Chapter Ten - Comfort In Adversity

Orlando raised his hand to knock on Megan's door. He had thrown himself into a pair of jeans and a t-shirt and had hurried back down to Meg's room. Now he debated with himself whether to knock or just barge in. He opted for the knock to be on the safe side.

Megan looked up from her hair when she heard the knock.

"Orli?" she asked and grinned when his head ducked in, one hand over his eyes.

"You bloody decent?" he asked and Megan laughed.

"Not yet, but come in, I need a favour anyway."

Orli wriggled his eyebrows with a leer on his face. "Favour?"

Megan rolled her eyes and shook her head. "There must be ummm... some underwear in my suitcase," she said and pointed to the other side of the double bed. "Lij gave me my clothes but ... ah ... he forgot ... other stuff." She lowered her gaze and stared at the brush in her hands.

Orli sat down beside her and took her hands in his. "It wasn't one of Ian's brightest ideas, huh?" he asked and tilted his head to gaze into her eyes.

Megan lowered her eye lids and nodded. "And now that Robbie has returned to the UK, I really feel like the fifth wheel."

Orli tilted her chin up and caressed her cheek. "Hey, you might feel this way, but you aren't. I and the guys love to have you around...," he smiled. "And we'll get over the embarrassing bits too, you'll see in no time you'll be fine."

"I hope so," Meg said and looked him straight in the eye. "Thank you for doing this for me, Orlando. Really, I mean it."

"Don't mention it," Orli replied, an embarrassed flush creeping into his cheeks. "So, what did you need from your suitcase down there?" He inquired and stretched out the width of the bed to peek down into the open suitcase on the other side of the bed. It was the suitcase that had been wrangled at the airport and he distinctly remembered her underwear was missing from this one, and after his perusal he didn't find any panties, just two bikini bottoms that were nothing but two triangles with some strings attached.

"I only find these," Orli propped himself up on his elbows and looked back at her, holding up her bikini bottoms.

Megan groaned and hoisted the towel up that had slipped precariously. "I guess I need to go shopping tomorrow," she said and rolled her eyes.

"And better get some of these, you know," Orli commented and frowned when he tried to figure out how the strings and the triangles were going to form the bottoms.

"Why is that?" Meg asked watching him and only barely containing a chuckle. She held out her hand and Orli looked up. Handing her the bottoms, he shrugged and pulled himself up to her side.

"You have to .. ummm... tie them, right?" he asked, his brown eyes brimming with laughter as she looked at him with a big question mark on her face. "Will go easy on the other undies ... though I love cutting underwear off a woman's body..." When she grasped his line of thinking, she grinned.

"I guess I really should buy more of these," she said and struggled to get to her feet. Orli was immediately at her side and helped her upright.

"How about I hold the towel up and you do whatever you have to do .. ummm .. with these and I'll help you into a sweater or something?" he breathed, trying to ignore the tightening in his groin again. 'This is so sick!' he sighed silently. 'She is ill, she is disabled and I can only think with my dick!'

Megan nodded her consent and while Orli held up the towel, squeezing his eye shut, she quickly donned her bikini bottoms and grabbed a t-shirt. She groaned when she saw that it was a halter top and she was in no state to wear it. Orlando sneaked a peek and saw her predicament. Throwing the towel onto the bed he grabbed the hem of his t-shirt and pulled it up over his head. Megan swallowed almost audibly when she saw the finely toned torso and her eyes travelled down beneath the belly button and the first two rays of his sun tattoo beneath it that were visibly showing above the waistband of his jeans.

"Come here," Orli said and bunched the shirt up in his hands, then slowly drew it over her head and helped her arms into it. She almost drowned in his white shirt but she was sufficiently covered and both laughed.

There was a knock at the door and Lij stuck his head in. "Gee, Orli you really can't keep your clothes on around a woman," he commented and rolled his eyes. "Get a move on you two, we want to go to the beach. The waves are great though it will be cold."

