February was cold and wet this year. Frodo felt so ungainly that he wouldn't hardly set foot outside our home. His appetite was off but he drank lots of hot tea. That meant he had to go to the bathroom a lot, too. The only time I saw him really cross was when he'd made one trip and had to make another within about five minutes. He muttered all the way to our bathroom and all the way back.

But I just took the cross words and paid him no never-mind. The babies were real active and he had to take the brunt of their kicks and hits. Rhea came every day to check him and tell him the news. Since Frodo stayed home, I did too. I wouldn't take a chance with him so close to his time. Our crystals sat side by side in the front window and sometimes I could swear I heard them singing to us.

Merry and Pip ran our errands and brought our meals every day. They were up to some kind of mischief because I could hear them sometimes in their bedroom laughing away. It beat the moaning we sometimes heard 'cause that surely did remind me of the loving that we couldn't do anymore. Frodo always seemed to know when I was feeling a bit frustrated because he'd cuddle me close, those long fingers of his wrapped around my cock while he whispered in my ear all the things he wanted to do with me after the babies were born.

It didn't take very long when he did that and kissed me sweetly. I'd go off like one of Gandalf's firecrackers while he would smile and trace patterns on his stomach with my seed. When I asked him what he was doing, he would look kind of dreamy at me and tell me that he was making sure the babies knew who their father was.

That's when I wanted to cry. It had never occurred to me that nine months could be so very long. At least once a week, I'd leave our hobbit hole and check with Jallico to gather more of the dried herbs that he'd hung in the dining hall. I'd take them back home and carefully roll or crush or pinch them into carefully labeled jars. It kept me busy when Frodo was napping or immersed in one of his books.

This morning was no different and I breathed in the first dry air of the month. It was still too early but I thought just maybe that a couple of the trees showed the faintest hint of green. So I prayed the way I always did that Spring would come early and our babies would be born safely. Jallico had a wonderful new dish that he let me taste and he promised to send some over for our lunch. It was so good that I thought maybe Frodo would give it a try. It had his favorite cheese in it and with a nice baked crust, it might just tempt him.

I walked back slowly, balancing the stalks of yarrow with the sprigs of rosemary and rue. Several of our neighbors stopped me and asked after Frodo so I was a little later than I usually was when I walked in the front door and laid the dried herbs on the front room table.

"I'm back, Frodo." I called to him.

"Oh-h-h-h," was all I heard.

I dashed back to our room and found him kneeling by the side of the bed. "Frodo, what's wrong?"

"Ss-sam, oh it hurts." His face was all screwed up and I lifted him as gently as I could but he moaned just the same. "Oh!"

"Is it contractions like Rhea told us about?" I didn't know what to do. Hearing about what would happen hadn't prepared me for seeing him in so much pain.

"Yes." He panted hard and wrapped his arms around his stomach. "I think that it's time to go to the clinic. Oh!"

He doubled over again and I started getting him ready for the short trip. His nightshirt and robe would be enough for the short walk. "All right, love, just hold onto me and we'll go out to the front room."

Nodding, he held onto me and let me lead him out. Pip was coming in the front door and I asked him to quick run to Rhea and tell him that we were coming. He was shaking like a leaf by the time we got to the front door and I could feel the spasms rack his whole body. Except for the occasional exclamation, he was suffering in silence just like he had on our journey to Mount Doom.

But this time, I was well and strong so I just picked him up in my arms and hurried out the front door. I had to leave it open but that would just have to do because I couldn't take the time to close it. Frodo was panting again; his beautiful face screwed up into a horrible grimace before he buried it in my shoulder. I couldn't run with him in my arms but I walked just as fast as I could.

Pip was watching for us and he held the door open for us. Rhea took Frodo from me and lay him on the long table that he used to examine him every week. "I know it hurts, Frodo but I need you to lay flat for me. That's right, lay back and let me listen to them."

Suddenly I remembered we'd forgotten. "Our crystals!"

"I have Frodo's." Lorrin's voice came from over my shoulder and I sighed in relief.

The two healers spoke in low voices but I was crouched right by Frodo's head, holding his hand and stroking his forehead. He was sweating and still grimacing with each contraction. Rhea sent Pip outside but told him to guard the door for us then he undressed Frodo. I could see the muscles of his stomach ripple from top to bottom over and over again.

Each ripple seemed to be another contraction because he was panting and crying at the same time. But Lorrin was holding Frodo's pretty blue crystal over the ripples and gradually they slowed a bit before concentrating on just one spot. Rhea had a jar of the numbing cream and he applied it right over the ripple. Then those violet eyes of the ancient healer met ours.

