Disclaimer: I own nothing apart from Esme and Jenna, the rest of the characters, places etc belong to Tolkien and Jackson.
A/N: Thanks so much for all the favs, follows and reviews. I'm still trying to find someone to beta this for me so any mistakes are mine and mine alone. I've tried to make sure there aren't any glaringly obvious ones but if you do spot one please let me know so that I can fix it. Constructive criticism is always welcome. I wasn't sure where I was going to go with the story from here so I wrote two different versions of this chapter which brought the story in two very different directions but I think I like this one the best. Please let me know what you think :)
Arriving In Rivendell
Esme's POV
The valley was steeper than it looked and it took them some time to make their way down to the only bridge leading to the beautiful house Esme had seen from the ledge above. She had lost her footing once or twice on the steep slopes and if it hadn't been for Dwalin catching her she would certainly have tumbled over the edge of the path and into the tress below. The bridge was narrow and had no rails on either side. She had hung on to Dwalin's arm as they made their way across, in fear of falling over the edge into the water that flowed beneath it. It was evening time when they eventually reached the small paved courtyard on the opposite side of the bridge. A tall elf with dark hair made his way down the steps to greet them.
"Mithrandir." The elf bowed towards Gandalf.
"Ah, Lindir." Gandalf addressed the tall male.
The two of them began to converse in a language Esme had never heard before. As she couldn't understand what they were saying she instead looked to the dwarves who were standing with her. They seemed tense, on guard, as if they were expecting to be ambushed by more of the monsters that had chased them. She looked more carefully at her surroundings now. Were they not safe here? Could they still be pursued by those horrid beasts? If not then why were the dwarves so tense here? Just as she was starting to feel panic bubbling up inside her a loud horn sounded and a group of elves rode across the bridge towards them.
"Close ranks!" Thorin yelled and Esme found herself pulled suddenly into the middle of the dwarves with Bilbo as the elves surrounded them.
She couldn't see past Thorin and Dwalin's wide frames as they stood directly in front of her but she could hear Gandalf speaking with one of the elves that had arrived. Gandalf had addressed him as Lord Elrond so she presumed he was the owner of the house they had arrived at. He seemed friendly though she didn't understand much of what he was saying as he also spoke in the strange tongue the other elf had used. He suddenly switched back to her own language as he spoke about the beasts that had chased them here.
"Strange for orcs to come so close to our borders. Something or someone has drawn them near."
"Ah, that may have been us." Gandalf answered the elf.
With that Thorin stepped from the circle towards the elf. It left room for Esme to now see what was going on. The elf smiled at Thorin in welcome.
"Welcome, Thorin, son of Thrain."
"I do not believe we have met." Thorin sounded far from pleased that the elf knew his name.
To be fair to the elf he seemed to take no heed of Thorin's displeased tone. "You have your grandfather's bearing. I knew Thror when he ruled Under the Mountain."
Thorin sneered at the elf. "Indeed? He made no mention of you."
Esme rolled her eyes. These dwarves really didn't have a clue about manners and how you should behave when you were a guest in someone's home. The way they had ransacked Bilbo's home was bad enough but now Thorin was being downright rude. The elf was asking them something in that strange language now and Gloin took instant offence. It was abundantly clear that the dwarves didn't like the elves for whatever reason.
"What is he saying? Does he offer us insult?"
Gandalf seemed as exasperated by the behaviour of the dwarves as Esme was. "No, Master Gloin, he's offering you food."
The dwarves had a quick chat among themselves before they decided to take the elf up on his offer, Gloin asking him to lead the way. The elf smiled and was just about to turn towards the house when he spotted Esme where she was still standing half hidden behind Dwalin.
"Esme? We've been searching for you for days."
She was completely taken aback. She'd never seen this elf before in her life. In fact she didn't even know that elves existed until a few days ago when Bilbo had told her about them. How did he know her name? And why were they searching for her? The dwarves were looking between her and the elf in confusion, obviously wondering the same thing.
"How do you know me? I've never met you before. Why were you searching for me? I don't understand."
The elf looked as if he were about to answer her when another voice cut through the air and had her looking towards the stairs and the figure running down them and towards her. She was slimmer than Esme and taller but although she wore elvish clothes she was far shorter than the elves. Her blonde wavy hair was loose and trailed down her back to her hips. As she got closer Esme realised that she knew this girl and she was certainly not an elf.
"Ez!"
Suddenly, a gobsmacked Esme found herself with her arms full of a weeping Jenna. Jenna held her tighter than she ever had before and cried on her shoulder. Esme was so stunned she couldn't move. What was happening? How was Jenna here? None of this made any sense. Was she imaging all of this? She had just been through two very traumatising events, it was entirely possible that she could have lost her mind after them and started to imagine things. Maybe she was sleeping and this was all a dream. Jenna eventually pulled back from their embrace and smiled at her.
