Pippin was all but dancing for joy as he raided the kitchens in the Houses for food for Merry. He had left his cousin sitting up in bed, filling his pipe with a pensive look on his face, and was anxious to get back to him. It had been all he could do not to throw himself onto Merry in a fierce hug when he had opened his eyes, and it seemed to him that Merry had been the same way.

     Aragorn had told him to stay behind with Merry, and to stay with him until he was sent for. Pippin had no intention of doing anything else, and had told him so, earning him a wry grin from the King and a withering look from Gandalf. Pippin had a sneaking feeling that they were not telling him all that there was to know about Merry’s illness. It made him upset, to think that they would not tell him all about his cousin. He seemed fine physically, but he had had an awful scare. Maybe, Pippin reflected as he added some apples to his tray, it was something that Merry had to tell him, that only he could say.

     Merry was leaning back against his pillows when Pippin re-entered the room. He was smoking his pipe lazily, and had his arms clasped behind his head.

     “Hullo, Pip,” he said, when he saw his cousin. “Come here.”

     “I’ve bought apples, bread, cheese, and some ale,” Pippin replied, setting the tray in Merry’s lap and climbing up onto the bed next to him. “Gandalf was right when he said that you could have anything you wanted.”

      Merry smiled and put an arm around his cousin as he selected an apple. Pippin leaned into him in the familiar old Pippin way, and Merry felt the last of his fear fly away.

     “I was afraid I’d lost you,” he said.

     “What? Why?” Pippin asked curiously. “Why would you have lost me?”

     Merry took a deep breath and handed Pippin his pipe. “When I was…asleep, I heard a voice in my head. It told me that they had taken you prisoner, and were torturing you because of what I helped Eowyn do. I heard you screaming.”

     Merry’s voice broke, and Pippin stared at him, aghast, as he began to cry. “Oh, Merry! No! They never took me, I can’t believe that you dreamed that!”

    “I know, Pip,” choked Merry. “But I think that’s the thing that I’m most afraid of: that I’ll lose you. I couldn’t bear it if that happened, Pippin, I just couldn’t.”

     “I know,” Pippin whispered, and Merry buried his face in his shoulder, weeping. Pippin rubbed his back soothingly. “It’s all right now, Merry, the battle is over for now, and we’re both safe and together. That’s all that matters.”

     “I know it is,” Merry replied, pulling back and looking his cousin in the face. “But I’ve missed you ever since we were separated in Rohan, and I was afraid that I would never see you again. I know that I shouldn’t worry now, but I don’t ever want to go through that again.”

       Pippin smiled and wiped Merry’s face with the corner of the sheet. Merry gave a watery laugh and batted his hand away, taking the sheet and wiping his own face off.

       “Give me that pipe back, Pip, and help me eat this food. Then I think that I’ll sleep for a bit, if you don’t mind. I’m tired.”

   “Of course,” Pippin said cheerfully, helping himself to some of the bread and cheese. “It’s been a long day, for both of us.”

     Merry smiled. “It has been, Pippin. It really has.”

*****

    When Gandalf looked in on the two young hobbits sometime later, he found them both asleep on the bed, the remains of a meal scattered on a large tray on the side table. Pippin held Merry in his arms, his head resting on his cousin’s shoulder. Merry clutched Pippin’s arm like a lifeline, but his face was calm. A light of peace and contentment was in both of their faces. Gandalf smiled to himself. Moving as unobtrusively as a shadow, he pulled the blanket up over the cousins and blew the candles out. Then, leaving them curled in the bed, he left the hobbits to their rest. If anyone was deserving of rest, it was these two. They had proved their mettle that day.

     At the door, the wizard paused and looked back.

     “Sleep well, my hobbits,” he murmured. “Sleep well.”

The End.