Author's Note: DiamondTook 3, thank you for your recent review. I appreciate that you are still reading. It has become like your own private story since it appears you and I are the only ones still reading it!

Chapter 29

Like the afterimages of a flash of lightening, Diamond recalled indefinite snatches of memory: cold water, then colder air, then the feeling of being pulled and dragged. When she was next aware of herself and her surroundings, she brushed a tangle of wet curls from her eyes. In the dim of the coming evening she could just make out a figure on the grassy bank near her. Pippin lay, unmoving, as she crawled over to him and placed her head on his chest.

"Who do you think dragged you out of the water?" he rumbled, startling her.

"I was just checking," she said a bit peevishly. She backed away attempting to right her dress, which lay like a sodden mass about her body. Above them the bare trees clicked in the breeze. The moon was half-full and reflected like a scatter of silver dust on the fast moving but diminishing stream. The water would be all but gone by morning, after wreaking havoc for the whole day. The wrecks of wagons and other items lined the soggy banks of the impromptu river.

"Why am I always rescuing you?" he muttered pushing himself to a sitting position and surveying their surroundings. As his eyes passed Diamond, he stopped. She was shivering; her lips were grey and her eyes dark holes in her pale face. As Pippin crawled over to her she eyed him warily.

"We need to get shelter and a fire. How well do you know this area?" he asked getting to his feet with a groan and stretching his stiff back out. He held his hand out to her.

"I have no idea where we are. It is too dark to tell. This stream is no help as it is new, so I've no landmarks to go by," she replied ignoring his hand and stumbling to her own feet, however unsteadily, under her own power. The fact that she had no feeling in her hands and feet made standing a challenge.

"Then we'll have to walk until we find someplace to warm up. The rain has stopped for now so it would be good to set off right away," he reasoned. She did not have the energy to argue and so stumbled after him as he headed into the trees.

Hobbits had lived in the Shire for time beyond counting. But areas of the Shire grew or fell in popularity according to the natural resources available there. This area of the Shire was filled with tress, but they were rather hard and sturdy, and therefore difficult to cut. Diamond and Pippin were lost west of Long Cleeve some distance north of Nobottle. Once there had been an active, lively community here, but in recent years the area had fallen out of favour. As they made their way through the wood, the wind kicked up and a drizzle of rain began. Pippin watched his step but kept one eye backwards should Diamond stumble. Diamond's feet regained some feeling, but it was only pain and she longed for the numbness to return. As their strength and hopes began to flag, Pippin saw the silhouette of a hut through the trees.

It was not what one would call homey. It was quite the opposite in fact. The timing was good, though, as the drizzle had become a downpour. Pippin had to push the door in with some force, but it gave way and they entered the hut. It had long since been abandoned. There were scraps of furniture and little else, but it was dry, as hobbit huts were made to be, and there were enough scraps of wood for a fire in the fireplace. Diamond closed the far window blown open by some long vanished wind and then set about to collect what she could in the way of blankets. She located two threadbare sheets and one moth-eaten but thick woolen blanket.

"How will you light a fire without flint?" she asked piling the sheets and blankets near the grate.

"I learned a lot of tricks from my traveling companions during the Quest. Tracking, fire lighting, sword fighting. I am a hobbit of many talents," he joked mildly. Diamond watched as he created fire with a dry stick upright on a flat stone and a second stick pulled like the bow of a fiddle. Smoke rose from the stone and soon the leaves placed upon it caught fire. He carefully added more leaves as fuel and then a handful of the small branches that littered the floor. Once the fire was well underway, they cleared away the remainder of the branches and leaves and lay one of the sheets on the floor.

"You should take off your clothes so we can dry them," Pippin said removing his own overshirt. Diamond nodded and turned her back to him. She walked to the far side of the hut where shadows still reigned and tried to remove her dress. It was a simple task made impossible by her numbed fingers and shivering body. After unsuccessfully trying for several minutes, she called out to Pippin. "My fingers are too numb to get these buttons undone. The dress will have to dry on me."

