A/N: This part is for reactions of the Company and other people they run into during the journey to retake Erebor.
Disclaimer: I still own nothing, but really, such a pipe with Old Toby...
2. Company
"Every man has his secret sorrows which the world knows not; and often times we call a man cold when he is only sad."
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
-o.O.o-
For once, the company was speechless, after their burglar stormed off when he finished saying his piece. It was almost funny, how everything started to fall together, when they finally learnt the final piece of puzzle.
Bilbo Baggins had been married. He had been married, and had been a widower for several months before the company arrived. The urgency with which he chased after family heirlooms, in which he took care of his buttons, always making them shining in the light, how he always fussed about not having a proper handkerchief, always giving off impression of coldness in relation to everyone, as he only rarely joined in their evening merriment.
How much worse could one get, when they made light of such a loss?
-o.O.o-
Bilbo returned when darkness had fallen, his eyes red and puffy, his gaze daring anyone to comment on that. For a moment, Gloin seemed like he wanted to remark on his wife, but Thorin, in rather rare moment of showing manners, elbowed him in the ribs, making the other dwarf close his mouth with a loud snap.
The hobbit was undisturbed for several days, the dwarves, together with Gandalf, nearly walking on their tiptoes for several days. Their burglar only rarely spoke; instead, he would be humming various melodies - some of them mournful, while others sounded of joy and happiness.
Only after they arrived to Beorn's house Ori gathered courage to come up to the hobbit with his book and quill. "Master Baggins, would you tell me of your wife? I would love to hear about her."
For a moment it seemed as if the hobbit would refuse, before his eyes slid to someplace sideways from Ori, before they returned to the scribe. "Of course," he said, gesturing to Ori to sit down by his side as he lit his pipe; the item surprisingly surviving everything so far, and loaded with precious dose of Old Toby he somehow managed to save.
"To tell the truth, I can't remember when we first met, my Viola and I," Bilbo started quietly, puffing on his pipe. "The first memory I have is already with Viola by my side, as we would run all around Hobbiton, chasing after each other, pulling pranks on unsuspecting hobbits or pretending we are great adventurers." He smiled, his eyes getting faraway look. "Viola would always find a reason to smile, and I do not thing we would have managed without her when my father died."
He sobered, although the smile remained. "When I proposed to her, she gave me the biggest smile ever. And then she flung herself at me, kissing me for the first time out of many."
The burglar told Ori about their wedding, about all the planning, and merriment when the event finally took place; he even pulled a small locket out of his pocket, reverently holding it in his hands before he clicked it open. Inside was a miniature of Bilbo and a pretty hobbit woman, both of them smiling - from what Ori could see, the woman, Viola, had her eyes only on the man by her side, while Bilbo looked as if he was smirking at whoever was painting the miniature, his arm wrapped around his wife's waist.
"My mother died soon after we wed," Bilbo continued his tale. "And Viola would once again be the only one who could bring laughter into our smial again."
By that time, majority of the company surrounded the two of them; only Gandalf remained further away with the skinchanger - both of them within the earshot. Bilbo would tell about the number of events the two of them took part in; remembering every single one of the gifts he received from his wife for their anniversary, until it came to the day his wife announced her pregnancy.
"We were both so very happy," Bilbo said quietly, his eyes on the locket in his hand. "In a few months, we would have a little boy or girl in our lives - what was there not to be looking forward to?"
He couldn't hold his tears back, when it came to the fateful day his child, a small boy, had been born stillborn, his wife following after their child mere hours after giving the birth. "She told me she loved me," he whispered, "but why did the gods deem to take her away from me?"
He was crying openly when he finished his tale, and for the first time, the dwarves did something they should have done long time ago - hugged him. Dori and Bofur enveloped him in their embrace, and if Ori was any judge, it seemed to do the trick to comfort the mourning hobbit.