"Bugger off, Lij, we are busy," Orli threw back good-naturedly and stepped in front of Megan to hide her from Elijah's obvious staring.

"Umm, nice legs, Meggie," Lij said and threw her a kiss. "Now, you two get your bums out and into something warm and we'll party on the beach."

"Party on the beach?" Megan asked and quirked an eyebrow at Orli after Lij had left them alone.

"Don't look at me, that was Dom's idea. They want to go surfing," Orli said and grinned. "You up to that?"

"What? Surfing?" Megan said and shook her head. "Nay, you go though. I will lie down for a bit." She shooed him out of the room before she sat back down, looking at her small room. With a sigh she shifted uncomfortably, then laid down on her duvet cover. Listening to the sounds coming from the living room, she slowly drifted off to sleep.

Orli sat on the beach and watched as Lij and Billy were throwing themselves against the waves. Although he had accompanied them, he had left his surfing gear at home, content with sitting huddled up in a blanket on the beach. The events of the day passed through his head and he had to admit that somehow along the way, he had gotten to like Megan ... a lot.

The pain of her leaving him had receded and now he was actually looking forward to get to know her better. He wanted to get to know how she ticked and what made her happy and what sad. Ever since Joanna he had not have this feeling and it scared him to death.

Closing his eyes, he tried to inhale a few times. In - out, in - out deep, cleansing breaths.'We are just friends, right?' he told himself, 'Otherwise she wouldn't barely tolerate me around her.'

With a sigh he got up and folded the blanket together. Waving towards Lij and the others, he gestured he was cold and was going home. Elijah who had just surfed smoothly towards the beach picked up his board and jogged towards him.

"Yo, what's up?" he asked when he reached Orlando.

"I'm going home, I'm cold," Orli replied and Lij grinned at that.

"Should we phone before we get home or will you two have finished before then?" he asked and had a leer on his face. Orli looked at him and when the meaning behind his words had sank in, he had the grace to blush.

"It's not like that! Lij, we are friends. I don't think Megan would appreciate this kind of closeness right now, especially not from me."

Elijah looked at Orlando as if he had grown a second head. "But I thought ... why did Ian insist on you taking care of her then?"

"He wants me to get along with Meg, that's all," Orli said and bit his lower lip. When Ian had asked him to take Meg under his wings he had asked himself the same question. "I'm not sure, Lij," Orli looked into his friend's eyes, trying to get an answer from there. "I'm not partial to Ian's thoughts, but Megan needed somewhere to stay and with me and her ... ummm... you know, I can help her without too much embarrassment were you guys can't."

Elijah didn't seem satisfied and for a moment he stared up at Orlando then shook his head.

"You know what is best for you, Orli, but let me tell you this, if you fuck up this whole thing with Megan, then you have more people to answer to than just Ian and Robbie," he said ominously and Orli shot him a look.

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"What I mean is, you never have been real friends with a woman, perhaps apart from your sis and she doesn't count. Perhaps you have an opportunity of a lifetime to be friends with Megan. So keep your dick in your pants and try to think with your brain for once."

Orlando stared at Lij, then after the shock had worn off he nodded. With that he set out towards the Hobbit Hole again while Elijah watched his friend for a long time.

The house was silent when Orli returned and shrugging out of his jacket and his shoes he padded softly over to Megan's room. After listening for a few moments, he ducked his head in and watched Meg for a few minutes. She lay sprawled on the bed, her cast propped up dangerously close to the edge of the bed.

Walking over, he pulled Megan towards the middle of the bed and stopped when Megan awoke groggily.

"What happened?" she asked as her eyes shot open.

Orli rubbed his neck with a hand then motioned to the bed. "You lay too close to the edge," he said and Megan nodded.

"So you are back again? How was the surf?" she yawned and closed her eyes again.

"It was all right, I think, didn't surf, too cold," Orli replied and sat down beside her. When she did not respond, he grinned and worked the duvet out from beneath her and tucked her in. He was about to stand up when her hand squeezed his.

