Bilbo Baggins could scarcely remember a time when he'd had this much fun. As he tore through the house with his eighteen-month-old cousin on his shoulders, making pretend animal growls and tickling Frodo's toes, he felt as though he could have been twenty years younger.

"Look at those lads," Primula said from the couch, where she sat with her knitting. "Two of a kind, they are."

"I can't think of a single hobbit our son loves more," Drogo agreed. The couple watched with warm smiles on their faces as Bilbo dumped a laughing Frodo into a chair. The little faunt kicked his feet and stretched out his arms.

"Bibbo!" he squealed with delight. "Bibbo play!"

"Don't wear him out now," Primula admonished gently. She stood up and took her son in her arms. "You're so good with him, Bilbo. When we told him we were coming to visit, he could barely contain himself."

Bilbo sat down. "I'm quite fond of him myself," he said. "He's a good lad." He studied Frodo's face and was proud of the way he looked around the house in awe. This was his first visit to Bilbo's house; he hadn't been deemed strong enough to travel until he was at least a year old, and when that time came, there had been an early frost and the weather had been too cold. So Primula and Drogo had decided to wait until spring, when Frodo could walk and be weaned from breastfeeding.

"Passie," Frodo said now, looking up at his mother. "I want passie."

Primula sighed. "All right, but you're getting too old for it." She turned to Drogo, who reached into his pocket.

"Passie?" Bilbo asked.

"Pacifier," she explained. Drogo handed it to her and Frodo popped it into his mouth and sucked on it happily. "I don't think it's very good for his teeth, but it's helped him wean, so we let him use it for now." Bilbo hoped she wouldn't take it away from him anytime soon. He thought Frodo had never looked more adorable.

"You know dear, we could-" But Drogo never finished his sentence because there came a pounding knock on the door. It sounded urgent, and Bilbo got up to answer it at once. The post-hobbit was standing there with a letter in his hand, looking sweaty.

"There a Miss Primula Baggins here?" he asked.

"Well yes, but she doesn't live here," Bilbo said, puzzled. "She's visiting with her family."

"Well I got a letter for her that's real important," the post-hobbit said. "I went to her house first, but the folks there told me she'd gone here. Wouldn't normally come all the way out here, but the folks who sent it said it's real important she reads it as soon as possible."

"All right then, I'll see to it she gets it. Thank you kindly," Bilbo said. He gave the post-hobbit a few gold coins for his trouble, and when the lad had gone, he handed the letter to Primula. She handed Frodo to her husband while she read it, and as she did so her face began to crumple and she wiped her eyes.

"What's wrong?" Bilbo asked, alarmed. Drogo read over her shoulder and he too wore a grave expression.

Primula took a deep breath. "I have a dear friend just outside of Bree- I don't think you've ever met her, her name is Lily." Bilbo shook his head; the name wasn't familiar. "Well, she writes in this letter that she has fallen gravely ill, and her husband broke his leg only days ago. The both of them are struggling to get around the house on their own and don't have many neighbors to help, so…"

"So they need your help?" Bilbo finished gently. Primula nodded.

"I'm so sorry, but it looks as though we'll have to cut our visit short," she said, folding the letter. "From the sound of her letter and her illness, we may be there as long as two months."

"We?" Drogo asked. His wife turned to him. "I'm sorry, but I feel it's best if one of us stay home with Frodo. At his age it could be dangerous to have him exposed to such a serious illness."

Primula thought for a moment. "You're probably right. As her friend, I must be the one to go. Maybe there's someone else we can call on for her husband. He needs help with getting dressed and other tasks that are not proper for ladies to take part in."

"You should both go," Bilbo spoke up. "Frodo can stay right here with me."

Primula and Drogo stared at him with open mouths. "Bilbo, we couldn't possibly-"

"It would be my pleasure," Bilbo said. He stood up and spread his arms. "I have more than enough room and this way you can both go. Your friend needs you, Primula, and will probably recover much quicker if she knows her husband is in good hands as well."

They were speechless. "But it's such a long time," Drogo said.

"Two months is not long at all," Bilbo insisted. "Why, at my age, it's like the blink of an eye. We'll be just fine, won't we, Frodo?" He waggled his fingers at the little lad, who smiled, unaware of the situation.

Primula's eyes were swimming with tears. "Are you sure?"

