Summary: In the spring of 2012, four American children find themselves thrust into an unfamiliar world and part of an unexpected adventure.  This story is AU, and blends Lord of the Rings book-verse and movie-verse.  This story also contains a lot of spiritual and religious content as a part of the AU elements.

Disclaimer: The world of Middle-earth and all its peoples belong to the estate of J.R.R. Tolkien; the three films of The Lord of the Rings​ belongs to New Line Cinema and to Peter Jackson.  This story is not for profit, but is a gift for the enjoyment of those who read it.

Citations: In most chapters, there will be some quotations directly from both the books and/or the movies.  Quotations from Tolkien's books are in italics, and quotations from the movies are underlined.  Occasional quotations from other sources as well as silent dialogue, words spoken in emphasis, and passages from the Bible will also be in italics, and those citations will be footnoted at the end of each chapter in which they occur. We will also footnote research sources and credit the ideas of other people.

Thanks: We would also like to acknowledge the invaluable help of our beta, Linda Hoyland, another well-known and prolific LotR fanwriter, whose many wonderful stories also grace this site.

Chapter 96: Family Reunion

Jennifer woke up in the dormitory, slightly confused—she had become so used to sleeping in tents—but after the feast that night, they had first gone to their parents’ guest quarters for a little while, before they had separated, since there was no real place in the guest quarters, seeing as the whole place was full up with Elves, Radagast, and her parents.  But all of them had agreed to meet there for breakfast.  Her friend, Firieth, had told her that both of them were scheduled to work in the Houses of Healing that night after the evening meal, but the rest of the day, they were free.  She hoped that Kevin and Joey did not need to be on duty during the day.  She bustled up to wash and get dressed, so she could go back to her parents’ quarters and eat with them.  While they had told most of their own story, they had heard very little of their parents’ side of things, and Jen was eager to hear what they had done since they had arrived in Middle-earth.

She washed her face and slipped into her everyday gown.  It was very plain, of the pale sage-green that most of the healer's helpers and apprentices wore.  She said a polite good-bye to both Firiel and Lalaith, who also were getting dressed, and headed off to breakfast with her family

-ooo000ooo-

Joey was already dressed, and he was making his own way to see Lord Boromir.  His liege had asked him to stop by for a few moments before breakfast with his family.

He trotted through the halls of the wing where Boromir lived, and soon was knocking on the door.  Labadal, his servant, opened the door to Joey.

"Good morning," Labadal said.  "Lord Boromir is expecting you."

"Thanks," said Joey.  "Good morning, Labadal.  How are you doing?"

"Very well.  But come in.  As I said, he is waiting for you."  He winked.  "Sir Peregrin is with him; they are both taking breakfast, but I was told you were breaking your fast with your parents."

Joey nodded and went into the room.  Both Boromir and Pippin waved at him, and Boromir waved for Joey to come over.  Boromir was seated on the edge of his bed, and Pippin was seated on a chair piled with cushions.  Between them was a small table laden with food.  Joey walked over them and gave a small bow to his lordship.

"Good morning, Joey," Boromir greeted.  "I asked you to stop by because the King asked a favour of me."

"Oh." Joey wondered what kind of favour that would be.  He watched as Boromir reached over to his side and picked something up to hand to him.  

"Aragorn promised to return this to you when the time was right."  He held it out to Joey, whose jaw had dropped.

"Huh!" he said, as he looked at the mask hanging from Boromir's hand.  "I forgot all about it.  Honestly, I don't think I ever even remembered it; it’s been so long."  He took the monster mask from Boromir and looked at it in confusion.  "It doesn't even look scary anymore."

Pippin laughed.  "After being a prisoner of a bunch of Orcs, it certainly doesn't look scary at all.  The real thing makes a toy like that insignificant."

Boromir just laughed and shook his head.  "You have grown beyond such toys as these, I believe."  

“I guess I have, huh?”  Joey shook his head.  “I was going to use this mask to scare my sisters on the camping trip.  I don’t much feel like using it for that now.  What should I do with it, now that I’ve got it back?  I'm glad that Ara—I mean the King remembered it, but I don't think I really need it anymore.”

