Caught (a legolas fanfiction)

Broken

A/N: Dramatic Elrohir angst this chapter! And Glorfindel comes in (YAY). And Thranduil and co. should be arriving any minute now!

Chapter 16

Legolas looked at the door that had just shut with haunted eyes. Elrond sighed, and he took the pale cheek in his hand and stroked it with the pad of his thumb. The eyes turned to him, so empty that it cut his heart like a knife.

"Legolas, I am going to give you some tea," Elrond said. Maybe explaining exactly what he was going to do would help the young elf accept it more easily. "It's going to put you to sleep, but it will make it so you don't feel any pain for a while. Is that okay with you?"

Legolas's eyes stayed the same. There was no reaction at all.

"Legolas? Please respond, penneth. I don't want to make you uncomfortable."

Please, Elrond, let your hand slip. Grab the wrong herb. Make a mistake. Choose a poison instead of a healer so that I can leave this world forever, Legolas thought, and he looked up at the elf-lord, praying he would understand.

"Please, Legolas, nod if you are alright with it. I don't want to hurt you."

Elrond smiled as the prince gave a barely noticeable nod, and he lifted his hand from his cheek.

"Good. Thank you, tithen-pen. I'll go make it now."

Legolas watched with disinterested eyes as Elrond brewed his tea. Soon, a pleasant aroma filled the room, and Elrond reappeared, holding a mug.

"Drink this, Legolas," he said, and he reached behind the other elf, who leaned on his hand heavily as he held him in an upright position. The prince's lips were drawn tight with pain as Elrond lifted the cup to them and gently poured the warm contents down the throat of the elf, who suddenly felt excruciatingly thirsty.

"You didn't have any food or water while you were there, did you, Legolas?" Elrond said with a sigh as he saw how eagerly the young elf drank the mixture. No wonder his condition was so extreme.

Legolas's eyes fluttered closed and he fell into a dreamless sleep.

Elrond paused for a moment, checking to make sure that Legolas was fully asleep, before bending down to pick up the knife from where Elrohir had dropped it. He began cutting off the tunic, working in heavy silence.

There was a knock at the door, and, not even waiting for permission to enter, a tall, blonde figure with a commanding aura stepped into the room.

"Glorfindel," Elrond greeted, not looking up. The balrog-slayer's eyes widened, and came forward to let his hand rest on Legolas's hair protectively as he stepped forward in surprise.

"What has happened, Elrond?" Glorfindel said, looking at the battered soul before him. "What has been done to him?"

Elrond sighed. "I don't know much myself. Elrohir rode in today, and he had stopped breathing. I managed to save him in time, but I still don't know if he will make it. He's fading, Glorfindel," he said, looking up gravely.

"I don't think there is much we can do other than heal his wounds and hope for the best."

"That may be so," Glorfindel replied, eyes saddening as he looked upon the younger elf.

"I assume that Elladan will be coming home soon as well, probably with some guests, Thranduil and Estel among them. Maybe we will learn more when they arrive," Elrond said.

"And where is Elrohir?" Glorfindel asked.

Elrond sighed. "When he got the knife to cut off Legolas's tunic so we could look at his wounds, Legolas thought that Elrohir was going to hurt him with it. It broke Elrohir's heart to see him so fragile. He left."

Glorfindel nodded. He looked to where Elrond was still trying to remove the tunic from Legolas's shoulder, which it was attached to by dried blood. He winced.

He looked at Legolas's other wounds. There was the one on his shoulder, a fairly deep stab wound on his stomach, and a messy array of cuts in crisscross shapes across his stomach.

"Heat some water, please, Glorfindel," Elrond said, but there was no reply from the elf-lord. His eyes were seemingly transfixed on the wounds of the prince, and his face grew paler and paler and paler.

"Glorfindel!" Elrond exclaimed, and he caught the other elf as he fell to his knees. "Glorfindel, what ails you?"

The other elf did not reply, he just tried to control his breathing.

"I'm sorry, I don't know what came over me. I'm all right," he said after a few moments.

Elrond sighed, knowing that he wouldn't get anything more from Glorfindel. He went to the fireplace which stood on the opposite side of the room. He placed some cloths in the water that he had boiled to use for the tea, and set to work cleaning the wounds. Legolas flinched every time he probed the wounds, but it had to be done.

Glorfindel helped in silence. He brought new cloths when Elrond needed them and brought the herbs that the healer wanted, and no words passed between them other than the occasional request for a particular item.

After he had stitched the deepest wounds on the front of his patients and bandaged them, Elrond decided it was time to turn him onto his back.

"There's more?" Glorfindel said in astonishment when Elrond stated it was time to check the wounds on his back. Elrond only nodded, and together they turned the prince so that he was lying on his stomach.

It was much easier to remove the tattered pieces of Legolas's tunic than it had been before, so they were quickly done. Elrond picked a salve off of one of the shelves and began to apply it to the whip marks on Legolas's back, and Glorfindel ran his fingers through the dull hair that was splayed across the pillow.

Elrond's brows creased as he worked, and Glorfindel knew it wasn't from effort or worry for his patient.

"Go, Elrond," he said, suddenly breaking the heavy silence that had settled in the room. Elrond looked up in surprise.

"I know that you worry for Elrohir. Go to him. I am perfectly capable of putting some bandages on," Glorfindel said, giving the other elf a knowing elf. Elrond was about to protest, but Glorfindel stood and gave him a little shove in the direction of the door.

"Go, Elrond."

"But I can't leave Legolas—"

"Just go, Elrond. Please, mellon-nin, this isn't just for you. I need some time to think about my feelings, too, and I can't do it in front of other people, not even you," Glorfindel admitted, putting his head down in shame. Finally Elrond nodded in acceptance, cursing himself as he left. How had he not seen that Glorfindel needed to be alone after such a revelation about what had happened to Legolas? Now he had made his friend uncomfortable.

He arrived at Elrohir's door, and he knocked on it quietly.

"Elrohir?" he said, pushing the door open without waiting for permission. He saw his son's still form on the bed, and he rushed over in concern. He breathed a sigh of relief when he realized that his younger son was only sleeping. Elrohir's grey eyes were glazed over and half-lidded. There were tear-tracks on the fair face, and he had obviously cried himself to sleep.

Elrond sat on the edge of the bed, running his hand over his son's dark hair. After a few minutes, the eyes focused, and Elrond smiled down at Elrohir.

"Ada?" he said, and Elrond noticed the beginning of tears in his eyes. "What's wrong? Has something happened to Legolas?"

"Nay, ion-nin. He is with Glorfindel. I merely wanted to come and see if you were alright," Elrond said.

"I am, Ada," Elrohir said quietly. "I was just hurt by the way Legolas was scared of me, but I know it's not his fault."

"That is true. None of this is his fault, and it is our job to help him overcome it."

"Why has this happened to him, Ada? I have seen him injured, tortured, half-dead, but I've never seen him so...broken." A single tear began to make its way down Elrohir's cheek, and Elrond had begun to reach to wipe it away when a loud voice echoed through the halls of his home.

"ELROND! COME, QUICKLY!"

A/N: Another cliffie! MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!