Author's Note: Sorry for the wait for the "real" chapter 12, have been very busy with work.
I would like to thank all my wonderful and fantastic readers for all their supportive and beautiful comments that they wrote in response to the flame that I had received. I will admit, now, in hindsight, I feel rather silly for getting as upset as I did over the one flame, but I had received it after one of those days and I... really just needed to vent. I wasn't looking for sympathy or even any comments about what had happened, a just wanted to vent as well as explain my reasons behind writting this story, so imagine my surprise when I got over almost ninety comments in response to me venting over something a tiny as one small-minded person.
I was and still am completely and utterly gobsmacked people. You have absolutely no idea how much all your lovely and supportive comments have meant to me. Really, I actually got a bit teary reading some of them because they were just so lovely and supportive. Really I couldn't ask for better readers.
So thank you, thank you so much, all of you, for all your kind, supportive, encouraging words. I was never thinking of taking this fanfic down or simply stop writing it, that never even crossed my mind, but your words have made me doubly determined to make this the best fanfic that I possibly can write.

Alright I will shut up now and allow you all to read. Please enjoy Chapter Twelve: The Weakness of Hearts

Chapter Twelve

The Weakness of Hearts

The days that quickly turned into weeks passed lazily by for Bilbo and her guests. They received no more unwanted visits from unpleasant relatives. Of course most of Hobbiton knew that mad Bilbo Baggins had once more opened her hobbit-hole to dwarves but they were wise enough to keep their mouths shut about it.

There were some who were braver than others and they came to visit Bag End, if only to catch a glimpse of the dwarves before running away. Some were even braver and actually met the dwarves personally.

Such braver hobbits were the Baggins's gardener Hobson 'Roper' Gamgee and his son Hamfast, already better known as 'The Gaffer' for his ability to get things done quickly and efficiently.

The Baggins were very fond on their gardeners, frequently having them around for a chat and a cup of tea.

It was they who had taken care of Bungo Baggins while Bilbo had been away on her adventure and who had kept the Sackville-Baggins out of Bag End for that period of time. They only failed in the end because the Sackville-Baggins did the underhanded thing of sticking their lawyers upon them.

They had apologized profoundly when Bilbo returned to find her things being auction off and that the Sackville-Baggins had made themselves quite a home in her hobbit-hole. They had helped in reclaiming all the items that had been auctioned off before her unexpected return.

The dwarves quickly discovered that the Gamgee's were surprisingly protective of their employers, especially The Gaffer who had spent much of their first meeting simply glaring at them before Bilbo very sweetly and gently told him to stop. Which he did promptly, going bright red around his ears as he mumble, 'yes, Miss Bilbo', before ducking his head in embarrassment. That however did not stop him from shotting the dwarves dirty looks whenever he was sure his mistress wasn't looking.

It wasn't until the Gamgee's were leaving did the dwarves discover the reason behind the hobbit's animosity towards them.

Bilbo and her father were still chatting away with Roper Gamgee when The Gaffer cornered them with a determined look in his brown eyes. He gave them a rather impressive speech, threatening them all with bodily harm from his rake and pruners if they did anything that might harm Miss Bilbo in any way, emotionally or physically and to think twice about dragging her off anywhere for he would have a word or two to say about it and would stop them from taking her away in any way he could.

He would have probably gone on, but was stopped by Bilbo walking over to them with little Frodo sitting on her hip fast asleep, her soft earthy eyes curious as she cocked her head to one side, looking from each other their faces.

"Everything alright?"

"Of course Miss Bilbo." The Gaffer replied with a cheerful smile which Bilbo returned just as warmly. "Everything is fine." The hobbit man glanced back at their chatting fathers with grin, "best get my Da home or they'll be talking all night. Good night Miss Bilbo," he nodded his head respectfully to Bilbo, "Good Night Master Dwarves," he nodded his head respectively to them too, much to their surprise after his rather long and threatening rant just moments before.

He walked over to his father and Bungo and after a few moments the two Gamgees were saying their final good night's before heading down Bag Shot lane towards their own small hobbit-hole.

"You've got yourself a fine bodyguard, Bilbo." Kili teased as they made their way back inside Bag End.

"Kili, what on earth are you talking about?" Bilbo asked with a snort as she gently set her little son down onto one of the armchairs by the fire where he immediately curled up into a ball, taking on the appearances of an odd looking cat.

"The Gaffer gave us quite an earful of interesting threats." Kili continued with a grin and Bilbo rolled her eyes.

"The Gamgees have been working for us for years and Hamfast has been a dear friend since we were youngsters," Bilbo replied with a shrug as she made her way into the kitchen.

