Part 25: Driftwood.
"I know I left too much mess and destruction to come back again
And I caused but nothing but trouble,
I understand if you can't talk to me again
And if you live by the rules of "it's over" then I'm sure that makes sense..."- Dido
"Wake up." Arwen blinked at the sudden bright light in her bedroom before sitting up and meeting her mother's glare.
"Why?" Arwen asked as she sat up and rubbed the sleep out of her eyes.
"Your father wants to see you and then you have an appointment with my doctor at two-thirty. So stop being lazy and get ready."
Arwen frowned slightly at her mother's frosty commands and refused to get out of bed.
"Why am I going to the doctor again?" She asked her mother petulantly. "Dad just took me to the doctor two days ago and she said everything was fine."
Celebrian Rivendell's mouth curled up in a sneer before she turned and slapped her daughter across the face hard enough to make her eyes water and her ears ring.
"I'm taking you to get rid of that, you stupid girl!" Her mother hissed at her, her dark blue eyes almost going black in her rage.
"I'll be damned if I let my *teenage* daughter be a mother to a fatherless baby!" she yelled before grabbing Arwen's chin and forcing her to look at her.
"I know you are a slut, but I won't have *my* reputation ruined because you couldn't keep your legs crossed at the right time. Now the sooner we get rid of it, the better it will be all around, understand?"
Arwen didn't look in her mother's eyes and instead focussed on the wall-paper behind her. She was in too much shock from being slapped around to even try and think about her mother's commands. She simply wanted to crawl back into her bed at her Father's house and not come out until the nightmare her life had been for the past seven months was over.
Celebrian's hand was no longer grasping her chin, but Arwen wasn't aware of that until another sharp slap made her head snap backwards.
"I don't care how you feel about this, *Daughter*. For as long as you live in my house, you will do as I say, or I will gladly send you back to Elrond and your brothers and you shall never be welcome in my house again. Is that understood?"
Arwen really wanted to cry but she held the tears back and only nodded at her mother.
"Good. Get ready. We're leaving in half an hour."
~*~*~*~*~*
"Why are you here again?" Eowyn asked Danny as she spotted him lounging about in Aragorn's previously empty living room.
Well, it had been empty when she had gone upstairs to check on the still-sleeping hobbits.
Danny looked at her and only arched an eyebrow at the human girl, making her blush as she realized how rude she sounded.
"I'm sorry. I didn't meant to sound so harsh. You surprised me, that's all." Eowyn apologized as she walked over to the love-seat opposite the chesterfield Danny was lounging on and sat down carefully.
"S'okay. My delicate feelings will survive this time around." Danny simpered before sinking back to the couch and placing the back of his wrist against his forehead while sighing dramatically.
Eowyn rolled her eyes and sat back in the love-seat.
Danny kept the stricken pose for several minutes longer before he sat back in his regular sprawled out position.
"Arwen's coming to visit." he frowned. "Rather, Celebrian's *forcing* her to visit. I don't want to be around either of them, to tell you the truth, hence the reason why I'm lounging around here."
Eowyn nodded calmly, despite the small arrow of pain that pierced her heart upon hearing Arwen's name.
It had been over, the friendship that they had, for quite awhile now, but it still hurt to think that despite everything that she had brought into it, Arwen didn't feel the same, that there weren't really any emotions from the other woman apart from tolerance and a desire to not be alone.
Logically, she knew it was the best thing. To have broken it off like it had been. But at other times she missed Arwen. They did have fun together and despite the way things had gone that last year, Eowyn believed that there had been something between them at least.
Even though she was skilled at hiding a lot of her emotions, Elves were more skilled at seeking them out, so it wasn't much of a surprise when Danny spoke.
"Don't waste your time and effort on her. She's still too much of a child to realize who her real friends and enemies are. Maybe she'll learn soon. Maybe she won't ever learn that. But the important thing to remember is that you did all you could at that time." Danny told her as he rolled over and stared at her with those cool grey eyes he shared with Max.
"Don't go on grieving for something whose time has ended."
The heavy lidded eyes closed and he laid back onto the soft cushions of the couch.
"Do you miss her a lot, Elladan?" Eowyn asked him curiously. Even though the siblings had lived in a frozen sort of cordiality, they had managed to live as civilly as they were able. Arwen's departure had been unexpected and surprising, and since neither of the brother's had spoken about it, it made the other's curious about their emotions towards their sister leaving.
