Author's Note: Happy New Year everyone! Hope you had a great Christmas & New Year's! I'm sorry this chapter took so long to get up, especially since it's not very long, but I actually wrote it in only one day. It just took me a while to get working on it since I'm currently focusing on my "Tale of Years" story. Anyhoo, this chapter is short but hopefully it gains in quality what it lacks in quantity. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: You know the drill…

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Faramir felt uneasy walking down the halls of the Great Smials. He could feel, as well as see, heads turning and looking at him with curiosity as he passed through the corridors that would have been his home if things had been different. Everybody at the Great Smials knew who Faramir Took was, they had all met him at one point or another, but he had never come to the Smials without Merry Brandybuck accompanying him. This time Merry was not with him, and the Hobbits grew curious as to why that was.

He reached the door to the Thain's study and for a brief second wondered if he was supposed to report to someone before coming to see the busy Thain. But then he shrugged that thought, after all he was the Thain's son and should be allowed a surprise visit. Not to mention he was worried that he might lose his nerve if he stopped to find a secretary. Now that he had gotten this far he was not about to coward out.

He knocked and was told to enter. Pippin looked up from his paperwork and his eyes did not betray whatever he was feeling. Faramir figured he had to be surprised, curious or at the very least having some sense of recognition, but there was nothing. For a moment Faramir felt like a complete stranger, someone he had never even met before. This was not going to be easy.

"Yes?" Pippin said.

"Do you have a minute?" Faramir said. "I have to speak with you."

"Indeed?" Pippin glanced at the clock on the wall. "I'll give you ten minutes. Sit."

Faramir obediently sat down on the chair standing on the opposite side of the desk. He took a deep breath and hoped he would be able to pull this off. He had a feeling it would be anything but easy, especially since he had no bond or relationship whatsoever with this Hobbit. He had thought of the situation from every possible angle but in the end he had been unable to reach any other conclusion than that he would have to speak with Pippin directly.

"I'm sorry to bother you" he opened with. "Though I have a matter which you need to attend to. And it's rather urgent, at least as far as I'm concerned."

Pippin looked at the Hobbit sitting opposite him, the one who had been born 33 years ago. The only reason Pippin knew Faramir's exact age was that he still remembered his wife's death very vividly and always knew exactly how much time had passed since that happened. The years had eased his sorrow but he had never been able to fully move on. He wondered what this Hobbit could need from him now, after all these years.

"I have come of age and I am on my way to begin my life for real" Faramir said and wondered why he couldn't look his father in the eye when he spoke with him. But his father was a stranger to him. "Part of that is getting married… There is a lass I've been courting for the past two years now and I want to ask for her hand in marriage. I've spoken with my… with Merry about it, and he thinks it's a good idea. But even though he has been responsible for me during my childhood I still need your consent before I can ask her, since the lass in question would be the future Madam of the Smials. So I'm here to ask for your consent."

For a second Pippin thought he must be joking. The child could not be old enough to be married yet. 33 years, sure, but Pippin could not believe that marriage would be on his mind. Not that he cared much about it, this was all Merry's business not his, though he knew that Faramir was right and that he would have to give his consent. It was more a formality than anything else though, it was really up to Merry to make that call, at least in Pippin's opinion, so with a slight smile he realised the visit might only last for three minutes instead of a full ten.

"Alright then" Pippin said. "Who is the lass in question?"

Faramir swallowed nervously.

"Goldilocks Gamgee."

"Goldilocks Gamgee?" Pippin echoed. "Sam Gamgee's daughter?" He couldn't help but add: "What for?"

"What for? I'm in love with her! We've been courting for two years! I spent a lot of time with the Gamgee's a couple of years back and Goldilocks and I, we connected. I'm happy when I'm with her. And I want to be with her forever."

Pippin rose from his chair and began to slowly walk around the room while mulling this over. Faramir watched him nervously. He had no idea what the outcome would be of this, even Merry had been doubtful, and in this case Faramir didn't have any emotional attachments to help him get the answer he wanted. The Thain would be thinking rationally, and rationally Faramir knew there was little chance of him getting permission to marry Goldilocks. But he didn't care about any of that. And he needed to make Pippin understand what this would mean to him.

