Leaving the Shire
By Robin Gurl

Part 1

Notes: I am taking into account the movies version of how the hobbits left the Shire. Since there are no time aspects given, except when the sun is out- that is how I will determine the days. In this story day 1 is where they meet them at Farmer Maggots field until Buckleberry Ferry. Then Buckleberry Ferry to the out side of the Shire and finally to Bree.

Disclaimer: I own nothing but the idea. xD

Day 1

Four hobbit sized figures were running for their lives down the road. The group was divided equally in half. Two knew the situation and knew why they had to run while the other two had no idea what was going on. Frodo felt horrible for dragging his younger cousins into this, maybe if he was lucky they would decide not to follow much further. He heard a rustling of leaves and a half squeak as Pippin came to roll to Frodo's feet. Merry fell down beside him checking Pippin over quickly before turning to Frodo. "What was that?"

Frodo silently squeezed his hand tighter unable to look Merry in the eye. He watched over Merry's shoulder as Pippin fell backwards into the leaves still breathing hard. "It's a long story, Merry. Just please trust me in that right now I don't know much of anything."

Merry stared at him silently obviously trying to figure out what that meant. "Is it after you?"

"After me?"

"That black man on horseback, is he after you." Merry pressed again.

"I've never seen anything like that in the Shire before," Young Pippin exclaimed sitting up. "Why was such a scary thing chasing you?"

"Please. I don't need you two involved."

"It's too late for that, cousin. What is going on?"

"Let's just get out of here, please?" Sam suddenly broke into the conversation. "Pardon my interruption but standing here isn't solving a thing and we're not safe. Mr. Frodo, if they wish to come, let them."

"Fine," Frodo sighed. He turned back to Merry who was staring at him with a confused glance. "Follow us then."

Merry got to his feet and pulled Pippin up straightening his jacket and scarf in the process before moving to his own disgruntled clothing. In their pockets were the stolen crops of Farmer Maggot.

"Mer, where are we going?"

"I have no idea, Pip. Stick close." Any other time and Pippin would have griped about Merry still treating him like he was twelve but this time he nodded, those black horsemen were frightening. He hoped they'd never had to see one of them again.

********

"Frodo, we need to stop before Pippin collapses. You know he just got over the Autumn Daze." Merry cried out after three hours of constant running.

Behind him Pippin let out a groan and wavered on his feet. "Don- Don't worry 'bout me."

Hearing the hoarse panting, Frodo turned around, stopping in mid stride. He'd completely forgotten that fact and felt even worse about this. He walked back to Merry who was hovering over the youngest. Pippin was leaning forward on his knees, his face pale and sweat running down it.

"Pip, this is ridiculous. You can't even breathe properly. I told you to stay in bed today." Merry exclaimed rubbing his cousin's back soothingly.

"Too late for that isn't Merry?" Pippin tried to sound annoyed but he was in to much pain to put the right tone with it.

Frodo knelt down placing a hand to his cousin's forehead. His eyes narrowed and he reached up and felt the back of Pippin's neck. Merry caught onto this and looked on with a worried expression. Their eyes met and he felt his heart nearly stop, he'd taken Pippin out to steal crops with a fever.

Pippin was oblivious at the moment as he worked on getting his breathing settled back down. It wasn't until he heard Frodo call to Sam to go wet a handkerchief that he realized something was wrong. He lifted his head to see Merry staring at him with a terrified glance. "What?"

"Oh it's nothing, dear heart." Frodo responded pushing strands of Pippin's curls from the young ones eyes. "Merry just forgot his head today and did something stupid. How are you feeling?"

"I can breathe again if that's what you mean?" Pippin still didn't like Merry's look. "Mer, you're scaring me. What's wrong?"

"Merry-lad straighten up. You made a mistake, he'll be fine."

"Frodo what is going on?"

"He took you out to raid the crops with a fever," Frodo finally replied taking the wet handkerchief from Sam. "Thank you, Sam."

"Is Mr. Pippin alright?"

"He will be." Frodo said.

"I'm so sorry, I had no idea. He didn't have one when we left." Merry suddenly mumbled. Pippin still looked confused but allowed Frodo to wipe him down with the wet cloth. "Lady, Pip, I'm so sorry."

"There, that should keep your fever down for a little bit. Now, Merry, I think this is a perfectly good reason as to why you two should head back to Brandyhall." Frodo stood calmly and handed the wet cloth to Merry.

Merry took it and squeezed it frustrated, "You just expect us to let you go like this?"

"I won't have you dragging him all over the Shire just to help me, Merry. He is still ill and needs to be in bed."

Pippin growled perturbed that they were completely forgetting him. "Hey! Both of you! I'm right here. Don't I get to decide whether I go or not?! I'm not exactly 12 anymore you know."

