Chapter Thirty-Two: B and E

Bilbo was exhausted and hungry. It was an unfortunate combination that left him more annoyed than he had been since the dwarves showed up unceremoniously on his doorstep. He pulled his coat closer around his body, leaning against the corner he had been sleeping in. He felt his muscles tightening up, causing his already sour mood to plummet even further. Nothing seemed to be adding up the way he would have liked. The dwarves were scattered and isolated and Thorin was still missing. Bilbo did not even want to think about Emelia.

He did not like to think that what he had witnessed when he was hiding was true, but he could not see another explanation for her. He would like to speak to her, to clear some things up, but she was about as obscurely placed as the rest of the dwarves. The best thing about the situation with Emelia, to Bilbo, was that it meant Thorin had to be somewhere nearby, unless something truly awful had happened in the forest. It was a distinct possibility that Bilbo didn't like to spend too much time thinking about.

"Is she still refusing to talk?"

Bilbo looked up from his feet, which he had been staring for the last few hours, thinking about what he should do next. He followed the path of two elvish guards as they passed him by with his eyes, taking note of their obliviousness to his presence. It was still an odd feeling to sit in plain view and be completely ignored. He shrunk back instinctively, retreating into his coat despite knowing full well that neither of the elves could see him.

"She's been talking, but it has mostly been wailing about something of questionable importance as of late."

The other elf laughed. It was an obnoxious sound that set Bilbo's teeth on edge.

Bilbo found his interest piqued despite the elf's annoying nature. He wondered briefly who the she who liked to complain was before he realized that there was only one person that he knew that would fit that description. He had a sudden image of Emelia firing off obscenities and complaints to the nearest elf that would listen.

"Do you have the next guard?" The first one asked, speaking so quietly Bilbo was forced to strain his ears in order to hear him properly.

"I'm relieving Hinil for the next ten hours."

Bilbo moved as quietly as possible, drawing himself up into a crouched position. He made to make sure he was covered before he remembered the odd little ring on his finger. It was surprisingly easy to forget.

"I'll walk with you. I need to speak to Tauriel." The second elf said.

"Are you certain the Captain will be there?"

"She has been spending most of her time between the filth and the woman."

"The Captain was always a bit odd in who she chose to spend her time with."

They laughed once again, although Bilbo failed entirely to see what was so funny.

They began to move away from Bilbo. He thought for a moment before he stood up completely, moving after them as silently as possible. He had been moving about the kingdom for three days feeling like he was on the losing side of one of the frustrating games of hide and go seek he used to play as a hobbit lad. The elves had done an annoyingly fabulous job of keeping the dwarves separated and hidden. Bilbo had only come across Bifur, with whom Bilbo still had a hard time communicating with. He had sat outside his cell for a solid day before he realized that all of the dwarves, Bifur included, would be better served if he kept looking around for a way to help them. Emelia may have betrayed them, but she was someone he knew, someone who might know something that could help the dwarves.

Bilbo followed along behind them as quickly and as silently as possible. They led him, unaware of his presence, through the inner hallways of the palace. They seemed to take the most convoluted and backwards way possible, annoying Bilbo to no end, before they finally arrived at a small warmly lit hallway. It was nestled in between some of the larger platforms, perfectly hidden from view. The four guards stationed outside the door looked comically large in the small hallway. They looked less comical once Bilbo saw the amount of weapons they had strapped to them.

Perhaps Emelia had been causing trouble for everyone, not just the dwarves.

Bilbo looked at the door contemplatively. He couldn't exactly open it without drawing unnecessary attention. It seemed silly, however, to sit outside this door. He had been sitting outside doors and against walls for days. The thought of doing it again without trying gave him even more incentive to move towards the closed door.

"Door."

Bilbo had to jump out of the way to avoid being bowled over by the determined looking red headed she-elf who had come out of nowhere. She gestured to the door with a wide sweep of her graceful hand, nodding to one of the elves standing guard by it. It was the first elf, the one with the obnoxious laugh, that opened the door for the red head. She moved gracefully through the doorway, depositing her weapons into the arms of the other elf by the door as she went. Bilbo was confused for a moment, before he realized that he was about to lose his only chance of getting into the room unnoticed due to his own curiosity.