"She's a great lass" he said. "Though you know that already, you know all of Sam's children. I know it might seem a bit odd for me to want to be with her, but after two years I am sure. Merry thought it was a good idea, and since he has to consider the same things you do I expect there shall be no problem."

"She's hardly from the right class" Pippin said and twirled his pocket watch between his fingers. "She's Sam's daughter of course, but still…"

There was a pause. Faramir eyed Pippin with a frown. He was not a patient Hobbit and he wanted his answer not a lecture on Hobbit class. He knew all that already, he had been worried for a long time now that it would come to affect this moment of his life. Now he wanted to know.

"What do you think?" he asked.

"I think Merry was out of his mind allowing this from the get go" Pippin said.

"I'm grown up" Faramir said. "I don't need parental permission to fall in love."

"What do you know about love?" Pippin scoffed.

"What do you?" Faramir replied but realised it was a mistake.

"Plenty more than you ever will" Pippin said in a tone that was as cold as ice.

"You can't prove it by me" Faramir said, continuing on even though he knew that he shouldn't. But he had been quiet for long enough. "In 33 years you have never showed me any love. The only person I think you've ever loved is yourself."

"I have loved more than you will ever be capable of. So many people, so many places."

"And yet you are not capable of giving anything to the one you ought to have loved the most. I came here today to get your consent for securing a happy future for myself, yet you cannot even give me that even though it's a simple word away."

"There's more to love than happiness."

Faramir glared at the stranger sitting opposite him. He knew what he was referring to, and he couldn't believe he would be using that argument. Well Faramir could return the favour, he had a thing or to himself to say on that subject.

"Sometimes I wonder about my mother, the one you claim to have loved so much. I know she must be furious with you, wherever she is now, for not caring for her child. And when you die she will not be waiting for you. You have not deserved her. When you let me down you let her down."

Pippin's eyes narrowed.

"Don't you ever speak of her with me again" he said. "You don't know half the things I know. Don't you dare pass out judgement over me."

"All I want out of you is an answer. Just give me a simple yes and you will never have to see me again" Faramir said. "It's the one and only thing you have to do, so do it and we will be forever rid of one another."

"Your time is up" Pippin said with a glare at the younger Hobbit. "I have more important things to do. You know the way out, I take it."

"You haven't given me an answer yet" Faramir said while he rose.

"You can come back in two days" Pippin said and opened the door for him. "And you can tell Merry I'm disappointed with him. And that he is crazy."

Angrily Faramir strode out the door. He should have known it would not go his way. If only he hadn't opened his big mouth, what good did he think it would do to question this Hobbit? He already knew how stubborn the Thain was and that insulting his ego was a sure way of getting your request rejected. He wished that he only needed Merry's approval. He couldn't see why his birth father should have a say in the matter, Merry was the one who could tell whether or not he and Goldilocks would be right for one another and if it would be a good match. Merry was the one with Faramir's best interest at heart. All the Thain would know was whether or not she would make a good future Madam, but to Faramir that was the least relevant part. How he wished he was just an ordinary Hobbit and didn't have to become the Thain one day. His life would have been so much easier.

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"I should have known it was no use" Faramir complained to Dawn the next day, stretched out on a meadow near Brandy Hall. "It doesn't matter to him that Goldilocks is the daughter of a friend of his, he won't give me his consent. Ironic, isn't it? For 33 years he wants nothing to do with me, but my love interest is deemed not good enough for me."

"Faramir you don't know that he will turn you down" Dawn said.

"Of course he's going to turn me down. He just wants me to pine a bit because I insulted him. I know I should have held my tongue, but honestly he deserved to hear what I had to say. He can refuse to speak with me but he cannot refuse to listen. I've been silent for far too long. And now he is paying me back. He could have told me no then and there, but instead he keeps me waiting for two days. He probably wants me to think that he will say yes, only so he can crush me tomorrow."

"Isn't that a little unfair?" Dawn had to ask. "You don't know that for sure."

