WAIT!
HAVE YOU READ CHAPTER 25? OR 19-24? IF NOT, READ THOSE FIRST! I'VE BEEN UPDATING VERY QUICKLY IN A SHORT PERIOD OF TIME.
We now return to our scheduled programming.
Thank you all for your wonderful reviews! I wanted to take an extra day to make sure that I wrote this next piece right… even though it really should not have taken so much thinking or working about it to get here. I blame Thorin for throwing me off my groove.
Inspired by a prompt I stumbled upon by lateforerebor on tumblr.
Summary: Bilba "Bell" Baggins decides that she's waited quite long enough to take her mother's advice and old stories and go on an adventure of her own. What she didn't expect was to end up in Ered Luin and be adopted by dwarves! AU, Pre-Quest, Undecided Pairings.
-;-
Someone was petting Bilba's hair.
It was slow and soothing, minding the place that she knew would hurt though she could not recall why or how. Much like being buried under a thick quilt, she tried to push her way to the surface; her body had other ideas, stubbornly refusing to allow her to open her eyes. Every breath hurt to take, little aftershocks that seemed to bounce from limb to limb.
Someone was humming softly; Bifur, if she had to guess. It reminded Bilba of her mother, the gentle cadence of her voice she had used to lull her to sleep as a faunt. It worked just as well now as it had then, the hobbit allowing herself to simply drift in an in-between state of conscious but not quite.
Nori's voice rumbled softly from around her as she finally managed to pry her eyes open. Dark sky spattered in pale stars reflected back down at her through ginger hair.
"Nori." She sighed, soft as the wind as something in her chest soothed.
"Welcome back, sweets." He replied equally as soft, pausing in his ministrations of her hair and leaning ever so slightly forward so she could see his face. "Sleep well?"
She hummed, neutral, eyes blinking slowly as she thought. She was lying down, head in Nori's lap. Bofur was leaning against his shoulder, whittling something with the head of his axe intently. Bifur was on the other side of his cousin, humming and doing much the same with what appeared to be one of Nori's knives.
Curious.
"Don't go drifting on us just yet, sweets. You'll need to eat something first."
"I'm not." She croaked, nose scrunching as she heard herself. She sounded like she'd- well, like she'd been inhaling smoke.
"Oin, the lass is awake." Bofur said quietly, voice carrying.
The older dwarrow arrived in a moment, tsk-ing as he swiftly but carefully checked the hobbit over. Considering that her left side felt quite mummified from the amount of bandage there, she assumed that she was left as she was because of it. She whimpered and winced as deft fingers prodded the flesh around her shoulder, informing her in the process that she'd managed to break it rather spectacularly with a shake of his head. If not for the wizard, she may have had a much worse go of it than simply needing it bound and medicated for the foreseeable future.
Once the healer had thoroughly finished with her, he turned his attention to Nori. Bilba listened intently, eyes half lidded as her dwarf got as much a thorough examination as he could with the hobbit on his lap. Only once was she jostled, a pained noise leaving her as she felt her features scrunch up automatically. Bofur, Nori and Bifur all made some form of protest, to which Oin grunted something in Khuzdul that sounded more than a little exasperated before throwing his hands up and stalking off, still muttering to himself.
"How long was I asleep?" Bilba croaked, good arm under her as she tried to push herself upright. Bofur looked like he would rather she stay where she was, but sighed and offered her his arm to maneuver into a more upright position. She hissed as her other side pulled, briefly glancing herself over. At one point or another, she'd been relieved of her shirt, the thick bandage running across her chest and shoulder. Another layer of fabric had been used as a firm sling to bind her arm to her chest- that, thankfully, was overtop of her shirt, which appeared as though it might have been cleaned.
"We arrived a day ago, now." Bofur answered easily, settling back down with Nori flanking her other side. "Been tending to our hurts and regrouping since."
Bilba frowned at him, not sure she liked the tone of his voice with those words. It was forgotten when she realized that he wasn't wearing his hat; he looked quite odd without it, to be honest. She'd only ever known him with the hat with the floppy brim.
"That's right, my bag-" she started, perhaps sounding more excited than the situation called for. She knew it had still been upon her back when they were rescued by the eagles. She distantly recalled someone pulling it off of her shoulders- hopefully nothing inside had been damaged beyond what could be repaired.