"Do you have anyone you could give it to?" asked Pippin.  "Hobbits love to give gifts!  Do your people like to give gifts?"

“For Christmas and birthdays and stuff,” Joey said.  “But every now and then, we give presents for souvenirs—something to remember things by.  Maybe I could give it to Bergil or Sador.  They might like it."

"That sounds like a good idea," Boromir said.  "Now, Joey, most of your day will be free to do with as you wish.  But I will need you for a short while at four bells this afternoon, for I will be attending a council meeting, and may need messages run.  After that you will be free once more."

Joey nodded.  "Four bells.  That's about four o' clock in the afternoon.  I'll remember."

"Very good," Boromir replied.  "I will see you again at that time.  Trot along now, and go have some breakfast with your family.  And please tell your father that I would like to meet with him after your breakfast is over, to discuss the matter of last night."

Joey grinned, and said good-bye to both Boromir and Pippin, and went on his way, the mask dangling from his hand.

-ooo000oo-

Kevin had spent his first night back in Minas Tirith sleeping in the barracks of the Citadel Guardsmen.  Because he was a knight, he had a small room to himself.  It was his first time since Rivendell that he had slept in an actual bed in an actual bedroom as his own room.  For so long, he had been sleeping on the ground, whether in tents or under the sky.  In Lothlórien, they had beds of a sort, but stayed in the pavilion with the rest of the Fellowship, and the beds had been cots. And he'd shared a room for one night in the guesthouse before he'd left the White City for the battle at the Black Gate.  It took him just a few minutes to orient himself to where he was.  It seemed kind of weird.

The room didn't have much besides the bed.  There were hooks by the door to hang clothes, a sconce with a candle next to the bed, one small chair, and a washstand with an ewer of coldwater and some washcloths folded next to the washbasin.  It didn't take him long to prepare for the day, and then try to find his way back to the guest room.  He hoped he could find his way there.  He had not spent much time in the Citadel before going off.  He had mostly been at the Houses of Healing, and briefly in the fifth circle guesthouse, and very briefly in the Citadel.  

But last night had been his first time in the upper corridors where the sleeping quarters and guest rooms were located.  He recalled that they had gone up a large staircase, to a wide landing.  But he was uncertain whether he was supposed to go left or right, because the hallway branched in both directions. He was standing there pondering which way to try first when he heard a welcome voice.

"Hey, Kev!"  

Kevin turned with relief to see his younger brother.  Joey had spent weeks, both before Kevin arrived for the battle with the Rohirrim, and later after Kevin had left for Mordor with the Army of the West.  Surely the kid would know which way to go!

Joey grinned.  "Are you lost already?"

Instead of trying to bluff it that he was not, which he probably would have done back home in Portland, he nodded.  "You got me, Joey."

With a chuckle, Joey said, "Hang a left."  He trotted alongside Kevin.  "I'm hungry!" he said.

Kevin just shook his head. "You've been hanging out with hobbits too much!  You're always hungry."

Joey just laughed.  "There's another hallway three doors down on the righthand side.  Take a right there."

It was starting to look familiar from last night, Kevin realized, as they passed a familiar looking tapestry, and it was he who stopped first when they got to the doors.  He reached up and knocked on the large door.

He had barely pulled his hand back when the door flung open.  Megan jumped up and down.  "Yay!"  She ploughed into Kevin and hugged him around his knees.  "You're here."  She turned and dealt with Joey the same way.  "We can eat now!"

Kevin grabbed her and lifted her up.  "And here I thought you were glad to see us!"

He carried her into the main part of the room, with Joey at his side.  He saw that Jennifer had arrived before them, and waved at her with the hand that was unencumbered with a little sister.

A large cart loaded with food and other good smells was being presided over by a maidservant, which she was dishing out.  Joey happily took a large bowl of porridge and grabbed an apple from a bowl.  "Thanks, Alwis," he said.

Putting Megan down, Kevin also took a bowl of porridge and followed Joey to a large table which had not been in the room the night before.  His parents were seated at the table, one at each end, and Jennifer was sitting next to their mom.  Kaylee was sitting by their dad.  Kevin took a chair on the other side of Steve, and Joey plopped down beside him.   Megan claimed the chair on the other side of their mom, across from Jen.

