Title: Baby

Summary: No matter how old he is or how big he gets or how long his beard grows he will always be her baby.

Disclaimer: I do not own The Hobbit or LOTR.

A/N: NO FLAMES! Not accepted.

From the start. It had happened from the start. He had always been her baby. Ever since her father had told Karla that her Auntie Dis had passed during the birth of her second son and the youngest in the line of Durin, named Kíli son of Víli. The eldest and only girl to be born in the Durin line for 120 years, Karla was charged with looking after her cousins while her father made a living in the smithy. And when Fíli was old enough he could join him. But for now, Fíli and Kíli were Karla's babies.

They were her world. And she was theirs. Fíli couldn't picture a world without Karla in it. She had been with him from day one and she would always be there. Fíli was her little buddy and Kíli was her baby. And from day one she wasn't just a cousin. She was cousin, mother, sister, nurse and cook.

She did everything Dis would have done. Pulled thorns from feet and hands, washed and dressed cuts and scrapes from falls in the garden, kissed bruises better and made sure, while he was a baby, that Kíli was washed, fed and in bed long before Thorin got home from the forge. When he was a toddler Thorin would arrive home to hear Karla telling Kíli a story. Normally it was of a grand battle. Tonight it was about the Dragon Smaug and Erebor.

"The dwarves didn't want to give up, they wouldn't surrender their home so easily. But the Dragon was too strong, too fierce. The fire was scorching and the pain blinding. They had to flee but the Prince vowed to himself and to his people that he would win back the mountain from the Dragon. One day…he would get their home back." Thorin heard Kíli's voice say something and Karla continued,

"The King and the Crown Prince escaped with the help of the Crown Prince's son. The Elves had sworn to help the dwarves but they turned their backs when the dwarves needed it most. Many dwarves escaped the terror of losing their home. The young Prince's wife made it out but sadly died on the road giving birth to their daughter. The young Prince lost his wife, but he was lucky, his daughter – the most precious of gems – survived the rest of the journey to Ered Luin. His sister and her husband agreed to help him raise his daughter. She grew into a beautiful young Princess and they lived happily ever after." She said, now Thorin could hear what Kíli said.

"Really Karla?" His voice full of awe and astonishment, he didn't know that was their story. Embellishment of course as Thorin didn't believe he was heroic as Karla made him out to be. But his sister had told Karla these stories so Dis had started it.

"Really, Kíli." She said, Thorin could picture her tucking him in, "now you need to sleep, Little Archer."

"Karla…why do we have no mother?" Thorin felt his blood run cold and he knew Karla would have frozen. He knew Karla was a special kind of dwarf and was tactful, so what would she tell her cousin. Thorin didn't know if Fíli was awake but he listened.

"Well, Kíli. Before I tell you, you must remember that your mother loved you very much. Yes? She loved you more than anything, you and Fíli she loved you both very much. You do not have your mother anymore because Mahal needed her and sometimes, although it is not very fair, he needs people we love a little more than we do." She said, tactful.

"Is that why you do not have a Mother either, Karla?" Now Thorin almost rolled his eyes, questions – Kíli's first word was 'Why?'

"Yes, Kíli. Mahal needed my mother too. And although I was a baby when she was taken by Mahal – I did not need her because I still had my father. Now I want you to remember something. You may not have your mother or your father – but Uncle Thorin and I love you very much, Little Archer. But you must sleep now." She said. About a minute she returned to the kitchen. Kíli and Fíli both fast asleep.

Karla was hanging washing up when Kíli came up to her and tugged on her dress. She turned and knelt down picking the child up in her arms.

"What troubles you Little Archer?" She asked. Kíli sniffled and rubbed his eyes with dirty hands not answering he turned his head into his cousin's shoulder and let her take him back inside setting him down and looking him over. She noticed the scraped knee and tutted looking at it through his trousers.

"You stay right here, I am going to get a cloth and we will clean that up. Yes? I will be back in a moment." She got up but Kíli whimpered.

"No." he sobbed getting up and clutching her leg. He was about the size of a 4-year-old human and the position Thorin had put his daughter in made her susceptible to Kíli's puppy-dog face. She picked him up again and took him with her into the washroom, she set him on the floor and got out a cloth she made sure it was damp and began to carefully clean Kíli's knee. He still sniffled and whimpered but he knew she had to clean it. She made sure it no longer bled and took him back out to the kitchen and gave him one of the cookies she had made earlier that day. She then took him into the lounge and they curled up by the fireplace together. He was her baby and she was going to look after him in any way she could. Thorin found them later. Karla curled in a chair, Kíli curled up in her lap and Fíli resting under her arm against her side all asleep. All Thorin had for supper that night was cup of tea.

Fíli and Kíli had gone to training. Well Fíli had, Kíli was to choose his weapon today. Karla at by the fire sewing Kíli's cloak, he had torn it days before when out playing with Fíli. She looked up as the door swung open and in stormed a ting dwarfling and he threw something into the corner before coming over to her and ignoring the dewing she was doing climbed up into her lap. She put the sewing to one side.

"Kíli? By word Little Archer what is wrong?" He had always been Little Archer and no one knew why she had called him that. She glanced over at the object he had tossed away when he came inside and she noticed the shape was that of a bow and quiver. He had chosen the weapons of an Archer.

"They laugh at me." He whispered, Karla pulled him tightly to her chest and kissed the top of his head.

"How about I come out and watch you? Hmmm? Surely Dwalin will not laugh at you?"

