2. Sudden Loss

A few nights after the planting festival, Faramir cried out in his sleep. Diamond rose sleepily, but as her son began to sob and call out for his mother, she hurried, only to stumble on a loose corner of the rug by the bed and fall heavily to the floor. Pippin was out of the bed in an instant, kneeling by her side.

'Diamond?' he said anxiously.

'I am... well,' she gasped. 'See to Farry...'

'I don't want to leave you,' he said, trying to help her up, but she shook him off.

'Farry needs you more right now. I just got the wind knocked out of me, is all. Please...' He nodded and went to their son's room, where Faramir was thrashing and weeping. Pippin gathered him in his arms, murmuring words of comfort until the lad quieted again into peaceful sleep.

At that moment, Faramir's minder came in, stopping short in surprise to see the Thain cradling his son.

'Sir?' he said uncertainly. 'I just... had to take care of some business.'

'It's all right,' Pippin said, 'he just had a nightmare. I must get back to the Mistress now.'

'Yes, Sir,' the minder said, taking Faramir from his father and easing him back into the bed. Pippin smoothed the covers over his son, bent to kiss him, whispered an endearment, and with a nod to the minder, left the room to return to the Thain's sleeping quarters. He found Diamond tucked up on their bed, asleep, and sighed in relief. Still, he would ask Healer Woodruff to give her a thorough going-over in the morning... which she did.

'No harm done,' the healer smiled, straightening up from her examination. 'The babe has a good, strong heartbeat, and you, Mistress, don't even seem to have a bruise from that fall. Still, it would be a good idea for you to keep your feet up this day, and perhaps tomorrow as well.'

'You coddle me shamefully,' Diamond said, but Pippin leaned to kiss her.

'Nothing's too good for the Mistress of Tookland,' he said. A shadow crossed his face as he thought of his mother, gone these two months, passed on peacefully in her sleep. Diamond read the look and squeezed his hand.

'So you keep telling me,' she said gently. He kissed her again, then straightened.

'Duty calls,' he said.

'Then by all means you must answer,' Diamond said. 'Do not worry about me. I will be keeping my feet up and eating sweets and being shamelessly spoilt by the servants and relatives.'

'Almost makes me want to take a fall in the night,' Pippin quipped, and with a smile he was gone.

The pains started shortly before teatime, and the tween who was attending Diamond quickly rose to summon Healer Woodruff, who had spent the day only a few steps away in the living area of the Thain's suite.

'You're having some pain, Mistress?' she asked as she entered.

'Probably just false pains,' Diamond said, then gasped as another seized her. Woodruff hastened to examine her, then pulled the tween aside. 'Fetch Sandy,' she said, referring to the Thain's personal hobbitservant, 'and then go get the Thain.'

'Yes'm,' the tween answered, eyes wide, and with a quick bob she was gone.

Woodruff bent again to the bed, taking Diamond's hand. 'Steady, lass,' she said.

'It's too early,' Diamond gasped. 'Please, Woodruff, make it stop...'

'That's just what we're going to do, lass, be calm now, steady...' and the quiet authority in her voice stayed Diamond's panic. She lay quietly and looked trustingly up at the healer, who did not feel half so calm as she seemed.

When Sandy arrived, Woodruff gave him swift instructions, and with a nod he was off. Pippin arrived soon after, face anxious, but of course he put on a smile as soon as he entered the sleeping room.

'Hullo, my love,' he said. 'I know, I shouldn't work past teatime...'

'Don't be ridiculous,' Diamond said. 'This is not a ploy to pull you away from that desk.'

'I know,' he said quietly, raising her hand to his lips.

The pains were irregular, Woodruff was glad to note, and she told them that it was a good sign. When Sandy poked his head in the door, she rose, saying, 'I'll be back in a nonce.'

She was as good as her word, bringing glasses and the first of several bottles of brandy fetched by the hobbitservant from the cellars, some of the fine vintage produced by Brandy Hall, courtesy of Meriadoc Brandybuck, Master of Buckland.

'What's this?' Pippin asked.

'It can slow, even stop the contractions,' Woodruff said, pouring out a glassful. 'Here you go, Diamond. Drink up, now, there's a lass.'

