Febe was sitting in the healing chambers with a cut of tea in her hand while Dori was braiding her hair in a weird pattern, Ori was sketching something in his journal and Nori was telling stories about his good old days as a thief. It felt nice to have some company once because if it wasn't Thorin telling her to heal that it would be one of the elves telling her to stay in bed. With a loud sigh she took another sip from her drink.
"What's wrong, lass?" Dori asked, it was as if he could actually hear emotions beneath her sigh.
"Nothing." Febe said with a small sigh. "It just... Seeing you three together reminds me of my sisters, that's all. Nothing to worry about."
"You have siblings?" Nori asked playing with a knife in his hand. "How many?"
"Two sisters and two brothers." She smiled. "I'm the oldest. Then there's Kayleigh, she's sixteen and Sifra is fifteen. Then there are my brothers, Kaleb, who's twelve and Jethro who just turned ten."
"Those are a lot of kids." Nori smiled. "But if your sister is sixteen, how old are you?"
"I'm eighteen." Febe frowned when Nori laughed. "What's so funny?"
"You're not eighteen." He chuckled. "You look at least eighty, eighty five at most."
"That would make me older then my grandfather." She snorted. "But If you think I'm eighty then how old are you? If I can ask of course."
"I'm ninety-three." Ori smiled. "You don't really want to know about the others."
"Ori!" Dori scolded at the same moment Jessica crashed through the door. She slammed in behind her and hid in the closet.
"Jessica, what are you-?"
"I'm not here." Jessica interrupted Febe. "You haven't seen me since yesterday evening, okay?"
"What did you do?"
"Lets just say that Thorin Oakenshield turned into Florin Flowershield."Jessica's voice came from in the closet. Febe was about to talk again but Thorin almost broke down the door. For a quick second she lost her breath. Febe gasped as she saw Thorin. He had a couple of flowers in his hair and she really tried not to laugh. Dori, Nori and Ori did the same.
"Have any of you seen Jessica?" He growled. "I have a rather urgent subject to discus with her."
"Nope." Febe said at bit her lip not to smile. "Last time I saw her was this morning during breakfast. Maybe she is with Kili? And you got, um… Something in your hair."
"I'm going to kill her." He mumbled and walked out the door again.
"Jessica, what did you do?" Febe hissed as her friends climbed out of the closet again. Jessica wiped away imaginary sweat and sighed.
"I was bored." She whined. "And he was basically asking for it."
"Asking for what?!"
"I put flowers in his hair." Jessica smiled. "I'm sorry… I couldn't help myself!"
"But why of all people did you have to choose Thorin?!" Febe frowned. "You couldn't have chosen Dwalin?! He's going to kill you and I rather have you in one piece. God, Jess! You just wrote your name in the book of death. If I were you I would go and apologize you're basically asking to get kicked out of the company… Now go and apologize!"
"No!" Jessica said in a small panic. "I can't do that. He's already going to kill me… Didn't you hear him?! I'm not doing it. I'm already dead."
"Don't make me push you out of the room." Febe threatened.
"You wouldn't." Jessica gasped.
"I would."
"I'm not going."
"If you don't go then I'll take your tablet!"
"No!"
"Then go apologize." Febe said through clashed teeth.
"No! But please don't take my tablet." Jessica said. "I'll leave your room."
"He will find you anyway." Dori said finishing the last braid of Febe's hair. "Not even Fili and Kili were ever able to out run him with their pranks as lads."
"I'll take my chances." Jessica smiled. "Gentlemen, milady. It has been an honor to know you." And with that she saluted and walked out the door. Febe rubbed her eyes and jumped when she heard a loud roar and a scream. Not two seconds later Jessica ran past the door with Thorin stomping behind her.
"Was that Thorin chasing Jessica?" Simone asked and walked into the healing chambers. "What did she do this time?"
"Jessica thought that it would be fun to decorate Thorin's hair with flowers." Febe said rolling her eyes. "I think Thorin thought of it differently."
"Thorin put me down!"
Dori, Nori, Ori, Febe and Simone gave each other a worried look before they jumped to their feet and hurried down the hall. They followed Jessica's voice outside and they ran up to her. Thorin was carrying Jessica over his shoulder and threw her in the closest lake. He turned around and walked away but Febe saw the small smile on his face.
"Jessica, are you okay?" Simone asked and walked up to the water.
"No, I am not okay!" Jessica growled as she swam to shore. "He threw me in the water! This is not- Argh! Something touched my foot!" She was up of the water in less then two seconds. Febe, Simone and the Ri-Brothers were laughing so hard they couldn't breath.
XxX
"You enjoyed that." Febe said as she leaned into the opening of the balcony were Thorin was.
"What are you talking about?" He asked.
"Throwing Jessica in the water."
"Why would you think that?"
"You had a smile on your face." She smiled. "That's not something you see everyday."
"It was either throwing her in the lake of beheading her." Thorin said and crossed his arms.
