Peace, Love, and a Motorcycle

Credit goes to Fidelis Scriptor

"Grandpa Bilbo, can you tell us about how you and Grandfather meet?" Lily asked, her large blue eyes shining brightly.

"Please tell us!" pleaded Petunia.

Sighing happily, Bilbo continued to rock in his chair. Looking down at the wide eyed faces of his granddaughters, he smiled and said, "Well, if you really want to know. Where is Frodo, now?"

"Daddy is out in the garden tryin' to show Grandfather the roses."

"Well, your Grandfather doesn't have much love for roses. Now, tulips is another thing. But that's a secret, okay?" Bilbo whispered to the girls, who nodded and giggled. He continued to rock in the chair, pondering for a moment before he finally relents to the girls pleas. "Oh, alright, you two can stop whining now. I will gladly tell you all about how I met Thorin."

"Yay!"

Laughing, Bilbo moved a gray curl out of his forehead, his finger brushing the braid that Thorin kept putting in his hair repeatedly. "Well, now, it all started in the year 1964. It was the middle of July, during the protest of the war. I was quite the hippee, you know. Even had long hair...if that didn't make Lobelia cringe, the moccasins might of done it...quite the shade of blue if I do say so myself..."

"Grandpa Bilbo!"

"Oh, right, yes. Well, you see it was getting pretty heated, the tension between us protesters and the police. My mother -you girls remember your Granny Bella, right?- was in a right twist over the war. Well, finally the police and told us that we had to leave or they were going to have to remove us by force. I had quite a temper back then, girls and after a few choice words, the police officer tried to arrest me."

"You were arrested!" Lily exclaimed, her eyes growing impossibly wide.

"No! No, I wasn't arrested! You see, I managed to get away and began running from the police. It was a few blocks away from where we had been protesting that I saw a man on a motorcycle reading a newspaper. It was the loveliest motorcycle I had ever laid my eyes on, a Harley Davidson I believe it was. A blue of the night sky, with silver etching all over! Quite lovely-er, anyway as soon as I saw the bike, I immediately jumped on the back of it and screamed for the man to drive.

"And, boy did he! He floored it so hard, my purple glasses flew off and I haven't seen them since. Quite the tragedy actually...anyhow, after driving around like madmen for several hours, the man finally stopped and I got off of the bike. Took me a good moment to regain feeling back in my legs after that ride. The driver asked me, 'Would you like to tell me what that was for?' I calmly said, 'Peace. What else?' The man laughed and handed me a card. On it was his phone number and we've been together ever since."

"Aww," the girls sighed happily.

"There's more to that tale. I'm pretty sure we have a few more years now," came a voice from the doorway.

Turning, the girls squealed at the sight of their grandfather Thorin standing there. Running into his stretched out arms, Lily began to tug on his white and gray beard, playing with the beads in it. ("Don't play with those, sweetheart! They are a tradition you shall have when you are older.") Petunia just combed her fingers through Thorin's pepper locks.

Smiling over at Bilbo, Thorin caught the tired expression on his husband's face and sent him a concerned look. Waving off his concern, Bilbo just said, "Yes the tale has more years, but the girls asked for when we met."

"It didn't go quite as you said."

"I improvised for respectability's sake."

Thorin rolled his eyes, not wincing when Petunia pulled his hair. "Yeah, respectability my-"

"Thorin."

"Sorry. I forget simple things these days."

"Girls!" Frodo called, coming into the room. He pushed the spectacles up his nose and smiled at his daughters and his adad. "It's time for dinner. Mae has the food ready and she wants you two to go help with setting up."

Groaning, the girls climbed off of Thorin and scurried out of the room. Turning back to his parents, Frodo smiled and said, "Are you guys ready to eat? Mae made your favorite dessert."

"Peach cobbler?" Bilbo perked up.

"Yes, papa." Frodo turned and headed back to the kitchen to help his wife.

Bilbo rocked a bit in his chair, smiling softly. He glanced at Thorin who was standing against the wall looking at him. "We raised him well didn't we?"

"Yes, we did." Noticing his husband's struggle to get out of the rocking chair, Thorin smiled and walked over to help him out of the chair. Holding his hand, they walked down the hallway and stopped right before entering the dining room.

Turning to Bilbo, Thorin stroked his wrinkled cheek with his own weathered hand. Smiling softly, he said, "I'm glad you were protesting that day."

"I wonder if I would have changed my mind if I had known it was Dwalin I was punching in the face."

"Probably not. I do hope you left that part out when telling the girls the story."

"Of course. Now come along, Mr. Durin. I'm pretty sure your daughter-in-law's peach cobbler is delicious."