"He was quite worried about you while you were away." Bungo offered as he sat slowly down at the kitchen table. "When he heard that you were gone, he wanted to go after you and…"

"Act like her bodyguard?" Kili and Ori asked grinning.

"Well now," Bungo said slowly, "I don't know about being a bodyguard, but he did wish to go after her, make sure she was alright. He was quite put out about you not saying goodbye to him." He added to his daughter who sighed a heavy, long suffering sigh.

"I didn't have time to say goodbye, I was already late! I had barely enough time to make all the proper arrangements with his Da to take care of Bag End and you Papa that I was unable to wait for him to return from the markets to say goodbye."

The dwarves fought hard to hide their amused grins at their hobbit's disgruntled complaints as she went about making their dinner.

This of course woke Frodo up and he came tottering into the kitchen, rubbing his eyes sleepily and his arm raised for Bofur to pick him up. The lad quickly stole the dwarf's fur hat and set it upon his head. Or over his head rather as the hat fell down to the boy's chin. But he loved it all the same even though he could not see whenever he put it on.

The little boy did not mind not being able to see. He was safe and comfortable in the arms that held him. They were so different to his mother's embrace, dwarf hugs, but they were familiar all the same.

Whenever one of his mama's dwarves lifted him up and he closed his eyes he saw huge, grey hills, glittering stones and frozen rivers that shown like sunlight as they threaded their way through heavy rock. Whenever he was in the arms of one of the dwarves he felt that he was far, far away from the rolling green hills of the Shire and to places that he knew even though he had never been to them before.

It was queer feeling and little Frodo didn't quite understand it himself but he was a very accepting child and every new mystery in his life was a new adventure.

He snuggled close to Bofur's chest, his head resting against the dwarf's shoulder, finding comfort in the familiar noise around him as he slowly fell back into the land of dreams. Most of his dreams were much like the visions he saw when he was being held by one of the dwarves, filled with large, grey hills made of rock, shiny stones and strange silver clothes that clanged as they moved.

He dreamed of many strange people and places, of dwarves and elves and great men. He dreamed of seven rings created for seven Dwarf Lords in great stone halls and of one ring, a master ring that scared him while at the same time felt familiar to him like the other seven did not.

He did not dream of rings very often, not unless he saw his mother sneak on her own magic ring, but otherwise dreams about magical rings did not bother him.

Tonight in Bofur's arms, Frodo dreamed of a single great rock hill in the middle of a great plain, a huge lake glimmering in the distance.

As he dreamed of this far off place, words from his mother's lullaby softly sang in his ear.

What was before, we see once more

Our kingdom a distant light

Fiery mountain beneath the moon
The words unspoken, we'll be there soon
For home a song that echoes on
And all who find us will know the tune

The days were growing longer and warmer and the dwarves regretfully starting to think about the journey back to the mountain.

Kili of course had no wish to return to his uncle's kingdom preferring to remain and help take care of his cousin and he was most disgruntled when Bilbo, Bofur and Ori all spoke of how this would be a bad idea.

"How so?" He snapped angrily; hurt reflecting in his dark eyes. He held Frodo close to him on his lap while the little lad played with his braids.

"Think how Thorin will react if you don't return with us to Erebor." Bofur said patiently.

"He won't care; it'll be a weight off his mind!" Kili snapped back and Bilbo sighed heavily, hating the rift that had been driven so deeply between nephew and uncle.

"He will." Ori spoke softly, "You know he will."

Kili shot him a dirty look and the young dwarf fell silent.

"Forget about Thorin for a moment, please," Bilbo said, her heart aching as it whispers if only I could, "and think of your brother and mother? How would Fili feel if you did not return? Or your mother. Kili as much as I appreciate why you want to stay here, with Frodo and I, it would be best, overall, for you to return home because whether you like it or not, you are a prince and people will come looking for you."

"Can't you three," Kili said looking at his fellow dwarves desperately, "just pretend I've run off somewhere? To Gondor maybe?"

"Gondor?" Ori and Bofur yelped while Bilbo simply looked at him in confusion. Gondor? Gondor? Now where had she heard that name before? In Rivendell, maybe?

She thought for a moment longer before spluttering out

"Gondor? The greatest realm of men in the west?"

Her dwarves looked at her curiously, clearly wondering how and why their hobbit knew about the great realm of men.

She blushed and muttered, "Rivendell."

Kili rolled his eyes while Ori looked impressed and Bofur and Bifur grinned at her in amused affection for her curious mind.

"Anyway, Uncle would be less likely to try and come after me if you lot said I was in Gondor."