"Right… Well I'm glad that you didn't cut her head off. How would I explain that to her parents?!" Febe asked dramatic. "I don't think beheading is part of the vacation."
"Is that what this is to you?" He asked. "A vacation?"
"I don't know what this is." She sighed. "I don't even know what we're doing here. I know Gandalf said that we were here for a reason but for some reason no one knows why so I am going to take this adventure, or quest or whatever you want to name it, as a vacation-You still got a couple of flowers in your hair…"
Febe could hear the king grown and Thorin moved his hand through his hand hair but it only made the flowers bury themselves more. Febe shook her head in amusement and walked up to him. For a moment she hesitated but she moved her hand through his hair and started to help and remove the flowers. Thorin was about to protest but when her fingers brushed through his thick black mane he felt himself relax for the first time in days.
"How the hell did she-" Febe cursed under her breath as she tried to untangle the flowers. "Your hair is an absolute disaster."
"Febe!?"
"Oh what now?"
Simone came walking in and sent the two an odd look. Febe could see her biting back a smile and rolled her eyes.
"Have you seen Jess?" Simone asked trying not to laugh.
"Not since she went to get changed about an hour ago. Why?" Febe asked removing the last flower.
"I can't find her and the others haven't seen her either."
"Did you check our bedroom?" Febe asked again.
"Yeah but she isn't there." Simone rubbed her eyes. "I looked everywhere. I checked the room, the healing thingy were you basically live, the balcony, kitchen, outside. I can't find her anywhere."
"Maybe the elves took her."
"That is not funny." Thorin growled softly. "Did you look in every room?"
"Do you know how many rooms there are in Rivendell?" Simone asked as if he said something stupid. "A LOT of rooms so if you want to look in everyone of them then be my guest."
"I don't understand why you are so worried." Thorin said. "The girl is probably chasing butterflies and will be back by supper."
"You don't know Jess." Febe said and pinched the bridge of her nose. "Maybe she went to talk to lord Elrond or Raina. Maybe she took a horse and rode off again."
"What do you mean again?"
"Nothing." She quickly answered and removed her hand from Thorin's hair. She hadn't noticed that she was playing with his hair. "We should go and look for her. Let's hope she didn't go to far."
XxX
They looked for three more hours and found nothing. When dinner was ready the dwarves and hobbit were more then glad to eat but not Febe and Simone. They dripped themselves in there seats and sighed. Febe played with her salad while Simone looked into her mug.
"Come on, cheer up." Fili put an arm around Simone. "We'll find her. I'm sure that she didn't leave all by herself… She's not that stupid."
"I wouldn't be so sure about that." Simone huffed. "You never know with Jess. This is all your uncle's fault."
"How so?"
"He threw her down a lake." She hissed.
"And she put flowers in his hair."
"Fine you win. Are we sure that we brought her with when we had the plane crash?" She asked Febe.
"Again with the plane crash!" Febe threw her hands in the air. "There was no fucking plane crash! I'll let you kill me if we did."
"I'm going to kill Jessica first." Simone mumbled.
"I'm actually starting to think that beheading her wasn't such a bad idea after all."
"Now where would the fun in that be?" Kili smirked. "And you don't mean that. You two love her even through all her… Uniqueness."
"That we do." Febe smiled. "Jess will always be Jess and I guess that's a good thing- Wow- What? Wait hold on… Did you just call her unique?"
"N-no!" Kili defended and tried to look everywhere but to the girl next to him. "Oh look! There she is."
"JESSICA!" The two friends shouted when the dark haired girl appeared again. "WHERE THE FUCK HAVE YOU BEEN?!"
Jessica jumped at the sound. She tightened her grip around her book and pressed it closer to her chest. She didn't know what she did wrong but she could see that her friends were concerned and not angry though she felt everyone's eyes on her. She sighed and walked up to her friends.
"Where have you been?" The other two asked again.
"Library."
"L-l-library?" Simone asked a bit surprised. "When do you ever go to the library? You never go there and now you just visit there without telling us and disappearing for three hours! We have been looking everywhere for you."
"Apparently not." Jessica said with a stupid smirk on her face and stuck out her tongue while she took a seat next to Kili.
"What were you doing there?" He asked.
"I taught myself how to read a map. Well actually lord Elrond helped me… It was actually really fun. I even studied the different plants and animals but they had no unicorns." She pouted.
"You studied?" Febe asked. "We have summer holiday and you decide to study? Where's the fun in that? We were supposed to have fun and forget school. This is New Zealand- Er… Middle Earth, not collage. Why would you want to study?"
"Well I figured that I wouldn't be bad for an other person to know the road to Erebor." Jessica smiled. "After all… Thorin already lost his way when he traveled to Bilbo's house. Twice, if I remember correctly so I don't think directions are his strong point."
Fili, Kili, Febe and Simone covered their mouths and tried to hold back their laughs.
"What?" Jessica asked laughing. "It's the truth!"