A fortnight passed, and the grieving for Bilbo gradually lessened. Frodo was still very upset, but was trying to carry on with his life.
He had forgotten at first that he had been crippled by the orcs in Mt. Doom. It was not until he had tried to leave his bed one day, and had fallen straight over, that he remembered again. He was being frequently visited by Elrond and two younger elves – Elvéndir and Elriong. They were brothers, and Elrond's two pupils in the ways of Elven healing. The three elves had told him they were going to help him get back on his feet again, though it would take a long time for Frodo to fully heal.
At first, Merry, Sam and Pippin visited Frodo every day, and spent nearly all their time with him. As the weeks passed, however, Sam and Pippin seemed to spend less and less time with Frodo. Merry still spent all of his time with Frodo, and Aragorn popped in every so often, sometimes with Arwen.
Frodo was grateful of his friends company, even though it upset him that Pippin and Sam had seemed to have got bored of him. He had always thought that Sam, at least, would have always stood by him. Obviously, he had been wrong. He was eternally grateful to Merry for staying with him, though.
Frodo was woken on morning by the sounds of raised voices coming from outside. He lay there for a while, but the voices were too far away to work out who was arguing with whom, and what about. Curiosity got the better of him, and without thinking he got out of bed, and fell over straight away.
That's when the tears came – tears of humility. He was angry with himself for not being able to even stand without help. He began to crawl towards the door of his room that led onto the balcony, still wanting to know what the argument was about. He finally made it out to the balcony, and managed to get onto the chair that had been placed there.
From that position, he could see Merry, Sam and Pippin in the gardens of Rivendell below. It was immediately apparent that is was them who were arguing.
'You should be ashamed of yourselves – both of you!' Merry shouted.
'You can't expect us to spend every single second of every single day up there! We have lives as well!' Pippin shouted back.
'I'm not asking for you to be there all the time – but he needs friends around him. I like being there with him, and you two should at least make an effort!'
With a pang of guilt, Frodo realised that he was causing the argument. This caused the tears to spring back to his eyes, and he crawled back into his room and scrambled into his bed.
When Merry entered Frodo's room about half an hour later, Frodo seemed to be asleep.
'Frodo?' Merry asked. 'Are you asleep?' There was no reply.
Frodo was actually wide awake, but had no wish to talk to anyone. He felt guilty, causing his friends to argue. Merry came to sit at his side, and he just lay there with his eyes closed, pretending to sleep.
Merry stayed at his side for about five minutes, and then he got up. 'I'll be back later.' Merry said to Frodo. 'I love you.' He said, kissing Frodo on the forehead before quietly leaving the room.
Frodo lay there in shock. He had never realised Merry had felt like that about him. He knew that wasn't the love between friends Merry had just shown him then. No wonder Merry was prepared to look after him.
He surprised himself as he thought of Merry, and then realised his thoughts had strayed to their future together, and realised with a shock that he was in love with Merry as well...
Merry came back to see Frodo about an hour and a half later. This time Frodo was sitting up in bed, reading some elvish book.
'Bilbo taught me quite a bit of Elvish, and Legolas is teaching me more.' Frodo told Merry, showing him the book. He had decided to play it cool with Merry, and let him make the first move.
'It looks like a lot of random lines to me,' Merry said, handing the book back to Frodo.
'I heard you arguing with Sam and Pip,' Frodo told Merry.
'You shouldn't have.' Merry said.
'Don't make them come, Merry. It's up to them. So long as you're here, I'm happy.' Frodo said, putting his hand on Merry's.
'I won't leave you, Fro.' Merry said, giving Frodo's hand a reassuring squeeze.
They sat like that in silence for a while. Then Merry took a deep breath and asked, 'Frodo?'
'Yeah?'
'I need to tell you something.'
'What?' Frodo asked, trying his best to sound curious even though he knew what was about to come.
'Well... the thing is... I don't expect you to like this, but...'
'Go on.'
'Well... I've fallen in love with you, Frodo.' Merry said quietly. He was astonished to see a wide grin spread across Frodo's face.
'What? What's so funny?' Merry asked as Frodo started laughing.