Frodo and Merry both paused in mid argument to stare at the youngest. Merry took this time to butt in and hopefully win the "fight". "What do you want to do Pippin? If you want we can go back or we can follow Frodo to where he is going."

Frodo was about to respond with 'He isn't well enough to make that decision' when he saw Merry giving Pippin a genuine look of what ever you say I'll do. "Yes, Pip, what do you want to do?"

"I want to help Frodo."

Frodo and Merry both nodded reluctantly before silently agreeing on the same thing. "On one condition," Frodo started.

"What?"

"You let me carry you." Merry finished.

Pippin raised his eye brows and laughed nervously. "What?"

"Merry is right, we'll move quicker and you won't be so weak."

"It's no big deal," Merry tried to reason. "I've carried you many times, you can just hop on my back."

"No big deal?" Pippin replied crossing his arms. "I am 18, fully capable of walking on my own."

"We never implied that you weren't," Frodo soothed. "You don't need to be up as it is with that Fever."

"You look sleepy anyway. After you take a nap, I'll put you down and if you want to walk you can, deal?"

Pippin saw he wasn't going to win this argument and sighed shrugging off his side satchel. He did feel tired anyway and if Merry wanted to trudge all over the Shire while he slept, let him. He watched as Merry knelt down waiting. He made one last face before gripping Merry's shoulders and pulling himself up. He felt Merry grab his legs and then the world moved sending a wave of dizziness over him. He laid his head on Merry's back closing his eyes.

He could feel Frodo's eyes watching his every move and he tried to make it seem like nothing was wrong but he knew both his cousin's could see right through it. "Hang on, Pip." He heard Merry exclaim before he drifted off into a light sleep.

Frodo laughed softly bending down to pick up Pippin's satchel. "He's already out."

"So where are we escorting you to?"

"Just out of the Shire right now." Frodo replied quietly. "Where are your cloaks, Merry? Don't tell me you left without those to?"

Merry rolled his eyes shaking his head. "No, I didn't. They are near the next pass. We can grab them as we go."

***************

"Were you planning on taking a trip, Merry?" Frodo asked bending down slightly to pick up one of the sacks.

Merry blushed bright red but then his gaze turned serious. "You were acting all strange the other day, all secretive and said you were too busy to visit Pippin. You're never too busy to visit Pip when he's ill so I concluded that something was up and I wanted to be ready for it."

"So raiding the field was just an after thought?"

"No, not at all. This morning Pippin had no fever and seemed to be better, he was just weak is all. I had promised when his fever broke that I'd take him outside and we'd go roam - so that's what we were doing. I didn't tell him why we were packing clothes, well not the whole truth. He thought we were on a one of our usual camping outings."

"When were you going to tell him that it wasn't?" Frodo asked clearly amused by this entire explanation.

"Well I thought I wasn't going to need to. We didn't find you at all and so I figured I must have been wrong, when we literally ran into in the corn field it wasn't planned."

"I guessed that."

"So er….here we are?"

"I'd be mad if I wasn't so amused. I also can't be upset when I was the one who caused this entire situation in the first place. If I had just made time to come visit, Pip, you two wouldn't be here."

"Speaking of Pippin, is he still asleep?"

"Sound."

"You think you could help me and get his cloak on him? It's going to be getting colder later and I'd rather not make his fever worse than it already is."

"I was already thinking that."

"Why don't we just stop right here for a bit, Mr. Frodo? I can cook us an afternoon tea of a sort and Mr. Merry can rest. I'm sure that Mr. Pippin isn't heavy but after carrying a load like that for too long can be bad for your back."

The other two hobbits went crimson when they both realized they had completely forgotten about Sam. It hadn't been on purpose- the young gardener was almost silent the entire time just following and looking around for any signs of the black horsemen.

"Great idea, Sam." Frodo exclaimed. He sat Pippin's side satchel down, then helped Merry ease the youngest off his back. "Merry there is a bed roll in my bag. We can use it to lay him on if you wish."

Merry reached into the travel bag and searched until he found it. He laid out the bed roll then nodded to Frodo. Together they got Pippin onto it without waking him up. "He sure is asleep isn't he?"

"He's probably exhausted, Merry." Frodo replied settling down on the left of Pippin leaning against a tree trunk. "We'll let him sleep a little bit longer then when the food is ready we'll wake him."

Merry nodded silently sitting beside his younger cousin watching Sam try and start a fire. He sighed pulling his knees to his chest. "I really had no idea his fever was back. I waited and waited all morning before I decided it was safe to leave."

"I wasn't going to say anything earlier in front of him but you really shouldn't have even brought him out here so soon anyway. It takes more than a day for the Autumn Daze to completely leave, you know that."

"I was just so ready for him to be ok - this time he was in bed for so long and it was getting insane."

"You just have to sit back and wait, aren't you glad that we did run into you two earlier?"

"What do you mean?"

