Who: Frodo and Merrill, with Mary and Sybil, too When: Wednesday, Middle of the Night Where: Bag End/Baggins Villa What: Frodo wakes in the wrong house, discovers some magic afoot Rating/Warning: Low (But High for Cute) Status: Complete
did</i> see was the kitchen of Bag End, covered in shadow. Bag End. However had he gotten there?
Merrill rolled over when she heard little Sam stir. Half-asleep, she moved to the crib and drew her son close, rocking him lightly as she pulled her nightshirt open for him to nurse. When she sat back down on the bed, she noticed that her husband wasn't there. She frowned, tilting her head. "Frodo?" she called quietly. She stood, cradling the baby and walked into the dimly lit hallway.
Mary hadn’t been asleep. Truthfully, she’d not had a full night’s sleep in a while. When she heard her aunt’s voice, she was grateful for an excuse to get out of bed for a moment, though a little nervous as well. She picked a robe out of the closet and stepped into the hallway. “Is everything alright?”
"Oh, Mary," she said, shifting the baby for modesty's sake. "I didn't mean to wake you. I was just looking for Frodo." Merrill imagined she probably sounded a little crazy; Mr. and Mrs. Crawley must have thought so, but maybe they would attribute it to the new mother's lack of sleep.
Mary politely looked away from her aunt’s exposed breast. “Have you checked the kitchen, yet?”
Yes, Frodo was in the kitchen, but not the grand one in the villa. He sat up and rubbed his head, trying to recall some part of the evening that could place him in Bag End. He’d never been a sleepwalker. At least, no one had ever told him he was.
“That does seem like the logical place to start, doesn’t it?” Merrill said, smiling. “You know your uncle well. Just a minute.” She stepped back into her room to find a light coverup before joining Mary again. She hadn’t meant for this to turn into a quest. “You can go back to bed,” she said gently, not wanting Mary to feel obligated to help.
In response, Mary closed her bedroom door. “If you don’t mind, I’ll walk with you to the kitchen. I could use... warm milk. Or something.” Something to help her fall asleep again.
Merrill smiled and nodded. "I don't mind the company." She enjoyed her nieces, and although 3 a.m. wasn't the time she expected to be getting to know Mary, she welcomed it. She turned on the hall light so they could make their way down the stairs without injury.
As they reached the kitchen, Merrill called Frodo's name again.
But Frodo couldn’t hear them, of course. In the other kitchen, he pressed his back against the wall and waited for his eyes to adjust to the dark. Bag End was underground, but there were windows built into the hillside, letting in some dim but clear moonlight.
Mary, meanwhile, began a quick search of the other rooms of the villa, quietly and no so quietly calling out her uncle’s name as some genuine alarm began to brew.
Blinking and bleary-eyed, Sybil wandered out into the lit kitchen. "What?" she asked. "Mary?" Why was everybody up and talking?
Merrill was beginning to worry. Where was he, if not here? She knew he wouldn't deliberately leave in the middle of the night without telling her. Even if there had been an emergency with one of his friends, he would have let her know. Was he sleepwalking? "Sybil, I'm sorry. We're just looking for Frodo. You should go back to sleep, dear."
Meanwhile, in Bag End, Frodo gave his head another job, still trying to jog his memory. He massaged his temples. It was then that he felt it. Them. His ears. Points at the tips of them. Points!
The hobbit’s ears were pointed!
Sybil frowned "Uncle Frodo's missing?"
"I wouldn't say missing," Merrill said, not wanting to alarm the girl. Though.. She wasn't sure what she'd call it. After having been kidnapped herself, there was a sneaking fear something might happen to her family now. She tilted her head then. "I wonder.. Girls, could you come outside with me?" She didn't want to wander into the night alone with her baby, even if it was just around the side of the house.