"I miss what she could have been." Danny replied, his words deliberate and careful. "Not what she has become. I loved her. Elrohir loved her too. Despite everything. But Celebrian turned her against us. And the poison grew and spread until she became what she is today. I'm not sorry she's gone. I'm only sorry she may never learn anything, living with that selfishly cruel woman. That's all."
They fell silent. Danny turned his face away from Eowyn and stared at the pattern in the fabric of the couch. He felt like there was a weight at the pit of his stomach after he told Eowyn those things.
He cursed himself slightly, for revealing the serious facet of his personality to someone other than Glorfindel.
He'd much rather live with everyone thinking that he was nothing more than a fool than to have them know everything that dwelled inside of him. Then no one would expect much of him. And that would mean his freedom to live his life on his terms.
He made a face at himself for being such a melodramatic ass before turning around and facing Eowyn, who was now staring off into space with an abstracted expression on her pale.
"Anyways, what the hell are you doing here? Shouldn't you be molesting my little brother somewhere?"
Eowyn made a face at his choice of words.
"He's with Eomer at the community centre. It's practice for the soccer team today."
"Ah. So is Faramir going to be there?" Danny asked, trying his best not to be amused at how close Max and Eomer seemed to be getting in the past year.
"No. He, Legolas, Boromir and Aragorn are going to visit the orphanage. I'm here to baby-sit Merry and Pippin."
Danny raised an eyebrow. "Bloody absent-minded Aragorn! He told me he wanted me to baby-sit the little ones too!"
Eowyn just shook her head and laughed at this.
"Well, having two of us around wouldn't hurt them. Besides, its not like I can go running after them easily with this in the way." She added, pointing to her distended belly.
"Umm. Yeah. You are pretty slow nowadays with that big belly of yours. So when am I gonna be an uncle?"
"July 13th or whereabouts." Eowyn replied, laughing slightly as she did so.
"And when are you gonna make me an aunt, Danny?"
Danny made a horrified face at the suggestion.
"Not in an *extremely* long time!" He exclaimed hotly. "I don't know if you have noticed, but I'm *not* the parenting type, understood?"
Eowyn only smiled softly at him, making him narrow his eyes at her. Had she caught on to him? Or was Glorfindel simply working her over to his side?
Before he had a chance to ask, two hobbits ran into the living room and jumped on the couch as was their custom.
"Ooofg!" Danny wheezed as two hobbits landed on him at full force, knocking the wind right out of him.
"Merry! Pip! Please get off the couch!" Eowyn called out to the hobbits, who yipped a bit before getting off the wheezing Danny.
"Try to kill me, why don't you?" Danny asked them once he had managed to get his breath back.
"We didn't know!" Pippin defended himself, quickly hiding behind Merry, who only glared at the elf who could turn out to be threatening to his little brother.
Danny smiled ruefully at the younger hobbit.
"I noticed that. Jeez you guys are getting big! I swear you nearly broke my ribs there!"
He winked at Pippin before reaching over and ruffling his hair.
"Boromir was right. You may be able to look over the coffee table this year!"
"Elladan!" Eowyn exclaimed, half laughing half serious at the comment.
"He said that?" Pippin asked, his eyes clearly showing the happiness he felt at having his hero say such nice things about him.
Danny nodded, raising his hand as he did so.
"Scout's honour, mate. I never tell a lie."
Merry grinned at the comment then, completely easing the possible tension between them.
"Us neither! Uncle Duo taught us it's better to run and hide, but never to tell a lie!"
Danny nodded. "He's right, you know. Never tell lies or else it'll come back to hurt you."
Merry and Pippin nodded, their expressions serious as they did.
"Where's Boromir and Auntie Estel?" Pippin asked Danny.
"They're visiting Uncle Duo and the others at the Church." Danny explained. "That's why me and Auntie Eowyn are here to visit you instead."
Merry's head turned to the side and his face lit up when he finally noticed his favourite Aunt sitting on the other couch.
"Auntie Eowyn!"Merry cried out delightedly as he ran over to her and hugged her gently, knowing from past experience with Aunt Lee that it *wouldn't* do the baby any good to get jumped on.
