A wee ficlet that I wrote some time ago and just finished up. :)
Title: At Last
Rating: G
Summary: Rosie reflects on her new life and wonders.
An entire season had flown by in a rush of color and sound. Spring had come and was quickly leaving, its cool edges slowly melting into the warm air of summer. Those months, so few but so full of happiness, had been fast. Far too fast for Rose Gamgee. She was sensible enough to know that despite summer’s gentle temper, those days would be gone in a blink as well, and autumn’s cold grip would be just behind the door, knocking with icy fists.
Sam’s proposal had been sweet. Though she’d given him a generous amount of grief (after all, she’d been longing to hear those words for quite some time,) he’d been his usual charming self and had taken it with nothing more than a smile and a quiet response.
“Well, you've wasted a year, so why wait longer?”
“Wasted? I wouldn't call it that. But I’m to take that as a yes, then?”
When Mr. Baggins had invited them to live at Bag End, she was convinced it was all a dream. Oh, she’d already known him good and well, but she quickly realized she still had a lot to learn about him. Even though it was part of Sam’s good-hearted nature, it would take someone quite extraordinary to evoke in him the kind of fierce loyalty and admiration that he had for Frodo.
It was now June, a little over a month after the day of her wedding. Sam had begun his duty of replanting the Shire already. It pained her a bit, knowing that the mess those brutes had caused would take a great deal of undoing and mending which, ultimately, would lead to numerous nights away from home. The land needed it, but she couldn’t help but feel a little anxious.
She had a right to be a bit selfish, though, didn’t she?
Of course, Frodo was always there, puttering about doing this and that, helping with whatever she needed help with and making her feel quite at home. Although she’d only been living in the Hill for a month, she already felt an even greater sense of repect and fondness for him. Anybody who could bring her Sam home to her safe and sound deserved to be held in the highest regard. And that was just what she did.
Her life was, for the most part, unfolding perfectly, just as imagined, as if it was out of one of the fairy tales her mother had told her as a child. There were some days when she wondered if this was all right, if she really deserved everything that she had. But then Sam would sneak up behind her while she was making bread and wrap his strong arms around her, or she’d catch Frodo’s musical laughter floating in from another room and she’d shrug it off.
She’d waited her fair share of time, hadn’t she? These days were hers, unarguably well-deserved, and she was going to enjoy them and make the most out of this life she’d dreamt of for so long.