"Oh Ez, I was so worried something had happened to you."
Esme looked back at her friend in disbelief. This whole time she had been worried she wouldn't ever get back to her old world and would never be able to see Jenna again. She never for a second had imagined that Jenna would end up here too. So many questions swirled around in her head but she was so overwhelmed by seeing her friend again that she found she couldn't manage to speak at all.
Elrond stepped forward then and put his hand on Jenna's shoulder. "Perhaps you should take Esme to get cleaned up before dinner, I'm sure you two have a lot to catch up on."
Jenna's POV
Jenna showed Esme to the room that Lord Elrond had provided her with since her arrival here and told her to sit on the bed while she got a bath ready for her. She was so relieved to see Esme again; all she had thought about from the time she arrived here was where her friend might be and whether or not she had been as lucky as she herself had been when she had arrived here. The elves had spent days looking for Esme and every time they had arrived back without her Jenna's spirits had fallen even more. She had just about given up hope when she spotted Esme speaking with Lord Elrond in the courtyard.
"The elves gave me dresses to wear; after you've washed you can get into one of them. They may be a little tight in the chest but should fit ok otherwise. I'll get them out and you can decide which one you'd like. Oh Ez it's so good to see you. I can't believe this. A whole other world we never knew existed and..."
Esme, who had been in some sort of daze since they had been reunited, seemed to have suddenly regained her ability to speak. "Jenna! How did you get here?"
Jenna spun around from where she had been searching through her wardrobe to face her friend. Esme looked so tired. She had black rings under her eyes, her hair was a mess and the clothes she was wearing were covered in dirt. She briefly wondered what her friend had been through since she arrived in this world. Esme wasn't like her, she didn't cope well with change, disliked meeting new people and was generally quieter than she was. The panic attacks that her friend had been plagued with in their own world must rightly be crippling her in this one.
"Oh Ez, are you ok?"
Esme brushed off her concern as she usually did. "I'm fine. I asked how did you get here Jen?"
Jenna came to sit on the bed beside her friend. "Oh Ez, I don't really know to be honest. When you fell off the chair in your room I jumped off the bed to help you but you were gone. I couldn't understand what had happened. I searched the whole house for you, I don't know, I guess I thought it was one of your weird jokes or something. Anyway when I couldn't find you anywhere I began to panic so I rang for the police. I really don't know what I expected them to do when I told them you just vanished through the floor but anyway, they came around to take a missing person statement and I told them everything. One of them asked me for a cup of tea so I went to make it for them but forgot to ask if they took milk and sugar so I went to go back and check and I overheard them talking. One of them was saying maybe I'd done something to you, the other didn't agree though. He seemed to think I was deranged or something and insisted they take me to be assessed in the psych ward. I couldn't let them take me away because I needed to try find you, so I sneaked up the stairs and into your room. I figured if I could just get out through your window I could climb down the tree outside and get away, but the window was jammed. I heard them coming up the stairs and I panicked. I jumped off the bed and was going to try hide somewhere in the room but my feet never hit the floor. I just kept falling. I couldn't understand it. Next thing I knew I hit water, freezing cold water. Thankfully though it wasn't very deep and I was able to crawl out of it. It turned out to be the river here in the valley that you passed over to get here. Lord Elrond's people found me and he was really kind when I explained what happened and he's sent patrols searching for you every day Ez. We'd almost given up hope of finding you."
Esme shook her head in disbelief, taking in everything Jenna had just told her. "Oh you were so lucky Jen, you have no idea what's out there. I'm so glad nothing happened to you."
Jenna noticed her friend's hands were shaking. Moving closer she caught her hands in hers. Her forehead creased in concern as she thought again about how awful her friend looked. "What's happened to you Ez?"
Esme sighed. "Maybe I can tell you while I have that bath? In case you haven't noticed, I stink!"
Jenna laughed and showed her friend to the bathroom. "Oh I noticed don't worry."
As she bathed, Esme told her everything that had happened to her so far. Jenna couldn't help but shudder. The creatures Esme described sounded like something right out of a nightmare but she could tell by the frightened sobs that permeated Esme's story that her friend was telling the truth. How her friend had gotten through all of that, Jenna would never understand. It seemed Esme wasn't as delicate as she had believed her to be.
Esme told her then of her hopes that she would finally find her mother in this strange world and that she had discovered that she had a father she had never known about and the dwarves were taking her to see him. The thing that stood out most from her story however was Esme's clear attachment to one of the dwarves. Every second sentence in her account of the journey she'd been on had been about Dwalin. She spoke about him with such fondness that Jenna would have had to be blind not to see her friend was attracted to him.