"Merry!" Eowyn greeted the small hobbit, who was looking up at her with clear adoration in his grey eyes.
"Did you have a good sleep?" She asked him, cuddling him as much as she was able.
"Yeah. Had nice dreams." Merry told her, his face going slightly pink as he spoke.
Eowyn chose that moment to wisely look away. She unfortunately caught Danny's eye and the elf nearly made her laugh out-loud when he mouthed out "I told you so" over the oblivious Pippin's head.
Although it was cute and amusing, Eowyn didn't dare laugh at the young hobbit's crush on her. She knew what it was like to be young and deeply in love with that almost unreachable older person and how crushing it was when the realization sank in that love was never going to blossom in the way that you had imagined so often.
That was why she let the matters of dreams drop and gave Merry an escape.
"So what do you guys want to do today?" she asked, hoping that they wouldn't want to do anything *too* strenuous, and they would leave her sitting somewhere while Danny chased after them the entire afternoon.
"I wanna go outside and play catch." Merry announced, nearly jumping out of skin with excitement, while Pippin looked dubious, since he still hadn't gotten over Boromir's accident. Even though Boromir had pretty much made a full recovery, Pippin still couldn't forget that if they hadn't been playing catch that day, his hero wouldn't have been hurt so badly.
In fact, Pippin still had nightmares about Boromir lying bruised and still in the hospital with all the wires and tubes and machines all over and around him. They hadn't been as frequent since Boromir had come home for good, but they were still there.
It wasn't rare for Boromir and Aragorn to wake up with a Pippin snuggled in between them. Although it did sort of put a damper on their morning sex, they didn't really mind it. Much.
Danny noticed the distress Pippin was suffering and tried tactfully to suggest a different activity for the chibis to do when the doorbell rang.
Eowyn braced herself against the love-seat and was about to haul her heavy body up when Danny shook his head and pushed her back down.
"Don't worry about it, Eo." He told her, winking at her before he went to the door.
"Jerk." Eowyn muttered, but her voice was without any real anger - she knew that it was just the way Danny was. Besides, she appreciated not having to get up, since her back was starting to hurt more and more frequently as the due date got nearer.
Sighing a bit as she settled back into her seat, she looked at the hobbits.
"So, any other ideas about what you want to do?"
Pippin looked at Merry briefly, not wanting for his brother to think he was a traitor and opened his mouth to speak, but was cut-off by Danny exclaiming:
"What the fuck are *YOU* doing here?"
Rolling her eyes, Eowyn got up and waddled to the door as fast as she could and found Danny half-heartedly comforting a sobbing and incoherent Arwen while Frodo and Sam watched with mixed expression of pity, desperation and relief.
"Fuck."
~*~*~*~*~*
"Run it by me again. This time *slo-o-owly* okay?" Danny asked Frodo and Sam, who were sitting on the couch, practically in each other's laps as they explained what was going on with Arwen, who was now sleeping off her hysteria in one of Aragorn's spare rooms.
"We just found her crying on a bench by the mall. She wasn't saying anything, all she did was cry. We don't even fucken know what happened to make her that way."
"Nothing at all?" Max asked, his voice heavy with worry over his sister.
"Nothing." Sam answered as he nervously chewed on a pixie stick.
"She just kept on crying man. Wouldn't stop until we came here."
Aragorn scowled at this.
"And may I ask why you decided this was the best place to take her?"
"We thought you'd be able to calm her down, or something." Frodo answered calmly, his dark blue eyes levelled at Aragorn.
Aragorn suppressed a snarl and instead rubbed at his bleary eyes to ease their burning. If Pippin and Merry weren't around, he would have cracked open a bottle of vodka and downed it as fast as he possibly could have.
This was NOT the way he had wanted to spend his Thursday. Not by a long shot.
Seeing Aragorn's reaction, Max bit his lip and looked at Danny, who frowned before nodding his head towards the hall-way.
Aragorn noticed, but he said nothing. He just nodded at Max and watched him go as he tried to quell the simmering anger he carried for Arwen in order to find out a way to help her. Or at least get her safe haven somewhere before things got out of hand.
Max nodded and casually walked over to the hall where his brother stood against a wall, his arms crossed and his pale face even paler than before, making his eyes flame a fiery grey.
