Chapter 5

"I thought you were just a dream," his voice whispered into her ear.

"Haldir," Rhiannan mumbled as she curled herself into his arms, "why are your eyes closed?"

The elf looked down at the young woman and gave a great sigh, "Have I not died?"

She frowned, "What do you mean?"

"I had gone with the elves to help defend Helm's Deep. I had been struck down…"

Rhiannan's eyes widened, "What? No! No-no-no-no! Danielle saved you, she… No! You cannot be dead! You were asleep in the bed with me, you are alive, and you just won't wake up!"

Haldir sat up and looked at her carefully. It was now Rhiannan realized she was dreaming. Lights swirled around them like water floating in the air, everything shimmered; even Haldir's skin shimmered in the light, "I do not understand my love," he touched her distraught face.

"But you remember me?"

"The vision of you has clouded my dreams for so long," he whispered ever so gently. "I feel as if I have known you for an eternity."

Rhiannan frowned and snuggled into him, "I just wish I knew how to wake you up. You are alive, your heart is strong, but I don't know how to wake you."

Haldir slowly turned her and cupped her face gently in his hands, "It will come to you. There is no way I can think of, the place I went through before…now…was dark and I floating. I hope… You will find a way," he leaned forward and their lips just about touched—

Rhiannan's eyes snapped open back into reality. She looked over to see the elf still sleeping soundly next to her. The young woman huffed and stood up from the bed. For a long moment she stood and glared at the elf that was lying with his eyes closed on the bed. This wasn't right. When elves slept they had their eyes opened. It was always very odd and Rhiannan didn't like it.

"Wake up!" she suddenly snapped. There wasn't even a breath out of rhythm from him. Slowly she perched up on the bed and started bouncing. His body bounced along evenly and the elf still didn't stir. Rhiannan quickly dashed out of the room and was back in an instant, two metal pots in hand. Then she began to dance around, banging them, and singing at the top of her lungs, "Good morning! GOOD MORNING! The sun is shining bright and early! Good morning, GOOD MORNING! TO YOU!"

In less then a moment of Rhiannan starting her charade she had an audience. Aragorn and Legolas were standing in the doorway watching her madness, "Why does this make me cringe?" Aragorn asked Legolas.

"I have this faint memory of running away from this voice," Legolas answered with a very serious note. "Perhaps there is something Rhiannan did in the other life she speaks of?"

"YOU!" Rhiannan suddenly screeched while turning to the two standing in the doorway, "GET ME NOISY THINGS! Wake the hobbits! We must all make noises! Haldir must wake up!"

Danielle's eyes popped open at the sound of her best friend yelling. It was odd that the pot clanging hadn't woken her. Though it had woken Boromir who didn't move not wishing to wake the young woman in his arms, "She's lost it," Danielle groaned while turning into Boromir. "Rhiannan has finally lost it."

"RUN!" they heard Aragorn call before the noise of them running down the stairs in a hurry.

Danielle was on her feet in and instant and ran into the hallway, colliding with Rhiannan and the pots. The two girls laid sprawled out on the floor in a daze. Boromir's head popped out of the bedroom door and looked down at the two girls, "Good morning?"

"Rhiannan?" Danielle sighed.

"Hm?" The girl was now frowning at the ceiling.

"If the clanging of the pots and the yelling you're doing isn't working then perhaps you should try something else," Danielle told her. "Perhaps something that would wake him up back in the day? I don't wanna know what it is but… Some people are trying to sleep. I'll be surprised if the hobbits aren't awake."

Rhiannan grumbled and pushed Danielle off of her before getting onto her feet and back into the room. Boromir slowly helped Danielle back to her feet, "Is this a normal occurrence in the morning hours with her?" he asked gently.

Danielle looked up at the Gondorian, her face flushed slightly and shrugged, "Every morning with Rhiannan is certainly an adventure."

Back in Rhiannan's room she was now sitting on the bed with her legs crossed in front of her staring at Haldir. With the exception of his chest rising up and down he hadn't moved. Not even a tiny twitch of the pinky or shutter of his eyelids. Rhiannan scrunched her face and pouted, "There has to be a way, give me a sign, please?"

