~~ Elena ~~

When she woke up, she was alone in the room, although her sister seemed to have cleaned it up before she left, and someone must have stoked the fire, because she was absolutely roasting underneath her blankets. The empty tub had been pushed to one side, and their dirty clothes had been gathered up, whether to be washed when they got the opportunity, or just put out of sight, she didn't know. She let out a soft sigh and sat up, starting to stretch before the pain in her left arm told her that it was a bad idea. She shrank back down, rubbing her arm instinctively in an effort to dull the pain.

There was a knock on the door before her sister opened it and peered in. "El? You awake? Because if not I - oh. Uh, I brought Óin to take a look at your arm. You okay with that?"

Elena nodded, sitting up fully and unraveling the loose wrap from her arm so that the older healer could take a look at it. She tried not to look at it as Óin examined her arm, twisting it gently to view it from different angles in the light from the window.

She typically wasn't squeamish at the sight of blood - and she had seen a lot of it in the past few months - but there was something about the sight of your own blood that made her slightly nauseous. Then again, it could also be fever from infection, or something like that. For all they knew, the arrow had been poisoned, and the athelas had only delayed it.

"How are you feeling?" the dwarf asked her, peering at her with sharp eyes. "And mind you don't hide anything, even if it seems like something minor. It could be important in the long run."

She chewed on her lip absentmindedly before admitting that she felt slightly nauseous. "It could be from seeing my own blood, though. It's happened before several times, and the nausea doesn't feel too bad. My arm doesn't hurt too much, it's pretty much just a dull pain unless I touch it, or stretch it or something. But I also feel really hot. Did someone stoke the fire in here, or is it just me?"

Óin glanced at her sister, seeming to have a silent exchange before turning back to her. "Lass, the fire's burned down to just the coals. It's not putting out much in the way of heat. Your cheeks are flushed, and your eyes are dull. Not to mention the heat radiating from your skin. I'd say you have a fever."

"Does that -" Celia swallowed hard. "Does that mean that the arrow was poisoned? Or that the wound got infected?"

Óin shook his head. "It's too soon to tell, I'm sorry. But the redness and swelling around the site have gone down, so that's a good sign. The athelas may have helped with that. Applying more may help keep any infection at bay, and I can brew up a tea that will help with the nausea. And the bleeding has stopped, which is good. I'll see if they have any more athelas around here - the last of my supply was ruined in the river, and I believe the last of yours was used already."

He strode to the door, deep in thought before turning around. "If you feel up to it, I think the two lads were wanting to see you - they were a fair bit worried about you earlier. Shall I send them up?"

Elena nodded, a small smile appearing on her face. "Sure. That'd be nice, thanks."

"Óin," Celia called, just as he was about to shut the door behind him. "Ori might have some more athelas. I don't think we used his, just mine and Kíli's. I didn't even think of it earlier, or I would've used it by now."

Óin chuckled. "Don't blame yourself too much, lass. Things were a touch crazy for a while, there. And the rest did your sister good, even if she doesn't look it. I'll be back with the tea in a bit." He sent a firm glance to Celia. "Make sure she doesn't get too roused up, and feel free to send them out if she gets too tired. Rest can only help her, and we're not going anywhere until Bard gets back with some weapons for us, at least, and he told us that might be a while, since the house is being watched."

Celia nodded. "Hear that, El?" she asked, looking sidelong at her sister. "No roughhousing."

Elena rolled her eyes. "Gee, what a shame. And here I was looking forward to a rousing game of arm wrestling. Such a disappointment. How ever will I go on in life with this crushing news weighing me down so heavily?" She flopped down on her bed and draped her good arm dramatically across her eyes.

"I can feel your sarcasm from here," her twin deadpanned, coming to sit on the bed besides her. "Better be careful, it could be permanent."

"What, like the story that if you make weird faces, it'll get stuck that way? And besides, don't you think it's too late for the both us? I kind of feel like it is."

"Nah. I have absolutely no problem with sarcasm. I can stop at any time, I just don't want to."

"Well, that last part I can testify to, but as for the first part..." Kíli's voice made them both look up to the door. He and his brother were standing by the door frame, smiles on their faces as they watched the scene. "I'm pretty sure you actually have a serious case of sarcasm. You should probably see a healer about that. Maybe it's not too late."