Ori himself hadn't sleep for long that night - his mind whirling about the image of Bilbo's wedding, his hand and strokes of his quill quick and sure, as he made a bigger sketch of the miniature. He couldn't give Bilbo a better present, he felt, as he watched Bilbo's eyes widening at the sight of the sketch.
For a moment, he felt as if someone pressed his shoulder, but when he looked around, no one had been even close to him to do so.
-o.O.o-
They haven't spoken about the subject for several weeks afterwards, when Bilbo let it slip that Viola thought something.
"Mister Boggins," offered unsure sounding Kili. "Your wife - we all know you loved her very much, but she's dead. She can't think anything anymore."
The hobbit looked unsure for a moment, before he continued in the plan he made. His eyes would slid to the side time to time, as he spoke, alarming the whole company, especially when they started to remember all those times when he would be talking to him, or to the empty air before.
Was their burglar hallucinating?
He still managed to get them out of Thranduil's prison, smuggling them out in the empty barrels, emptied by the feast the elves held. It was only because of him and his (no matter how much he claimed it was Viola's work) ideas of stealing Thranduil's valuables, so they could buy themselves new equipment and continue their way to Lonely Mountain.
Out of them all, he was the only one to fall sick - the long weeks of sneaking around elven palace with not enough foor or rest, together with the crazy barrel ride in cold waters taking their toll on the hobbit, rendering him feverish for several agonizing days, before he got better.
It brought tears into eyes of the dwarves, when he would call for his wife in his fever, none of them having the heart to tell him she's not there.
-o.O.o-
The sorrow finally drove their burglar mad, Dwalin thought, as he watched him calmly standing up and proclaiming himself as the source of the Arkenstone in Bard's hands. Even in depths of golden fever (all of them suffered from it, to various degree), Thorin was still their king, and as such, his will was their command - none of them dared to speak up, when Thorin threatened to throw the burglar down.
Still, they all felt a deep relief when the Wizard, Gandalf, called up and demanded Bilbo being returned to him, even if it actually might have been mercy to just kill him and let him rejoin the wife he loved so much.
-o.O.o-
All of the dwarves just knew their (if they still had the right to call him so) burglar had been present throughout the whole battle, later known as Battle of Five Armies. Every time any of them got into situation stickier than the rest, their opponent would be cut down by invisible blade, familiar voice shouting as the orcs fell.
"The eagles are coming!"
None of them had heard, nor seen, the hobbit afterwards, and it took them hours of frantic searching through the battlefield afterward to discover the lonely hobbit, surrounded by dead enemies.
He had been crying, with bloody wound on his head, and when Dwalin rushed to him, he only looked up and said: "She's gone."
And Dwalin couldn't do anything else than hold the weeping hobbit awkwardly in his arms, as he mourned the final loss of his wife. Never again had he spoke of her in present tense, but his eyes no longer held that deep sadness in them, even if smile still came only slowly to him.
-o.O.o-
It took decades to them to see their burglar again - Gloin ran into him in Rivendell, out of all possible places; the hobbit old and frail, but his eyes held surprisingly content look in them.
They spoke for a very long time, both of them having so many years to tell each other about, and both of them had someone they wanted the other one to get to know.
Bilbo finally got to meet Gimli, the dwarf he heard so much about, and Gloin got to meet the one who brought some joy into the life of his friend again - Bilbo's nephew Frodo. With so much to talk about, both of them left the youngsters to themselves, as they went to Bilbo's rooms to speak more.
Gloin didn't know it was the last time he saw his friend; but when his son returned to Lonely Mountain with news of the One Ring destroyed, and both hobbit ringbears leaving Middle Earth, he couldn't help but hope his friend would be reunited with his wife again.
His dreams that day had been full of laughter and blooming meadows, and he knew that his hope had been fullfilled.
A/N: By the way, I chose that "wedding miniature" mentioned in this chapter as the Story Image. I really wish I could draw, but sadly, all I have are my - at times questionable - writing skills.