Disclaimer - Tolkien owns all. Including me.

A/N - Vinca has a lisp, so her "s" sounds are written with a "th". ie - Sadie would be Thadie.

The Fellowship of the Greenholms

Chapter Two: Rainy Days

"I'm bored!" Frodo whined, staring out the window as the rain poured down in torrents.

"Maybe we could go play with the Boffins?" Paddy suggested half-heartedly. Esmie shook her head. It was far too muddy and wet to even think about going outside.

"If you try, I'll tell Elfthtan," Vinca lisped, sticking her tongue out at Paddie.

"He wouldn't care." Sam sighed, sprawled out on the floor below the window-seat where Sadie was curled up with a book.

"Well, I would tell Tom." Ruby declared. "He'd care." she sat primly on a chair, hemming an apron for herself. Esmie rolled her eyes and sat on the floor next to Vinca.

"Let's play, Vinca." she said brightly. "Where are your marbles?"

"I don't wanna play with marbleth." Vinca pouted. "I wanna go out-thide!"

"Well we can't." Paddie snapped, joining Frodo in staring out the window. Sadie glanced longingly outside, then turned back to her book, a history of Gondor given to her by Master Meriadoc of Buckland. The door to the room opened, and Elfstan stuck his head in.

"Tom!" he called into the hallway, "They're in here after all!" he stepped in and took a glance at the bored, apathetic faces in the room. Tom sighed as he came in, baby Fíriel (affectionately called "Reedy") on his hip.

"Well, since we've located you finally," Tom said, "Esmie, Ruby, Frodo, and Vinca need to go take their naps." A chorus of pleading and whining met the older lads' ears, and Elfstan motioned for silence.

"Mum and Da are visiting the Goldworthies, and they told us you needed to rest now. So no fighting and get to bed."

"Fine!" Ruby huffed off to the girls' room, Esmie and Vinca following in her wake. Frodo disappeared into the boys' room, and Tom left for Reedy's nursery, taking the yawning baby with him. Elfstan looke skeptically at his three remaining siblings.

"You won't get yourselves into troubly now, will you?" he asked. The three teenagers shook their heads, and Sadie retreated once more into her book, enthralled by the story of a battle fought under the Steward Denethor I. Sam traced the patterns in the floorboards with his finger, and Paddie stared listlessly out into the downpour. Elfstan shook his head and left them to their thoughts.

"It's too cramped in here!" Sadie exclaimed suddenly, slamming her book shut and causing both boys to jump.

"Well we can't exactly do anything about it, Sadie-lass." Sam pointed out from the floor, gaining a glare from the said lass.

"The only logical solution to our current dilemma is expansion of our assets." Paddie commented.

"Impressive wording, Paddie." Sadie giggled. "Did you pick that up from Da's buisness talk?" Paddie mumbled a bit, and the twins hooted with laughter, knowing full well that Sadie was right.

"But think about it," Paddie insisted, after the laughter waned. "We could dig out our own room from one of the cellars, and go there when we want to be alone!" Sadie's eyes lit up.

"We could put my books there so Vinca couldn't get them!"

"We could hide food down there!"

"We could--"

"Hold on!" Sam sat up and stopped the other two. "How are we going to make this room?"

"We'll dig, obviously." Paddie shrugged. Sam thought about that for a moment.

"Well," he said slowly, "I suppose as long as Mum and Da don't find out..."

"Great!" Sadie put her book on a shelf. "Let's get started."

~*~

While the trio went to smuggle shovels into a little-used cellar to begin digging, the oldest boys were facing the problem of nap-time.

"Now, Fro, you need to at least get in bed." Elfstan tried to coax his youngest brother under the covers.

"Oh, no thank you. That's alright." Frodo answered, and continued to play with his toys. Elfstan sighed and heard a faint shout of "No, don't pull your sister's hair!" from across the hall, indicating Tom's struggle with the girls.

"Please get in bed?"

"No!"

"Fine, I'll put you in myself!" Elfstan tried to get ahold of Frodo, who slipped around him and out his door just as a loud shriek came from the girls' room. Vinca came running out, Ruby behind her and quite obviously intent on causing the smaller lass bodily harm. Tom raced after them as Elfstan took off after Frodo, but diverted to get Reedy, who had started crying loudly.

Elanor and Fastred walked in moments later and simply stared for a moment, taking in the chaos. Elfstan was trying (unsucessfully) to get Frodo out of the wardrobe in the hall, Tom was holding a wailing Reedy while trying to pry Ruby off of Vinca, and the faint sound could be heard of Sadie directing the expansion of the cellar a little ways down the hall.

Vinca was the first to notice their parents' arrival.

"Mama!" she wailed, "Ruby'th trying to pull all my hair out!" Everyone froze, noticing the very exasperated Hobbits in the door-way. Even Reedy quieted down, and the only sound was that of Sadie, Paddie, and Sam down in the cellar.

"Naptime." Fastred said authoritatively. "Quietly. Now." Frodo, Vinca, and Ruby got up and scuttled into their rooms. Esmie stuck her head out and called "Thank you, Da!" before shutting the door.

"Elfstan," Elanor sighed and patted the shoulder of a very harried-looking Tom, "Please go stop those thre from doing...whatever it is they're doing." Elfstan nodded and took off for the cellar.

"Oy!" his voice carried back faintly. "What in the King's name are you doing?" Tom kissed his mother on the cheek and took Reedy back towards the nursery. Elanor and Fastred shared a long look.

"Well," Fastred smiled a little, "Just a normal day in the Warren."

"Indeed." Elanor laughed, and went to the kitchen to prepare supper.