Chapter Thirty-Two

So Many Words to be Spoken,

So Little Time to be Heard

He had barely finished his first cup of strong wine before his old company – all except Nori. He had disappeared, Mahal only knew where and for how long he would be gone this time – came striding into his study. Most looked confused as to why they had be summoned to their King's private study, while others wore guarded expressions, like his youngest nephew for example; with his dark eyes blazing with fury and his woren, scarred hands twitching nervously by his sides.

"Wha's is it?" Gloin asked as the old company moved around Thorin's study, each settling themselves comfortably in one place or another either sitting or standing. "What's with all the ruckus going on out there?" He jerked his thumb back in the general direction he and the rest of the company had come.

"You haven't heard then?" Thorin asked, a tiny part of him amused that something so large as this had managed to stay quiet for so long already. It wouldn't be this way for much longer he imaged. He winced when he thought of how his mountain would react upon finally hearing the news.

"Heard what?" Dori asked curiously.

"That hobbits have come to Erebor." Balin informed them calmly, a bemused smile playing on his lips, hidden behind his great snow beard as he watched the jaws of several members of the old company's drop in astonishment and disbelief.

"WHAT?" Several members of the company cried as one voice.

"Quite against their will, too, we have heard." Balin added dryly a hint of disgust in his voice.

"Hobbits?" Bofur asked softly. "More than one?"

"Four… well," Dwalin drawled, as he shut the heavy study door behind him with a firm thud, "five to be correct but we've lost one."

"Who we should be still out looking for!" Kili snapped angrily.

Bofur looked at him, obviously startled by the lad's sudden outburst before his dark eyes grew wide with alarm.

"Wh-what?" He stuttered while Kili nodded his head vigorously. Bofur looked from Kili to Thorin then back again, his face twisted between horror, confusion and worry.

"What is going on?" Dori asked in puzzlement once he noticed his youngest brother, who had been watching the interaction between Kili and Bofur closely, had turned deathly pale beneath his red hair and beard.

"That's a very good question. Who feels like explaining?" Dwalin smirked, maybe a little too broadly as he gestured in the direction of Kili, Bofur and Ori for one of them to start speaking.

"FINE! We knew!" Kili yelled impatiently, "Now can we go back to searching for Frodo?"

"Frodo?" Several dwarves looked at Kili in confusion while Bofur and Ori stayed stubbornly silent even though their eyes were wide and nervous.

"Frodo is Bilbo's son." Balin spoke the unexpected news as if he were merely complimenting the fine weather they had recently been having and not of the child of a person who had been, up until this very moment, a taboo subject beneath the Great Lonely Mountain.

Thorin leant back in his chair as he watched his men – besides the ones who obviously knew of the lad already – start to gag and splutter over this revelation.

"The lass has a son?" Bombur gasped, looking shocked and deeply upset by the news. "She never spoke a word. Does he know – does he know how she…"

"And that is the second thing we've discovered today… Dwalin said interrupting Bombur before the large dwarf worked himself up into a state, "our burglar didn't actually die during the Battle of the Five Armies." Dwalin finished, his smirk growing even wide. If Thorin didn't know his head of guards better, he would almost say that the large dwarf was enjoying himself a little too much.

The silence in his study was heavy and thick as the dwarves chewed over this, also unexpected revelation.

"I beg your pardon?" Dori spoke slowly and carefully. Even as shocked as he was, Dori still managed to be polite as they came.

"Bilbo survived the Battle of Five Armies." Balin answered him just as slowly and with just as much care, his eyes darting towards where Kili, Bofur, Bifur and Ori all still stood remaining as silent as marble.

"How?" Dori exclaimed, pressing a hand over his heart. "She was such a tiny thing and Gandalf said she ran right into the middle of it. We found her coat!"

"Yes, we did, but we never did find her body…"

"Doesn't mean she ain't still dead." Gloin rumbled.

"She isn't," Bofur said calmly before he looked at Thorin, his dark eyes questioning, "What's going on? Why is Frodo here? Bilbo isn't here, obviously, so why is Frodo? Where is Bilbo?"

"That's a lot of questions for one whose been keeping a lot of secrets" Dwalin said, his arms crossed as he stared down at the miner slash toymaker.

Bofur met his gaze calmly before looking towards Thorin before asking;

"What do you want to know?"

"Where to start?" Thorin replied rather sarcastically, "How bout with when and how you found out that our burglar was alive and go from there."

Thorin watched as most of his company turned to stare at Bofur in shock, but all kept their mouths firmly shut so as to allow the miner to speak without hindrance.

Bofur sighed heavily before shrugging his shoulders, flashing them all his usual and charismatic grin. Once Thorin might have believed the miner's grin was a sign of general happy and go-lucky attitude to everything in life, never would he have believed it was also a mask to hide the dwarf's true and darker feelings. It was only after the Battle of the Five Armies did Thorin realise just how much pain was hidden behind that wide, annoyingly bright and optimistic grin.

