They were much the same to each other through the weekend. The brothers spent a lot of their time together so Tauriel was allowed some peace to herself, feeling justified in her leisure as there was no need to be so vigilant if the teen patient wasn't left alone. She made sure Kili took his pills in the morning and at night, but wasn't met with the same carefree conversation she'd shared with him on Friday and before, and didn't feel the need to force it. If he was bitter with her still, then so be it: he earned nothing more than a courtesy "good morning" and "good night" when they came together.
On Sunday, she finally met her employer properly, at dinner with the family and a few guests. Thorin was stiff but not unpleasant in his conversation with her, shared over haddock and steamed broccoli; his fiancé Bilbo was much more engaging and asked her loads of questions she couldn't always answer. She permitted a response that her family was well and yes, she missed them, but was happy for the opportunity to work here. She didn't let anything get too personal quite yet, and the ever gracious man didn't press. He showed off his engagement ring more than once to her, praising the dazzling diamond arrangement his jewelry mogul fiancé had chosen, earning a sweet blush from the silent man sat beside him.
"Really sweet girl, don't you think?" Bilbo mumbled to Thorin with a small smile. "We'll have to seat her somewhere nice at the wedding," He received a hum of acknowledgment, one Bilbo knew him well enough to decipher, and was pleased with the limited exchange. "Don't mind him," he assured Tauriel; "It's been a long week."
Tauriel almost tried to take Kili aside for a moment after dinner on Monday, but they had their friends over again, and she thought better of it when she saw he was happily engaged with Fili and Ori and Sigrid. They were huddled already around the television in the basement, chatting and laughing amongst themselves in a sort of tight-knit group that Tauriel felt no place in breaking into. Besides— he didn't want to talk to her. Quietly, and with some sick feeling in her stomach, she slipped back away unnoticed.
She'd mistaken the library door for the exit, and felt too out of place to leave until things had quieted down in the other room. She strolled along the shelves, fingertips skimming the spines of all kinds of volumes, until her attention settled on Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go, a novel she vaguely remembered from a literature course she'd taken her first or second year of college. Deciding she wouldn't mind giving it another look (remembering how much she'd missed before the big reveal) she plucked it from the fourth shelf and settled into one of the comfortable chairs, adjusted the lamp and started.
Tauriel didn't get much sleep following a late read, and before she was woken. She briefly thought in her groggy state that of the few nights she had gone to bed late was followed by the one morning she was forced awake earlier than she usually was on her own. Her mind came to focus in on the person shaking her shoulder; Dis stood beside her bed in a robe, urging the young woman awake. "Tauriel."
"Mm, yes?" She blinked up through the darkness. Dis only backlit by the hallway light shining through the open doorway; Tauriel couldn't make out her face. "What's wrong, what is it?"
"Kili's gonna be spending the day in the Kwiet Room; he can come out when I get home."
"Is he okay?"
"He's fine –had a rough night but he'll be okay." Dis forced a smile that Tauriel could barely make out as her eyes adjusted. "Make sure he takes his pills; you can sit in there with him but he needs to rest."
Tauriel nodded, physically sluggish but mind already alert upon hearing the news. She shook off the covers and stood, twisting and tying her hair into a messy bun, about ready to start on her morning routine. She checked the time –4:47. "Is he awake?"
Dis shrugged and stood back up straight, stretching her back. "He might be; if he's asleep, don't wake him up until nine." Tauriel nodded and went to brush her teeth.
Kili was already awake when she went in in her pajamas, lying flat on his back, tossing a Koosh ball up in the air and catching like he had a thousand times before. "It's too early for this," he groaned. It was somewhat a relief to her that even when he was unwell, the boy was his usual restless self. She asked how he was feeling and he shrugged his shoulders as well as he could in his position. "Same as every other day I spend in here; and even though it's so early, no more tired than if it was, like, three in the afternoon." He bitterly acknowledged that come three he would still be in here.
"I heard you had a rough night." She was still standing in the doorway.
"Nightmares, that's all. Come in."
She stepped cautiously to a chair in the corner and sat down. The angle to watch him from here was a bit odd, but she didn't say anything about it. "Do you wanna talk?"
"Not about that." It seemed his grudge against her foremost dedication to her job had disintegrated overnight. "We could talk about something else?"
"Like?"
"I dunno. What's going on in your life? We didn't talk much this weekend or anything, or yesterday when it was just the two of us. That was awkward as all hell, wasn't it?"
She didn't respond directly. Yes, the blatant silence between them had been almost stifling, but both were headstrong and unwilling to be the first to come forward and admit they'd been wrong. It'll make for an interesting dynamic, she mused with a small smile. "I was reading last in. In the library."
"Oh. Sorry, I didn't see you down there."
"Don't worry about it." She sighed softly and looked around at the blank white walls and white shelves around the white-sheeted bed. "So— is this all there is to your time in here?"
"Pretty much," he drawled, tossing the ball back up in the air and catching it before it smacked him in the face. "But normally I don't get company, it's usually just me."
