I do not own this book/movie at all. Found an unfixed number change and have fixed it. She only traveled two and a half months not four and a half. Now that that is out of the way please enjoy the story.

Belladonna Took had never been the average hobbit lass. She was wild even for a Took and so it was not as much of a shock as it should have been to see her come home with a company of men from her latest and longest journey three months pregnant. She'd been in quite a sorry state covered in the dirt and sweat of travel, her once honey curled hair sheared shorter than a male hobbit's barely even reaching the base of her pointed ears, and wearing travel clothes that had certainly seen better days. She talked to no one at her arrival and locked herself away in her childhood room for two months after she returned. She spent her days weeping only eating or drinking for the sake of her child and none could sway her to leave the room. When her mourning was done she walked out of the room and bathed. Two and a half months of travel and two months of mourning washed away she prepared for a battle of will and patience. It was time to tell her tale.

At first she tried to gather only those she would need to prove she was worthy to care for her child. In the laws of the Shire a widow or a divorcee rare as they were could keep the children from her marriage when her husband is lost but an unmarried woman would be declared unfit to raise a child and her baby would be given away. Belladonna was not about to let that happen. In the end the entire Shire or so it had appeared had gathered in the Great Hall to hear her tale. She stood on the dais ready to present herself before her people and swore to herself that if they tried to take her baby she would leave for Rivendale and seek shelter with her friend Elrond. Silence fell over the gathering as she took her spot near the front of the dais.

"Gentlehobbits." She began her voice carrying easily through the dead silence of the hall. "I know that among you I am seen as wild and unruly. I know many of you who feel that I am unfit for the responsibilities of a proper hobbit lass. I know that there are some of you who believe that the babe I carry as an unwedded woman proves that I am unfit to raise my child. I am not going to deny that I am with child or that I have left the father and his memory behind. But know this I am no painted lady who gave herself away for money or the pleasure of it." She spat disgusted with the idea and the rumors that painted her with it. She straightened her back with pride because she would not let their lies and rumors break her.

"My child was born from love, a love sealed with vows according to the laws of the people I married into. I was a wedded woman when this child was conceived. The marriage ended when I realized that I could not provide for my husband as a proper wife should. I married as a youth with the passion of young love, but I let that passion distract me from the truth. The man I married was not a hobbit but a dwarf and a hobbit wife was not what he needed. It broke both of us to leave our love behind and if I had known then that I was with child I would have stayed with him for the sake of the babe." She began to tear up but continued her speech even as her voice broke.

"I have the marriage braid, marriage and courtship beads, and the contracts of marriage and divorce written according to the laws of his people and translated to Westron for my sake as proof of my marriage and divorce. I will present them to the Thain for him to verify my report. According to the laws of Hobbiton this child is mine and I have the same rights and privileges offered to any divorced mother. I pray you reach the right decision and let me keep my child. Goodnight." She said with a proper curtsy.

She left the hall with her head high even under the suspicious gaze of the gossiping town folk. The cold night air hit her and though she shivered with the cold she walked with her head held high. She made her way toward her parent's house already beginning to plan out how she would earn the money to properly care for her child. She could not go back to what she had left behind no matter how much she wished she had never left the love she'd found there. At the time she'd believed she was in the right but this child of hers had shed doubt on her resolve. But he was gone from the home they had shared by now. His people were wanderers and he would wander with them. She knew she would probably never be able to find him even if she looked until her dying day.

"Good Evening Miss Took." Bungo Baggins said as he walked up behind her.

"Good Evening Master Baggins." She said in reply trying hard not to be angry at him for interrupting her solitude. Though it looked as though her anger must have been visible from the way he flinched away from her. She tried to school her expression into something more hospitable but she didn't think she succeeded.

"You know that the Shire does not recognize the marriages of other cultures as we are not able to verify them. They will declare you an unmarried woman by the laws of the Shire. Your child will be lost to you the day they are born." He said solemnly.

She turned to see him looking every inch the proper hobbit even when he was talking to the outcast of the Shire. He was wearing a green waistcoat and a white shirt. His brown curls were longer than hers and his eyes were a shade of brown that almost looked like the polished wood table her family had had for five generations. He was handsome if a bit on the stuffy side and she would be lying if she said she'd never thought of him in a favorable light. Her head bowed as his words registered and her hand absently rubbed the bulge of her belly.

"I know." She said softly nearly breaking with the admission that her endeavor to keep her child was a hopeless one.

"But if you were to be married according to the laws of the Shire the child would be yours to keep. Now please do not think of this as an indecent proposal, but I believe we can help each other." He said hope in his voice and painted heavily on his features along with a smattering of embarrassment.

Belladonna looked at him with skeptical eyes her arms crossed over her belly and one eyebrow raised. "How am I to think the proposal you have mentioned is anything but indecent with the way you have announced it?"

Bungo's face turned red and he looked as embarrassed as a proper gentlehobbit could look. "I did not mean it like that My Lady Belladonna please forgive my foolish tongue for its impertinence. I know how this must look to you but I am not looking to you for any reason that would be dishonorable. I hope to accomplish the opposite and hopefully save us both from shame."
She frowned as her Took curiosity hit her in full swing. Just what had Bungo Baggins one of the most respectable hobbits in the Shire done to merit shame? She could never resist a mystery so she nodded and gestured for him to continue.

He began to rub his hands together fidgeting and she knew then how serious he was. "For all that I look like a proper hobbit an illness that almost robbed me of my life instead stole from me my legacy." Bungo dipped his head in shame. "I survived the fever but I lost the ability to ever sire children. I look a proper hobbit, but I cannot provide a family to any lass I might one day wed. I would not ask anyone to shoulder that shame with me and I feared that I would live out my days as a bachelor. That is why I wished to talk with you tonight."

