Disclaimer: I do not own the Hobbit.

Another chapter up, make me so happy! Hope you guys are enjoying this, hell knows I am. And thanks to your reviews the turning point for Mar and Thorin will take place in Lake Town, and trust me it will be a severe turning point ... if you catch my drift *wriggles eyebrows*.

Anywho, enjoy the grumpy dwarves cold hands and wooing, and I say wooing in a silly voice because I can :P

There was something about a dreamless sleep, something soothing in a strange way. Marie found absolute peace for however long she slept, and it was wonderful. Even with the hard wooden surface she was curled up on and the itchy blanket tucked in tightly around her, she was lulled back by the gentle rocking. That is until an icy breeze brush across her nose. It chilled and tickled her skin. She wriggled her nose to ward off the cold but it persisted until Marie felt to sensation of a sneeze building up.

Her hand pulled out from the tangled mess of her blanket to cover the sneeze, but the power of it made her neck explode with fresh pain that shattered her sleepy state. She stopped herself from groaning and sat up, clutching the tender skin.

'Oh this is going to bruise badly.'

She took a deep breath and rubbed her eyes. Might as well stay awake and find out what she missed. It was impossible to tell what hour it was thanks to the harsh grey hue of the mist, thick and impossible to see through. The sun may have been right above Marie's head and she wouldn't know any different. The lack of shapes beyond the two sides of the barge made her believe that they were quite possibly in the middle of the lake.

She swung her leg over the edge of the tiny seat she had been laying across, her feet knocking across a warm body. She pulled them back up and glanced down at who she had kicked by accident. It was Dori, but he made no movement to suggest that he felt it at all. He was huddle with Ori and Nori while the rest of the dwarves were scattered around the little room they had between the barrels. All but Thorin and Dwalin were asleep. Well she assumed it to be them. A large figure was hunched over one of the barrels with his back to Marie. She could see very little but there was no mistaking that bald tattooed covered head. Dwalin.

Thorin was pacing the length of the barge slowly. It had to be him, the rhythm of his strides gave him away. The mist enveloped him until Marie saw only a silhouette of the dwarf king. It frightened and intrigued her.

Marie, keeping in mind the dwarves below her, stood up carefully on the cold wooden deck. She took a moment to stand. No dizziness, no jelly legs. She was whole. Whole, but freezing. She tucked her hands under her arms and treaded quietly across the deck. Something knocked against her hip. Her sword, back in its place. She couldn't remember putting it there. It mattered little now.

There was however something she was forgetting, and her something within her did not like that she had. It grated at her mind like a plough overturning the earth.

Marie came up beside the burly warrior, whose gaze was fixed squarely onto the back of the shadowy outline of the back of the barge.

"Dwalin?" Marie said quietly, just in case he should be startled. But the dwarf lowered his chin slightly, "Aye lass, I know you're there. Nice to see you on your feet again." His head cocked towards her but his eyes didn't move. His growling tone must have caught Thorin's attention, for Marie saw his figure stop his pacing. He turned and walked around the barrels towards them, Marie met him halfway along the narrow path between the cargo and the low sides of the barge.

"Hello." Marie couldn't help the apologetic edge her voice held. She looked up into his eyes, expecting to see ... what was she expecting? "How are you feeling?"

"I feel that it would be more appropriate for me to be asking you that." Thorin brace a hand on a barrel.

"Doesn't mean I can not ask you all the same. I am ... well, if you would care to know."

"Of course I would."

Marie's eyes fell from his and settled on the chunks of ice flouting alongside the barge. "I'm touched." As she spoke her hand disappeared into her back pocket.

She had remembered what had been bothering her. She hadn't check for her ring. Before her cold fingers round the gold band, they skimmed across the crumpled parchment of the map. Her priorities were torn between the selfish want for her ring and returning the map and key to their rightful owner now that they were out of Mirwood.

As painful as it was, she chose the latter. She hooked her middle finger around the iron key as her thumb and index finger pinched at the parchment and she pulled both out in one go. "These might be better kept in your hands now." She said, smoothing out a creased corner with her other hand. It was amazing that the map was still in a sound condition. She held it and the key out for him, with a crooked smile.

His thumb brushed over hers as he took them, but as they made contact a look of worry came over him briefly. "You're cold."