Once Esme was out of the tub she handed her a beautiful emerald green gown. It was slightly too big in the chest for her so she hoped it would fit ok for her friend who had always had a bigger bust than her.
"So, you like him then?"
Esme looked up from trying to get into the dress. "I like who?"
Jenna rolled her eyes. "Oh come on Ez, don't act coy with me. You haven't stopped talking about this Dwalin guy and how brave and strong he is and how he rescued you. I'm not dumb enough to believe you two are only friends."
Jenna watched as her friend turned as red as a tomato. She'd never seen her like this about a man before. This guy must be pretty special. She hadn't really taken the time to have a good look at the dwarves when she'd first seen them but she'd make sure to have a good look at dinner.
"We are just friends! Now I haven't eaten all day and I'm famished, where is this dinner?"
Jenna rolled her eyes. If they were just friends then it was only because Esme hadn't had the courage to tell him how she felt yet. Maybe she could help her with that, all she had to do was figure out which one of the dwarves was Dwalin.
"Right then, let's go so."
Esme's POV
Esme was glad Jenna hadn't pushed her when she told her herself and Dwalin were just friends. Her head was spinning with everything that had happened in the last two days and she wasn't even really sure how she felt about him right now. He had saved her from the orcs and wargs. He'd carried her when she couldn't walk herself. Time after time he had looked after her and shown her that he would protect her like he had promised. Yet Radagast's words played heavily on her mind. He had said her mother wouldn't have wanted her to be with these dwarves, that it was the reason she had run away. Could it be true? Were these dwarves not trustworthy? Should she really be going anywhere with them?
She made her way to the table where the dwarves and the hobbit were already seated eating dinner. Unfortunately it seemed their table manners were much the same as they had been in Bilbo's home. They were throwing food up and down the length of the table and laughing and joking jovially. Esme didn't think they seemed untrustworthy but then how well did she really know them? Nori moved up to allow her and Jenna to sit beside him, introducing himself to Jenna as he did so. In no time Jenna and Nori were laughing and joking easily with each other. Esme had always envied Jenna's ability to fit in easily. No matter where she went she could make friends in minutes, it was something that Esme really struggled with. She didn't trust easily so it made it hard to make friends. Yet she had trusted Dwalin from the first moment she met him, she'd trusted all of the dwarves in fact. Could she have misjudged them?
Esme pushed her food around her plate. She had been starving but now that it was in front of her she had completely lost her appetite. She wondered why her mother ran from the dwarves. Why would she have married one in the first place if she didn't trust them? She had thought she had just run from her father but Radagast had maintained she wouldn't want Esme to be with these dwarves either. Her head was spinning now. When she arrived in this world, she had thought she would finally get some of the answers she had always sought but instead she had discovered nothing and had been left with even more unanswered questions.
Looking up from her plate she caught Dwalin's eye, he raised an eyebrow at her, silently asking her if everything was ok. She simply looked back down at her plate. Were her feelings for the warrior dwarf wrong also? Maybe he wasn't to be trusted either. Her mother had no doubt thought her feelings for her father were real but something must have changed at some point. She needed to get away from here so that she could think clearly.
Excusing herself from the table and without making eye contact with anyone, she made her way from the balcony where they were dining towards Jenna's room. Dwalin rose from the table immediately and followed her out.
Jenna's POV
Now that they were all seated together, Jenna was able to have a look at all of the dwarves and got to know a few of them. Nori seemed very charming and funny, Jenna found herself liking him immediately. He'd introduced her to the dwarves that were seated nearest to them, Dori and Ori his brothers and a dwarf with a ridiculous hat named Bofur. They all seemed very sweet and friendly and she was soon chatting amicably with them as she scanned the other dwarves to see if she could determine which of them was the dwarf her friend has so clearly fallen for. Most of them were too old or too gruff so she dismissed them as possibilities at once. Within no time she had it narrowed down to three. The blonde one with the moustache braids, he seemed nice and friendly. The young dark haired one, a bit of a joker perhaps but he seemed fun to be around. Then there was the older attractive, dark haired dwarf who sat at Lord Elrond's table. By process of elimination one of them had to be Dwalin.
The dwarves were talking amongst themselves and throwing food up and down the table, they seemed to be a very cheerful bunch if nothing else and she could see why Esme seemed to like them. Soon the two younger dwarves were ruled out as they smiled down the table at her and introduced themselves as Fili and Kili. It must be the older one then. She looked across at the dwarf; he was handsome, very handsome. He had a short beard and striking blue eyes and he was broad and muscular, he was the type of man you dreamt about but rarely saw in real life. He scowled a bit too much for her liking but she could definitely see the attraction. He was dreamy. She wondered if he felt the same about Esme as she did about him. She really hoped that he did. Her friend deserved to be happy.
