Author's Note: Hello all. Only a couple more days til Christmas and one day extra until Battle of Five Armies comes out in Australia. I am so not ready... not ready at all, not even in the slightest bit. And I've known how the story ends since I was six and I'm still not even... yeah, not the littlest bit ready for this movie. I've tried to avoid spoilers the best I can - usually, I don't care about spoilers, I don't mind reading them for a heads up, but with this movie, nah uh, they can stay the hell away from me - but little things slip through and, even now, am getting teary and heart palpitation... or maybe that's just from the stress of work, which it has been... stressful, I mean. I'm not really coping very well with my grief over the Hobbit ending and all the stress work is currently throwing at me. At least I'm getting some decent money with the amount of overtime I'm doing, though not much writing... sorry.

Anyway, enough of me, please enjoy this chapter.

Chapter Fifty-Eight

To Look Forward

The news that Thorin illegitimate half- dwarf child was in fact Durin the Deathless roared around the Lonely Mountain with almost extraordinary speed. By night-fall it was known in every house hold, down every mine shaft and to all those who stood guard on mountain's peak.

"The people are taking it surprisingly well." Nori reported to the company that night in Bilbo's chambers.

Bilbo stared at him with startled eyes.

"Are you saying that they may not have?" she squeaked as she pulled Frodo closer to her from where he sat on her lap.

"Mama!" he whined, squirming a little in his mother's arms for her to loosen her death hold.

"Well, more like they might have demanded further proof." Nori continued answering Bilbo's question.

"And they don't? Want more proof I mean?" Bilbo asked, looking around the company who stood about her chambers.

"No. They've accepted, more or less, without questions that the little lad is Durin the Deathless reborn." Dwalin rumbled.

"Really?" Bilbo questioned sceptically, not quite believing that. She knew that dwarves were a highly suspicious race and it seemed a bit too far-fetched to her that a whole populace of dwarves would simply accepted, without question, that their most revived king had been reborn in the body of dwobbit. Son of the current King under the Mountain or not.

"When it comes to Durin, lass, we do not question, we accept. If Durin has decided to be reborn into your son, then so be it."

"But… only a few people actually saw Frodo's shoulder! How does everybody else know they weren't just mistaken or it was a trick or something?" Bilbo questioned, her logical, practical brain spinning with the speed of a great eagle's flight.

"When it comes to Durin, there is no mistake and for someone to make a trick out of his rebirth is one of the highest crimes one of our folk can commit." Dwalin grunted.

Bilbo glanced to where Thorin was leaning against the fireplace across the chamber, clearly deep in thought as he, unblinkingly into the cheerful flames.

"So… what now?" She turned her gaze back to Dwalin and Nori, flicking briefly to where Balin and Ori still sat pouring over all their notes from earlier that day.

"Now? Lass, don't look so worried, this is, believe it not, a very good thing." Dwalin laughed.

"How?"

"Well," Balin said looking up from his notes, "it very well could have gone two ways; first is the path the people have chosen which is to accept and celebrate Durin's rebirth, even if he has been reborn into a dwobbit. Or…"

"Or," Dwalin took over, "They could have rebelled against it completely and we'd all be having a very different conversation right now."

"As we snuck out the secret door?" Bilbo asked with a sarcastic smile.

"Aye, something like that."

Bilbo gapped at him for a moment before shaking her head, muttering something that sound very much like 'confusicate and bebother these dwarves," causing Frodo who was still sitting on her lap to giggle.

"Oi, heard that." Nori called winking as mother and son looked over his way.

"But since they haven't rebelled against Frodo being Durin and we're not having to sneak out the secret door, what next?" Bilbo asked.

"We go on with our previous plans." Balin replied, tapping his notes causing Bilbo sighed.

"Oh right… that." She grumbled

"Yes, that." Balin chuckled softly, a fatherly twinkle in his eye as he watched her slump, as best she could with her child in her lap, in her chair.

"How is that," Nori asked with a teasing glint in his eyes, "going?"

"Very well, actually." Balin replied while Bilbo huffed.

"It really is." Ori insisted earnestly, nodding his head so vigorously his braids flapped.

"And as long as our burglar doesn't let her clever tongue run away with her, everything should work out nicely."

"Wouldn't hold your breath." Bilbo muttered darkly, "I talk – a lot – when I'm under pressure."

"Really lassie?" Dwalin teased, "Hadn't noticed."

Bilbo stuck her tongue childishly back at him.

"That's why," Balin said pulling Bilbo's attention back on to the matter at hand, "we've taken your account down on paper, re-written it to the point of no error, misunderstanding or misinterpretation can be taken from it."

"So it's dry and boring, eh?" Nori quipped causing his younger brother to glare balefully back at him. While this was happening, Bilbo was peering at the younger Ri brother's notes, nodding her head as she did so.