"I'd rather you not be "camping" out in this weather with a sick Pippin, not by yourself anyway."

"When I get back I am getting a whipping for sure." Merry groaned.

Frodo didn't respond, instead he just sat there quietly remembering that Pippin said he had wanted to join and help. What he was trying to figure out was how were Merry and Pippin going to help him when he wasn't even sure what he was doing out here?

"Usually when I mention whipping you give me some sort of smart remark back," Merry stated eyeing his cousin. "Do you think I don't need it this time?"

Frodo pushed the dark feelings from his mind and gathered his thoughts before very calmly (much to Merry's distress) responded with, "Oh no, Merry-Lad. You deserve a whipping this time." Merry grunted his response looking away. "Stop beating yourself up. You had good intentions and as long as he is alright later, no harm done, right?"

Before Merry could respond back, Sam broke into their conversation. "Excuse me, Mr. Frodo but the food is ready."

Merry instead turned his attention back to his sleeping cousin. "Oi, Pip. Wake up. I know you've got to be hungry!" His playful banter stirred Pippin from his sleep and the youngest sat up wide eyed.

"Food? Where?"

Frodo silently handed him a plate of food, Pippin took it gratefully then settled next to Merry leaning against him and began eating. Merry reached around Pippin taking his own plate and setting it into his lap before digging into their bags and pulling out their water skins.

"Pip, how long has it been since you two have eaten?" Frodo asked staring wide eyed at the empty plate. Pippin had a reputation in the Shire for being able to eat a plate of food in record time but even this was faster than usual.

The young hobbit lad wrinkled his nose as he tried to remember, "Well, we left around second breakfast, Merry said I slept through first breakfast, then we were on our way to the field by luncheon." He felt Merry stiffen beside him as the other hobbit realized that he'd practically starved Pippin on top of everything else. "But Mer said we'd have fresh food if we raided the fields first, then we ran into you and now we're having tea."

"Did you eat Second Breakfast, Pippin?"

"Slightly. Stomach was still feeling a bit off so I didn't want to eat to much."

"So basically you've had nothing all day?" Frodo's statement was directed more towards Merry than Pippin who quickly sat his own plate down in Pippin's lap taking the other empty plate and putting it in his own. "Sam, is there any food left?"

"A few sausages, does Mr. Pippin want any more?" Sam replied back.

Frodo took Pippin's empty plate and handed it to Sam who placed the last two sausage links on there then handed the plate back to Merry who poked at it quietly. "It wasn't Merry's fault that I didn't eat!" Pippin suddenly exclaimed when he figured out what was going on. "It was my choice not to eat before we left."

"I know it wasn't his fault," Frodo began. "You just don't need to be not eating while you are recovering. You need all the strength you can get."

"Well we haven't seen those black riders for hours, do you think they left?" Merry asked hoping for a change of subject. He felt Pippin tense beside him and he squeezed his cousin's arm.

Frodo glanced up and sighed before shrugging. "Merry, I have no idea. I would like to believe they are gone but…"

"But what?"

"It's nothing. Since we've not been followed for the time being let's rest here for a bit before getting back on the road."

***************

Frodo looked up from his book to see the rest of the group had fallen asleep around the fire. He smiled and stood up walking around to Sam, pulling his bed roll over him then he turned back to Merry and Pippin. Merry had fallen asleep almost immediately after afternoon tea, it was no surprise that the younger hobbit was exhausted from worrying over the youngest all day. Pippin was curled up by Merry's side, his head comfortably lying on Merry's lap, one of his arms entangled with Merry's. Frodo carefully untangled the two of them, first lying Pippin down completely on the ground with a rolled up bed roll as a temporary pillow then he helped Merry lay down on his side. Merry slightly awoke when Pippin wasn't by his side but Frodo quickly remedied the situation by placing Pippin right back where he was just lying instead of sitting. Covering the two of them up he sat up for a while longer reading until his own eyes were threatening to close.

He had just dosed off when a terrible screeching noise pierced through the sky. The ring in his pocket burned against his chest waking him up immediately. "Sam, get up. Merry! Pippin!" He shouted jumping to his feet. "They found us."

Merry sat up alert wiping sleep from his eyes to see Frodo hastedly throwing their travel bags to them. He caught his and Pippins and dug for their cloaks. "Pippin, wake up." He said as he pulled out his own cloak and fastened it around his neck. He gently shook Pippin's shoulder getting a sleepy groan from his younger cousin. Another shriek exploded from a way down in the woods and Pippin sat up straight wide eyed. "Easy, Pip. It's not here, yet. Throw your cloak on and let's get out of here."

Pippin fumbled with it blearily eyed and stood up on unsteady feet grabbing his bag as well throwing it over his shoulders. Merry stopped briefly to check on him, "Can you run?"

Green eyes glanced at him wearily, "We're about to find out."

End Part 1