Disclaimer: All the characters are owned by moi, with the exception of the two lost children, which, er, we'll get to hopefully in the next chapter. ;-)

Reviews: I won't beg, but please, please, please review! We likes them and we need confidence (suggestions aren't bad either).

Please note: This fan fiction contains no sexual content, profanity, or any slash. It definitely isn't a Mary-Sue, either. I'm a working girl, a college student, and all-in-all, a busy person. Don't hate me if I don't update often. I tend to slack off after a while, but I will definitely try not to, so bear with me.

Chapter 05. Second Breakfast

My heart stopped. Without thinking, I raced down the hall, leaving Sam behind me, confused and perhaps even a little shaky. Just as I was about to open the bathroom door, there came a thud. Ellie threw open the door and ran straight into my arms. The bathroom was a disaster. The mirror, sink and floor was covered with water and soap, and I could faintly see the shadow of a figure trembling behind the door. Poor Frodo... or was it poor Ellie?

Elanor was trembling in fear as she hung onto me.

"Th-there's a boy! A boy in the b-bathroom!" she said, pointing towards the door.

I knelt down, and tried to gently pry Ellie's arms off of me, but she would not release her grasp.

"Ellie, listen to me. It's okay," I said. But the child would not stop crying. And then to make matters even worse, here came Sam, running down the hall as I had done so.

"Mr. Frodo? Are you all right?" But Sam stopped dead in his tracks and looked down at Elanor with pity. With one glance at me, Sam eased his way past us and went into the bathroom.

"Mr. Frodo, are you all right?" I heard him say.

I lifted Elanor up and carried her to my room. And there I settled her on the bed and washed her tear-stained face. I began to tell her about what happened last night, and how I came to find the children and bring them to the house. I repeated myself in saying that it was okay, and everything would be just fine.

After she settled down a bit, she began to ask numerous questions.

"Where do they live?"

"Do they have any parents?"

"Can't they go somewhere else?"

"No, Ellie," I said. "Don't you see? They're lost, and since I found them, it's my responsibility to look after them."

It seemed that Elanor didn't care to hear that, for she turned her nose away from me and pretended to ignore me. I was about to tell her to stop being so stubborn, when I heard a knock at my bedroom door. First Sam, then a dressed Frodo sheepishly appeared behind the door and Ellie gave them a strange and almost unwelcome stare.

"Er..." I tried to think of what I would say. "Um...this is Elanor, my sister."

With this said, Frodo crept out from behind Sam and walked up to us. He knelt down and looked into Ellie's face. This made me awfully nervous, for one obvious reason. Elanor did not take to boys too well. She thought they were stubborn and mean.

"I'm sorry if I frightened you, little one," he spoke softly.

But Elanor just turned her face away and said, "Go home."

"Ellie!" I said, grabbing her by the arm and forced her to look at me. "You apologize right this instant!"

"No, it's okay," said Frodo. "I understand how she must feel." Frodo cleared his throat. "Elanor? My name is Frodo Baggins. Behind me is my friend, Samwise Gamgee."

At this, Elanor looked directly into his eyes. She leaped off the bed, and Frodo's response was to stand up. Elanor circled him, eyeing him up and down. Frodo seemed to be very uncomfortable with this, but didn't protest in the least. But I was not happy with her attitude.

"Elanor! Stop that!"

Ellie looked at me. "No!" Then she turned her gaze back upon the boy. "You're lying. You're not Frodo!"

Frodo quickly glanced at Sam with confusion and shock. Sam stepped forward, but Frodo shook his head in protest. I watched intently.

"Why do you say that?" asked Frodo to Elanor.

"You don't look anything like him."

"Really? What does Frodo look like then?"

"How old are you?" asked Elanor, ignoring his question.

Frodo chuckled and teasingly threw Elanor's question back at her. "How old are you?"

"I'm going to be nine in March!" she said proudly.

"You just turned eight, Ellie," I said getting annoyed. "You won't be nine until next year."

Ellie didn't seem to hear me, but continued to stare at the two guests. Frodo didn't seem to mind anymore, but Sam was wary about meeting my younger sister. No doubt, he probably felt as though his interrogation would soon follow after Frodo's.

For the most part, things turned out to go smoothly between the three children. I at first expected a fight to start out between them, for I knew Elanor didn't like boys. But I wasn't sure how the boys would take to Elanor. They were nice to me, but probably because I was obviously a lot older than they were, and they seemed to have been brought up with manners. But from whom, I still didn't know, and that bugged me throughout the morning.

After cleaning the bathroom that had been soaked from Frodo's bath water, I allowed Sam to wash up and have his bath. When I heard singing coming from the bathroom (songs about beer and adventures, I might add), I gave Frodo a questioning look, but he just chuckled to himself.

After Sam dried and put on his clothes, which were now clean, I asked Frodo and Sam if I could go through their supplies with them to see if they carried any information on them that might be of use to getting them back to wherever they came from. Sam seemed to be okay with this, but Frodo gave me a suspicious eye and seemed to pull away when I tried putting a reassuring hand on his shoulder. That's when I remembered the sword that he had with him earlier.

"Frodo, may I see that sword of yours again?"

While Frodo went to my room to get the sword, Sam had found the remote control to the television and was playing with it, pushing every button and testing its function. I knew he couldn't mess up anything as long as the TV wasn't actually on. Elanor couldn't keep her eyes off of him.

"How old are you, Sam?" she asked. But before he could answer her question, Ellie threw in another question.

"Are you really the real Samwise Gamgee?"

"I suppose I-"

"Are those your real feet?"

"Er..."

"They don't look hairy enough to be hobbit feet."