"Frodo, Sam, I want you to close your eyes and stay perfectly still. Very soon you'll have your babies to hold but for now, I need you to let me do the rest of the work." His voice seemed deeper somehow and I watched Frodo close his eyes with a sigh.

I wanted to watch and I didn't want to watch. But I didn't think that I could watch him cut open his stomach so I closed mine too.

Rhea had a warm soft flannel towel ready for the first baby and I listened to the sound that he or she had been born. Frodo seemed to sigh and that made my eyes open in time to see Lorrin hand Rhea a tiny blood covered shape. My eyes were glued to it and Rhea hummed gently while he cleared away the worst of it, cutting the umbilical cord and tying it off.

"A son, Frodo and Sam, you have a beautiful son." Rhea said softly and laid the little blanket wrapped bundle in my arms.

He snuffled a little before beginning to whimper. Automatically I began to rock him just a little and he stopped. "Hello, little one, I'm your father. Welcome to the world."

"And a daughter," Lorrin said quietly and handed the second baby to Rhea. "Stay very still for me, Frodo and we'll close the incision. You did very well."

The blue crystal was humming and on Frodo's face all the pain lines smoothed away. As if by magic, the bloody cut sealed itself right before my eyes. There were still blood stains everywhere but they could be washed away. I laid our son in Frodo's arms and took our daughter from Rhea.

"Oh, he's beautiful." Frodo said ever so softly. "He has my dark hair, Sam."

But I was busy looking at the scrunched up little face of our daughter. "She has the most golden hair I've ever seen, Frodo, just a little like my straw color. They really are made up of a little of each of us."

Rhea chuckled and the sound made her eyes blink open. She had Frodo's eyes, the same deep sea blue that I liked to drown in. One of her little hands came out of the blanket and I marveled at the perfect tiny fingers on it. I'd seen babies before but she was absolutely the most beautiful baby ever born.

"Do you have names yet, Sam?" Rhea asked.

Frodo smiled at me and I nodded. "She's Elanor, like the pretty flowers that grow in Lothlorien."

"And he's Bilbo, after the Hobbit who started this whole quest." Frodo chuckled and our son opened his eyes. "Oh look, Sam, he has your pretty eyes."

I looked and sure enough he did. "How did we get so lucky, my own Frodo? They're beautiful."

"They are indeed, Sam." Lorrin was washing his hands while Rhea sponged away the blood from Frodo's shrunken stomach. A thin blood red line was all that remained of the incision. "Now, you'll need to put his crystal in a bowl of water on the window sill. Use that water to bathe him for the next few days, the power of the crystal will concentrate within the liquid and help the healing."

Rhea nodded. "I'll come every day to check on you four. But I have to tell you that your labor is going to make all our females very, very jealous."

I shuddered. "I know that my mother died in childbirth because it was so long and hard and the baby was turned wrong."

"Sam, I never knew that." Frodo shifted Bilbo to his other arm and reached out his hand to me.

"Didn't want to scare you when we found out that you were pregnant." I shifted Elanor to my outside arm so I could hold his hand. "This is much better although I'm sorry that you had to hurt at all."

"It was fleeting, Sam and look at the result." His smile was so bright that I felt like crying. "Oh look, he's making faces already."

Bilbo's little lips were moving in and out like he was sucking on something. That was something that we hadn't really talked about. Rhea cleared his throat and said what I was thinking. "I believe, Frodo, that he'd like to nurse."

Frodo looked real startled. "Nurse? You mean that I can nurse them?"

Lorrin hid a smile. "I think you'll find that the sensitivity in your nipples was your body preparing to nurse your babies. I can see a little extra fullness that mean your milk glands are ready for them."

"Oh," was all he said but he didn't say no when Lorrin picked him and our son up and carried him to a small bed against the far wall. I jumped down and followed with Elanor, not wanting to miss a thing. Lorrin plumped up the pillows behind him and Frodo reclined against them while trying to maneuver the baby to his breast. It was awkward but once Bilbo found the nipple, he started sucking away like he'd been doing it all his life.

"Oh my," Frodo gasped but it didn't seem to be a bad 'oh my' just a startled one. "It tickles a little. How very odd the milk feels spurting through my nipple."

And just like that, Bilbo fell asleep letting the pretty pink nipple fall from his lips. I traded babies with him when Elanor started to fuss a little. He held her to his other breast and she latched on, sucking just as strongly as her brother had. I dropped a kiss on the dark curls and breathed a silent thank you to the Lady for saving all three of the lives who meant the most to me.

"Sam, I love you." Frodo looked as sleepy as the babies and I stroked his hair while his eyes shut slowly. Lorrin and Rhea were talking quietly at the other side of the room and it felt like we were all alone in our own little home cuddling our new babies.

