Caleb was having a strange sense of deja vu.

This spot, the grass beside a dirt path, felt oh so familiar to him, as well as the surrounding area. His mind was still groggy from the day - Tania had forgotten to bring him his coffee again - so he couldn't quite place his finger on it. He let out a yawn, handing coming up to run through his hair, when it caught on something. Something familiar.

His eyes widened comically, coming up to trace the strand of hair. It was braided. Caleb knew that was impossible - his hair wasn't long enough to be braided. Not since...not since Kili.

The memories assaulted Caleb all at once, he and Cat nearly getting eaten by trolls, running from orcs, wargs and all kinds of nasties. The riddles with the elven king, the barrel ride, the kiss. Gold sickness, him punching Thorin, the battle, the return home.
He raised a hand to his head and heard a groan, though it was not his. Caleb turned to the side, eyes locking on Cat. Her attire was the same as when they had left, albeit clean. Her sword was attached to her side. He became more conscious of the current weight on his back and allowed his hand to travel their, feeling his quiver and bow.
"Caleb..." His head swivelled to look at his sister, who looked rather disorientated, her eyes slightly unfocused. "What the actual hell is going on?"
"You tell me." He replied, groaning and flopping back onto the grass, staring at the sky. He let out a yelp, raising hands to cover his face when his vision was blocked by a very familiar face. "Holy shit, give me heart failure, why don't you?!"

"Caleb...Caleb it's Gandalf." Cat's voice was slightly hysterical.

"Yes, I can see that, Cat."

"Glad to see you have not changed much from when we last met, Miss Adams."

"Wait, but that means..." Caleb placed a hand to his forehead, eyes squinting shut. He was heavily aware of the metal bead, heavy on his hair and cold against his skin, and what it's reappearance meant. "We're back?"

"After sixty years." Gandalf said solemnly and Cat and Caleb exchanged disbelieving looks.

"But it's only been twenty!" Cat argued. Caleb sighed. It had to be the longest twenty years anyone had ever experienced.

"I think they have the whole Narnia thing going on, Cat." He ignored the confused look he was gaining from Gandalf and his attention was directed to the cart he was riding on and the person sat there, looking much more confused than Gandalf. Caleb recognised him immediately. "That's Frodo, isn't it?"

The poor hobbit nearly fell off his seat in disbelief and Cat muffled a laugh with her hand. Gandalf's eyes were sparkling, though.

"Yes, it is. Frodo, this is Caleb and Catherine Adams - I believe you have heard of them?"

"From uncle's stories?" His blue eyes widened in amazement.

"I told Bilbo to stop calling me Catherine." Cat muttered and Caleb suppressed an eyeroll at her. That was what she was worried about? That was so Cat.

"But Bilbo said you'd disappeared!"

"How the hell did he explain that?" Cat yelped when Caleb hit her on the arm. Honestly, even though she was now thirty nine, she hadn't grown up much in the past twenty years.

"We did." Caleb responded, moving from his sitting position to a standing one, Cat following his example. "Only now, it appears as though we have reappeared." Frodo beamed.

"He will be delighted to see you!"

Caleb wasn't sure what scared him most - the complete awe that Frodo was looking at him with, or the scarily excited grin Cat was sporting.

XoooX

Bilbo didn't really want any more company than what he had now.

Looking back on it, his decision to invite the company around for his eleventy first birthday was really poor. He already housed the three Durin boys - Fili, Kili and his husband, Thorin - and he'd figured he could easily handle more, as he had done so before. He expected them to have mellowed over time.

Apparently, he was wrong.

It was complete and utter chaos. He was sure that Bombur had broken his chair and that the pantry was going to be clear of food of any sort. There was mud and weapons everywhere and, to be honest, the hobbit couldn't care less. His family was almost complete. 'Almost' being the key word.

He still felt the absence of the two humans greatly. Cat and Caleb, as eccentric as the girl had been, had managed to bury their way into his heart and wouldn't remove themselves. Bilbo had a sketch of them in his book, courtesy of Ori. Caleb had told him what gold lust would have made Thorin do if he hadn't managed to snap him out of it. Bilbo basically owed his current happiness to the two.

The sound of a knock managed to be heard through the noise, the clamour quieting significantly. To be honest, Bilbo had no idea who it could be - the company was here, after all. He made his way to the door, opening it to find three familiar faces. The two younger people bowed.

"Catherine -"

"- And Caleb -"

"- At your service."

Bilbo stared and the two shuffled nervously. His face broke out into a huge, watery grin.

"You're actually here?"

"I think so." Cat tilted her head, and Bilbo found himself classifying that as one of her traits. "I mean, I feel like me. And I can touch things, so I'm not a ghost, and I -" She was cut off by a hand over her mouth.