"Aye, we have it. Bifur's been keepin' watch over it." Nori replied, brows furrowed. The aforementioned dwarf made an affirmation in the back of his throat, patting something at his side before returning to his carving.
"I need it. Please."
"It can wait until after you've eaten something." Bombur appeared, holding out a bowl of warm broth. The rotund dwarf had a couple of scratches along his hands and cheek, but aside from that looked no worse for wear than the last time she'd seen him. "It's been at least a day since you last got something into you, I imagine."
Bilba opened her mouth to protest before closing it with an audible snap, accepting the bowl gratefully. Truthfully, the last time she could recall eating anything was right before-
Nope.
"I have lembas bread in my pack. As long as it hasn't been damaged or lost." She said, sipping at the broth. It was simple, more water than anything else, but had the faintest hint of mint to it. "Where's Dori?"
"He and Ori went to clean themselves up with the lads." Nori said, wincing as he readjusted position, a hand going to his side. "Same as Gandalf."
"Hm." She hummed, thankful the bowl wasn't large enough to need more than one hand. It would have made a rather unfortunate situation, otherwise.
Once the broth was finished, Bilba sighed and shifted her weight, taking stock of their surroundings.
They were at the base of the Carrock they'd been deposited on by the eagles, taking shelter near an overhand that would likely protect them from the elements but did little to ease Bilba's uneasiness with being anywhere near caves or anything remotely reminiscent of a cave.
Thorin was a short distance away, she finally realized. He was hunched over himself next to a small fire with Oin, Bombur, Balin and Gloin. Dwalin's presence was announced by the gleam of his axes several steps behind Thorin.
It was right about then that Bilba realized that Bifur and Bofur's positions were strategically placing her between the other group and them. It was further compounded when Thorin glanced over and Bifur growled at him. Growled.
Bifur, who Bilba had never witnessed as being more than disgruntled at anything or anyone before. She had seen a great many other things cross his features; she knew that his head injury could make him more than a little unpredictable, but never had she seen the look of utter wrath that flickered over his features now.
Something had happened while she had been gone. Something she couldn't even begin to guess-
Well, that wasn't exactly right. She had a sneaking suspicion she knew exactly what had come about to bring this big a change in the company, and she wasn't about to let it continue on her watch.
No, it simply would not do.
"Bifur, my pack, if you would." Bilba sighed. She lifted a brow at the look of protest he attempted to wield against her, in no mood to be dealing with such matters when it was clear that they needed to be dealt with. "I believe I need to look through it."
"Can't it wait, Bell? You should be rest-" Bofur started, only to swallow his words when she levelled the same vaguely arched brow in his direction.
He knew that look.
It was a look he'd seen on more than one occasion in the Grey Goose; quite honestly, he hadn't been sure that they would have been subject to it on this quest with all of the secrecy and scuttling about under Thorin or Dwalin's watchful eye.
Things were about to get terribly interesting.
"I'll rest once I've sorted out this nonsense." She muttered darkly, using Bofur's shoulder to push herself upright. "Honestly, you lot act like complete fauntlings whenever I leave you alone to your own devices."
Grabbing her pack, she staggered for a moment as the weight unbalanced her. She'd have to remember that she was down an arm for the foreseeable future. Adjusting her grip more firmly on the back of the pack, she walked over to the fire.
Nori made a sound in the back of his throat before he appeared next to her, features pinched in pain even as he warily eyed up the group around the fire. Looking at the way he was favoring himself, he had a couple of broken ribs at the least.
Bilba cleared her throat pointedly as she seated herself delicately on a log that had been dragged over from the undergrowth, hand clutching her pack as she eased out a breath of discomfort. Nori and Dwalin shifted uneasily at their close proximity, the thief levelling a dark glower in the guard's direction.
"Bilba-"
"Mistress Baggins-"
"Lass-"
"No." she said serenely, eyes flashing as her expression dared someone to contradict her. "We are all going to sit here together until the rest of the company returns. And then, we are going to sort this out like reasonable folk."
Bofur and Bifur joined them, Bifur thumping down behind the log with his back to hers while Bofur seated himself on Bilba's free side. She appreciated it more than they knew- already, the hobbit could feel every inch of her body protesting the effort she'd made to simply walk over. She leaned into Nori's side, keeping an eye on Oin. He looked like he'd rather get something down her throat so that she would stop aggravating her shoulder.