Although all of them had food set before them, Kevin could tell they had been waiting for him and for Joey, which meant that the blessing had not been said, and his notion was confirmed when his father offered him his hand.  All of them held hands and bowed their heads.

“Why don’t you ask the blessing this time, Gail?” Steve suggested.

Gail nodded.  “Of course.”  She recited, “Lord of Glory, we give You thanksgiving for blessing us with our daily bread.  Even the voices of our small children give thanks to You, for from the mouths of children and infants, You have ordained praise.  Dearest Lord, we are humbled and honoured that You are mindful of us, and that You have placed all things under our feet and made us caretakers of Your creation.  In Jesus’s name, amen.” *

All of them repeated the "Amen", and they sat up.  Joey, Kaylee, and Megan, set to eating right away, but Jennifer looked up at each of her parents.

"I've really missed having our family blessing when we ate.  We tried very hard to remember to pray and have devotions since we got to Middle-earth, and we also memorized a lot of Bible verses in Rivendell and Lothlórien.  But sometimes we were separated or in the middle of a lot of strangers.  And we couldn’t take Sundays off to observe the Lord’s Day while we were traveling."

Joey swallowed a bite and nodded.  "And it was really impossible to do it when we were with the orcs!"

"Or in the middle of a battle."  Kevin shook his head.  "I did a lot of praying then, but to myself, not out loud."

Steve looked at his children proudly.  "I understand.  There are always circumstances you have no control over.  The Lord knows that.  I'm very proud of you for doing the best you could."

Gail looked up the table at Steve, and grinned.  "That reminds me.  We have quite a surprise for you when breakfast is finished."

Megan bounced in her chair and said in a sing-song voice: "I know what it i—iis!"

But before she could say more, Kaylee said, "Megan!  It's a surprise!" very sharply.

"I'm sorry."  Megan hung her head.

Gail reached over and stroked the three-year-old's hair.  "Just try to remember next time that it isn't nice to spoil surprises.  Okay?"

With such an incentive, the others did not linger over their food.  Instead, their parents spoke more of their own journey, telling their older children about their stay in Lothlórien, and their journey down the Anduin River after the Ring had been destroyed.

Steve was describing how they had needed to pass the waterfalls of Rauros, and their encounter with two scouts from Gondor.  "We knew we were getting very close.  The last night–or perhaps very early in the morning, I guess–we passed by this long, narrow island in the middle of the river.  It was really, really foggy, and even with the Elves' sight, we had to go carefully.”

At that point, Kevin asked, "Hey, Dad, just when did you finally get to Minas Tirith?" 

"It was the next day, I believe, why?"

"Do you know what the name of the island was?"

Steve thought for a moment.  "It was 'Care' something?  Do you remember, Gail?"

"No, though the word did sound like 'care', she replied.

Kevin sat bolt upright.  "Cair Andros!  Good grief!"

"What is it, Kevin?" Steve asked.

"I was one of the ones standing guard there.  I was told that was the name of the island, and they also said that some Elven boats passed us by!"  He shook his head.  "I can't believe it!  We were so close!"  Kevin was amazed that they had come so near to finding out about their parents, and still missed them.

"I guess that the Lord had some reason for us not to meet one another yet," Gail said.  "Perhaps one day we'll figure it out."

"Or maybe not," Steve added.  "He doesn't always explain His mysterious ways, after all."  He paused, and then said, "Why don't we bring your surprise out?  I am sure you’ll be glad to see them."

He and Gail went back to their rooms and soon reappeared with Kevin and Joey's packs.

A few minutes later, Steve and Gail returned, each carrying a pack.  Kevin and Joey gave a shout of joy.  "Our packs!" they both shouted. 

Gail looked apologetically at Jennifer, who was also grinning.  "Sweetie, I’m sorry that we did not get yours," she said.

"No," she said, "that's fine!  I do have mine.  Aragorn found it and my bow while they were chasing after us.  I still have most all my stuff except my batteries.  Mine wore out a while back."  She laughed.  "But it's great to see Kev and Joey get theirs back.”