Max watched him, knowing all too well that Danny was working extra-hard to keep his anger in check, so he waited for Danny to speak rather than taking the initiative lest he say the wrong thing.
"Have you called Ada?"
Max blinked at the question.
"We left a message earlier for him to come here right away."
Danny nodded and began chewing on his lip.
"Humour me and give him another call. Tell him to get here right away."
"Why? Shouldn't we wait until Arwen wakes up and take her home?"
Danny shook his head.
"Elrohir. Mother is going to be hunting for her prize pet. We need to get Ada here before she tries to take Arwen."
Max nodded, but he stayed in the same spot and stared at his brother quizzically.
"I don't mean to be an idiot here, but why are you so concerned with what happens to Arwen? Not to be a jerk, but last time I checked, there was no love lost between us and her."
Danny's jaw twitched at his brother's question and he forced himself to tamp down the urge to punch him, an urge born out of his own mixed feelings towards his sister and their mother and what they had done to his brother and his father, an urge born out of a mental flinch he hadn't wanted to face until his face was literally shoved into it.
"Yeah. I know. It's a huge fucken irony that I don't even fucken wanna think about."
"Then why do it? I mean, isn't it better all around if she's out of our lives?"
"I'm not denying that. But not when our lovely mother is gonna be holding the reins."
Max shook his head.
"Look, you're not making any sense here. I know you fucken hate her, but you're not telling me why. All I can get from you is that she's evil incarnate or something. You want me to support you in your decision, you gotta give me more than cryptic remarks, okay?"
Danny's colour went a little darker and Max prudently stepped out of close hitting range as he waited for Danny's answer.
"She's not our full sister, Max."
Max's mouth snapped open and shut several times before he could even form a barely coherent sentence.
"How do you know?"
Danny's mouth thinned out into a hard line before he spoke again.
"Ada told me right after *she* left the first time."
Max frowned. "Why didn't you guys tell me anything?"
Danny rolled his eyes at his younger brother.
"Cause you didn't remember it when we talked to you about it. It was as if she hadn't been in the house or had the conversation."
Max's frown deepened at this information.
"I don't understand it. Why the hell wouldn't I remember anything?"
Danny was silent for a couple of moments as he debated telling Max everything.
"Ada thinks its cause of what she did that night. "
Max felt his face go white at this off-hand comment.
"What did she do to him?"
Danny's eyes narrowed slightly as if he was searching for an unpleasant image in his mind before he spoke.
"She tried to kill him. Ada found out that she was having an affair and that Arwen wasn't his daughter. You were downstairs cause you wanted water. Or maybe the noise woke you up or something and she tried to throw something at Ada and missed him and got you instead. Mild brain damage and your entire memory of the incident and her were gone."
Max let out a sound that was a cross between a laugh and snort before falling on his ass.
Danny quickly knelt down beside him and looked into his eyes to make sure that Max's mind hadn't left the building at that moment.
"Stop that."
"Just checking."
"Heh."
Max snorted, shaking his head before he looked at his twin.
"Well."
He let out a breath he didn't know he had been holding, laughing slightly as he did.
"And I thought Eowyn's family had problems." He coughed a bit before sniggering.
Danny blinked at his brother's reaction.
"You're weird, Elrohir."
"Don't fucken call me that. I told you my name's Max, alright?"
"Whatever. You gonna ring Ada up?"
Max snorted.
"Could you do it? I..I think I need some time to digest all of this."
Max said as he waved his hand haphazardly in the air to indicate Danny's words.
Danny nodded.
"Are you gonna be okay, Maximillian?"
Max let out another snigger at the question.
"I'm not a delicate flower, Elladan. I'm not gonna fucken break over this knowledge."
"No? Then what are you gonna do?"
Max sighed and stood up, his shock having worn away a bit.
"Help you and Ada. What else?"
Danny smiled at his brother's words.
"I can't ask anything else."
~*~*~*~*~*~
Arwen lay curled up under the blankets, her arms wrapped around her belly as she stared at the ceiling, her mind practically blank from shock from the events that had occurred earlier that day.
Every time the memories came even remotely close to coming back and hitting her full force, she would close her eyes tighter and stroked her stomach, not stopping until she got an answering kick from her child.
It was a small gesture, but it brought comfort to her shattered self.
She didn't know how long it was that she lay there, repeating the same motions over and over until she was close to falling asleep.