To be fair, she wished her shoulder would stop being aggravated herself. It was building a heartbeat of its own the longer she remained upright, her usual method of holding herself disrupted.
Fili and Kili were the first back, the pair of younger dwarrow looking enthusiastic to see the hobbit on her feet. They didn't bound toward her as she'd expected; rather, they reluctantly seated themselves next to Thorin on the other log, damp hair and beards hanging around their faces.
Thorin, on the other hand, had yet to even look in her direction since her arrival, gaze firmly affixed to the flickering embers within the fire. His shoulders were slumped in what she assumed to be discomfort, bandages wrapping cross-crossed around his chest. She blinked, trying to ignore the flashes of fire and orcs from behind her eyes.
Oh, what had her dwarrow done since she'd fallen off the side of the mountain?
She waited, one hand on her pack and the other doing its best not to fidget, looking as prim as she could manage under the circumstances.
Perhaps it was just the pain; the ordeals she had undergone in recent days. But for once, Bilba felt as clear minded as the day she'd decided to leave Bag End and go journeying West those seasons ago.
Dori, Ori and Gandalf arrived a couple of minutes later, the former pair still damp but looking refreshed. Gandalf looked as serenely amused as he always did as Dori took in the scene before him, gaze alternating between Thorin, Dwalin and Bilba before growling something under his breath, stomping over to Bilba. She allowed him to fret over what he could before levelling him with the same unnervingly serene gaze she'd already given everyone else. Ori, on the other hand, beamed at her before seating himself between Nori's thighs, hand patting Bilba's foot as he settled in.
Gandalf looked far too amused for his own good. Bilba would most certainly be having words with him before the end of all this. He had quite a way of managing to say too much yet too little, and if his patterns continued, they'd be lucky if any of them made it to the Lonely Mountain before she turned grey.
"Right then." She announced, nodding once before fumbling with the flap of her pack, "Let's get on with business."
The first item she pulled out earned a shocked gasp from Bofur, his hat returned to him once again as he donned it with a flourish. It had been his father's, passed to him after a mining accident had killed him. Something that held a great deal of emotional value to the cheerful miner.
Gloin cried out in relief as she passed over the portraits of his wife and son, cradling the wooden frame close to his chest and sniffing distinctly, averting his gaze. He was much softer-hearted than he would have her believe, but she'd heard enough tales of Gimli and Glhori to know better.
Oin's small satchel of essential herbs, the leather painstakingly crafted; he huffed out a relieved sigh, immediately opening it in search of something as Bilba continued to pass out the small treasures that she'd been able to rescue.
Small pouches of beads that were slowly handed out to the dwarrow they belonged to.
Kili's reaction to the stone she gently tossed over the fire was much the same as Ori's was to his journal; the pair of them openly weeping as they rubbed their eyes. Dori quietly soothed the youngest as he clutched the leather-bound thing to his chest.
Nori had a couple of smaller, handcrafted knives Bilba knew he would have been distressed to leave behind, and he tucked them away with a grateful nod. Dori's combs, a gift from their mother, were also tucked away without a word.
Balin's records and the contract were returned, the elder dwarrow equally as grateful as Ori to not have lost the records of their quest.
And then there came Thorin and Dwalin.
Bilba returned the small silver earrings to the latter and Thorin's map and key to the Lonely Mountain with little fanfare, relieved that her bag was once again empty. Or as close as she suspected she would ever get it with the few things she'd managed to salvage for herself.
Bifur handed her back the small set of carving tools Bilba had salvaged with a short bark of Khuzdul Bofur was too happy to translate.
"He'd rather they stick with you. Anythin' that can survive the mountains and an orc party must be magic." Bofur's lips twitched under his mustache. "I'm inclined ta agree, Bell."
"Well, it's not as though there isn't room." She shrugged, ignoring the wheeze of pain that managed to make its way out of her throat at the motion. "Now, before we get on with anything else, we're going to be sorting some things out."
"You should be resting, lass." Oin pointed out.
"And I will. Right after we address the issue at hand." She replied shortly. "Now, who would like to tell me why you're all acting like disagreeing faunts?"
