Chapter Seventeen: New Melodies

One day, years later, the two hobbits were enjoying a picnic lunch when suddenly Sam stood up with a shout and started singing and dancing around his brother’s favorite tree. Frodo looked up bemusedly from the book he had been reading and seeing the happy tears streaming down his Sam’s face and how brightly he shone, listened a little harder to the Song. When he heard the first strains of two new melodies, he smiled and shouted himself. He sprang up and Sam took him by the hand and they danced a happy jig around the tree.

"Two of them!" Frodo cried. "Oh, Sam, how wonderful! You can feel them a little better than I can, I think."

"Elanor a gammer! And Frodo-lad a gaffer!" Sam confirmed and began to cry even harder. "Oh, dear, isn’t it...isn’t it..."

Frodo took his brother into his arms and hugged him tightly and joyfully. "I’m so glad you still can know," he said softly. "I’m so happy for you. I imagine it will take some time, but we should be getting another letter from the Shire and more drawings to hang up. You have no idea how much they sustained me while I was here, waiting for you. And now you’ll be getting your own!"

Sam held on tightly as he cried into his dear one’s shoulder. Frodo didn’t let go because he knew some of those tears were now mingled with sadness that Sam was so far apart from his family. But then the younger hobbit sniffled and raised his head. Frodo wiped at the last of his tears and smiled widely at him. "Dear Sam, dear, dear Sam. I know you’re sad you can’t be there, but if you weren’t here, would you have known this joy at all?"

Sam wiped his nose on his sleeve. Frodo pulled out one of his handkerchiefs and handed it to him. The younger hobbit blew and then calmed himself. "You’re right, of course, dear. Now I have Someone I need to thank."

Frodo smiled and let go. They finished their lunch, then walked to the dark room, hand-in-hand, where they spent a long time. The beach they visited next and spent hours looking back east. Sam’s voice rose in soft, loving tribute to his eldest son and daughter.

"The water is wide, O my lass, my laddie,

And bright are the stars o'er the grey flowing sea.

I'm thinking of you, dears, wherever you may be.

"The water is deep, O my lass, my laddie,

And long are the days since your face I have seen,

I love you, my lass, my laddie, though the sea lies between.

"I stand on the shore, O my lass, my laddie

And I gaze at the ocean, so wide, deep and blue.

Wherever you may be, I'm thinking of you.

"I stand on the shore, O my lass, my laddie,

I stand and I list to the song of the sea.

O that you could hear me, dear ones, and I could see you."

Frodo squeezed his brother’s hand. "That was lovely, Sam," he said after the silence had stretched a while. "You have been so lucky to know such joy in so many children."

Sam looked at his oldest treasure. "You made it possible that I would."

"You made it possible that I could. You can thank me all you want, but it was you and Smeagol, that made that victory at the Fire possible."

"And who was the one who carried the burden the whole way? We wouldn’t have done anything without you."

Frodo laughed and squeezed his brother around the waist. "Oh, my dearest, dearest Sam, all these years and we are still arguing about who the greater hero is? I suppose I shall never convince you, though I have come to understand my role in it all a bit better through getting to know myself since coming here and my limitations and my strengths. I was chosen and Iluvatar accepted my imperfect sacrifice, but so were you chosen, an even more perfect vessel, and so was Smeagol, shattered soul that he was." Frodo paused, then added in a more serious tone, "I have prayed much for him for without him we would have all been lost."

"You are still the reason the Shire remains."

"Stubborn Gamgee! So are you. And let’s not forget the fair Rose had a bit to do about this too."

Sam smiled.

That night Sam sang in the Hall of Fire. Frodo had been trying to get him to do that for a very long time, but the younger hobbit was too nervous and shy to do it very often. But his joy overcame all his fears as he celebrated the double good news.

A/N: That song, of course, is from the queen, but I modified it to fit these particular circumstances. If it doesn’t flow as beautifully as her masterpieces always do, then it’s my fault, not hers.