"Uh huh, pretty much. I'm going to bore myself to sleep, along with the whole council, if you have me reading that out."

"Spoken like a true storyteller." Balin commented dryly.

"I like Mama's stories." Frodo said suddenly, smiling brightly around the room.

"Bet ya do laddie."

"I like the ones with the trolls and the spiders best." Frodo continued eyeing his mother hopefully as he spoke.

"Nah uh," Bilbo chuckled kissing his curls, "you've had your story quota for the day." She teased, before glancing over to where Thorin still stood by her fireplace, clearly still lost in his own thoughts. As if sensing her gaze, he lifted his head from where he had been staring at the flames and looked back at her causing for her to blush and look away once more.

They are soon joined by the rest of the company, along with her family who take to seeing Thorin in her chambers a lot better than company do, who simply gapped between them like fish pulled out of water.

"What were you expecting," Paladin asked presently, poking Kili's shoulder cheekily, "a screaming match?"

"Paladin!" Bilbo hissed furiously.

"We'd have heard you if it were the case." Paladin added grinning impishly back at her. Saradoc rolled his eyes while smacking his brother-in-law across the back of his head.

"Ouch!" Paladin griped but fell thankfully silent. However it was this little exchange that had stirred the rest of the company out of their stupor and they wandered into her chambers. Frodo squirmed out of her arms and immediately ran to Kili's side, giggling as the dark haired prince swung him up into his arms.

"You're happier." Kili commented.

"Uh huh, Thorin explained what me being Durin meant. Well, sort of, he hasn't finished the story yet." Much to the amusement of everyone in the chamber, the tiny lad turned to look at the King under the Mountain with pouting lips and puppy-dog eyes.

Thorin pulled himself once more from his thoughts, turning his full attention on to his son.

"I will tell you the rest of Durin's tale in due course." He promised sincerely, his sapphire eyes surprisingly soft.

"Tomorrow?" Frodo asked, his eyes narrowed and calculating causing Bilbo to snort quietly behind her hand.

"If you are very good and do everything your mother asks you and you do not wander off at any point this evening and tonight, than yes, tomorrow I will tell you another tale of Durin." Thorin said and Frodo beamed widely.

The evening was spent telling tales of their adventure, most at Bilbo's expense though she was able to get a few digs back at certain members of the company while her family watched on in awe as she got herself into a non-serious verbal spat with Gloin over her silent feet and habit of sneaking up on people.

"You cannot hold me to fault when you are so terribly unobservant Master Gloin." Bilbo teased with a cheeky glint to her eyes.

"Ah, but you cheat burglar." Gloin retorted with harmless fire, "it's unnatural, your silent feet and disappearing ways."

Bilbo opened her mouth but was stopped from retorting cheekily back by her father who had been quietly sitting in the armchair by the fire who up until now content to simply watch the madness around him.

"Why does everyone continually address my daughter as 'burglar'?" Her dear papa asked, his brow forwarded in confusion, "my daughter has never burgled anything in her life."

Bilbo ignored the snorts that several members of the company made to that comment and moved patiently to her father's side.

"Ah, but Papa, that was what they hired me to be, their burglar, when I went on my adventure."

There was a slight pause as Bungo Baggins digested that piece of information.

"Ah ha!" Paladin said suddenly breaking the silence, "the mystery behind who stole Farmer Maggot's mushrooms is solved!"

Bilbo rolled her eyes back at him in exasperation.

"Paladin, if I'm going to go down for that, I'm taking you and Saradoc down with me!"

"But we learnt all we knew from you." Paladin replied innocently.

"Oh," Kili said suddenly, a cheeky smile crossing his face, "isn't Farmer Maggot the farmer whose dogs chased you up a tree?"

Bilbo head snapped around to stare at him open mouth and horrified while Paladin and Saradoc chortled behind her.

"How on earth do you know about that?" She squeaked indignation.

"Eh," Bofur said rubbing his ear smiling at her widely, "the old farmer may have mentioned it to us?"

"When?" Bilbo asked, completely confused now, rattling her brains, trying to remember when her dwarves had any opportunity to pass by Farmer Maggots farm. And talk to him moreover. The old farmer was not exactly known for his conversational skills.

"Eh…"

"We may have gotten a bit lost, the first time we came to see you after the Battle of Five Armies," Ori admitted more than a tad a sheepishly.

"A bit?" Paladin sniggered, highly amused, "you must have taken quite the detour to pass by his old farm. Most try to avoid it but you lot…"

"How are you even an adult?" Saradoc snorted, cuffing his best friend playfully around the head.

