!!Warning!!

Relatively dark, pretty angsty, probably gonna trigger trauma for people who have lost children.

Children were something precious and celebrated by all the free races of Middle-Earth. Man, elf and dwarf alike valued their children. Even the hobbits with their famed fertility would celebrate each birth, how else could one explain the large number of parties they threw?

Every hobbit couple tended to have at least three children, while almost every couple among men had at least one. Marriages among dwarves that lead to children weren't in abundance due to their low female population, but children were something to still be expected from them eventually. Elves rarely had children due to their long lives leading to a lack of need to them, but children could still be expected to eventually be born from each couple.

The other races knew of hobbit fertility, some even envied it. The other races were unaware, however, of the fact that there was not one set of twins, triplets or anything of that nature among them.

Men had twins, triplets and more quite often, there even being a story of someone once having octuplets. Among dwarves twins and the like occurred much less often and were seen as a sign of good fortune from Mahal. Elves rarely even had more than one child and twins were seen as a great blessing and miracle, a reason for much of the envy others felt towards the lord of Rivendell. Hobbits, however, did not have a single set of twins in all of the Shire.

-

Belladonna Baggins nee Took felt that something was wrong. She was meant to feel a sense of elation and happiness, after all, she had just been informed of the child growing in her belly. Instead, she felt a sense of slight dread pool in her stomach each time she thought of the life now growing inside of her. Going against her instincts for the first time since she could remember, she ignored that feeling.

She carried on as she usually did. She worked in her garden, experimented with new recipes in her kitchen, ate all seven meals and went on as any pregnant hobbit would. Everyone knew hobbits had easy pregnancies and easy births. She'd just have to be slightly more careful in the final months of her pregnancy.

Sure, hobbits ate a lot, even before birth, but that's why pregnant hobbits had another roll or two with every meal. Sure, they would be less plump than is usually respectable for a few weeks afterwards, but they'd still have more than enough for a single child.

Yet as Belladonna grew larger with child, she had the distinct impression that she was becoming thinner than she should've. The healers assured her and Bungo that she was just feeling slight nerves from her first pregnancy and when the next one rolled around she would be used to the hormonal change. Her instincts were telling her they were wrong, that something was WRONG, but she trusted them so she ignored it.

Belladonna Baggins continued on as if nothing was wrong. She worked in her garden, played around in her kitchen, ate an extra three rolls at each meal and prepared a nursery for the coming child.

She would only learn of the graveness in her mistake when she gave birth to two underfed little girls. Two little girls that would open their bright blue eyes to look at the sad, smiling, teary eyed face of their mother. Two little girls that would die before they were even a full few minutes old.

Belladonna didn't let her children be buried in the cemetery or have them be taken by the water of the river. She went to her garden and built on to the fence around the back of it. She had her children put to rest in a place where she would still be able to look after them. That was the first time in a long while that the Shire had held a funeral without a single smile. For although hobbits tended to celebrate life, even after it had ended, how could they celebrate a life that had never even been lived?

-

Belladonna was pregnant for a second time. This time she had gone to the healers and demanded they look her over for the number of her children as soon as it was possible to determine. They told her she was pregnant with twins.

This time Belladonna didn't work in her garden, she hired the Gamgees because she only trusted them to do it both properly and how she preferred it done. She didn't experiment in her kitchen, only slightly tweaking a recipe or two every now and again. She ate more during meal times and would eat at least two or three extra meals a day. Things were looking hopeful and all of Hobbiton was holding its breath, wondering if strange and improper Belladonna might have found an answer to one of their few problems.

The day of the birth came and things were looking hopeful when the first child came out. She was breathing properly, her heart seemed steady and while she was on the small side, she wasn't underfed. Sadness took over when the second child came, already still and breathless. Then there had been the slightest bit of panic when Belladonna had to start pushing for a third time.

The third little faunt wasn't as large as his older sister, but not as sickly as his brother. The two faunts opened their eyes to look at their mother while their stillborn brother was taken from her arms, from their side, to be held by his father and then wrapped in a memorial silk. Tears were shed anew once more in the morning when the babe had been unwrapped so his younger brother could be placed and buried at his side. The two boys were put to rest next to their older sisters.

All of Belladonna and Bungo's relatives stayed in Hobbiton for an extra month to make sure the couple's daughter, the only living child, would live. In that time, it was discovered she was weaker than any hobbit child should be and slept for even longer than any child they had seen before. She would be more susceptible to disease and others would always need to be careful with her, but she was alive. She was alive where no other had managed to survive in her situation.

All of Hobbiton mourned the loss of two more faunts, but they also celebrated the child that had no doubt been blessed by Yavanna.

Belladonna and Bungo mourned having two more unmarked graves behind their home, but they celebrated being able to name their daughter a week after she had been brought into their lives. They had lost not only two daughters, but two sons as well. However, they had also gained their beautiful baby Iris.

-

Belladonna had gotten pregnant two more times since the birth of Iris, each time to twins. The first of those had been two boys. Dead due to being born in winter and being too weak to withstand the cold, even with extra layers of blankets and warmers. The second of those times one of the children had been stillborn and the other had been unable to survive without the connection to her sister. It showed the parents how lucky they were that Iris was still with them.

Belladonna had once again become pregnant and just like the times before, the healers had said she'd have at least two children. They had all learned that she tended to have more children than predicted. This time she refused to even take the slightest chance of losing a child.

