Hidderknerkness

Loud voices lured Legolas from his dreams and he slowly struggled to wakefulness. The voices sounded upset about something, angry, and he was curious as to what was wrong. The voices stopped just before he was fully awake and he heard the sound of a door closing as he blinked open his eyes, gazing blearily at his friends.

Aragorn was standing at a table, making what seemed to be a cup of tea, while Gimli was staring at Legolas as if he had just grown another head. Legolas frowned. “What‘s wrong?”

Aragorn and Gimli shared a look before the Man walked over to the bed, holding a steaming cup of tea. “Drink this, Legolas. It will help bring down your fever,” he said, grateful that the healer had arrived quickly. A fever could be deadly for Legolas in his condition and he wanted to ensure that it went no higher than it already was.

Legolas looked suspiciously at the tea, feeling nervous about taking any kind of medication. ‘What if-’

“It won’t harm the child,” Aragorn said, interrupting Legolas’ thoughts and thoroughly shocking the elf.

Legolas caught his breath and tried to back away from them, his gaze flitting from Gimli to Aragorn before returning to the dwarf. ‘They know! They know!’ he thought in despair, wrapping his arms protectively around his belly. He looked away, feeling close to tears. What would they think of him now? Pregnant and alone.

Gimli frowned, moving to sit on the bed, and placed his hand on Legolas’ shoulder, sensing that that was all that would be allowed at this moment. “It’s ok, Legolas. Your friends will be with you every step of the way. We’ll take care of you,” he said, giving Legolas’ shoulder a gentle squeeze.

Aragorn nodded and handed Gimli the tea, thinking that the dwarf might have better luck in convincing Legolas to drink it. Gimli just looked at it for a moment before holding it up to Legolas. “Drink,” the dwarf said softly. “That fever is doing you no good.”

Legolas sniffed and wiped at his eyes before looking back at Gimli, wordlessly taking the tea from him and swallowing the foul tasting medicine. Returning the empty mug to Gimli, he did his best to ignore the bitter taste that lingered in his mouth as he waited to see what they would do next.

Amazed at how quickly Legolas had obeyed the dwarf, Aragorn stood gaping at the two on the bed. ‘I have to fight him tooth and nail to get him to take medicine and all Gimli has to do is tell him to?’ He shook himself from his thoughts and asked a question that had been plaguing him since he had discovered Legolas’ secret. “Legolas, who’s the father?”

Legolas just shook his head, glancing quickly at Gimli before turning his gaze towards his blankets.

“Legolas,” Gimli soothed, moving closer and wrapping his arm around Legolas’ waist. “Please tell us so we can go hunt him down for abandoning you!”

Legolas snapped his head up and stared hard at the dwarf. “What? No!” he shouted, shaking his head and pushing himself away from Gimli. “He would never have- He’s not like- He doesn’t know!”

Aragorn sighed at Legolas’ broken denial. “What do you mean he doesn’t know?” he asked, wondering why Legolas would keep this knowledge from the child’s sire.

Legolas sighed, thinking back to that night. “We were drunk, Aragorn. Hobabobably doesn’t even remember that night.”

Gimli frowned. “How is it that you remember and he doesn’t?” he asked, wondering who the idiot was that had forgotten a night spent with the beautiful elf.

“I don’t either, Gimli,” Legolas answered, feeling a bit calmer now that he didn’t feel as sick as he had a moment ago. “I woke up naked and sore in his bed. I panicked and left before he woke.”

As Gimli listened to Legolas, his memory stirred a bit, finding something slightly familiar in what Legolas said. But no matter how hard he tried, he just could place it and he shook his head, pushing the thought to the back of his mind.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Arwen sighed and sat down her book; it was hard to concentrate on a silly romance novel while she was so concerned about Legolas. Standing from the couch, she crossed her room to stand next to the large window.

She thought hard, trying to figure out who might be Legolas’ stalker. He hadn’t had much contact with anyone since the war ended; just gardeners, mostly. ‘One of them?’ she wondered, before shaking her head. ‘No. Alric has just gotten married and Dreogan has been with his wife for thirty years. No, it’s not one of them.’

She tried to remember every moment within the recent past where Legolas was mentioned, but could only recall him being mentioned in passing. Except at the party a few months ago; there were a few men there who had made some rather rude comments about him. She narrowed her eyes, suddenly remembering something else that had happened at the party.

She had seen a man, clad in a dark cloak, speaking with Legolas. By the looks of things, the man had been trying to lure her very drunk friend away from the party, steering him away from the crowd by wrapping an arm around Legolas’ waist.

She had been about to ask Aragorn to interfere when she noticed Gimli staggering up to them and practically ripping Legolas from the stranger’s arms. She had allowed her attention to return to her conversation with her father, confident that Gimli would take care of Legolas, and had thought no more of the incident.

Until now.

She gasped and raced out of the room and towards the guest hall, knowing that she had found the stalker. Now all she needed was Legolas and Gimli’s help to identify him.