"Cat, shut up."

Bilbo practically threw himself at them, the presence of Gandalf completely forgotten as the two hugged him back, laughter and tears mingling into one as they reunited.

"Caleb..." Caleb froze, his head raising to look into brown eyes. Bilbo knew that was Kili's voice. The young dwarf had changed in the past years, a beard starting to grow, looking a lot like his uncle's had done when Bilbo had first met him. The braid Caleb had put in his hair all those years ago had the pride of place at the right front of his hair, other braids added for other things. It had been rebraided, but for Kili it still held the same significance.

"Kili..."

The reaction was instantaneous. Kili launched himself across the gap between them, Caleb falling to the ground with his weight, laughing with joy as Kili covered his face with kisses. "You waited?"

"Of course I did." Kili nuzzled his nose against Caleb's. "I love you, you idiot."

The commotion had gained everyone else's attention, which was to be expected. The sound of boots on the floor came to a sudden halt as Fili took in the appearance of an older Cat, who was eyeing the dwarf and boy on the ground with fondness and disgust at the same time.

"Cat?" She perked up greatly at the voice, blue eyes brightening as her face broke out into a full on beam.

"Fili!"

They greeted each other in a hug and as soon as Cat was free, she was engulfed by Bofur.

"Good to see you again."

"The feeling's mutual." She patted his head in a distinctively motherly gesture. Bilbo couldn't help but wonder what had happened in the years they had been gone. "How is everyone?"

"Well." Cat turned to stare at the figure of Thorin. Though his hair was more silver than black now, he still held the same majesty he had when he was younger. Caleb and Kili had gotten up, though the arm Caleb had wrapped around him was tight, obvious he was not willing to let go of the youngest Durin just yet. Thorin graced both of them with a rare smile. "It is good to see both of you again, Caleb, Catherine."

"Stop calling me Catherine!"

Fili laughed, flinging a casual arm around the woman's shoulders as she pouted. "You haven't changed much. What has happened since you've been gone?"

"A lot." Caleb said in way of explanation. "I passed my English course, though. My job's rubbish."

"Tania forgot to get you coffee?"

"You know me so well." Caleb smirked at his sister. "And then there's Tammith."

"Tammith?" Nori raised an eyebrow - still elaborately braided. Cat hummed.

"The most important person in my life right now." She replied. "Even more than Caleb - no offence. She's my daughter."

"Daughter?" There was spluttering from Fili, curiosity from Ori and sort of disbelief from everyone else.

"Unbelievable, right?" Caleb joked and Cat elbowed him. Hard.

"But enough about us - I believe we have a party to attend?"

XoooX

It was at the party Caleb realised that they had forgotten to mention something very important all those years ago.

They couldn't be blamed though - they were slightly distraught at leaving and the almost death of one Thorin Oakenshield.

He had to admit, forgetting about the evil ring which could, you know, destroy Arda was a big slip up. There was nothing they could do about it now, though. Besides, Frodo did destroy it. But at the cost of a finger and, Caleb supposed, his contentment.

So, yeah, Bilbo disappearing after his speech caused panic from the Hobbits, and laughter from the dwarves. Cat just shot Caleb a wide eyed look, like 'how did you forget about that?'

As if she couldn't be blamed too. Honestly.

"Come on." Caleb grabbed Cat's wrist, jerking her into a standing position and, amidst the chaos, ran back to Bag End.

"How the hell did you forget about that?" Cat managed to yell at him as they retraced the dirt path, up hills to reach Bilbo's house.

"We were about to leave, Catherine! Right then, I was more worried about whether I -" He cut himself off. There was a time and place for this argument, and right now was not it. "Never mind."

It took them a while to reach Bag End, and as guessed, they were beaten to it by Gandalf. They'd reached the gate as Bilbo dropped the ring, the metal clinging against the stone tile. The two caught their breath, ignoring the looks. Not at all surprisingly was that they were soon joined by a group of dwarves and a very curious Frodo.

"I am assuming you have a reason for running up here?" Gandalf raised an eyebrow. Caleb and Cat exchanged looks, before turning to look at Gandalf.

"It...it's a long story." Cat admitted. "One we should really have remembered."

"Well, as I believe, it is better to tell it late than never."

XoOoX

Welcome to the sequel!

Next chapter is when Tam and Will appear. I have a lot of this fic mapped out in my head, with some changes. There will be significantly more Cat than I previously expected, but that's most definitely not a bad thing.

There are probably typos - I'm half asleep here.

In other news, I bought Lord of the Rings after failing to find my mum's set, so I'm (slowly) making my way through that.

Read, review and all that jazz! ~ Jazz x