Bilbo gave her a gentle smile. "Think nothing of it."

The next two days were a flurry of activity. Drogo sent for his and Primula's suitcases and his wife made a list of what Frodo would need for his stay at Bilbo's. Drogo gathered medicines from the healer to take to Lily and her husband, and Primula wrote detailed instructions for Bilbo on Frodo's bedtime routines, what he liked to eat, what to do when he started crying, and so on. Bilbo thought that entirely unnecessary, but she had never been away from her son for so long and it made her feel better, so he let her get on with it.

When the carriage arrived, several working hobbits from the neighborhood pitched in to unload its contents and bring them into the house. Besides clothes and nappies and more toys than Bilbo thought was strictly necessary, the hobbits were lugging in a crib, a playpen, a high chair, a baby bathtub, a pram, a rocking chair, blankets, and a changing table.

Bilbo was flabbergasted. Just how much did one baby need? When Primula had said she'd send for Frodo's things, Bilbo had pictured maybe two bags of clothes, a sack of nappies, and a few favorite toys. He certainly hadn't been expecting new furniture. Just where she was she expecting him to put all of this?

"I'm sorry, I know it's a lot," she said nervously, biting her lip.

You can say that again. But he smiled regardless. "That's all right. I'm sure there's a place for everything." Perhaps if he set his mind to it, he could see about turning the spare room into a suitable nursery.

A half hour later, the carriage was empty except for Primula and Drogo's suitcases, which had been fully packed. "Now we just need to see about getting everything into the spare room," Drogo said.

"Oh, don't trouble yourselves about that," Bilbo said. "You two have got people waiting on you. I can manage this myself, and I also have Gaffer to help me."

His cousins smiled and embraced him tightly, thanking him over and over. "Someday we shall repay you," Drogo promised.

"There's no need," Bilbo said. "I never had children of my own and, well, I suppose you could say that taking care of this little lad is a nice way for me to get a taste of what I never had. What might have been." Bilbo often pretended to be sorrier about being a bachelor than he actually was. It was extremely rare for a hobbit to be alone by choice, but although Bilbo liked children, he thought he got quite enough of them visiting relatives and attending neighborhood parties. He enjoyed sitting them on his lap and telling them stories at other hobbit-houses, but when he was in his own home he liked to relax with a pipe and a book.

Frodo was an exception though. Bilbo couldn't put his finger on it, but there was something about the dear little lad that made him feel different, made him sad when the family had to leave. He was probably the only child in the world that Bilbo would ever agree to care for that long.

"You'd have been a lovely father, dear Bilbo," Primula said, kissing his cheek. Bilbo wasn't so sure about that, but he accepted the compliment regardless. "Frodo adores you. He'll be so happy."

Bilbo thought that perhaps Frodo did not adore him quite so much as Primula thought, because the minute his mother set him in his playpen and told him to be good for Uncle Bilbo, the lad began to cry. "Mumma! Mumma!" he whined, standing up and reaching out for her.

"Mummy will be back soon, love," Primula assured him, waving goodbye. "Bilbo, don't be afraid to write me if there are any problems, even small ones, all right?"

"Don't you worry about a thing," Bilbo called out to her as she and Drogo headed out the door and down the hill. "We'll be just fine." After exchanging a few more shouted words of parting, Bilbo shut the door and Frodo screamed.

"Mumma! Mumma!"

"She hasn't abandoned you, Frodo, Mumma just had to go on a little trip," Bilbo said.

"Mummaaaaa!" Bilbo became alarmed when tears began to leak out of his eyes and he quickly picked the little one up. Thinking fast, Bilbo tried making funny faces, but that didn't work. Then he tried singing silly songs, and that just made Frodo cry louder.

Bilbo was despondent. Frodo had never acted like this before. "Frodo, you do like me, don't you? I thought I was your favorite cousin."

"Mumma!" Frodo insisted. He threw back his head and whined her name over and over until Bilbo was at his wit's end. He took a peek out the door, but Primula was still helping to load up the carriage. He thought about calling for her to come back, but he couldn't bear to delay her when she needed to be getting out of here as quickly as possible. He tried the rocking chair to no avail and desperately looked out the window again. He knew what to do, but he didn't want Primula to see him do it. If she saw him sprinting for help only minutes after leaving her son in his care, he'd never hear the end of it. He put Frodo down for a minute and the shrieking faunt looked up at him in despair.

