A/N: The character of Glory and this interpretation of Berilac are borrowed from Glory Underhill's "Glory's Story" series, posted on her Livejournal, in which both characters are clock makers.

All in Good Time

“A watch that runs backwards?” Glory peered closely at the watch’s face, frowning. It was pristine, showing no sign of damage. There was no visible reason why it was running so strangely at all. She handed it to Berilac to inspect.

“It doesn’t always run backwards,” Pippin explained. “Sometimes it stops completely, although it always starts again, eventually. Other times it runs normally, or sometimes even faster than it should.”

“When did this start?” Beri asked, returning the watch to Glory.

“I only noticed it- well, just a few months ago.” Pippin’s eyes were wide and hopeful as he glanced between Glory and Beri. “Could you look at it? Please?”

“This watch is very important to Pippin,” Merry said quietly, speaking for the first time since he and Pippin had come seeking their advice. “I remember when you fixed Frodo’s watch, Glory. I’d never seen him happier.”

Glory clicked the watch shut, and with the edge of a fingernail she traced the words Pippin, with love, Frodo engraved on the back before nodding.

“We’ll do our best,” she promised.

They took the watch apart and cleaned it. But when they put it back together it ran as it had before, ticking slowly at times and faster at others, its hands moving ahead as often as they went backwards.

Again they took apart the watch. This time they replaced the mechanisms with ones from another watch that they knew were working properly- and to their surprise, they discovered that now the watch did not work at all. The hands remained stubbornly still, and it was only after they returned the original gears to it did the watch tick again.

“We did all that we could,” Glory said when they returned it to Pippin some weeks later, at their next visit to Brandy Hall.

“I just can’t understand it,” Beri said. He smiled apologetically. “If I didn’t know any better I’d think it was bewitched.”

“I’ve wondered that myself,” Pippin admitted quite cheerfully for someone whose watch was still broken. When he snapped it open and saw the bigger hand slowly creeping backwards before coming to a stop he laughed and held it up for Merry to see.

“What do you think of my broken watch now, Merry?” he asked, still grinning. “Will you finally admit that I’m right?”

“I think it’s all rather unbelievable still,” his cousin answered. He glanced at the watch and shook his head. “And yet, time did move so strangely in Rivendell and Lothlórien…”

Pippin nodded happily and studied the watch. “According to this, Frodo and Bilbo are just about have their supper,” he said.

“What don’t we join them?” Merry offered.

Pippin clicked the watch shut and slipped it into his pocket before linking arms with his cousin. “Why Merry, that’s the best idea you’ve had all morning!”

After thanking a very bewildered Glory and Beri for their trouble, the cousins left the room, heading to the kitchen. As their voices faded down the hall Glory recalled Merry’s suggestion and shook her head. Supper less than an hour after second breakfast!

“Brandybucks,” she huffed.

Berilac lit his pipe and shrugged. “Tooks,” he replied succinctly.

*And just to explain things further, Berilac is of course a Brandybuck, and Glory is half-Took :)