"Mind if we come in?" Fíli interposed gracefully, raising his eyebrows at his brother. "Óin told us we could visit you as long as we didn't tire you out. Apparently you're under strict orders to rest."

Elena waved her hand in the air before flopping it back down on the bed, reluctantly sitting up and leaning against the wall with the pillow at her back. "Come on in. It'll be nice to just sit for a minute without worrying about orcs, or elves, or greasy weasels who work for the Master of Lake-town. You can sit on the bed, if there's room, or you can sit on the floor at our feet. Nothing demeaning about that."

Fíli shrugged, pushing the door open all the way and sitting down by the wall across from the bed, his brother sitting down next to him. "Or we can sit over here, you know, by the wall."

"Fair point," Elena conceded. They all sat in awkward silence for a minute before she rolled her eyes. "Okay, this is ridiculous. Did you come up here to entertain me, or to stare at me awkwardly, or to actually provide semi-intelligent conversation, or...?"

"We just wanted to stare at you," Kíli confirmed nonchalantly. "Well, that and make sure you're all right." He nudged his brother. "We were pretty worried about you, right, Fee? After all, you guys are pretty close to us by now, so if anything happened, we'd probably get all overprotective and hovering. Because you guys are our friends, right, Fee?" His tone was filled with the patented teasing brother tone, the one that meant Elena would probably be getting the sister version of it later.

Fíli mumbled something unintelligible before rolling his eyes and raising his voice to confirm that yes, he had been worried about his friend, emphasizing the word just as Kíli had done, after she had gotten shot. Because he was a decent dwarf, who worried about his friends when they got hurt.

"Well, I'm fine, thanks for asking," Elena answered, hiding a smile at Fíli's annoyed look, and Kíli's equally innocent one. "Óin looked my arm over, and I think he wants to put some more athelas on it, so he's gonna see if Ori has any left over. I feel kind of warm, and I'm still tired, but my arm doesn't hurt too much otherwise. What about you guys? I didn't even get the chance to ask earlier. What's been going on?"

Kíli grinned. "Well, for one thing, Bilbo's got the sniffles, and when he sneezes, it's adorable. His sneezes make me think of a baby rabbit for some reason. He wasn't very impressed with me when I said that, though."

Elena exchanged an incredulous glance with her sister before bursting into laughter, trying fruitlessly to muffle it into her hands. "I wonder - why," she managed to gasp out. "You're not wrong, though. We just had the sense not to tell him that. You'll probably regret that later."

Celia nodded with the confidence of one who's seen it before. "You will. You might want to check your pack before you sleep tonight. And possibly your boots, the next time you take them off, before you put them back on." She smirked at the suddenly unsettled look Kíli was sporting. "You think that because he acts like a Baggins most of the time that means that he doesn't have any Took in him? Nah, it just means that if he does let that side loose, that you more than likely deserve it."

"Like there was any doubt of that before?" the dark-haired prince pointed out. "I'm not exactly the innocent one here, if that term could be applied to any of us." He ran a hand through his hair, brushing against the family braid as he leaned against the wall. "So, anyways, Bilbo and Dori are both fighting off colds, Óin's busy making tea for all of them, and your sister has received a very high honor, in case she hasn't gotten around to telling you yet."

Elena frowned and shook her head. "She hasn't mentioned anything yet, but she hasn't really had the chance to, either." She tilted her head and looked her sister over carefully. "Does it have anything to do with the new braid in your hair?" she asked after a minute. "I mean, I don't know if it means anything or not, but it wasn't there before, so..."

Celia smiled sheepishly, fiddling with her new braid. "Yeah. I had to ask Thorin to help braid my family braid back in, since you were asleep, and once he was done with that, Óin stepped in. He said it was time I got a braid that showed my status as a healer, and offered to do it for me, and then offered me a bead that meant I am now officially the Assistant Chief Healer to basically the entire royal family." She grinned at the shocked look on Elena's face. "Yeah, that was about my reaction when he said that, too. I was not expecting that."

"It's a great honor, to be sure," Fíli agreed, watching her carefully, his tone somber. "But it also worries me."

"Wh- what do you mean?" Celia asked uncertainly, suddenly noticing the serious look on both the princes' faces. "Why would that be worrying? I mean, unless you're referring to my healing skills?" she asked in a weak attempt at a joke.

