The elevator bell suddenly dinged in the warehouse, making Sam and Gollum jump in surprise. Sam warily put his hand on his sword and cautiously watched the doors slide open.

"Sam!" Frodo stepped out of the elevator with Gandalf, Gimli, Merry and Pippin. "What were you going to do with that sword?"

"Nothing, Mister Frodo!" He quickly put his hand away from his sword. "Well, you did give me and Gollum a bit of a scare," he added.

"How is he?"

Gollum was quietly sitting in his chair, muttering to himself again. However, Sam noticed that his growls and snarls were becoming less threatening and less frequent during the last couple of days.

"He's borderline behaving," reported Sam. "Haven't had anything to eat for a while since he can't eat lembas and won't eat anything but fish."

"Oh, we can remedy that," Merry said happily. He and Pippin unwrapped the packs they were carrying and withdrew four large bass. "Fresh fish right out of a river."

"Compliments of our dear friend, Treebeard," added Pippin. "We can't forget how generous he is."

Gollum stared at the raw fish hungrily and started shaking with hunger. He had nothing to eat for two days except for canned fish, which he quickly grew tired of. Surprisingly, both he and Sam refused to eat the frozen fish in the freezer.

"We're hungry, but we're not THAT hungry yet," Sam had said.

Now, Gollum was ravenous and wanted nothing more than to taste the raw meat of one of those fishes.

"Should we give a whole one to him?" Merry wondered.

"I don't see why not," Gandalf said. "The sad creature has had nothing but tins of tuna fish, judging from the empty cans here by the sink." He poked a can and frowned at Sam before putting them into a bin.

"I don't think we should give him a whole one," objected Sam.

Gollum glared at him and growled. Frodo quietly sighed and shook his head. He was growing tired of their constant hatred of each other. Now, to him, it seemed to exist for the sake of existing.

"Nassty Hobbit wants us to starve!" Gollum yelled at him. "We've nothing but scraps of the stuff Hobbitses and Elveses and wizards call 'tuna'. The fat Hobbit always looks for ways to hurts us!"

"No!" Sam yelled back. "I don't want to waste food and for you to get a lousy stomachache! I know you can't finish one of those bass all by yourself."

Frodo was stunned at Sam's sudden show of kindness. Merry and Pippin, not knowing the full story of Frodo and Sam's journey with Gollum, cheered and went to the kitchen counter to clean the fish. Sam told them to cut one for Gollum and they happily did so.

"Sam seems to have taken a very different attitude, according to your reaction," Gandalf said to Frodo as he made his way to couch.

"It certainly seems like it," sighed Frodo. He watched Sam lay the rather large piece of raw fish in front of Gollum who, to the best of his ability, ate it gratefully.

"But something else troubles you, doesn't it?"

Frodo nodded and sat next to him on the couch. He looked at Merry and Pippin cleaning the remaining fish and Sam's disgusted face when he watched Gollum eat but never really saw them nor did he listen to their singing yet he could hear them.

"Perhaps it's because I learned that dark hearts can't be changed," said Frodo. He looked at his outstretched fingers. His attention turned to his left index finger and moved it, like he was making sure it worked. "I learned that lesson the hard way."

"You worry that he'll go back on his word again. Like he did to you in Shelob's cave. But, I do not think that will happen in this quest we're in now."

"Why not? He did it before so he's able to do it again."

"Yes, Gollum is indeed able to betray us to the Darkness again simply out of hatred about what has happened. But, Smeagol may be of particular help.

"Kindness is rewarded with kindness, Frodo. Just like how mercy is awarded to the merciful. Smeagol remembers your kindness in the past and knows that Sam is making an effort. He will show you kindness someday."

"I just hope it won't be too late. Receiving kindness and mercy is one thing, Gandalf, but being able to appreciate it is an entirely different thing. If it's too soon or too late, any chance of goodwill may be lost."

"It may be, but it will never completely lost as long as one or both sides have hope that it will not be lost."

Frodo smiled at this revolution and looked back at Gollum and Sam. Gollum was warily glaring at Sam but with visibly less malice and with a touch of curiosity. Sam, however, didn't notice because he was busy watching Merry and Pippin dance around and sing. With his heart more at peace, he decided to watch as well.

Suddenly, a crash of ceramics breaking was heard and a mug lay on the floor in pieces.

"Pippin!"

"Sorry!"

--- ---

It was about mid-afternoon, after a proper lunch of poached fish and potatoes, when Sam had unwittingly noticed something.

"Hey... where're Aragorn and Legolas?"

"We were wondering when you'd finally take notice," Pippin told him. He and Merry were playing cards on the couch. "We were just talking about it, actually."

"We don't exactly know where they are," answered Gandalf. He gently blew out a smoke flower and Frodo and Gimli watched it float through the air in amazement. "But I haven't a doubt that they are perfectly fine."

"How can you be so sure?" Frodo asked nervously.

"Because it's Aragorn and Legolas," he chuckled. "Those two boys seem to function the best when getting into trouble to correct the larger trouble that's present."

"Yeah," agreed Frodo. He paused and his eyes followed a fragile smoke bird float by. He added, "That and the fact that they're also Aaron and Leo."

They all laughed and agreed.

"It's their second-nature to pull off a stunt like to get the Light by themselves and actually get away with it," laughed Gimli. "Like this time in chemistry class..."

Gollum and Smeagol tried to listen to their conversation but obviously didn't understand a thing they said. Gollum couldn't have cared less about their petty past that didn't concern him, unlike the Master or the long-destroyed Precious, and quickly got bored and fell asleep, leaving Smeagol in control.