She knew she was close to stepping over that line when she felt the soft touch of her father's hand moving up and down her long hair, moving so slowly and delicately that at first she thought she was dreaming it.
When the movements didn't stop, she opened her eyes to find her father sitting in a chair next to her bed, his eyes full of love and tenderness as he keeps up the repetitive movements.
Seeing him there, with his eyes full of tenderness and love made the mute shock break.
"Ada!"
Elrond Rivendell didn't say a thing and simply opened his arms to his daughter, who threw herself in them and began to weep, deep howling sobs as if she was being torn apart.
Elrond only held her tightly and stroked her head, murmuring soft words of comfort as he rocked his daughter back and forth.
Danny sighed and looked at Max, who only bit his lip as they watched their father and their sister, neither of them knowing for sure what they should do at that point.
They had never seen such raw out-pouring of emotion from their sister since they had become teenagers.
She had always been plastic. Fake.
Nothing had ever been spontaneous with her. It was always so practised and calculated that to see her practically ripping her soul open and bare was more than a little disconcerting to both of them.
They stood at the door for a couple of minutes until it became obvious that their sister wasn't going to do much except weep on their father, so they decided to go into the living room and wait out the storm until they were needed.
Neither of them spoke until they entered the living room, which was, for some odd reason, filled with people.
Aragorn and Boromir obviously had a right to be there as well as Lee and Faramir and their children, since they all lived there. The same with Celly, since she was either living there or visiting. Plus, she was family, so it was a no brainer right there. The same thing went with Galadriel.
They couldn't figure out though why the hell Sam and Frodo were there. Or why Eomer was kicking around with his sister, but at least Eowyn was lying in one of the rooms napping with the chibis. So all the people that were in the living room just watched as the twins entered the living room.
People that, as soon as they saw them coming in, turned to them with barely concealed looks of curiosity.
Make that *nosy* people.
Max and Danny looked at each other and shrugged before sitting down in the nearest and emptiest flat surface.
They had just settled down when a furious knocking, followed by the doorbell ringing three times in rapid succession, which served to wake the babies up and Legolas get a look of pure murder on his face as he stomped to the door. Only to be stopped by a lighting fast Danny.
"I'll answer it." Danny told the other elf in a cool, flat voice.
Lee looked at Danny, and although it seemed like no actual communication had taken place, the two elves seemed to have reached an understanding of some sort since Legolas only nodded his head and moved to help Faramir with their children.
They all watched Danny saunter to the door before turning their gazes onto Max.
"Don't ask me anything. I know about as much as you do." Max told them before letting his head drop back against the wall and keeping his eyes trained on the ceiling.
Silence fell in the living room. No one could really talk about anything after Max's comment; especially not when there was such thick tension in the room.
So everyone that was there sat and waited for something. Anything to happen.
"WHERE IS SHE?!"
The loud, angry yell was followed by a gorgeous, expensively-dressed, silvery-blonde female elf that came barging into the living room with an expression that said she was hell-bent on either homicide or something fairly close to it.
Aragorn simply blinked while Boromir stood up, obviously getting ready to jump into the fray that no one was doubting was going to occur.
Danny scowled and pulled his mother away before yelling something in Quenyan to Max, who followed the barked order.
"What the hell was that?" Lee asked to no one in particular.
"It means they're leaving." Galadriel replied calmly as they watched Danny practically shove his mother outside. A minute passed and Arwen and Max left the house, followed by their father, who lifted his hands up in an apologetic gesture before leaving.
Once the door had shut with a muted finality, Galadriel sighed and sat back in the couch.
Aragorn looked at Boromir, who stepped back and wrapped his arms around him, a gesture meant to soothe and ease the awkwardness that hovered in the air.
"It seems like the drama never stops around here, does it?"
Boromir muttered in Aragorn's ear. Aragorn snickered slightly before leaning back against his lover.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
"Why aren't you letting me see my own daughter?" Celebrian asked Danny while Elrond stood in front of the kitchen door where Max was making Arwen some tea to help calm her down to some state of semi-coherency.
"Because you have pretty much driven her to be a babbling wreck. So why don't you take the hint and go home? Arwen's not leaving here. At least not right now."
Danny answered, his eyes turning the cold colour of frozen metal.
