Chapter Text
She always did hate the holidays. It always just made her sad. She was an only child and her parents died when she was ten. Her intelligence was recognized while she was in the foster care system, and now she was a prestigious trauma surgeon at the age of 26. However, her intelligence put people off, so she didn’t really have friends and her work schedule was so insane that she didn’t have any pets either. If she was being honest with herself, the hospital felt more like home than her own apartment most nights.
Working wasn’t the only thing she did, though, she had hobbies. She was a marksman in throwing knives and in archery. She even went to competitions on occasion when she could get away from work. She also knew how to fish and hunt, but those were lessons that she had not used since she was a little girl learning it from her father. Her difficulty with people wasn’t that she couldn’t communicate with them, it was she just didn’t really have time to keep the relationships. Everyone that she met never really understood that being a doctor was who she was. It wasn’t just a job to her, so she was usually alone.
It was the beginning of November, and it was freezing outside and snowing. She had just come off of a 36 hour shift and had been heading to her car when her terrible accident occurred. Tired and cold, she fumbled with her keys, dropping them in the middle of the parking lot. A car had hit a sheet of black ice, and the driver had lost control of the car completely, barreling right for her. All she really remembered were the bright headlights and the sound of tires screeching before nothing. She died instantly on impact.
When she woke up, she was very confused. White light surrounded her and directly in front of her were ethereal creatures. Their beauty was otherworldly and she found it a little difficult to look at them. It was enchanting and terrifying to look at. It was loud and silent at the same time in this strange place, which confused her greatly. Time didn’t seem to matter, it could have been days or minutes before one of them spoke. They alternated in speaking, but she couldn’t tell the difference between them.
“Before you, is a choice. You were taken from your world too soon, but you achieved much in your short time. You are a brilliant doctor, and we are giving you a chance to be so again. You will not be able to go back to your world, unfortunately, but to another world entirely.”
She was very confused. Where was she? And who were these ethereal people? She never spoke out loud, but they answered her questions anyways.
“We are the Valor and you are in a limbo of sorts. You are dead, but you currently have a choice between moving on or going to another world. It is rare that we do this, but not unheard of.”
She contemplated this for a while. What is this world like? Will I be accepted as a doctor?
“This world is called Middle Earth and it is where your world was sometime in your 12th century in terms of technology. There are many different races: Elves, dwarves, man, goblins, orcs, wizards to name a few. Magic is real in this world, and it is on the cusp of a war between good and evil. Your services as a doctor would save many in the coming war. Doctors are called healers there. If you accept, we will replace your knowledge on medications with the proper herbal concoctions that will do similar things with less negative side effects. We know you were alone in your world, but you will find the one that is meant for you in Middle Earth.”
All of this surprised her and it was a lot to take in. She didn’t take long to think it over before she gave her answer. Yes, I would like to go to Middle Earth. Hearing that she could help more people and continue practicing medicine, she completely disregarded all logic and following questions like, will I be able to understand people, and How am I going to explain my presence? She just wanted to help, and if she could do that in Middle Earth, she wanted to go there.
She didn’t get a verbal response from the Valor. She blinked and when she opened her eyes again, she was on the cold ground surrounded by trees. Her clothes were changed to a plain brown dress with what looked like a simple bodice, but they were thin and worn. Around her neck she found her mother’s necklace, which she was very grateful for. If there was one thing that she would have liked to bring with her, it was this necklace. It was an intricate design of celtic knots that had been passed down from her mother’s side through the generations. Water could be heard not far away along with the normal sounds of the outdoors. The ground was rocky and had sporadic ground cover patches, making it not very comfortable to sleep on. She got up off the ground and dusted herself off then continued to look around. Standing is when she realized she didn’t have any shoes. Lovely. Walking on this ground should be fun.
She didn’t see anyone around so she picked a direction and started walking. It had been about midday when she had woken up, so she knew it had been several hours of walking before she heard suspicious rusling around her. She suddenly become hyper aware of the lack of weapons or anything to defend herself with aside from maybe a rock on the ground. There was a moment when she realized there was danger, then everything happened really fast after that.