"Is that because you're supposed to be resting?"
He laughed a little. "I get distracted from that really easily, or so Ma says. "I'm surprised you let you join me –or did you come without her knowing?"
There was a slight hopeful lilt in his voice and Tauriel nodded. "I came to see how you were doing, after I heard you weren't well."
"Oh –ignore that, really. I'm fine. She's kinda overprotective, I think you noticed." He seemed very relaxed and Tauriel wanted to keep up that lazy air about them so he wouldn't get worked up again. They talked like that for a while, an easiness settling like the silence had never been a thing between them. After a while, with a smile that spoke something like gratitude, Kili noted how he was feeling better after a few hours with her than he ever felt when left in here alone for a day.
Tauriel smiled down at the ground and then out the window. The sun was already hovering over the horizon somewhere in the sky, and everything was the pale blue of a sweet summery morning. "I'm glad," she replied simply, and thought now how if the weather held out tomorrow, maybe they'd explore the lands a bit. She'd leave it up to him, of course, and whether he was truly feeling up to the long walk, but she'd very much like to see the woods and the meadows she only knew from the balcony.
"Are you hungry?" Kili had noticed the time and his own stomach was starting to growl. Tauriel checked her phone –eight on the dot— and decided they could both do with some breakfast. She stood and smiled at him –"I'll go make us something."— and opened the window to let him feel the breeze before she left.
Tauriel didn't notice how aggressive she was beating the eggs in the skillet when Sigrid came downstairs. Really, she meant no hostility to the only other young woman in the house (in fact, she should be making an effort to make friends); there was something distasteful about her, though, that the nurse couldn't quite place—
"You're making breakfast?" And the smile she gave softened Tauriel just a bit, and she told her she was trying, at least. Tauriel honestly knew very little about cooking, but she'd make an effort to learn. She continued with the eggs in the pan when she was approached and gently nudged away from the cookery. "Let me help," Sigrid insisted, easily taking over and fixing the food like it had never been in the other's hands. "I do the cooking at home –eggs, bacon, sausage, coffee. I can make you an omelet, if you'd like!"
She nodded and backed against the breakfast bar, watching intently. "How was your sleep?" she asked absently while the tattoo parlor receptionist gathered additional ingredients from the fridge.
"Oh –it was alright. Didn't you wake up though?"
She frowned, confused. "Wake up to what?"
Sigrid winced and cracked to eggs into the hot buttered skillet. "Kili's nightmare ended rather loudly, I guess you slept more deeply than everyone else did."
That struck Tauriel but she fished for more information. "Who was it that woke up?"
"Fili, Dis and I all gathered in his room; poor thing was so frantic, about to pass out, but Fili calmed him down enough that he wasn't in danger. He must've woken Bilbo and maybe Thorin too—" (Tauriel was a little wary of how she was on a first name basis with everyone) "because Bilbo came out and asked if he should call an ambulance. Dis had be assure both of them that it was alright."
"Kili didn't tell me about any of this. We've been in the Kwiet Room talking for a while."
Sigrid didn't seem to like hearing that, and without much reason, Tauriel felt that urge to dislike her again. The conversation seemed to end there until three more people joined them in the kitchen. Thorin grunted a "good morning" to each of them (by name, in fact) and went for the coffee machine. Dis came in already dressed for her classes and didn't say anything, going for the fridge and plucking out an orange. Fili was shirtless and went right up to the two of them, just as Sigrid was starting on some bacon. "You're gonna burn yourself on the bacon grease," the amateur chef laughed, gently nudging him away without much success.
Fili only stood closer, bidding each a good morning with a smile that didn't quite reach his tired eyes. "How's everyone doing this morning?" Tauriel watched the bacon sizzle and pop and a drop of grease almost struck the young man's bare chest. She gave a noncommittal "fine" and stepped aside.
"It's almost ready, Tauriel," Sigrid announced, to which she received no answer.
"Make me one, too?" Fili asked, leaning against her. Sigrid hummed and pulled away to get more eggs from the carton. He grinned at her and hugged her sideways quick before approaching his uncle at the table. "I'm not going in today," he said, soft but decisive.
Thorin looked up at him over the edge of his mug. "What do you mean?" Fili was supposed to go in to Arkenstone with him today, and he'd be in quite a foul mood if his nephew was choosing one of the two days this week for such an opportunity to pick up more time at the tattoo parlor. Fili sensed this and crinkled his nose, shaking his head.
"I'm gonna stay with Kili, make sure he's alright." This seemed to catch the attention of the rest of those in the dining room and kitchen.
Thorin narrowed his eyes and spoke calmly, matter-of-factly. "That's what we hired her for," she countered, gesturing to Tauriel.
Fili glanced at her briefly and then turned back. "I know, but I figure I should probably be around." He annunciated each word very carefully to express that he knew what he was doing, and that there was no point in arguing. He respected Uncle Thorin very highly but he had a responsibility more pressing than the family business.
Thorin didn't say a word; he turned on his tablet and drank his coffee, waiting for Bilbo to arrive.