No news had been heard if any of the people or their friends had escaped from Laketown before it disintegrated into ash and smoke. It had nearly been a week since the defeat of Smaug the terrible. Now that the mountain was finally there's, Thorin had kept himself confined in the depths of the treasure hoard, searching for the one thing that would truly name him as the rightful King of Erebor.

Maura couldn't understand the importance of a jewel. If she had learn anything whilst traveling with these Dwarves is that Thorin has always been their King, even before this quest had even begun. So why all of sudden did he think his kin's loyalty was not enough? The healer would not dare to step foot in the treasure room, seeing that look Thorin had in his eyes when Bilbo had informed him that he failed to find the Arkenstone, it was dark, like he was willing to kill a friend or even one of his own kin for it.

What was even more baffling was that the king hadn't sent anyone to search for his nephews or Bofur and Oin. And worse the Wizard still had yet to show up, which made her believe that something had indeed happened to him, when he took his leave of them at the entrance into the forest of Mirkwood.

The healer leaned against the stone wall, looking out into the night sky over the ledge. She was growing anxious by the day, wondering...hoping that she would see the 4 Dwarves again. Maura was almost ready to leave this mountain to go find her friends. Thorin probably wouldn't even notice that she was gone anyways. He was too preoccupied searching for that bloody stone, she could slip out of here no problem. But then again, despite him being absent for most of the day, except for at feasting times, he always seemed to know where she was. And if he failed to noticed, she knew well enough the others wouldn't. Her companions all felt protective of her in their own ways, just like she felt protective of all them. Maura had been through so much with them already and would die for any one of them if she had to.

The half-breed was pulled from her gaze when she heard movement and looked to see it was Bilbo. He informed her that the others were gathering in the feasting room to eat. Maura, hadn't been feeling hungry these last few days with everything that was going on and she told him to go on without her. The Hobbit just stood there, looking at his aunt and finally told her he wasn't going anywhere unless she was coming. Not wanting the lad to starve Maura admitted she was feeling a little hungry herself and the two of them made haste down the hall.

Rounding the last corner she saw the Dwarves were sitting down at the long tables, quietly eating their food. Most meal times were filled with silence and not the usual cheer Maura and Bilbo had witness on this journey. Bombur filled a bowl for both the healer and Hobbit. Maura thanked him and gave him a smile as she and Bilbo took a seat at the table with the others and began eating.

Not much time had passed when a figure emerged into the vicinity. The company looked up to see it was Thorin. Judging by the scowl on his face, it was another days search that failed. The king was even annoyed that none of his men had joined in the search for the stone. He was their leader wasn't he? He should have to ask them. They should all know that he couldn't search that entire hoard on his own. Thorin took his bowl and sat at the far end of the table, away from his company Maura was the only one to notice the dark circles that seemed to be forming under his eyes from the lack of sleep - which was none at all. But that wasn't all that caught her attention. On the right side of his shoulder, they're appeared to be remnants of fresh blood on his clothing. He was hurt. Whether he was aware of it. She knew from personal experience how Thorin was good at concealing his own pain, but ever so often she would catch the slight flinch he would make when he lifted his arm.

Thorin finished eating and got up without saying a word and left. The healer looked up from her own bowl and saw the king walking out of the room. Maura knew she couldn't let him continue to walk around here with a bleeding shoulder wound. Not saying a word she abruptly got up from the table, ignoring Bilbo and a few others calling her name, demanding where she was going and the healer disappeared out of the room and wandered down the hall towards the treasure room.

"Thorin." She called out to him. The king turned around just as he got to the entrance. He wasn't looking at her with a scowl but seemed to be quite surprised she had followed him all the way over here.

"What are you doing here, Maura?" Thorin asked. The half-breed could hear the exhausting in his voice and she knew she had to do something to get him to leave this room just so he could get some well needed rest.

"Thorin. I need to bind that shoulder wound." She informed. The Dwarf briefly glanced at his arm, before looking back at her.

"It's just a scratch." Thorin retorted.

"Please, Thorin. Just let me take a look at it." She pressed, giving him a serious look. The king slowly walked towards her.

"See. It's nothing to worry about." The Dwarf declared, but she wasn't done with him yet.

"Uh-uh, not so fast. Come over here and sit down!" She ordered. Thorin raised an eyebrow at her, but decided to follower her over to somewhere a little more private, if the others should come wandering this way and he took a seat and gave her a slight scowl in the process.

"I'm going to need you to remove your top layers." Maura began and Thorin narrowed his eyes at her.