"It was a passing fancy of mine during our first ever trading expedition to Ered Luin. I meant to go alone, but," Bofur started with another shrug as he looked at Kili, Ori and Bifur, who all nodded, confirming the beginning of his tale.

"So your story," Dwalin said pointing to Kili who glared back at him, "about wanting to find the trolls was completely bollocks then."

"No!" Kili snapped back, "We did go looking for the trolls… we just didn't find them during that particular trip." The young prince received many deadpan expressions sent in his way.

"Bofur." Thorin said and the miner nodded.

"We weren't exactly expecting to find her. Alive and well, I mean. We just hoped and…"

"And you never said we could never go back to the Shire! Only that she could never come back here!" Kili buttered in hot temperedly, glaring daggers at his uncle.

Bofur smacked the young prince over the head to shut him up.

"And we did, obviously."

"Not that she was very happy that we did." Ori muttered causing his brother to look at him in horror.

"ORI!" Dori exclaimed, once more pressing his hand over his heart, "you knew about this?!"

The youngest Ri brother blushed but nodded, meeting his older brothers' eyes with a defiance within his usually passive and gentle gaze.

"Yes I did. And I don't regret it. Bilbo is my friend and I missed her. And she asked us…"

"Ori," Bofur said gently and the young red haired dwarf fell respectively silent.

"Ori's right," Bofur continued, "she wasn't overly happy to see us." he scrunched up his face a little as he remembered their discovery of finding their burglar alive and well, "almost broke my foot with her door."

"And smacked us over the head with that wicked umbrella of hers." Kili added with a cheeky grin before raising a hand to his head as if it had suddenly started to throb from the memory of the wack it had received from Bilbo's large umbrella.

"And yelled at us that it was impolite to barge into someone's house uninvited and asked us if our mothers hadn't taught us better manners." Ori giggled.

"She calmed down after a bit." Bofur continued with a small grin which faulted for moment as he wrinkled his nose, "Well, until Frodo appeared. We woke him, you see. Bilbo had already put him to bed when we arrived, but we obviously woke him again."

"Got nervous about you seeing the lad, did the lass?" Dwalin offered and Bofur nodded.

"When you finally see him, you'll know why." Bofur shot Thorin a rather unfriendly look.

"Because he looks like me?" Thorin replied and Bofur went a tad red in the face before nodding.

"Ah…" said several of his dwarves whose minds had finally made the important connection as to why the lad was so significant besides from being the child of their burglar.

"She doesn't deny it," Bofur started slowly, "and she wasn't trying to keep him a secret from us to be spiteful or…" he glanced at Ori who offered the word vindictive, "aye, that."

"So what was she trying to do then? Keeping something as important as this all to herself?" Gloin rumbled furiously.

"Trying to raise her child in peace and quiet. Keep him safe." Kili spoke in an innocent manner, all the while giving his uncle a cold stare.

"She had me draw up a contract." Ori offered to no one in particular but obviously to dispel some of the tension that was seething around the study.

"Did she now?" Thorin asked dryly, turning his attention away from his nephew and onto the young scribe who blushed violently, "and what does it say?"

Of course, he thought with a tiny hint of pride, having a contract drawn up was very much something his burglar would do. She had always been practical like that. Optimistic, but always planning for the worse, should it ever happen.

"Well," Ori dug around in his satchel for a moment before drawing from it a carefully folded by worn out piece of parchment. He opened it carefully; he's eyes quickly moving over it, "mainly it says that she'll send Frodo here, to meet with you when he comes of age. Which is thirty-three by Hobbit standards."

That caused a slight pause that echoed around Thorin's stone study.

"Really?" Gloin rumbled. He looked somewhat startled by this news, though only for a moment as he started to remember several conversations he had had with the company's burglar, one involving the age of adulthood of hobbit. He couldn't remember quite what that conversation had been about or how it had even started, though he suspected it had probably been about his son. Almost all his conversations with the company burglar had been about his son, his pride and joy in life. She never seemed to grow tired of hearing him talk about his lad. She had been sweet like that. It almost made him feel guilty about thinking so wrongly of her, even now, after so many years.

Ori nodded, his eyes still glued to the contract.

"She said that was her plan all along. Gandalf agrees with it too, apparently. Even says that if Frodo wants to come here, he'll escort him here himself."

"Us too." Kili added. "We offered to do so too. That's in there somewhere." He pointed vaguely at the contract in Ori's hands.

"What about her?" Balin asked, "What will she do, if the lad does decide to come here, will she come?"

"Ah…"

"That'd be a no." Dwalin stated. His face, momentarily, looked torn between disappointment and annoyance before it disappeared behind his Captain of the Royal Guard face.

"She thinks she's still banished." Ori replied meekly, still staring down at the contract in his hands. "And that things might be a bit… hairy enough without her being thrown into the mix. She wants what's best for Frodo and she - she thinks she'll only make things more difficult for him if she came along."

"So what will she do then? After her child leaves?" Balin asked. The four dwarves, Bifur included, shrugged.

