febobe

Thanks for all the help, guys! :)

B2MeM Challenge: I22, Winter Wonderland (ice skating)
Format: Multi-chapter fic
Title: On Thin Ice
Genre: Hurt/Comfort
Rating: PG/K+
Warnings: Angst and some food detail later on...though this is angsty, I promise that it is NOT a deathfic, so sensitive readers are safe here!
Characters: Frodo, Sam, Daisy, May, Marigold, Bell, Gaffer (Hamfast) Gamgee, Bilbo, Dr. Boffin (OC)
Pairings: N/A
Summary: Tweenaged Frodo decides to go ice-skating on a winter's day...with disastrous results.
Author's Note: I know you cannot catch pneumonia from a soaking in the winter, or being out with wet hair, etc., etc., etc...but what if someone already carried the germs for pneumonia, and *then* took a freezing dip? I don't think it would help keep them from getting it, do you? ;) Plus there's the whole aspiration pneumonia phenomenon...which is at work in this story as well. ;) Double whammy! ;)

"Frodo, come on!"

Laughing, Frodo ran down the hill. The Gamgee girls and their brother Sam, their work finished for the moment, were building a snowhobbit, and Bilbo had given Frodo leave from lessons to go join them. Bilbo had been hesitant to let him go at first, as he still had a slight cough from a recent cold. But at last Frodo had prevailed, begging and pleading till at last Bilbo agreed to let him bundle up warm in cloak and scarf and hood and go. Even though he was a tween, he loved the opportunities afforded by winter...snowhobbits, sledding, snowball fights.... How he missed his cousins and their snowball fights!

Perhaps Sam, however, could be taught....

Stooping, he rolled up some snow into a tight ball, then took aim. "Sam! Look sharp!"

"Yes, sir!" cried Sam, turning just in time to see the snowball hurtling toward him. He ducked, and it hit May on the sleeve.

"Oh!" she cried, turning. A mischievous look suddenly came over her face, and she began gathering up some snow of her own. Frodo began making some for retaliation, and just in time too, for she was a good shot, catching him right on the ear.

"Sam! Boys against girls!" Frodo cried, and within minutes an all-out, full-scale war had begun, Sam and Frodo pelting Marigold, Daisy, and May with everything they had, and the girls flinging snowballs back. Finally, when everyone was laughing too hard to continue, Frodo gestured toward the nearby pond.

"I'm going for a skate," he said. "Who wants to join me?"

All four Gamgees looked at him with wide, startled eyes.

"You can't," said May. "It's too thin."

"How do you know?" asked Frodo. "If it were up to me, I'd say you're scared." His daredevil side had not yet completely disappeared; it was his first winter at Bag End, after all, and he had something of a reputation to preserve. The shyness he had felt all autumn seemed to vanish with the falling of snow, and he felt brave, braver than anyone else in Hobbiton.

"Begging your pardon, Mr. Frodo, sir," said Sam, "but it ain't thick enough to skate on. Mam and Da told us so."

"It looks thick enough to me," said Frodo. "I skated every winter at Brandy Hall."

The Gamgee children looked highly dubious.

"I don't believe you," said Daisy. At once Marigold and Sam looked horrified.

"Daisy!" said Sam. "You oughtn't to talk to Mr. Frodo like that."

Frodo smiled triumphantly. He knew they couldn't stop him. He was, after all, the "young master," and certainly no one except maybe Bilbo had the right to try and stop him. Certainly not children who weren't even tweens yet.

"I'm telling Mam," said May, turning on her heel.

"You just do that," said Frodo, approaching the pond and stepping gingerly out onto its frozen surface. Marigold gasped. Only Sam approached. Daisy stood with her arms crossed, watching from afar.

"Mr. Frodo, sir, I don't reckon that's such a good idea," Sam called, but already Frodo was pushing off with his left foot, sliding forward across the pond, delighted to feel the wind against his face.

"It's fine, Sam!" he called back. "Are you sure you won't join me?"

"No, sir, I'm afraid not! Come back, sir, please!"

"Sam, it's all right! There's absolutely nothing dangerous about - " Suddenly Frodo's voice cut off. He felt the ice giving beneath him. At once he tried to stop, but it was too late. There was a loud crack-crack-cracking sound, and abruptly the pond's smooth surface fractured, giving way beneath his feet.

Daisy screamed.

"Mr. Frodo!" cried Sam.

Frodo heard them only briefly as he fell into the frigid water beneath the thin ice, shivering violently as the freezing water engulfed him and he inhaled water instead of air. As his head went under, he thought of his parents, drowning in the Brandywine nearly ten years ago.

Was this what it felt like? he wondered.

He surfaced, struggling to breathe. It felt like knives slicing through his body, so cold was the water. He could see Sam on the bank, holding out the broom the girls had been using to decorate the snowhobbit, trying to reach him. It was too far; he couldn't grab hold.

There came a commotion, and Bell Gamgee ran out to the pond. "Marigold!" she shouted. "Go and get Mr. Bilbo and your Da! Now! Daisy, run in and fetch some blankets! Hurry!" She ran to the bank and pushed Sam aside, taking the broom and leaning farther out with it. "Grab hold, young master!"

Frodo tried, and this time, with Bell's longer arms, he was able to grab hold of the broom-handle. Bell began to pull; she was not a small lady, and had more strength than Frodo had realised. Within a few minutes she had pulled him out, onto the snowy bank. As soon as he was soundly secure, she began pulling off his sodden cloak and scarf and started to unfasten his waistcoat. Frodo tried to protest, but his teeth were chattering violently.

"I'm sorry, young master," Bell said. "But Daisy's coming with blankets, and we've got to get you out of these wet things, or you'll freeze to death."

"Here, Mam," Daisy called, rushing up with an armful of blankets and quilts. Bell threw a heavy quilt over Frodo and continued working, sitting him up and wrapping him in the warm, dry blankets and the quilts on top of that.

Frodo could hear more voices now - Bilbo's, and the Gaffer's, and other hobbits besides. He would have blushed if he hadn't been shivering so violently. What would Bilbo say?

But his fears were quickly allayed. Bilbo and the Gaffer ran to him, and Bilbo threw his arms around the Frodo-bundle without hesitation.

"Oh, my lad," he said, his voice trembling, "oh, my lad. Are you all right?"

"He's like to catch his death unless we can get him warmed up," said Bell. "Mr. Bilbo, do you think you and Hamfast could get him up to Bag End between you? Best if he's carried. He's had quite a shock."

"Of course. Of course," said Bilbo, slipping into Bell's place behind Bilbo. The Gaffer lifted Frodo's feet, or rather the bundle that held Frodo's feet, and away they went.

Frodo did not know or care who followed. He only felt frozen through. What had he been thinking, he wondered?

-to be continued-