I keep telling myself I'm going to finish this story! And I swear I am! Especially now with a new laptop to write on :) Hope everyone enjoys and please R&R!

Chapter 12- Yeah, make that bleach extra strength

"Really, Nella? You've got to be kidding me!" I cried as we stood outside a pair of humongous and way too intricately decorated doors on, from what I'd gathered, was the fancy smancy wing. Carmen's door was of course the last on the hall, which stretched for days (well, not literally) and only had half a dozen doors i.e. the rooms had to be the size of a jumbo jet in there. And I just knew it was full of all types of high Elf society crap. Yes, I was beyond jealous.

Nella eyed the doors, a tinge of envy in her eyes. "It is lavish, but this is room the guards indicated. It's the only one occupied on this hall that I know of." She pointed to a tall candle holder to the side. "And that seems rather out of place, considering there are no others on this hall." That was logical. If I had trouble with these doors, it would make sense Carmen would too. And that she'd be dumb enough to put some random marker nearby to find it.

"You know, there is a huuuuge economic gap that needs to be addressed in this place, but first," I said with a wave at the door, "do we even know that Carmen's in there or that she knows where Turumin is?"

Gildor cleared his throat and grinned. "Maybe I can be of some assistance?" He rushed to the middle of the two doors, his ear pressed against it. I noticed Nella roll her eyes and say something along the lines of "pervert" under her breath. I couldn't help but chuckle a little. That's my girl!

Suddenly, the Elf's eyes went wide, like deer caught in the headlights type of wide. But he didn't say anything. I raised an eyebrow. "Update please?"

He cleared his throat again, his eyes still big. "I, uh, think we should go…"

I looked at Nella who looked at Gildor who looked like he just witnessed someone sprout another head. Or, you know, at least heard it. He signaled to Nella but I side-stepped in her way and pressed my ear to the door like he had. Silence. "I don't hear anything." I backed up and stared down the door. It had to be a good foot thick of stone, perhaps marble?

"That's because you have human ears," Gildor said in a very 'duh' voice. Hmm, he also sounded a bit… nervous? Then, he said something to Nella. In Elvish. Figures…

MOB POV

"Nella, you might want to hear this," Gildor said quickly in Elvish. "Or not. Perhaps not because it's… it's…" Without warning, he grabbed his cousin by the arm and shoved her at door, earning a very murderous scowl in the process.

Nella glared and gingerly leaned her ear against the door. "Cousin, I do not see-"

She heard a giggle. Then another followed by a low moan that was distinctly feminine. There was a masculine groan in response, accompanied by a few less than reputable Elvish words. And was that wood creaking?

Nella stifled a gasp with her hand and paled a few shades. She slowly stepped away from the door and turned to Gildor, her voice barely audible. "Is that…?"

"Yes."

"With…?"

"Most certainly."

"Doing…?"

"Oh, of that, I am sure," he replied with a cheeky grin.

"Oh, Valar," Nella cried, burying her head in her hands, "what are we going to do? What if King Thranduil finds out?" She paused and popped her head up, a fresh look of horror on her face. "What if he finds out we know?!"

Gildor glanced at Becky to see the girl staring at the two of them, looking both confused and angry. The pair had become obvious friends and now with his head on the line, literally, Gildor worried that friendship may cause Nella to spill the beans.

He shook his head furiously. "No, no, no, no," he said quickly, pulling his cousin aside. "I am not spending the next millennia trapped in a dungeon with nothing to do but stare at a wall and listen to you complain in the next cell. The king isn't going to find out anything about this," he took her by the shoulders and gave her a stern look, "because this never happened."

"But-"

Gildor got inches from her face. "This. Never. Happened," he repeated, emphasizing each word.

Nella paused, as if weighing the thought of lying to everyone, including the king, against possibly rotting away in a dungeon. "Okay," she finally replied, "this never happened. But what do we do about her?" She nodded towards Becky

Becky's POV

"So, somebody better tell me what's going on here," I said with a huff. The Elves looked at each other nervously but didn't breathe a word. "I'm serious, you guys." I stomped my foot down, although with my soft shoes and the stone flooring it didn't quite have the intimidation factor I was hoping for.

"Becky, I think perhaps this is one instance where we should leave things as they are," Nella said slowly.

Gildor nodded vigorously in agreement. "Quite right, cousin."

The pair started down the hall at a rather brisk pace. "Come along, Becky!" I heard Nella yell back at me.

I bit my tongue to hold back a comment. Something was up and I was not all for this 'let's walk away like nothing happened' deal. I'd pulled that card too many times in my life. I stared down the doors. No way would I be able to break them down. Then, I glanced at that painfully out of place candle holder.

Living with Carmen had taught me two things: the girl could get lost in a trash bag and she always kept a spare key around. I'd witnessed her lock herself out of the house or her own car countless times. Eventually, mom sat her down and explained that she was sick and tired of getting phone calls at ungodly hours of the night to come unlock her car at college three hours away. So, she taught her about hiding spare keys. Carmen hid keys, just in obvious spots. This clearly had to be one.

I quickly blew out the lit candles and gently shook on the candle holder. It weighed a good ton and a half and was a foot taller than me, so by gently I mean that I shook that sucker as hard as I could but it barely moved.

There was a 'clink' and I looked down to see a small key. "And Bingo was his name-o," I said in a serious, CSI: Miami type of way. I pretended to put on a pair of shades and silently screamed, "Yeeeeeaaaaahhhh!" under my breath. My badassery was evident.

