"No Tom!"

Despite having only one little Gamgee in his care, Frodo was barely clinging onto his sanity.

He had just disentangled Tom from his hair when he caught the hobbit baby helping himself to a handful of raw dough.

After prying the lumpy blob of dinner from the baby's clutches, he looked up to see a defeated looking Arwen at the kitchen table.

"No luck with Primrose I presume."

Arwen nodded sadly,

"and I thought that Dan and Ro were difficult."

Frodo smiled sympathetically,

"If she's under the blankets then it's a loosing battle. Just let her calm down. She can be a bit over emotional at times."

Sighing in defeat, Arwen got up from the kitchen table,

"Do you know where Aragorn and the others went?"

"They went to do ranger stuff."

Arwen rolled her eyes, "Why am I not surprised?"

...

I remember ranger stuff being more interesting than this

After thirty minutes of sniffing the ground, all of the Gamgees were growing bored.

Aragorn sensed the rapidly decreasing interest in walking without making a sound, which he reminded himself that hobbits excelled in naturally.

Wanting to keep them all moderately interested before true chaos reeked again, he suggested another form of entertainment.

"Did any of you ever go to Bree?"

The much needed change of topic brought all Gamgees out of the monotonous routine of "ranger stuff"

"Well," said Frodo, "Dad took Merry a few years ago and we all know how well that went."

A few of the siblings snickered.

Aragorn raised an eyebrow, silently asking what happened.

A red faced Merry answered, "I was erm, banished."

Aragorn raised his eyebrow further, "banished? Why?"

"Well not from Bree." added Merry defensively, "only from the Prancing Pony."

"Why?" repeated Aragorn

"I was...clumsy to say the least."

Aragorn was thoroughly confused by now, as far as he knew, Barliman Butterbur was a more than friendly person who was more forgiving than most.

"You were banished because you were clumsy?"

"To say the lest." nodded Merry

"How about to say the most?"

The others chuckled at Aragorn's remark.

"Well," said Merry uneasily, " I kind of was not as careful with the property of The Prancing Pony as I should have been."

"Meaning?" Aragorn pressed further

Frodo lad answered for his younger brother,

"He broke everything within eight rooms of where he was standing and what he couldn't break he burned."

Aragorn was starting to doubt Merry Gamgee's adeptness as living out a life where the majority of Arda didn't hate him.

"So I guess a trip to Bree's out then?"

All of the children nodded silently.