He bounded forward, moving as close to the red head as possible without touching her. Bilbo was thankful he wasn't of a different, more conspicuous race. He was certain the elves around him would have noticed the noises he made if he had been anything but a hobbit. He was a hobbit however, and for that he was eternally thankful.

He back against the nearest wall as soon as he was in the room, breathing heavily from the adrenaline. That was the closest he had been to the elves in the entire time he had been surrounded them. His heart was pounding painfully against his chest, almost as violently as his palms were now sweating. He ran his fingers over the gold ring, feeling the knot in his chest loosening when his skin came in contact with the perpetually warm metal.

"Why do you keep coming back?" Bilbo recognized the annoyance in that voice instantly. He looked up, keeping his fingers on the ring.

Emelia did not look happy to see the elf. She was wrapped up in the thin blanket from her bed, looking oddly like the pastries that Bilbo liked to bake during the summer. Of course, Emelia was anything but a pastry, as they were generally sweet things that made people happy. Emelia hadn't made anyone happy lately that Bilbo was aware of. In fact, it was quite the opposite.

"I brought you something different to eat." The elf lifted a small plate, that Bilbo hadn't noticed before, up for Emelia to see. Emelia sniffed the air, allowing the blanket to move away from her ever so slightly before the stubborn look she usually sported settled on her face again.

"You can eat it. You're skinny enough." Emelia pulled the blanket over her face, slumping face first onto her bed. "Or feed it to the assholes guarding my door."

"Emelia," The red head sounded tired of Emelia. "There is no need to have such an attitude."

"I have every reason to have an attitude." Her voice came out muffled and miserable sounding. "I haven't been allowed to leave this room for three days. Did you know I've had to use the bathroom in a pot?"

"I hope you are aware that the King's hospitality will eventually wear out. He will not tolerate your insolence any more than I do." Bilbo was surprised at the malice in the elf's voice.

"Why won't you just leave?" Bilbo thought Emelia sounded like she was on the verge of tears. He felt a small amount of sympathy in his chest before he remembered that he was supposed to be mad at her. "I'm not going to talk to you, so why do you keep coming back?"

"Morbid curiosity." The red head answered. She moved over to the single chair in the room, dropping the plate of food on the ground as she went. Bilbo moved to the opposite side, fearing the elves acute sense of smell. He had been sweating nervously for days. Bilbo watched the lump that was Emelia, waiting for her to respond. When she didn't make any indication that she would listen to her, the elf filled the silence in her own way. "Come out of the blankets, Emelia."

"No."

"You're being immature."

"If it annoys you so much, you're more than welcome to leave."

"Perhaps we should start over." Tauriel stood up, moving over to speak to Emelia more directly. "It would be easier if you came out of the blanket."

The lump shifted before a small pale hand appeared, lifting up the edge in order to peer out with one tired looking eye. "You don't have very many friends do you?"

"My persistency is off-putting, yes."

"I'm off-putting too." Emelia said, lifting the blanket up a little farther.

"I would not have thought that would be the case." Emelia stifled a laugh in the fabric of her bed. The elf smiled ever so slightly. "Please come out."

Emelia finally lifted the blanket off her face, sitting up. Bilbo noticed that her eyes were shockingly red and puffy, like she had been crying for days on end. Her hair was messy and uncared for and her face seemed to be even gaunter than the last time he had seen her. He felt bad for thinking so poorly of her. Perhaps he had been too quick to disparage her. Seeing how upset she looked made Bilbo think there was more to her side of the story than he originally thought.

"I think we might have started off on bad terms." The elf said, moving to take a seat on the edge of the bed.

"I think you're slightly bi-polar. One minute you're threatening me, the next you're trying to bribe me with food, which won't work by the way."