Without time for a commercial break, I used the key to open up the door. I thought I faintly heard someone say, "Oh, crap," as I walked in.

"Ugh, it smells like Aunt Bessie's in here," I said under my breath. Aunt Bessie was a nice woman, but the majority of the family believed she was a, well, professional escort to put it nicely. For a single woman who worked part-time as a waitress she had a lot of nice things.

"Carmen, you in here?" I looked around. Lavish was an understatement. The room, from the part I could see, could devour six of my rooms easily. Everything screamed expensive, even the random pieces of clothing scattered on the floor. Hmm, where those leggings?

Suddenly, Carmen's head popped out from the giant comforter on her bed. Her hair was an absolute mess, even her dark roots were beginning to show. Odd, she never let it get that bad before. "Uh, Becky, what are you doing here?" I was expecting dragon-esque fury but instead I got genuine surprise with a dash of anxiety.

I held up her spare key. "You really need to hide your spare keys better," I said and plopped down on the fancy seat at the end of the bed. "Apparently, Turumin has gone missing and this shindig is supposed to start in like an hour!" I glanced at Carmen hugging the comforter to her chest. "Why aren't you dressed?" Carmen opened her mouth to speak but I cut her off. "Oh, and speaking of Turumin, did you know he's a prince?!" I couldn't help but blab. I was still a little miffed at Nella for not telling me and I hoped Carmen wasn't in on the secret either.

"Well, duh, he is the king's nephew, right?"

I almost sighed in relief. Good, she wasn't in on it either. "Not exactly." I smiled to myself, relishing that I would be the one to break it to her. "Turns out, Turumin and Nella have been lying this whole time."

Carmen eyed me suspiciously. "What do you mean?" she asked slowly.

I grinned. "Turumin is actually one of Thranduil's two sons. He and Legolas are identical twins!"

"WHAT?!" Carmen shrieked. I could've swore I saw part of her comforter fidget.

At that moment, Nella and Gildor appeared at the door, both a little out of breath. They looked at me, then Carmen, then each other, and back to Carmen. Well, Gildor kept his eyes on Carmen the entire time.

I noticed Nella blush deeply. "Everything okay, guys?" I asked. Nella nodded nervously and Gildor just grinned at Carmen. Seriously, what was up with these two?

Carmen cleared her throat. "You know you three are intruding into my room. I still need to get ready and everything, so if you could just leave-"

"One moment," Gildor cut her off. I thought Carmen was about to blow a gasket for a moment and I held back a chuckle. "You may not need to get at all," he continue, walking around to the bed. He sat down and it seemed like the bed said, "ow." Weird. Carmen glared at him hard but Gildor didn't seem fazed. "Seems a new hero will be joining you three at the table. A special guest of honor: Legolas."

"LEGOLAS?!" I shrieked. But then I noticed I wasn't the only one who said that. Turumin had erupted from under the covers beside Carmen, his hands around Gildor's throat.

"Joking, joking, I swear," Gildor gasped, struggling for air before Turumin released him.

And then I noticed Turumin didn't have a shirt on. Although this would be a prime oogling moment, I slowly stood up and looked at the situation. Gildor was standing beside the bed coughing while a clearly angry (and did I mention shirtless?) Turumin glared at him. Carmen held the comforter around her chest, which by the looks of it was naked too, even tighter and looked guilty as hell.

I tried to hold back a wave of nausea and Nella appeared beside me, giving me extra support as my legs wobbled under me. "W-what's going here?"

"Yeah, I would like to know too, Prince Turumin," Carmen said, turning her guilty face into a glare once more.

"Don't get mad at me," Turumin argued at her. "You were the one who wanted to do this in the first place!"

"Look, if I'd known you were a direct heir to the throne, whose father still isn't my biggest fan, maybe I would've reconsidered."

"Oh, I don't think that would've been an issue after you were begging me-"

"Okay, enough you two!" I shouted. "I'm close to puking as it is! I don't want to hear the details!"

"I do," Gildor mumbled quite audibly.

I nearly facepalmed before Nella intervened. "I know none of you are taking this very seriously," she said, being the ever present voice of reason, "but it is. If the king finds out, we're all in trouble!"

"Oh God, I'm doomed," Carmen whined and buried her face in her hands. I watched Turumin shift comfortably and pull the comforter closer to his waste. Yep, he was probably naked. But after the whole 'sexing up my sister' thing, I was anything but interested in what he was hiding.

"No one is doomed," Turumin said, sounding authoritative, "because my father will not be finding out about this, understand?"

Everyone gave a silent nod. This would be classified under one of those 'take it to the grave' secrets. Turumin briefed us on what to say, telling us to act as normal as possible. It was simple. We'd all be ready and show up at the dining hall in our finest, pretending that nothing was out of the ordinary. Carmen had been spending the week with me, although we both argued that excuse probably wouldn't fly, and Turumin was hanging out with Gildor.

But before I left the room, I noticed Carmen's birth control compact on the nightstand. Had she really not figured out I replaced the pills with pieces of sweet tart candy for the past two months as proof she wasn't really into what's-his-face? I left the room hoping there was some sort of Elf protection on the market and promising myself I'd speak to Carmen after the party, but I just couldn't shake the sinking feeling I had.

(End of Chapter 12)