"Everything" by Tialys (elfgirl06@yahoo.com)

Disclaimer: I do not own The Lord of the Rings, New Line Cinema, or the song "Everything".

Note: The song used throughout this story is from the song "Everything" from the Smallville soundtrack.

"Merry?"

Meriadoc Brandybuck turned groggily to face the source of the sleepy question, his lass, Estella Bolger.

"Hm?" Merry breathed, still too woven in sleep's grasp to construct a true sentence. He and Estella were curled up comfortably in one of the larger armchairs of Brandy Hall; a toasty fire crackling serenely before them. Merry tightened his embrace encircling Estella's waist, burying his face in her soft curls and breathing in deeply. Estella smelled of cinnamon.

"Merry, sing the song for me." Estella breathed the last words out in the form of a sigh rich with contentment, nestling against Merry's chest.

"What song, Stella?"

"The one you sang that winter your family visited and we went walking after that large snowfall."

Merry remembered that winter well. His family had not planned to stay at the Bolger's for such an amount of time, but the impending snow offered no other options at travelling. Merry and Estella had taken many walks around the snow-topped hills near the Bolger's hole. One particular day, after the night of the Shire's most widespread blizzard, he and Estella had ascended one of the hills and climbed the large oak located there. They had stayed up there most of the afternoon with a picnic basket for company, talking of any and everything, and it was there that Merry had sung an ancient hobbit lullaby to Estella, proudly claiming it as 'their song'.

"Sing it, Merry."

Merry groaned playfully. "Now?"

Estella grinned, knowing Merry couldn't see her, and nodded so he could feel it. "Yes."

Merry let out a long mournful moan, pushing his face deeper into Estella's hair and muttering 'no' again and again.

"Merry." Estella punched him lightly in the stomach before settling down again. "Sing it."

Merry sighed, smiling into her hair, and began singing quietly, almost as a whisper, into her pointed ear.

"You're all I want.

You're all I need.

You're everything--

Everything.

You're all I want.

You're all I need.

You're everything--

...Everything."

The old inn located in Tookland was especially crowded that night. Hobbits packed into the building, all clamoring at the bar for a drink for themselves and their lasses. Peregrin Took, being the heir to the Thain, quickly received his two mugs and slipped through the mob of thirsty hobbits back to his table and Diamond. He and Diamond had truly only just met the night before, but had agreed to meet again at the inn for a drink. Diamond was excellent company and Pippin was already planning out how exactly to ask her to meet him again. Simply inviting with a question was not acceptable; not for Peregrin Took, future Took and Thain. No, this had to be done differently.

Pippin's brain was spinning within the hour; the combination of drink and Diamond's company was enough already, but now numerous ideas for how to go about the act of inviting Diamond to the Smials were pressing for admittance to the front of his mind, which was already struggling to stay aware and concentrate on Diamond.

They chatted companionably for what must have been hours, both having a few mugs each, Pippin more than Diamond. By the end of the evening the crowd of hobbits in the inn had died down to a more comfortable number, making navigation of the inn possible again. But the evening was not important because of the number of hobbits but because of the exhilarating feeling Pippin was experiencing -- he knew how to ask her.

Influenced either by drink, Diamond, or both -- he was not exactly sure -- Pippin took a last gulp of ale, clapped his mug on the table and leapt from his chair. Diamond had no time to question Pippin's actions before she was turned speechless by the hobbit's next apparent itinerary.

Quickly and quite gracefully -- for one who had drunk so much -- Pippin stepped up first to an empty chair, then up to the table, whistling sharply to gain the already accumulated attention of those present.

"Friends!" Pippin was careful to keep his speech from slurring. Diamond had to know he was serious and not simply drunk, though he had a vague guess he was. "I shan't take up your time long, but I have things to do!" Here he turned to the frozen Diamond, winking and throwing her a roguish grin. "I have noticed tonight that none have seemingly received enough drink to be so compelled as to sing anything, and I know it is common knowledge that only I and my cousin are gifted enough in voice to attempt such feats," he winked again, this time to the chuckling audience of hobbits. "Merry is, sadly, not here tonight, but... never the less! I shan't deprive you of your expected performance. I have a small song to sing. I'm afraid I have forgotten the tune, but nagging memory tells me the tune was quite slow and unexciting anyway!" The hobbits chuckled again at this, Diamond finally -- as Pippin noticed -- relaxing enough to smile at the antics. Pippin knelt for a moment on the table, leaning in towards Diamond, who also inclined forward to catch the words.

"For you, love."