"Well, I-"

"What do you do for fun?"

"Well, back in Hob-"

"I like to read. Do you like to read?"

Before Sam could answer yet again, Frodo came out, carrying his sword with him and I was glad to see it sheathed, too. He handed it to me politely, and I was surprised to find it curiously light, not at all what I expected. I little uneasy, I unsheathe sword and held it in the light. It had the most peculiar markings and Elanor at once leaped to her feet at the sight of it.

"Woah!" she said, getting a closer look. "Is that a real sword?"

"Of course it's real!" I said, still entranced by it's exquisiteness.

"Can I touch it?"

Frodo smiled. "Sure-"

"No!" I pulled the sword away from her grip. The last thing I needed was Elanor to get a hold of something and mess it up, or break it, or do something...disastrous.

"Where did you get this, Frodo?" I asked with a little concern.

"From my Uncle Bilbo," the child replied. "He gave it to me."

"Bilbo!" shrieked Ellie. "Is he in Rivendell right now?"

Frodo gave Elanor a curious gaze. "Why, yes."

"Can...can we visit him?" asked Ellie, hopefully.

Frodo gave her a sad smile. "I'm afraid that's not possible."

"Why not? Is he really nice? What does he look like? How old is he?"

I rolled my eyes and carefully handed Frodo the sword. Then I picked Ellie up (a little more rough than I intended).

"Does he have hairy feet too-Michelle! Michelle, what are you doing? Michelle, put me down! Michelle, I'm going to tell Mom on you!"

I carried my sister down the hall and locked her in my room, shutting out her rambling words of nonsense. I chuckled after returning to the living room. It was nice to have the place quiet again. But when I looked at Frodo and Sam again, they did not seem at all pleased with my actions. As if they could even judge me. They were, after all, just kids.

"What?" I said.

"Why did ye do that, Lady Michelle?" asked Sam grimly.

"She was starting to get on my nerves," I said.

"And that was a reason for you to lock her in your room?" Frodo asked.

I folded my arms across my chest in defense.

"Look," I said carefully. "If you had a younger sister, you'd probably understand."

"I do 'ave a sister, Miss Michelle," said Sam. "Three o' them to be exact!"

"Well, I'll bet they're not as annoying as Elanor."

"Well, I wouldn't say they were annoyin', but they can be quite the handful for me mum, if ye understand me. An' besides, I don't think your sister's annoying 'tall! I think she's nice."

"You're the first," I chucked. Both children gave me disapproving looks. Kids. "I still need to shower. It's going on 11:30."

But just as I was about to do so, I heard Sam give a groan. I turned to look at him, whose face had gone a bit pink from I guessed was embarrassment.

"What did you say, Sam?" I asked.

"'Twasn't me," he replied a bit shyly. "'Twas me stomach."

"O Elbereth!" cried Frodo. "I'd nearly forgotten about second breakfast if it had not been for your stomach, Sam." Then the child looked up at me. "Not meaning to be intruding, Lady Michelle, but it is past time for second breakfast, and we haven't gotten it yet."

I looked at Frodo and Sam carefully. Didn't we just have breakfast over an hour ago?

"We've already had breakfast," I replied.

"Yes, we have," said Frodo. "And it was very good-"

"But now we're ready fer second breakfast, Miss Michelle!"

"Another one?" The children nodded. "Why don't we just have lunch?"

"Because, we have not had second breakfast yet-"

"And we can't 'ave luncheon until we've 'ad second breakfast, Miss Michelle."

I looked into the hopeful eyes of my two little guests and I gave a sigh. It was apparent that this was a battle I was not going to win, no matter how hard I tried.

"All right," I said. "But if you're going to be around here for more than a day, I'm going to be laying down some rules around here, understand?"

Frodo and Sam looked at each other briefly but didn't respond, so I took that as a yes.

For what they called "second breakfast", I fixed them some cereal, in which Sam asked for seconds. But I shook my head and said he was a little overweight as it was and he didn't need any more. To my surprise, he didn't take offense, but just shrugged. Frodo, on the other hand, thought I had insulted him and said so. Thus, I ended up apologizing to Sam. Darn kids.

After that, Frodo helped me with the dishes, and I sudden realized in terror that I had forgotten to let Elanor out of my room. When I opened the door, though, she was asleep, and I didn't feel too bad about it. So I let her sleep on my bed while I told Frodo and Sam about some of my personal life and the people who were a part of it.

After further discussion, we all agreed that we should return to the forest to see if it would lead to where they belonged and wherever they came from. But first, I wanted to find some shoes for them. Who knows how long they had been walking around in their bare feet?

"But hobbits don't wear shoes," Sam protested.

"Nonsense," I said. "Everyone wears shoes. I think it's time we went to Walmart."

I apologize that nothing much happened in this chapter, but I had nothing planned at all. So I'm kind of making things up as I go along. Don't worry, though. Next chapter is sure to be full of plenty surprises. ;-)

Next chapter: Michelle takes 'the kids' out to Walmart and soon learns that hobbits can be quite a handful.

ElegantArrow64: Thanks for the reviews, EA. :-) Yes, Michelle is lucky. Very lucky. But in some cases, she won't be so lucky, as you will find out in the next few chapters. Changing from one culture to another (hobbit to humanity, fantasy to realism) can be quite dangerous if you're not careful, and this is what I'm going to be portraying throughout the story. And yes, Michelle is annoying, isn't she? But she also thinks on a logical point of view. So that's kind of putting her in binds at the moment. Glad you like it.

Nymredil72: Hehe. I'm very pleased you're liking this so far. I hope I can continue entertaining you through the chapters to come. Happy reading. :-)