Gold and Fire – Chapter 29 – One Year Later
watch?v=Z08mfbrLpNE "In the Stream" S. Carey
One year later…
Kili knew Nur had caught him when his eyes rested on her pregnant stomach.
"I can see you looking at it, just go ahead and touch it—everyone else does without permission." Nur sighed with a smile and a shake of her head.
Pulling the glove from his hand, Kili reached out tentatively to her belly. He was startled by how soft it was, presuming it would feel more like tough hide. Kili jumped a little when he felt something bump against his hand. Grinning widely, he gently pressed against the thing that had done the nudging and was met with an answering kick, Nur laughing at the two of them.
"I haven't been gone that long, have I?" Kili honestly asked.
"According to your brother, you have," Nur said with a slight clench of her teeth. And that was when Kili realized the clench had nothing to do with her reply to him—she crammed her eyes shut and let out a soft, steady breath, with her hand on her rounded belly.
"Nur?" Kili's eyes went wide, understanding that she was in pain and not knowing what it was supposed to mean. "Oh, Mahal! Do you need a healer? What do you want me to do?"
With eyes still closed, Nur raised a hand to silence him and took another low breath. "Don't panic, it's fine." A few more breaths and her grimace relaxed, eyes opening. "I'm sorry about that. It's been ongoing for two days; the physicians tell me I might have another day or so left…" But Kili's face still looked panicked. "Kili, I promise, it's fine."
Not realizing he'd been holding a breath in, Kili exhaled and rubbed a tired hand over his face. "I guess I have been gone a while. I didn't expect to be an uncle so soon." He was struck by the irony of the situation when she laid a comforting hand on his shoulder—she was practically in labor and soothing him!
"How are you even walking around? Shouldn't you be on bed rest?" He asked incredulously.
Fixing both of her hands on her hips, Nur raised an eyebrow and tilted her head at him. "Honestly, if you were carrying something around your waist for as long as this and it was almost time to be relieved of it, would you be sitting still?"
"Kili!" He heard his name echo through the hall and turned to see his older brother jogging to them.
Kili grinned widely and took a few steps forward to clap forearms and touch heads with Fili.
"It's been too long," His brother murmured when they pulled apart, arms crossed despite his smile.
"Admit it; you were glad to be rid of me for a while."
Nur let out another breath and grimaced, the two dwarves sparing her a look. "Still fine," she waved them off between breaths. "Keep talking."
"Where is your elven companion?" Fili smirked.
"Just behind by a few hours," Kili said, watching Nur blow out what looked like a painful breath. "Our route to Mirkwood forest isn't as quick as I'd like it to be, so we're having to compensate by charting out different paths."
"That could take some time," Fili said, eyes on Kili and seemingly ignoring the breaths of his wife. Kili knew that if this had been his wife, he would have been frantic at her bouts of pain, but he remembered Fili had already endured two days of seeing her that way. "Would it be faster to chart if you had help?"
"Are you offering?" Kili asked, finally taking his gaze from Nur, who was making low groans now. "Because I won't argue if you are."
"Absolutely, I'm offering." Fili said insistently while his wife groaned a little louder. "If it will get you to visit more often." Kili could hear the disapproval in his brother's voice. He could also hear the snap of Nur's teeth as she clenched them together.
"I know you want me to stay here," Kili said, recalling the argument between him and Fili had when Kili had left a year ago. "But I'm not ready just yet."
"Lads," Nur said, and Kili supposed it was to stop the upcoming quarrel before it happened.
"I wasn't ready for what got thrust on my shoulders either, Kili," Fili said condescendingly, taking Nur's hand when she reached out to grip him, but not taking his eyes off of his brother. "You know I could use your help."
"You have so much help already," Kili crossed his arms. "Nur, Dul, Dwalin, Balin—need I go on?"
"Lads," Nur heaved.
"Yes, and they all have the same problem—they're not you." Fili grumbled.
"Lads!" Nur cried out. The hand she outstretched to Fili grasped strongly at him. "I think I need to see a medic…" she murmured, just before her legs began to wobble.
There was nothing to hold back Kili's panic now and he saw Fili mimic what he was sure was his own wide-eyed expression.
