Family
A/N: Disclaimers in first part of story. Basically, I don't own anyone but Lauren and other original characters. As I mentioned in the disclaimers, there were many song lyrics in the first version of this story. While the song lyrics are no longer a part of the story, I do discuss, paraphrase and otherwise use songs as part of the story. One of the songs used in this chapter is 'Boulevard of Broken Dreams' and it is performed by Green Day. I don't have any rights to the song.
A/N2: I seem to have forgotten to include a note in earlier chapters that in the majority of my stories, I go a little AU and assume that Gilraen was killed along with Arathorn, leaving Elrond as Aragorn's only 'parent'. That AU assumption is used in this story as well. Sorry for any confusion.
Chapter Five - Family
Aragorn sat up suddenly as he felt someone shaking his shoulder. "What is it?" he asked groggily.
Arwen sighed in relief. "You were beginning to worry me. You started breathing heavier as if you were fighting, and your pulse rate increased. Were you in trouble? How is Lauren?"
Aragorn stared at Arwen. "Lauren is just fine. She was never in any danger at all. That nightmare that I fell into? It was a place that she goes to enjoy herself and go dancing. If I seemed…upset, it was because I found out that all of the energy I spent worrying about her was for nothing. She was off having fun when I had thought she was being tortured by demons."
"Calm yourself," Arwen urged. "This is a good thing, is it not? She is not in trouble, and you are now able to get some rest this night. Come, I have made up a tea that will enable you to sleep without returning to visit with Lauren for the rest of the night."
She brought Aragorn the tea, and Aragorn knew that there would be no arguing with her, so he reluctantly drank it. As he drifted off to sleep, Arwen joined him in the bed and curled up at his side.
The next morning, Aragorn awoke feeling greatly refreshed. He turned his head and saw Arwen watching him from the other side of the bed. "How do you feel this morning?" she asked.
"Quite well," Aragorn said. "Though I am loathe to admit it, the tea worked as well as you had hoped. I did not return to visit Lauren in the night and I am feeling much more alert. Thank you."
Arwen simply smiled at him as they got up and went about getting ready to face the day. They joined Eldarion, Legolas and Gimli for breakfast.
Legolas looked up as they entered. "You look more rested than yesterday. Were you able to sleep?"
"With the help of Ada's tea, yes, I was able to get a few hours of restful sleep." Aragorn nodded in acknowledgment toward Arwen as they took their seats at the table.
"So you did not seek to visit Lauren?" Legolas asked, frowning. "I thought you were concerned for her safety."
"I did not attempt to seek my own rest until I was sure that Lauren did not need my assistance. But when I found out that she was not in any danger, and had never been in danger, I felt it was acceptable for me to leave her and see to my own health."
Legolas nodded, and Aragorn saw that he wanted to ask for the full story. Before Aragorn could tell him though, a small voice piped up. "Ada, may I be excused?"
Aragorn glanced over at Eldarion. He and Arwen had only just arrived, but Eldarion had apparently been here for a while longer. The plate sitting in front of him was empty. "Have you had enough to eat?"
Eldarion nodded. "Can I go play now?"
Aragorn nodded, and Eldarion darted away from the table. At seven years old, Eldarion did not have much patience for adult conversation. Once his son had left the table, Aragorn turned back to Legolas and Gimli.
"So, you went back and saw the witch?" Gimli asked.
"She is no witch, Gimli. I know this to be true, and yet, because of our conversation, I found myself wondering if she meant to harm me."
Prompted by the curiosity on Legolas' face, Aragorn told them everything that had happened in the dream world. As Aragorn expected, Gimli also thought Lauren's odd behavior and comments indicated ill intentions toward Aragorn, and strongly voiced his opinion. When Aragorn mentioned that her only concern about their contact was that it would change the future, the others fell silent.
"Is that a possibility?" Legolas asked finally. "I have heard you say many times that your foresight shows you only what may come to pass. 'The future is not set.' You and Arwen have said those words to me, as have Lord Elrond and Lady Galadriel. But what happens when our future is another's distant past? We would not want to risk changing her time. And yet, with this contact, how can we avoid it?"
"We can do only as I promised Lauren," Aragorn said. "We can let nothing we learn from her affect our decisions, and must not try to re-create anything she shows me."
"There is an easy way not to change the future. Just don't go back," Gimli pointed out.
"No," Aragorn said slowly. "While she seems content to pass her time in that world with idle amusements, I have seen something darker in her eyes. She is hiding her fear, her pain, and I cannot leave her alone with it. And I also owe her an apology."
"What do you need to apologize for?" Legolas asked curiously.
Aragorn told them about his reactions to finding out that she had simply been dancing when he thought she was in danger.
"You chastised her for trying to entertain herself?" Legolas asked, laughing lightly. "You do have a history of being rather…cranky when you don't get enough sleep. I do believe an apology is warranted."
Aragorn grimaced slightly and nodded.
Once the meal was finished, they all went on about their day as normal. Aragorn was able to handle all the business of his kingdom without showing signs of weariness, but at the end of the day, he had barely laid down in bed before he was fast asleep.
Aragorn was getting accustomed to the abrupt shifts in scenery, but what he now saw was different than he was expecting. He was standing on a beach, but it was not the same beach. Instead of the endless stretch of fine white sand, this beach was composed of coarser grained brown sand and jagged rocks. There was a strong wind blowing, and the clouds were a threatening gray. The waves were pounding the shore, drowning out all other sounds. Aragorn grew worried. If the surroundings were created from Lauren's mind, this fierce landscape did not bode well for her state of mind. He turned slowly around, looking for Lauren. When he finally spotted her, he frowned.
