* * *
"Get up, you worthless thing!" Paladin Took screamed, grabbing his son roughly by the collar and dragging him out of bed. "You're the worst thing to happen to this family. Worthless!" Paladin threw his son against the wall, and Pippin let out a scream. Pippin huddled against the wall, whimpering. Paladin walked over to his son and stared him down. It was a normal routine at their home, and one that was covered up. What would the Shire think if they knew the next Thain was abusing his son? Not even the current Thain, Paladin's first cousin, Ferumbas, knew. It was a close secret, and if anyone inquired about Pippin's bruises, it was said that he was a very fragile child and a little bump could make him bruise easily. No one asked anymore questions. They thought they knew. After all, Paladin and Eglantine were such good parents...
"Look at me when I'm talking to you!" Paladin spat, enraged. Pippin shut his eyes and looked away, tears streaming from his face. Why did his father have to be like this?
"Look at me!" Paladin screamed, and when Pippin would not, Paladin seized Pippin's arm and dragged him towards the center of the room. He lifted his son by the back of his nightgown, in an attempt to force Pippin to look at him, but Pippin slipped out of his nightgown and fell to the floor in a crumpled heap. He was alive, of course, and was not unconscious, but he thought that if he didn't move, his father would give up. He thought wrong. Paladin stooped down to the floor and wrapped his fingers around Pippin's small neck. Pippin gasped and choked for air, while his father squeezed only tighter. He tried to scream for his mother, but no sound could escape his lips. Just as Pippin thought he would die, his father released his grip. Paladin then hauled his son onto his feet. Pippin fell down, his leg still hurt from his beating last night. He pulled Pippin up again, and again the small boy crumpled to the floor. Paladin kicked his son roughly in his stomach and Pippin vomited. Paladin eyed his son in disgust. Pippin lay on the floor, silently sobbing to himself, gasping for air. Paladin took hold of the back of Pippin's head and shoved it to the floor just inches away from where he had just vomited. The smell sickened the boy, who couldn't help himself, and vomited again.
Paladin kicked Pippin roughly. "Clean it up." He sneered. Pippin struggled to his feet, and when that failed, he simply tried to crawl towards the washroom for a towel. His father blocked his way in front of the door.
"Where do you think you're going?"
"To get a towel. You told me--"
Paladin hauled Pippin up by his hair. The pain was unbearable, but Pippin didn't want to give his father the pleasure of hearing him scream anymore. Still holding his son by his hair, Paladin pulled Pippin to face him. "I told you to clean it up. I did not tell you to get a towel. You will send it right back where it came from. Lick it up." Here, Paladin dropped Pippin to the ground. Pippin hurt so badly he just felt like dying. His father wanted him to clean up the vomit, but what if he refused? What if he didn't do as his father ordered? What would happen?
"Did you hear me? Are you stupid? CLEAN IT UP!"
"No."
"What did you say to me, boy?!"
"I said, no."
It happened
so fast that Pippin didn't even know what hit him, although he did know
that it was his father who had done it. He blacked out for several moments,
and in the darkness, he began to scream wildly. He hoped his father would
hear, so that he might die. But when Pippin thought with his clouded mind,
he realised that he didn't want to die. What about Merry? And everything
that Merry was supposed to teach him? All the things that Pippin realised
that he had never done? He wanted to live. But he couldn't stop screaming.
And then, suddenly, he heard the noise of footsteps. He felt someone grab
him. No, please not again, he thought. Then, whatever it was pulled
him closer. When he opened his eyes, his father was gone, and someone was
holding him. And when he looked up, expecting to see his mother's face,
it was not.
It was Merry. He was holding Pippin in his arms, trying to keep him quiet. "Hush baby, shhh, it was only a dream. Hush now, everything will be alright." Merry brushed back the sweat-soaked curls and wiped the tears from the bright green eyes.
"My poor Pippin," Merry said, rubbing his thumb gently against Pippin's back. "Why did you scream so? You would have woken my parents had I not heard you. You mustn't ever do anything like that again, love. Do you understand?"
