~Two~

“Oh, look Sam,” said Rosie coming through the front door of Bag End.

Josephine slowly slipped out from underneath little Frodo’s head.

“The darlings are asleep,” Rosie ended with a smile. Her children slept peacefully on as Sam, Rosie and Josephine walked into the kitchen.

“How were the children?” Rosie asked.

“They were rather good, but there are a few things you should know…”

Sam and Rosie waited for her to continue.

“They made a bit of a mess in the kitchen and I cleaned it up just fine, but while I was cleaning the mess up Frodo and Elanor were playing tag, and Elanor says that Frodo saw something… I don’t know what that means. Anyway, Frodo-lad was seemingly pretty frightened and ran to hide, but in doing so he accidentally broke your lovely vase. I’m really sorry. I saved the pieces in the study in case you wanted to repair it.”

“Thank you for telling us. I know the children can be a bit of a handful and we don’t blame you for any of it,” Sam said, smiling gently at the girl.

Rosie nodded. “We can see that they like you, and Rose seems to have taken to you.”

Jo looked down at the baby hobbit in her arms, she was afraid that if she set the child down she’d wake up.

“We would love to have you again,” Sam finished for his wife, who had taken Baby Rose from Jo and went to put the three in bed.

“Any time you need me I’d be happy to help,” Jo said with a smile.

* * *

Sam entered Frodo-lad’s room shortly after Josephine left and found the child sitting up in bed, gazing across the room at nothing in particular.

“Are you all right, lad?” Sam asked.

Frodo nodded. “I’m all wight now, Da. Is Uncle Fwodo all wight?”

“I believe so,” Sam said, his stomach learching suddenly, wondering exactly what his son had seen.

“He didn’t look happy.” Tears welled in the boy’s eyes. He never liked it when hobbits weren’t happy. He knew somehow it wasn’t right. Sam pulled his son into his arms.

“What happened?”

“He was cwying. He said he huwt. I don’t want him to be sad, Da. Will he be all wight?”

Sam tightened his grip on his son, as much to comfort the lad as to stop himself from shaking. It took a moment for him to steady his voice to speak, “Yes, lad. He’s fine. He has many friends to help him be happy again.” He sent a prayer up to Iluvitar that what he said was true. “Eru protect him,” he whispered. He now had no doubt that his son had seen true.

“I’m gwad, Da,” Frodo said, nestling his head into Sam’s shirt. After a moment when Sam thought the lad was asleep, he heard his tiny voice say, “Da, how come I can see Uncle Fwodo and you can’t?”

Sam didn’t have an answer for that. “I don’t know, love. Does it scare you?”

Frodo shook his head emphatically, then nodded. “A little,” he said. “It did today.” Suddenly his blue eyes got very big. “I bwoke Mum’s vase,” he said. “I didn’t mean to.”

“It’s all right, love. Now,” Sam said, kissing his son’s forehead. “You need to get to bed.”

“Yes, Da. I’m sleepy.”

Sam rocked the child and sang to him an elvish lullaby he used to sing to Frodo, and his thoughts drifted to Valinor. He heard Frodo-lad’s breathing even out and prayed to Iluvitar to watch over the child as he slept. Then Sam rose and left the room.