After leaving Erebor in the wake of the great battle with Azog and his forces, Betta Baggins never thought she'd see another living dwarf in her life except for her four little half-dwarves, her dwobbits, as she fondly remembered the name the Company had come up with for any potential children she and Thorin Oakdnshield would have after they married. So it seemed a stroke of luck that she was called to give advice to her uncle, the Thain, when the Princess Dis came to the Shire to discuss a treaty.

Betta suspected the Valar must have had a hand in events when, during a break for tea, the princess happened to comment that she was meeting with her son the crown prince when she reached the Mirkwood, as he was working on trade agreements with the elves. However, Betta credited her own years of experience with gossiping teas that she kept a straight face at that news, as she had long thought that Thorin and both her nephews were killed in the battle, like she had been told by one of Dain's captains at the same time she had told her Dain was to be the next king and he intended to uphold her banishment.

And, if Betta had long thought that she would never see a dwarf again, she certainly never predicted telling Dis that she wanted to move to Erebor with her faunts or asking permission to travel with the princess' caravan. Then again, Dis never thought she'd hear that a hobbit would wish to uproot her family to live in a dwarvish mountain, but as the hobbittess was of good family and well-educated in the Shire, she allowed her to accompany- though she was perplexed in passing moments how she had never once seen the faces of the hobbit's children.

Betta never thought she would get a second surprise like the one Dis had given her until Fili sought her out in the Mirkwood, as he longed- and maybe hoped, just a bit- to know what hobbit journeyed with his mother. He never expected to see Betta stare at him as if at a ghost, before launching herself into his arms. "It's true, you're alive, it's true, I hoped, but I feared-" and she babbled away, as Fili held her tight. "But until-" she pulled back, "I thought your mother said the crown prince would be in Mirkwood."

"And here I am," Fili gestured to himself, tears in the corners of his eyes from seeing his lost aunt again.

"But- Thorin fell, I saw him injured, held him as the light faded in his eyes, how are you not king?"

Understanding began to dawn in Fili's eyes, "He was badly injured. He was near death, it is true, but he pulled through. He's King under the Mountain, but we have all been missing you."

And so, in the quiet of a room in Mirkwood, Fili and Betta hashed out all the whys and whats of Betta's leaving, the Company's survival, the existence of Fili's cousins-which stunned Fili into a rare silence, for a minute anyway- Betta's status in Erebor, and even how to tell the Company and Dis the truth about the fate of the Burglar.

Betta never thought she would be sneaking into Erebor a third time- well, it wasn't exactly sneaking, people knew she was there, just none but Fili knew who exactly was entering the mountain. With how close they were to the mountain when Fili found her, they thought it best to tell Thorin in person, lest, after getting a letter, he do something unkingly like ride out to meet her without any decorum at all. Fili was going to sneak her and her dwobbits up to the Company chambers, then assemble his mother and the Company, so they would at least have privacy for the reunion. So, overall, Betta felt very much like she was sneaking into Erebor.

However, she supposed, at some point, her luck would run out. And it did the moment she and her youngest child, a near perfect image of Thorin himself, were knocked to the ground by the very Iron Hills dwarf that had lied about the death of Betta's family, had lied that she was still banished, had lied that she had to flee Erebor's proximity before King Dain had her hunted down and executed for her "crimes." Her luck didn't hold when that very dwarf recognized her and who her child was. Her luck did not hold when he didn't hesitate to draw his blade and strike her down before she could scream, run, draw Sting, do anything but tuck herself around her young daughter.

But she never thought her burglar's luck would hold so well as when guards immediately pulled the dwarf off her and restrained him for attacking a female and child. She never thought her luck would hold so well that even Dain was enraged at her attacker, screaming that, even if she had been the most violent and the most heinous of criminals, the dwarf should have alerted the guard to arrest a dam, not tried to strike her down, and certainly not to attack her child.

And she had never been so grateful for a mithril shirt, hard as dragon scales, as she was when Fili pulled her up and called for a healer and couldn't find a drop of blood on her. She never thought she would hear as lovely a sound as an irate Thorin Oakenshield when he heard of an attack on a female just arrived to his mountain, and he called for the immediate imprisonment of the dwarf responsible. She never thought she'd see Thorin's eyes again in his living, lucid face, but there they were as they stared at her in wonder and awe. She never thought she'd feel her husband's arms around her again, but she could quickly get used to the familiar crush of strong arms holding her to a firm chest as he kissed her face, her hair, her mouth. She never thought she'd see Thorin hold their children in his arms and on his lap as he knelt in the Great Hall with a caravan staring at him. She never thought she could have all she'd ever dreamed of- and yet, now she did.


Author's note: Just a little one-shot I couldn't get out of my head. Comment and let me know what you think! I don't make any money off of this, and all the characters but my own belong to Tolkien, Jackson, and the other original creators.