The girl twitched, Haldir's lips had moved, "Moving your lips was the sign?" they moved again. Rhiannan groaned, "It's seriously that simple? Why didn't you give me the sign yesterday?! AH!"

In a swift movement Rhiannan pressed her lips against the elves' and before she could think arms were instantly wrapped around her. Rhiannan gave a squeal of excitement and pulled from the kiss, "HALDIR! Your awake!"

"I must say though, my love," he sat up with her in his arms. "That show you gave me before figuring it out was very entertaining."

"You saw me?!" she squeaked.

"More or less. I was having an out of body experience," Haldir simply explained. "It wasn't until you said to give you a sign that I honestly couldn't do anything. I don't know how to explain it but that is just how it is."

"Evil Valor," Rhiannan groaned before the two lay back down on the bed and began to talk of things. To Rhiannan's surprise Haldir remembered everything. He also knew what his life would have been like if the girl's had never been there. Rhiannan in turn explained what had happened after Danielle and she came back to Earth. After a while the two just stayed there in the other's arms.

Danielle stirred a pot of oatmeal slowly while she watched the hobbits fidget about, "Aragorn?" she spoke gently. Aragorn was leaning his back on the kitchen counter, Gandalf standing right next to him. "Have you talked to Gandalf about his theory yet?"

"We spoke about it last night before we retired," Aragorn nodded. "I assume you have an idea on it?"

"Something about traveling into the snowy woods," Danielle commented. "Not exactly that excited about it."

"Yes I agree," Aragorn grunted. "I am not quite accustomed to this cold and I do not think the hobbits will do very well in it."

Danielle gave a resigned sigh, "We'll leave either on the twenty-fifth or the twenty-sixth. We all need rest before we venture out again. Gandalf?"

"Yes my dear?" Gandalf glanced over at her, his pipe in his mouth. It seemed he had been in deep thought. Danielle was now putting oatmeal into separate bowls before Gimli took them over to the hobbits.

"How… Will the Nazgul be able to track Frodo…us eventually? What about his Fell-beast?" she asked gently.

The white wizard put on a thoughtful expression, "It is a question I've been wondering myself. The only solution I've found is the beast is terribly confused when we traveled here. Like us, it is not accustomed to these strange machines. For our sake I do hope Sauron does not find his way to this place."

"He can do that?" Danielle nearly choked out. "How?"

"A door has been opened," Gandalf told her. "Until the ring is back to Middle-earth it will remain open."

"That is how the Uruk-hai gained access then?"

"It is a theory," his eyes were watching Danielle carefully. "It makes one wonder. In the world you knew," Gandalf's eyes shifted to where Boromir was eating his breakfast, "you…well not you but Rhiannan stopped an event that some believe is crucial. From what I understand you two altered a few different events. Not by much but enough. Both of you, in the end, brought forth lives that were originally never meant to exist."

"How do you remember?"

Gandalf chuckled, "Like I've said, I do not age, I do not change. I was made as you see now. Every event I have ever been through I remember. Every alternate reality I can almost recall."

"How do you not know how things end then?" Danielle leaned against the counter and looked over at him.

"As simple as one can't remember the end of their favorite book after a long period of time. One must re-read it, but it is not worth it to just read the end. They must start over. As they read they remember things that are tiny but just as significant as any other event," there was a twinkle in his eyes as he told her this.

"You are so weird, but it makes sense," she groaned. "I will go get Rhiannan. I think we all need to sit down and talk."

Danielle began to make her way upstairs but stopped at the top when a hand caught her arm. Her eyes turned to see Boromir standing behind her and she smiled, "I…"

"A loss of words my lord?" she teased in a soft voice.

Boromir moved them away from the stairs into the hallway, "Last night I…"

"All we did was sleep," she giggled. "You act as if it was more then just that."

He chuckled nervously and rubbed the back of his neck, "I know I just… I never thought just sleeping with you in my arms would… I do not know what to say."

The young woman leaned up and kissed him quickly, "Then you don't have to say anything."

