By: Dana
Summary: 20 things you might not know about Estella Bolger, from SR 1418 to 1427.
Characters/Pairings: Estella (Freddy, Folco, Merry, Pippin, a mention or two of Frodo, and an original character or three); Merry/Pippin/Estella/Diamond; others mentioned
Rating: PG
Warnings: Pre-pile, het and slash and femslash, hobbitlasses in drag, and other fun things
Author's Notes: A 20 things fic is, basically, 20 random facts about a character -- you know, as determined by the author. And I really do like Estella, and I really do like my OT4, and I am not completely sure if this is OT4-verse, but further writing will hopefully reveal that and -- er, all.
Ruby, there is a mention or two of your own dear Rosemary in this story. *blush* Er, and the fact that Folco's sister is named Ruby is, well. I've had her named Ruby for years -- longer than I've known you, even. dreamflower, I probably wouldn't be posting this if you hadn't been so supportive of it while it was still in progress. slightlytookish, thanks so much for the use of "pre-pile". *grin*
Series Index: Roads Go On and Years Go By.
Disclaimer: The author makes no claim to owning the rights of anything to do with J.R.R. Tolkien or New Line Cinema. Any and all characters and situations that have been borrowed are for the author's personal use only, and for the entertainment of others.

     1. When her brother left Budgeford, deciding to live a rebel's life, Estella waited a week and then followed after him. It wasn't that it was safe, staying at Budge Hall, but Estella had spent months worrying after Merry, and had wondered at times if it would have been best if she had gone along with him and Pippin and Frodo, too, though she had only ever wondered – but could face no more than a week with her brother off alone, before the worry drove her to dressing as a lad and following after her brother.

     He needed someone to look after him. She knew Folco would be about, and it wasn't that she didn't trust him, but there really are things that you better ought to do yourself.

     2. Freddy had been proud of his rebel's base, and thought it very sound – but then Estella found it, though she gave her name as Odo, instead. Liking her cheeky grin, he took her (him) to his side for council: she suggested that they take to the Brockenbores, instead, at which time Freddy realised who she was, as they had played there as children, a long while back when they were both too young, and that was just what Estella would say.

     Of course, Freddy likes to say that he knew it was her all along, but he was just playing along with her game.

     3. She still went as Odo to the others. They never did know her by any other name. She would have made that Odo Took (for both her father and her mother), but she knew well enough that the ruffians were on the look for Tooks, and her mother's blood-name would have caused more trouble than it was worth.

     4. Well, Folco might have figured it out, but he never did say something, though, when they were up late and making plans, he would look at her and grin.

     Of course, Folco's known her almost as long as Freddy has, so he might just be playing along, too. But that's what gets her thinking – if they know, really know, then they could always send her home.

     Knowing that she'd just come back, and find them again, must be what keeps Freddy from doing just that.

     5. It wasn't all sitting up late and making plans: Estella can use a sword, and she has battle-scars of her own, and a distaste for Big Folk that comes from a number of things, but mostly for what they did to her brother, and what they did to her two closest friends.

     6. But before that, she meets Diamond sometime in the middle of the summer of 1419. Her brother is on the run, and hiding, and Estella catches up with him, with Folco at her side. Well, Estella thinks Diamond very charming, but she's not too pleased with her brother, when he leaves her there to stay. Diamond first knew her as a lad, but Estella wonders if she ever thought her anything but a lass. Not that she's asked, but she does think about it. And it wasn't love at first, and Diamond was more than just shy and sweet. But it was close enough, and it got her from summer through autumn.

     She thinks that might be what was most important – that she got from summer through autumn. Diamond had stopped her, at least twice, from riding out and into ruin – she had thought that she could save her brother, when she heard word of where he was.

     She thought, Diamond mustn't understand.

     But Diamond had lost a brother, too, and that Freddy yet lived – that gave Estella much needed hope.