Fíli laughed, but it quickly stopped as he shook his head, staring at one of the cracks in the wood floor. "No, it's not that. Óin would never have given you the braid or the bead if you didn't deserve it, and hadn't proven yourself. But the reason he's giving it to you - now, when we're so close to Erebor." He lowered his voice. "When we're so close to taking on a dragon. If he's giving you a physical sign of your status and ability - a proof, when everyone in the Company already knows your skills, and has no need of proof..."

"Are you saying that... I don't know. He's trying to prepare me for something? Or... I don't know. What are you saying?" Celia asked, nervously fiddling with her hair.

Fíli shook his head and ran a hand through his hair. "I don't know. But the fact that's he doing this now, when we're so close... and I saw him talking to Uncle earlier, and he looked far too serious and unhappy for it to be a conversation about something as meaningful as this. It's just... not that I'm saying that you don't deserve it," he assured her hastily. "Because you do. It's just that..."

"It seems like a bad sign," Elena finished knowingly. "Like preparing back-ups for a disaster, or something like that."

He sighed. "Yes. I could be wrong, and it could be nothing. It could just be that he thinks it's time you got a braid of your own - and it is, you were already trained when you joined us."

"Now that you mention it, the timing does seem a bit strange," Celia agreed reluctantly. "Like he's making the best of a bad thing - he's making sure I have official proof of my position and skill before we go take on a fire-breathing dragon, where any of us -including the leaders, who could testify to my skill - might be..." she hesitated, trying to find a word that didn't sound so final. "... incapacitated, and unable to look out for us."

"And again, it could just be nothing, and I'm just being paranoid," he admitted, forcing a smile. "I've been accused of that more than once. I'm sorry to take away from your special moment, Celia."

"No, I didn't call you paranoid, I called you a worry-wart. There's a difference," Kíli reminded his older brother. "And you have reason to be worried. We're gonna be facing a dragon soon, and there's an orc pack on our tail. You're just... looking for danger in everything. It's one of the signs of a good leader, to be on the lookout for things that may be a sign of future danger."

"There, you see?" Celia suggested. "You did as best as you could with the information you had. And, I can't speak for my sister, but I'm personally inclined to be grateful you told us. Even if we can't really do anything with it right now, at least we can look for signs that they're worried about something happening, or that they're planning something, or something like that."

"Planning? Planning what? For Óin to retire?" her sister teased. "Nah, I agree with my sister." She smiled at Fíli, though it was more of a serious smile than one filled with humor. "Thanks for telling us, even if we didn't really learn anything. If nothing else, we're your friends, and you can always tell us if you're worried about something - that's what friends are there for. To listen to you, offer advice, just plain be there for you if you need it."

He nodded. "Thank you."

"Elena, you haven't been exerting yourself, have you?" Óin's voice came carrying up to them from the doorway. The older healer appeared a moment later, a bowl and some bandages in hand. His sharp eyes flickered around its four occupants before settling on Elena. "Good. I managed to find some athelas and put together a paste. Has your arm been bothering you any more? And have any of your symptoms changed either way?"

Elena shook her head, holding out her arm for Óin to look at. "I don't feel sick any more, but my arm's the same. And I still feel hot, though less so than I did when I woke up. But tell it to me straight, Doc. Will I be able to play musical instruments after this?"

Óin leveled her with a look that said he knew exactly what she was trying to do. Rather than saying anything right away, he merely began to spread the paste into her wound, coating it liberally before beginning to wrap it with a clean bandage. "That depends," he said at last. "Are you able to play musical instruments with only one hand?"

Celia snorted. "Looks like some jokes are the same no matter what world you're in. Should we do anything else? Make her drink lots of water, eat something? Oh, and what about Bilbo? Is he doing any better? Kíli said he was sniffling and sneezing earlier."

"Why don't you come down and see?" Óin offered. "You can come see for yourselves, and it won't hurt Elena to take a trip downstairs, if she can relax in front of the fire. It might do her some good, I have some tea waiting down there for her, as well." He smirked. "I promise, everyone's clothes have dried off, and they're all fully dressed. We're just waiting for Bard to come back with our weapons, now."

Elena nodded. "Sure." She covered up a yawn. "As long as they're okay with me falling asleep on them. I don't know how long I slept, but it doesn't feel like enough."