'I thought you told me not to drink spirits,' Diamond said in bewilderment.

'We'll make a special exception in this case,' Woodruff said, pushing the glass towards Diamond's lips. Diamond drank obediently. The contractions continued.

Woodruff poured out another tumbler-ful, instructing Pippin to get it down his wife, and went out to the living area where she found water already boiling and herbs ready for the steeping.

Diamond obediently drank everything she was given, followed every direction of Woodruff's, tried to stay calm for the sake of the babe. When Faramir came in from playing, Pippin gave him a quick hug and sent him with his minder to sleep in his cousins' quarters for the night. Grimly, they fought on, but shortly before dawn it became apparent that they would lose the battle.

Pippin rose from the bed, where Diamond had fallen asleep, exhausted, in between the onslaughts of pain. He knew the pain would seize her again momentarily, that the babe could not be saved, that what they had tried to prevent was now inevitable. He hoped only that his wife would be spared, for Woodruff could not reassure him on her account, telling him only that they must watch and wait.

'I'll be right back,' he said to the healer. Finding Sandy in the living area, he sent the hobbitservant to waken Woodruff's husband and fetch him forthwith, then returned to Diamond's side just as the next pain seized her.

Within an hour it was over. The babe had been delivered, too tiny to survive, though the little lad clung tenaciously to life, struggling to draw breath into lungs that were not yet ready to embrace the air. Sadly, the Thain and his wife greeted their second son, saying their farewells scant moments later. Pippin held Diamond for a long time after, as she held their little one, until Woodruff finally took him away after his parent's final kisses, and then Pippin and Diamond held each other and sobbed until they had no more tears to weep.

Wearily, Woodruff stumbled from the room, stopping in surprise to see her own husband, called from sleep at the order of the Thain. He held out his arms, and she sought their refuge. She cried for a long time while he held her close, murmuring wordless comfort, for there were no words of any use.

***

Faramir was incredulous. 'My little brother's gone?' he said.

'Gone to be with your Gram,' Reginard Took said. 'She'll take good care of him, same's she did for you, lad.'

'He's gone?' Faramir said again. 'How?'

'It's something you'll know more about when you're older,' the steward said, falling back on the stock answer grown hobbits used to parry awkward questions. 'Just know that your parents need you to be extra good, right now. No mischief, do you hear?'

Faramir nodded, but he did not speak again, not even when his father came for him.

He walked along, holding his father's hand, to the burial, a look of bewilderment haunting his face, and he did not join in any of the songs, nor eat much at the feast that followed.

Pippin did not leave Diamond's side for a long time, and Regi and Ferdi between them conducted the business of the Thain, sending away any who insisted on doing business with the Thain personally. They understood, of course, seeing all the windows of the Smials hung with mourning.

One night, late, some days after the burial, Reginard was surprised to see light coming from the Thain's study. He cautiously pushed the door a little wider, to see Pippin at the great carven desk, his head pillowed on his arms, finally asleep. The Yellow Book lay open before him. Reginard gently drew the tome across the desk, his eyes automatically noting the last entry:

"6. April 1439, born to Diamond north-Took and Peregrin Took, son."

The blank space at the end of the entry spoke volumes; it would never be filled with a name, chosen by proud and hopeful parents, announced at a festive Naming Day celebration.

Reginard silently put the Yellow Book away, then carefully extricated the broken quill from between the Thain's fingers. Lighting a watch lamp, he blew out the other lamps that lit the study, and tiptoed from the darkened room.

***

Unfortunately, talk was all too common amongst the Tooks, and it was not long before Faramir found out about his mother's fall, in the middle of the night, because of his nightmare.

His parents saw him losing sleep and appetite and began to worry about their firstborn. Several of Farry's aunts, Pippin's cousins descended from his father's older sisters, noticed as well, and persuaded the Thain and his wife to let Faramir spend more time with their sons, lively lads who would perk up the grieving boy, take his mind off his troubles, entice him to play. They'd tire him out so that he could sleep, and jolly him into eating in the bargain.

It was a great comfort to have the support of family in a time like this.