"What did you burgle?" Paladin asked once Saradoc had finished cuffing him and he had obviously grown bored with the idea of teasing the dwarves further over their lack of sense of direction when it came to navigating around the Shire, "I mean, you were hired to be their burglar, so what did you burgle? And from who?"

"Ah… long story." Bilbo found herself wishing they had just stayed on the Farmer Maggot topic, she could have handled the teasing and ribbing of being chased up a tree by Maggot's evil dogs if it meant not having to talk about Smaug and going into the whole sorry story over her finding the Arkenstone and all the chaos that followed afterwards. She had suffered telling that story enough times that day, could she not recieve a single break?

"A dragon." Frodo squealed cheerily, "Mama had to steal from a dragon, right Mama?"

"Uh huh?"

"Dragon aren't real." Lotho grunted from where he was slouching off to the side of the chamber.

"Try telling Smaug that." Bilbo muttered trying not to dwell too much upon the giant furnace with wings. She already knew she was in for some truly awful nightmares that night after having spent the day dredging up memories that had been best left forgot, she didn't need for her imagination to feel that it was invited to terrorise her now.

"A dragon?" Paladin question, "you stole from a dragon? How could you steal from a dragon? What did you steal?"

She was flabbergasted by Paladin's questions for she had truly forgotten just how little she had told her family of her adventure. Frodo knew, of course he knew, but the rest of them, her dear hobbit family, had very little idea of just how deep she had truly sunk herself in the mess of another race.

"I think it's well past the time for food." Thorin's clear and authoritative tone broke through the awkward silence that had followed heavily after Paladin's questions, distracting the hobbit man completely from them as he snapped his head eagerly in Thorin's direction.

Bilbo breathed a sigh of relief the company and her family went about getting ready for food to be brought to her chambers, distracting them for a time from her and her current situation. She rubbed her chest, trying to keep a hold of the darkness that was starting to brew just beneath the surface of her skin.

It is fine, all is well, she thought to herself, trying to fight the darkness swirling in her belly, Balin said many times over that things were well.

She wrapped her arms around her belly; nonetheless she listened to more tales from the company though her eyes were mainly trained upon her son who obviously squirmed his way out of Kili's arms and was now standing by Thorin who was giving the little lad his full attention, much like earlier that afternoon. It warmed her greatly to see how gentle and comfortable Thorin was with Frodo, showing not even the slightest hint of discomfort as the little boy asks him question after question, answering them all with great patience and a warm smile.

This was what she had always hoped for, for the both of them. And seeing Thorin, this afternoon and now being almost parent-like towards her, their son was what was helping to mend her shattered heart and allowing for her head to take the first real, proper steps towards forgiving Thorin for his past deeds.

For Frodo's sake, if not for their own, they would work things out; she was already taking the steps to making sure of that by agreeing to this damn trial instead of taking the easier path and simply marching out of the mountain with her son and family in tow as she had every damn right to do so. It was only because she wished to stay and help with the forging of the relationship between father and son that she was even agreeing to the trial at all; otherwise, she would have left the moment she was strong enough to get herself on to a pony. After all, there was no threat to her and Frodo anymore, Bovin was caught and…

Bovin… she never did get out of dwarf who had hired him to steal her and her child from her home, and obviously it wasn't Thorin so who…

"He's locked away." Nori says suddenly by her side, causing her to jump. She hadn't realised she had spoken out loud "him and the rest of them."

"Radin and Radon too?" She asks not quite believing she had forgotten the two half-breed brothers.

Nori sent her a look she doesn't quite understand but doesn't question.

"Don't let them rot." She mutters to him, "They're just boys, boys who are in a terrible situation. All they need is a chance, one more chance and you'll see, they're good boys, clever and quick."

"They won't." Nori promises, "you just say the word and they'll be out, probably be cleaning kitchen pots for a while, but they won't be locked up anymore."

"What are you two whispering about over there?" Dori calls shooting Nori an extremely suspicious look as if believing Nori was trying to convince Bilbo into doing something highly illegal.

"Our burglar has just remembered about her captors," Nori replied with a shrug, causing Bilbo to groan beside him, "I'm just telling her what has become of them."

"Rotting in prison, I hope." Lotho grumbled while Bilbo scowled.

"No! Well… maybe some, but not Radin and Radon, and there were a few others too who were only involved because they were – and probably still are – in desperate situations." She scuffed her palm against her nose and cheek, "I just wish I knew what they wanted?" She muttered more to herself than anyone else, "and who hired them."

She could almost taste the tension in the air, thick enough to cut with Sting. Brushing some curls from her face she peered at them curiously.

"What?"

"Lass," Dwalin started slowly ignoring the warning glares being sent his way by several company members, "Have ya ever heard of Bzog?"