Mary felt clueless for a moment, and then it dawned on her where Aunt Merrill planned to look. Uncle Frodo had build a strange addition on the grounds--more to the point, in the grounds--and now that it was complete, he spent a good deal of time there. Personally, Mary wasn’t crazy about the underground tunnels. She looked over her shoulder to Sybil, her eyes pleading for her to come along.
Sybil, still mostly asleep and confused by the contradictory instructions to go back to sleep and come outside, hooked her elbow through Mary's. "Okay," she answered, content enough to follow as long as she could stay on her feet.
Merrill led the girls along a path illuminated by garden lights, unbothered by the fact that she was barefoot. She was an elf, after all. She peered into the dark Hobbit hole before trying the doorknob.
Inside, Frodo heard the noise. It startled him at first, but he could pick up on his wife’s sounds without her saying much. He know how she breathed by now. And then little Samwise gave himself away. “Merrill?” he called.
Merrill pulled open the round door and heard her husband's voice. "Frodo?" She was relieved he was all right, but still very confused. Why was he sitting in the dark She stepped inside, lowering her voice a little. "Dear, are you all right?"
Mary followed, turning on the lights as she passed them. Soon, the main hall and the kitchen were lit. Her uncle looked a little dazed, sitting on the floor.
“I don’t know how I got here,” he said. Then, he hands moved to his ears. “But look!”
Sybil followed her sister, still looking out of it. She glanced around, not sure what Frodo was trying to draw her attention to.’
Merrill noticed immediately, though. "Oh!" Samwise, who had nearly fallen back to sleep, stirred in his mother's arms at the noise. Merrill knelt down, her eyes bright. "Your ears!" she gasped, trying to keep her voice down despite her excitement.
“I don’t know how or why or... what... who...” Frodo babbled. He felt the points again and again, and reached out to touch Merrill’s. There was a difference in how they felt. Her’s were far longer. More stately.
Mary, meanwhile, gave her sister a gentle poke with her elbow. “Uncle Frodo, too?”
Merrill's eyes met Frodo's when he touched her ears. She wondered if his were as sensitive as hers, now. She then looked down at Sam's little points, which resembled Frodo's hobbit ears more than her elven ones. "He has your ears. Or maybe you have his."
Sybil tilted her head. How strange! "I would ask if we're dreaming, but my pajamas aren't fancy enough for our dreams."
Mary lifted her fair, noble brow. “I’m beginning to wonder if it matters at all, if we’re asleep or awake. Everything here is dreamlike.”
Frodo felt tears begin to well in his eyes. He hadn’t admitted it, hadn’t fully realized it, but now he knew that he’d felt like an outsider, being the only one in his family without such an important trait. But now, he was just like the people he loved most.
“Oh, Frodo,” Merrill said softly, seemingly taking no notice of the two girls. She reached out to brush one hand over Frodo’s hair. “Do you want to stay out here tonight?”
Even if he never figured out how he’d gotten to Bag End, Frodo realized the mystery mattered very little. Was this not his home as much as the villa next door? Here were all the little nooks and crannies and treasures from his dreams--or at least items he’d collected to decorate the hole the same way.
He nodded. “Do you mind?” he asked, reaching up to offer baby Samwise his finger. The infant curled his tiny hand around it.
Merrill smiled. "I don't mind." She turned back to look at her nieces. "Girls, we're going to sleep out here. You can go back in. I'm sorry again to wake you."
Mary’s head was swimming just a bit. More pointed ears. She doubted it would be any easier to fall asleep, now. “I’m just glad we were able to find him,” she replied, polite as always. Then she turned to Sybil, in case she had anything to say before they walked back to the main house.
Sybil had no brilliant words of wisdom. "Well, good night, then," she said, before following her older sister back inside.
Merrill leaned forward to kiss Frodo's head before standing up. "Let's go to bed, then."
Frodo finally pushed himself to his feet as well. When he stood to his full height, he realized he was looking just slightly beneath Merrill’s eyes, which meant he’d shrunk another inch. But for the first time, the realization filled his heart with joy. He lifted himself onto his toes and kissed his wife tenderly.