"The Nightingale"
Rating: R (sex, gruesome medical procedures)
Author's Notes: For an introduction to my character, Iris Proudfoot, please see "Homecoming: Bitter and Sweet" and/or "The Swimming Hole." It's best if you read those first to get a better understanding of the Iris/Frodo dynamic. This particular story has nothing in common with the others save for the overlap in my Other Character (OC). However, this story assumes that Frodo and Iris have an established relationship. It was written at the request of several reviewers of "Homecoming" who wanted a different ending. It's continuation is titled "Second Chances."
Warning: If you don't like non-canonical works involving other characters, please don't read this.
Chapter Title: Farming Chapter Rating: G (It gets "heavier" in later chapters, I promise) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------
September 15th S.R. 1420 had been a very warm left-over summers day in the Shire, with a continuation of the week's clear blue skies and dry daytime heat. The Hobbiton air was thick with the smell of dust and hay. It hadn't rained all week and all the Hobbiton building owners took advantage of the good weather by having a fresh layer of thatch installed on their roofs. Consequently, straw and extra bales of hay lined the streets and market square, and powdery dust floated in the still, hot air.
Frodo Baggins wove his way through the marketplace and over to the Hobbiton Physician's Office. The two had become fast friends since Iris Proudfoot first relocated to Hobbiton from the South Farthing. Frodo had actually started courting the Doctor, must to Sam and Rose Gamgee's delight.
Doctor Iris Proudfoot was standing outside her offices and turning the "Physician is IN" sign round about to read "Ring Bells in Case of Emergency." She didn't notice Frodo coming up behind her.
"Good afternoon Miss Proudfoot," Frodo said as a few hobbits wandered past in the late golden afternoon sun..
Iris turned and smiled, "Good afternoon Mister Baggins. What have you been up to today?"
Frodo was wearing his customary white long-sleeved shirt with the sleeves rolled up past his elbows, lightweight brown vest and matching breeches. He was hot and sweaty with his walk from Bag End down to Hobbiton in the heat. Surprisingly, his fair features appeared a bit sun-burnt, especially across the bridge of his nose, on his cheeks and the tops of his forearms.
"Would you believe Sam let me help in the harvest today?" Frodo grinned and crossed his arms in a gesture of self-satisfaction. It was a well-known fact that Sam didn't trust Frodo with gardening or farm work since Frodo seemed to posses a "brown thumb" when it came to plants.
"Well, this is rare indeed! Come in out of the sun and tell me about it," Iris said. They went into her office and out of the heat.
"I have been helping Sam and Rose and old Talty Fairbain in the Bag End Gardens today," Frodo bragged. "We have been bringing in the onion and garlic harvest. It has been a bumper crop this year for the entire Shire, so Sam tells me. But I think the Bag End Gardens have been exceptional."
"So that explains your smell," Iris laughed. "Don't misunderstand me. it's not bad. It's just not your typical aroma."
"Thank you very much," Frodo bowed at the waist. "I did scrub my hands and wash my face, I swear. But I think it has gotten into my clothes. I do not understand how you can smell the onions and garlic on me right now though. What IS that smell in here?"
"Oh, sorry," Iris looked up at the ceiling. There were flowers of every hue and herbs of all shapes and sizes tied in huge bundles hanging upside down from every available space in the rafters. "Tandy ran out of room at the Apothecary for drying his medicinal flowers. I'm letting him dry them here, and in my bedroom, and even in the patient's guest room. Looks as if everyone's been dragged into helping out in some way with the harvest this year." Tandy Bolger was Iris's cousin, and owned the Apothecary and Medicinal Gardens. "By the way, who is Talty Fairbain?"
"I gather you have not met Mister Fairbain yet," Frodo said. "He is the Bag End master farmer. His family has always worked the Bag End Farms for the Bagginses since. well . Since I can't remember when. I know Talty's father worked for Bilbo. Now Talty works for me."
"I thought Samwise was your gardener," Iris said.
"He is," Frodo replied. "He is in charge of just about everything that has to do with Bag End itself. The house and house gardens, that is. But the landholdings I inherited from Bilbo are much more extensive than just Bag End. Mister Fairbain is in charge of the farmlands closest to Bag End. The Baggins family also owns farms out near Overhill and some land in the North Farthings. My Uncle Bilbo used to travel out to the sharecroppers once a quarter, but I usually send Sam out in my place now."
"No wonder you rarely get of out Bag End," Iris smiled. "It must involve an incredible amount of work to oversee such large landholdings."