With more speed, surety, and strength than Kili thought possible, Fili scooped up his wife and cradled her against him, charging for the set of stairs he'd just descended from. And because he was still completely panicked and unsure what to do, Kili followed.
"You don't need to carry me," Nur said through gritted teeth and a moan, though it looked like she wasn't really objecting.
"I think you wandered a bit too far from the infirmary for my comfort, love," Fili uttered sternly up the steps. "What possessed you to walk three levels of stairs while in labor?" Kili could tell that his brother wasn't really angry when he said this, and he knew Nur was aware of it, too, because she grinned up at him.
"It's Kili's fault—they said he was returning and I wanted to greet him."
"My fault? I never asked you to traverse three sets of—"
"I was joking," Nur said, gripping her husband's tunic until her knuckles were white. "I'm sorry, Fili. Next time I won't go farther than two levels of stairs."
Huffing from exertion, though losing no speed, Kili watched his brother turn the corner for the next set of stairs.
"Next time, my dear, you'll not be allowed to leave the royal chambers, let alone a set of stairs." He said, sparing her a smile though Kili could sense his brother's anxiety…
The very last level of stairs, Fili had to admit, was overshadowed with the fear that he might be delivering his son on those steps himself, but with Kili beside him and the oncoming healers taking in his worried look, he knew everything was as under control.
The healers took hold of Nur and guided her into a room beyond the common healing quarters, ushering Fili away from the room to stand outside the doors with Kili. But it wasn't long before he felt a strong hand on his shoulder and he realized Nur had stomped back with an angry look and was pulling him into the room along with her.
"The King of Erebor may go where he pleases," Nur growled at the physicians that objected. "And he pleases to be in the room with me."
Fili almost laughed at Kili's surprise in hearing such a statement, but he was a little distracted by his wife's urgency to make it into the birthing room. It was not a custom of male dwarves to be on hand with their laboring spouses, but he could remember the night when he'd been lying in bed unable to sleep just from thinking about it:
"Fili, why are you still awake?" Nur asked groggily, rolling over and laying her arm across her husband's bare chest.
"Nur, can I ask you for something?" Fili whispered in an almost desperate voice.
"Anything, love." She said.
"Even if it's something… unconventional?" He asked, kissing her forehead as she burrowed into his shoulder.
"Fili, I've done the unconventional for you before," she said, flicking her earlobe and the bolt which pierced through the middle. "What's wrong?"
"When our son comes—"
"Or daughter."
"Not likely," Fili said, though he longed and ached for such a miracle, as most dwarf babies were lads. "When our son comes, I'd like to be there for it."
"I won't object to that." Nur said with raised eyebrows. "Are you sure, though?"
"Yes." He nodded and closed his eyes, as though the permission she'd just given was enough to allow him to sleep. But he had piqued Nur's curiosity and her chin was perched on his chest, inches away from his face.
"Why did that worry you?" She asked quietly.
His eyes popped open. "Because," He paused to search for the words. "We've already done so much apart."
"That was that hand we were dealt," Nur said, though she understood the weight of his words.
"I wasn't there to save you from Gren. I wasn't there when you trained with the Akkik. And I wasn't wholly aware most of the time that we fought together in the battle at Erebor's door. I don't want to be absent from another struggle."
The words brought out a deep hurt, but he was distracted by the way his wife was beaming at him from his chest. She seemed incredibly pleased with the sentiment he conveyed and left him with no doubt she would accommodate him, even if it meant taking on the healers in hand-to-hand combat.
And here they were, he mused.
Nur's legs gave out and she clutched at her belly, causing Fili to support her firmly by the elbow and raise her enough to help her to the bed. Scooping her up again, Fili set his wife's burdened body down on the mattress, asking more than a few questions of the Master Physician while the dwarf examined Nur.
The Master Physician paused for a moment scrutinizing Fili and she replied, "Part of the reason we don't allow lads in here is because they get in the way of things."
Clapping his jaw shut and backing away to a wall, Fili realized that King or no, he wasn't going to argue with the Master Physician when it came to caring for Nur. A short laugh and a sympathetic look later, she waved Fili back over. "I didn't mean you had to become a part of the wall. If you're set on being a part of this, you might as well help."
