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Chapter 16 - To the Bottle I Go . . .

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The empty mug slammed down onto the countertop.

"More ale," Merry grunted.

To his right, Sam spoke up cautiously.  "Here now, Merry, don't you think you've had enough?"

Merry responded with a glare that could have frozen the very fires of Mount Doom.  Sam simply cleared his throat and looked away meekly.

When the uncertain barmaid set another mug in front of the surly-looking hobbit, Merry picked it up and said, "I want to keep drinking 'til I can no longer feel my foolish head."  With that, he brought the mug to his lips, tilted his head back, and began chugging.

At Merry's left, Pippin fingered his own mug (only his second) and stared at his cousin with a mixture of concern and pity.  "Don't be so hard on yourself, Merry my lad.  I'm sure everything will turn out all right."

Merry slammed his mug down and barked out a laugh.  "Ha!  I should have known it was all too good to be true.  I should have known something bad would happen."  He chuckled in an almost light-hearted manner.  "You know, I had it all figured out.  I knew exactly what I was going to say to her, words that would sweep her off her feet!"  Here, Merry threw his arms about wildly to emphasize; however, he was not very careful with his aim, nearly smacking Pippin in the face with one hand and spilling beer on Sam from the mug he still held in the other.  "I had a positively beautiful shpeech prepared.  Shpeech.  Speech."  He laughed again, but his mirth quickly dissipated, and he now looked as though he would burst into tears at any moment.  "Oh, how lucky I was to have her.  But now--"  He flicked his fingers and made a strange popping noise with his lips.  "--She's gone.  I've lost her."  Merry picked up his mug.  "Ah my fair, my dearest, my darling Estella, I suppose I never deserved you in the first place."

But as Merry drank once more, laughter came from one of the tables behind him.  "So she finally left you, did she?  Did I not warn you, Mister Brandybuck, that that girl could breathe fire?"

Merry slammed his mug down for the hardest time that night and turned to face the speaker.  "I strongly suggest you say nothing else on that subject this evening, Mister Goodbody."

"My sincerest apologies, Mister Brandybuck!" said Hugo, his words slurring slightly; it was clear that he, like Merry, had had more than his fair share of ale that evening.  As Merry turned away, Hugo continued.  "But I would not be too upset if I were you.  You're much better off without that girl in your life.  Would have pulled the life out of you, that one would."

Gripping his mug so tightly that his knuckles turned white, Merry said slowly through clenched teeth, "Now is not the time to try my patience."

But Hugo payed him no heed.  "Why, I've never felt better since I chased that fiend out of my life!"  His two companions laughed heartily at this.  "But poor Estella, she was absolutely heartbroken about it all.  She seemed to take it as a personal offense that I detested her.  But who can blame me?  There is a reason she only has one friend, you know.  How even that one friend can stand her is beyond me."

Merry stood so suddenly that his chair crashed to the floor.  He then began to strip off his Rohirrim armor, as well as his sword and scabbard.

Pippin and Sam stared at their friend wide-eyed.  "Merry, why are you taking your armor off?" Pippin ventured cautiously.

"Because I am about to do something that no soldier of Rohan should do," he growled.

Without another word of explanation, Merry walked over to where Hugo sat; he grabbed the other hobbit by the collar and pulled him to his feet.  Before anyone could stop him, Merry drew back his fist and punched Hugo in the face.

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Rose Gamgee was having a very peaceful evening.  Her husband was at the Green Dragon with Merry and Pippin, so she and Elanor had eaten a quiet supper together.  After supper, Rosie had given Elanor a bath without receiving any protest from the babe, and the child had gone to sleep almost immediately after being set in her cradle.  Rosie had then decided to tidy up the hole a bit before Sam came home.  When she had finished cleaning, Rosie sat down in her favorite chair beside the fire and began knitting a new outfit for Elanor.

It had been several hours since Sam and the others had gone to the Green Dragon, and Rosie could not help but be slightly worried about them.  But she trusted Sam to keep things under control, and she expected him home at any moment.

Needless to say, when she heard a knock on the door, Rosie was a bit apprehensive.  She opened the door to find a very angry looking Doro Boffin, the landlord of the Green Dragon, with Sam, Merry, and Pippin standing behind him.  Rosie could only gape as Doro spoke.

"Good evening, Missus Gamgee," he said curtly.  "I've come to return one of your charges and ask that you take care of these other two as well."  With that, he turned on his heel and marched away in a huff.

It was only then that Rosie took in the state of her husband and his friends.  Sam had a bloody cloth held against his nose, Pippin had a black eye, and Merry's lip was bleeding.  She stepped back and allowed them to enter, all the while staring at them wide-eyed and with her jaw dropped.

She closed the door and leaned against it before finally speaking.  "What on earth has happened to you three?!"

"It's all my fault, Rosie," Merry said immediately.  From the way his eyes seemed out of focus, and the fact that his words were a bit slurred, Rosie suspected that he had consumed more ale than was good for him.  "I started it, Sam and Pippin were only trying to help me."

"By doing what, exactly?" Rosie asked, positively flabbergasted.

Sam stepped forward and said, "Letbe exblain, Rosie--"

"Oh Sam, you didn't break your nose, did you?"  Rosie interrupted frantically as she rushed towards him and gently pulled the cloth away from his face.  "Here, tilt your head back..."

"Id's nod dat bad, really," Sam insisted as Rosie gingerly wiped away some of the blood above his lip.  She threw a surly look at Merry and Pippin, as though silently demanding an explanation for her husband's injury.

Pippin chose that moment to speak up.  "Well you see, Sam was only trying to break the fight up when that Hugo fellow whirled 'round and punched him--"

"Hugo?"  Rosie raised her eyebrows and looked at Merry.  "Not Hugo Goodbody?"  Merry's face darkened considerably in response.  "Merry, you started a fight with him?"

Wiping some of the blood off of his chin, Merry replied, "I consumed a rather... generous amount of ale tonight, and I wasn't in a very good state of mind when I heard Hugo making some unpleasant comments about Estella.  Naturally, I couldn't let him get away with such statements, but I suppose I could've chosen a better method..."

Rosie's brow creased disapprovingly.  "So you punched him."

Merry sighed.  "I admit, I was not acting on my better judgement.  But yes, I punched him, and he punched me back; then his friends joined in, and I suppose Pippin felt obligated to assist me, and Sam finally decided to break things up but ended up getting dragged in himself.  So you see, Rose, that Sam and Pippin were not at fault in any way."  He winced suddenly and rubbed his forehead.  "And it seems I'm paying for my poor judgement with a rather intense headache..."

Rosie let out a deep breath and shook her head in exasperation.  "You all look awful.  Sit down and let me see what I can do to fix you up."  She then walked into the kitchen, returning a moment later with a basin of water and some large cloths, all the while muttering to herself.  "The future Master of Buckland... and the future Thain, helping him!"  She then cast a dark look at her husband.  "And you!"

"I'b really sorry, Rosie."

She began to dab at Sam's nose with a wet cloth.  "Well, I suppose I can't pass judgement.  I've wanted to hit that awful hobbit many times."  Her expression softened.  "Besides... it's a bit romantic, really."

Sam smiled at her.  "Would you wand be do ged indo a fighd over you?"

"Absolutely not!  You're a father now, you must set an example!"  But she was smiling, and she took a moment to lean forward and gently kiss the tip of his nose.  Out of the corner of her eye, Rosie thought she saw Merry gazing at her and Sam with a peculiar look.  Longing?

Rosie made a mental note to inform Estella of the evening's events first thing the next morning, and to demand that she speak with Merry as soon as possible.

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