Lauren was standing out on an outcropping of jagged rocks, with her head down, seemingly watching the waves crash into the rocks beneath her feet. She was close enough to catch the spray of the waves, and her hair and clothes were soaked. She was wearing what she had called a swimsuit, with a skirt that draped to her knees. The wet material clung to her legs even as the wind whipped around her, sending her hair flying around her head.
As Aragorn left the sandy beach, he stepped up onto the jagged rocks upon which she stood. Approaching her slowly, he could hear the music from her radio rising above the sound of the wind and the waves. This song had a harsher sound than most of the music he had heard from her radio. Her voice could be heard singing along, and Aragorn listened closely to the words. As before, she seemed to be singing a song about being lonely. This song talked about walking the streets all alone while the rest of the city slept, and she seemed to be asking for someone to find her to keep her from her loneliness. ("Boulevard of Broken Dreams" by Green Day)
Aragorn studied her as he came to a stop beside her. She was tapping her hand against her leg in time to the music, and was staring down at the waves as if hypnotized. Looking down, he realized that she was barefoot. The rocks she was standing on were sharp enough to slice unprotected skin, and Aragorn didn't think she had even noticed that her feet had been injured. With a thought from him, the rocks grew smooth under their feet, but she did not even seem to realize that he was standing next to her, and that worried him all the more.
"Lauren?" he spoke her name gently to get her attention.
She stopped singing and the music grew softer so that it faded into the background sound of the storm, but she gave no other sign that she had heard him. Aragorn's concern grew when she refused to face him. He placed his hand on her shoulder and scowled at how cold her skin was. Why was she not taking better care of herself? After a moment, she slowly turned around to face him. Aragorn had expected her face to be as wet as the rest of her, but the redness of her eyes told him that not all of the moisture coating her face was from the sea spray. He had never seen her look so vulnerable as she did at that moment.
"I didn't think you were coming back," she said softly. She reached up and swiped at the wetness on her face. "With the way you left, I thought I'd made you so mad that you didn't want to come back."
Aragorn's heart dropped at her words. Was he to blame for this? He had never wanted her to think that he would abandon her. "I'm sorry," he began. "I was unable to return sooner."
"Oh, no," she exclaimed. "I didn't mean that the way it sounded. I’m not blaming you for anything. The only thing I could possibly hold you responsible for is leaving me alone long enough to give me time to think."
"And your thoughts led you here?" Aragorn asked, gesturing to the stormy sea.
She tried to smile, but didn't quite succeed. "Yeah. Sometimes, giving me time to get lost in my head isn't a good thing."
She shivered suddenly, and Aragorn held off any other questions. He conjured up a large towel and wrapped it around her shoulders.
"Perhaps we could find a warmer place to continue this?"
Shrugging, she replied off-handedly. "If you like."
Aragorn looked around and imagined the sunny beach where he had first met Lauren. As their surroundings changed, Aragorn gestured for Lauren to precede him to the chairs. She picked up her now silent radio and wandered over to the chairs before plopping down in one.
Joining her, Aragorn knelt down in front of her. "Your feet were injured. Would you let me look at them?"
She looked startled at that, and lifted her legs to look at the bottoms of her feet. "They're fine," she remarked, showing them to Aragorn. "I told you that any injuries heal very quickly here."
Aragorn shook his head as he sat down in the unoccupied chair. Quickly was a great understatement. He was sure that only minutes ago, her feet had been cut and bleeding. There was no use dwelling on that, though. "Can you tell me what you were thinking as you watched the waves?"
She shook her head abruptly, and her wet hair stuck to her face. She pushed it back off of her face impatiently, and it dried instantly under her hand. "It's not important," she said in response to Aragorn's question. "I was having a pity party for myself. If I had known you were coming back, I wouldn't have gone quite that far. I never let people see me like that. It's a bit embarrassing."
"A pity party?" Aragorn asked in confusion, not recognizing her phrasing.
"Sorry. It just means that I was feeling sorry for myself. I'm sorry you had to see that." She looked away, not wanting to meet his eyes.
Aragorn narrowed his eyes and stared at her. She was obviously troubled, but seemed unwilling to share the thoughts that burdened her mind. "You said that you never let people see you like this. Does this happen often?"
"No," she assured him. "I usually handle my problems much better than this. Most of the time, I'm a relatively optimistic person. I don't like feeling like this, but no one can be happy all the time, right? And I do have extenuating circumstances here. This isn't exactly an everyday situation." Her tone had become rather defensive as she spoke. She truly did not like having anyone see her in such a state, and felt she had to justify her mood.
"I will listen to anything you wish to talk about," Aragorn offered with an understanding expression on his face.
She shook her head. "That's not necessary, but thanks." A slight wave of her hand indicated that she didn’t feel it was worth speaking about.
Aragorn gave her a stern look. "That was not a request."
As Lauren stared at him, she realized again that he was truly a king, not just a distant relative. There was an unmistakable air of command about him. She sighed as she realized he would not take no for an answer. Unfortunately, that was a look she had seen all too often on her father's face, and she knew there was no avoiding it.
Sighing again, she drew her legs up into the chair, wrapped her arms around them and rested her chin on her knees. "OK. You said that you're a healer, too, right?" Aragorn nodded and she continued. "Assuming that time is passing the same way in my reality as it is here, it's been about four or five days since the accident. Aragorn, I haven't woken up. I'm sure you know that the longer a person is unconscious or in a coma, the less likely it is that they'll ever wake up. I've heard stories of people waking up after years in a coma, but I'm sure that's the exception rather than the rule. And honestly, I don't even want to contemplate the possibility of spending years here."