"Who do you think you are to talk to me that way? I am your mother, so show some respect!"
Danny shook his head, a bitter smile on his lips as he did so.
"You haven't done anything I should respect you for, so don't ask for something that you haven't earned."
Celebrian's eyes narrowed and Danny firmly believed that she was going to slap him for his words. Instead she turned to his father, who had been watching the exchange with an expression of neutrality.
"You did a good job of turning them against me, Elrond."
Elrond's left eye twitched at the comment.
"He's done nothing of the sort. You have yourself to blame for everything that happened in this house. When are you gonna grow up and see that?" Danny asked her, insinuating himself between his father and Celebrian.
The gesture didn't go unnoticed by Celebrian, who stepped back.
"I never did anything to turn you away from me!" She hissed softly at him.
"You call fucking around on my dad nothing? Or trying to kill him nothing? What about Max? You forgot what you did to him? Why he doesn't remember you?" Danny yelled, tears stinging at his eyes as he poured out twelve years's worth of pain and resentment out at his mother.
"Max was out for a week and *not once*, you hear me, not once, did I ever see you come in to visit him. Your own son! Then you turned Arwen into your image, didn't you? Just to spite Ada and me and Max. And you have the nerve to say you did nothing?!"
Celebrian's mouth tightened into a thin, hard line and her hand rose up, ready to slap Danny for what she felt was his insolence.
But the slap never connected, since Elrond grabbed her hand before she could land the blow.
"We agreed that you'd never hit our children, didn't we, Celebrian?'
Elrond asked in a deceptively mild tone of voice.
"He deserves to be hit. Especially after what he just said to me."
Danny snorted before turning away from his mother.
"It's cause the truth hurts, doesn't it?" He sneered, his voice cracking at the edges as he spoke.
"Elladan Danforth Rivendell. That's enough." Elrond growled softly at his son, who scowled and turned away from his parents.
Sighing he turned to his ex-wife. "As for you. Go home. I think you have caused enough problems here already."
Celebrian frowned before yanking her arm from Elrond's grasp.
"I'm not leaving without Arwen."
Elrond's eyes grew dark at this.
"You're not taking her with you, Celebrian, and that's final. Now please leave before things get even worse here."
Celebrian's eyes narrowed at the tone of Elrond's voice.
"I'm not leaving until I have Arwen at my side, Elrond. Even if I have to sleep in the backyard, I'm taking her with me."
"Good then. That means I can call the police on you and make you leave."
Danny snarled at her, his hand going to the receiver to prove his point.
"You wouldn't dare."
"Try me you fucken bitch! And for the record, Arwen's eighteen now, so you can't fucken cart her off and if you do try, we can add kidnapping onto the trespassing charge."
Elrond shook his head and grabbed Danny's hand before he opened the kitchen door and called the other two occupants of the room.
"Elrohir Finnegan, Arwen Francesca, get in here right now!"
Max and Arwen walked into the room with their arms around each others shoulders', making it hard to tell whether Max was supporting Arwen or vice-versa.
"Arwen, honey, could you please tell your mother where you want to stay so that everyone's sanity can be saved?"
Arwen looked at her father timidly and after a few moments of gaining her composure and encouraging smiles from Max, she finally nodded her consent.
"Elrohir, could you please call Glorfindel and get him over here? Tell him it's an emergency."
Max cast a mute look of worry at Arwen, but his father shook his head.
"She'll be fine. I'll make sure of it. Even if it kills me."
Max shuddered slightly at the words, but ran to do his father's bidding.
As he grabbed the phone away from Danny and punched in Glor's number while keeping a wary eye over his sister.
"Arwen, we've wasted enough time today. Could you just get ready to leave? We don't have much time left."
Celebrian told her daughter, her tone flat and emotionless as she did so.
There was a couple of moments of silence between them as Arwen looked at everyone in the room: Max, Danny, her father, her mother. All of them staring at her with concern and a fierce desire to protect her from whatever it was that had hurt her so badly. Everyone except her mother, who had a shadow of retribution in her dark eyes.
It was seeing that shadow, coupled with the baby moving inside her that made her decide at that moment what she would say.
"I'm staying here, with Dad and Max and Danny. We'll arrange to pick up my stuff later."
Celebrian's face changed slightly in a disturbing way that made Arwen's fear rise up in her throat and made her back away into her father's arms.
