The old ways

"Now, now." Gimli pulled his hands away reluctantly. "So Haldir came to you did he?"

"Yes, he did. He had not taken the whole way to Lothlorien when he met another messenger coming from Mirkwood on his way to Lorien. He gave him Gandalf's message and turned around back to Rivendell. It had not been five days since the spells had been cast and I was hardly able to get out of bed and into the bathing chambers. When I woke up on the sixth morning and I needed to relieve myself, I stumbled rather helplessly in direction of the bathing chamber and half way to it I felt such a searing pain that I collapsed on the floor. But before I could hit the ground strong arms caught me and when I looked up to thank whoever had just helped me I met Haldir's gaze full of love and worry on me. "So, you actually did it, did you?" He smiled at me and picked me up to carry me to the bathroom.

I was numb with shock and feared his coming rage. But it never happened. Instead he held me tightly whispering words of love into my ear and kissed me.

Later he told me, how he found the book and how he had watched me. When he saw me together with Elrond and Gandalf and when later they wanted to send him away he knew what I was about to do. Guessing that I wanted to surprise him and being absolutely thrilled with my crazy idea, he never said anything. On his way to Lorien though, he be woe worried and was only to happy to give over the message. Had I not collapsed he would have carried on pretending not to know anything, but he couldn't now that he saw how miserably I felt and he wanted to comfort me and tell me how happy he was. So, he was there the rest of the way. To our luck everything went asnnednned. About one year later Elrond confirmed succsuccessful growth of the needed organs and gave the Lorien alchemist and heafurtfurther instructions. They practically filled me up to the brim with awful herbal concoctions and potions. One more distasteful as the other. Through it all I felt sick and weak, but Haldir always managed to brighten my mood. But it was also the time of much happiness and plans. We started drawing design for the third room in our talan as well as for the spare room we had in Mirkwood. What the crib was going to look like, design for the walls, pattern for curtains and so on. It was then that Elrond came to talk to us about the last step in the process and the change of getting pregnant later on.

The last step was actually more a check if everything was working as it should be. And hence it was a very private, intimate matter, Haldir would have to perform it. As he described it to us, I was absolutely shocked and didn't want to go through it. Elrond smirked a little and told me that I might even enjoy it. I was beside myself."

"Hey, what could be so bad, if Haldir was doing it to you." Gimli looked quizzically.

"I am not going to describe it to you, son of Gloin? Just know this, it was VERY private, painful and yes in the end I did enjoy it. Actually after that Haldir persuaded me after some time again that he needed to check me, and another time he persuaded me to check him."

"Well, then it couldn't have been that bad, right?"

"No, it wasn't. Anyway, Elrond told us if everything was going as planned, it was only a matter of time until I got pregnant. He couldn't tell us when, it was going to be a little bit like a surprise. For the next children afterwards, should we consider to have more, I could, with a little bit of meditation and with the help of some other herbal concoction, plan as when to become pregnant.

"Well, it was a surprise, wasn't it. But why didn't you get pregnant before?"

"After everything went as planned, we fought more and more often. And after a while we were both so annoyed with each other and the mistrust ran so deep, that I eventually went away. Over the many years I pushed the matter of pregnancy far from my mind and in the end I think I actually forgot about it.

When we were in Lorien and I met Haldir again I never thought about it. And after not becoming pregnant when I still was with Haldir so many centuries ago, I wouldn't have thought about it anyway."

Gimli looked thoughtful "I still think it is a wonderful thing to happen. No matter if the time is not the best. I will look after you and we will get through this alive. But we will have to think of something soon to hide your growing waist.

When we reach Edoras again, I will try to find a small piece of chain mail which we could use to tie across your belly with a soft cloth. First it will give you a little more of extra protection and with the cloth you could flatten your belly a bit, should the need arise. But hopefully it wont come to that."

Legolas looked at the dwarf doubtfully but said nothing.