"Will you stay a bit?" she asked sleepily and he nodded. Slipping beside her he gave her a peck on the cheek before he settled back onto the bed. His arm lay on her stomach, rising and falling with her steady breathing, and for long minutes he just watched her.

Orli didn't know where the calmness came from but he felt for the first time in many months since Joanne had left him calm. He had noticed the calmness before ... the night after their firt love making. Shaking his head as if to will the unbidden thoughts into the far corner of his mind, Orli closed his eyes and snuggled closer to her. Hopefully he would not be haunted by nightmares again, nightmares of him falling from a great height and with this thought he was soon asleep like Megan.

A couple of hours later, that is how Elijah and Dom found them.

"They look cute," Dom said who peered over Elijah's shoulder towards the couple on the bed. "I just hope Orli doesn't screw this up."

"I don't think he will," Lij replied and pulled back to close the door. "I think it was the best thing he met Megan."

"And why so?" Dominic asked.

"They are friends now, he would never act like a jerk around her because she knows him. And it would do him good to have some sort of relationship with a girl longer than his normal relationships."

Even though Megan had have her doubts about how her cohabiting with the Fellowship was going, she had found it increasingly difficult to keep her distance, especially to Orlando. The boys pampered her, were annoying like bigger or smaller brothers but all in all she had the time of her life.

When they had to go on location shoot, Sean Astin's wife, Christine, had moved in with her and her adorable little baby daughter and the two women had spent many night just talking and musing about being related to an actor, or as in Christine's case, being the wife of an actor. Megan was glad that Christine was keeping her company, and for the first in a long time she felt happy and relaxed. During her university years, first as student and then later as junior tutor, she had not noticed that she was slowly but gradually shutting herself away in an intellectual ivory tower.

When Megan mentioned that to her, Christine had laughed and had told her that with being around Orli and the others she would always be intellectually challenged, though not on the same level as she was used from the university. Megan had to agree at that.

It had been a day or two shortly after she had gotten rid of the cast, when the boys came back. They had been all cheering her when they saw the electric blue brace on her knee which enabled her to move around more freely and yet gave her knee and muscles the support it still needed.

What Megan immediately noticed were the dark circles underneath Orli's eyes and after their small impromptu welcome home party, Megan had cornered him. Orlando was sleeping badly and just stressed out, that was what he said but Megan couldn't shake the feeling that he was not telling her all of the truth. After they had said good night to each other, they retired.

This went one for about a week, and Megan after being brushed off by an irritable Orlando for the umpteenth time, kept her mouth shut after that. They had all settled in their new routine, with her preparing breakfast while they got ready for a new day of filming and after they had gone, she would resume to work on her book. In the evenings they either stayed at home, reading, talking or just listening to music while playing cards.

Orlando was mostly tired, his cheerful self only peeking through the layers of tiredness and irritated behaviour from time to time but somehow the others didn't seem to notice.

One week later

Megan did not know why exactly she woke up but when she heard the muffled cry and then a thud, she immediately was wide awake. Over the passed few weeks she had grown accustomed to the sounds and noises in the house at night, and this was out of the ordinary. Straining her ears, she tried to calm the erratic beating of her heart. She heard someone move about above her.

Must be one of the guys, she thought then frowned when she remembered that it was Orli's room above her. Shrugging, she settled back into her pillow. Orlando had been out alone and obviously he had brought someone with him because she could distinctly hear him muttering. For a moment Megan closed her eyes and tried to suppress the sharp tugging pain, they had never spoken of their shared night together and while their road to friendship had been bumpy, she had tried to ignore the obvious flirting of Orli as well as their imposed closeness when she still had her cast.

'Megan, it is none of your business,' she told herself sternly and turned onto her side, unconsciously hugging herself as if she was cold. The muffled sounds had stopped above and Meg tried to shove the images of Orli together with someone else into the far back of her mind. She almost jumped when she felt a soft knock on her door.