Emelia hadn't changed much in her time with the elves. Bilbo found that to be slightly comforting. It had taken her a while to warm up to the dwarves and him. It was a nice surprise to see that she gave the same treatment to the elves. Her expression was perpetually suspicious and exhausted, even when it cracked with an occasional smile. Bilbo knew, in that moment, that there was something that was going on beyond what he had originally thought.

"Why are the dwarves here?" The elf asked. Bilbo instantly knew that Emelia had been asked that question numerous times by the sour look that sprung up on her face. Emelia shrugged her shoulders, expression non-committal. "Why are you so stubborn?"

"Tauriel, I have nothing more to say. I told you what happened."

The elf, Tauriel, let out a frustrated sigh. "The king has requested you join him for dinner tonight. If you tell me, you won't have to go."

"Whatever."

"Why don't you understand? The King will not be as…" She paused, a genuine look of concern on her face. "He will not be as tolerant as me."

"I think you fundamentally misunderstand the definition of tolerance." Emelia crossed her arms over her chest. She looked angry as she spoke to Tauriel, eyes narrowing into slits. "All you've done is make it very clear that I am a prisoner that you care about long enough to find out my secrets. The second I tell you anything you're going to turn around and blab about it to King Blondie. Forget it Tauriel. I kept quiet with you and I can sure as hell keep quiet with the King."

Tauriel stood up, seemingly fed up with Emelia. "You are more stubborn than those wretched dwarves."

"Do not..." Emelia stood up as well, throwing her blanket down onto the bed. "Just leave. Take the food with you."

"I'll come back tomorrow." Tauriel seemed to understand that Emelia was not going to say anything else to her.

Emelia waved her hand, sitting back down on her bed heavily. Tauriel looked at her for a moment longer, an odd look on her face that Bilbo couldn't quite place. She left the room after a moment, leaving the plate of cold food forgotten on the floor. Emelia dropped her head into her hands. She sounded like she was struggling to breathe, judging by the sounds of dry heaves that were wracking her body. Bilbo felt torn. He watched as she cried into her hands, struggling to decide what to do. The elves could come back at any moment. The thought petrified Bilbo into leaving his ring on. He couldn't, however, sit and watch her cry without doing anything. He had been so angry with her when he had snuck into her room, but after watching her refuse to talk with Tauriel, he instantly knew that he had been wrong to think that she would ever betray them.

Bilbo rubbed his hands together, feeling his anxiety combining with his guilt uncomfortably in his stomach.

It felt like an eternity of watching her crying before Bilbo couldn't take it anymore. He pulled off the ring, taking note of the heaviness that lifted from him at its absence, before he slipped it into his side pocket.

"Emelia, don't cry."

Emelia looked like she had seen a ghost. She jumped up from her bed, arms outstretched in a defensive position. She glared at him for a moment before she finally registered who he was. She bounded towards him instantly, throwing her arms around his shoulders. She squeezed him until he thought he might pass out for lack of being able to breathe. She sobbed into his ear, hands burying themselves into his coat. He was made very aware of how slight she had become. He could feel her bones pressing against him as she attempted to hug the life out of him. When she didn't show signs of wanting to let him go, he was forced to remove himself from her embrace.

"I thought you were dead." Emelia said thickly. "When you didn't show up with dwarves I thought the worst."

"I am perfectly well, Emelia." Bilbo felt his forgotten affection for her resurfacing when he saw how much she had been worrying about him.

"Where have you been?" Emelia asked, eyes scanning his face. She seemed to be checking for injuries. Bilbo smiled at her when he noticed, holding out his arms for her to see that they were, relatively speaking, unharmed.

"I've been here since the dwarves were captured." Bilbo said, keeping his voice down. He was acutely aware of the elves stationed just outside her door.

"How did you avoid being seen?" Emelia moved back to sit on the bed. She pulled her spindly legs up underneath her, resting her elbows on her knees. "I know you're small, but not that small." Bilbo debated for a moment about whether or not to tell Emelia. It seemed like the right thing to do but he couldn't bring himself to pull the ring out of his pocket to show her. "How did you get in here unseen, by the way?"

"Hobbit cleverness."