'I knew you were going to say that! I wasn't asleep when you came in earlier!' Merry turned bright red. 'So, it's a good thing you picked someone who'll love you back,' Frodo continued, ignoring Merry's embarrassment and pulling him into a kiss. In that moment, they both realised they'd found their perfect match.
When they finally pulled away from each other, they looked into each other's eyes.
'We don't tell the others, not yet.' Merry said. 'It's just you and me.'
Frodo nodded. 'I love you, Meriadoc Brandybuck.' He said.
'I love you too, Frodo Baggins.' Merry replied.
Merry's argument with Sam and Pippin had had an affect; Sam and Pippin began to come and see Frodo again. They still spent hardly any time with him compared to Merry, though. During the day, Merry spent all his time with Frodo, apart from when he went to eat. He came to Frodo's room in the early hours of the morning, and didn't leave until late at night, when he went to sleep in the room he shared with Sam and Pippin. In fact, some nights he slept with Frodo, and didn't go back to his room at all.
Elrond, Elvéndir and Elriong came to see Frodo every day, and began to try to get him on his feet again. At first, they got Frodo to stand, holding onto Merry and Sam (who came along to help as he still considered Frodo to be his master) for support. After a few days, he could stand with only Merry's help, and then, after about a month, he finally managed to stand up on his own.
The smile on Frodo's face showed everyone just how much it meant to him to be able to stand again, even if his legs were still too weak to allow him to walk anywhere.
Merry came rushing into Frodo's room after lunch one day, accompanied by Sam and Pippin. They all looked really excited about something.
'Hey, Frodo! Guess what's happening?' Pippin said excitedly.
'What?' Frodo asked curiously.
'Guess!' Pippin said stubbornly.
'I don't know... Legolas is marrying Hadriedien?' Frodo asked. Hadriedien was a very pretty elf, and one of Arwen's best friends. Legolas had a really obvious and gigantic crush on her, though he wouldn't admit it to anyone.
'Close...' Sam said.
'Strider's getting married!' Merry blurted out.
'To Arwen?' Frodo asked.
'Who else?' Sam replied.
'The wedding's in a fortnight... the whole of Rivendell's going!' Merry said.
'Well, she is Elrond's daughter.' Pippin pointed out.
'And Galadriel's coming... or so Strider told me.' Merry continued.
'A fortnight?' Frodo asked, oblivious to Merry's list of guests.
'Yeah, what's so bad about that?' Sam asked, picking up the sadness in Frodo's voice.
'I'm never going to be walking in a fortnight... how am I supposed to go?'
'We'll make sure you can go, so stop worrying.' Merry said, putting a hand on Frodo's shoulder. 'I'll talk to Elvéndir and Elriong, they'll be able to carry you there.' He said, giving Frodo a reassuring smile, which Frodo returned. They hadn't told Sam and Pippin about their relationship, and were planning on keeping it secret for a while longer. The only person they had told was Aragorn, as they knew he wouldn't react badly.
Elvéndir and Elriong promised to get Frodo to Aragorn and Arwen's wedding, and they stayed true to their word. On the day, they came to Frodo's room, where he was waiting with Merry. Both the hobbits were dressed in the best clothes they had, but since they were hobbits they still looked as if they were going out to work in the fields for the day.
Elriong, being the elder of the two elves, picked Frodo up, and he, Frodo, Merry and Elvéndir went from the room and outside. They walked along for a bit, until they arrived outside a very ornate building. Merry guessed this was the elvish version of a church. Many elves were outside, putting up marquees and setting out food and drink for after the wedding.
Merry spotted Sam and Pippin talking to Legolas and Gandalf, and he called over to them. Elriong put Frodo down, and he was helped over to Sam, Pippin, Gandalf and Legolas by Merry.
'Glad to see you out and about, Frodo.' Gandalf said.
'I wouldn't say about,' Frodo said, stopping and allowing Merry to let go of him. He stumbled slightly, but regained his balance. 'I can only stand on my own... I can go a few steps with help.'
'It's better than nothing,' Gandalf said. 'At least you're still with us.'