Joey began to pull out his stuff.  "At least I left my Gameboy and my comics in Rivendell.  Master Elrond said we had to leave some of our stuff there," he said with a sigh.  “All this was mostly my stuff like my toothbrush and some of my extra socks and underwear.  And my harmonica.  That’s great!  I really missed it."  He took it and blew on it, and then played just a few notes.

Then Joey laughed.  "But there was one thing I had in it that I already got back!”  He reached into his belt pouch and pulled out his mask.  "Somehow Godzilla doesn't seem nearly so scary now.  I was going to play a prank with it on my sisters during our camping trip, and I did try to play a joke with it on the grown-ups during our journey.  But they weren't scared at all.  Aragorn and Boromir and the other grown-ups weren’t even a teensy bit scared, and then Aragorn took it away from me, and said he'd give it back when it was more appropriate.”

Kevin nodded and paused in his inventory of his own backpack.  "There wouldn't have been much time for pranks while we were traveling.  So, he probably was right."

Joey grinned.  “I played another prank on Aragorn and Boromir back at Rivendell.  I draped a sheet over my head and pretended I was a ghost!  Of course, I didn’t really scare them then, either.”  Rolling their eyes, Steve and Gail shook their heads, hints of amusement in their eyes.

Joey looked at the monster mask and rubbed his fingers over it.  "I don't think I want it anymore.  Dad, do you think it would be okay to give it away to one of my friends?  I was thinking of maybe Bergil or Sador."

"Ooh!" Kaylee exclaimed.  "Sador!  You should give it to Sador!  He kept me from getting hurt, and he got hurt instead!"  She looked at Joey.  "He was knocked out and had to be in the House of Healing for days!"

"Really?" Joey asked.  "Then that's what I'll do.”

Kaylee bit her lower lip.  “It was my fault he got hurt.  I was walking Lucy, and I wasn’t supposed to go any farther than the Houses of Healing, and instead, I forgot and followed Sador.”

“Yes, Sador was hurt by a speeding cart, after pushing Kaylee out of the way so she wouldn’t be hit by it,” Gail added.

“When did you do that?  Follow Sador, I mean?” Joey asked her.  After she told him, and about how Lucy had helped, and about her punishment, he shook his head.  “You weren’t the only one who messed up that day, Kaylee; so did I.”  He explained what he had done in error, which had resulted in Bergil’s injuries, and the consequences that he had endured, and then Jennifer and Kevin followed suit by explaining the mistakes they had made on that same day.

“That was a bad day for all of us, not just you, Kaylee,” Kevin added kindly.  “And you weren’t the only one who had to suffer the consequences.”  Rolling his eyes, Joey nodded in agreement.

Kevin turned back to his own pack now, after having pulled much of the contents out.  "We took the walkie-talkies with us on the hunt, and our flashlights and batteries.  This is mostly toiletries and a few extra—"  He stopped and pulled out a large red box.  "Oh."  He was very quiet as he looked at it.  "I thought this was lost forever."  He gave and pulled the box close to him, and then opened the box and pulled out his Bible.  "I'm so glad Master Elrond gave us this box."

Jennifer leaned back, looking thoughtful.  “You know, Mom and Daddy, we’ve really missed you leading us in prayer,” she said.  “Saying grace at mealtimes, having our family devotions, and things like that.  We did our best to do that stuff ourselves.”  She looked at Kevin, and then scanned her other siblings’ faces.  “We also did a lot of memorizing Bible verses at Rivendell, and then again at Lothlórien.  Kevin sensed that God wanted us to.  Now after everything that’s happened, I can understand why.  Because once we were on the journey, there wasn’t time for devotions or Bible reading, and we really needed the verses when things got tough.”

Joey scowled.  “Especially not while we were prisoners of the orcs!”

“Or while I was in the middle of a battle,” Kevin added.  "I prayed a lot, then, but not out loud!"

"We know you did your best."  Steve looked at them proudly, and Gail nodded.  "‘I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you,’" Steve quoted.

Kevin, Jennifer, and Joey all chorused, "Psalm 119:11!"

-ooo000oo-

A/N: *Taken from 15 Best Mealtime Prayers for Families at https://connectusfund.org/15-best-mealtime-prayers-for-families.