Disclaimer: I don't own the Lord of the Rings or the Hobbit!

A/N: Good afternoon and welcome to Serenity!

On this ship we'll journey through the Two Towers and follow the Fellowship as they go their separate ways. Your pilots of the story are Éomer, Faramir, Aragorn, Frodo, Bilbo, and Fili and Kili. Hang on tight!

Enjoy! Please review!


An Unexpected Journey

September 5158, Minas Tirith, Gondor System

Boromir was old – there was no denying it – and his body took great cares to remind him of the fact every morning. His right shoulder could ache insistently for hours unless he looked for help from his wife. His left wrist was plagued with carpal tunnel and on rainy days his knees ached badly. Perhaps the worst part of aging was his memory. It was starting to go bad. Some days he forgot who his children were and others he was happy to hear from his sons and daughter. During his times of memory loss he often wondered why his wife remained by his side. She had every right to leave him in the care of their staff at home and go off on another adventure.

"I hope you are not trying to guilt me into leaving again." Boromir tore his gaze away from the passing scenery to look at his wife. Tauriel sat back against the leather seat of the train car, her lips pursed in annoyance.

Boromir smiled pleasantly at her. "I would never think of such a thing," he told her.

Tauriel laughed lightly and slapped his knee. "Liar," she accused. "We have been together for sixty-five years, Boromir. I am pretty sure I can read your thoughts now."

"And that's where you're wrong," Boromir said, earning himself another laugh. "No one can read a single thing I'm thinking."

"Except for Pippin," Tauriel pointed out.

Boromir nodded. "Except for Pippin," he agreed. Tauriel shook her head. Her smile was one of exasperation this time. Boromir reclined in his seat. He enjoyed picking on his wife occasionally. It tended to bring out the wild side she'd hidden away in the recent years.

Neither of them spoke through the rest of the train ride, content to sit in silence. Boromir watched as the White City drew nearer with every minute that passed. He and Tauriel had arrived on the planet the night before but had chosen to stay in one of the outer cities. The trains didn't run during the night and it was too much of a hassle to take a ship out to the main city. Upon their arrival, though, Boromir had felt that familiar presence in his mind. Pippin was waiting for him.

The train pulled into the station at half past ten in the morning. Boromir and Tauriel followed the crowds off the train. The station was unusually busy for a weekday. Normally the platforms were as silent as a graveyard at this time. Boromir shrugged to himself. It was probably due to the upcoming festival to celebrate the War of the Ring. Everyone wanted to buy their supplies now, before the vendors ran out.

Two figures waited patiently at the far end of the platform, speaking between each other. Boromir made a beeline for them immediately. The moment he saw Boromir and Tauriel, Aragorn stepped away from Faramir to greet them.

"Boromir," the King said. The two Men embraced one another as brothers while Faramir greeted Tauriel with a kiss on the cheek. Aragorn stepped back and looked Boromir up and down. "You look horrible," he commented.

Boromir chuckled, clapping the King on the shoulder. "You don't look any better," he said, and Aragorn laughed. The Ranger's hair had gone gray over the years. His shoulders stooped more and he carried a cane, but only on doctor's orders. He rarely ever used it.

Boromir greeted Faramir next, pulling his brother into a rough hug. "It's good to see you again," he told his younger brother. Faramir mumbled in agreement, his face shoved into Boromir's shoulder. "How's Elboron?"

Faramir forced Boromir to release him in order to answer. "Ask him yourself," he retorted. "It's not that hard to pick up line and call him every once in a while."

"I call him every week," Boromir told his brother, and Faramir shook his head.

"And I make sure he does it," Tauriel said. She looped her arm around Boromir's elbow and leaned against her husband. "They had a very long talk about weapons tactics last week."

"Of course you would," Faramir snorted.

"You're just jealous that I have a better relationship with your son than you," Boromir said. Faramir made a rather loud t-cah sound of disagreement. Boromir elbowed his brother. "I'm only joking, you know that." Faramir wrinkled his nose at him.

"Well, your majesty," Tauriel said to Aragorn. "Are you going to lead the way or shall we find our own ride to the palace?"

Aragorn grinned at her. "This way." He gestured toward a waiting shuttle. The small group way their down the path, laughing as Boromir continued to tease his brother.

o.O.o

"Pip, you all right?"

Pippin turned away from gazing blindly toward the southwest wall. Physically he was back in the courtyard with the crew of the Arkenstone, but mentally he was listening to Boromir tell a joke to Aragorn. It took all his strength to draw back out of that mind. Once he had, though, he became immediately aware of the all the attention focused on him. Kili had been the one to ask the question.

"The Steward's here," Pippin said vaguely. "He came with Tauriel."

"Excellent," Kili crowed. Pippin grinned as he felt the Dwarf's excitement intermingled with Thorin's exasperation. "She always makes these sort of things fun."

"This isn't fun enough for you?" Nori teased.

"You know that's not what I meant," Kili snapped.

Pippin pulled his awareness away as the two Dwarves began bickering, Nori wheedling just to annoy Kili. "Back to the story, yeah," he said aloud.

"If you think you're ready," Bilbo told him. "I know yesterday couldn't have been easy on you."

Pippin waved a dismissive hand in Bilbo's general direction. "I've had worse," he said, and no one argued with him because they knew that much was true. "Where were we?"

"Give Magpie a minute," Bofur said, referencing to the Songbird that was recording the story for them. "She's a little sleepy this morning." Magpie gave a sleepy coo, as though to support this statement. Pippin just grinned. He loved this Songbird. It was friendly and always knew how brighten everyone's spirits.

"There we are," Bofur said eventually. "We'd just finished with the breakin' of the Fellowship. So Boromir's dead, Frodo and Sam have gone off ta Ithilien through the Emyn Muil, ya were captured by Orcs with Merry, and Aragorn's chasin' after ya."

Pippin nodded to himself. "Right," he said. "I suppose it'd be best to start with Frodo then."


A/N: What did you think?

Please don't kill me! Everything will be explained in due course and I really hope you all don't hate me for it. Until then please bear with me and leave the torches and pitchforks at home.

All right, so the Fellowship of the Ring was fun to write but I struggled a little bit when I didn't receive any feedback on what my readers thought. So, as Castor loves to say: you write comment, I write chapter, yes? :)