Dang guys! We're just past the 50-chapter milestone?!

This is so crazy! I love this story and all the wonderful supporters this fanfiction has gathered and I cannot apologize enough for leaving this story! I didn't mean to, but I hope this little bonus scene makes up for my absence (at least a little bit) while I try to remember my ideas for some post-War of the Rings content!

If you have any ideas, I'd love to hear them and use them in this story as a thank-you for all the love and support this fanfiction has gained!

I hope you guys stick with me til the end and enjoy the tale of Rowena! :)

I seriously cannot thank you all enough for supporting me!

Speaking of supporters, I'm gonna reply to the reviews I've gotten since I posted the last chapter!

Shannyrox101: Yeah, I know she couldn't be pregnant that soon, even after a week or so past their wedding, but I didn't do research before I revealed her as pregnant. I should have. I thought the whole process of pregnancy was faster than it is. Sorry about that. I hope you enjoy my story regardless! :)

Guest: I'm just going to say this; please read something else if you don't like my story.

Lady Istalri: I'm so happy you are enjoying the story all over again! I may one day rewrite this to improve it and correct some timeline errors, but for now I'll leave it as it is and continue the tale. :D *thumbs up*

And that's it! Thank you guys so much for sharing your thoughts, even if a few were more negative than others.

Anyway, on to the story!

I just realized I never wrote Rowena's mom meeting Gandalf, which would be a shock since Gandalf looks so much like her father. I was going to put that bonus scene in 'Lightning's Child Alternate Scenes', but decided to just put it here so you all wouldn't have to hop between stories!

Hope you like this little scene!

God Bless and Good Day!

~The Lupine Sojourner

It happened not long after the tired army returning from Mordor caught up to Eomer.

I was helping to set up tents and change the hastily applied bandages on the wounded survivors when Mom appears at my side with my siblings to help me.

We set to work, not talking much as we wrapped wounds and soothed the men's pain as much as we could.

I had to talk my family through the more complex wraps, but that was fine.

Mom was the quickest to pick it up since she was always looking at this kind of thing.

Then I hear some commotion further into the camp and excuse myself to go investigate.

Turns out, large eagles were coming in for a landing and everyone was understandably a bit shocked.

"Make way!" Comes Gandalf's voice and I see he's carrying something, or someone, but he's lost in the crowd before I can see what my grandfather was carrying.

"What's going on?" I turn to see Aspen right behind me, looking anxious at all the commotion. He'd always been more introverted and shy.

"Seems like Gandalf just made his entrance." I reply happily, glad he'd made it out, as well.

"Gandalf? Oh, wow! I wanna meet him!" Aspen cries, clutching my arm. He had always loved the wizard when we watched Lord of the Rings or the Hobbit.

As I walk to find Gandalf, I note how few men had returned.

Compared to the army that left Minas Tirith, this returning force was a fraction of its original strength.

Don't think about that. I tell myself and continue trying to find Gandalf. Absently, I note my family is behind me.

I don't mind. After all, I wanted to introduce them to Gandalf and talk to Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli.

"Ah, henig. There you are." I finally see Gandalf emerging from a tent without whatever or whoever he'd been carrying. My family was still making their way through the crowd of soldiers, so they were a bit behind me.

"Who or what were you carrying?" I ask.

"Oh, someone you'll meet soon, my dear." He replies vaguely. "I trust you are well?"

"Better now this is all over, Seanathair." I reply genuinely, hugging him.

"I believe we are all a good deal better now this evil is at last defeated properly." Gandalf chuckles, hugging me back before releasing me and looking at something over my shoulder with shocked, wide eyes.

I turn and see he's staring at my family.

"...There's no way…" I hear Mom mumble like she'd seen a ghost. Gandalf shared her expression.

"Dad?"

"Gilbren?"

For a long moment, I watch Gandalf and my mother stare at each other.

Behind Mom, Willow and Aspen are staring at the Wizard as if seeing him for the first time, like we hadn't grown up with the Lord of the Rings.

"...Somehow, I never noticed how similar you two look before.." Mom murmurs under her breath. I walk over and put my hand on her shoulder gently.

"Are you okay?" I ask.

As if in a trance, Mom walks away from my hand, going over to Gandalf and hugging him. He hugs her back after a moment.

"I can't believe it." Mom mumbles, unaware she was speaking out loud. "It's like he's back." I step forward.

"Mom, there's...something I need to tell you..." I begin slowly. "You're a different version of...of Gandalf's daughter." It was blunt and to the point, but I didn't know how else to say it.

Mom, understandably, turns to me in shock. "What?"

"Okay, it's like this; Gandalf's daughter, Gilbren, died giving birth to me here in Arda. The Valar and Illuvatar- -basically the god and angels of this universe- -decided I shouldn't simply fade from existence, so they sent me to you and Dad in our world. You're the version of Gilbren in our world, like Gandalf is Middle-Earth's version of Seanathair." I explain.

"This isn't making any sense." Mom murmurs, looking pale at all this news.

"I know, and I'm sorry. There's different earths, and in each earth resides a slightly different version of the same person. I am a Middle-Earth native and Gandalf's granddaughter. I am also your daughter." I sigh. "I know it's confusing, but trust me; you're my mom and he's my grandfather. That's the long and short of it."

"...I suppose so." Mom says slowly, rubbing her temples. "I just...wow."

"I know." I reply. "It's a lot. I was shocked, too." I tell her.

"Just when I think I know everything about you...something happens." Mom grumbles good-naturedly, shaking.

I laugh. "You know me; I like to keep you on your toes." I quip, rubbing a hand up her back comfortingly.

It was quite a shock, after all, to see a man that so closely resembled your dead father after all these years, and then to discover that your daughter, even in the world you had always known, was an outsider looking in.

"Wait...I'm still confused." Willow says, stepping forward. "You were originally from Middle-Earth, but were sent to our world to live until the val-whatever-s decided they needed you?"

"Kinda. I was stillborn, so Illuvatar decided to send me to the world we came from to grow and live. Then, when Gandalf died, it was decided that he needed reinforcements of some kind. And, according to the rules of the portal system, I was the only candidate available, so I was sent back here to Middle-Earth when I...got hit by lightning."

"So then how did we get here?" Mom asks.

"I wasn't great at waiting for Eomer and the army that went to Mordor to come back, and I felt really lonely. I guess Illuvatar decided enough was enough and used your desperation to get to me and my loneliness to bring you all here. That's how the portal works; you have to be desperate to find someone dead in your world, but alive in another, and be related to them, for it to take you to the person you're searching for."

"That doesn't make much sense, but okay." Willow says, hugging me.

"I know, and I know this makes things complicated, but I'm glad you guys are here, regardless of how you got here." I say, hugging her back.

"Me, too, Winnie." Mom murmurs, joining our hug.

It then becomes a family hug and we all enjoy the moment.

It makes me happier than I can truly describe to finally have all my family around me again, to have them be apart of this new life I found here.

I know I might miss Dad sometimes, but this family hadn't needed him since he ran off with that other woman.

I had everything I could truly need now, here in Middle Earth. I could raise my children and they would know their grandmother, great-grandfather, uncle, and aunt.

I am content.