Notes: Thanks for liking my story... please read and review... Sorry it's been a while since I updated, I was on vacation for a few days...

Sam was the first to fully awaken. "Bless me!" he said as he rose, "Mr. Pippin, you're here! I was afraid you'd been lost forever, but you're here and all is well. But who are these folks?" he asked, motioning toward Charlie and Kate.

"We're just everyday Men," Charlie answered. He saw the look that Kate gave him and was forced to explain that the statement was signifying race and not gender. Kate settled down.

Merry got up soon afterward. "Pleasure to meet you, I am Meriadoc Brandybuck. And who might you…"

He paused at seeing Charlie's face. Immediately the resemblance between Merry and Charlie was clear to everyone. Without saying anything, the two agreed that there was really no explanation to this strange likeness and that discussing it too much would be pointless.

"You're not a Brandybuck by any chance?"

"No."

"Right then."

"Um, my name is Charlie Pace, and this is Kate."

"Kate Austen," she said, holding out a hand to shake. Merry blushed and took her hand in his own and kissed it in a very similar fashion to the way Pippin had. Sam just shook her hand.

"Sorry, miss, but I'm married," he explained. "I've got a daughter of two and a newborn son at home as well, and I miss the three dearly."

"That's sweet," Kate smiled.

"I'm not married," Merry pointed out, apparently being quite fond of Kate.

"So how are…" Charlie tried to remember the family tree in the appendix of his book. "…Elanor and Little Frodo?"

"They're quite well, but how do you know their names?" Samwise asked.

"He's read our story, Sam." Pippin answered for Charlie. "Here, it is but a legend."

"A legend, why that's nonsense. Tell me, how can we trust this Charlie fellow?" he asked his companions. "And the only account of our story, at least to date, is in the Red Book. And Sam has that in his pack."

"Oh, come on, Merry. I trust him. He reminds me of you, and you're one of the most trustworthy Hobbits I know, save when you've pinched my pipe-weed."

"But how can we know? Maybe he knows our stories because he's on the other side. Sauron…," he went on, not believing any of it himself. He trusted Charlie. Maybe it was the similitude, maybe it was his manner, but he seemed to know what he was talking about and he surely did not seem to be a minion of Sauron.

"Never mind, then," Merry said. "But you don't happen to have anything to eat?"

"Oh, we've plenty to eat," answered Charlie. But first we'll have to worry about your Eagle friend here."

"Oh, he should be fine," the Hobbits tried to convince him.

"This place seems innocent enough," Merry argued.

"But there're bloody polar bears," Charlie reasoned.

"Bloody polar bears?"

"Think big snowy-white bear."

"Like the hoarfrost bears of Caradhras?" Pippin suggested.

"Precisely."

"Perhaps he is strong enough to fend for himself," Merry said. "Meneldor, will you be fine here until we can find another place for you?"

"I believe so, young Master Brandybuck."

"See, he'll be fine. Now when are elevenses?"

Charlie brought the Hobbits to the place where all of the newly found food had been stored and the other survivors watched in confusion. Charlie had to explain what was going on to only a few people before he decided to write it down and hand the paper around. Everyone seemed quite welcome to the new additions to the gang until they saw how much they ate.

The Hobbits marvelled at the strange boxes and were greatly surprised that this boxed food had remained tasteful and had not gone stale.

While the Hobbits ate, Charlie pulled the Palantír from his bag and placed it on the table. "Did any of you bring this?" he interrogated.

"A Stone of Seeing…" Merry whispered. Pippin's eyes grew hungry, but he knew better than to get near it now after the incident with the other Seeing Stone.

"No, Mr. Charlie, sir," Sam answered, wondering how it had ended up in this place. It wasn't the Grey Havens for sure, and sadly Mr. Frodo and Gandalf were nowhere to be seen.

Seeing the thirst in Pippin's eyes, he wrapped the Stone back up and put it back in his backpack. He knew that Pippin would resist the urge to take it, but he couldn't be absolutely sure, and he needed to be sure of his actions right now.

It was a shame that there was no king here. Only an ancestor of Isildur would really be able to use the Palantír without letting the dark Lord Sauron see, and since Isildur lived in a different world, that wouldn't be very possible. Unless Middle Earth wasn't a different world. Maybe it was some kind of pre-history Europe that had somehow been completely lost.

Would that make the Grey Havens the continent of North America? That was an interesting thought. The New World was the bloody Grey Haven.

And if the Palantír was letting Sauron see what was going on in this present time, didn't that mean that Sauron still had to be alive somehow? If two different times existed, both his present and the time of the Hobbits, why wasn't it possible that three existed? The two as well as a time before Sauron had been defeated? And if not three, why not four of five?

Thinking about it gave Charlie a migraine, but it was necessary to figure out what was happening and how he would get the Hobbits back home. They had to get back to their time. They all had families that needed to be created, towns to run, people to meet… He worried that if he sent them back without doing something about this insane time warp that they would just be sent to Europe, and he couldn't let that happen to them. He felt responsible because he was the one who almost understood everything that was going on.

The Hobbits were just as confused in this new place. Nothing was familiar to them. The way these people dressed and acted and spoke was so different from anything they had confronted before. Charlie was really their only link to their reality.

Charlie saw that they were struggling with this change of pace. He searched through his memory for something that the two cultures shared. Finally, he found something, though it was hardly sufficient.

"We've built a golf course," he said, now remembering that he had said the same thing to Claire long ago to convince her that the island was a safe place.

Pippin smiled. "The game was invented by Bullroarer Took more than two hundred years ago."

"One of your ancestors," Charlie added.

"Excuse me, Charlie, so you said you've read our story?" Merry asked.

"Yes…"

"So, when does the story end? Do we marry beautiful women and have thirty children each and end up extremely wealthy and happy?"

"I'm not just going to tell you. You'll have to find out when you get back."

"If we get back," Merry said, rather pessimistically. "And if we don't in time, I'd like that you tell us what would have happened to each of us if we would have gotten back."

"Don't say that. You will get back. And soon."

"At least tell me who I marry… do I bring Kate back with me?" he said hopefully.

"No… do you really want to know that badly?"

"Yes."

"Fatty's little sis," he answered.

"Estella?" Merry was a little amazed. He had always felt that she was a bit out of his league. But if she wasn't, he was quite pleased with himself.

"Thank you, Mr. Pace."

"You're very welcome, Mr. Brandybuck."