Out jumped several disgusting, twisted creatures surprising her. They yell-growled as they rushed her and she tried to run but they caught her making her fall hard to the ground. The resulting struggle was more like grappling but there was three against one. She remembers getting a few kicks and elbows in but her energy was fading fast and they were winning. Out of nowhere, a man starting to attach the creatures with his sword. His attack diverted the creatures attention to him, leaving her alone long enough to crawl away from the battle in front of her. The man was fast and very effective. In seconds, the attack was over and the creatures were dead. Fear and adrenaline was coursing through her still and seeing the powerful man with black blood on his cloths and his sword still dripping in it was not helping her calm down at all.
She had tried to hide herself during the battle, but now that the sounds of yelling, weapons clashing, and dying had quieted, her backwards shuffling could be heard. He had just finished cleaning off his sword when he heard the rustle of the bush she had brushed against when she tried to burrow deeper in her hiding spot. He was quick on the defense again, looking like a fierce warrior with his sword now gleaming at the ready. He scanned the area before he locked on to her location. Seeing that he knew where she was made her give an involuntary whimper and tried to burrow herself further into the brush and against the tree. Hearing the whimper made him pause and lower his weapon out of the defensive position. She wasn’t very well hidden, so when he walked a little closer, he could see that it was a frighten woman in the brush. He quickly put away his sword and tried to make himself seem more approachable with his hands coming up slightly in front of himself in a placating gesture.
“Easy.” he said. “I mean you no harm, but you must come out. We should not linger here, orcs usually travel in larger packs then this.” He had been steadily getting closer to her while he spoke and only stopped when he was two feet away. He leaned down a little and held out his hand to her to help her up. “Please. We really must leave.”
She had stopped trying to disappear into the tree while he spoke, but still felt wary of him. He was a complete stranger, and she had consistent bad experiences with strangers. However, she could see his point, they really should get out of there. Aches and pains were starting to surface, so, despite not wanting to be so close that she could touch him right now, she took his offered hand to help her up. Standing told her just how many bruises she had accumulated in the scuffle, along with cuts. Her dress was messy and torn and her feet felt like they were about to start bleeding. She could only imagine how her hair and face looked if how muddy her dress was anything to go by.
She didn’t say anything to him, but when she was standing she let go of him and nodded her head in thanks. He just nodded back and they were off. They walked the remaining few hours of daylight before they came upon a small clearing with the river not far from it. “We’ll stop here for the night.” He said to her which she nodded back to him. She then went over to find firewood and herbs to aid in healing. While walking, she noticed that the warrior had been hurt and even if it had been just a graze, those weapons did not look sanitary and she was determined to clean it up. She came back with the firewood first and spotted a bowl he had temporarily taken out of his pack to access other things. She needed something to put the herbs she found in, so she snatched it up and quickly left before he could stop her. She was back in less than five minutes with the bowl full and with some wood that she thought she could fashion as a mortar and pestle for the time being.
He had started a fire by the time she had come back. When she settles not far from the fire, he goes over to her and hands her a dagger. “Here. I am going to go hunt, I shouldn’t be long.” She looked at him for a long minute before she took the dagger and nodded her head to him again. With that, he turned and went into the forest. While he was gone, she made quick work of making some decent bandages. She put water on to boil, then preceded to rip up her already destroyed dress skirt some. It had been fairly long, covering her feet from view, but now her skirt was mid calf. She washed the strips of material in the river the best she could before she dumped them in the boiling water above the fire. With those boiling, she turned back to fashioning her mortar and pestle and rigged up a way to dry the bandages over the fire quickly. She did the rigging first, then found a rock to smooth the chunk of wood she found that already had a good size hole in it. Then she carefully took the bandages out and laid them across the rigging to quickly dry, then dumped the water and cleaned the cauldron she used before returning it back to his pack. She meticulously laid out the herbs that she needed dried, before she went back to the mortar. Not much more then ten minutes had gone by before she took the bandages off the rigging and took the rigging down to use as firewood.
He came back when she was finishing rolling up the last bandages with two rabbits in hand. He looks a little quisical at the rolled bandages she placed on top of his pack so they would not get dirty before she used them. He didn’t ask, though, so she didn’t explain and they continued with their respective tasks. She finished her mortar and pestle when he finished gutting and skinning the rabbits and had dinner well under way. She finished prepping her herbs, then sat and watched him for a second before getting up and moving over to him and sitting beside him. She had his dagger in her hands and she handed it back over to him.
