Caught (a legolas fanfiction)

Healing and laughter

Chapter 21

Legolas remained in his father's arms for a few long minutes, after which tears began to run down his face.

"Ada..." he began to feel, in his heart, the need for contact and love from those around him that he hadn't felt since he was an elfling. His mother's death had made him secluded and independent, and he now realized how wonderful it was to have people to depend on, and not to be alone. The feeling grew, and with it, so did the volume of his sobs. "Ada..."

He clutched at his father's robes with so much pleading and desperation that Thranduil was taken aback. Though he had been the light in Mirkwood through dark times, Legolas had never regained the ability to trust people the way he had when he was very young and innocent. He had lost the ability to connect with others, even those he trusted like his father, and he had felt the need to stand completely alone without the help of those around him, as if it would shield him from more pain.

"It's alright, Legolas, shhhhhh..." Thranduil said into his son's hair as he held him close. Tears began to run down his own cheeks when he realized the truth. "I am here with you, ion-nin. Everything's going to be alright."

His son was finally, after two and a half millennia, on the road to truly healing. The thought made him so happy, he could barely contain it. He looked up.

Thank you, melleth-nin, he thought. He could practically see his wife smiling down at him from the heavens. You have saved our little Greenleaf once again.

Legolas suddenly felt the need to connect with everyone else as well, and he kept one hand firmly in his father's robes even as he reached for the rest of the people in the room.

Gimli was the first to respond. He jumped ecstatically onto the bed in all of his little bundle of dwarvish joy and into Legolas's awaiting arms. Careful to avoid the elf's injuries, he patted his uninjured shoulder and muttered a few things in dwarvish before whispering rather loudly in Legolas's ear.

"Bless you, laddie, I really thought we'd lost you for a moment there...Don't ever do that again, okay?"

He moved a little to the side so that Aragorn could have a turn hugging the prince.

"Legolas...Legolas, Legolas, Legolas, Legolas, Legolas..." he mumbled. He bit his lip in an attempt to hold back his tears.

Elladan and Elrohir came and hugged him at the same time. Elrohir was sobbing openly, and Elladan was trying to stop the tears running silently down his cheeks. Elrond merely took Legolas's hand, gave it a small squeeze, and stepped away.

Glorfindel came last. He took Legolas in his arms and held him there.

"The only one," he said as he drew back. "You are the only one I've ever seen survive this. You continue to astound me, elfling."

Legolas was about to retort when Elrond cut in.

"Legolas, when was the last time you ate?" he asked. Legolas shivered unconsciously as he tried to count the days. He had been too excited about arriving home to eat on the day it had all begun. Then there was the first day, then the day of the little crisscrossing cuts, the day of the—he shuddered—reliving, and the day of his rescue.

"Uh...five, I think. Maybe," he said, voice rough from lack of use. His face, which had grown paler and paler throughout the ordeal, turned to the color of the white sheets below him. He closed his eyes in exhaustion. "I'm not really hungry though."

"Legolas, you still need to stay awake," Elrond said. "You need to eat, then you can sleep."

Legolas nodded, opening his eyes, which were suddenly clouded with exhaustion.

"Okay," he whispered, looking up. Thranduil got up. Legolas's weak fingers were torn from his robes, and suddenly a black, hazy panic came over Legolas's mind.

'Ada Ada Ada please don't leave me Ada please stay...' he thought. He reached up with his hand, grasping at the empty air. He couldn't see very far, and beyond a foot in front of him was a black haze. Tears formed in his eyes. He needed his Ada! Where was he going?

"Ada..." he croaked through chapped lips. "Ada, please don't go."

A hand clasped around his, and suddenly his vision cleared and he could see his Ada in front of him, kneeling by the bedside.

"Ada..." he said, relief flooding his face. He grabbed his father's robes tightly. "Don't leave me..."

"Alright, Legolas," Elrond said. "Glorfindel and I will get the food. Your Ada will stay here with you."

Legolas's lips curved up in a small, grateful smile as he heard the words of the elven lord. The small movement of his lips lit up the hearts of everyone in the room, and they were all beaming at him within a few seconds.

"One more thing," he said. "I...Can I go..."

"Outside?" Elrond predicted. He sighed as Legolas nodded vigorously with pleading eyes. "Maybe. How are your wounds?"

"I'm fine," Legolas stated.

"Coming from you, that doesn't comfort me at all," Elrond said. Aragorn let out a poorly hidden chuckle, and soon he and the rest of the occupants of the room were laughing merrily, even Legolas let out a small laugh before putting a hand over the stab wound and squeezing his eyes shut in pain. He couldn't ruin this moment for his friends.

"Legolas? Are you alright, mellon-nin?" he heard Aragorn's voice say, and he tried to ignore the burning pain. He couldn't help the little gasp that escaped him as he replied.

"Ah...yes..." he said. "I'm fine, Estel..."

"I don't believe you," Aragorn said, approaching Legolas, who opened his bleary eyes.

"It will be very painful to laugh for a long time," Aragorn said. "The stab wound is in one of your abdominal muscles, and they are used when you laugh."

"Should we banish the twins?" Legolas said with a smirk. "They're bound to do something stupid at some point that will make me laugh."

"Stupid?" Elladan and Elrohir said at the same time.

"We don't—" Elladan began.

"Do stupid things—" Elrohir continued.

"Only funny pranks—"

"That make Glorfindel—"

"Want to kill us!"

Legolas was struggling not to laugh.

"I think you're right, Legolas," Glorfindel said as he exited the room with Elrond. "We should banish them." He closed the door behind him before the twins could retort.

Legolas smiled.

"Well, Elrond never said no!" Legolas said. "Let's go outside!"

A/N: YAY!

But they haven't cured the poison yet!