"Years?" Aragorn asked in amazement. He had never heard of such a thing. In his time, they could only prolong the life of a person in such a condition for a few weeks at most. It was nearly impossible to give a person who was unable to eat the proper nutrients over an extended period of time.
She nodded, raising her head off of her knees and watching Aragorn's expression as she talked. "Yes," she said. "We have the capability for keeping people alive for a long time, if they meet certain conditions, anyway. The person's body must be capable of keeping the heart beating, and if a person's organs start failing, there may be nothing that can be done. But we have machines that will breathe for a person if they are unable to. Doctors will put in a feeding tube and an IV to make sure that the body receives the proper nutrients if the person is unable to eat. We have had people living for years in what is termed a 'persistent vegetative state'. I wouldn't want that. I signed a paper a while ago that stated my choices if the situation ever came up where I was rendered brain dead and was unable to breathe on my own, and there was absolutely no hope that I would ever wake up again. I gave the doctors my permission to take me off the ventilator and donate any of my organs that someone else could use."
"Donate your organs?" Aragorn asked incredulously.
She smiled at his reaction. "Yes. Doctors can transplant the healthy organs from one person to replace someone else's failed organs. Now, there are many criteria that must be met before this can be done. The people have to have matching blood types, and I really don’t know what else has to match, but you can't just do that for two random people. The recipient has to be on anti-rejection drugs that prevent their body from rejecting the new organ. And even with all of that, there is still a chance that the body will reject the new organ. But the way I look at it is this. Once I'm gone, I don't need my organs anymore. And if they can be used to save the life of someone else, I'm glad to do it."
Aragorn shook his head in amazement. This was so far beyond anything he would ever have thought possible. But in explaining this to him, he felt they were beginning to drift away from the topic Aragorn thought they needed to be discussing. "Your fears of not waking up are what led you to create such a dismal scene?"
She blinked at the change of subject. She had preferred to talk about medical advances over her innermost thoughts, actually. But he would apparently not be deterred or distracted. She lowered her head back to her knees. "Partly. It's hard to be cheerful when you might be facing death. It's not that I fear dying, but I just started thinking about all the things I might never get to do. I might never get married and start a family. Then I started wondering if I would ever see my family again; my parents and my brothers."
Her voice was becoming softer, sadder, and Aragorn knew he needed to get her talking about something more cheerful. "Will you tell me about them, about your life?" When she looked questioningly at him, he elaborated. "I have told you much about my life, but I still know very little about yours. I would like to know what your life is like."
She shrugged, uncurling herself and relaxing back into her chair. "I live a pretty normal life, nothing like yours. I get up in the morning, go to work, and go home. I spend time with my friends on the weekends, and visit my family when I can." She stopped speaking, and Aragorn gave her a stern look that indicated he wanted to hear a lot more than that.
"Fine," she said with a slight smile. "What would you like to know?"
"I would like to hear of your family," Aragorn said.
"I suppose I can start with the basics. I actually got pretty lucky with my family. I grew up in a traditional family with both parents and my two brothers. Jeff is my older brother, he's three years older than me, and Ryan, my baby brother, is nineteen. My father is a Colonel in the US army, and we moved around a lot when we were kids. People in the military have to go where they're posted, and they can be posted nearly anywhere in the world. We lived in seven different places when I was growing up. Because we moved so often, it was difficult for us to make friends. It seemed that just when we made friends, it was time to pick up and move again. As a result, my brothers and I grew pretty close. Ryan is quite a bit younger, so Jeff and I kind of helped raise him. Jeff is actually my best friend. I worry about him, a lot." She fell silent and gazed off in the distance for a moment.
"Why do you worry for him?" Aragorn asked.
She looked back to him. "He's a Captain in the army, and he's in a very dangerous area right now. I pray every day that he'll come home safe and sound."
"You are at war?" Aragorn asked. He was surprised and saddened that humanity was still warring with itself even after so many years.
She gave him a sad smile, knowing what he was thinking. "Technically, the war is over, but our people are still fighting insurgents and trying to stabilize the area. We've actually lost more people since the official end of the war than we did during the war." She saw the look on his face. "I know. You would have hoped that in twenty thousand years, we would have stopped making war on each other. I hope for the same thing, but mankind has a short memory. We don't seem to learn from our mistakes. Our history is filled with violence, war and bloodshed, and it just never seems to stop. I just wish it would stop and Jeff could come home. We all miss him."
A smile crossed her face as she thought of something. "He has two small children waiting for him at home. They're beautiful. Daniel is three and Cassie is five. His wife, Gail, is raising them by herself while he's out of the country."
"You are not helping her?" Aragorn asked.
"I would if we were closer," Lauren said. "But we live several hundred miles from each other. Luckily, Jeff and my parents were stationed to the same base, so when Jeff is gone, my parents are able to help her out when she needs it. I'd like to be closer to them, but I had to go where the job was. After moving around so much as a kid, I had thought that I'd settle down in one place and never move again, but it hasn't worked out that way. I move around nearly as much as I did as a child. Though maybe now that I have a steady job, I can stay in one place for more than a few years."
"Why do you move so often?" Aragorn asked. He was finding this glimpse into her life quite fascinating.