"I seriously doubt that." Bilbo said sceptically, "I think you would have a better chance of your uncle not coming after you if these three said you had run off to the Golden Wooden of Lothlorien. But," She added as an afterthought, "I suppose he could always swallow his pride and ask Thranduil to send someone to check and then that's that cover story blown. He would eventually get the truth out of someone as to where to you really are." Bringing all his wrath with him, I imagine, Bilbo thought staring down at her fingers and swallowing the painful lump in her throat.

"Uncle would never do that." Kili said defiantly, his eyes filled with stubborn certainty.

"I'm fairly certain he would."Bofur said with a smirk, obviously picturing the moment of Thorin asking the Elvenking of the Woodland Realm for help finding his nephew with great relish and amusement.

"He would." Ori seconded Bofur ignoring Kili furious gaze by as he looked intently around Bilbo's front room, taking a particular interest in the portrait of her parents that hung over the fireplace.

"Kili," Bilbo said gently, "you have to go back. You belong in Erebor, it is your home, where your family is."

"You and Frodo are my family too." The boy growled out in obvious pain, pain that Bilbo had so wanted to spare him from feeling. He shouldn't have to feel torn between two families and she refused to allow him to feel that he had to take responsibility of Frodo because his uncle wasn't around to do so. She refused to tie him to the Shire when she knew his young and adventurous spirit was still burning brightly and passionately within his soul.

"I know and as much as I would love for you to stay here with us, I cannot allow you to. Things in the Shire are very slow and little ever changes and you would find very little to do to occupy your time. You would become bored if you stayed here with nothing to do. Bored and lonely, and I have no wish for that to happen. You're too young and still too eager to see the world to settle down here in the Shire."

"S'not fair." Kili muttered miserably as he looked down at his cousin in his lap.

"Life generally isn't. But Kili, while I'm telling you to return with the others to Erebor, I'm not telling you to never come back. I want you to come back, as often as you possibly can and visit Frodo and I."

"We'll try lass," Bofur answered with nod, "as often as we can without it looking suspicious."

Bilbo smiled and stood up to hug him, Bifur and Ori and finally Kili who was still looking upset but he allowed himself to relax in Bilbo's embrace and when she drew away and resumed sitting in her favourite armchair he seemed to be a little happier.

"You'll be alright, though? Being by yourself, without us?" Kili asked softly as he ran a hand through Frodo's curls.

Bilbo smiled.

"Of course Kili. We'll be fine and we are hardly alone." Bilbo chuckled.

"Of course, your bodyguard gardener." Kili snickered causing Bilbo to throw a small cushion at him which he aggravatingly caught with one hand. The other dwarves laughed while Frodo stared up a Kili with newfound awe.

"Your mama just threw a cushion at me Frodo." Kili said to his cousin with mock horror. "That wasn't very nice, was it?"

"No." Frodo shook his head.

"And what do we do when something not nice happens to someone we care about?" Bilbo was starting to get a bad 'oh no, what have you taught my son now' feeling in her gut.

She sighed when she saw that her bad feeling had indeed been correct as her little son tried his best to scowl disapprovingly at her.

He wasn't very good at scowling yet and he had a long way to go before he had his father's infamous scowl down pat – thank goodness – but with time and practise Bilbo was sure he would have his own infamous scowl all of his own. But until then, she was fighting her hardest not to laugh at the cute little scowl on her son's face.

"Alright, alright," Bilbo sighed as she moved to Kili's side and plucked her son from his lap, "I'm sorry Kili for throwing a cushion at you." her son's scowl immediately lifted and his bright, sunlight filled smile was back. Well for a moment at least as it quickly dissolved into a yawn.

"Alright," Bilbo said as Frodo rubbed his eyes, "someone's ready for his afternoon nap." She adjusted her lad on her hip before carrying him to his bedroom.

Her lad was asleep almost the moment she finished tucking him into his cot. She leant against the railing of the cot, gently running her fingers through his dark locks.

"Bilbo?"

"Come in Kili." Kili walked carefully into the nursery, taking care not to make a sound with his heavy boots as he came to stand by her by the cot.

"He's a good sleeper." Kili commented softly.

"Yes, he's always been a good sleeper, ever since he was a babe." She smiled cheekily up at him, "he doesn't snore either." Kili gave her an affectionate nudge with his arm.

"He could with time. You might find yourself with a loud and spectacular snore in your hands in a couple of decades."

"No, I don't think anyone could be louder and more spectacular snorer than Gloin." Bilbo snorted softly causing Kili to snigger.

"Oh, yes, the moths. That was rather impressive."

"You and Fili were terrible that night."

"Were we? What did we do or say on that particular night?"

"The pair of you were winding me up about orc night raids."