"I actually love to go out into the fields; wander the little forgotten paths; see the crops growing," Frodo said. "I rarely get the chance to actually participate in the harvest though. Too much to do. But I got to help out today, and I am quite pleased with myself."
Iris laughed. "You've the sunburn to prove that you rarely get out during daylight hours. Aren't you hot?"
"Well, my mouth is dry as ashes and I am hungry too," Frodo said as he slipped his arm about her waist and gave her a quick kiss on the cheek. "If you have not had dinner yet, would you care to join me for a nice cold beer and a bite to eat at the Green Dragon? That is, if you do not object to the smell of onions."
"As long as you don't object to me reeking of rose hips and lavender," she said. "I haven't had a chance to go to market today, so there's nothing in the larder. The Green Dragon sounds fine. Let me put up a sign on the door first."
She quickly scribbled a notice "Physician at the Green Dragon in case of emergencies" and stuck it on the front door as they left her office. It was only a few steps down the road to the Green Dragon Inn.
The Inn was darker and cooler than outside, much to Frodo's sun-burnt relief. There were already quite a few people inside the inn; some drinking, some eating, some talking. Frodo and Iris slipped into a side booth in the back of the communal dinning room after paying for a couple of half-pints of strong, cold ale, and ordering meat pies, a plate of cheese and bread for dinner.
"I didn't think Sam let you do any gardening," Iris said as she took a sip of her ale. "From the look of your sunburn, you were actually out in the fields, though I can't quite imagine you side by side with Sam digging up onions."
"Well, I was not allowed into the fields," Frodo confessed. "Sam and Talty did the digging and trimming. They also transplanted the seed plants into the two-year garden. Rose and I were assigned to work at the drying shed back in the pony pasture. We braided the bulbs into drying chains. Did you know Sam has a drying shed back there?"
"No," Iris said as the waiter brought them their dinner. "I'm really quite ignorant about farming things. I didn't even know there was such a thing as a drying shed. What is it and when did you find time to build one?"
"It is a special small barn Sam and Talty built back in June," Frodo said between bites. "It is situated in the middle of a clearing so that sunlight hits it all hours of the day. It has rafters with lots and lots of pegs, and a proper roof for keeping the rain out. But it is mostly designed to trap heat inside. It lets sunshine and hot air circulate in the shed and speeds up the drying process.
Rose and I worked outside, braiding the onions and garlic into long plats - like your hair. She had to show me how to braid them, but I catch on quickly, if I do say so myself. The plats are hung on the pegs. It is stifling hot in there! Certainly removes the moisture in a hurry. Sam and Rose already had it full of dried peppers and flowers and herbs. We had to remove them back to a storeroom at Bag End. The onions and garlic will stay in the drying shed for a couple of days, then we move them to the storeroom too. I think Rose is going to take a lot of onions to market next Saturday as well as her usual delivery here to the Inn."
"Well, I was a farmer today, too. Tandy and his wife Opal, had me helping with the medicinal garden harvest today when I wasn't seeing patients," Iris said as she ate her dinner. "I got to gather rose hips and petals. I know Tandy uses the hips for teas, but I think he's going to try a new perfume this year. He's always experimenting with new concoctions and inventions. The garden has so many flowers he's afforded the luxury of perfume-making during the winter, if we can only preserve all this bounty."
"Doctor Proudfoot, Mam?"
Their dinner was interrupted by a middle-aged hobbit in an obvious hurry. He wore a dusty homespun shirt with sleeves rolled up over his muscular arms, and a pair of somewhat worn brown trousers with suspenders. His face was tanned and lined from years in the sun and his typical brown curly hair was bleached blonde. He was wringing his hands in distress, a few splatters of blood drying on his shirt.
"Mister Wyncot," Iris said, putting down her utensils, "what's the matter?" Frodo also stopped eating.
"It's me boy, young Ted," the farmer said. "He's taken a bad fall from the top o' the barn and landed all wrong. It's his arm. It's broke wid' the bone stickin' out. Me Misses sent me for ya. Can ya come out quick, please?"
Compound fractures were one of the leading causes of disfigurement and death amongst the farming community. Whilst setting the broken bone usually was not difficult, the infection which invariably resulted more often than not turned gangrenous and sometimes proved fatal. This was a serious accident and everyone knew it. Conversation around the inn dropped to a whisper at the sudden news.
Iris and Frodo abandoned their dinner and led the distraught farmer back to the Physician's Office.