"Nonsense," Pippin tutted, trying to cover his nervousness as he approached her darkened corner. She hesitated, but necessity drove away her pride, and her fear and she turned her back to him. Pippin unbuttoned each one, his fingers a little more nimble than hers. It was a slow process. In the back of both their minds there was a fear. A fear that one of them would mention the unspoken words between them in the flood. That one would call the other out and admit what each had seen in the eyes of the other. Or far worse, one could deny it. At the time, both were sure of what they had seen and had they died then, it would have been a peaceful end for both. But back among the living, those things that had kept them apart became sharply real once again. Fear and longing welled up inside each of them. In the world of the living, there were memories and consequences. Finally Pippin was able to undo the last of the buttons and he quickly made his way back to the fire. Her soaken dress slid slowly to the wooden floor, and beneath it she wore the traditional underclothes of bloomers and a camisole.

"Turn your back," she called out of the darkness. Pippin, now undressed down to his own underclothes, did so immediately. She wrapped herself in one of the sheets and gathered the mass of fabric up which she then brought over to Pippin. He took the clothes from her outstretched hands and hung them on the metal rack near the grate. Diamond lay on the ground on top of the other sheet and pulled the blanket up to her chin. Pippin turned to her. He crouched near her, the fire behind him casting his face into darkness. She pulled the blanket back and, mirroring his action in her dream that morning (was it that morning?), Pippin climbed under the blanket next to her. He lay on his back though, looking into the crackling fire and not into her cobalt eyes. Their blueness was undiminished by the darkness and that troubled him, because their power over him was undiminished, also. Neither spoke nor moved for some time for fear of revealing too much. Every moment that passed without them speaking of what had happened in the water made it that much more impossible to mention it. After the moment seemed to have passed beyond recall, out of the darkness Pippin's voice, small and quiet, finally spoke to her.

"It would be better, warmer, if we held each other," he said. Diamond stiffened. "Since I am bigger, you should trade places with me," he finished.

"All right," she agreed, equally quietly. She lifted her trembling body over his as he rolled onto his side. She slipped in front of him between him and the fire. At first he was tentative and kept some distance between them. But he could see her trembling and was moved by pity. She was shocked as she felt him move closer. The remnants of her recent dream, so passionate and real, still lingered in her mind. He bent his knees and brought them up behind hers. He pressed his chest and stomach against her back. She could have questioned his intentions, but the warmth radiating from his body put an end to her shivering in short order and she accepted they were nothing but honorable. Outside the rain beat down until around midnight, when it finally let up for good.

* * *

When Diamond awoke the next morning, early, almost before the sun, she lay in a half-wakened state. Behind her she could feel Pippin's body curled against hers. His curves and bends fitted neatly into hers. They were like two matching silver spoons pressed perfectly together. Pippin's arm was draped across her waist and two of his fingers had strayed between the buttons on her camisole. The tips of his fingers brushed the flesh of her stomach. Still half asleep, she became aware of the firmness of his chest and the roundness of his hobbit stomach on her back, and his legs, stout and strong, nestled into hers. Diamond moaned sleepily. Pippin moaned in return. And there, in the dimness of the hut, the embers of the dying fire still faintly glowing in the grate, the world outside washed clean, Diamond, still lost in a dream, rolled her body toward Pippin. Their eyes were still pressed tightly shut, whether in sleep or in fear the dream would end if seen in the cold light of the morning, was uncertain. Pippin drew his fingers across her stomach. She shivered, not in response to the cold, but in response to the sensation of his touch. Tentatively he moved his mouth to hers.

They brushed their lips together. He drew his bottom lip across her top one and she trembled. She touched her bottom lip lightly to his and he sighed. He placed his palm against her scarred cheek. She drew her fingers up the length of his back. His fingers strayed up to entwine themselves in her curls and hers bunched the back of his undershirt. He stroked her face and followed his fingers with a trail of feather-light kisses, first on one cheek and then the other. She caught her fingers up in his hair guiding his face to hers. There was a growing urgency in the action. Perhaps they both knew that once they were fully awake and aware, this dream would vanish and they would be who they truly were again, not lovers, but acquaintances with nothing between them except history. Just before their lips could meet in earnest, though, there was a faint pause as reason battled with passion in their hearts and awakening minds.

Then from somewhere outside a voice called out, "Pippin! Diamond…!" And with that intrusion of the outside world, the waking-dream ended.

* * *

Ham was well enough to visit Diamond in her room the next evening and found her up and pacing.

"You are supposed to be in bed," he chastised as he sat on the edge of her unkempt bed. She paused by the window, staring out into the glittering evening. The water had receded and the view began to look its old self again. She closed the shutter and returned to her bed.

"No lectures today, I am not in the mood," she replied sharply. She rolled away from him and stared at the wall.