      7. She's glad she wasn't with Freddy, when he was thrown in the Lockholes – she knows she'd not have made it through. Afterwards, when she is making that he eats his fill (though she doesn't think he'll ever live up to his old name), she wonders instead what it would have been like, if she'd been at the battle of Bywater instead.

     And she might not have been there with him when he was thrown in, but sometimes, she thinks that maybe she should have been – for however terrible it would have been, and it would be terrible – but he is her brother, and she should look after him. She let Merry go off on his own, and from what she knew, look at how that was faring? No, it would have been best for her to be with him, she thinks at times – he shouldn't have had to go off alone.

     8. Comes to an agreement with Pippin, sometime between 1419 and 1420, on loving Merry – because she can't tell who loved him best, or first, but she knows well enough that love is love and she'd not ever let herself get in its way.

     Anyhow, that they managed to come back – from wherever it was they ended – well, that had to count for something.

     9. Loves Frodo dearly (she does), but she doesn't much appreciate what his leaving did to Merry (or to Pippin, either). If she had a chance, she would tell him just what she thought about it – she's written letters to him, letters that she'll never send, and when she's finished writing out her feelings, she's taken to throwing them onto the fire.

     While they can both write, between the two of them, Estella thinks Merry is the one who should.

     10. Actually, she's sure she loved Merry first, but maybe Pippin does love Merry better. She doesn't think on it very much, though, and she knows that's really for the best.

     11. She is not very fond of Big Folk, and she has been like that for a long while – and it's different, when she meets with kings and queens and princes and ladies, because they are not at all the sort of Big Folk that she has been accustomed to. And it isn't so hard, when she knows them, that she understands how they really aren't at all the same.

     12. Could never be jealous, not of Eowyn – or Diamond, and she's tried – but with Eowyn, it is something more than even that. For all that they are very different, she thinks that she and Eowyn are very much alike.

     13. Comes to another agreement with Pippin, sometime between 1422 and 1424, on loving Diamond – because Pippin and Merry have both been spending time in Long Cleeve, and she's been going with them when she can. She is rather fond of Diamond, and she'd not want him to forgot – but, much as she knows that, one day, she'll marry Merry (just because she knows it's inevitable, waiting to be), Pippin is set on Diamond, and Diamond does seem fond of him, too.

     14. Actually, she's known Pippin would marry Diamond since she first came to that conclusion, in 1422.

     15. Is glad when her brother marries, at last. And Ruby Boffin is a very good choice, for all she knows her brother loved Folco, her sister, and his very best friend. Their first (Freddy and Ruby's, that is) is a daughter, and they name her Rosemary – and that is bitter and sweet, at the same time, and Estella thinks it is all for the best.

     16. Marries Merry in the summer of 1425. Has not ever been so happy, really. Thinks it only right that they live at Crickhollow, and Pippin is living with them, too. It is a very busy time, for them all – those years – all they work and all they do, making Crickhollow from a house into a home. For all that they ride off together, Merry and Pippin – well, as long as they've a home to come to, Estella knows that they will return.

     17. And they do ride out often, sometimes to Brandy Hall and there have been times that it has been even further that. Estella's not yet seen Minas Tirith, but they do tell her the most wondrous stories – of course, she only thinks them that, very tall tales. She will decide on her own, one day, when she can see it for herself – and she will, she insists.

     18. Laughs out loud at Diamond and Pippin's wedding, when Merry is the one to catch the wedding bouquet – and then the newly married pair are finished with their (very traditional, for one who knows anything about Budgeford, and Budge Hall) kisses, and they have kissed the lucky one who had caught their bouquet – well, Estella is only happy to join.

     19. Knows her first child will be a son. He has taken a while in his coming, but she knows that, when he does arrive, it will be a son.

     20. Fears that, one day, she will wake, and Pippin and Merry will have wandered off, with no intent to return. But that's not happened yet and that's left her thinking, well, she still has a while.