"Well, after I left my parents house, I went away to school. I've actually spent the majority of my life in one school or another. I finished one program at one school, then went to a different school for another program. I have a Master's degree, which means that I have chosen a specialty on which to concentrate. It's not the highest a person can go, but it's still quite an accomplishment. For most of my life, I've thought of myself as a student, a scholar. I graduated a couple of years ago and moved out to the East Coast of our country when I was offered a job. It meant leaving my family behind, but I hadn't really lived with them for the majority of a decade, either."
"What do you do that requires so much school?" Aragorn asked.
"This won't mean anything to you, but I'm a computer programmer. I work for our government, helping to create and upgrade systems that aid in our defense. I don't have anything to do with making weapons, but rather in gathering intelligence about possible threats. And that is pretty much all I can tell you. Even if you understood what I was talking about, most of what I do is classified, so I'm not allowed to talk about it with anyone. But I guess this whole doing what we can to protect our country thing runs in the family."
Aragorn smiled, thinking that it had run in the family for a very long time. "What about your father?" he asked. "You said he was in the army as well. Is he not in the same place your brother is?"
"No," she said. "He was injured in a helicopter crash about ten years ago. He's a great tactician and had no desire to leave the service, so he didn't retire, but his injuries prevented him from being able to go back into combat. He's stationed on a base in the States, and I think that's just the way my mother wants it. She always worried about him when he was away. Now she just has us to worry about. Before this, I never really gave her a reason to worry about me, but I bet I'm on the top of her list right now."
"I understand why she would be worrying about you and your older brother, but what of your younger brother? You have not said much about him."
She sighed. "We have a different reason to worry about him. Like I said, he was the baby of the family. As he was growing up, he was constantly being compared to Jeff and me. I was the good student, always making top grades, and Jeff was the star athlete. He never met a sport that he didn't excel at. In high school, he was the most popular student around, and he was genuinely nice to everyone, which is rare in a popular person, believe me. Everyone loves him. Ryan kind of grew up in our shadows. Now, he's good at everything he tries, but he's not the natural athlete that Jeff is, and he didn't want to compete with that, so he didn't try out for sports. He gets good grades, but they never quite compared to mine, and I think he just wasn’t trying. He's extremely intelligent, but he never puts in the effort to excel at school. He went away to college last year, and he's kind of focusing more on partying than studying."
"Partying?" Aragorn asked. He was able to follow most of her words, but there were a few that he didn't quite understand.
"He goes out almost every night with his friends. They drink probably too much alcohol and generally just try to have a good time. He doesn't take much time to actually study for tests or do his homework. It's amazing to me that he hasn't flunked out yet." Noticing the question on his face, she explained. "There is a standard grading system in place in our schools. These grades are used to determine the ranking of students. The lowest grade is represented by the letter F, so if someone is failing to meet the minimum standard set for the class, they are said to have flunked the class. Mom worries about him, but Dad just says that Ryan is still trying to decide what he wants to be when he grows up."
Aragorn thought that nineteen was 'grown up', but maybe things had changed so that someone of that age was not considered an adult. "What about you?" he asked. "Did you always want to be what you became?"
She laughed. "Not really. When I was younger, the question was not what did I want to be, but what didn't I want to be. Every time I found a new interest, I thought that was what I wanted to be when I grew up. I have wanted to be a doctor, a veterinarian, an archaeologist, an astronomer and a ballet dancer, though I was six when I had that idea. I think there were a few others throughout the years, like a psychologist because I'm fascinated with what goes on in people's minds, what drives them to do what they do." She went on to explain what each of the professions that she had mentioned involved.
Aragorn thought that her interest in trying to figure out how ancient cultures had lived must have contributed to her ability to remember what he had told her about their history and his life. When he found out that she loved to look at and study the stars and beyond, his eyes lit up. "The elves also have a love of the night sky," he said. "I remember Lord Elrond teaching me about the stars when I was very young and the many times that Legolas and I sat near a campfire simply looking at the stars. This interest of yours seems to be showing your elven heritage. If this is a profession, why did you not pursue it?"
"The field is really tough to break into," she said. "You need a higher degree than I have to be taken seriously, and you must publish numerous papers to survive among the community. The field is just very competitive, and I wanted a field where there were more job opportunities. I did study astronomy in college, so I could tell you a lot about the life cycle of stars, the galaxies beyond our own, the planets in our solar system, and the ones that we know orbit distant stars. We have made much progress in our understanding of the universe since your time, but there is still a lot we don't understand."
Aragorn stared at her in bemusement. He did not understand much of what she was talking about.
She saw the confusion on his face. "How about we have a stargazing session? You can tell me what you know of the stars, and I can tell you what I know?"
Nodding, Aragorn agreed. "I would like to know what humanity has discovered about our… universe?" He was unsure of the word she had used.
"That's the right word. The scale of things we'll be talking about is this. We live on a planet, in a solar system made up of nine planets orbiting a star, the sun. The sun is the most massive object in this solar system, but it is only average size compared to other stars. The stars in the sky can be smaller, or many times more massive than the sun. A very large collection of stars make up a galaxy, ours is called the Milky Way Galaxy. There are a great many galaxies in the universe."
Noticing the glazed look in his eyes, she stopped. "Is this going to be too overwhelming?" she asked sympathetically. "It was really only in the last few centuries that astronomers discovered that the Earth moved around the Sun and not the other way around. There was a great deal of controversy at the time. If this is going to challenge your view of the world too much, we can drop the subject."
Aragorn just stared at her for a moment. "No," he said slowly. "But I need time to think about what you have told me so far. I wish Legolas were here for you to talk to. He wants to know everything there is to know about nature, the world around him, and what lies beyond the edges of the world. He would be greatly interested in all you could tell him."