She lifted a brow, ignoring how the scratches on her forehead tugged, and stared directly at Thorin, then Dori. If there was ever going to be a fight over her assumed death by dropping off a cliff, they would most certainly have been the ringleaders.
Funnily enough, neither of them wanted to look at her when she made that statement.
"Right then. I'm going to make my guess, and you can tell me if I'm wrong as we go along. Yes? Marvellous. This is already going well." The hobbit nodded as she straightened up. "Obviously it's been made that I've been adopted into the House of Ri. No, Thorin did not drop me, though I can only imagine what happened afterward."
Oh, could she ever. She and Dori had been a formidable team in Ered Luin in part due to both of their tempers. Thorin's, she could only imagine could be as volatile as the drake they were marching to steal from in Erebor.
"Dori would have blamed Thorin, which means Dwalin would have gotten involved." She rattled off. "Which I can only imagine set Bifur off, and Bofur and Bombur would have tried to calm him down before they got an earful of it too. And because I was the heart of all this mess, Thorin would have been bellowing about honor and disgrace. Which, if I recall correctly, I told both you and Nori about from the start once I'd learned about this adopting. Yes?"
Fili and Kili nodded, eyes darting around the circle of the company and the wizard, who had taken up residence against a tree just out of the light of the fire. Good. He had no business in this matter.
Ori nodded too, looking to Dori.
"Right. Well, if Thorin blood-Oakenshield had spent more time with his kith and kin, perhaps this would have all been avoided, but here we are now; drawing lines in the sand like Sackville-Bagginses. Allow me to make myself perfectly clear- I'm alive, but I most certainly did not crawl my way out of that bloody, no good, bothered and confusticated mountain, fight off an orc of legend, and get thrown off another mountain for you all to be acting like this!"
Silence met her words.
"We owe you a great debt, Mistress Baggins." Thorin said softly. "The Line of Durin-"
"Me? No, no I find that you'll quite be owing a debt to the House of Ri. I want you-" she gestured to Thorin, "and you-" here she pointed at Dori, "To come to an arrangement in which we all benefit, because I will not be standing for this behavior any longer. And if neither of you can sort yourselves out and restore some kind of peace between you, I promise that I will make your lives a waking nightmare for the rest of this bloody quest. Am I understood?"
Startled silence met her this time, every dwarrow present looking at her in a mixture of shock, awe, and more than a little fear. Gandalf simply looked proud, and Bilba pointed at him, next.
"And just because you happened to show up after all of this confusticated nonsense doesn't mean I don't have anything to say to you, Gandalf!" she barked. "From the beginning of this quest, you have been quite content to meddle and stir up trouble, and I am sick of it! You lot have all been acting like heathens! What do you think is going to happen if this keeps up to the mountain? You're all going to wake the blasted beast and rather than deliver you to your goal, we'll all be roasted into a dainty little meal for Smaug."
Her piece said, Bilba heaved a great sigh, the fight leaving her as quickly as it had come. Black spots danced at the edges of her vision as she carefully stood, pack in hand.
"If you'll excuse me, I do believe I need to lie down."
Nori, and by extension Ori followed her back to where they had been lying, dropping her pack before easing herself down to the ground. Behind them, soft conversation resumed. It wasn't much, but for the moment Bilba would take it as Oin reappeared, nudging a cup of something into her hands and urging her to take it gruffly. From the corner of her eye, she saw him do the same to Nori, the healer saying something lowly to Ori, who nodded.
It was on the bitter side, but she obediently took the medicine for what it was, trying to find a comfortable position to settle into with disgruntled muttering.
Nori huffed, sitting down behind her and pushing the pack behind him as a sort of rest before maneuvering the hobbit so that she was leaning back against him. It had to have hurt- the marginal tension that twitched through him attested to it- but he said nothing, both of them shifting before finding something comfortable. Ori made a sound in the back of his throat as he situated himself close by.
"They'll come around, sweets." Nori murmured tiredly from next to her ear. A curl of something bloomed in her chest again at hearing the endearment fall from his lips. Hopefully, once this was all sorted out, he would resume being the dwarrow she'd come to know back in the Blue Mountains.
Her Nori.
Perhaps the drink had been more potent than she thought, she mused, already drowsing as she relaxed. No matter. She would remain hopeful that everything would turn out.
She had been told how fearsome a hobbit lass could be in the past, after all.