Tomorrow Never Came
By ALBA

FANDOM: Lord of the Rings - Character Fiction

RATING: PG-13

SPOILERS: Everything (meaning, all 3 Lord of the Rings books, as this takes place after The Return of the King has ended.

SUMMARY: Slight AU... inspired by the lyric, and tomorrow never came from the musical "Les Miserables".

DISCLAIMER: Wow, I have to do a new disclaimer here! Okay, the characters mentioned in this story do not belong to me, they belong to J.R.R. Tolkien's estate. I merely borrowed them and will return them when I'm finished with them. I am making no money off this fiction, in fact, I'm paying for it to even BE here. So don't sue me because I am flat broke. PrettySparklyDanceBoys (otherwise known as *NSync) broke my bank.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: You know what? For once, I don't really have one. My love to the usual suspects, and a big thank you to everyone who's reading this. :) Oh! Wait... Mary, should you ever stumble across this. I blame this piece of Rosie-Sam-Frodo on you.

Tomorrow Never Came

Ours was the strangest house in the Shire, people said. Mad Baggins was at it again, others chimed in. After all, how many hobbits took up living with their gardener and his wife? But Frodo didn't care what others said, just continued living how he was living. He often said he was the happiest and best-cared-for hobbit in the whole of Middle-Earth. But something about him always seemed sad. Lost. And nothing we did could make it go away. No matter how we tried, there was always that air about him. He would shrug us off and tell us it was nothing. We knew better, but left him alone. He'd come around eventually, we told ourselves. We almost believed it, too.

Until yesterday.

*****

Yesterday didn't seem different from any other day in the Shire. The morning dawned as clear and beautiful as all the others before it. Even Frodo seemed to be happy, going outside for a while to watch Sam trim some of the flower bushes he and I had planted the spring before, after our wedding. I watched them from the kitchen, laughing as Sam threw some discarded branches at Frodo in response to something or other. Frodo responded by sprinkling grass clippings in Sam's hair and stuffing some down the back of his shirt.

"Neither one of you are coming in looking like that," I called to them through the open window, laughing at the expressions on their faces. But my Sam is sneaky and soon Frodo resembled a small bush, covered as he was in branches, leaves, and grass. Sam tried to get away, but Frodo tackled him to the ground and they wrestled for a bit, resembling the hobbit children that played in the nearby fields. It did a heart good to see them go happy, so carefree. That Quest of theirs had taken so much from both of them but it finally seemed like they were taking back what was lost.

Happy gurgling behind me reminded me that Elanor was also in the kitchen where I could watch her while I made lunch for the four of us. "Almost done, Elanor-lass," I said to my daughter, tickling her tummy and making her giggle. Turning my attention back to teh window, I stuck my head out. "Frodo! Sam! Lunch!" I felt like a mother with three small children as both tried to get sneak into the kitchen covered from head to toe with mud and other things from the garden. Holding out my hand, I mock-glared at Frodo and Sam. "No, no. I told you that you weren't coming in here looking like that. Go clean up before your lunch gets cold." Frodo wandered off in the direction of the bathroom but Sam remained, giving me a pathetic look.

"Rose, feed a starving hobbit?" Sam tried to give me a hug but I pushed him away.

"GO! Get all that grass off of you and then you can come and eat. And if you're a starving hobbit, then I'm an elf. Get!"

Laughing, Sam followed Frodo down the hall. "You're no fair."

"I'm your wife, I'm not supposed to be fair!" I called after them, earning two rude noises in response. "Elanor," I said the baby, "I swear sometimes I have three children and not just you." She blinked her huge blue eyes up at me and I had to laugh. "You'll understand when you're older, darling."

*****

"Sam," Frodo said to my husband later that night, "I believe I've finished my book."

"Have you now?" Sam responded, barely looking up from the chair he was trying to put together. He'd found the pieces in a storage room months before and was only now getting around to actually working on it. It was a rocking chair for me that we were going to set before the fire so I could sit there with Elanor on cold winter nights and talk to Sam and Frodo as they smoked their pipes.

"I believe Bilbo had the right idea," continued Frodo, "so I'm ending it the way he wanted. And he lived happily ever after, to the end of his days."

"Hm."

Frodo gave Sam an appraising look. "Maybe I shall have a dragon burn the house down after I've written that line. Yes, that sounds like a plan."

"That's nice."

"Sam, are you even listening to me?"

"Of course I am!"

"No, you're not!" I told him, giggling. "Frodo just told you he was going to burn the house down."

"But we don't own a house." Sam's confusion was adorable, I had to admit.

"Sam." Frodo shook his head, sighing. "Never mind. I'm going to bed now."

"Goodnight, Mr. Frodo!" Sam finally looked up from the chair, face shining in the firelight. "Are you going to help me in the garden again tomorrow?"

"Of course, Sam." Frodo leaned down and placed a gentle kiss on Sam's curls before turning to me. "Goodnight, Rosie."

"Sweet dreams, Frodo... I believe I shall make you something special tomorrow for after dinner."

"Oh, that sounds wonderful. I do adore you, Rosie Gamgee." Frodo kissed me gently on the cheek and walked down the hall towards his room, the same one he'd grown up in. Sam and I tried to make him take Bilbo's room, but Frodo would hear none of it, insisting we needed the larger bed much more than him.

"See you in the morning, Frodo!" Waving at me, Frodo went into his room and closed the door softly. Smiling to myself, I turned back to watch Sam's progress with the chair. It seemed to be getting the better of him as he threw down the screwdriver in exasperation. "Problems, darling?"

"I give up for tonight. I'm going to get tea." Bringing back two cups, Sam handed one to me before settling down with his back to the fire. "Do you think he's getting better?"

"I think every day he gets stronger," I told him. "He'll never be the old Frodo, you know that."

"I know. I'm just glad in my heart to see him smiling again. I do hope he comes out into the garden in the morning."

"It does a heart good to see the sun."

"Today was a good day, true, but tomorrow will be better than today," Sam said. "And the day after that will be better. Tomorrow is always better."

"My Sam is wise." Smiling at the slight play on his name, Sam shook his head at me. "Let us drink to tomorrow, then." Saluting each other with our cups, we drank the rest of our tea in silence. "I'm going to retire for the night," I said to Sam. "Elanor will have me up early in the morning, sure enough. That baby just doesn't know how to sleep through the night."

"She will eventually." Kissing me on the nose, Sam took our dishes into the kitchen. "Goodnight, Rosie. I'll join you in a bit. I still have a few things yet to do."

"Goodnight, Sam. See you tomorrow."

But tomorrow never came.

/End Part 1