A/N: A massive Thank You to my fanstastic beta, Hiddencait, for helping me fill in the gaps! This was a labour of love and I have a feeling I could have made this story far longer than it is. I've only included a handful of the Company, I'm afraid, but hopefully the story will still be enjoyable. While there isn't very much violence, there are a few fistfights and quite a few ghosts.

Disclaimer: I own nothing! I reference "The History and Practice of English Magic" which I confess I borrowed from Susanna Clarke's "Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell". I'll also confess that this is my attempt to try something in the vein of a Simone St. James novel. If you like ghosts, fantastic settings, believable heroines (and her sidekick hero), then you should give these a try! The title of the story is a play on a verse in the song 'Wild' by Poe - 'this is what it's like living in limbo'.

The AMAZING and GORGEOUS artwork is via this link: /works/4463594/chapters/10142672 Please give SkySamuelle your love!

"Thanks, Ham! See you tomorrow!" Bella called as her groundsman waved her good-bye for the day.

"You sure you don't want some help with those ferns?" he asked, looking anxious and worried. But Ham always looked anxious and worried these days even with the war over and done with. Bella worried that the lines on his face were here to stay.

"I've got them," she said smiling. "Don't you worry. You get home to see what Sam's managed to do today."

Hamfast beamed the same proud smile he'd been sporting ever since his son was born and said, "Did I tell you that he already knows the difference between a spade and a shovel?"

"You did, and it's still brilliant, Ham," Bella said laughing. "Now, shoo!"

Ham waved again, and Bella finished lugging the pots of ferns over to the front of the nursery. She adjusted them minutely and nodded to herself. She looked over the rows of apple trees that were still lush with green leaves and a few of the last crop of apples of the season. Naturally Lobelia and Otho would give her to the end of August so that they could take over after all the hard work was done for the summer.

"Typical," she murmured and then cringed. She really needed to stop saying that. Things were the way they were, and unless something out of the blue came, well, out of the blue, she was stuck.

She flipped the Open sign to Closed on the nursery shop front and locked up the money from the afternoon sales in the safe in the back. With a sigh, she turned off the lights and headed home.

She walked down the short path from the nursery, past the greenhouse and then around the hedge. Bella reached her home and let herself in. Ignoring the lonely silence that settles into big homes that should house more than one person and yet don't, she hung up her coat and took off her boots.

She debated on a bath, but decided that she was too hungry and would have one after her tea. She pulled her coverall sleeves down and tied them loosely around her waist. Left in her thin short-sleeved blouse, she went into the kitchen and pulled down the same blue teacup she'd used since she was a child, and set about making her tea.

She'd just put her bowl of leftover stew and a plate of handmade scones that her neighbour had dropped off day before yesterday on to the table when there was a knock at the door.

Bella paused and frowned. No one ever visited during tea time. Not in this village.

She gave her tea a forlorn look and, knowing her stew would be cool when she returned to it, and headed to the door.

Opening it, she found a man with a very full white beard on her doorstep. His pale blue eyes were behind a pair of thin-framed spectacles, and she was quite sure she'd seen him before, but couldn't quite place him.

"Ah, good evening?" she said.

"Good evening, my dear," he said in a voice much deeper than his slight frame would suggest. "My goodness, I hadn't realised just how long it's been."

Bella frowned. "I'm very sorry, but do I know you?"

"You do, indeed, Belladonna Baggins the Younger," he said smiling. "I knew your mother before I knew you, however. And it has been several years since I last stopped by."

"Oh," she said, and the image of this man sitting beside Bella, with Bella's mother on her other side as they spoke flashed in her mind. "Oh! Gandalf! Professor Gandalf?"

"Indeed," he said although his smile faded some. "I was terribly sorry to hear about your mother, you know. And your father, I hear, has passed as well?"

"Oh, yes," Bella said. "I think Dad received your letter about Mum. Ah, he passed close to a year ago."

"My dear, I'm so sorry," he said, and he sounded so sincere that tears tickled the back of Bella's eyes.

But she just nodded. "Thank you. Won't you come in? I didn't know you were in the village."

"I'm not," he said coming inside. "I'm afraid I've dropped in on you quite unannounced, and you may very well be quite angry with me by the time the evening is over."

Bella stopped. "I don't think I understand. But, I have to say, if you've come here thinking that, well, that I'm anything like mum, or to do more tests, I'm afraid you're going to be quite disappointed."

"Is that right?" he said looking at her. "Well, well."