"Aragorn?"
Aragorn and Lauren spun around as a fair voice intruded on their discussion.
"Legolas?" Aragorn asked in amazement.
A/N2: I seem to have forgotten to include a note in earlier chapters that in the majority of my stories, I go a little AU and assume that Gilraen was killed along with Arathorn, leaving Elrond as Aragorn's only 'parent'. That AU assumption is used in this story as well. Sorry for any confusion.
Chapter Five - Family
Aragorn sat up suddenly as he felt someone shaking his shoulder. "What is it?" he asked groggily.
Arwen sighed in relief. "You were beginning to worry me. You started breathing heavier as if you were fighting, and your pulse rate increased. Were you in trouble? How is Lauren?"
Aragorn stared at Arwen. "Lauren is just fine. She was never in any danger at all. That nightmare that I fell into? It was a place that she goes to enjoy herself and go dancing. If I seemed…upset, it was because I found out that all of the energy I spent worrying about her was for nothing. She was off having fun when I had thought she was being tortured by demons."
"Calm yourself," Arwen urged. "This is a good thing, is it not? She is not in trouble, and you are now able to get some rest this night. Come, I have made up a tea that will enable you to sleep without returning to visit with Lauren for the rest of the night."
She brought Aragorn the tea, and Aragorn knew that there would be no arguing with her, so he reluctantly drank it. As he drifted off to sleep, Arwen joined him in the bed and curled up at his side.
The next morning, Aragorn awoke feeling greatly refreshed. He turned his head and saw Arwen watching him from the other side of the bed. "How do you feel this morning?" she asked.
"Quite well," Aragorn said. "Though I am loathe to admit it, the tea worked as well as you had hoped. I did not return to visit Lauren in the night and I am feeling much more alert. Thank you."
Arwen simply smiled at him as they got up and went about getting ready to face the day. They joined Eldarion, Legolas and Gimli for breakfast.
Legolas looked up as they entered. "You look more rested than yesterday. Were you able to sleep?"
"With the help of Ada's tea, yes, I was able to get a few hours of restful sleep." Aragorn nodded in acknowledgment toward Arwen as they took their seats at the table.
"So you did not seek to visit Lauren?" Legolas asked, frowning. "I thought you were concerned for her safety."
"I did not attempt to seek my own rest until I was sure that Lauren did not need my assistance. But when I found out that she was not in any danger, and had never been in danger, I felt it was acceptable for me to leave her and see to my own health."
Legolas nodded, and Aragorn saw that he wanted to ask for the full story. Before Aragorn could tell him though, a small voice piped up. "Ada, may I be excused?"
Aragorn glanced over at Eldarion. He and Arwen had only just arrived, but Eldarion had apparently been here for a while longer. The plate sitting in front of him was empty. "Have you had enough to eat?"
Eldarion nodded. "Can I go play now?"
Aragorn nodded, and Eldarion darted away from the table. At seven years old, Eldarion did not have much patience for adult conversation. Once his son had left the table, Aragorn turned back to Legolas and Gimli.
"So, you went back and saw the witch?" Gimli asked.
"She is no witch, Gimli. I know this to be true, and yet, because of our conversation, I found myself wondering if she meant to harm me."
Prompted by the curiosity on Legolas' face, Aragorn told them everything that had happened in the dream world. As Aragorn expected, Gimli also thought Lauren's odd behavior and comments indicated ill intentions toward Aragorn, and strongly voiced his opinion. When Aragorn mentioned that her only concern about their contact was that it would change the future, the others fell silent.
"Is that a possibility?" Legolas asked finally. "I have heard you say many times that your foresight shows you only what may come to pass. 'The future is not set.' You and Arwen have said those words to me, as have Lord Elrond and Lady Galadriel. But what happens when our future is another's distant past? We would not want to risk changing her time. And yet, with this contact, how can we avoid it?"
"We can do only as I promised Lauren," Aragorn said. "We can let nothing we learn from her affect our decisions, and must not try to re-create anything she shows me."
"There is an easy way not to change the future. Just don't go back," Gimli pointed out.
"No," Aragorn said slowly. "While she seems content to pass her time in that world with idle amusements, I have seen something darker in her eyes. She is hiding her fear, her pain, and I cannot leave her alone with it. And I also owe her an apology."
"What do you need to apologize for?" Legolas asked curiously.
Aragorn told them about his reactions to finding out that she had simply been dancing when he thought she was in danger.
"You chastised her for trying to entertain herself?" Legolas asked, laughing lightly. "You do have a history of being rather…cranky when you don't get enough sleep. I do believe an apology is warranted."
Aragorn grimaced slightly and nodded.
Once the meal was finished, they all went on about their day as normal. Aragorn was able to handle all the business of his kingdom without showing signs of weariness, but at the end of the day, he had barely laid down in bed before he was fast asleep.
Aragorn was getting accustomed to the abrupt shifts in scenery, but what he now saw was different than he was expecting. He was standing on a beach, but it was not the same beach. Instead of the endless stretch of fine white sand, this beach was composed of coarser grained brown sand and jagged rocks. There was a strong wind blowing, and the clouds were a threatening gray. The waves were pounding the shore, drowning out all other sounds. Aragorn grew worried. If the surroundings were created from Lauren's mind, this fierce landscape did not bode well for her state of mind. He turned slowly around, looking for Lauren. When he finally spotted her, he frowned.
