Disclaimer: Middle-earth and all its peoples belong to the Tolkien Estate.  I own none of them.  Some of them, however, seem to own me.

GRIEF

“…and so you decided you would walk all the way to Bag End?” Bilbo put his arms around the sobbing Frodo, and drew him close. He breathed in the lad’s pain.

Four years. Four years had not been enough to erase the pain that hung behind those once joyful blue eyes. Four years had yet to make any difference whatsoever. Why was it taking so long? And when would they stop thinking that an old bachelor like him could not know anything about taking care of a child?

It was not the child that needed care. It was the pain.