A/N: Man, sorry about the incredibly long wait. This started out as a really boring filler chapter, until yesterday when we actually came up with a hilarious idea which made this chapter good. You guys will probably hate us for ruining this moment forever in your minds, but it was totally worth it.

Chapter 2

Fay rushed up the path, slamming the gate as she ran. Her feet pounded the cobbled lane, an air of urgency about her. She tugged open the round green door of Bag End and ran inside. Suddenly, she stopped. Looking down, she noticed something glinting just inside the doorway. She stooped down to look at it.

It was a ring. A rather ordinary looking ring at that. Yet the mere presence of it seemed to draw Fay into a sort of trance. The firelight from the next room reflected off the shiny golden surface of the ring. She could sense a soft whisper in the edge of her conscience, saying something unintelligible. With a start, she pulled herself back from the subconscious state, and looked over to her living room.

Sitting in front of the fire, a long pipe in his mouth, was Gandalf, staring into the flames and muttering something under his breath.

"He's gone, hasn't he?" she asked, referring to Bilbo. She already knew the answer, but she wanted to make sure. Gandalf didn't answer, so she continued. "He talked for so long about leaving. I didn't think he'd really do it." She stopped once more and when he still didn't answer, she walked up to him. "Gandalf?"

Finally, Gandalf spoke. "Bilbo's ring. He's gone to stay with the elves. He's left you Bag End, along with all his possessions. The ring is yours now." After a short pause he added, "Bring it here."

Fay reluctantly handed Gandalf the ring, and immediately regretted it, as Gandalf threw it into the fire. "What are you doing?!" she cried, just waiting for the ring to melt into a pool of golden liquid.

Just as quickly, Gandalf pulled it out, using the fireplace tongs nearby. It was unharmed, and barely looked hot.

"Hold out your hand Fay," Gandalf ordered. "It's quite cool." With that, he dropped it into Fay's palm.

Fay flinched involuntarily, expecting it to burn her hand. Surprisingly, Gandalf was right - it was just room temperature.

"Can you see anything?" Gandalf questioned.

Fay turned the ring over in her fingers. "I don't see anything," she said. Still, something made her keep looking, and suddenly, there it was, a glowing yellow script, flowing and curling, slowly appearing on the golden band. "Wait, there is. Some form of Elvish. But I can't read it."

Sam absentmindedly trimmed the bush outside Fay's window. He didn't quite know why he was gardening in the dark. Probably something to do with the fact that he liked being wherever Fay was. Sam was a perfectionist, and he was trying to trim the bush into a perfect sphere.

Hmm, the top isn't quite right, he thought. Too flat. He climbed a little ways up the bush in order to reach it better. As he started trimming, however, he began to hear a conversation from inside the house. It sounded like Fay and a man talking. Sam leaned closer, trying to listen, while still absentmindedly trimming. The man was saying something, but he couldn't hear all the words. It sounded like, "Hold out your hand...Fay...bound to the ring...hand...Fay..." Sam froze. Sam's thought process here:

Fay + Ring = ?!

At that moment, Sam looked down at the bush he'd been trimming. Without knowing, he had started trimming downward, turning the bush into the perfect shape of a heart. Sam's mouth fell open with the shock of everything he'd just seen, heard, and done. With a loud rustling noise, he fell out of the bush.

Suddenly, everything inside the house went quiet. As Sam lay on the ground, trying to catch his breath, a walking stick seemed to fall from the sky and hit him on the head, which didn't help much in the circumstances. A hand yanked him up and pulled him through the window. There staring at Sam, was Gandalf. Sam's thought process once more:

Fay + Ring + Gandalf = Somebody please kill me now...

"Confound you Samwise Gamgee, have you been eavesdropping?" Gandalf yelled.

"Well, I sort of was, but now I really wish I hadn't..." Sam blustered.

But that wasn't enough for Gandalf. "What did you hear? What did you hear of our conversation?"

"Well, I heard a lot about Fay, and the ring, and, and, please don't turn me into anything unnatural!"

"Hmm, perhaps not. I have a better idea. Sam, you are going to accompany Fay to Bree, while I go to seek council with a senior wizard. I will meet at you at the Inn of the Prancing Pony. Come, we must leave quickly." With that, Gandalf shoved everyone out the door.

Fay, in the meantime, was a little disconcerted."Um, Sam, why were you eavesdropping outside the window?"

"I wasn't really eavesdropping," Sam said shakily, "I was just trimming the bush."

Fay nodded. I guess he is my gardener, she thought. But as they walked down the path, she noticed that the bush he had been in was trimmed in a strange shape. In fact, it was trimmed into the shape of a heart. Fay's thought process here:

Sam + Eavesdropping + Heart = ?!

Suddenly she remembered what he'd said he'd overheard. Fay's next thought process:

Sam + Eavesdropping + Heart + Me + Ring + Gandalf = Somebody please kill me now...

After Sam had gotten his cooking things from his house, Gandalf led them to a clearing in the woods, where he left them to travel on their own. After walking for a couple hours, Sam stopped at the edge of a cornfield.

"What's wrong?" Fay asked.

"If I take one more step," Sam said sadly, "it'll be the farthest I've ever been from home."

Fay smiled gently. "Come on Sam." She held out her hand, and Sam, a little surprised, but happy nonetheless, took it, and stepped over the imaginary line.

As they walked off, Fay thought, So, the journey has started - the journey to destroy the Ring of power.

Sam, beside her, was thinking similar thoughts, So, the journey has started - the journey toward Fay's wedding.

A/N: Dun-dun-dun... *dramatic music* Yup. Isn't it horrible how we're torturing Sam? Oh, and the decision to make the bush heart-shaped was a long process. It started out being an antelope. Then came the One Ring, a potato, bacon and eggs, and lastly Gollum's head. Then we decided a heart would make a little more sense. So yeah. And then the story turned into, you know, this. Hope you enjoyed and please review!