"No, but the others do. Even Fíli."

"Surely not your brother?"

"He started it! He laughed first!"

"Well, Little Archer, I will come out and I will watch you. Yes? Come along, let us return to training." Karla set him on his feet and she pulled on a cloak before following Kíli out to the training yards.

"What a joke! He wields an elf weapon! Are you sure you are his brother Fíli? He looks more like an elf than anything!" One of the Dwarflings said as Karla and Kíli approached. She knew him well. Tovin. He'd been boasting the other day that he could disarm Fíli but he had lost badly so had resorted to belittling and torturing Kíli. Kíli looked up at Karla she bent down to talk to him.

"You can do it Little Archer. They are just jealous that they were not brave enough. You give it your best, Kíli. You show them how it is done." Kíli did and he hit the target dead on every time. The taunts got worse until Thorin gave them all glares at which time it turned to laughter, and Karla was furious to see Fíli join in.

When Kíli first got sick, he was bedridden for weeks. Coughing and hacking and weak and feverish he stayed in bed. The boys were adults but Karla still looked after them. She tried to split her time between the two but Kíli demanded attention more often. Thorin took time off work to help and then time was split between the two more evenly. Fíli refused to leave Kíli's side most of the time but Karla got him out of the room and to sleep at odd times. Mostly sleeping draughts helped. He didn't like her feeding them to him but they made him rest. It was a few days into Kíli's illness, his fever had broken but he was still having trouble breathing properly. He had already said he wanted to give up and just leave them. But they forbade him to. Even making Thorin get him to start breathing again. Karla was asleep by Kíli's side one night when Fíli came in. Their signing was how they communicated because of Karla. They didn't want to wake her.

"You can't give up on us Kíli." Fíli whispered suddenly. Kíli looked at him a little startled, "not on me. I don't think I'd survive if I lost you." Kíli shook his head slowly, but Fíli was suddenly take by anger.

"You can't leave us because how do you think Thorin or Karla will feel?" Kíli began tugging at Karla's arm, "she raised you and did all the things our mother would have done! You are hers Kíli! You belong to Karla! That is how it's always going to be! You cannot leave us here by ourselves!" Fíli's raised voice woke Karla as Kíli began to cough and wheeze.

"Enough Fíli!" she snapped, "you can't do that to him!" Fíli wanted to say more and had opened his mouth to when a hand gripped his collar and pulled him out of the room, shoving him against the wall with such force that the wind was knocked out of him. He shook with anger but that turned to terror seeing the look in his Uncle's eyes.

"What is wrong with you, Fíli?" The younger dwarf shook and trembled he had no idea how to answer his Uncle.

"Uncle, please," Thorin had his hand around Fíli's throat obviously not enough to choke him but enough to hold him in place.

"You are going to make him worse if you yell at him!" Fíli struggled again against the hold.

"Uncle…please." He wheezed. Thorin let go and Fíli slumped onto the floor.

"You don't come anywhere near my nephew until you've learnt how to act around him." Thorin said and left Fíli on the floor. The young dwarf pulled his knees to his chest and began to cry, his throat hurt, he was crashing from adrenaline. He just knew that he'd offended his family and he'd made Kíli scared of him. But he didn't regret saying it. He didn't look up as the door opened but he did know the scent that sat down beside him. Lavender and old leather. He didn't move.

"Fíli? I know you didn't mean what you said." She whispered.

"Yes I did." He muttered.

"No you didn't. You'd never say that to Kíli if you meant it." Karla said, she always knew.

"How is he?"

"He is better. You must remember that he is all we have. You, me, Father and Kíli it's just us. You must remember that." Fíli nodded he knew he only had his cousin, his Uncle and his little brother. It was possibly the worst feeling knowing he had distressed his brother.

Karla, Daughter of Thorin, son of Thrain, son of Thror, King Under the mountain, fell to her knees in the lower tombs of the mountain. Her husband, the young Ori, stood by the door behind her. He had seen the three Durin son's fall and knew he would endure this from his wife. She had been healing in the tents when she was summoned to the Royal family's tent and she had to say goodbye to her cousins and her father. Ori had seen it he remembered watching her.

"Cousin." Fíli had rasped seeing her. She knelt down between the two.

"Oh my boys. My little boys."

"Not so little anymore." Kíli laughed coughing.

"No, but Fíli was always my little buddy. And you, my dear sweet Kili. You are always my baby. Not matter how big you got, how much your beard grew or how old you were, you were always my baby. My Little Archer." She placed a kiss on each forehead and whispered prayers as she listened to them pass peacefully with her holding their hands. Next was her father.

"I have lost everyone, Father. My mother, my Auntie, my Uncles, my grandfather and great grandfather. Now my two babies and finally I will lose you."

"No. Never. We will never truly leave you, My girl. We will be in your heart forever, no?"

"Yes."

"We have not left you then. Be true. Be strong. Be you." Thorin said, he had apologized to Bilbo and he had said what he needed to, to Karla but she ended the words he had drilled into her and Fíli since they could understand.

"Be Durin."

Now it was just her. She had declined to rule Erebor leaving it to Dain. She didn't believe that she could do it as well as him. But Dain allowed her the leave to make some decisions, for example whom should get gold from Erebor's treasury. Ori knew she would have been a good Queen but she was brilliant wife and soon-to-be mother to his children that she had already begun to bear. And now they would be her babies. No longer her Little Buddy and her Little Archer.