"I don't want to seem like we're ganging up on him," Billy replied. He sat back on the sofa, but continued to hold out the hand with the straws. "And Orli's not gonna do it. I can't even talk to him anymore at all. He's been quiet, pre-occupied. It's a bit worrisome." "So, you talk to Dom and I'll talk to Orli. Maybe we can figure things out from both angles," Elijah suggested. "I've actually already talked to Viggo about doing that. They're filming on the South Island starting tomorrow. The two of them have grown close. Orli might talk to him." "This is just..." Elijah trailed off, took a nervous drag off his cigarette. "It just seems so silly. We've always been able to talk to Dom." "That was before." They were both silent for a long moment. It was true -- Dom had changed. And it went beyond the fact that he'd stopped hanging out with the other Hobbits, beyond the fact that he'd moved in with Karl. He was fundamentally different -- more focused, more calm -- with a darker edge that repelled as much as it attracted. He wasn't predictable anymore, didn't seem to laugh as easily, open up at all. It was eerie, spooky, like someone had replaced Dom with a replicant. He portrayal of Merry had also shifted. He was no longer the easy-going one, the prankster -- now Merry's scenes seemed to be infused with a certain intensity, a clarity of purpose that had Peter and Fran raving about character development, but worried Elijah and Billy to death. This wasn't a Merry they knew anymore. And it certainly wasn't a Dom they knew anymore. Finally Elijah just closed his eyes and grabbed a straw out of Billy's hand. He opened them, looked down -- the short straw. Go figure. Billy let out a long breath that sounded suspiciously like a sigh of relief. "I don't know how I'm going to get him away from Karl," Elijah mused. He took another drag, tried to slow his racing heart. "He's not a monster," Billy replied easily. "Got to be something good in him if Dommie's so hooked." "I think hooked might be the best word for it, actually. Have you ever tried looking into Karl's eyes?" Elijah shuddered. "I don't imagine most people could ever refuse him anything." "Look, this isn't about Karl. It's about Dommie. And if Orli won't go and talk to him, then we've got to do it. Something's changed. And I want to know what it is." Elijah nodded. Yeah, Billy was right. Someone had to find out what was going on. And he'd do it. But Elijah knew that Billy was also wrong. This had everything to do with Karl. * * * Okay, he could do this. He could. He was Elijah Wood. Frodo Baggins. The personification of all that was courageous. Except, of course, that Frodo had kind of failed at the end there. Okay, stop it. You can do this. It's just Dommie. Your mate, your friend. Elijah lit up a cigarette with nervous fingers, watched Dom and Karl leave the make-up trailer, hand in hand. "So, what do you want to do tonight?" Karl asked in that low voice that never failed to make Elijah's heart stutter. It should be illegal to have that much charisma. Dom leaned against Karl. "Night's almost over...nearly 2 a.m." A yawn accompanied Dom's last words. "You need to go to bed, then." "As long as you're with me." Now or never, Elijah thought, and stepped forward from his hidden position next to the outer trailer wall. "Dom?" Both he and Karl turned. Elijah just stood there, cigarette still dangling from nervous fingers. "Can I talk to you please?" Elijah jerkily drew his cigarette up to his mouth, inhaled, tried to calm down. "Sure," Dom shrugged. Elijah's wide eyes flicked to Karl, back to Dom. "Um, alone. Please." He said the last word to Karl. Karl fixed Elijah with a long look that had Elijah shuffling his feet, looking down at the pavement. How did anyone ever meet those eyes for any length of time? It was like he could see into your soul, all the black corners of it. Spooky. "Of course," Karl finally said, smiling. He raised Dom's hand to his lips, placed a soft, slow kiss on it. "I'll meet you at the car." Elijah visibly relaxed as soon as Karl had sauntered out of sight, heading to the parking lot at the far end of the complex. Elijah ground his cigarette out beneath his boots. "I don't know how you do it," he commented to Dom. "Do what?" "Concentrate when he's around." Elijah began fidgeting, waving his hands as he always did when he was making a point. "He scares the hell out of me." "He does have that effect," Dom replied, tone