Smeagol was vaguely interested in what they were talking about. True, he didn't care much about what kind of idiotic yet brilliant thing Aaron and Leo did or what Pete had done once in history class but was piqued by the fun they were having by simply remembering memories of the past.

'They all seem so happy,' Smeagol thought to himself. 'They laughs with such joy and happiness. Even the fat Hobbit laughs when someone other than Master Hobbit talks about stuff that had happened before.

'What memories does Smeagol have? Perhaps we can think of one we can all laugh about. Yesss. Then Smeagol can laugh too.' A faint smile appeared on his face when he thought of laughing and talking with the others but it quickly disappeared when he tried to come up with a memory for them to talk happily about.

'Smeagol doesn't have any happy memories,' he thought glumly. 'Smeagol only has memories of being alone and cold. So very cold. Smeagol only remembers the Precious and the pain of seeing it with someone else. The pain and the torture it gives us! The cursed, wretched Precious!

'The Master Hobbit and the fat one tried to destroy it. Yesss, Precious. But it was Smeagol who did it. Smeagol felt the searing hot pain of fire and the bitter coldness of being alone. So alone.

'The Darkness is powerful, Precious. Yes, very powerful. But it is cold and unforgiving, like the Master. Perhaps Gollum was right. Smeagol has no friends he can talk to. Smeagol has no friends at all.

'Will Smeagol ever have any friends?' he thought dully before falling asleep in his chair.

It was a few hours afterward when one of the Fellowship had noticed that he was asleep and not faking it. Gimli waved his hand in front of his face to make sure.

"Since when did this creature fall asleep?" he wondered.

"I don't know," replied Sam, "but I'm not surprised. A full stomach after starving for a couple days would make anybody want to go to sleep." He sat comfortably on the couch. "Nothing wrong with that, is there?"

Frodo's attention was so concentrated at the comment that he could think of nothing else. Clearly surprised, he asked, "Since when did you start defending him? A few days ago, you were still calling him names!"

In the days of Middle-Earth and the Ring, Sam regarded Smeagol as a traitorous murderer who talked to himself and planned nothing except for his recovery of his Precious. In the end, both him and Frodo realized that he was right about him. Now, in the present, instead of remaining so guarded and suspicious of him, Sam seemed to look at him with a true pitying expression on his face.

"I don't know, Mister Frodo," Sam said quietly. He chuckled softly. "I think I know what you meant now when you said that you did pity him when we first met the likes of him. He's really just a confused soul that's been corrupted and influenced so much by evil that he really doesn't know what he's doing."

"Oh, Sam," sighed Frodo, relieved that he finally understood what he had seen in Gollum. "Why couldn't you have seen it before?"

"Please, Frodo," begged Sam, "stop asking me questions I can't answer! I don't understand how the dimension of Time works and how one action in the past can destroy the world in the present!"

Everybody laughed once again the light mood, except for Pippin, who looked amused and confused at the same time.

"Time's a dimension? I didn't know that!"

Merry rolled his eyes and said, "I'll explain the theories to you later, Pip. Then, we'll be confused about it together, okay?"

"Agreed! Confusion loves company, doesn't it?"

Gandalf sighed in exasperation but didn't bother to say anything and just continued to puff out smoke. He shaped the smoke to appear like objects to keep Frodo and Gimli entertained while they all waited for Aragorn and Legolas to return. After a short while, he caught a glimpse of Sam sitting on the couch, seemingly watching Merry and Pippin play cards and discuss the theories of Time and its repercussions.

"I wonder what would've happened if we didn't die outside the Black Gate," Pippin said. "What do you think would've happened to us?"

"Ah, well, Aragorn would've been crowned King of Gondor, obviously," Merry said as he put down a card. "I don't know if we could've made it back to the Shire together or not, though. What with Frodo and Sam trapped in that damned mound of rock we called Mount Doom and all."

Sam managed to tune them out and began musing about recent events and analyzing them in an almost philosophical manner.

'It's really very interesting how Time preserved our souls and our likenesses so well from Middle-Earth yet it changed how we think about things. Like how Aragorn and Legolas were always incredibly good fighters but, in the past, they always seemed to be a little sad about everything, including the Quest. They always seemed to hate admitting that they came from royal lines. Now, they're always enthusiastic, like usual, to do something practical, if not stupid, but they do it without having to worry about their reputations.

'Speaking of change, Gollum, or Smeagol or whatever he's called, he's definitely changed. He's free of the Ring now, but the damage it's caused him is still there. I can still see the ruthlessness, the cunning and the evilness that he had back in Middle-Earth. But, for some reason, now I see a deep loneliness in him and the pain and regret he has for taking the Ring in the first place. He's definitely changed.

'Or maybe it's me who's changed. I don't think I've changed. I can tell everybody else has. Mister Frodo's a lot more cautious now around Gollum; Merry and Pip help each other out whenever they can but still let each other do their own things; Gimli's a lot more friendly to everybody and a lot more loyal; and Gandalf's realized that us Hobbits are able to do things.

'But, I have to wonder this: Is this change good?'

A sudden noise from outside brought him back to his senses and got everybody's attention. Automatically, they all reached for one of their weapons. A loud bang and several snarls brought the blades out of their casings with a flash. Gimli ran upstairs while the door banged loudly.

It banged again.

And again, even louder. They all prepared themselves to fight. They heard a distinct clunk from the upper level.

With a resounding slam, the door flew open.