"I love you too, my very own. Thank you for giving me such beautiful babies." I felt like singing and crying and who knows what all.

"Just the first, my very own Sam." He sighed a little and snuggled a little closer to me. "Just the first of many more to come."

And he fell asleep just like that while I thought about the future and all the bright plans we'd made over the winter. If he wanted more babies then that's what we'd do. Smiling, I rested my head on his and dreamed about summer days teaching our children how to garden.

**************
Merry
**************

Rhea came out and told us that Frodo was all right. Then he announced the arrival of Bilbo and Elanor while we all cheered. I hugged Pip tight and he was laughing and crying all at the same time. Maybe I was too ... it felt so very good to have them born. Poor Frodo had been so uncomfortable the last month that I was almost glad that we hadn't asked Lorrin about a Hobbit conception potion. I didn't know if I could watch my sweet Pip go through all of that.

Lorrin was just leaving and Pip broke free to dash to his side. I couldn't hear what they said but when the ancient healer went to one knee and took Pip's hand, I tried to break free of the others to go to them. But by the time I got there, Lorrin had disappeared and Pip was beaming.

"Was something wrong with Frodo?" I asked him but he shook his head and took my hand.

"It will be a while before they'll let us see them." He tugged me away from the clinic towards home. "I need you to take me home and fuck my brains out."

I love it when he says that and I caught his arm, racing with him to home. The front door was standing open and we laughingly closed it behind us. Sam must have been in a real hurry when he left. Pip was already undressing and I followed the trail of clothes into our room where I found a naked lover uncapping the bottle of oil with a mischievous look on his face.

"I changed my mind, Merry." He slicked his hands while I tore off my pants. "I want to fuck your brains out."

"Oh good," I sighed and leapt on the bed, landing on all fours and smiling at him over my shoulder. "Fuck away."

He laughed and got behind me with his slick fingers, teasing my balls and my cock before sliding inside of me. Nothing feels like that, knowing that part of him is inside of me, making me ready for his nice hard cock. He may not be my size but he knows just where to thrust until I'm so hot that I explode.

"Now, Pip, please now." I begged him until he slid his fingers out and his cock in.

"Oh, Merry, you're so tight. And so hot. And all mine." He slid in then slowly began to pull out. In and out.

"All yours, oh there, Pip, right there." I panted when he hit that sweet spot inside me. The tingles were starting, the ones that made me flush all over and burn so sweetly.

"So good, Merry, you feel so good." He was starting to speed up and I pushed back to get a little more of him deeper. His hands gripped my hips and soon he was slamming into me just as hard as he could.

I was beginning to shiver and I knew that I wasn't going to last. When his oil slickened hand reached around and gloved my leaking cock I shouted and came hard. A moment later, I felt his seed flood me in a hot gush and I jerked hard, pulling a little more of him inside of me. My arms wouldn't hold me any longer and I slowly collapsed onto the bed, his body nicely glued to my back with our sweat.

I felt him kiss that spot behind my ear and I shivered just a bit. I could feel his smile against my skin and when he licked my neck, the tingles just kept on coming. But my body was squeezing him out and when he finally pulled free, I sighed sadly. I liked having him inside of me almost as much as I loved being inside of him.

"Stay right there, Merry." He said and slid from the bed to get the warm bowl of water that always sat by the fire in our room. We'd been making love a lot and it helped not to have to go all the way to the bathroom to clean up. He brought it back with him and gently ran the warm wet cloth over me, taking the sweat and his seed from my body.

Rolling over, he cleaned my front then put the bowl aside and crawled back into bed. Pulling up the covers, he kissed me tenderly before pulling just a little bit away. "Merry, I have something to tell you."

"What, sweetheart?" I was feeling so relaxed that I could barely keep my eyes open.

"Do you remember the day that we got our crystals?" His fingers stroked my chest, tweaking a nipple then stilling over my heart.

"Of course I do, Silly Pip. That was the day that you told me that you wanted to bear our children for us. Is that what you asked Lorrin about a little while ago?" I slid my hands down his back to bring him a little closer.

"Not exactly." He grinned at me. "Do you remember him saying that the crystals could be used for other things?"

I cast my mind back over that conversation. "I was pretty busy being scared of the dark but it's why he wanted all of us to try for a crystal, right?"

"Un-uh," he paused a moment, "do you remember how they glowed while we were making love?"

"Yes, what about it?" I was getting concerned.

"Well, I thought maybe something happened then and I was right. I asked Lorrin today and he said I was."

"You were what?"

"Pregnant." His eyes glowed. "We're going to have a baby in about eight months."

A baby? My mouth opened and closed right before I passed out.

**********************
The end for now