"You heard her, Celebrian. Now could you please leave?"
Celebrian paused and stood still for several moments before finally nodding her consent.
"Fine. Next week come and get your stuff. I never want to see any of you again."
Elrond nodded, his face neither hiding or revealing anything to her.
"Good bye, Celebrian."
~*~*~*~*~*~
"Hello Max. What brings you here?" Galadriel asked, pleasantly surprised when she opened the door to her house and found her son's friend standing on the porch.
"Uhm. Hi, Mrs. Lothlorien. I was just wondering if you could do me a favour."
Galadriel smiled at the formality before stepping away from the door and beckoning him inside.
"Won't you come in and tell me about this favour?"
Max turned slightly pink at this and shook his head.
"Uh..thanks, but the thing is that I'm in a hurry and the favour isn't really for me."
"Oh? For whom is it?"
Max bit his lip and looked up at Galadriel through the dark wings of his hair.
"My sister. Arwen. I was wondering if you'd talk to her."
Galadriel arched an eyebrow at the request.
"Why do you want me to talk to her?"
Max shifted his weight and fidgeted a few times before replying.
"It's about the baby, and well, Celly mentioned a few things about your family and I was wondering if you could help Arwen..give her advice or listen to her or something."
"What kind of advice would I be able to give her?" Galadriel asked him.
Max rubbed his forehead as he formulated an answer.
"It's about the baby, that's all she would say to me. She won't talk to me or Danny or Ada, so I figured you'd be the best person to ask this."
Galadriel's mouth pinched into a thin line as she thought about the request. On one hand, it didn't seem like something much to ask for. But on the other hand, it was quite a bit to ask for since she didn't really know what she was supposed to say to Arwen in the matters of advice.
"Fine. Come in then. I'll start some tea." She finally told Max after a couple of tense minutes.
"I'll tell her. Be right back." Max told her, his voice practically dripping with gratitude as he bounded down the stairs and went to the car parked away from the house.
Galadriel watched him lean into the passenger side before going back inside and heading to the kitchen, but still keeping an eye out on the front door.
Sure enough, as she was setting the kettle on to the stove, Arwen appeared.
Shyly, hesitantly, she slipped into the kitchen, her eyes smudged with stress and sleepless nights, her body swollen with the child she carried.
Although she didn't look as unhealthy as Legolas had, she didn't have the glow that Eowyn had.
She just looked tired, uncomfortable and unprepared.
"Please, sit down." Galadriel told her, opening the cupboard and grabbing a box of Earl Grey.
"Thank you." Arwen replied in a soft voice that made Galadriel wince inwardly.
"I'm making some tea. Would Earl Grey be alright?" She asked as she busied herself with opening the box.
"Um. Yeah. Sure." there is a pause before a barely audible "Thank you." is added.
Galadriel nodded and pulled out the teapot, all without looking at Arwen.
It wasn't that she was being rude about the whole thing.
Rather, she couldn't look at Arwen without thinking about how much Arwen reminded her of how she was about twenty-five years ago.
After putting the tea-bag into the pot, she reluctantly pulled away from her chore and sat down across from Arwen, who was simply staring at the table-cloth with blank eyes.
They sat in silence, the only noise being the water boiling on the stove until Arwen spoke.
"Would you keep a child you didn't want or plan for?"
Galadriel sat back in her chair and looked at Arwen as she formulated an answer.
"I don't think anyone would. There's enough in life already to be a burden to oneself." Galadriel replied, getting up and going to the stove. She could already hear the water gurgling its readiness and she liked her tea fresh and hot.
"Max.." Arwen trailed off, blinking slightly at the patterns on the table-cloth, which had begun to shift and move under her tired eyes.
Galadriel paused in her tea-making and waited for Arwen to speak, sensing that this was important for her to get out.
"Max...Max said that you had the same kind of problem to deal with when you were younger."
She looked up at the older elf, her eyes blue and flat and nearly empty as she did so.
"So why did you keep Celly?"
Galadriel lowered her head as she poured the boiling water in the waiting tea-pot and watched as the tea-bag danced a manic dance as the water filled the pot.
She placed the kettle back on the burner and put the lid on the pot before carrying it back to the table.
