Bilbo sat on a chair in the garden of Bag End, thinking of Thorin, Fili and Kili. When he left, it had seemed to be a good idea to go home quietly and not attend the funerals, but now he started to regret his choices. He would like to get back to Erebor to see what the dwarves had done with it and to see Balin again, the one that had become his closest friend among them. To this day, he still had not finished refurbishing his hole after the auction. Being officially declared dead and then returning was becoming more trouble than he first realized, though his cousin Primula, one of the few who did not call him "Mad Baggins" had helped all she could, while having to look after her newborn son Frodo, now four months old. A week ago she had invited him to her birthday party that evening with a strange gleam in the eyes that made him wary of whatever she had planned, but he had still accepted.

It had been two months since his return and he had only left Bag End when he had needed to buy something. Lobelia Sackville-Baggins had been the only one that regularly visited and the one of his relatives he least wanted to see. He knew that she had long ago realized that and just came to spite him. Turning back to the present, he got off his chair and walked back inside to get ready for the party. He arrived to see that he was the first one there. Primula and her husband Drogo were still busy with the last minute preparations and asked him to wait outside with Frodo. The little boy was one of the most adorable baby hobbits and Bilbo could already see that he would turn quite a few heads when he got to his tweens.

Holding him in his arms brought up another memory he would rather forget, of his first love who broke it up with him a few months before their wedding, for reasons he never knew. She had later married a hobbit from Bree and died giving birth to her first child that was stillborn. The memory still hurt him to this day and was the primary reason he had never gotten married though he had wished to be given the chance to start his own family. He still could, he was not too old yet, but he imagined that not many women were ready to marry one that was viewed as mad.

He was shaken from his thoughts as someone touched his shoulder. Bilbo turned around and noticed Primula standing behind him. She told him that the guests would probably arrive soon. Trying to smile, he went to the gate to wait. The first ones to arrive were his cousins Saradoc Brandybuck and Paladin Took with their wives Esmeralda and Eglantine, followed be a few others he did not know. Soon the party was in full swing and Primula led everyone to their seats. Bilbo had been placed between Saradoc and an unknown woman, a new friend of Primula that had moved from Bree to Hobbiton while he was on the way to Erebor. Before she left, Primula whispered: "Be nice to her, Bilbo. She has been recently widowed with two children to raise on her own." Then she was gone and Bilbo wondered if he was being set up. Well, he would play Primula´s game for a while and then politely excuse himself.