With a smile she turned and walked into the room where Rhiannan and Haldir were. As soon as she opened the door the young woman froze, "OH! EW! GET A ROOM!" Danielle suddenly barked.

It wasn't that bad really. Danielle just had walked when the two were in the middle of a kiss, "I am in a room!" Rhiannan yelled back.

Haldir chuckled, "Anything we can help you with Danielle?" he looked very content and…well just the way Danielle had last seen him so long ago.

"We are sort of calling a meeting," Danielle told them. "If you two would be so kind as to come downstairs? You know soon…and fully clothed? I'm sure Legolas and Aragorn would appreciate to know that you have come back to consciousness, Haldir… And I won't even ask how you know me."

"The elf is awake?" Boromir asked as soon as Danielle closed the door again. He had been waiting patiently for her.

"Yep," Danielle sighed, "it would appear so. Well let us begin this meeting. They'll be down to join us soon."

"When you said, last night, that Rhiannan was married to him in a different life," Boromir commented. "Is this the life where we were married?"

"Yes, it is."

Boromir smirked, "The more you have told me the more I prefer that version. It seems happier then the dark journey that we had been traveling. If there was a way I could remember."

Danielle took his hand into hers, "Perhaps in time. Somehow Haldir remembers. I'm not sure how."

The Gondorian nodded and the two headed downstairs into the living room where the rest of the Fellowship were waiting. Not long after did Rhiannan and Haldir join them. The hobbits had taken one couch, along with Gimli, Gandalf sat in the recliner, Legolas, Haldir, and Rhiannan sat on the second couch and the other three: Boromir, Danielle, and Aragorn were standing, "As all of you know," Aragorn began, "we have landed ourselves in quite a predicament. It is…difficult to explain. The Valor…perhaps even something we do not have a name for…has decided it best we land here. There is no reasoning except that in a different reality we have a pull to these two young women. Our next move, the one we've found to be the smartest, is to find a way back to our own world. Gandalf believes he may know where it is."

"What if it isn't what we think?" Frodo asked.

Rhiannan's head turned towards the hobbit and then looked to Gandalf who seemed to be very deep thought. It made her want to start throwing things at him. Ten points if I knock the pipe out of his hands, twenty if I tweak his nose, she smiled menacingly.

Danielle watched her friend carefully before looking when Gandalf did speak, "There are no guarantees…but if Danielle and Rhiannan are willing to join us until we are safely transported back to our time then we will have two extra fighters at our side."

"I will not put them in danger," Aragorn spoke too quickly.

"Nor will I," Boromir nodded.

"I think they can handle it," Haldir shrugged.

Legolas looked over at the other elf before looking to Gimli who spoke next, "Is it wise to involve them though?"

"They have helped us this far," Merry told them. "There is no reason to not trust them.

Gandalf was now on his feet pacing, "I'm still concerned if the Fell-beast finds us, if the Nazgul somehow gets through the confusion of this world and finds us here. To stay in one location is not safe, but it is also not wise to be wandering in unfamiliar territory. This world will be just as dangerous as our own."

"We will stay at least one more night," Aragorn confirmed as he turned look out the window. "The clouds are dark and I fear a blizzard."

Danielle's eyes snapped up at a thought and she looked at Gandalf, "What about Saruman?"

Gandalf looked to the girl as quickly as she had looked to him, "I had not considered," the wizard turned, concern written clearly in his eyes. "I must think on this."

"Danielle, what do you mean?"

"If a Nazgul and his Fell-beast can somehow arrive in our world, and Uruk-hai," Danielle explained, "what's stopping a being of more power?"

The color from Rhiannan's face completely drained, "I hadn't thought…" her head jerked to the dark sky. "Maybe it's just a normal storm?"

"Maybe we better take watches tonight," Boromir told them. "We need to be quite sure these things."

Note: And the plot thickens! Sort of… Poor Rhiannan and Danielle. They have to go through protecting Frodo and the ring…all over again! Bum bum bum! And also thanks to my reviewers: Doll-Fin-Chick, iHedge, Song in the woods, and Thranduils. Heart. And. Soul. Here's your update and of course review!