"Help?" Fili's eyes went wide. He was intimidated by what the physician might ask him to do.
The healer saw the look and laughed, "Just sit beside her and hold her hand for now," and then with another chortle, she added, "If she'll let you."
Nur sent the physician an angry look and, without taking her fearsome gaze away from her, made a show of grabbing Fili's hand, as though proving she wasn't about to tell him 'no'.
"Best not to intimidate her," Fili grinned at the Master Physician. "She's an Akkik lass."
The healer nodded her head at this, but didn't seem affected by the new information.
After a few different attempts at comfort, Fili found himself kneeling behind Nur on the bed, reaching under her shoulders and running his arms under hers like an armchair. She gripped his hands, squeezing them while riding through each wave of pain and resting her back against his chest when the waves died down.
After a few hours of this, she looked utterly spent, and cried softly during a moment of rest.
"Not much longer," Fili breathed into her hair, wiping away a tear from her face with his thumb. Her knuckles would turn white when she gripped and a throbbing red when she rested, but not once did he let go.
Fili looked down at the person in his hands and marveled at her size, pacing the carpeted floor at the foot of Nur's bed. "She's like a little glass doll."
"Mm-hm." Nur answered sleepily, head lolling on the pillow. Fili had helped his wife to sit up, but now she was slowly drifting away from the waking world and leaning more and more to her side. It had been a few hours since their daughter's delivery and Nur had fought to stay awake for every moment, but Fili saw that it was a losing battle.
"Oh, love," He laughed softly to Nur. "Just give in already, this lass is in good hands."
"Mm-hm." She mumbled again, far gone enough to prove that she believed him.
Fili shifted the bundle of his daughter to one hand easily and used the other to pull the blankets up to Nur's chin, tucking it around her body before kissing her forehead.
"We've got some aunts and uncles to meet," He cooed to the infant.
Kili smiled as he watched Tauriel hold his new niece.
"I've never held a creature so small before," Tauriel whispered softly as she kissed sleeping face of Fili's daughter. Tauriel cradled the infant reverently, her smile wide as she stared, enchanted.
"Are elf babes much bigger?" Kili asked, touching a tentative finger just below the child's rosebud lips.
"I don't know; I've never seen one." She ducked her head to whisper to the infant. "You are small enough to fit inside my arrow quiver."
Enthralled by the affect the newborn was having on Tauriel, Kili kissed the elf's temple. "Best not give in to that idea," Kili simpered, squeezing Tauriel's elbow. "Fili would send an army after you if you tried to steal her."
"And I would fight them off with every breath in my body," She said in a high, but soft tone to the tiny dwarf-girl, brushing her lips against the babe's forehead.
Kili paused. A question burned within him and he knew it would escape his mouth despite his caution. "Tauriel…" He let his hand drop from her elbow. "Tauriel, do you want… would you ever…" He shook his head, smiling at himself and sighing. "Nevermind."
"A child?" She finished for him in a calming voice. "It is tempting, Master Dwarf, to see you with your own sweet daughter in your arms."
"No." Kili said and then laughed at the startled expression on Tauriel's face. "I intend to father sons, and if you've decided to see it through with me, you'd better be ready for a rowdy set of lads."
So ends the formal chapters of Gold and Fire. I'm sure I will add a few more here and there, but essentially the story is over. If you're interested in reading what happened to Kili and Tauriel during their one-year adventure to return Bilbo to the Shire, you can read Stars and Hammers. If you're interested in seeing what happened with Thorin and Runa (as well as an alternate, happier ending), you can read Jewels and Daggers. If you're looking for a laugh making fun of fan fictions (including my own), you can read How To Wreck A Mary Sue.
Though I won't stop working on my other stories, I WANT TO READ YOUR STORIES! Please leave links or titles in the reviews (or in Private Messaging, if you prefer) and I'll peruse through them and leave you reviews!
Kili and Tauriel STARS AND HAMMERS: s/10824894/2/Stars-and-Hammers
Thorin and Runa JEWELS AND DAGGERS: s/10670728/1/Jewels-and-Daggers
Fan-fiction Parody, Kili and Original Character HOW TO WRECK A MARY SUE: s/10776523/1/How-To-Wreck-a-Mary-Sue