She stared up at him and realised that he still seemed as tall and imposing as he'd done all those years ago when he came to visit her mum. He still looked at her as though she were some kind of puzzle that he was inches away from solving and that he knew more about her than she did.

It was intriguing when she was nine years old. Now, on the other side of thirty, it was disconcerting.

"Are you still with the university?" she asked sitting down in her father's old armchair and indicating that Gandalf should take the other one.

He sat and said, "Oh, yes. But I've struck out on my own, in terms of my research. The war threw the department into a bit of a tailspin. Everyone was scattered for a few years there."

"I can only imagine," Bella said nodding and not quite understanding.

"Can you? Good. You're going to need your imagination, where you're going," he said looking around the front parlour and then back at Bella. "Oh, I do think I should have written, my dear, but I'm afraid I got a bit carried away."

"Carried away with what?" Bella asked frowning. "Professor, please explain yourself."

Gandalf opened his mouth to say something but was interrupted by a knock on the door. Bella turned to look at the door and then back at Gandalf. He looked extremely apologetic.

"I am sorry, my dear," he said. "But they were very pressed for time."

"Who was pressed for time?" she asked. "What is going on?"

There was another knock at the door, this one harder and louder than the previous one.

"Yes, yes!" she called. "I'm coming!"

She glanced at Gandalf and spared another sad thought aimed at her most certainly cool stew and went to the door.

On her doorstep stood just shy of a dozen people. She blinked at them and they blinked at her.

"Ah, hello?" she said uncertainly.

"Good evening," an older gentleman with a tuft of white hair on his head that matched his beard said cheerfully. "Thank you very much for agreeing to see us at such short notice."

"Um," Bella managed before Gandalf came to the door.

"Welcome, welcome! You made excellent time, gentlemen. And lady, of course, Mrs Viren. Come in, come in," Gandalf said smiling broadly.

"Ah, Professor," Bella said standing to the side as everyone filed in.

"Balin Fundinson, lass, at your service," the man with the white tufts said.

"Bella Baggins," Bella said faintly.

A taller man with extremely close cropped hair and tattoos on his wrists nodded at her. "Dwalin Fundinson."

"Hullo," Bella said eyeing his boots and her clean hardwood floors.

"Bofur and Bifur Bloom," a grinning man with a rakish goatee and an odd cap said as he walked past, indicating himself and another man who had a wild beard and dark eyes. "He doesn't say much, so don't take it personally."

"Lovely to meet you," Bella said automatically, shaking their hands. Bofur kept grinning and Bifur nodded his head.

"Fili Viren," said a young man with blond hair and a short-cropped beard to match. He winked at her as he came in which made her arch her eyebrow.

"Hello," Bella said suspiciously.

"Kili and Tauriel Viren, at your service, Miss Boggins," another young man with curly dark hair said as his wife, a slender brunette with a serene smile, stepped inside.

"Baggins, Kili," Mrs. Viren said holding out her hand to Bella. "Thank you for having us."

"You're most welcome, Mrs. Viren," she said shaking her hand and feeling utterly foolish at the same time.

"Tauriel, please," the other woman said.

"Bella," Bella replied.

"And finally, may I present to you, Captain Thorin Durin," Gandalf said. "Captain, Miss Belladonna Baggins."

"Bella, please," she said faintly, for she had to blink and tilt her head to meet the eyes of the last person to enter her home. He had dark hair that was cropped quite close to his head, and his beard was full, but neatly trimmed. The breadth of his shoulders seemed to fill her doorway, and she fought the urge to step back when she saw the severity of his profile. Something about it was familiar, but she couldn't quite place it. His eyes were a sharp blue and looked her up and down.

She was suddenly very aware that she still had on her dirty coveralls from work, and that while her hands were clean, she had no doubt she smelled of fresh manure after potting up the last of the hyacinths.

Well, nothing for it, so she simply held out her hand and said, "Pleased to meet you."

Silently, he shook her hand and said in a voice that had no business being quite so deep and smooth, "Thank you for having us. We would have been here sooner, but the roads aren't well-marked."

"The Shire is one of my best kept secrets," Gandalf said. "It's a little haven out of the way of the world."

Bella frowned at the description but noticed that Captain Durin was still looking her over. She stared back at him and drew breath to tell him precisely how rude he was being, when he spoke.

"She looks more like a gardener than a medium," he said in that voice of his.

"That's because I am a gardener," she said narrowing her eyes. She blinked. Had he said..? "Wait. Did you say medium?"

He inclined his head, and Bella sighed.