Marie pulled her hand away sharply. "Yes, well," She run her thumb along the pads of her fingers, "It is a little nippy out."

"Here." Thorin had pocketed the map and key and grabbed her hand. It fitted neatly in his hold as he placed his other hand it to preserve the heat. This surprised Marie immensely, but none the less grateful. The heat of his hands slightly rubbing hers spread all the way up her arm and crept over her shoulder, tempting her to slide her other hand into his hold. And she did.

"What happened after I ... well fell asleep?" She asked in a quiet voice.

"The men took quite a beating from the river and that damned orc pack, but otherwise they are sound."

"And Kili? His leg ..?"

"He'll live."

Marie looked back at the sleeping dwarves. The youngest set of brothers were resting against the sides with Kili's head upon his brother's shoulders. His closed eyes looked hollow and were an off colour, the crude knot around his leg was already filthy. Marie ran her tongue along the roof of her mouth, tasting something acidic, "And you?" She turned back to Thorin, "Are you alright?"

He answered with another question.

"Was it your intention to half drown my men Miss Baggins?"

"What? No of course not. I was only ..." Marie twitched her nose, "I hadn't really planned the escape beyond the whole barrel thing. I was too please it actually worked." She admitted.

"And here I was thinking that you were doing it to make us men suffer."

Marie was somewhat shocked at such a statement. "Why on earth would you think that? Has your opinion of me lowered for having you sail down a river in barrels?"

"I mean no offence to you Marie. My opinion of you remains ... steady." His fingers did tighten ever so slightly around her knuckles when he spoke. The barge gave a jolt as one of the ice chunks bounced off the side harshly, the old wooden hull groaning as it swerved to the right. Thorin's hand slid up Marie's wrist and clasped her forearm to steady her.

She looked behind the dwarf to the back of the barge, where dark figure looming in the mist manned the quant pole, the bargeman.

'So that's what Dwalin was eyeing off.' Marie slipped her hands out from Thorin's and tried to pass around him. But she was stopped with a swift yank on her elbow.

"What? I can go a few steps without falling over the side you know." Marie huffed, but Thorin wasn't listening. His was glaring at the bargeman just as Dwalin did and pulling her away, or rather into him. Marie twisted her arm up so that she was gently pushing him away. "Thorin Please." He finally looked back down at her with his all too familiar distant gaze. "It will be fine." Marie's fingers splayed out across his chest and she could feel his heart pulsing under the coarse shirt. Each beat was like a drum resonating in the cavern of his chest. Marie had to stop her hand from quivering, but luckily for her Thorin's iron fingers released her arm.

He practically stomped away from her.

Marie let her hand slide back into her pocket, only for a second, before shuffling towards the back of the barge. Soon she found herself staring at a pair of shabby boots on a platform.

"You're awake Miss."

Marie knew that voice, from a vague moment in time calling out of her unconscious state.

She lifted her gaze so that could look at the face of the bargeman through the mist.

"Um yes. Good morning ugh .. Bard? It is morning is it?"

He nodded to her. "Yes. The sun is just on its way up." There was a gentle level of concentration about him as he maneuvered the quant pole slowly. He was a seasoned bargeman at home on the water, but oddly Marie thought that they way he held himself was something akin to how Thorin did, something almost noble, regal. "I trust you slept well. You hardly so much as wiggled when your dwarves brought you onboard."

"Very." Automatically Marie's attention turned to 'her' dwarves. "I hope you haven't been awake all night on our account."

"I had to make up for lost time regardless Miss Marie. And besides, it would not be the first time I have sacrificed sleep."

Marie felt about for the edge of the platform he stood on, her gaze firmly on him the whole time.

"I want to properly thank you for saving me ... and for helping us."

"I did what any half decent man would do for a woman." Bard lent back and pulled the pole into his body, the barge tilting to the left and the sail picked up a gust of wind coming across the lake. "But I will not deny that the promise of payment encouraged my disobedience."

"At least you're an honest man." Marie rested against the platform, tucking her hands into her coat. "You mention you had children. I'm sure that too plays a factor in this."

"A very large one."

"Are they still young? Or are they on the cusp of adulthood?"

"Far too young to be grown, but no more can they hold onto the innocence of childhood." Bard's face became hard and Marie saw his fingers dig into the pole. "Especially my eldest girl. She had to become a mother to too young an age."