Lauren was standing out on an outcropping of jagged rocks, with her head down, seemingly watching the waves crash into the rocks beneath her feet. She was close enough to catch the spray of the waves, and her hair and clothes were soaked. She was wearing what she had called a swimsuit, with a skirt that draped to her knees. The wet material clung to her legs even as the wind whipped around her, sending her hair flying around her head.
As Aragorn left the sandy beach, he stepped up onto the jagged rocks upon which she stood. Approaching her slowly, he could hear the music from her radio rising above the sound of the wind and the waves. This song had a harsher sound than most of the music he had heard from her radio. Her voice could be heard singing along, and Aragorn listened closely to the words. As before, she seemed to be singing a song about being lonely. This song talked about walking the streets all alone while the rest of the city slept, and she seemed to be asking for someone to find her to keep her from her loneliness. ("Boulevard of Broken Dreams" by Green Day)
Aragorn studied her as he came to a stop beside her. She was tapping her hand against her leg in time to the music, and was staring down at the waves as if hypnotized. Looking down, he realized that she was barefoot. The rocks she was standing on were sharp enough to slice unprotected skin, and Aragorn didn't think she had even noticed that her feet had been injured. With a thought from him, the rocks grew smooth under their feet, but she did not even seem to realize that he was standing next to her, and that worried him all the more.
"Lauren?" he spoke her name gently to get her attention.
She stopped singing and the music grew softer so that it faded into the background sound of the storm, but she gave no other sign that she had heard him. Aragorn's concern grew when she refused to face him. He placed his hand on her shoulder and scowled at how cold her skin was. Why was she not taking better care of herself? After a moment, she slowly turned around to face him. Aragorn had expected her face to be as wet as the rest of her, but the redness of her eyes told him that not all of the moisture coating her face was from the sea spray. He had never seen her look so vulnerable as she did at that moment.
"I didn't think you were coming back," she said softly. She reached up and swiped at the wetness on her face. "With the way you left, I thought I'd made you so mad that you didn't want to come back."
Aragorn's heart dropped at her words. Was he to blame for this? He had never wanted her to think that he would abandon her. "I'm sorry," he began. "I was unable to return sooner."
"Oh, no," she exclaimed. "I didn't mean that the way it sounded. I’m not blaming you for anything. The only thing I could possibly hold you responsible for is leaving me alone long enough to give me time to think."
"And your thoughts led you here?" Aragorn asked, gesturing to the stormy sea.
She tried to smile, but didn't quite succeed. "Yeah. Sometimes, giving me time to get lost in my head isn't a good thing."
She shivered suddenly, and Aragorn held off any other questions. He conjured up a large towel and wrapped it around her shoulders.
"Perhaps we could find a warmer place to continue this?"
Shrugging, she replied off-handedly. "If you like."
Aragorn looked around and imagined the sunny beach where he had first met Lauren. As their surroundings changed, Aragorn gestured for Lauren to precede him to the chairs. She picked up her now silent radio and wandered over to the chairs before plopping down in one.
Joining her, Aragorn knelt down in front of her. "Your feet were injured. Would you let me look at them?"
She looked startled at that, and lifted her legs to look at the bottoms of her feet. "They're fine," she remarked, showing them to Aragorn. "I told you that any injuries heal very quickly here."
Aragorn shook his head as he sat down in the unoccupied chair. Quickly was a great understatement. He was sure that only minutes ago, her feet had been cut and bleeding. There was no use dwelling on that, though. "Can you tell me what you were thinking as you watched the waves?"
She shook her head abruptly, and her wet hair stuck to her face. She pushed it back off of her face impatiently, and it dried instantly under her hand. "It's not important," she said in response to Aragorn's question. "I was having a pity party for myself. If I had known you were coming back, I wouldn't have gone quite that far. I never let people see me like that. It's a bit embarrassing."
"A pity party?" Aragorn asked in confusion, not recognizing her phrasing.
"Sorry. It just means that I was feeling sorry for myself. I'm sorry you had to see that." She looked away, not wanting to meet his eyes.
Aragorn narrowed his eyes and stared at her. She was obviously troubled, but seemed unwilling to share the thoughts that burdened her mind. "You said that you never let people see you like this. Does this happen often?"
"No," she assured him. "I usually handle my problems much better than this. Most of the time, I'm a relatively optimistic person. I don't like feeling like this, but no one can be happy all the time, right? And I do have extenuating circumstances here. This isn't exactly an everyday situation." Her tone had become rather defensive as she spoke. She truly did not like having anyone see her in such a state, and felt she had to justify her mood.
"I will listen to anything you wish to talk about," Aragorn offered with an understanding expression on his face.
She shook her head. "That's not necessary, but thanks." A slight wave of her hand indicated that she didn’t feel it was worth speaking about.
Aragorn gave her a stern look. "That was not a request."
As Lauren stared at him, she realized again that he was truly a king, not just a distant relative. There was an unmistakable air of command about him. She sighed as she realized he would not take no for an answer. Unfortunately, that was a look she had seen all too often on her father's face, and she knew there was no avoiding it.
Sighing again, she drew her legs up into the chair, wrapped her arms around them and rested her chin on her knees. "OK. You said that you're a healer, too, right?" Aragorn nodded and she continued. "Assuming that time is passing the same way in my reality as it is here, it's been about four or five days since the accident. Aragorn, I haven't woken up. I'm sure you know that the longer a person is unconscious or in a coma, the less likely it is that they'll ever wake up. I've heard stories of people waking up after years in a coma, but I'm sure that's the exception rather than the rule. And honestly, I don't even want to contemplate the possibility of spending years here."