"Meg?" a hoarse voice inquired, even though Megan immediately identified it as Orli's.

"Why are you still up?" Megan inquired as she heard her door opening, then closing again. Orli bumped into the edge of her bed and swore while Megan reached for the small lamp on her beside table and switched it on. The room got only minutely brighter but she was able to make out Orlando in nothing but a set of boxers.

"Can I talk to you for a bit?" he asked sheepishly, while he stood at the end of her bed, rubbing his neck thoughtfully.

"What time is it?" Megan asked and checked her alarm clock. "Shit, Orlando it is 3 AM in the morning."

"I know," Orli replied with a tired voice. Seeing the tired circles underneath his eyes, Megan sighed and scrambled to her knees. Ignoring her state of undress, she was just wearing her tank top and a set of panties, she moved over to where Orlando was still standing and pulled him onto the bed.

"Okay, what is it?" she asked, trying to keep an irritated tone out of her voice. 'What is he doing here when he has obviously company?'

With a sigh, Orli stretched out beside her on the bed, slipping between the sheets she had so easily abandoned. It looked like he had every intention to make himself comfortable.

Looking up at Megan who was still kneeling, he drew her to his side and tucked her head onto his shoulder.

"I missed you," he whispered and for a moment Megan held her breath before she exhaled softly.

"Missed you too, Orli," she started, then pushed herself up and looked down into his chocolate gaze. "Why are you here?"

"I can't sleep," he answered, then rubbed his eyes tiredly.

"Will you tell me?" Meg asked

"Tell you what, love?" Orli asked though he had an inkling what she meant. She looked at him seriously, and he hesitatingly continued. "I had a bad dream and woke up. I guess I fell out of the bed which didn't help with the nightmare at all."

Megan bit her lip when she imagined him falling out of the bed, but instantly sobered when she remembered that Orlando had a problem with falling, even small heights like from a bed.

"You had a nightmare again? About you falling?" she asked, and he nodded his head. "For how long?"

"You know I always get them when I'm stressed out, and it has gotten worse," he sighed and squeezed his eyes shut for a moment. "I don't know ... when I was back in England I got them again ... and ever since your ... your accident." He opened his eyes again and hefted his gaze on Megan. "Can I sleep here?"

"Of course, you big idiot," Megan replied and turned to switch off the lamp, snuggling into her pillow beside him, she allowed Orlando to wrap an arm around her.

"So how did the nightmare come about?" she asked and felt Orli shrugging against her then he drew her closer so that she was resting her head against his shoulder.

"You make a good cuddle-up bear, Meg," Orlando replied softly, his relaxed breathing already telling her he was half asleep. "You keep the nightmares away..."

Megan smiled sadly at that and relaxed against him, soon she was as peacefully asleep as Orli.

Two months later

Elijah was sitting on a boulder, real not fake like some others on the set, and was laughing with Megan. It was her second day on the set after Dom and him had persuaded her to come down to their little wilderness abode before she headed back to the UK. For three weeks her cast had been off and she had been living with them for about two months now but Megan had decided she had to return home and the boys had made this trip to the set their special treat.

Orli watched her. After their first and second sleep over in her bed, he had been a frequent visitor at nights and his sleeping problems had all but vanished. Even now when he lay alone in his trailer at nights, he had just to think of her and he could peacefully sleep through the night, with no nightmares.

Grinning he stepped closer while Viggo was out in his Aragorn attire, holding a huge state of the art camera up and snapping pictures. Orli mock scowled at him when he felt Viggo taking a shot of him and then resumed to watch Megan and her antics.

She was wearing a brace still but seeing her hobbling around, trying to get muscles worked up on her right leg again was a calming sight. There had been embarrassing moments but all of them had been taken in stride and he was glad Ian had come up with the idea of her actually staying with them.

Lij grinned when Meg almost snarfed the coke she was drinking and cackled evilly.