"Oh, no. No, no, no." She glared at Gandalf. "So that is why you're here. You think that I...?" She turned back to Captain Durin. "Look, I'm terribly sorry. But it appears you've come a very long way for nothing. My mother was the spirit medium. I'm not."

"Oh," he said frowning, and then turning to look at Gandalf.

"Oh?" Gandalf echoed, ignoring the captain and looking at Bella.

"Yes, oh," she said putting her hands on her hips. "I don't have her abilities, Gandalf."

"Now, Bella," Gandalf said patiently. "As I recall, I tested you as a child and you were more than capable of seeing and communicating with ghosts."

"Yes, but I never sent one back," Bella said. "Which is what you want. I'm no use to you if I just talk to them. They want to be sent back. I don't do that. I can't do that." She put her hands on her hips. "And to be perfectly honest, I don't know that I could even talk to them anymore. Even if I wanted to." She took a deep breath. "Which I don't. Want to."

"Surely you haven't let this gift of yours go to waste?" Gandalf asked frowning.

"Do you see legions of ghosts tramping through the fields?" Bella asked, her voice rising. "No, you do not. Look, why do you think my mother decided to come to the Shire in the first place?" she said. "The last murder that took place around here was... Oh, I don't even know when the last one was, that's how long." She took a step towards him. "I've also heard what some so-called mediums are doing in the big cities, and I'm not about to offer the grieving mothers in this village the chance to see their sons again. Not when I don't have any confidence in my abilities. I won't do that. I'm not that person. My mother wasn't and I'm certainly not either."

She dropped her head. "I'm very sorry, but I'm not the one you're looking for." She glanced at Captain Durin. "Truly, I am sorry. It appears you've come here on false pretences."

"So it would seem," he said still glaring at Gandalf. He seemed to collect himself and looked her way. He attempted something that Bella supposed was a smile and said, "I'm very sorry to trouble you, Miss Baggins."

"It's no trouble," she said feeling awkward. "Look, your… friends have already settled in, won't you have something to eat? Or a cuppa, at the very least?"

"That's very kind of you," he said inclining his head. "Thank you."

"Look, please come in and –" she said.

"Are those scones?" Kili asked her with wide eyes that stared at her table. "Fresh ones?"

"Oh, ah, yes, they are," she said. With a growing sense of futility, she said, "Please help yourselves."

With a certain amount of haste, plates were loaded up with scones and people quickly sat down at her table.

As it was, Bella couldn't stand to see people go hungry and excused herself to visit her pantry and pull out some tins of stew she'd put aside for the winter.

"Let me just get these heated up," she called out.

"Can I help?" Tauriel asked, standing awkwardly in the kitchen. "I'm not much of a cook, though, I should warn you."

"Can you boil water?" Bella asked smiling at her.

"Yes, I can safely say that I can boil water," Tauriel replied chuckling.

"Well, grab that big pot and get it to boiling," Bella said. "I've some potatoes we can mash up."

The next hour was spent fixing supper, and while Bella was still mystified and rather perturbed that Gandalf had just dropped these people on her doorstep under the false impression that she could help them with what she assumed was a ghost problem, it was wonderful to hear voices and laughter filing the house.

In fact, she laughed more in one evening than she had in a month as she listened to the company tell absurd stories from their time spent overseas. In fact, listening to them helped her to forget her own troubles.

After dinner, Bofur and Bifur kindly cleaned up the plates and the kitchen, despite Bella's protests.

"Ah, ah, lass," Bofur said winking. "We cleaned dishes across France, we can handle this."

"Very well," Bella said eyeing his hands on her mother's best teapot. But she turned her back on the kitchen and went into the parlour.

She found Captain Durin deep in tense conversation with Gandalf. However, the more Captain Durin seemed to glower, the more amused Gandalf looked.

"My dear boy, I can assure you that all is going to plan," Gandalf said. He switched his gaze to Bella and smiled. "Miss Baggins is just the woman we need."

"Are you referring to needing a medium?" Bella said. She shook her head. "I can't, Gandalf. I'm sorry."

He made quite the patronizing face and nodded. "Oh, I know, my dear. I still think that you'll be of great help to us."

Bella pursed her lips and looked at him, but he just smiled beatifically at her, then he brightened and said, "Do you still have some of that remarkable leaf that your father used to have on hand?"

"Oh, well," Bella said flustered by the sudden change in topic. "I believe so, yes. Would you like me to prepare it for you?"

"I hoped you'd offer, how very kind of you," he said pulling a long-handled pipe from his coat and handed it to her.

