By: Dana
Summary: Hindsight struck him by the time he came to Number Three - perhaps it would have been best for him to stay.
Characters: Sam (Merry, Pippin, Frodo)
Pairings: Frodo/Merry/Pippin
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: Sam gets an eyeful of a morning-after cousinpile
Author's Notes: For AJ, for my birthday.
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.

Master Pippin had insisted Sam stay for the night, and Mr Merry had laughed and told Pippin it wasn't his smial to go insisting on who'd stay and who'd go - but Sam insisted, on his own, and left Mr Frodo with his two younger cousins.

Hindsight struck him by the time he came to Number Three - perhaps it would have been best for him to stay.

Still, Sam knew that Mr Frodo had had a night - and when morning came, and he had tended to his early chores about the hole, he ambled on up the road to Bag End, and took himself in through the kitchen door.

There was a mess there and Sam tutted and shook his head, and put water on for the wash and then put water on for the tea. That and fresh scones, he thought, with sweet preserves and good clotted cream - he made himself familiar with the Bag End pantries, and put together Mr Frodo's breakfast.

All about him, the smial was quiet, still.

Tray in hand (and the platter and the crocks and the mug of tea, all neatly placed, and a fresh rose from the garden - as Mr Frodo was partial to them, or Sam liked to think), he went from the kitchen down the main hall, humming faintly as he did.

The door to Frodo's bedsmial was cracked open, and Sam pushed against it with his toes, and it creaked as it swung inwards - and he stopped, right there - dead in his tracks, if he'd been moving -

– and he eyed the tangle of flesh upon Frodo's bed, Pippin's arms and Frodo's back and Merry's long, tanned legs - and Sam's jaw snapped open, eyes wide as he stared.

The laden tray slipped from numb fingers, and went crashing to the floor.