"Excuse me?"

"I need to see how deep the wound is, and I can't with all that clothing on. So either you remove them or I will." She informed.

"I don't think so." He growled. Now, wishing Oin was here. He would of just simple tied a piece of cloth around his arm and be done with it.

"Thorin do you want your arm to become infected? I've done this many times. You are hardly the first male I've seen exposed and likely not the last." She scolded him sternly. The king reluctantly began removing his top layers, until his chest was exposed. Maura looked closely at the cut that was on the high part of his arm. It was deep and a bit jagged, that was unlikely made from a sword or any other type of weapon. "Thorin, how did this happen?" The healer questioned, looking at him right in the eyes.

" I don't remember how it happened exactly. I was in the treasure room, searching and I chucked this goblet at the wall and this chunk of stone fell and got me in the arm." He explained.

"You should have come to me immediately, after this happened." She pressed, as she went through her satchel she had on her, to find something to clean his wound.

" You're enjoying this aren't you?" He muttered. Remembering the last time Maura had offered to bind his wound, which he had refused because he didn't trust her.

"How can you say that? You think I enjoy seeing you hurt Thorin? Or the others for that matter?" Maura hissed. Whist she was binding his arm, he had to admit that her touch was a lot gentler and not to mention softer then the times when Oin would have to bandage his wounds. He was rather enjoying the feel of her fingers on his bare skin. Even more so when he caught the young woman's eyes lingering away from his incision that she was still binding to his exposed chest. Thorin had countless pounds of pure muscle that had been carefully honed into a warriors physique.

Feeling, the woman had been distracted enough, he decided to break the intense silence. Not that he didn't enjoy the look she had in her eyes, but their was still much work to be done. "So am I going to live?"

Maura stuttered for a second, trying to find words. Realizing she had allowed herself to stare and felt even more embarrassed that Thorin must of noticed. Respectively, Maura never let her eyes avert from the task at hand. She didn't wish to make her patience feel uncomfortable anymore then they already were. But with Thorin she didn't know what happened. " I think the odds are in you're favor." She managed to get out, quickly turning around to hid the redness that formed on her cheeks and began putting her stuff back in her satchel. Thorin smirked and put his numerous top layers back on.

"Thank you." He said.

"You're welcome. Next time come to me sooner, when you get hurt." Maura awkwardly replied. Feeling, some of the heat in her cheeks begin to fade and she turned around to look at him. The king looked at her, still seeing some of the hints of redness in her cheeks and felt a smile tug at his lips but it quickly fell back to a more serious look.

"I should get back to searching." He informed tiredly and Maura narrowed her eyes.

"Thorin. Don't you think you should get some rest? Look at yourself. You are running on fumes. The stone isn't going anywhere. You can begin your search again tomorrow for it.

"No. It's imperative that I find it immediately." Thorin argued.

"Not tonight, you're not! Tonight you are getting some rest." Maura demanded stepping in front of the entrance to the treasure. The healer then slowly walked over to him and took his hand, causing him to look away from the entrance and look down at their hands and then to her eyes. "Thorin, please. Just get some rest. We'll all help you in the morning to begin the search again for the Arkenstone, but it's not going to be found in one night." Thorin blinked his eyes a few times and finally nodded and he allowed the woman to led him away from the hoard for the night.

They walked down the long hall, Maura still had a hold of his hand, afraid if she should let it go, he would just go running back for that room. As he got further away from the hoard, he was beginning to feel just how exhausted he really was. The healer led him over to a vacant area where she normally spent her days staring out over the ledge. The woman released his hand and put some logs in the metal basket fire pit and grabbed the torch off the mount on the wall and placed the end with the flames at the logs until they caught on fire and placed the torch back in the mount.

Thorin was already sitting on the ground far enough away that it wouldn't be too hot, and he stared into the flames, still refusing to close his eyes. Maura sat down beside him her arms wrapped around her legs. "Get some sleep. I still be here." She told him.

Thorin was lying on the ground, his one arm nestled behind his head. It was all coming back to him now, when he had left the treasure room and he would find her most nights over in this vicinity, standing over by the ledge well into the night. His head turned to the side to see the woman still in a sitting position watching the fire and reached over and pulled her arm, causing her to look at him. "You need your rest too, Maura." He stated, raising an eyebrow at her. Feeling her own exhausting quickly taking over, she didn't have the strength to argue with him and the king guided her head to rest on his chest, before passing out himself and the healer only minutes after