"Dawn, think about it. When has he ever done anything for me? When has he made sure I was doing okay, asked about me, or visited me when I was sick? I am nothing but a name in a family tree to him, far more distant than those friends he has that sailed west long before I was even born. I'm not real to him. My only task in life is, in his eyes, to carry on the family tree. And that should be with someone of my own social standing. But if he knew the slightest bit about my life he would care more about what I feel for her than what her last name happens to be."

"I agree that that is more important" Dawn said. "But we are of a different generation."

"Merry is of the same generation as the Thain, in fact he is from an even older one! Yet he did not see any problems with it."

"That is not entirely true" Dawn reminded him. "Dad was very sceptical at first. But he cares about you so he gave you his consent. Did you ever stop to think that perhaps he could give you his consent because it's not really his decision to make? It is not up to him to decide whether or not she is a good enough match, only the Thain can decide that for the future Thain, so whatever Dad said would not have mattered in the end. So he chose to be supportive. But had you been his son I think there's a great chance he would have told you no."

"Thank you Dawn, that is very supportive" Faramir snarled.

"I'm just being realistic. Don't judge him based on Dad's decision for their situations are different. Though I do agree that he could have told you yesterday instead of keeping you waiting like this. Dad would not have kept you waiting."

"I cannot believe those two were actually friends once" Faramir said with a sigh and covered his eyes with his hands to block out the sun.

"I don't remember that too well, I was still so little when they turned their relationship into strictly business."

"I'm talking about before we were even born. They owned Crickhollow together, they were often in each other's company. People say they were so often seen together that when one appeared without the other people started to worry about the other one."

"Things change."

"But it's odd, isn't it? They were so close and now they have hardly no contact at all. Can you imagine what it would be like if ten years from today you and I barely spoke? I don't have any friends that I am as close with as those two were claimed to be but I find it odd enough to imagine not seeing any of my friends regularly."

"Things change" Dawn said again.

"I cannot for the life of me understand why Merry was so close with him" Faramir said and sat up, shielding his eyes from the sun with his hand. "The two are as different as night and day. Who would put up with someone like the Thain? Someone so lacking of heart and empathy… Not a joyful bone in him."

"Maybe he was not always like that" Dawn suggested.

"Perhaps… But not likely. When I was growing up Merry told me amazing stories about my father, wanting me to be proud of him and of my heritage. But it was all make believe. The Hobbit he told me about was warm, compassionate and always with a fun and carefree spirit. That sounds nothing like the grumpy, bitter Hobbit who has my whole future in his hands and doesn't care."

"I'm sorry Faramir…" Dawn said. She didn't know what else to say.

"I'm sorry too" Faramir said. "The day after tomorrow I have to ride to Hobbiton and tell Goldilocks we can't be courting anymore. It's a waste of her time and mine to be together when it won't lead anywhere. And a few years down the line I'll settle for some boring Chubb or Bracegirdle and make Peregrin the Grumpy happy. If he knows the meaning of that word."

"Stop it" Dawn said. "You're sounding as bitter as you paint him out to be."

Faramir bit his lip. The last thing he wanted was to be compared with his father. Deep down he was scared that he would end up being the same way. He could not deny that the Thain's blood was in his veins and that he would inevitably take after some of his sides. His whole heritage felt like a curse, there was nothing he could do to get away from it and it kept hanging over him like a dark cloud. It gave him sides to himself that he wished he didn't have, it gave him a future he had never asked for and it always kept him a hint of a step outside the family he had grown up in. No matter what Merry, Estella or any of their children said he knew he was never completely part of them and never would be. And all he got in return was a bitter father who was too busy hanging on to the past to live in the now.

"It's getting chilly" Faramir said and got up on his feet.

"What are you talking about, it's hot out!" Dawn said and turned her face up towards the sun even though her mother had told her to keep her hat on at all times and avoid being sunburned. "I want to stay out in the sun."

"I'm cold, I'm going back to the Hall" Faramir insisted and whistled for his pony. "You can stay if you'd like."

With a sigh Dawn got up. He knew she would not stay behind and let him leave alone, especially not when he was upset. Sometimes he was really not much fun. These past few years he had been constantly preoccupied with his past and without knowing it he was becoming bitter with his father. Dawn knew that her own father was worried about it, the bitterness was one quality which they would all gladly see skip the younger generation. Dawn wished Faramir would talk about these things with his friends instead of with her, but he kept his jolly side for them and his grumpier for his brother and sisters at Brandy Hall.