'Strider!' Sam called, and Frodo and Merry turned to see Aragorn walking towards them. The hobbits had never seen Aragorn look so smart, he put even Gandalf, in his white robes, to shame. They had never seen him look quite so nervous either.
'Frodo! You're here!' He said, sounding surprised.
'You didn't think I'd not come, did you?'
'I didn't know whether you'd be able to.'
'I had help.' Was all Frodo said in reply.
'Excuse me a moment.' Legolas, who had so far been silent, said, walking away from the group. Everyone watched as he went over to a young female elf. She had very straight, long, shiny black hair, and was dressed in grey.
'That's Hadriedien,' Merry whispered to Frodo, laughing. Frodo had heard about Hadriedien, but had never actually seen her.
'What's so great about her?' Frodo asked.
'What's so great about her?' Pippin repeated, disbelief in his voice. 'You need your eyes tested, Fro.'
'How many times do we have to tell you, Pip?' Merry said. 'She's an elf, you're a hobbit. It would never work.'
'She's too tall for you, anyway.' Sam said.
'So?' Pippin asked.
'You've been away from the Shire too long, Pip.' Frodo said.
An elf appeared from the elven church at that moment.
'That's Delil-Gariand,' Gandalf told the hobbits. 'He may not look it, but he is very old and very wise. He's the priest here.'
Frodo looked at the elven priest. He looked no older than Legolas. Then again, Frodo had not yet seen an elf that actually looked old.
Delil-Gariand beckoned Aragorn into the church. 'See you later.' Aragorn said, walking off into the church. A female elf followed him. She was dressed in a flowing white robe, and had pitch-black hair. Frodo recognised her as Arwen.
'Don't say anything, Pip.' Merry and Sam both said, noticing the love struck look in Pippin's eyes. 'She's an elf... and a soon to be married elf.'
The actual ceremony was quite short. Frodo, Merry, Sam and Pippin were allowed to sit with Elrond, right at the front of the church, as they were so short.
Seeing as the elves didn't believe in a god, all the ceremony consisted of was a few vows, promising to respect each other, and everything in Rivendell; to raise any children they would have in the ways of Rivendell; and to love each other forever.
That evening, there was a great party outside. There had been a small party following the wedding, but nothing compared to the evening's celebrations. There was a gigantic feast, with Aragorn and Arwen sitting at the head of the table. They had changed and looked a little more casual and a lot less nervous. Following the feast, there was a great party outside, with music, singing and dancing.
Frodo had come, but as he couldn't do much, he got bored after a while. Merry stayed with him the whole night, so at least he wasn't lonely.
A few hours into the party, Aragorn and Arwen came up to Frodo and Merry. 'Where's Sam and Pippin?' Aragorn asked.
Frodo shrugged. 'No idea.'
'Do you want to come for a walk, go somewhere slightly quieter?'
Merry nodded. 'Come on Fro, I'll help you.' Merry put his arm around Frodo's waist, and the four of them walked slowly away from the big celebrations. Eventually, the sound of the party died away as they walked through the gardens of Rivendell. Aragorn and Arwen had their arms around each other's waists, as did Merry and Frodo. The two hobbits didn't worry about showing their feelings for each other in front of Aragorn and Arwen; they trusted them to keep it a secret.
They talked about all the things that had happened to them, all the highs and lows. They stopped at a bench, which Frodo gratefully fell onto.
'Tired?' Aragorn asked.
'Just my legs.' Frodo said, leaning back on Merry, who had sat down beside him. They must have stayed there for hours, just talking about all the things that they had been through.
Eventually, Aragorn said, 'Arwen and I must be getting back, the party is meant to be for us. Are you coming?'
'Later.' Merry said. 'We want to be alone for a bit.'
Aragorn nodded, a knowing look in his eyes. 'We'll see you later, then.' With that, he and Arwen walked off.
Frodo and Merry sat in silence for a while, just looking into each other's eyes. They moved closer and closer, and then they were both lying on the bench, kissing each other. They didn't hear the footsteps coming closer, didn't notice when Sam and Pippin appeared, didn't notice their shocked faces...
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