Chapter 15: New leaf for tonight.
"I am."
"I'm sorry I didn't tell you, I wanted to but I... There's actually no reason why I didn't say anything." Fili nodded and continued moving things mere centimetres so that they were perfectly in line. I never pegged him for OCD, probably should have though, I mean he did everything exactly right, which I always thought was practise... But now it looks like obsessive nit picking and perfectionism. "Aren't you gonna say anything?"
"It was your choice Love, and it kept you alive earlier, I've got no reason to doubt you did this for the right reason." He replied calmly, too calmly. I waited for the change but he didn't do anything, just go up and smiled, wrapping one arm around my waist and letting his other hand rest on my stomach. "You know what we will have to do now?"
"And what's that?" I asked, wriggling closer to him.
"Tell Kee he's going to be an uncle."
"A what?!" Kili shouted, his face flushing red as he beamed happily. I buried my face in my hands as the pair of Dwarves celebrated, groaning as Kili asked the same question twice more.
"Yes, Kee you're going to be an uncle to a baby... Dear god it sounds even more sinister than I'd thought it would." I sighed sitting down in the spare armchair and slumping over.
"So, what will we do? Fee and I can do the nursery and oh Fee, you still have to do the... The ... The thing! The thing with the-." Fili covered his brother's mouth with a forced smile in my direction.
"Yes Kee, but that can wait until mother gets here can't it? She hadn't even met Clary yet." Fili muttered, I groaned again and closed my eyes.
"Mother will love her!" Kee argued, I stood up and left the pair to argue, moving through the corridors slowly and silently.
I want sure what I'd thought I was doing, but I ended up stood on the ramparts, looking down as the survivors from Lake Town swarmed the ruins of Dale. Concerning, there had been almost no discernable changes to the timeline only that Kili hadn't been shot with the arrow, he hadn't initiated the relationship with Tauriel, gotten stuck in Lake Town at the time of the attack and therefore hadn't been there to keep Tilda and Sigrid in the boat, so it was incredibly possible that the pair were of the dead persuasion.
"Nice view isn't it?" Bofur said, his eye twinkling as he lit up his pipe.
"It is indeed a nice view." I agreed, the two of us falling into a comfortable silence I coughed on the plume of smoke the pipe gave off. "Could you point the other way please?"
"Oh aye, don't you worry." He replied, a smirk on his cheerful face as he to down at my stomach, I sighed and crossed my arms over said stomach.
"Stop it." I muttered, he laughed and nodded, leaving me stood on the ramparts, I licked my lips before turning around and seeing Bilbo stood there, looking nervous. "Good afternoon Master Baggins, you look scared."
"Oh not at all... Just a little perturbed rather, it has been a rather odd few days hasn't it?" He answered, I nodded and then smiled.
"I know you have it." I whispered as I passed by him, I watched as the Hobbit leapt a foot in the air and then shuddered whole body style. I enjoyed his reaction while I could, coming across Bombur and Nori talking, it made me wonder about what they were discussing.
"Everyone! To the gate!" Thorin shouted, I heard thirteen pairs of boots and one pair of bare feet slapping the ground as the company marched to Thorin's tune.
"What is going on?" Gloin asked angrily, glaring down at the man in front of us... About a mile or two below us.
"My name is Bard, I have come to ask if you will help us." He called, I raised an eyebrow, this man had short hair, the Bard I knew had long hair.
"What happened to your hair?" I returned, he looked over at me and smiled, Fili stepped a little closer, shielding me from the other man's eyes.
"It burned in the blaze my Lady. I had no choice but to cut the rest to match." He answered, I nodded and then sat on a rock in a nearby ruble pile.
"What would you ask of me?" Thorin shouted, drawing the attention back to himself... No surprises there.
"Simply the funds to rebuild our homes and lives amongst the ruins." Bard made a good argument, only wanting enough to rebuild. But it seemed Thorin was in a less than charitable mood.
"Be gone, I will give you nothing." The Dwarf then swept dramatically down the make shift stairwell, his large, eccentric cape dragging behind him, picking up dust and rocks.
"Have the rest of you nothing to say? Nothing to argue?" The man called desperately, I watched as Balin turned away first, following the King down into the Mountain. "My Lady, surely you will not forsake us!?" He added, I sighed and allowed myself to think more with my heart than my brain.
"I would not forsake you Mister Bard, but I cannot argue against the wishes of the King, no matter how blind or stupid he's being." I responded, his face falling. "But don't worry, help is on its way." I finished, ending the company convoy back into the safety of the Mountain. "Thorin does know that if they were desperate enough, all they have to do is cast lines and climb the gate right? Then they'd be in and it would be a hundred angry fishermen, give or take, verses only thirteen Dwarves, a Hobbit and a useless, pregnant woman?" I said to Dwalin, who sighed and rubbed his face.
"Aye, but he does not think they'll be audacious enough." The Dwarf replied tiredly, I nodded and then shrugged.
"He's right, they're not... But the Elves, however, certainly are stupid enough."