"Years?" Aragorn asked in amazement. He had never heard of such a thing. In his time, they could only prolong the life of a person in such a condition for a few weeks at most. It was nearly impossible to give a person who was unable to eat the proper nutrients over an extended period of time.
She nodded, raising her head off of her knees and watching Aragorn's expression as she talked. "Yes," she said. "We have the capability for keeping people alive for a long time, if they meet certain conditions, anyway. The person's body must be capable of keeping the heart beating, and if a person's organs start failing, there may be nothing that can be done. But we have machines that will breathe for a person if they are unable to. Doctors will put in a feeding tube and an IV to make sure that the body receives the proper nutrients if the person is unable to eat. We have had people living for years in what is termed a 'persistent vegetative state'. I wouldn't want that. I signed a paper a while ago that stated my choices if the situation ever came up where I was rendered brain dead and was unable to breathe on my own, and there was absolutely no hope that I would ever wake up again. I gave the doctors my permission to take me off the ventilator and donate any of my organs that someone else could use."
"Donate your organs?" Aragorn asked incredulously.
She smiled at his reaction. "Yes. Doctors can transplant the healthy organs from one person to replace someone else's failed organs. Now, there are many criteria that must be met before this can be done. The people have to have matching blood types, and I really don’t know what else has to match, but you can't just do that for two random people. The recipient has to be on anti-rejection drugs that prevent their body from rejecting the new organ. And even with all of that, there is still a chance that the body will reject the new organ. But the way I look at it is this. Once I'm gone, I don't need my organs anymore. And if they can be used to save the life of someone else, I'm glad to do it."
Aragorn shook his head in amazement. This was so far beyond anything he would ever have thought possible. But in explaining this to him, he felt they were beginning to drift away from the topic Aragorn thought they needed to be discussing. "Your fears of not waking up are what led you to create such a dismal scene?"
She blinked at the change of subject. She had preferred to talk about medical advances over her innermost thoughts, actually. But he would apparently not be deterred or distracted. She lowered her head back to her knees. "Partly. It's hard to be cheerful when you might be facing death. It's not that I fear dying, but I just started thinking about all the things I might never get to do. I might never get married and start a family. Then I started wondering if I would ever see my family again; my parents and my brothers."
Her voice was becoming softer, sadder, and Aragorn knew he needed to get her talking about something more cheerful. "Will you tell me about them, about your life?" When she looked questioningly at him, he elaborated. "I have told you much about my life, but I still know very little about yours. I would like to know what your life is like."
She shrugged, uncurling herself and relaxing back into her chair. "I live a pretty normal life, nothing like yours. I get up in the morning, go to work, and go home. I spend time with my friends on the weekends, and visit my family when I can." She stopped speaking, and Aragorn gave her a stern look that indicated he wanted to hear a lot more than that.
"Fine," she said with a slight smile. "What would you like to know?"
"I would like to hear of your family," Aragorn said.
"I suppose I can start with the basics. I actually got pretty lucky with my family. I grew up in a traditional family with both parents and my two brothers. Jeff is my older brother, he's three years older than me, and Ryan, my baby brother, is nineteen. My father is a Colonel in the US army, and we moved around a lot when we were kids. People in the military have to go where they're posted, and they can be posted nearly anywhere in the world. We lived in seven different places when I was growing up. Because we moved so often, it was difficult for us to make friends. It seemed that just when we made friends, it was time to pick up and move again. As a result, my brothers and I grew pretty close. Ryan is quite a bit younger, so Jeff and I kind of helped raise him. Jeff is actually my best friend. I worry about him, a lot." She fell silent and gazed off in the distance for a moment.
"Why do you worry for him?" Aragorn asked.
She looked back to him. "He's a Captain in the army, and he's in a very dangerous area right now. I pray every day that he'll come home safe and sound."
"You are at war?" Aragorn asked. He was surprised and saddened that humanity was still warring with itself even after so many years.
She gave him a sad smile, knowing what he was thinking. "Technically, the war is over, but our people are still fighting insurgents and trying to stabilize the area. We've actually lost more people since the official end of the war than we did during the war." She saw the look on his face. "I know. You would have hoped that in twenty thousand years, we would have stopped making war on each other. I hope for the same thing, but mankind has a short memory. We don't seem to learn from our mistakes. Our history is filled with violence, war and bloodshed, and it just never seems to stop. I just wish it would stop and Jeff could come home. We all miss him."
A smile crossed her face as she thought of something. "He has two small children waiting for him at home. They're beautiful. Daniel is three and Cassie is five. His wife, Gail, is raising them by herself while he's out of the country."
"You are not helping her?" Aragorn asked.
"I would if we were closer," Lauren said. "But we live several hundred miles from each other. Luckily, Jeff and my parents were stationed to the same base, so when Jeff is gone, my parents are able to help her out when she needs it. I'd like to be closer to them, but I had to go where the job was. After moving around so much as a kid, I had thought that I'd settle down in one place and never move again, but it hasn't worked out that way. I move around nearly as much as I did as a child. Though maybe now that I have a steady job, I can stay in one place for more than a few years."
"Why do you move so often?" Aragorn asked. He was finding this glimpse into her life quite fascinating.
"Well, after I left my parents house, I went away to school. I've actually spent the majority of my life in one school or another. I finished one program at one school, then went to a different school for another program. I have a Master's degree, which means that I have chosen a specialty on which to concentrate. It's not the highest a person can go, but it's still quite an accomplishment. For most of my life, I've thought of myself as a student, a scholar. I graduated a couple of years ago and moved out to the East Coast of our country when I was offered a job. It meant leaving my family behind, but I hadn't really lived with them for the majority of a decade, either."