Rating: R (sex, gruesome medical procedures)
Author's Notes: For an introduction to my character, Iris Proudfoot, please see "Homecoming: Bitter and Sweet" and/or "The Swimming Hole." It's best if you read those first to get a better understanding of the Iris/Frodo dynamic. This particular story has nothing in common with the others save for the overlap in my Other Character (OC). However, this story assumes that Frodo and Iris have an established relationship. It was written at the request of several reviewers of "Homecoming" who wanted a different ending. It's continuation is titled "Second Chances."
Warning: If you don't like non-canonical works involving other characters, please don't read this.
Chapter Title: Farming Chapter Rating: G (It gets "heavier" in later chapters, I promise) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------
September 15th S.R. 1420 had been a very warm left-over summers day in the Shire, with a continuation of the week's clear blue skies and dry daytime heat. The Hobbiton air was thick with the smell of dust and hay. It hadn't rained all week and all the Hobbiton building owners took advantage of the good weather by having a fresh layer of thatch installed on their roofs. Consequently, straw and extra bales of hay lined the streets and market square, and powdery dust floated in the still, hot air.
Frodo Baggins wove his way through the marketplace and over to the Hobbiton Physician's Office. The two had become fast friends since Iris Proudfoot first relocated to Hobbiton from the South Farthing. Frodo had actually started courting the Doctor, must to Sam and Rose Gamgee's delight.
Doctor Iris Proudfoot was standing outside her offices and turning the "Physician is IN" sign round about to read "Ring Bells in Case of Emergency." She didn't notice Frodo coming up behind her.
"Good afternoon Miss Proudfoot," Frodo said as a few hobbits wandered past in the late golden afternoon sun..
Iris turned and smiled, "Good afternoon Mister Baggins. What have you been up to today?"
Frodo was wearing his customary white long-sleeved shirt with the sleeves rolled up past his elbows, lightweight brown vest and matching breeches. He was hot and sweaty with his walk from Bag End down to Hobbiton in the heat. Surprisingly, his fair features appeared a bit sun-burnt, especially across the bridge of his nose, on his cheeks and the tops of his forearms.
"Would you believe Sam let me help in the harvest today?" Frodo grinned and crossed his arms in a gesture of self-satisfaction. It was a well-known fact that Sam didn't trust Frodo with gardening or farm work since Frodo seemed to posses a "brown thumb" when it came to plants.
"Well, this is rare indeed! Come in out of the sun and tell me about it," Iris said. They went into her office and out of the heat.
"I have been helping Sam and Rose and old Talty Fairbain in the Bag End Gardens today," Frodo bragged. "We have been bringing in the onion and garlic harvest. It has been a bumper crop this year for the entire Shire, so Sam tells me. But I think the Bag End Gardens have been exceptional."
"So that explains your smell," Iris laughed. "Don't misunderstand me. it's not bad. It's just not your typical aroma."
"Thank you very much," Frodo bowed at the waist. "I did scrub my hands and wash my face, I swear. But I think it has gotten into my clothes. I do not understand how you can smell the onions and garlic on me right now though. What IS that smell in here?"
"Oh, sorry," Iris looked up at the ceiling. There were flowers of every hue and herbs of all shapes and sizes tied in huge bundles hanging upside down from every available space in the rafters. "Tandy ran out of room at the Apothecary for drying his medicinal flowers. I'm letting him dry them here, and in my bedroom, and even in the patient's guest room. Looks as if everyone's been dragged into helping out in some way with the harvest this year." Tandy Bolger was Iris's cousin, and owned the Apothecary and Medicinal Gardens. "By the way, who is Talty Fairbain?"
"I gather you have not met Mister Fairbain yet," Frodo said. "He is the Bag End master farmer. His family has always worked the Bag End Farms for the Bagginses since. well . Since I can't remember when. I know Talty's father worked for Bilbo. Now Talty works for me."
"I thought Samwise was your gardener," Iris said.
"He is," Frodo replied. "He is in charge of just about everything that has to do with Bag End itself. The house and house gardens, that is. But the landholdings I inherited from Bilbo are much more extensive than just Bag End. Mister Fairbain is in charge of the farmlands closest to Bag End. The Baggins family also owns farms out near Overhill and some land in the North Farthings. My Uncle Bilbo used to travel out to the sharecroppers once a quarter, but I usually send Sam out in my place now."
"No wonder you rarely get of out Bag End," Iris smiled. "It must involve an incredible amount of work to oversee such large landholdings."