"It's true, I conceived a child when I wasn't ready for it." Galadriel replied carefully, grabbing a couple of cups from the cupboard before finally sitting down.
"Milk? Sugar?" she asked Arwen, who shook her head.
"I was only nineteen when Celebrian was born. I was in the middle of a degree and Celeborn wasn't the elf that my parents wanted me to marry. They had already picked out someone else for me and were furious when my pregnancy was found out."
She paused to pour them both tea and didn't continue until she had her cup safely ensconced in between her hands.
"They wanted me to have an abortion, but I refused to do it."
"Why did you refuse?" Arwen asked, her voice a bit stronger as she spoke.
"Why did you?" Galadriel asked, taking a sip of the fragrant liquid.
Arwen shrugged as she cradled the cup of tea in her hands.
"I.. I.. really thought about it, at first. But when it would have been really convenient, I wasn't eighteen. I could have gone by myself, but if I'd had to have anyone else there, I would have bolted, since they probably would have really made me think about it rather than just making the decision on a whim."
She took a drink of her tea and sighed audibly as the warmth coursed down her throat and into her cold stomach, warming her entire body up.
"But when mother took me there, and literally threw me into the doctor's office, I..I..couldn't do it. Even though I wanted to, I felt the baby moving and kicking at me and it hit me; that I was going to end this life even before it had a chance to live. Even though the father was just...someone. I couldn't do it."
Arwen let go of the cup and pressed the heels of her palms into her eyes, trying to shove the burning tears away into the back of her skull. Although she instinctively knew that Galadriel wouldn't think her weak, or judge her if she let the tears go, the old training still held fast.
She struggled with the tears for several minutes, but lost out in the end. She hissed a bit when she felt the warm wetness oozing out, past her eyelashes, past her hands, to course down her face.
She wiped them away furiously, but they kept on coming faster and faster than before, making her get up and flee into the bathroom to compose herself and finish the conversation.
It was a quite a shock to her when warm, slim arms wrapped themselves around her and held her close, pressing her to a warm chest that had the faint scent of lily of the valley.
No words were spoken as Arwen snuffled into Galadriel's shoulder and cried softly.
She didn't know how long it had been when she finally pushed away from her and gave her face a couple of swipes with her sleeve while Galadriel watched her, her eyes neutral, a thing that Arwen was glad of; since she wasn't sure whether she'd be able to deal with sympathy at that point.
They sat down again at their places in silence and drank the rest of the tea, which had become luke-warm in the interlude. Galadriel poured them more tea and they sat drinking it in the calm silence when Galadriel spoke.
"Have you thought about giving the baby up if you aren't that attached to it?"
Arwen took a sip of her tea as she thought about it.
"I have. I just don't know whether I could really go through with it, knowing that I had a child out there and wondering if he or she's doing well.. or how they're going to turn out.. stuff like that."
"You don't have to totally cut-off ties with the child, you know. You can always keep in touch and eventually explain why you decided to make that choice."
Galadriel told her softly.
"Did you think about giving Celly up?"
"Yes. The thought crossed my mind, because during that time, Celeborn was in Northern Ireland for his work and the Troubles were at their peak at that point. He had promised to marry me when he came back.. but it looked uncertain as to whether he would. I was pressured to do it, right after Celebrian was born. But he came back."
"Have you thought about raising the baby yourself?"
"That's out of the question, because quite frankly, even though I hate to admit it, I'm not even *remotely* ready to raise a child. I don't want to repeat my mother's mistakes."
Galadriel was surprised by Arwen's admission. It was true she thought Arwen was severely immature, but to have the admission come out of her own mouth was something that she didn't expect to happen so soon.
Galadriel nodded. "It seems that the best thing for you to do is to give up the baby, and you have already made up your mind..so why did you need to talk to me?"
"I guess I needed to be told that it was normal, everything that I was thinking about and going through. That I needed to be told it was okay to not want to have a kid. That I was a stupid, worthless slut for getting pregnant."
Galadriel winced at the words and wondered how many times Arwen had heard them from her mother. At least her own mother had simply frozen her out with silence until Celebrian had arrived But she had a feeling that maybe Arwen's mother wasn't all that forgiving.
Which brought the question to mind. Why had Arwen chosen someone outside of her family to share that important decision with?
"Why me?"
"You're the closest person we all know to a mom, that's why."