"It's easily been a couple hours," Celia informed her, standing up. "My hair's almost completely dry, and that normally takes several hours if I leave it to dry naturally."

"And none of us got much sleep in the prison cells last night," Fíli recalled, offering Elena a hand up. "We were all waiting on Bilbo to show up. And then you got shot, and lost a fair bit of blood. It only makes sense that you'd be tired, especially if you're coming down with something now, like the others."

She wrinkled her nose at him as they made their way downstairs, Fíli and Celia coordinating their efforts to make sure she didn't slip and fall for some reason. The others had congregated in the living room in front of the fire, some of them, like Bilbo and Dori - and Ori, at his brother's insistence - still wearing their blankets, and clutching a steaming mug in their hands. Bilbo's cheeks were as red as Elena's as he looked up at them, though he managed a smile at seeing her up and about.

"As you can see, I seem to have caught a chill from the lake waters," he said, raising his mug in the air briefly. "I have been thoroughly reminded why hobbits are not meant to swim."

Elena chuckled as she was gently set down beside him and covered in a blanket of her own while Óin set off to grab a cup for her, Celia and the princes sitting down nearby. "At least now you'll have an interesting story to tell?" she tried. "You can tell the fauntlings all about how you went swimming in the waters of Lake-town and survived."

"Yes, because that's clearly the most interesting part of the story to tell," he said dryly. "And not the part where my house was invaded by thirteen hungry dwarves with the table manners of trolls."

"Hey! I resent that remark!"

"You resemble it, you mean."

"We should be able to leave soon," Bofur informed them, coming over and plopping down beside them. "Bard should hopefully be returning with our weapons soon, and then we can get going. Durin's Day is only growing closer, not farther." He peered at Elena's bandaged arm. "You feelin' all right there, lass?"

She smiled at the miner. "A bit hot, but I'll survive." She looked up as Óin arrived and handed her a steaming mug with a stern inflection to drink all of its contents. "And, of course, everyone seems determined to just make me hotter." She gestured to the blanket, mug, and the fire in front of them before taking a sip of her tea. "At least the tea is good," she admitted. "It could use a fair bit of sugar or honey to sweeten it, but it's not that bad, considering it's basically medicine."

"You have to admit, though. Medicinal drinks usually have a pretty low standard when it comes to flavor," Celia pointed out. "Particularly cough syrup. They said it was grape flavored." She shook her head, remembering her mother struggling to get her to swallow the syrup when she was younger. "It was not grape flavored."

"I'm pretty sure I've accidentally eaten food left out for three days that tasted better than that syrup," Elena shuddered, sticking her tongue out in disgust at the memory. "There's no way that that was grape flavored."

Kíli looked between the two of them and shook his head with a laugh. "At least here all our medicines were sweetened with honey. It would seem that you were never that fortunate?"

"No, we always -" Elena cut herself off as Bard pushed open the door, a wet tarp folded over to hold some heavy items in his hands. He strode over to the table and laid it down, revealing several hand-made weapons as the dwarves gathered around, although some - like Kíli, who had his bow, and Dori, who was far more interested in his tea - stayed farther back.

"What is this?" Thorin asked, gingerly picking up a long hook on a stick.

"Pike-hook. Made from an old harpoon," Bard explained.

"And this?" Fíli frowned, picking up a stick with a heavy metal square on top.

"A crowbill, we call it, fashioned from a smithy's hammer. It's heavy in hand, I grant, but in defense of your life, these will serve you better than none."

Thorin shook his head, exchanging a look of disgust. "We paid you for weapons. Iron-forged swords and axes!" Glóin exclaimed angrily.

"It's a joke," Bofur scoffed, dropping his weapon back on the table, instigating the others to do the same.

"You won't find better outside the city armory. All iron-forged weapons are held there under lock and key," Bard pointed out, keeping his cool.

"Well, thank you for looking for us," Elena raised her voice to be heard over the noise, sounding rather displeased. "I know that we never told you the specific weapons we needed, and that you did the best you could, considering you had no way of accessing the other weapons. And, because I am grateful for all that you've done for us when you didn't have to, I'm going to say thank you. Again. Because that's the polite thing to do."