"I actually love to go out into the fields; wander the little forgotten paths; see the crops growing," Frodo said. "I rarely get the chance to actually participate in the harvest though. Too much to do. But I got to help out today, and I am quite pleased with myself."
Iris laughed. "You've the sunburn to prove that you rarely get out during daylight hours. Aren't you hot?"
"Well, my mouth is dry as ashes and I am hungry too," Frodo said as he slipped his arm about her waist and gave her a quick kiss on the cheek. "If you have not had dinner yet, would you care to join me for a nice cold beer and a bite to eat at the Green Dragon? That is, if you do not object to the smell of onions."
"As long as you don't object to me reeking of rose hips and lavender," she said. "I haven't had a chance to go to market today, so there's nothing in the larder. The Green Dragon sounds fine. Let me put up a sign on the door first."
She quickly scribbled a notice "Physician at the Green Dragon in case of emergencies" and stuck it on the front door as they left her office. It was only a few steps down the road to the Green Dragon Inn.
The Inn was darker and cooler than outside, much to Frodo's sun-burnt relief. There were already quite a few people inside the inn; some drinking, some eating, some talking. Frodo and Iris slipped into a side booth in the back of the communal dinning room after paying for a couple of half-pints of strong, cold ale, and ordering meat pies, a plate of cheese and bread for dinner.
"I didn't think Sam let you do any gardening," Iris said as she took a sip of her ale. "From the look of your sunburn, you were actually out in the fields, though I can't quite imagine you side by side with Sam digging up onions."
"Well, I was not allowed into the fields," Frodo confessed. "Sam and Talty did the digging and trimming. They also transplanted the seed plants into the two-year garden. Rose and I were assigned to work at the drying shed back in the pony pasture. We braided the bulbs into drying chains. Did you know Sam has a drying shed back there?"
"No," Iris said as the waiter brought them their dinner. "I'm really quite ignorant about farming things. I didn't even know there was such a thing as a drying shed. What is it and when did you find time to build one?"
"It is a special small barn Sam and Talty built back in June," Frodo said between bites. "It is situated in the middle of a clearing so that sunlight hits it all hours of the day. It has rafters with lots and lots of pegs, and a proper roof for keeping the rain out. But it is mostly designed to trap heat inside. It lets sunshine and hot air circulate in the shed and speeds up the drying process.
Rose and I worked outside, braiding the onions and garlic into long plats - like your hair. She had to show me how to braid them, but I catch on quickly, if I do say so myself. The plats are hung on the pegs. It is stifling hot in there! Certainly removes the moisture in a hurry. Sam and Rose already had it full of dried peppers and flowers and herbs. We had to remove them back to a storeroom at Bag End. The onions and garlic will stay in the drying shed for a couple of days, then we move them to the storeroom too. I think Rose is going to take a lot of onions to market next Saturday as well as her usual delivery here to the Inn."
"Well, I was a farmer today, too. Tandy and his wife Opal, had me helping with the medicinal garden harvest today when I wasn't seeing patients," Iris said as she ate her dinner. "I got to gather rose hips and petals. I know Tandy uses the hips for teas, but I think he's going to try a new perfume this year. He's always experimenting with new concoctions and inventions. The garden has so many flowers he's afforded the luxury of perfume-making during the winter, if we can only preserve all this bounty."
"Doctor Proudfoot, Mam?"
Their dinner was interrupted by a middle-aged hobbit in an obvious hurry. He wore a dusty homespun shirt with sleeves rolled up over his muscular arms, and a pair of somewhat worn brown trousers with suspenders. His face was tanned and lined from years in the sun and his typical brown curly hair was bleached blonde. He was wringing his hands in distress, a few splatters of blood drying on his shirt.
"Mister Wyncot," Iris said, putting down her utensils, "what's the matter?" Frodo also stopped eating.
"It's me boy, young Ted," the farmer said. "He's taken a bad fall from the top o' the barn and landed all wrong. It's his arm. It's broke wid' the bone stickin' out. Me Misses sent me for ya. Can ya come out quick, please?"
Compound fractures were one of the leading causes of disfigurement and death amongst the farming community. Whilst setting the broken bone usually was not difficult, the infection which invariably resulted more often than not turned gangrenous and sometimes proved fatal. This was a serious accident and everyone knew it. Conversation around the inn dropped to a whisper at the sudden news.
Iris and Frodo abandoned their dinner and led the distraught farmer back to the Physician's Office.