"See, that's what you get about belittling my Hobbit feet," Lij said and ducked when Meg wanted to clobber him over the head.

"Jesus, Lij, stop it, you'll kill me here, one more word about Hobbit feet and I am a goner," Megan gasped and tried to wipe her nose.

"Aye, Lij's famous fo' that, an' he has such wee and dainty lil' feet," Billy threw in as he walked up to the both of them. That sent them all laughing again and Megan, who had been trying to rub her aching leg, stumbled. Before she could fall though, two strong arms swept her up and she found herself pressed against Orli, in all his Elvish regalia.

Laughing she clung to him, their heads close, as he pretended to stagger under her weight.

"Lle tyava quel?"¹ Orli asked and Meg laughed at that. Frowning she tried to remember the right retort.

"Uma, diola lle,"² she responded and grinned when Orli burst out laughing.

"Ta nae'amin saesa,"³ he winked at her and let go of her legs slowly while he put her down on her feet again.

"Ah, I hate it when they speak Elvish," Dom commented. "We really should have taken classes as well. It's not fair .. think about all the chicks we could get with speaking in that tongue."

"I think Dom, you are already quite masterly with your tongue," Viggo shot back and they all laughed.

Megan looked at all of them and for a moment closed her eyes. Tomorrow was a day off for all of them, and the day when she took a flight back to England. Even though her whole holiday had taken longer than she had expected, all in all she had survived not only an embarrassing morning with Orli, but an accident that could have left her crippled as well as had gotten her the friendship of some of the most enigmatic actors.

Looking over her shoulder, she watched Orli as he laughed at Billy who tried to get away from Lij who was trying to kick him in the butt. She had to be grateful that their one night stand had turned into a very stable friendship.

Later that night there was a big farewell party in Viggo's trailer. Billy and Dominic had managed to buy alcohol and soft drinks and Dominic on Megan's arrival concocted a mean looking drink containing coke and red wine, called 'Korea'.

"You don't suppose I drink this, right?" Megan asked and wrinkled her nose.

"Of course, it was a great drink during my teens in Berlin," Dominic retorted and urged her on. Orli who had come up, beer in hand, laughed at Megan.

"I dare you, Meg," he said and hugged her from behind. "All of the Fellowship had to taste one of Dominic's concoctions. let alone his baking attempts ..."

"Attempts?" Dom asked and raised an eyebrow at Orlando. "It wasn't my fault the oven broke." All three laughed then Dominic motioned towards the glass in Meg's hand. "But Orli is right, every one of the Fellowship had to drink something ... so down the hatch!"

"Down the hatch," Megan saluted and drank the mix of red wine and coke. She grimaced after she had finished and took Orli's beer bottle and drank greedily. "Ugh, I need another drink."

All during the night they drank, talked or just listened to Viggo reciting his newest poems. It was quite late when most people were either asleep or had already left. Orli and Megan sat together listening to one of Viggo's more morose poems, when Lij got up and squatted beside them.

"See you tomorrow, guys," he said. "I'll hit the sack."

"Yeah, sure, mate, see you tomorrow," Orli replied while he hugged Megan close and watched Lij leave the trailer. "We should get to bed as well, Meg," he whispered against her ear and she nodded. Standing up and bidding the other's good night, they made their way over to Orli's trailer.

Neither could later relate how they ended up in bed together the way they did. They had been both more than tipsy and at first it had not bothered them, but as soon as they lay side by side each other, something had changed. Orli had bent over, giving Megan the customary peck on the cheek, but somehow his coordination was way off and instead of kissing her cheek, his lips landed squarely on Megan's mouth.

Orlando's nerve endings hit the roof when he felt Megan's soft lips beneath his own and without thinking he deepened the kiss and groaned when Megan opened her lips for his prying tongue. Rolling over onto her, he kissed her for all he was worth, his tongue battling with her as his hands re-acquainted themselves with the soft curves of her body.

