more exciting. The dwarves were actually much more pleasing to the eye than they would have ever imagined, which left Sadie and Lillian practically bursting with curiosity about the elves now

The two women nearly tripped through the doorway, still playfully shoving at each other. Only when they noticed the tense environment of the room did they settle themselves, sharing a wary look.

The dwarves do not look happy, Sadie thought to herself, becoming startled when a thought very much not her own entered her head.

No, they most certainly are not.

Her eyes widened as she scanned over the quiet gathering, having heard of only one being in Middle Earth that could speak to another through their thoughts. The small stature of the blond elleth was a bit of a letdown, she had to admit. She had expected Galadriel to be much taller and more imposing.

She is, the voice in her head tittered playfully. Though I would not underestimate Bridget. She can be quite imposing when she chooses.

Bridget? It certainly didn't sound like an elven name. It actually sounded quite-

American. She's from America.

Sadie huffed, finding that she was fast becoming irritated that someone who did not belong was in her head. The small smile on the red headed elleth's face easily gave away the culprit.

"My apologies," she spoke softly, with a lilt to her words that was not quite from Middle Earth.

"You're British!" Lillian blushed when all eyes turned to her after her outburst. The redhead's smile grew.

"Curious," was the first word that the tall, elderly appearing man spoke as he stepped away from the dark haired elf that he had been speaking with. He studied the two silent girls before turning his gaze to Tessa, who sat sulking in a corner. "They are indeed from your realm, then?" he questioned the elleths.

"The piercings gave them away," the blond elleth spoke now, stepping away from the dark elf's side to look them over more closely. When she received blank looks from the males in the room, she explained. "The metal on their faces."

Sadie fingered the small stud in her nose nervously when it became a point of attention. Boy, this was much more awkward than she had anticipated.

"But they're not elves," the dark haired elf spoke, his voice surprisingly deep for such an elegant looking creature. Just looking at him created a pang of familiarity in Sadie, like she should know who he was.

Surely this was not Lord Elrond? He seemed too young.

Close, the redhead's voice came again. That is Elladan, his son. His brother is minding the door to keep out curious ears.

"Would you please stop that," Sadie spoke aloud, stopping all of the quiet conversations that had been taking place in the room. "It makes me uncomfortable."

"What is the elf doing?" Thorin's voice was nearly as steely as his look. He, along with the other dwarves it seemed, was taking his role as a guardian of the girls quite seriously.

"Arabella, we've been over this," the blond elleth hissed. She then gave Sadie an apologetic look."She doesn't always recognize boundaries, or privacy. I apologize."

"It was not something that could be discussed out loud."

Her face remained smooth, but her eyes hardened as she stared down her companion, seeming amused when the dark haired elf, Elladan, stepped protectively in front of her. With her ahand the long, loose waves of sunrise-red hair, it was hard to believe that she was not a true elf. Not of Middle Earth anyway. Yet, she was the epitome of ethereal beauty.

"Thank you."

"I have already asked you to stop getting in my head," Sadie barked, narrowing her eyes on the willowy woman. "Now you're just being rude, and I don't appreciate it."

The dwarves, who had already been annoyed, now looked furious. Thorin and Dwalin both moved closer to Sadie, mistaking her aggravation for distress.

"Arabella," the Gray Wizard warned, casting the spritely, redheaded elleth a stern, but amused look. "I brought you here as a courtesy, you would do well to behave and not upset our hosts."

"Our hosts are already upset, Mithrandir," the lovely elleth replied with a sly smile. "The small girls unnerve them, and scare some of them," she explained, casting a lingering look at Gorn. "And they're upset that you brought us with you. My actions are hardly a drop in the proverbial bucket."

"That doesn't give you free reign to be rude," the blonde elleth cut in, narrowing her eyes. "You were raised to behave better than this Arabella, act like it."

The dainty redheaded elleth opened her mouth to retort, but was cut off by a gruff growl reverberating from the kingly dwarves chest.

"Enough," he nearly snarled. "I have no desire to see two elves," he practically spat the word, "bicker."

"Quite right," the wizard chirped before taking a puff of his pipe. "You wished for some advice, correct?"

Balin, ever the peacekeeper, nodded politely. "We were hoping you may know something of their origins. We know they're not dwarves-"

"Yes, they are too lovely for that," Arabella winked, causing the dwarves to scowl at her.

"They are too tall and slim to be halflings," the older dwarf continued, pointedly ignoring the interruption. "And too small to be of men. It was our hope that you may know of their kind, and perhaps help them find their home."

Sadie immediately felt the need to protest that they had no kind here, no home, but kept herself quiet. If she spoke and gave away that she was keeping information from the dwarves, she'd lose any trust they had built with the hardy males.

The wizard mumbled to himself as he looked them over, his eyes widening just a hint before he took another puff of his pipe, releasing the smoke slowly before speaking again.

"I must say, I have not laid eyes on one of their kind in well over an Age," he said slowly. "I had thought they'd left this realm for good."

Thorin was growing impatient. "That is all well and good, but what are they?" he demanded, his face reddening in frustration because of the wizards cryptic answers. The gray wizard, to his credit, remained calm and smiled serenely as he answered.

"My dear Master Oakenshield, they are fae."