"Bless you." Bilbo said before realizing that Dwalin hadn't actually sneezed.

"Well, that answers that then." Fili said in a quiet voice.

"Bzog?" Bilbo asked, frowning. Bzog, Bzog, Bzog… huh, sounded very much like… "No, no, no."

"Yes," Balin said heavily, "apparently Azog the Defiler has a son."

"Who's dead!" Bilbo retorted, arms crossing firmly across her chest, "Bolg, his son, was crush by Beorn in bear form."

"Thought ya said ya didn't remember the battle." Bofur commented lightly and Bilbo glared at him.

"Gandalf told me." She shot back without even breaking stride as she turned back to Balin, "what? He has another son running around?"

"Apparently."

"Oh, well that's just… wonderful." Bilbo muttered.

"I'm confused." Paladin said, head cocked to one side. Bilbo just shook her head and waved him off feeling the wave of sickness roar through her.

"What does he want?"

"You." every single member of the company said as one.

"Well don't just all come out and say it at once" She grumbled sarcastically.

"This is too much to be taken all in one night." Thorin spoke quietly, speaking through her new layer of fear and turmoil. "Bzog will not be able to get to you here and Bovin and his companions are safely locked away, they cannot harm you or Frodo or the rest of you," he added for her hobbit family members who nodded. "you are safe here." He was speaking directly to her, "no one will harm you."

"I know." She gave a shaking nod even though she felt like she was being weighed down by boulder.

"We'll deal with one thing at a time lass," Balin said comfortingly, "first the trial and then Bovin and Bzog."

"Wonderful. So many things to look forward. Honestly, I can't decide what I'm more looking forward to, standing in front of council of dwarves out for my blood or facing an orc after my head." She had enough sense to look a little ashamed by the annoyed scowls being sent her way.

"Not funny." Kili grouched, her cousins nodding in agreement while other members of the company grumbled away under their breaths.

"My life." Bilbo grumbled, "I can say what I please about it, and making fun of it makes it easier to cope with… unless you'd all rather have a mess of a hobbit lass on your hands."

Frodo wiggled away from Thorin's side and comes to her, arms outstretched, his eyes mournful.

"Sorry, darling heart," She says to him for he is the only one who truly making her regret her harsh words in regards to her current reality, "mama is tired and hungry and that makes her grouchy and sarcastic."

"But you don't mean what you said."

Bilbo shook her head and immediately felt her lad relax against her and along with him the rest of the men in the room. She made a mental note, that from now onwards, to keep all her sarcastic, snarky remarks in regards to her current predicament to herself, since it was quite obvious that neither her family nor her friends would welcome them. She might as well go and find a thread and needle and sew up her mouth now or live with the constant kick-puppy dog looks that were still being sent in her direction. It was ridiculous, truly and soon as this was all over she was going to let them all have it.

She plays with Frodo's curls while her dwarves and hobbits stir themselves into action, setting out the food that has just been brought up to her chambers, organising plates and making room at the table to set the dishes down.

She could see out of the corner of her eye Balin talking quietly with Thorin, both peering over his and Ori's notes that they had made over the course of the day of her account of everything that had happened that had had a hand in branding her traitor and banishing her from Erebor. She could see from the set of Thorin's mouth and hard stone-like quality to his eyes, that Thorin wasn't happy but she wasn't close enough to hear exactly what was being said nor was she brave enough to actually go over and ask what they were talking about.

It suddenly struck her that she had just spent almost a whole afternoon in Thorin's presence and… nothing. No screaming, no tears, no furious rants, from either of them. It was Frodo, of course. It was all because of Frodo. Things would have surely have been different if their son hadn't been there. It just amazed her how… simple it had been, easy even to fall into sense of familiarity with seeing Thorin and Frodo interact, not quite father and son yet, but close, it would be soon now, very soon.

Author's Note: So we're slowly but surely coming near the end of this arc - hahaha, I remember when this story was only meant to get up to three arcs! Now up to four! - it will end with Bilbo's trial. Arc 4, also known in my head as the Arc that Thorin & Bilbo get their shit together, will be the wrapping up of things with Bovin and Bzog... along with lots of family and Thorin/Bilbo fluff too.
Arc Three has been a lot of fun to write, even with all the writing blocks I've suffered with it, it has definitely tested me, but I can see the end in sight and the beginnings of arc four. I'm hoping with my Christmas break, I'll be finishing off Arc Three and starting on Arc Four.
I'll try to update frequently, since its Christmas time and the time for giving and sharing. If I don't update in the next couple of days, I'll definitely be updating on Christmas, Boxing Day and New Years (and probably on the days I've seen BOFA... which will be a lot. I've trained my parents well, they know they've going to have to be dealing with BOFA for days).
Anyway, bye for now.