By: Dana
Summary: If you have already given up hope of his return, beyond all thought, then you can only seal his fate.
Characters: Eowyn, Merry, mention of Pippin
Pairings: None
Rating: G
Warnings: Angst
Author's Notes: Written and posted late challenge #18 on ringprov - soldier, thought, history, return; accepting. During RotK. Is not written as slash but can be taken as such if that is what you'd like.

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.

He comes to visit after dark, quiet and subdued. She understands, in a way, but she would rather rage. She would, in fact, but the sorrow in Merry's eyes is more than Eowyn can stand.

They sit together in a flicker of candlelight.

"No good will come of this."

It is not Eowyn's way to plead, but there are no other options from which to choose. "Are you so certain that they shall fail? If you have already given up hope of his return, beyond all thought, then you can only seal his fate."

His gaze is shadowed as he meets her own, the calm of a storm, a storm of calm. She sees him, one who stood at her side, a fellow soldier, and there are no words that she can offer to sooth his troubled mind.

"He is no child," Merry says, and looks away, and the resignation in his voice causes her to reach out, cover one hand with her own; it is more than she can bear.

"He is no child," he says again, closing his eyes.

Such pain, and she would give anything, everything, if she could take it away. But there are no words, no promises, that she can give, so she gives instead the simple strength of her grip.

"I will not leave," she says, and it is little comfort. They sit together in silence, after, and Eowyn thinks of the great, both big and small, their place in the great story, and the history of them all.

"We all have our place," she says, softly, gripping his hand. "And he has found his own." What they would both give, to be there at his side, in his stead.

But Merry's hope is dim; in a way, he already mourns Pippin as dead.