Looking towards Esme now, Jenna realised that she seemed off. She had barely looked up from her plate and for someone who had claimed to be famished she had eaten very little. She tried to catch her attention to ask if she was alright but Esme never looked her way. Suddenly she rose from the table and muttered "Excuse me." The balding tattooed dwarf that had sat across from her rose from his seat immediately and followed her out. Jenna was just rising to go after her too when Nori caught her by the arm and pulled her back into her seat.
"Leave it. Dwalin will take care of her."
Jenna was sure her jaw must have hit the floor right then as she turned towards Nori in disbelief.
"Wait! That's Dwalin!?"
Nori burst out laughing at her astonishment. "Yes, indeed it is. No accounting for taste I suppose."
She shook her head as she looked in the direction Esme and Dwalin had disappeared in. She really wasn't sure what to make of that. Dwalin had been one of the first dwarves she had ruled out. He certainly didn't have the knight in shining armour look she had expected. In fact she really couldn't see one nice thing about the dwarf.
"You can sing it!"
Dwalin's POV
Dwalin had been enjoying dinner with the other dwarves when Esme and Jenna had arrived. He couldn't help but stop mid conversation with Balin as they walked in. Esme had changed from her travelling clothes into a dark green dress and she looked simply breathtaking. The dress clung to her in all the right places and the colour complimented her eyes. Her hair was pulled back away from her face and Dwalin thought he'd never seen her look so beautiful. He simply couldn't take his eyes off of her.
"See something you like brother?" Balin chuckled as he eyed his brother knowingly.
Dwalin chose to ignore his sibling's taunt and concentrated instead on finishing his meal. Esme sat down across from him without even glancing in his direction. She seemed upset and he wondered what conversation she had had with her friend. Had something been said that had troubled her? When she glanced up their eyes met briefly and he raised an eyebrow, silently asking if she was ok. Whether she didn't understand his question or chose to ignore it he really wasn't sure, but she quickly lowered her gaze to her plate again. He was worried. It wasn't like the lass to be this quiet. He watched as she pushed her food around her plate but ate little of it. Something was definitely wrong. She had been through so much in the last two days; maybe it had all just been too much for her. He longed to ask her if she was alright, to hold her and assure her he wouldn't let anything or anyone hurt her.
Suddenly she stood, excused herself from the table and rushed away. Standing quickly, he followed her from the balcony and down a narrow corridor. He caught up with her just as she was about to enter a room at the end of the hallway.
"Esme? Are you alright?"
She swung around quickly. She had tears in her eyes and she looked pale and frightened. He took a step towards her wondering what could be the matter but her eyes widened and she quickly stepped back away from him, pressing herself against the room door. What was happening? Was she wary of him? He couldn't understand what he had done to make her frightened of him. He had done his best to protect her and yet here she was cowering away from him as if he would hurt her. It upset him more than he cared to admit. Part of him had still held onto the hope that she might care for him. He had thought that if he admitted how he felt about her that she would be happy, might even tell him that she felt the same. He saw now that it wasn't the case. Whatever the reason she was clearly fearful of him.
Taking a deep breath and trying not to show her how upset he was, he stepped back away from her, placed a hand on his chest and bowed his head.
"Forgive me. I'll leave you be."
He smiled sadly at her and then turned and walked away.
Esme's POV
Esme could see the hurt in Dwalin's face as he stepped back away from her. Could she really be afraid of him? Could she really not trust him? From the moment she'd arrived here he had done nothing but try to help her. He'd saved her countless times, had held her when she felt like she was falling apart. When she had thought she had nobody else, he had been there. Now here she was, hurting him because of some strange man she didn't even know who said her mother wouldn't approve. Did it even matter if her mother approved? She had been absent for so long now, Esme had made her own decisions without her for years, why did she need her consent all of a sudden?
She was instantly filled with guilt when Dwalin looked at her sadly and turned to walk away. What if her mother had been wrong? Just because she had run away from dwarves didn't mean Esme had reason to. Her mother had abandoned her; she hadn't even tried to find a way back to her. Dwalin on the other hand had promised that he wouldn't leave her. He'd said he'd protect her no matter what and he'd stood by his promise. She couldn't believe that he would hurt her. If he had been going to then he would have done so when they were alone in the forest when he first found her. Was she really going to let a mother who was now no more than a memory decide her future? Was she really willing to lose the first person she'd met in years that she'd cared for over some nonsense that had happened when she was a child?
In the end it was an easy decision. She ran after him and grabbed his arm, turning him towards her. She threw her arms around him, buried her head in his chest and began to sob. She could feel him tense momentarily but then he wrapped his arms around her and held her tight. He pulled her close and ran his fingers through her hair as she continued to cry. She had never felt safer than she did in that moment in Dwalin's arms and she never wanted to let him go again.
TBC