"Shhhh," Elboron's mother whispered in his ear as she bounced him. "Lay your head down." She stroked his soft head, coaxing him to lay on her shoulder, but he was not the slightest bit interested in sleep.

"Is he not yet abed?" His father asked, entering the dim room. He stoked the fire, which came back to life, as though accepting that no one would be going to sleep anytime soon. "Shall I call for the nurse so we can rest?"

"I cannot imagine what is keeping him awake," replied Eowyn, shaking her head. "He's comfortable, but the moment I think he'll sleep, he seems to think something is very amusing."

Faramir smiled and held his arms out. As Elboron was passed from mother to father, he looked between them, reaching his arms out and chortling.

"You see?" His mother sighed.

But Faramir did not see. Nor did his wife. In fact, no one in the room saw anything out of the ordinary. No one, that is, except for Elboron.

Finduilas knew that were she in the flesh, she would have been politely distracted from her grandson hours ago so that he might be put to bed for the night. But how could she stay away from him, when he was the very picture of his father as a baby, her sweet, tiny Faramir? His dark hair, his dimpled chin, even his laugh was just the same as her son's had been all those years ago, before... before...

She had left her son. After so many sleepless nights insisting to her husband that she was so needed, when Faramir had been only five years old, she had left him. She had left him and his older brother to wander the seashore she had longed for so strongly that she'd sacrificed her husband and children.

And when everything had changed, and the darkness had been broken, she returned to find that her son was a man grown. Grown, married, and the Steward of Gondor under the new king. It was such a different world than the one she remembered. But here was one thing that was just the same as she had had in her life as the Steward's wife- a little black-haired baby, pink cheeked and reaching out for her.

As Faramir bounced her grandson, she smiled widely and blew into the babe's face, making him shut his eyes, squeal with laughter, and wriggle in his father's arms.

"Oh, shut the window, will you love?" Faramir asked his wife. "I think it may be a draft keeping him up."