maddeningly non-committal. This wasn't going well. "I guess that's part of the attraction, isn't it?" "Do you really want me to talk about this with you?" "I just want you to talk to me. We used to talk." "Was there a point here?" "Um, yeah. Yeah, there was." Elijah stared down at his scuffed shoes for a long moment, trying to gather up some kind of inner strength. How could one person, one friendship, change so much in such a short period of time? Elijah didn't even know this person anymore, and wasn't sure he really wanted to. He just wanted his old Dommie back, wanted things to be the way they used to be. "You haven't been around much lately," he finally said, looking up into that normally smiling face. And found only a stranger. "No, I haven't." "We've missed you." "I'm sorry," Dom replied. But he didn't sound very sorry at all. He sounded almost...perfunctory. Like it was something he was expected to say, as opposed to something he normally would say. Okay, time for drastic measures. "Do you remember the beach house?" Dom's eyes clouded with confusion and, for one horrified second, Elijah was positive Dom was going to turn to him and deny that pure afternoon at the beach house morning room, deny anything had ever happened between them, deny the hours spent in lazy exploration of each other's bodies. "Yes," Dom finally replied, though the word was very drawn out. "I remember you tasted very young." Elijah reached up to brush a light kiss on Dom's lips. Perhaps Dom would respond to the physical closeness they'd once shared, since the mental aspect was a total bust. "You were my first man." "Was I?" "I didn't want to tell you. Wasn't sure if you and Orli were doing bonus points for virgins." The statement surprised a laugh out of Dom, and it scared Elijah to think how long it had been since he'd heard that once-familiar sound. "We didn't have that elaborate of a system going," Dom told him, still smiling. "And here I was thinking we were both keeping it so secret." "Nothing's secret on this set," Elijah said. "I suppose that's true. For most." Encouraged by Dom's easy smile and relaxed stance, Elijah moved in closer. "Do you have a secret?" He brushed another kiss against Dom's lips. Dom pushed Elijah back with a hand to his chest. "Don't do this. I don't want to hurt you." Elijah continued to press forward, trying to get through, trying to understand this man who'd once been one of his very best friends. "You could never hurt me." "Don't be so sure." With a swiftness that surprised Elijah, Dom pinned him against the side of the building, his chest pressing into Elijah's, thighs molded to his own. "Is this what you want?" Dom asked him. In the low light from the street corner, Dom's gray eyes looked almost hazel. "You want me to give you dark pleasures, show you what Karl's taught me, fuck up your little safe world? Do you?" Mute, trapped, barely understanding how things could change so fast, knowing that the wrong word would only make things worse, Elijah just shook his head in a jerky motion. "I'm not the same man anymore," Dom continued, brushing Elijah's cheeks with those once safe, familiar hands. Elijah shivered, hating the different feel of them, yet wanting the contact, unable to look away from those eyes. "And I'll break you if I get the chance," Dom said, continuing to fix Elijah with a hard stare. "What are you talking about?" Dom took a deep breath, stepped back. Elijah almost begged for him to press up against him again. Scary that he would even want this Dom to touch him. "You need to leave," Dom said. "Trust me." "But, I..." Elijah tried to recapture the moment before, when Dom had almost seemed himself, when things had seemed right once more. "Trust me." The tone was harsh, but the kiss Dom planted on Elijah's forehead was gentle. "You're a good friend," he added. "But I don't need you anymore." Karl. And, so suddenly, so clearly that Elijah wasn't quite sure how he missed it, he understood. Dom was never going to be the same. He'd been waiting his whole life for Karl, for what Karl could give him. The Dom that he'd known was the façade. This was the real Dom. "I understand," Elijah said, ignoring the lump in his throat. He could cry later. "I'll be here if you change your mind." "I won't." And Dom bestowed one last sunny smile on him and walked away. He didn't look back. Elijah didn't expect him to. Onto Part Nineteen
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