Emelia seemed to believe him. Or at least, didn't want to spend too much time thinking about it. "So you were with them when they were brought in?"

"Yes, I saw everything."

She dropped her head, looking down at her sheets shamefully. "I didn't mean to. I mean, I didn't tell the King anything."

"You said you were kidnapped by the dwarves." Bilbo reminded her. He was curious as to her reasoning.

"Thorin told me to." She paused, shaking her head. "Well, he told me not to make them mad. It just sort of slipped out when we were found and now I can't really go back from it."

Bilbo let out a low whistle. He pushed himself up onto the bed next to Emelia, processing the new information. He felt horrible for all of the negative thoughts he had been thinking about her. She didn't deserve all the insults he had been throwing at her in his mind. She deserved it even less once he saw how isolated and alone she had been. He reached out to take one of her small hands in his own, patting it comfortingly. "I will admit I thought the worst of you."

"You and all the other dwarves. Have you seen any of them, talked to any of them?"

"I've seen Bifur but he wasn't much help. You're the only person I've been able to talk to at any length in three days."

"Words can't describe how happy I am to see you, Bilbo."

Bilbo allowed them to sit in silence for a long moment before he got his mind back on track. He released Emelia's hand, jumping down from the bed to stand in front of her. She looked up, pushing her messy hair out of her face. He noticed, in that moment, that even her hair seemed duller. Every part of her looked weary and tired. He wondered how if it was all the elves, or if there was more to her situation. He shook his head, forcing himself to think about their current situation once again in full. "We need a plan Emelia. We can't let them sit in there for the elves to decide what to do with."

"I know."

"Do you know where they are?"

"I accidentally found Thorin when I was walking around in a hormone induced annoyance-trek. But," She interrupted Bilbo as he tried to speak. "There's no way I could find him again."

"That's unfortunate." Bilbo said, wracking his mind for possibilities.

"This whole thing is unfortunate."

Bilbo narrowed his eyes at her. There was something off about Emelia. She was not normally so humorless and hollow sounding. Even when she had been tortured by the trolls for days she had managed to make the dwarves laugh. Even after the Goblin King she was more happy and carefree than she was now. She held herself like something was sitting on her shoulders, weighing her down until the point that she almost doubled over.

"Emelia, what is bothering you?"

She seemed hesitant to tell him. Emelia glanced around the room, rubbing her hands along her arms before she finally answered him. "They hate me Bilbo. All of them. I've been sitting here for three days, thinking about how much they must hate me. Kili," She paused, hands clenching up. "Kili and Fili hate me."

"They don't understand." Bilbo said, hoping to get her to snap out it. "They'll know you were always on their side once we get them out. They'll know that you would never do something like that to them."

"Let's be real for a second, Bilbo. We are two very small people, with very little resources, and nothing going for us. I'm not allowed to leave my room anymore and you aren't even technically supposed to be here. How are we supposed to fix this? Hobbit cleverness can only go so far."

"We'll just have to be more than clever."

Emelia flopped back onto the bed, throwing her arms up over her face. She let out a frustrated sound. "Bilbo, I'm useless. You know this and I know this."

"Kili doesn't think so." Bilbo knew he was being horribly cruel by bringing up the one dwarf that was sure to upset Emelia even further. He couldn't allow her to descend into a ball of useless emotion and self-loathing, however. She might not be the best person to get the dwarves out of their cells, but she was the only person he had. Besides, Bilbo had always found her resilience to be commendable. Perhaps, if he was blunt enough, that resilience and defiance might resurface again. He was fully convinced that it was the reason she had survived the trolls, and the goblin king, and practically drowning. "Are you going to let what they think about you right now become true? Are you going to let them think that you sat by and did nothing to get them? Are you going to let Kili sit in his cell and rot?"

"Now you're just being mean." Emelia said, glaring at him out of the crevice of her arms.

"I am merely being honest, Emelia."

"You're an emotional terrorist." She stopped, sitting up. "So let's pretend for a second that we could get them out of their cells. Where would we go from there? This entire place is crawling with moody elves. We would be caught within moments."