"Annnd, I think that you need more sleep," Celia said quietly in the silence that followed, struggling to hide her smile. "Pardon me, Master Bard, but I'm going to bring my sister back upstairs for the time being. Thank you for offering your home to us. I'm well aware you didn't have to. Come on, El." Ignoring Bard's amused smile when he nodded, she waited until Elena had finished her drink before hefting her to her feet and helping her now-sleepy sister back up the stairs.

Elena huffed as she curled back up on the bed. "They were being rude," she pouted as she pulled the blankets up to her chin. "They had no reason to treat him like that."

"Oh, I know," Celia agreed as she stirred the coals in the fireplace, trying to bring up some more heat. "I just still had some of my inhibitions and anti-confrontation in me. You've always been better at it than me. If it helps, I think I heard Fíli apologizing, and a couple others. Although, to be fair to Fíli, he had been looking like he meant to apologize before you started off," she said, watching her sister for a reaction.

Elena nodded drowsily. "Wouldn't surprise me. He's very sweet."

Celia hid her smile. "Really?"

"Mm-hm. He looked out for me when we were wandering in the forest, and made sure I never strayed too far, and was pretty concerned about me in Thranduil's dungeons, too. And obviously, you know, the river." She yawned, her eyes starting to flicker shut. "I like him. Can we keep him?"

"Uh... I'll see what I can do about that, El."

She would ask what her sister found so funny later. In the meantime, the chance to sleep again was much more tempting, so she didn't bother opening her eyes again the next time they closed. She never got the chance to find out what Celia thought was so funny. Later, though, she would find out that Fíli had been right. Thorin and Óin had been planning something - and none of them liked it.

A/N: Ugh. You ever have one of those days where you just feel completely unmotivated? Because I had that day today. It was supposed to be the first day of Spring. But, because of where I live, we had a wet, snowy, muddy, drizzly day that did not look at all like Spring - just Winter hanging on. Is anyone else more than ready for Spring to be here?

I know not much happened this chapter, but it's basically the calm before the storm, so... *shrugs* Enjoy it while you can. :)

Special thanks to everyone who's favorited and followed, and shout-out to Outofthisworldgal, Lady Silverstar2, SortingHat, ColdOnePaul, and E for reviewing!

Outofthisworldgal: Haha, yep! Fíli and Elena are finally starting to get their act together (more on that later) but Celia and Kíli seem to be taking their sweet time... or are they? *Evil grin* No Master this chapter, but he should be showing up in all his obese greasiness next chapter. And don't worry - there will be very firm words regarding Elena and Celia's status. :D Thanks for reviewing. Hope you liked it! :)

Lady Silverstar2: Lots of people seemed to enjoy the cuddles. :D There may be more of those to come later. ;) Little bit of teasing here, more to come, because what else are siblings for? There is definite significance to Celia getting the braid, but no comment as to why yet... ;) Thanks for reviewing! Hope you liked it! :)

SortingHat: Um... I'm not sure how you came to that conclusion, but no. I referenced the girls watching TV in chapter 1, and that's something that I don't believe the Amish do. Elena and Celia have not been, are not, and will never be Amish. (I mean no offense to the Amish or their way of life when I write that, simply that I will not be using that as a plotline in my story). Hope that cleared it up! Thanks for reviewing! :)

ColdOnePaul: Oh, yes... I have much planned when it comes to Smaug... there will be just a hint of screaming, there, and, of course, things not going according to plan. :D Thanks for reviewing! Hope you liked it!

E: Of course! And gentle reminder that I've never explicitly said that someone in the Company will die. Yes, there's a chance that I could kill one of them off in a dramatic, heartbreaking way, but there's an equal chance that Azog will be the only one in the entire battle to die, and everyone else miraculously survives. :D My point being, I love hinting vaguely at things, but there's a good chance that most, if not all, of the Company will survive the battle. :D I've cried at far too many a good (depressing) story to give mine a sad ending. And yep! The sequel has been an idea I've had since shortly after I first started writing this story, and it should revolve around the LOTR story arc, although I can almost guarantee it won't be like what you're thinking. ;D There was definitely some planning going on, but Elena is not privy to it yet. :( Maybe next chapter... And Celia definitely earned her braid. :D Thanks for reviewing, and I hope you liked it! :)

Thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoyed! :)

General Disclaimer: I don't own the Hobbit, but Celia and Elena are all mine.