"Let's go then" Dawn sighed and grabbed her reins. "Faramir try to keep your mind off this until tomorrow. There is nothing more that you can do now. You only need to accept it. Prove that you are not like him, accept and move on."

Faramir didn't reply but somewhere inside he knew that she was right.

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"Sit" Pippin commanded.

Faramir obediently sat down and awaited the decision. He felt a lot more calm and relaxed now than he had two days ago. After what Dawn had said he had decided to really prove that he was different from his father and would not let himself be pulled down. He knew what answer he wanted but if he didn't get it he would accept it and move on. He had decided that the only way Pippin could win was if Faramir allowed himself to let this get to him and put his life on hold because of it. And he would not let that happen.

"I have to say I think you are absolutely out of your mind for wanting to marry a Gamgee" Pippin declared and put aside the pencil he had been playing with to lean over the desk and look Faramir in the eye. "I guess that's what an upbringing in Buckland will do to you. But you are not here to discuss that matter."

Faramir had to bite his lip not to say something stupid again. Whose fault was it he had not had an upbringing in Tuckburough, really?

"I don't want to waste your time" he said instead. "I just want to hear your answer and then I will be gone."

"I count upon it" Pippin said. "Did you tell Merry I thought he was crazy?"

"No."

"Too bad. Crazy is the right word for it. But if you absolutely have to find yourself a Gamgee then one of Sam's daughters is the best you can do. If Merry gave you his consent then I have nothing more to add."

"What… are you saying?" Faramir asked.

"You're not my son, I haven't raised you and I do not know you. Make whatever decisions you want, reason with Merry about it and if you want me to consent then I will, unless it's something totally outrageous. Which I must admit I at first thought this was."

"You mean I can marry her?"

"If you must."

A smile crept across Faramir's face.

"Thank you sir" he said and rose to leave.

"Hold it!" Pippin said. "We are not finished yet."

Faramir sat back down and wondered what they could possibly have left to say to one another. It was hardly time for a father-to-son talk about love and marriage, he would get that from Merry anyhow. Pippin had given him the only thing he had to give and Faramir wanted to get back to the Hall as soon as he could to tell everybody the good news. And tomorrow he would ride to Hobbiton but instead of breaking up with Goldilocks he would ask Sam for her hand.

Pippin rose and walked over to a small bureau in the corner of the room. He fished out a key from his pocked and opened a small drawer. Then he paused for a while as if mulling something over. He then picked something up, closed the drawer again and turned to Faramir.

"There is something you need to take with you when you leave" he said. "If you are indeed going through with this."

"I am" Faramir said, growing tired of the constant questioning.

Pippin sat back down and placed a small box on the desk between them.

"I gave that to my wife when I married her" he said. "It's a tradition. The Thain, or future Thain, has given it to his bride since the days of old Isumbras."

Faramir carefully picked the box up and opened it. There was a diamond ring inside, looking like it was worth a fortune.

"Put it on her finger when you marry her. And be very careful with it! When your son gets married someday, you give it to him."

Faramir stared at the ring without knowing what to say. He had never expected such a grand gift from his father.

"This is incredible…" he said.

"It's tradition" Pippin said, underlining it in such a way that Faramir knew that it was not a gift of love or care. It was just another thing that had to be done.

"I will give this to her, if she will have me" he said and put the box in his pocked. "And thank you again, sir."

Barely able to contain his excitement he rose, took a bow and then hurried out the door. One more night and then he could ask Sam for Goldilocks' hand. He was closer now than he had ever dared to believe he would be. And all thanks to the Thain suddenly seeming to change his mind. Faramir didn't know if it was because of the things he had said or because he had underestimated him, but in the end he didn't care. It was the end result that mattered to him, and he had no complaints now. For the first time his future laid ahead of him, shining bright and promising.

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I don't know when I'll have the next part up. Could be this time tomorrow or it could be this time next month. But I'm aiming to have it up as soon as possible. The next chapter is the last one.

Thank you for reading! If you had fun reading, please reward me with a review!