Belladonna's eyes widened and her hand shot to her mouth as she gasped. Her eyes widened with sympathy and she blamed her hormones for the tears that gathered in the corners of her eyes. "I am sorry for your loss and I will not spread word of your shame." She said solemnly.

He smiled a weak smile at her. "I thank you for your secrecy Miss."

She nodded her head in acknowledgment her manners no less impeccable for her Tookish bloodline. "There are some things none should gossip of Master Baggins."

He smiled at her confidently now having managed to gain control of his emotions like a proper hobbit should. "I know that this is far from the normal way of doing things and that I will be inviting some share of hardship onto myself, but I feel that it would be best for both of us if we followed one of the forgotten traditions of the Shire."

She held up her hand to stop him from talking with a small smile on her face so that he would not think her angry. Even so her words were serious and her voice reflected that. "I know what you are going to ask of me and I accept your proposal. I know you and I know that you are an honorable hobbit Master Baggins and I pray that one day we will come to love each other as a married couple should. You do not yet have my love but you have my gratitude, my respect, and my admiration and I see no reason why love cannot grow from them."

He bowed and kissed her hand. "Then I shall see you in the morrow My Dear Belladonna."

She curtsied and smiled at him. "And I shall look forward to the dawn."

They parted ways he to his family and her to her parent's house. She spent the night anxious and wide awake for reasons she could not explain. Questions chased her thoughts deep into the morning. Was marrying Bungo to keep her child the right decision? Would she ever love him as a wife should love her husband? Would he ever love her as a husband should love his wife? Was it a betrayal for her to settle down with another so soon after leaving her former husband? Would her Tookish heart ever find happiness with a Baggins? It was only when the sky began to turn light with the sunrise that she managed to find any sleep.

The next day Bungo came to see her after elevensies and presented her a bouquet of roses in all shades of pink and red and white in different stages of blooming tied off with ivy. She accepted it graciously and proudly displayed the bouquet on the dining room table. Her mother had about fainted from shock when she saw her wild Belladonna accepting a bouquet from a Baggins. The gossip sparked and spread like wildfire as Belladonna knew it would and she took it in stride. Their marriage was announced by the wagging of tongues and even before the invitations were sent everyone in the Shire knew of the impending wedding and had their own opinion of it. Most of the opinions she heard were negative denouncing the marriage as a bad match which she pretended to ignore for the sake of her babe.

For the most part she was happy. Her babe's future was secure and for that she would have fought a thousand orcs. Bungo was charming, well mannered, and kind and she found herself thinking of him more and more as the days went by. She began to look forward to her wedding day instead of dreading it as she had feared she would. She didn't love him with the same heat and fire she had for her first husband but that love had been doomed from the start. This love burned slow and warm, like a hearth fire, and she hoped it would endure and grow stronger. They did not wait long to get married with the babe's birth drawing closer with every day but their wedding was the elaborate affair all weddings were. They were married three months after the day he proposed outside under the sky and she wore a dress made to fit her growing body. They said their vows to each other according to the ways of the shire and shared their first kiss.

She felt the ceremony itself was beautiful though the reception had earned her ire with the amount of dirty looks and whispered insults she'd been on the receiving end of. Bungo had had his fair share of admirers who did not understand why such a high standing and handsome young hobbit would lower himself to marrying an unmarried pregnant woman with a love of those horrible adventures. Their comments had been full of back handed insults and thinly veiled threats that had her summoning every last inch of her patience. But she refused to lower herself to their level priding herself on taking the high road while secretly planning ways to get back at them that could not be traced back to her.

She was surprised when the celebration ended and Bungo had led her not to one of the small smials typically given to newlywed couples but to the end of Bagshot Row where he led her into a new smial that still smelled of felled wood, fresh polish, and paint. It was not just new it was huge taking up most of the hill and she had nearly cried seeing it, which she blamed on the pregnancy. Bungo had beamed at her with pride as she looked around her new home.

"It's called Bag End." He said and she couldn't answer she was having an attack of hormones.

They quickly grew into married life and though they annoyed each other at times they were happier than either of them thought they would be. Bungo took to married life and impending fatherhood like a duck took to water and though it often annoyed her he fussed over her endlessly. He made sure she was comfortable and well fed and took care of herself and she ensured that he kept on his toes. There were times that she missed her first husband but even though she thought of him she no longer held any true desire to go back to what she used to have. She was content with Bungo, more than content though she was too proud to admit it except in the quiet moments he held her at night.

Eventually her pregnancy had to come to an end and two months after they were married which was quite late for a hobbit, though she wasn't sure about a dwarf, Belladonna was woken in the dead of the night by pain and a gush of water. Bungo had panicked torn between fussing over her and pacing the floor with worry. She had to scream at him to get the midwife and when she did he spent almost an half an hour just leaving Bag End with all his fussing. When he did leave it seemed almost like a blink before he came back with the midwife and was kicked out of the room because of the fretting he put up. Belladonna was glad he'd left with all her screaming she feared she would have left him deaf. She screamed in pain and pushed when she was told to ignoring the pain in favor of the baby she'd carried for so long.

By the time her babe had come it was well into the next night and she was dizzy with pain and soaked with sweat. She vaguely heard the midwife tell her the babe she'd birthed was a boy because all that mattered was that her child was there in her arms. The midwife let her husband into the room and Bungo had looked as proud of the babe as she would have imagined he'd look over a child of his own seed. He sat down next to her on the bed smoothing over her hair with his hand as he looked over the babe in her arms with eyes wet with tears.

"It's a boy." Belladonna said with exhausted pride. "I've thought of the perfect name for him. Bilbo, Bilbo Baggins."

Bungo beamed at her pressing a kiss to her hair. He smiled down at the babe tears dripping down his cheeks. "Hello Bilbo."