TITLE: Happily Ever Afters
AUTHOR: Sanguinary
COPYRIGHT: February 20, 2002
DISTRIBUTION: Ask and ye shall receive.
RATING: PG 13
CATEGORY: Angst/Drama
SPOILERS: Two Towers, Return of the King, Appendix
DISCLAIMER: J.R.R. Tolkien created it all. But someone else own it. Not me though.
FEEDBACK: Enjoyed greatly. Send it care of: Sanguinary_515@hotmail.com
SUMMARY: Stories always end 'Happily Ever After' but is that really true? What happens after the adventure is over?

~

The pain of war cannot exceed the woe of aftermath
~Led Zeplin, The Battle of Evermore

~~

And they all lived Happily Ever After.

That's where it ends usually. After all, after the adventure's done, who wants to stick around? But Happily Ever Afters usually aren't.

Samwise Gamgee lived Happily Ever After with his wife Rosie and his children. He named them after his friends and after those whom he held dear. The tales show he became mayor, traveled occasionally and had a long happy life. He loved his children in the way that he had never been loved by his father. He loved his wife in the way that he would have loved Frodo, had he been a she. His friends were always close by his side and he remained loyal though all of his days.

What the stories don't tell are the little things. How Sam would wake up in the middle of the night, screaming and gasping for air. They never spoke of how Rosie would find him staring at the sea, an expression of utter longing in them. Or how Sam became dreadfully afraid of spiders and would crush them with a mixed look of glee and terror on his face. They never spoke of the edginess that would sometimes take him or the long depressions that set in from time to time.

Sam told his children about the journey that he and the other eight had taken. They would sit, enraptured at the descriptions of Moria, Rivendall, the Cracks of Doom and all the stops along the way. He tried to make the journey seem easy but the children knew that their father had been changed a long time ago, by a hobbit they had never seen. He never gave piggyback rides, the memory of Gollum strangling him could never be erased. Some days, when he looked at the boy he had named Frodo, he could see his friend's elfish features shining though like the light had shone though Frodo.

Rosie loved Sam as best as she could though he was always so far away. Often his eyes would search the distance, looking for something long gone. His hand often strayed to his breast, searching for something to light his way in the darkness. Sam was changed, for better or worse, it is not known.

Sometimes in the night, when he awoke from nightmares, Rosie would hold him tight and he would confess to her all that had happened. He would speak of the great spider Shelob and the all consuming hate he had felt seeing her crouch over Mr. Frodo's fallen body. Memories of finding Frodo naked and beaten in the orc tower, of seeing Gollum's sickly green eyes moving over both him and Frodo, wanting to kill them or maybe do something even worse. Sam would whisper to her about the march though the swamp, his dead face reflected back at him in the foul water. And, when he was purged of these words, they would settle back into sleep, her arms wrapped tight around him.

There are no Happily Ever Afters in the real world. Sam did live a good life though. He saw his children get married and have children of their own. Sam grew old beside his wife surrounded by friends and family. And though nothing was perfect, it was good.

Rosie died, leaving him all alone for the first time in many years. He had no one to speak his secrets too. Merry and Pippin had been though their own hardships and did not need to carry Sam's as well. He would not but such a burden on his children, they were much too innocent to bear such terrible stories. His thoughts turned to the Sea, remembering the man that he loved still waited for him to join them, last of the Ringbearers.

Sam left Middle Earth in a boat after biding farewell to his trusted friends. This is where the story truly ends. Only those who have gone across the sea know what happened and those that have gone never return to tell the tales.

But inside we know what happened. That Sam stepped onto the green shores and found Frodo waiting for him. They spoke and, for the first time in years, Sam was freed of the memories that had haunted him his entire life. The last of the Ringbearers left that shore, arm and arm with his dearest friend.

And then they lived. Not Happily Ever After. But they lived. And it was good.

~Q.E.D~