"No one can prepare us for them moment we are no longer children." Marie asked no more and waited for how he would proceed. She would not make him speak of his family unless he wanted to. Perhaps she may meet them herself and have her questions answered then.

"You still haven't answered my question Miss."

"Mmm? Sorry?" Marie blinked up at him. Had he asked her something?

He offered her the same lopsided smile he had given her before. "Excuse the bluntness of it but what exactly are you? You are no dwarf, elf or human."

"I'm a Hobbit, from the Shire." Marie wondered how many more times must she repeat the fact, "I believe the term that would also be appropriate is a Halfling."

"I have never head of the Shire."

"It may be called something else this side of the world, but is in the west, beyond the Misty Mountains."

"You are a long way from home Miss Marie."

"That I am." She said to herself.

"What brings you so far East?" Bard asked. "What is your common ground with the dwarves?"

Marie was a little stuck. She recalled back to Balin's little story about merchants and the Iron Hills. How would she fit in this tale? She didn't wish to lie to the man who saved her life, yet she had her loyalties to the company and their secrets. No doubt Thorin would be listening, waiting to hear her response too.

Perhaps she could just tell truth ... with a little embellishment.

"There's an old saying amongst my folk back home. 'Never go far from the green of home and trouble will never find you.' We are taught that from a very early age, our one unbreakable rule." How she hated that saying as a child.

"What made you break the rule?"

"It was the one rule I wanted to. I always wanted to come east, but time just ... got away and I knew that if I didn't do it now, I would spend my remaining years yearning for it. It just so happens that this company was travelling though town, so I invited them to dinner and the next thing I knew ... I was on the Great East Road far from the green of home."

"Well you may have gotten more than you intended with this lot." Bard said warily.

Marie shrugged, instantly wishing she hadn't due to the sharp pain in her shoulder and neck. "Perhaps. But I do not regret my decision." That was the honest truth, with no added flare of charm to it. "If I regret anything it's not having the endurance of my youth once more."

"Well you are not lacking in the beauty of youth."

"Oh my, is my saviour wooing me?" Marie felt a chuckle weaving through her words.

"Pardon me if I cross boundaries."

"It's alright. Heavens, it's been an age since I've been wooed."

Her cheek was lost soon enough when she was overcome with the sense of this being wrong. Thorin could probably hear every word that had passed between them. Bard was not looking at her when her smile fell, but out onto the lake as the mist eased a little.

"We're almost nearing Lake Town." He said.

"How can you tell?"

"I know the winds and currents. They are all I need to know my way. Should the mist clear up some more we may even glimpse the Lonely Mountain."

Marie's back straightened. "Really?"

"Aye."

The hobbit gave herself a little push off the platform and walked closer the sides. "Don't expect to spy it from here just yet Miss Marie." She heard Bard say. "Or do 'hobbits' have keener eyes than an elf."

"No, we're as ordinary as the big folk." Marie glanced back at him, "Unless you are different here in the East."

Bard may have been just smiling but Marie could tell he was laughing heartily on the inside.

The niggling sensation returned and she looked out at nothing in particular.

Their banter was harmless enough yet it she was left feeling the stinging reminder of betraying one's trust, but Marie couldn't understand why and just whom she betraying.

She had reconciled the fact the Alistair was gone for some time now ...

'No. No, no, no, no really Marie? Really now.' She ducked her head to hide her eyes as they glanced over at Thorin, whose back was to her. A string of errant curls brushed her burning cheek. 'Him?' The thought sent an exotic feeling through her, horrifying her yet exciting her as it festered low in her belly, tickling her two lower ribs. That was a new sensation.

Thorin really did appear kingly standing tall by the barrels, head held high and proudly.

Marie cupped her cheek, pulling at the side of her frown with her palm as her fingers scrapped her temple. Her own pulse brought back the memory of Thorin's steady heart beneath her finger. 'Nonsense. Utter nonsense. What am I'm thinking? Were his shoulders always that broad? NO! Marie, for goodness sake.'

The stirring of the dwarves provided the distraction Marie needed to settle her feelings. There were many groans and utterings in their secret dwarvish tongues, all the better for Marie to focus on. Anything to distract her mind from wondering just what it may be like to be wooed by a dwarf.

Warning there will be a massive time skip in the next chapter. And I mean massive.