Success is Counted Sweetest

Chapter Six - Remembrances and Reintroductions

A/N: A few things before we get started. First of all: thank you so much to all my reviewers!!! And a special thank you to ~*The Lady Shieldmaiden*~ for being my first reviewer…and continuing to be the first to review all five of my chapters…thank you. To Ariaste: Yeah, I realize…thanks for the warning though. I guess people seem to like it the way it is (i.e. not quite Mary-Sue) so I'll try to keep it that way.

Another thing…if you're like me and sometimes have a horrible short-term memory, you might want to skim the end of chapter four before reading this, cause I'm going to pick up right where chapter four left off. I realize now that the story would have made more sense and just generally flowed better if I had reversed chapters four and five. Sorry! Argh just remembered another thing I need to mention…aw, never mind! I'll do it at the end…remind me! Now, on with the fic!! (Duh duh duh duh! [Fanfare…like last chapter, remember?])

Everything was dark…but that could have been due to the fact that Alaina's eyes were closed. She lay on her back, feeling weak and drenched both inside and out. She coughed, bringing what felt like a gallon of water out of her lungs and on to the grassy bank beside her. There was a strange silence as she realized that she had previously heard anxious voices from somewhere above where she lay. Alaina opened her eyes, but her memory seemed to be temporarily malfunctioning, as she had no idea where she was or how she got there. Three faces hovered nervously overhead, apparently waiting for Alaina to do something. The one in the middle spoke.

"Alaina?" he said almost tentatively.

"What?" Although Alaina was a bit shocked, she was also extremely gladdened. Here, in front of her, was Samwise Gamgee. Besides confirming her hopes that she hadn't merely been dreaming ten years ago, she had missed him immensely. But she never expected him to remember her.

Sam's face fell, misinterpreting her surprise at hearing the name. "Sorry, I thought you were someone else. You have the same necklace as someone I used to know."

Alaina was confused. "But that's impossible. You made this necklace, so no one else could have the same one…"

After much mutual confusion, Sam finally understood. "It IS you!!!" He pulled Alaina into a tight hug that she returned gladly when they had both sorted things out.

"Sam! I can't believe you remembered me!"

"How could I not?" His cheeks took on a slight crimson hue. "Though you have changed a bit."

"So have you. It's been so long. Ten years…" Someone to the left of Sam cleared his throat, and Alaina looked toward the sound.

"Pippin!" she screamed, tackling him. While she still had him pinned to the ground, Alaina looked him over. "Pip, you're exactly the same as you were ten years ago. Except maybe a bit taller."

"And you're so much different," Pippin said. Alaina helped him to his feet but promptly swayed on the spot, nearly falling over, and was steadied by a very handsome hobbit who for some reason greatly resembled Merry.

"Oh…uh…thanks," she said, slightly embarrassed.

"Nice to know you're as happy to see me as you were for Pip," he said jokingly as Alaina looked up at him questioningly.

"But I…you…uh…Merry?"

"Yes?"

"Just…wow," she breathed in awe. "You've changed so much."

At this, Pippin seemed rather fidgety. Alaina stumbled again, this time steadied by Pippin, who had eagerly rushed forward. She suddenly smacked her forehead, bringing about mass confusion for the hobbits.

"I just remembered what happened…Oh, no! I've got to find Christine and Emma! Where could they be?" There was a moment of silence, during which the hobbits found themselves at a loss as to how to comfort Alaina. Sam placed his hand gently on her arm.

"I don't know where they are. I don't even know if they're in Middle-earth!"

"You'll find them. We should probably get you back to Bilbo's house to recover. After all, you almost drowned today."

"I don't need…to…" but before Alaina could finish her sentence, she had fainted once again.

A/N: Sorry, I realize my chapters are very short. If you wanted me to make them longer, I would ramble and be boring. Oh, yeah! Thank you, Mr. Scrollbar, for reminding me…Just some randomness: If you happened to be wondering, the title WILL come into play, I promise. It actually might not be until the last chapter. But when it does, hopefully you'll get the little lightbulb and go "Ohhhh…" The title is also the title of a poem by…oh what is her name!!! I wanna say Anne Bradstreet, but I know that's not right. Anyway, she's another Puritan poet, I'll give you her name when I remember it. The poem starts out with "Success is counted sweetest/by those who ne'er succeed." I just love that poem so much. It's about how basically if someone won all the time, they wouldn't think anything of it the next time they succeeded. But those who try and try yet always come up short will know how great it really is when they finally do succeed.