Finally the driver cracked the whip over the horses and the carriage rolled away with Primula in it. The minute she was out of sight, Bilbo picked up Frodo and ran as fast as he could to Gaffer's house. Luckily the hobbit answered on the first knock.

"I am so sorry to bother you on your day off, truly," Bilbo said, bouncing a still wailing Frodo. "But as you can see," he nodded at Frodo. "I have no idea what I'm doing. He's been crying for ten minutes, I can't get him to stop."

Gaffer only raised his eyebrows. "Come in please, Mr. Bilbo." He stepped aside and Bilbo gratefully entered. "This little one ain't yours, is he?"

"He is for the next two months," Bilbo said, practically having to shout over Frodo's cries. "His parents- my cousins- had to leave on an emergency. I agreed to take care of him for them, only I-"

"Only you're not sure how to take care of young'uns," Gaffer finished for him. Bilbo nodded.

"Again, I'm truly sorry to bother you about this, I know it's not fair, but-"

"Oh say no more!" Gaffer waved his hand. "You know it's our pleasure to help any way we can. Give him here." He held out his arms and Bilbo transferred Frodo to them. The little tyke had gone completely red-faced. "Oh, stop that now," Gaffer said soothingly, patting his back. "It's all right. Calm down, little feller."

Bilbo looked around awkwardly at Gaffer's little lads, Hamfast and Halfred. They were sitting on the floor and playing with marbles. Or at least they had been; now they were just staring awkwardly up at Bilbo. He couldn't imagine how he must look to them.

"What's all this crying?" Bell's voice came from the bedroom, and a minute later she came out to meet them. "Why, hello Mr. Bilbo! And who's this?" she asked, taking Frodo from Gaffer. That seemed to calm him down; his face began to regain its color and he resorted to sniffling. She rocked him a bit, stroking his hair.

"My little cousin Frodo," Bilbo said. "His parents just had to leave urgently, and he's staying with me for a while." He stroked Frodo's curls. "The lad misses his mother. I keep telling him she'll be back, but he doesn't understand."

Bell shook her head. "No, he won't understand." When Bilbo bowed his head she put her hand on his arm. "Don't worry, Mr. Bilbo. He just needs a little time. He'll get used to you."

Bilbo gave a weak smile. "This is probably going to sound like an absurd question, but what exactly do you do when a baby starts crying? I mean, what do I do first? Try to feed him, hold him, or just wait it out?" He had never dealt with crying before; in the past he'd simply handed children off to their parents whenever they started getting emotional.

"You try a bit of everything and see what works," Gaffer said. He pointed to his sons. "That's what I did with these two. First you try the obvious things like feedin' 'em. Then if that don't work, you try a few toys and a little rocking. If none of that works, then you'll have to either take him to a healer or wait it out."

"How will I know which one to do?" Bilbo asked. He wondered if he ought to take notes. This was why he didn't have children. They were always far more complicated than they looked.

"Mr. Bilbo," Bell said, and gestured for him to sit down. He did so and she sat with him at the table, holding Frodo on her lap. Gaffer shooed his sons outside and fetched some tea for his guest. "I understand you being nervous and all, but you just need some time. When we first started out we was nervous too, but now we know our lads so well we can tell what's wrong with 'em just by the way they cry. We know when they need a clean nappy before they do."

"Really?" Bilbo felt a small bit of hope. "You think if I spend enough time with Frodo, I'll be able to tell?"

"Well with the nappies, you can tell by the smell," Gaffer said, cleaning his teeth with a piece of hay. Bell shot him a dirty look- she hated when he did that at the table, but he ignored her. "And with everything else, yeah, you just need some time. You're a smart hobbit, Mr. Bilbo, you'll do a fine job."

"And it's only your first day," Bell reminded him.

"Yes, my first day and I'm already running to you for help," Bilbo joked.

"Ain't nothing wrong with that," Bell said firmly. "You feel free to come find us whenever something's wrong."

"Thank you," Bilbo said, sipping his tea. He gestured to Frodo. "Look at that. Perfectly calm. I swear some lasses have the magic touch."

"It takes a while to develop, but yes," Bell said proudly. "I do like to think I know babes."

"Mm." Bilbo took a sip of his tea. He wondered if perhaps he was in for more than he had bargained for.