“Thank you. And thank you for saving my life, earlier.” He accepted the thanks and dagger with a nod. “What is your name? Who are you?” He looked in deep contemplation for a moment before he answered her.
“I am Aragorn, though I am more widely known as Strider. I am a Ranger of the North. Who are you?”
“My name is Patience and I am a healer.” He doesn’t really look all that satisfied, but nods his head in acceptance.
“How did you come to these woods? And alone at that?”
“I wasn’t traveling with anyone, if that is your meaning, but I do not even know where these woods are, nor do I know how I got here.” Neither of those were a lie, either. She had no idea where she was or how the Valor had sent her to those woods. That’s about when she noticed he had intense steele-blue eyes with a wicked unimpressed and suspicious look that it almost made her smile.
“You are in the northern outskirts of Trollshaws forest. There is a Ranger’s outpost in Rhudaur not far from here. I was headed that way to restock supplies. We should be there in three, maybe four days.” Knowing where she was gave her some comfort, even if she had no idea where that was in relation to anything. She nodded her head, though, as if the explanation gave her an understanding of those locations. Dinner was ready then, and they amicably ate in silence. They didn’t speak again until dinner was cleaned up and she had her poultices and teas ready.
“Take off your shirt, let me see your arm.” She said while walking over to him with her poultices and bandages at the ready. He gave her a look like she was crazy so she huffed at him. “I know you are wounded. I am a healer. Now let me see to the damage.”
He tried to shrug her off. “It’s just a scratch.” but she was insistent.
“Let. Me. See.” It was his turn to huff at her, but he stripped off his clothes all the same to expose a rather deep and jagged slice in his arm that was still bleeding a little. She frowned at it and prodded for a moment before she handed him one of the teas. “This is very deep. You need stitches. Drink that, it will help with the pain. Do you have a mending kit with you?” He nodded and retrieved the kit for her, then reluctantly drank the tea. She fished out the needle and sterilized it with fire as best as she could while he finished the tea. She then proceeded to thoroughly clean the wound before stitching it up a bit, putting a disinfectant poultice on it, then bandaging it up. Neither said anything during the whole process and he never flinched once. She handed him another tea. “Here, this one speeds up the healing process. All done.” She then busied herself with cleaning up, completely ignoring him redressing and his nod in thanks. So when he spoke, it came as a surprise.
“Where are your shoes?” She world around on him and blinked a few times, startled, before she answered him.
“I have none.” Confusion and incredulousness warred on his face.
“You have been walking through these woods barefoot?” She nodded in confirmation slowly, still very confused by his reaction. She had been walking around for hours without shoes and he hadn’t said anything about it until now. Come to think of it, she should probably take a look at her feet, they really stung. He took the decision away from her, though. “Let me see your feet. The woods isn’t a place to be running around barefoot.” She hadn’t moved away from him yet, so he reached over and grabbed one of her feet and pulled it towards him. She squeaked at being manhandled but he ignored it and frowned at the foot. Then he compared it to her other foot. “You have several cuts on them. They need to be cleaned and bandaged. Don’t move, I’ll get the supplies needed.” With that, he was up and moving about the camp site collecting what he needed, but not before he draped his cloak over her shoulders. He saw her shiver while he was inspecting her feet and assumed that she was cold. The night had grown colder and Patience had no idea how cold she had gotten until he was touching her. His touch sent shoots of blazing heat through her, which made the rest of her shiver.
He made quick work on cleaning and bandaging her feet. They hadn’t said anything to each other until he was done and he was the one to break it. “Why do you not have any shoes?” She could feel a light blush stain her cheeks.
“I don’t know. I woke up in the woods without any shoes. I was wondering if I could use the rabbit skin to make something to cover my feet, but I do not wish to impose. You have done more than enough for me.” She wrapped the cloak tighter around herself. Now that her patient was well and the adrenaline was wearing off, she realized that she was freezing and exhausted. She tried to stifle a yawn, but was unsuccessful. He had been watching her carefully for any sign of deceit, so he saw the yawn.
“You can fashion something tomorrow. It is late and tomorrow will be a long day. Sleep.” She just nodded at him and snuggled down right where she was at. The cloak was large and acted at a cocoon which she fell instantly asleep in.