Bilbo fell silent, thinking. "You are dinning with the King tonight?"

"Apparently."

"While you're with him, I will survey the area and see if I can find a way out. You see if you can convince him to let you out of your room for a little bit." When she didn't respond, Bilbo prodded her. "Can you do that, Emelia?"

"I don't know, maybe."

"Emelia, you have to."

"Okay, yes alight. I'll schmooze with the King. Although, the thought gives me the heebie-jeebies."

"When will they come to get you?"

"Dinner is usually given to me around this time, so soon probably." Bilbo nodded his head, reaching his fingers into his pocket. He poked at the warm metal of the ring.

"I'm going to disappear now." Bilbo informed her, eyeing the door nervously. His palms were starting to sweat now that he knew that the elves could be there at any moment. He just about had the ring on his finger when she stood up, holding out her arms to stop him.

"Wait, we need a codename."

"What?" Bilbo looked over at the door again.

"We're practically spies, Bilbo. We need a codename for our operation to get the dwarves out."

"How about Operation Free the Dwarves?" Bilbo said, not understanding what she was talking about in the slightest. He humored her, however, hoping it would keep her from sinking back into her sadness.

"Too obvious." She paced around the room, rubbing her hands together in front of her stomach. "Our initials are B and E. B and E. B and E? Breaking and Entering? Oddly poetic and applicable, but too criminal I think." Bilbo watched her as she rambled, waiting for her to make up her mind. "I know! Bacon and Eggs!"

Bilbo felt his face scrunch up. "I don't know, Emelia."

"No, it's perfect. Bacon and Eggs is not only a delightful breakfast meal, but they are also unassuming and nutritious. Kind of like us."

"We are unassuming and nutritious?" Bilbo asked, unable to keep the humor out of his voice.

"No, we're delightful and wonderful. Like Bacon and Eggs."

There was a knock on the door. Bilbo instantly slipped his ring on, ignoring the alarmed look on Emelia's face. He backed away to the nearest wall, flattening himself against it. He controlled his breathing, hoping to go unnoticed once again. Emelia stared at the place he had been, eyebrows knitted together. He wished he could wave his hands at her to get her to stop looking at him. He couldn't however, resulting in a spike in anxiety levels. He was happy to see that it was Tauriel who entered the room. He had been able to avoid being detected by her already. Perhaps he would be able to do so again. Tauriel look suspicious, but she aimed it more at Emelia, rather than at the room.

"Who were you talking to?"

Emelia's eyes widened. Bilbo had to fight his breathing once again. He couldn't do anything about his increase in heart rate, however.

"Myself. I was talking about how much I love bacon and eggs."

"That must be a human thing." Tauriel said.

"And a hobbit thing." Emelia muttered to herself.

"What?"

"What?"

"You just said something."

"No I didn't."

Tauriel eyed her for a moment before she decided it was not worth it to bother Emelia about it. "It is time for dinner. Come."

"Are you joining us?" Emelia asked, gathering her skirts up to avoid tripping. Bilbo thought she looked ridiculous, like she was drowning in fabric.

"Yes, and Legolas is as well."

Emelia nodded her head, allowing Tauriel to hold open the door for her. "It'll be a nice comfortable dinner then. Zero chance for awkwardness."

"I would not count on that." Tauriel said.

She shut the door behind them, leaving Bilbo in silence. He listened until the sounds of their voices dissipated before moving from his spot. He moved to the door, placing his ear next to it. He was delighted to hear that the four guards were following after the two women. He took that as his cue to leave. Bacon and Eggs. How ridiculous. He couldn't help but smile, however, as he walked stealthily through the hallway outside Emelia's room. It was very Emelia. It should not have surprised him that she would pick a name like that. She had named a horse Toadstool after all.

I have posted the first chapter of my Avengers fic on my page. I would be forever grateful if you guys could read and review it! It is a total experiment so I would love to hear what you think.

And as always, thank you for all the response to the last chapter! Keep up the lovely reviews! :)