Thank you iamCAMBRIA for beta! You´re awesome!

Thanks to all who read, review, favourite and so on this story AND the other stories! You guys rock!

Chapter 14

Wages and blood

…

"Are you all well?" Gandalf asked her when she got out of the troll cave.

The Wizard and Bilbo had heard Billie and Thorin arguing with each other. The two had become a bit worried, when Thorin came out of the cave alone. They were only slightly relieved when Billie walked out a little bit later. As she approached them she noticed Gandalf had given Bilbo an Elven blade.

"I am fine," Billie admitted, a bit irritated. "But we should get going, the faster the better."

Gandalf nodded and walked towards the Dwarves to tell them to begin packing up. Thorin looked towards Billie and noticed she was rubbing her shoulder. He recalled that she had been wounded there. And judging by the way it looks, it hadn't healed well. Remember their squabble in the cave, he vaguely wondered if he had agitated the old battle wound. Swallowing down any guilt he felt, Thorin turned towards his kin and began barking out orders.

"Are you all right?" Bilbo asked Billie. "You look a little pale."

"I do?" She asked worried and looked at him.

Bilbo nodded.

Billie bit back any doubts she had. "I´ll be fine, let´s go. I have a feeling that we're going to attacked soon."

They followed the Dwarves who returned to the camp. She looked back at where they came from. A bit of nervousness and something else rose uncomfortably in her stomach.

"Shouldn´t you tell Thorin?" Bilbo asked.

"He won´t listen to me and…wait—something's wrong," Billie stated, looking around her to get a bearing on things. Radagast should have been here by now. She thought suspiciously.

"Let´s move out!" Thorin called out.

Billie frowned when she saw all the ponies and horses were accounted for. She mounted Val with apprehension but decided not to warn Gandalf; they kept riding. She looked back at where they came from and her frown deepened. Why were they not running for their lives towards Rivendell? Where was the pack of Orcs that were to chase them?

The Dwarves wanted breakfast, especially after the trolls, but Thorin told them to keep moving and eat on the way if they had to. Billie had taken up the Hobbit book and looked to the pages after the trolls' incident. So they're journey was going after the book and the movie…

Great! She thought sardonically, practically slamming the book closed.

"What´s that?" Ori asked her. She hadn´t noticed she had ended up in the back in the line and Ori at her side. "The book?"

"Oh it´s… Only a book, nothing really," Billie answered.

"There´s something I need to tell you and I hope you can forgive me."

She looked at him curiously. "Forgive you for what?" She rubbed her left shoulder again. It hurts like hell. Her mind growled warningly.

"In your home, I was also in the library when you talked to Miss Jane," he said.

Billie wasn´t sure what he meant.

"You talked about our future."

Ah, it now made sense.

"You heard it?" She asked worriedly. "You weren´t supposed to hear that, I am so sorry Ori."

"Why are you sorry?" He asked. "You should forgive me, I did not mean to eavesdrop. I hope you can forgive me."

She smiled to him.

"There´s nothing to forgive, Ori," Billie amended. "Of course I don´t like that you heard it, but what can you do? Just keep it down, I don´t want anyone to know."

"I will, I promise, but does Thorin know? I can´t lie to him."

"Sadly, yes," Billie answered and looked at the front of the line were Thorin was. "This is what the book is about and that is why Gandalf and Jane brought me here. To change the future."

"So something bad happens then?" Ori murmured.

"Not to you," Billie said and smiled, though he didn´t smile. "I am going to change it, Ori, the story of the company of Thorin Oakenshield will have a happy ending and I will return knowing full well that all of you will be happy too."

"Maybe," Ori said and smiled.

"Maybe?" Billie asked.

"Well…"

"What?" Billie asked. She saw it on him he wasn´t supposed to tell her. "Tell me, why maybe?"

"We took wages after the first week you were here, if you want to return to your world or not," Ori said. "Most of them bet you will go home."

Billie looked at the Company steam practically roiling from her ears.

"Bloody hell! They did what?" She yelled.

All of them stopped and turned to her.

"Something wrong, lass?" Bofur asked.

"You took wages if I would return home or not?" She asked them.

"Ori! You weren´t supposed to tell!" Dori hissed nervously.

"No, he was supposed to tell," Billie snapped angrily. "You can´t just take wages if I will return, of course I will. Right Gandalf?"

Gandalf did not answer only kept moving.

"Gandalf?"

The Dwarves laughed and followed him.

"Come on!" She throws her arms up in the air only for pain to come shooting up in her shoulder.

Billie stopped Val and put her hand on the back of her shoulder, under the clothing. She drew back to reveal blood on her hand.

"Shit…"

Billie dried the blood off under her fleece and thanked herself for buying a black fleece. She turned to her sack and took out some bandages, hoping no one noticed. By the look of it no one did, as she was in the back of their travel line. When they stopped she applied the bandages on the wound and let it be; hopefully it wouldn't fester. She didn´t want to stop for too long, for she didn´t want to delay them. It was already bad blood between her and Thorin.

Billie looked back at Ori who had rode faster to catch up with the other Dwarves. She frowned when something came up in her mind. When she looked at Ori, the image of Moria came in her mind and she wasn´t quite sure why.

She only shrugged her shoulders, ignoring it for now and saw the Dwarves passing bread and dried meat among each other.

Gloin came to her and handed some food to Billie. They rode next to each other quite often now.

"No thank you, I´m not hungry," she said.

"You´re pale, you need to eat," Gloin argued.

"I´ll be fine," Billie assured him. "Aren´t all Elves pale?"

Gloin growled in frustration and to make him happy Billie took some of the bread.

"Thank you?"

Gloin smiled and watched her eat it slowly. He had to make sure she got something in her.

"You´re all but skin and bone," Gloin muttered.

"I heard you," Billie sniggered.

"But you are!"

"I can tell you from my world it is normal, some are thinner than me. Most of my friends are actually thinner and have less muscles, you saw Jane right?" She said almost a little too proud.

"Still too thin," Gloin stated.

Billie chuckled. She stopped moving her head when she got a headache. She grabbed her water bottle and drank some. The pounding against her skull increased and her vision swam with spots and lights.

What…?

Gloin looked at the ground when he saw Billie's strange plastic water bottle fall. He glanced up at her and saw her eyes close. She fell towards her left, when Gloin was on her right.

"Oi, lass!" He shouted out, lunging to grab the front of her jacket.

The others all stopped just in time to seeing Gloin failing to catch the falling Billie.