An- so...it's been QUITE awhile! I would sincerely like to apologize for the long wait. My computer went down and we had to take it in to future shop to get the hard drive redone, and future shop took a very long time get it back...so that's the reason this chapter took so long to get up. Again, I apologize and hope you'll enjoy this chapter. Much love!

Chapter 41

"What..." Erin gasped, not fully understanding the words that had come from Sam's mouth. She couldn't comprehend them because she refused to believe them.

Frodo couldn't be dead...he just couldn't!

"He's dead Erin," Sam spoke softly, looking at her with a mixture of pity and sadness.

It felt like the world around her just stopped. Erin's heart literally stopped beating in her chest and her breath caught deep within her throat. Her whole body felt like it had been thrown into a brick wall and had then gone numb...just numb.

"No..." Erin shook her head, trying to throw such awful thoughts from her mind, "NO!"

Her vision caught Sam's face, full of pain, pity and sorrow before her eyes clouded over with tears. They stung her eyes and the pain brought her out of the trance she had entered only minutes ago.

"NO!" she cried out suddenly, feeling like she was going to be sick and then her legs were going to give out from under her.

Sam started forward, wanting to try and comfort Erin before she fell into hysterics, but as he took a step forward, Erin backed away sharply.

"You're lying!" she cried angrily, glaring at Sam, "He can't be dead! Frodo Cannot be dead! I need him too much...Elijah needs him too much! God would not let him be dead, NOT NOW!"

Sam had no idea what to say. Not only was he lost in his own grief, but seeing the horrid look on Erin's face made his heart want to break in two.

"No, no, no, no," Erin kept whispering, shaking her head, trying to make it all some sort of nightmare.

She hugged her baby into her and felt as the first hot tears fell from her eyes and streaked down her pale cheeks.

"Please God no..." she whispered, sinking to the ground and burying her face into her chest as she fell upon her knees.

"Erin...I..." Sam started, not knowing what words he would use to try and comfort her, but willing to try anyway. He was about to continue when he heard the noises of someone...or someone's approaching.

The noises of approaching footsteps and many gruff voices were coming from the direction of Mordor. This and the fact that sting (which he still had) was glowing blue, meant that Orcs, and more than one of them, were coming towards them.

"Erin!" Sam told her, pulling her forcefully to her feet.

Erin pulled her arm away and glared down at him through her tears. She wanted to scream at him to leave her alone, but she never got the chance to even open her mouth.

" Not now!" Sam told her, a little harsher than he had planned, " Orcs are coming Erin, and we need to hide. We have to leave Frodo," Erin's eyes grew wide with horror, "he's dead Erin...and we're not. If we don't hide now, we'll be killed too. Right now you might not care about what happens to you, but think of Elijah. You love him and he'll only be killed and I know you don't want that to happen to your son...to Frodo's son,"

That made Erin's mind turn from unbearable grief to protecting her child. Beside Sam, She turned and dashed into an opening in the mountain and hid within the darkness.

Vaguely, Erin wondered if the same monster that had killed Frodo would come up from the darkness and kill the three of them too.

Within moments, a group of Orcs appeared and they inspected Frodo's body. Erin blocked out all of the awful things they said. She closed her eyes and made the words they said bounce right off her...except these three.

" He ain't dead,"

Erin's eyes snapped open and took in a deep breath. Just like earlier, when Sam had told her Frodo was dead, her heart stopped beating. Hope and joy fluttered through her. This joy was short lived as the Orcs lifted Frodo up and carried him back into the direction of Mordor.

" He's alive..." Sam whispered, his voice unbelieving.

The voices of the Orcs grew further and further away and Erin looked at Sam with bewildered eyes.

" My God Sam..." Erin started, but then a realization hit Erin like running into a brick wall, "The ring Sam! They have the ring!"

" Not exactly..." Sam replied softly, extending his arm and opening up his hand. There, resting in his palm with only some of the chain hanging over was the ring.

Erin would have sighed in relief if it hadn't been for the fact Frodo was being carried off into Mordor by a band of Orcs.

" What do we do?"

" We go after him," Sam replied, "and after that, we continue through Mordor and destroy the ring...with Frodo or not,"

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An- So, it's short and it took a long time to get up...sorry about that! Well, that's all until the next chapter...which will hopefully be up very, very soon!