Pippin straightened, leaving Diamond blushing in her seat, and carefully positioned himself in the middle of the table and began. Most hobbits recognized the old hobbit lullaby, though with quite a different tune. His attention, however, was not on his achieved audience of hobbits but on his audience of one; and Pippin's heart soared as his lass, though still blushing brightly, smiled at the familiar song.

"You're all I want.

You're all I need.

You're everything--

Everything.

You're all I want.

You're all I need.

You're everything--

...Everything."

The soft sound of crying broke through the gentle quiet of Bag End, wrenching its inhabitants from peaceful sleep. Samwise Gamgee groaned in the sudden absence of rest, the sound of his little Elanor's clamor filling the hole. He felt his wife Rose stir beside him in an attempt to rise only to be jostled where he lay when she fell back against the mattress. He grinned in his half-sleep and rolled carefully out of bed.

"I'll get her."

Sam stumbled slowly down the hall, careful to not trip in the dark passage, and made his way towards Elly's room; hoping her cries had not woken his master.

Elanor's room was the smaller one next to his and Rose's. They would move her to a larger room when she was older, but the small room suited well as a nursery. Small toys and blankets scattered the floor as Sam cautiously navigated the path to his daughter's crib. He scooped her up carefully and wrapped her in a blanket from her small wooden crib. Rocking her gently in his embrace, Sam made his way back through the room and down the hall to the sitting room, settling himself and Elanor in a rocking chair.

He hummed a lullaby to her quietly, finding himself singing an old song his mother used to sing. A few lines of the gentle song found Elanor asleep again, curled in Sam's arms. Sam smiled, kissing his child's soft baby-curls, and stood, making his way, again, back to the nursery.

He returned to his and Rose's room after settling Elly down and slid back under the welcomed quilts. Rose sighed and rolled over to him, pressing her head into his shoulder.

"Thank you, Sam." She murmured sleepily.

"You're welcome."

"That lullaby works quite well."

"Aye. My mother used to sing it."

"Sing it to me?"

Sam smiled and rolled over, wrapping his arms around Rose and singing in a whisper into her ear.

"You're all I want.

You're all I need.

You're everything--

Everything.

You're all I want.

You're all I need.

You're everything--

...Everything."

A single candle flickered mournfully on the floor of Bag End's master bedroom. The fireplace sat cold and dark at the far end of the room, with the candle the greatest distance away from the small stack of neatly placed firewood by the bolted door. Wavering shadows fell against the room's back wall, silhouetting the figure huddled beside the tiny dying flame. Frodo Baggins, ring-bearer, hero of Middle-earth sat on the floor of the freezing room, eyes fixed undyingly in the dwindling flame before him. Leaves rustled only a distance of ten feet away with only glass separating the hobbit from the world... but it seemed a thousand leagues away to the ring-bearer.

Frodo's breathing was a silent, steady pulse in the darkness. The only evidence attributing to the notion that he did indeed live, and was not frozen by time and more. Finally, a movement was caught in the candle-cast shadow. Frodo, slowly, as though in the trance-like dream of the dying, lifted his left hand to cradle his right. Fingers brushed against scar tissue and the hero of Middle-earth shuddered, though this too in slow motion. The shaking fingers lifted to the scar again, gently feeling what was not there. The digits of the right hand trembled in mourning for their lost companion and, faintly, sobbing could be heard in the silence.

As a single tear fell from his eyes, Frodo's vision twisted and blurred. Eyes once so strongly fixed on the candle glazed over, becoming unfocused and glassy, and the ring-bearer's sight changed. No single burst of light invaded his dark visage. There was only It.

The ring hung fastened in his mind, as if still hung by chain links. It spun and twirled before Frodo's bespelled eyes, catching the reflection of unseen lights in its depths.

And the song. Eru! The song. It floated in gentle waves from the ring, calling, beckoning, taunting with all its collected might. And the ring-bearer, using his last defense, too began to sing; a simple lullaby of his childhood, often used by familiar voices to fight away the darkness. It began sweetly, and for one blessed moment the hobbit smiled in victory well earned. But the words were wrong. No! Oh Elbereth, why that song... Too late to stop his whispered singing, the quiet yet piercing song drove through all sanity he once possessed and Frodo wept openly as the song he himself chose played on. The night heard none of the words sung to it, so quietly the ring-bearer sang. But it finally became to great, and as his voice broke and wavered with sobs, the night caught the final repetition of the song's innocent horror, and the ring laughed.

"You're all I want.

You're all I need.

You're everything--

...Everything."

March 20, 2004

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