Title:  "Us"
Author:  Ellie Dawson (aloha@cncnet.com)
Pairing:  Sam/Frodo
Rating:  PG
Summary:  Love endures.
Disclaimer:  Names not mine; belong to Tolkien.
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Us

I left him at the Grey Havens.  We shared an anguish
that left us frozen.  Before he jumped aboard the Great
Ship he pressed a parchment into my hand as our eyes
promised a distant reunion.  Then he turned to the West
and my heart understood death, and my heart
understood love.  I watched as he faded into the
luminous promise.  A great while I watched alone.

Merry and Pippin rode to my side bringing my pony
with his welcoming glance.  Though not yet ready for
the sanity of the shire, I joined them in the cold journey
home.  Even these loyal and long-time friends could not
ease the ache of my desperate longing.  And yet, their
steadfast strength afforded me a place to lean.

We parted a stone's throw from my house; my
companions continued on to Buckland.  I set myself
down  on a lonely hill and built a small fire; a thousand
stars witnessed the flames.  I reached in my pocket for
the saved parchment and began to read his words:

Sam,
the trees, they are your soul
your hands are their mother
your back, their roots
forever they give as you have given
the greatest unselfishness
known to life
the strongest valor
in any land
Sam,
I am your lover
forever unscathed by aching doubt
that love can walk the dreadful plank
can come to honor honor's need
and endure whatever love requires
my unrest quieted, my suspicion purged
my very life a choir
filled with songs that sing of Sam
of all things good, of Shire
go with me
to anywhere
go and you shall find me there
there, there, and always there

Frodo

The night grew warmer and I understood:  in love there
is no separation.
The horizon began to welcome the dawn; I walked
back home with my poem and my pony.