"He's still here, it is not too late to speak to him," Ham said lying back and propping his head on his arms. Diamond lay in silence for a moment then shook her head.

"It was too late a long time ago," she whispered sadly. Ham closed his eyes.

"That is stubbornness talking, nothing else,"

"That is reality, Ham. We had our chance. Love is not so kind as to allow us another chance."

"You choose not to take it. Love offered you the perfect-"

"That was not love!" she barked. "It was cruel fate."

"What is the difference. I have seen the way you look at each other, or do not look at each other. Do you doubt your love for him? Or his for you?" Ham said, anger rising in his voice.

" I… There is no love there. But…" she trailed off and Ham pricked his ears up.

"What happened?" he asked seriously.

"I .. we … nothing really. I just think…"

"Did something happen?" Ham asked, hoping for the best.

"No, nothing happened," she finished. "Nothing important. It was just the fear and the cold. We held each other for warmth, that was all."

"And you felt nothing?" he probed.

"Gratitude. Nothing more," she lied. A blush crept over her cheeks as she recalled the overwhelming passion she'd felt for Pippin, that she'd always felt for Pippin. Tears sprung up in her eyes.

"You are a terrible liar, so bad that even you don't believe what you are saying," he chortled.

"Ham, how dare-" Diamond began to scold.

"How dare you waste your life alone, caring for me instead of pursuing that lad!"

Diamond spun to look at him, her eyes fiery, "No! I choose to be here because this is my home! I need you as much as you need me!" she cried her hands clasping one of his between her own.

"What if I told you I didn't need you?" he asked wistfully covering her hand with his other.

"Don't need me?" she asked, confusion evident in her voice. He smiled and kissed her hand.

"Of course I do, but I need you to have a life of your own. I need you to marry that lad and have a brood of little ones who will ride me pig-a-back and call me uncle."

Diamond closed her eyes as two tears rolled silently down her cheeks. She threw her arms around her brother's neck and they held each other. She wept and he comforted her kindly. When she stopped, she pulled away from him and looked into his eyes.

"There is nothing left between Pippin and myself. Whatever there once was is long since gone. I am afraid you are stuck with me," she said tipping her head forward to meet his forehead. He shook his head against hers and laughed.

"You have the stubbornness of an orc, you know that?"

"And you have the brains of one!" she laughed lying back in the bed. "And I am tired beyond belief. Thank you for reminding me of what is important in my life, you, this place. With the money Pip- the Thain gave us, we can make this place look like new."

Ham smiled and patted her hair. Then he stood, a little unsteadily. He turned to smile back at her from the door saying, "Wait until you are out of bed before you start spending that gold," but she was utterly asleep.

* * *

"I need to get out of here," Pippin said angrily. Pervinca caught his arm on the way by and pulled him down on the bed next to her. He attempted to get up again, but she flung her legs across his lap and finally he slumped back against the wall. She removed her legs and straightened her skirt out.

"Tomorrow will be soon enough," she barked. "We can stay one more night under this roof. You have no feelings for her, so what hardship is it to sleep one more night under the same roof as she is?" she teased. Pippin puffed out his cheeks and sputtered at her. She smiled and slapped his knee.

"You are right of course. It is no hardship to spend one more – night – with - her,"

he agreed, though the words were difficult to get out. Pervinca threw her head back and laughed.

"Yes, your indifference to towards her is obvious." Pippin scowled and began to protest but Pervinca cut him off, "Yes, yes, I know, there is nothing there any longer. As you wish Poppycock, as you wish." She laughed and stood taking with her his supper dishes.

"Mother us expecting us to leave tomorrow," Pippin said rereading part of the letter from his mother and then tossing it lightly onto the bedside table. Pervinca nodded pausing to call back to him, "Good night little brother, sleep well!" before she left the room pulling the door closed behind her. Pippin picked up the letter again and tried to focus on it, but it was not interesting enough to capture his restless mind. His thoughts wandered back to the morning before in the hut. He wondered if it had been a dream. And yet, he could smell her hair on his hands and the gentle touch of her lip on his. He stood, lost in his reverie for a long moment, replaying each touch, each sigh in his mind. It had not been a dream, he knew in his heart, and yet, nothing would come of it so it might as well have been. He moved to the bed and pulled back the covers. Under the sheets he tried to will his mind to other thoughts, to other lasses even, but ever they strayed back to her. To Diamond. Finally exhaustion took him and he fell asleep.