The moment she touched the pipe, she knew what he'd done and said, "Oh, damn and blast, Gandalf!"

A prickly chill fell over her body and mind and she clenched her hands into fists when the shadowy image of a short man with a wild beard and shabby clothes appeared in front of her.

"Oh, hello," he said. "Am I going home now?"

Bella glared through the ghost at Gandalf. "You tricked me."

"You needed it," Gandalf said sternly. "You clearly have been denying and ignoring your gift for far too long, Bella Baggins. It's time you used it."

"Is that-?" Fili asked, his eyes wide.

"A ghost, yes, it is," Bella said looking the small spirit over.

He smiled at her. "You must be Miss Baggins! Gandalf has told me all about you! Shall we get on with it?"

"I beg your pardon?" Bella said. "Get on with what?"

"Get on with sending me back!" the little man said frantically. "I'm ready! I'm going so thin these days and it's so hard to hold on and I'm so very tired."

Bella stared at the little man with growing horror and she looked at Gandalf. "Have you just been carrying him around in your pocket? Gandalf! How positively wretched of you!"

"Professor Brown was quite accommodating," Gandalf said firmly. "He volunteered to assist me in my research."

"Did he?" Bella said frowning and crossing her arms over her chest.

"I did," Professor Brown said. He bowed slightly. "Professor Radagast Brown, at your service. I worked with Gandalf in the Theology Department and when I died, rather unexpectedly due to a bout of flu, I came back to finish my research." He straightened. "But it's done and I'm ready to go but none of those charlatans that Gandalf has taken me to has been able to sort me out."

"Oh, heavens," Bella said slumping.

"I'm sorry to interrupt," Fili said uncertainly, "but is there truly a ghost standing in front of us, right now?"

Bella looked around at the company who were staring at Professor Brown with varying expressions of disbelief. Bofur and Bifur stood in the doorway staring at him while their hands dripped soap on her hardwood floor.

"I'm afraid so," Gandalf said standing up to his full height. "And I will warn you that Professor Brown is the most docile of spirits. Others you encounter are not. Nor do they wish to leave as he does. Spirits are tenacious and can be quite single-minded."

"So can we," Captain Durin said flatly. He glanced at Bella. "I thought you said you were not a medium?"

"I'm not," she said.

"Oh, but you are," Professor Brown said wonderingly. "You glow like nothing I've ever seen. I can see the path shining out behind your eyes and it's quite the struggle to not just head down it. Please help me, Miss Baggins."

Bella stared Professor Brown who stared back at her with big, sad eyes, and she felt that once familiar cold seep into her bones, and her mind tingled.

"I haven't done this since I was a child, and it didn't go all that smoothly then," she said quietly. "But if you're game, we'll give it a go."

He nodded fiercely, dislodging his hat. "You're older now, miss. The path's too clear for me to mistake anything else for it. I'll be fine."

"Right then." Bella took a deep breath and squeezed her eyes shut. Absently, her fingers reached up and took hold of her parents' wedding rings that she wore on a slender chain around her neck. The cool of the thin gold rings reassured her, and her mother's voice echoed in her head.

Just look for the path, darling. It's always there, just behind your present thoughts. Simply reach for it and then show it to them. They can do the rest.

Bella opened her eyes. She thought she heard Captain Durin suck in a breath, but she focused on Professor Brown.

He looked at her with something approaching awe that made her feel uneasy, especially when he said, "How bright! How clear it is! Oh, it's just right there, isn't it?"

"Yes," Bella said, seeing the path in her mind. "All you need to do is follow it. Just let it pull and guide you through. Just...take my hand-"

She held out her hand, and Mr Brown eagerly took it, and a searing flash of cold so sharp it burned ripped through her mind, and she gasped. Images surged through her thoughts so quickly, but she couldn't pin them down; she only knew they weren't hers.

Her hand burned with cold, and her body stiffened to the point of pain and then...it was gone. She sagged, stumbled and tried to breathe. She curled her frozen hand to her chest and covered it with her warmer hand. She bit her lip when the warmth of her other hand touched the cold one as nerve endings tried to warm themselves. She shivered and saw Captain Durin take a step towards her in her peripheral vision.

She looked around the room and inside her consciousness. Professor Brown was gone. Completely.

"He's gone, then?" Gandalf asked cautiously.

She nodded shakily. "Yes, he's gone." She blinked and then looked at Gandalf. "Oh, do you know that was actually easier than I remember it being?"

Then the world went a bit sideways and her grandmother's hand-woven rug rushed up to meet her.