Belladonna Baggins ate eleven meals each day and could always be found with a fruit or pastry in hand. She refused to do any work that might take away food from the life growing inside of her. Where before she and Bungo had split the manual and financial work, even somewhat in her later pregnancies, she now only did work that required her head and left the rest to her husband.

The couple had decided not to tell their seven-year-old daughter she might get a sibling or two. They could see the affect not having the brothers she had shared a womb with had on her, even at only seven years old. She always seemed to assume there was someone at her side and ranged from slightly confused to downright distraught when there was not. They didn't want her forming attachments and getting used to siblings that might not make it. It could be the very thing that caused them to lose her, as strong and fragile as she was.

Naturally, she figured it out as soon as cousins, aunts and uncles came visiting. After all, it wasn't time for a special party yet. The fact she had felt a kick as her aunt Donnamira walked into the room hadn't helped.

"What was that?"

"Probably the little ones."

"What little ones?"

"One of your siblings, of course!"

"..."

"Your ma and pa havn't told you, have they?"

There WAS a reason no one told Donnamira anything secret.

The day of the birth came and a beautiful little lad came out first. Unlike all his siblings before him, but just as any other hobbit child, he came out with an all-mighty wail that frightened his older sister across the hall. The little lass that came two short minutes later wasn't wailing like her brother, but the whines coming from her throat definitely cleared away many fears.

The two were placed in their mother's arms and soon opened their blue eyes to look up at not only her, but their father and sister as well. A week went by and not only did tradition allow for the two children to finally be named, but the two children had stayed alive.

So Bilbo and Bluebell joined the Baggins family.

-

The Baggins children of Bag End grew to be beautiful, caring and golden hearted little faunts. They helped their parents as much as the small little children could, they rarely misbehaved beyond a small joke here and there and they never fought.

The oldest, Iris, got her honeyed hair from her mother, though it was a few shades lighter, and her blue eyes from her father, though they were a few shades darker. Both Bilbo and Bluebell got their father's eyes and their mother's hair like their sister, except theirs was exactly as that of their parents. All three children had the softer Baggins jaw and Tookish grins. All three tended to furrow their brows like their father, jump then stare when startled and sit like him too. All three of them scrunched up their noses, tilted their heads and walked like their mother.

The three children rarely played with anyone but each other, after all, only they knew how to play and not hurt each other. The three could play games ranging from calmly stacking blocks in their shared room (a demand their parents had failed at ignoring) to giving their parents heart attacks as they jumped between branches and trees much higher up than any other faunt would dare go. They would get sticks and wrap them in old cloths before attacking each other in a way that terrified any other faunts that managed to somehow glimpse them. While other faunts would search for elves in rabbit holes out in the woods, the three Baggins children would search the trees for elves and knock on stones and boulders in case a dwarf would knock back. Sometimes they would move through the smial, dancing to music only they could hear. Of course, that was only on the good days.

On the bad days Iris and Bluebell were stuck in bed, too weak to stand up. On those days Bilbo would bring them their meals and sit with them as their parents told them stories. He himself started telling stories when their parents were being bothered by work and responsibilities. The children would sit and talk or draw with each other. They planned out their next great adventures and thought up different stories. Sometimes they didn't even do anything, just sitting with each other or sleeping the day and pain away. The cold and rainy days were usually bad ones, but those brought about the game where the three children would sit and try to understand what the rain was telling them. Slowly more and more days became bad days.

The three grew up and found separate interests, but never left each other's side. Iris nurtured her passion for healing and studied it until she knew better than the actual healers of Hobbiton, her mother was friends with elves and had better access to books on all kinds of healing after all. She started creating the most beautiful music and brought the songs from their childhood to life so that others could dance to them as well. She shared her knowledge with her siblings and they became proficient in healing knowing little less than their sister. They joined her in bringing their songs to life and brought joy to anyone who heard them.

Bluebell developed a love for painting and weaponry, comparing them as the ability to bring joy through creation and protect through destruction. She painted two portraits of her parents to be hung above the fireplace as well as five small family portraits to be put in pocket watches for each of them. She learned of the different reasons for different designs in the different races' crafting of weaponry and used that knowledge to design a dagger to fit every member of their small family. Designs that Belladonna secretly sent to her elven friend to have forged. Iris and Bilbo learned from her as well, even though neither had any artistic talent and only Bilbo ever learned how to wield his dagger.

Bilbo thrived when it came to maps and languages, memorizing the entirety of the shire and Middle-Earth in only a few years despite never having left Hobbiton. His mother taught him Sindarin, which he spoke fluently within a year, and got him books on the dwarven dialect and signs which he memorized as well. He talked with his siblings in Sindarin and Khuzdul and they all discussed the best traveling routs throughout the world for various purposes ranging from trade routes and holidays to grand adventures filled with peril. They all knew their Khuzdul pronunciation would be off without a teacher and no dwarf wanted to teach an outsider.

They all slowly grew up, but Iris left her bed less and less often while Bluebell became weaker. Eventually, only a year before Iris became of age, her legs simply stopped working and Bluebell couldn't go much farther than the end of the road without starting to shake. Two years and a flu outbreak later, both girls had developed a consistent cough and would sneeze at any time of day without prompt. That didn't stop the three from staying together, though. Bilbo even started to carry around a handkerchief despite never having any need for one himself.

Despite their problems and small size, they were a happy family and stood with each other through everything.

Then the fell winter came and everything they had was destroyed. The fell winter came and everything that mattered to them was crushed beyond repair and barely recognizable. The fell winter came and they-

He was alone.