Remember How I Love You (Sequel to 'Through Fire and Water')

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Legolas' P.O.V.

The map crackles under my fingers as I smooth it out for the umpteenth time. It's a map of Mirkwood and the surrounding area, and on it there are many landforms, creatures, plants, etcetera, drawn or written in both my hand and in Ana's. One of the things we did after we were married, in the time before the children, was spend several months charting the kingdom in detail. Ana always said it would be useful one day, but I never imagined it would be like this. I'm using it to work out where she could possibly be and the dangers she could possibly have encountered, all of which I am writing down in a list on a separate piece of paper. The list is already worryingly long.

"Put the map away, Legolas" a gentle voice says in the doorway. I jump a little, startled by the sudden sound in the almost silent house. It's Nemir, stood holding two steaming mugs. She comes over, sitting opposite me and placing one of the mugs, which I can now see contains some kind of fruit tea, in my hands. "Look at that list, it's too long to be of any use to anyone, and there's no point worrying yourself more than you already are. Everything you write on that list plays out as a scenario in your head and none end well"

"Why do you say that?" I ask, although she's absolutely right. Nemir reaches into her pocket and pulls out a folded piece of paper, which she unfolds and shows to me, it's a list just like mine.

"Because none of my scenarios ended well"

There's a silence between us. Nemir fixes me with one of her steady looks, I fix her with a more hopeless one.

"Something's happened to her, Nemir" I say, my voice is barely above a whisper "There's no way she's doing this deliberately. This is her second night away from home"

"I know" Nemir says, her voice breaking "I know. I've been trying to pretend it's not true but I just can't" Tears start to fall down her cheeks now.

"She needs to be home. She needs to be right here with me, that's where she belongs"

"We must have faith, Legolas" she says, looking straight at me, having mastered and stopped the flow of tears "There's nothing we can do for her, we must trust the scouts and we must trust your father"

I can't help but smile a little at that.

"What are you smiling at?" Nemir asks.

"Nothing. It's just, I can't imagine Ana ever saying something like that"

"Like what?"

"To trust my father"

"Your father is a wise man"

I look at Nemir carefully. "You and Ana are so different, you're absolute opposites"

"We always have been. I came into her service as her maid when she was in her early twenties, although I myself was quite a few years older than her. It was my job to look after her, and believe it or not she used to be even clumsier than she was when you met her. Somehow we just clicked. Ana made messes and I cleared them up, she got into fights and arguments and I calmed her down and straightened it out"

"Thank you" I say quietly "Thank you for looking after her"

"It was my job" she says with a wistful smile "after all, she didn't always have a handsome prince to look out for her"

There's a warmth in her face when she talks about Ana, a mixture of love and a kind of pride.

"I may not have any kids of my own, Legolas" she says "but I do have Ana, and that's almost the same thing"

Aragorn's P.O.V.

"My Lord, would now be a good time to stop?" One of the men asks, pulling his horse up to ride beside mine. The sun is dipping below the horizon and soon we will lose all light. I want to keep going, to ride all night long, but we have used all the light that we can and going on the dark would just be asking for trouble. I slow my horse down, looking reluctantly at the last sliver of sun dipping below the horizon.