"What do you do that requires so much school?" Aragorn asked.
"This won't mean anything to you, but I'm a computer programmer. I work for our government, helping to create and upgrade systems that aid in our defense. I don't have anything to do with making weapons, but rather in gathering intelligence about possible threats. And that is pretty much all I can tell you. Even if you understood what I was talking about, most of what I do is classified, so I'm not allowed to talk about it with anyone. But I guess this whole doing what we can to protect our country thing runs in the family."
Aragorn smiled, thinking that it had run in the family for a very long time. "What about your father?" he asked. "You said he was in the army as well. Is he not in the same place your brother is?"
"No," she said. "He was injured in a helicopter crash about ten years ago. He's a great tactician and had no desire to leave the service, so he didn't retire, but his injuries prevented him from being able to go back into combat. He's stationed on a base in the States, and I think that's just the way my mother wants it. She always worried about him when he was away. Now she just has us to worry about. Before this, I never really gave her a reason to worry about me, but I bet I'm on the top of her list right now."
"I understand why she would be worrying about you and your older brother, but what of your younger brother? You have not said much about him."
She sighed. "We have a different reason to worry about him. Like I said, he was the baby of the family. As he was growing up, he was constantly being compared to Jeff and me. I was the good student, always making top grades, and Jeff was the star athlete. He never met a sport that he didn't excel at. In high school, he was the most popular student around, and he was genuinely nice to everyone, which is rare in a popular person, believe me. Everyone loves him. Ryan kind of grew up in our shadows. Now, he's good at everything he tries, but he's not the natural athlete that Jeff is, and he didn't want to compete with that, so he didn't try out for sports. He gets good grades, but they never quite compared to mine, and I think he just wasn’t trying. He's extremely intelligent, but he never puts in the effort to excel at school. He went away to college last year, and he's kind of focusing more on partying than studying."
"Partying?" Aragorn asked. He was able to follow most of her words, but there were a few that he didn't quite understand.
"He goes out almost every night with his friends. They drink probably too much alcohol and generally just try to have a good time. He doesn't take much time to actually study for tests or do his homework. It's amazing to me that he hasn't flunked out yet." Noticing the question on his face, she explained. "There is a standard grading system in place in our schools. These grades are used to determine the ranking of students. The lowest grade is represented by the letter F, so if someone is failing to meet the minimum standard set for the class, they are said to have flunked the class. Mom worries about him, but Dad just says that Ryan is still trying to decide what he wants to be when he grows up."
Aragorn thought that nineteen was 'grown up', but maybe things had changed so that someone of that age was not considered an adult. "What about you?" he asked. "Did you always want to be what you became?"
She laughed. "Not really. When I was younger, the question was not what did I want to be, but what didn't I want to be. Every time I found a new interest, I thought that was what I wanted to be when I grew up. I have wanted to be a doctor, a veterinarian, an archaeologist, an astronomer and a ballet dancer, though I was six when I had that idea. I think there were a few others throughout the years, like a psychologist because I'm fascinated with what goes on in people's minds, what drives them to do what they do." She went on to explain what each of the professions that she had mentioned involved.
Aragorn thought that her interest in trying to figure out how ancient cultures had lived must have contributed to her ability to remember what he had told her about their history and his life. When he found out that she loved to look at and study the stars and beyond, his eyes lit up. "The elves also have a love of the night sky," he said. "I remember Lord Elrond teaching me about the stars when I was very young and the many times that Legolas and I sat near a campfire simply looking at the stars. This interest of yours seems to be showing your elven heritage. If this is a profession, why did you not pursue it?"
"The field is really tough to break into," she said. "You need a higher degree than I have to be taken seriously, and you must publish numerous papers to survive among the community. The field is just very competitive, and I wanted a field where there were more job opportunities. I did study astronomy in college, so I could tell you a lot about the life cycle of stars, the galaxies beyond our own, the planets in our solar system, and the ones that we know orbit distant stars. We have made much progress in our understanding of the universe since your time, but there is still a lot we don't understand."
Aragorn stared at her in bemusement. He did not understand much of what she was talking about.
She saw the confusion on his face. "How about we have a stargazing session? You can tell me what you know of the stars, and I can tell you what I know?"
Nodding, Aragorn agreed. "I would like to know what humanity has discovered about our… universe?" He was unsure of the word she had used.
"That's the right word. The scale of things we'll be talking about is this. We live on a planet, in a solar system made up of nine planets orbiting a star, the sun. The sun is the most massive object in this solar system, but it is only average size compared to other stars. The stars in the sky can be smaller, or many times more massive than the sun. A very large collection of stars make up a galaxy, ours is called the Milky Way Galaxy. There are a great many galaxies in the universe."
Noticing the glazed look in his eyes, she stopped. "Is this going to be too overwhelming?" she asked sympathetically. "It was really only in the last few centuries that astronomers discovered that the Earth moved around the Sun and not the other way around. There was a great deal of controversy at the time. If this is going to challenge your view of the world too much, we can drop the subject."
Aragorn just stared at her for a moment. "No," he said slowly. "But I need time to think about what you have told me so far. I wish Legolas were here for you to talk to. He wants to know everything there is to know about nature, the world around him, and what lies beyond the edges of the world. He would be greatly interested in all you could tell him."
"Aragorn?"
Aragorn and Lauren spun around as a fair voice intruded on their discussion.
"Legolas?" Aragorn asked in amazement.
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