The weeks after Chrysie's funeral passed quickly, and soon the downcast mood and depressed feelings were all but set aside. The spring slowly passed away, and the four friends remained in Hobbiton and Bywater helping to rebuild the inns and the pubs and even the houses and holes of those whose were destroyed.
In May, the wedding of Samwise Gamgee to Rosie Cotton interrupted their work, and times were joyous and happy once again. There was much dancing, and with the passing of one wedding the planning of another began. Merry and Estella had begun to busily begin the preparations for their own wedding.
They talked of it constantly, and it often made Diamond wonder if she would ever get married. She still had the wedding ring that Merry had dropped at Isengard, and wondered about it often. One day, she could no longer stand to wonder anymore and decided to talk to Merry about it.
"Merry, would you speak with me outside for a moment?" she asked him one day, while they were working on restoring The Green Dragon.
"Sure," he replied, and the two walked out into the warm summer air.
"I...I found this.at Isengard. I think you dropped it, but I'm not quite sure whose it was and..." she took off her scarf, and then removed the small silver ring with the vines leading up to the elvish "D" made of solid diamonds from a pocket she had made in the scarf.
"You have it!" exclaimed Merry upon seeing it. "This is unbelievable! Pippin was about to have my head because he thought I'd lost it. He got it in Rivendell from the elves."
"Oh," said Diamond, looking at intently. "Then it truly is for..."
"Yes, it was intended for you, but then we thought you were dead, and, well you know what happened."
"May I hold onto it a little longer, Merry?" she asked.
"But, he'll surely want it back, don't you think?" he replied.
"Don't tell him I have it! Please Merry. It'll be our little secret, like your letter to Estella was. I do believe you are indebted to me for delivering that."
"Oh all right." he admitted finally.
"Thank you. Come on, let's get back before the others wonder where we've been."
The reconstruction of The Green Dragon was finished within the month, and Diamond, Estella, Merry and Pippin decided to return to Buckland and live in Crickhollow for a time. Before they left, the group decided to spend one night at the pub celebrating all their hard work.
Coincidently, the same band played that night that had so long ago when Diamond and Estella had first danced with Merry and Pippin. Soon, it seemed like the whole of Hobbiton was in the bar that night, dancing, and drinking their fill.
The party wore on into the morning hours of the next day, but with each passing hour more and more Hobbits seemed to trickle out of the bar until only Merry, Estella, Diamond, Pippin, Frodo, Sam, and Rose were left. They had stopped dancing, and were sitting around a table talking about times past, and the first time they had come into the bar.
"I have an idea!" said Pippin suddenly, standing up and going to into the storage area. He filled up ten mugs with ale, and brought them back to the table. "Let's have a drinking competition. Who will challenge me?"
"I will," said Diamond, laughing.
They all crowded around the table, and Pippin slid five mugs of ale across the table to sit in front of Diamond. "Only five each this time, Pippin?" asked Merry.
"I don't wish for such a large headache when I wake up this time!" he replied, a huge grin on his face. They all laughed, remembering him after ten drinks, and all agreed.
"Ah, but what shall the prize be this time?" asked Diamond.
"If I win, I may choose what I want, and if you win you may choose your prize," Pippin replied. "Agreed?"
Diamond nodded. Estella then put her hand on the table, and when she lifted it the drinking began. It was close from the start, and both had drained their first pint in less than a minute. From there, the drinking slowed down a bit, and though neither was able to finish another in less than a minute they finished them within drops of each other. It was the closest competition any of them had ever seen. After nearly seven minutes, they were both on their last pint.
Pippin had considered letting her win, but then decided against it. As he finished his last pint he set it down on the table with a loud crash, and was surprised to find that Diamond had done the same at almost the exact moment he had. It was impossible to tell who had won.
Merry stared at them both for a moment, before declaring it a draw. "I suppose we both get to choose our prize then," said Diamond standing up.
"You can go first," said Pippin, smiling.
"I want to go on a real adventure," said Diamond. "One day, you have to take me somewhere with you in the outside world, where I am not a captive or a prisoner, and people are not dying. That is what I want."
"That's a rather grand request," said Merry, laughing a little. "I would have thought that you would have had your fill of adventure."
"Not in the least," she replied.
"It's my turn to choose a prize," Pippin interrupted, "and I want your scarf back!"
"What?" asked Diamond, rather disappointed. "You want the same thing that you won last time?"
He nodded, and she reluctantly took the scarf off, and handed it to him. "It's yours." She said.
Diamond then sat back down in her chair, and looked up at ceiling of the building deep in thought. She did not notice Pippin taking the ring out of the pocket of the scarf and kneeling down in front of her until he took her hand. She looked down at him curiously at first, but then her jaw dropped in understanding.
"Your request may have been large, but I fear mine is grander. If I have to spend the rest of my life with only one other, there is no one else I would rather spend it with. I apologize that it took me so long to get here, but I suppose that being late is better than never getting there at all. Will you marry me?"
Diamond sat there stunned for a moment, and everyone soon began to wonder if she would say anything at all, but then she stood up with tears in her eyes and pulled Pippin to his feet as well. She leapt into his arms and said, "Yes of course! I thought you would never ask!"
"Now, why would you think that?" he said, as he spun her around. "I have intended to ask your hand in marriage since the first day I met you. Don't think I would have let you get away!"
She kissed him in response, long and passionately, while all of their friends cheered. And from that day on Diamond had a new memory that was the happiest she possessed.
When Diamond awoke the next morning, she found that it was well past midday. At first she wondered where she was, but as she looked around she remembered all that had happened and that she was at The Green Dragon. She found herself with her head on Pippin's shoulder and his arms tightly around her waist. As she looked around carefully, trying not to wake him, she noticed that Merry and Estella were in quite the same position, as were Sam and Rosie, and that Frodo had lain out one of the benches.
"I suppose we forgot to go to bed," she said quietly to herself. Just then she felt Pippin stir and turned to meet his tired gaze with her own.
"Good morning," he said sleepily.
"I am afraid that it is no longer morning," she whispered back, putting a finger to her lips and motioning for him to keep his voice down as not to wake the others.
"So it is," he replied quietly.
"Pippin," she began. "If I may ask, how did you know that the ring was in the scarf?"
"Merry, but-"
"Remind me to thank him one day!" she said smiling. Then she began to wonder something else and asked, "why did you propose to me here, and in such a fashion? Not that I am complaining at all. I am simply curious."
"Well, I suppose I wanted it to be somewhere that we would remember and associate with our childhood. We've all changed so much. The times of frolicking through Farmer Maggot's fields are over. Merry and I are soldiers now, and both have seen things that have changed our lives forever. So have you seen things, and so has Estella. I just hoped, that later on in our lives, when we looked back to this day that we would remember it and it would bring back all of those childhood memories that we once cherished. That for that one moment we would forget all of our maturity and any sorrow we might have, and simply be happy in our minds."
"I never expected such a response. You have changed, and you are no longer the immature Hobbit that I used to steal food with and climb trees with, but I like you this way," she replied, awestruck. "You have grown up."
"I suppose it was inevitable," said Pippin, smiling. He planted a soft kiss on her lips and added, "Come on, let's wake the others, and stop dwelling on the past for now. We have the rest of our lives to look forward too."