Megan didn't know what was happening but Orli's hands on her body, on her hips and her breasts felt too good to make him stop. With a sexy groan coming deeply from her throat she wrapped her arms and legs around him, while she tried to breathe and kiss him at the same time.

"Oh Lord, Megan," Orli breathed in between kisses while his lips led a fiery trail from her mouth down to her throat and further down to her breasts, almost ripping her tank top in two in his eagerness to feel the soft pliant flesh beneath his fingers and tongue. "I want you."

Hearing the sexy moans that had driven him crazy the first time they had made love he increased his administrations, licking at her nipple one by one, before suckling and nipping at them.

She felt like liquid fire underneath him, and all he wanted to do was just bury himself deeply into her. One hand trailed down to her panties and when his fingers had found their target, finding her wet soft and ready, Orli groaned.

"Orli, please," Megan whispered beside his ear, one of her hands had found his erection and was slowly stroking him through the materials of the boxers. With one swift movement, she pulled them down, gasping when hot flesh met hot flesh and she moved restlessly beneath him.

He slipped her tank top over her head and tossed it away before he positioned himself on top of her. His whole body was aching to be inside her, to just feel the bliss he had so many weeks ago. Propping himself up he looked down on the flushed woman beneath him when something snapped in his mind.

This woman was his friend, it screamed inside his mind. 'She is the first close woman friend and you are about to muck it up!'

Panting open mouthed, Orli blinked. He was instantly sober, and stared down at Megan who was writhing sexily beneath him.

"FUCK!" he cried, and rolled off her, covering his face with his hands, as he tried to get his raging erection under control. 'God, what am I doing here?' he asked himself. 'Given our track record, she will regret everything in the morning and then I'll never see her again. She is leaving tomorrow and I don't want to lose her - I need her ....'

With a swift motion, Orli stood up and dragged some cargo pants over his legs, then took his heavy ski jacket and left her. He couldn't face her now, he felt too ashamed.

Moments ticked by until Megan had caught her breath and the drumming of her heart had decreased. 'Oh my God, I almost did it again,' it screamed inside her head and made her instantly sober. With a groan that sounded more like a sob, she curled up on her side, and tried to figure out why she had almost made love to Orli again, when it was clear that they were just friends.

'Because you don't want to be just friends, Megan,' a taunting voice answered her question in her mind. 'You are far too gone to be just friends with Orlando, and you didn't even see it coming.'

With a sigh, Megan sat up in her bed and after she had dressed herself in sweats and a heavy Arran sweater, she pulled the duvet from the bed and opened to door. Orli sat on the last step to the trailer and flinched when he heard her behind her. Softly she padded down beside him on bare feet, then sat down on the step.

"Hi," she said softly, holding out her hand to the cigarette he was smoking.

With a shuddering breath Orli exhaled and handed over the fag while whispering, "hi," back softly.

"I'm sorry for what happened," he said and tried to catch a look of her face from the corners of his eyes. They sat so close that he could feel Megan shiver and without thinking he moved and put the duvet cover around her shoulders, tugging her in.

"Me too," Megan said after a while and when she looked up she could see tears in his eyes. "What happened to us back there?"

Orli shrugged, flicking away the cigarette stub he had handed back to him. They both watched the red glowing tip as it arched into the darkness and then died in a hiss on the wet ground.

"I'm really sorry for what happened, Meg," he said and turned to look into her eyes that seemed huge in the pale moonlight. "We are friends, and I don't want to lose that, I don't want to lose us ..."

"Me neither, Orli," Megan replied softly, shivering in the cold. Out of habit Orli wrapped his arm around her waist and drew her near and after an awkward moment, Megan relaxed against his side and put her head on his shoulder.

Both were deeply engrossed in their own thoughts as they smoked and watched the sky turning from almost black to blue to a fiery red and then orange as day crept slowly over the sky and with it their last morning together.

So this is it ... another transitional chapter. :D

1 - Do you feel well?
2 - Yes, thank you
3 - My pleasure