"Oh, oh Merry!" Pippin erupted in a wave of tears, burying his face in Merry's nightshirt. "Merry, I saw him, he hurt me, it hurt, I can't remember, Merry, please save me."
"Shhh, Pippin, you'll wake my parents."
"Merry, I want to stay with you forever. I don't want to go home."
"Shhh, it's alright. You come sleep with me." Merry said. He carried Pippin over to his bed, with a bit of difficulty, and gently placed Pippin on the soft matress. Merry climbed over Pippin and lay on his own pillow, gently stroking Pippin's back, soothing him. Frequent sobs came from him, and he would shudder. Finally, Merry sat up and pulled Pippin into his lap.
"What's wrong? You'll get sick if you keep crying like that."
"I hate my papa!"
"Peregrin Took!"
Pippin stared at Merry in surprise. Merry had never, ever gotten stern with him, and never called him by his full name. Pippin's lip trembled and he climbed from Merry's lap and buried his face in his pillow. Merry sighed and pulled Pippin back to him. He hugged Pippin close, and held him and comforted him. Pippin climbed out of Merry's lap and rested his head on Merry's knee. Merry reached out and took one of Pippin's curls gently in his hand and played with it for a while.
"Will you sing to me?"
"I can't sing well, Pippin, you know that."
"I want you to."
"I don't know any songs."
"Make one up, then."
"I can't, Pippin, please--"
"Merry, you can do anything. That's what you always tell me! My mama says don't give someone advice if you don't follow it yourself, because that gives them another reason not to do it."
"Fine, I'll sing one, but it won't be any good. Don't laugh at me."
"I won't. Promise."
"It's all I can think of, an old bath song of Bilbo's."
"Sing it for me, please?"
Merry took a deep breath and sighed. And so began the song:
"Sing hey!
for the bath at close of day
that washes
the weary mud away!
A loon
is he that will not sing:
O! Water
Hot is a noble thing!
O! Sweet
is the sound of falling rain,
and the
brook that leaps from hill to plain;
but better
than rain or rippling streams
is Water
Hot that smokes and steams.
O! Water
cold we may pour at need
down a
thirtsy throat and be glad indeed;
but better
is--" Here he stopped.
"What's wrong?" Pippin asked. Merry shook his head and continued.
"but better
is tea, if drink we lack,
and Water
Hot poured down the back.
O! Water
is fair that leaps on high
in a fountain
white beneath the sky;
but never
did fountain sound so sweet
as splashing
Hot Water with my feet!"
Pippin burst into delighted peals of giggles when Merry finished the song. "You promised you wouldn't laugh!" Merry exclaimed.
"I'm only laughing at the song! I haven't taken a bath for three days, just washed up. Can I take one tomorrow?"
"Of course. I'll help you wash your hair. It needs it." Merry said, making a face. Pippin, who was looking up at him, laughed and pulled one of his own.
"Careful, or your face'll end up looking like that forever."
"Ughthhhth?" said Pippin, keeping his face. Merry had to jam his pillow over his mouth to prevent himself from laughing so hard. Pippin was a riot, and it only took a smile from him to put one on the face of even the most horrid person in the Shire. Or so Merry had thought, because his uncle surely wasn't taking it. Merry needed to think. He would ask his mother to take Pippin up to Hobbiton for the day, so he could have some time to talk with his father alone. Then, he would help Pippin with his bath.
"Merry!"
"What?"
"I was calling you for five whole minutes!"
"I'm sorry, I was thinking."
"You always think. You think too much."
Merry laughed, "Here, it's late. You get into bed."
Pippin sighed, but obeyed. Merry pulled back the covers so that Pippin could climb in, and then eased himself into bed. Pippin turned around and hugged him, and Merry placed a kiss on Pippin's forehead.
"Please try to understand, Pippin, that your father loves you deep, down inside, where the ale can't get. The ale only gets to his blood. It can't go through his heart."