"Oh yes," the dwarf prince had the decency to looked ashamed, "did we ever apologize for that?"

"No, but then you never apologized for almost getting me eaten by trolls, but as you did try to save me, I guess that calls us even."

"I wouldn't mind seeing them again."

"Hmmm?"

"The trolls. I wouldn't mind seeing their statues again."

"Funnily enough, I wouldn't mind seeing them again either. Maybe when Frodo's a bit bigger, we could take him and show them to him. Heavens knows he loves the story about them well enough." Bilbo chuckled as Kili's eyes burned with excitement and delight.

"You really mean it about wanting us to return?" Kili asked causing Bilbo to shot him a look as if questioning his sanity.

"Kili of course I do. Do you have any possible idea just how much I've missed all over you? I want you to visit as often as you can. I want you in Frodo's life so that when it comes time for him to find out who and what he truly is, it won't…" she closed her eyes and took a deep breath, "I'm hoping that you'll be able to help him threw it. I know I won't be able to," she sighed as she ran a finger through her son's soft curls, "knowing my luck he'll hate me and I'll have lost him forever." A tear rolled down her cheek.

"No, Bilbo, no. Frodo could never hate you. No one could ever hate you." threw her tears, Bilbo shot him a look and the dwarf prince corrected himself, "no one can ever hate you for long."

"They hate me for long enough." Bilbo said softly, her eyes becoming glazed as her mind drifted back over her darkest of days.

Kili gathered her up into his arms and hugged her close.

"I'm so silly." She sniffled into his chest, "you know, I promised myself that I was done with feeling sorry for myself and yet here I am, yet again, feeling sorry for myself."

"You're allowed to feel sorry for yourself, Bilbo." Kili reassured her gently.

"Yes, but not all the damn time." Bilbo muttered angrily. "I'm so tired of just feeling sad all the time." She rubbed her hands against her face, letting out a weak little laugh, "I am so weak."

"Hardly Bilbo." Kili said giving her shoulders the tiniest of shakes, "you're one of the strongest people I know. The strongest even! Don't ever think of yourself as being weak and you shouldn't have to feel that you have to be happy all the time; you're allowed to feel sad and sorry for yourself. You have a reason to be sad. Me? At home, I'm angry towards everyone, even my brother," he winced as he thought back on how distant he and his brother now were from each other and it was all his fault, " who has always stood by me no matter what mess I've managed to land us head first into. I'm angry all the time, lashing out at everyone. I go off on long trips by myself, just walking or sitting around in some deserted place feeling angry and sorry for myself. You don't do that, you carry on, for your son and father and for all your friends and family. You don't close in within yourself and shut out the rest of the world. You are strong Bilbo; it is us who are weak."

"Kili…"

"I mean it." Kili said softly, staring down at his little cousin, "those of the line of Durin are weak. Yes, we are great warriors and good rulers… for a time. But we're weak. Weak when it comes to the things that truly matter. We're weak when it comes to things about where our hearts truly lie. We're weak because we allow ourselves to be so easily corrupted by greed and hatred. I'm glad actually," his lips twitched into a small smile, "I'm glad that he'll grow up away from all of us. That he'll grow up with his strong, brave, smart hobbit mother who will teach him all that is right and make him become a great man. And you will. I can think of no better person to raise this little wonder than you." He smiled softly at Bilbo.

"Oh Kili." Tearing up once more she flung her arms around the young dwarf and hugged him tightly. "Thank you."

The dwarf lad - who was almost as precious to her as one of her many cousins, if not more so - smiled down at her as he returned her hug before they both returned to watching the tiny dwobbit sleep.

Author's Note: I'm not entirely happy with this chapter. I mean, i love all the elements that are in this chapter but I don't know, maybe I'm just being picky but I'm not altogether happy with it. And no matter how much I edit and play with it I can't get it to read how I want to, but I'm the author so this might just be me knick-picking it.
Anyway, exciting news this fanfic is over a hundred pages long... and I'm still not up to Thorin meeting Frodo yet *smacks head against computer desk*
But I'm getting there. I'm currently writing Chapter Eighteen which is the beginning of the arc that will set in motion the events that will get Frodo and Thorin meeting. I can't WAIT! I want to write it now, but I got to set up stuff before I can so *pouts*.
Anyway, with the next chapter, chapter 13 'The Road goes Ever On', our wonderful dwarves will be leaving Bag End and returning to Erebor. Master Oakenshield will be appearing in chapter fourteen and chapter fifteen... well, lets say it has a big Bilbo/Thorin flashback scene, hopefully proving that I am truly a Bagshield at heart because it's very sweet and fluffy.
Bye for now.