"Either stay in Bag End or go to Rivendell, she hasn't decided yet." Ori answered softly. Thorin fought to keep his face neutral at the mention of the Last Homely House East of the Sea. Even so, he remembered her face when she first laid eyes upon its autumn beauty, and how, when they had left Imladris, the longing in her earth brown eyes as they bid the valley a silent farewell. Of course, she would go there to live out the remainder of her days after she sent their child to him, obviously believing she would never see the lad ever again.

"I don't think she's really thought about it to tell you all truths." Bofur voice drew Thorin back to the present. "Her focus is Frodo; she doesn't really think very much about herself."

Yes, Thorin thought as he rubbed his temple, that sounds very much like her. Taking care of everyone else, making sure they were happy and completely forgetting about herself.

He briefly remembers her panicking far above him as she suddenly realises her miscalculation and that she has quite literally left herself out of the equation of escaping from Thranduil palace. He remembers wanting to yelled at her for her blindness and stupidity, all the while panicking himself, trapped and unable to do a single thing to help her inside of his barrel.

He forces his thoughts once more away from her.

"When was the last time you saw her?" He asks and the dwarves before him looked thoughtful.

"Been awhile," Bofur mused, his eyes sad as he sheepishly rubbed the back of his neck. "Don't think Frodo had turned nine yet."

"He'll be ten soon." Ori added with a small pout before turning his attention to Thorin, "Why is he here? We've answered what you want to know, have we not? So answer us this, why is he here?"

They hadn't actually, answered all of Thorin's question. Barely scraped the surface of all his questions in fact, but despite his temper and his desire to know why he has been lied to for all these years, he quickly decides that now wasn't the best time to go into this, that the wellbeing of child was far more important at the moment than his wounded pride and trust.

"You have heard of Bzog, the Defilers Spawn, correct?" Thorin asked and his company nodded, some with vigour while others, such as Bofur and Ori, looked more than a little puzzled as they nodded their heads to his question.

"Well," he took a deep breath to steady his temper as he spoke the words that were tearing his very being apart, "we have just learnt that he is apparently after our burglar."

The horror that filled his companion's face was enough to inform Thorin that despite the loud denials of ever caring a wit about their burglar after the whole incident with the Arckenstone, his men still very much cared for their hobbit and the very thought of her being in the hands of the Defiler's Spawn was enough for them to reach for their weapons and to go charging off in one direction or another to save her.

"WHY?" Bofur was roaring, his eyes frantic and desperate.

"Apparently he has it in his head that she has something to do with the Defiler's death and wants revenge… we think." Dwalin explained, "Did she mention anything about the Defiler to you during one of your visits?"

"Ah… no, not exactly." Bofur replied with a shake of his head, the flaps of his hat flapping madly around his ears, his eyes still frantic and his hands trembling at his sides as he tries to contain his anger and fear for the hobbit that had quite stolen his heart even when another held hers, "she doesn't truly remember much from the battle. Got hit in the head by something when she was crying out about the eagles coming… says she woke in a ditch a few days later."

"Didn't think to come back though." Gloin rumbled. Bofur shot him a look as did Ori, Kili and Bifur.

Bofur opened his mouth as if to say something, but Ori cut him off.

"She had concussion! A serious one at that. She said that she wasn't even thinking of not coming back when she got out of the ditch, it just so happen that the side she crawled out of was facing Laketown. She didn't even realise that she was heading in the wrong direction til she reached Mirkwood and by that time, Gandalf and Beorn had caught up to her." Ori snapped angrily at the much large red beard dwarf.

"Still should have come back after she found out about…" Gloin left the rest of his sentence unsaid, trying to be, for a rare time, delicate about a given situation. Bofur on the other hand, didn't give a wit about being delicate about the extremely delicate situation that they had all found themselves in.

"The lass didn't even know she was with child til she got to Beorn's! She felt utterly horrid during the whole trip back to his home but never even thought that it might be due to a babe growing within. She only discovered the truth when Beorn informed her. Said he could smell it or something." Bofur huffed angrily back at Gloin.

"And when she did learn about the babe, she just wanted to go home. She didn't want to go back around Mirkwood, not when she still thought hersef banished. So she went home, Gandalf escorted her and stayed with her until after Frodo was born." Bofur went pale as he looked back at Thorin, "this-this Defiler's Spawn, he-he doesn't know about Frodo as well does he?"

"We believe not," Balin answered for him, "we've spoken with one of Bovin's men who knows and was willing to give us a clear picture of what is going on, and from what he has told us, Bzog only wanted Bilbo, he knows nothing of her child. He believed that she was in fact male."

"We have to get her back. We have save her!" Kili was saying desperately, his eyes wide and beseeching as he stared at his uncle.

"We already have several parties out looking for Bovin. And with the information one of Bovin's men is willing to give us, they should hopefully intercept Bovin before he reaches the meeting place of Bzog."

"What about Frodo?" Ori asked worriedly, "You say he's lost?"

"In the mountain somewhere. He did a runner shortly after I went to get Thorin." Dwalin said, rolling his eyes, torn between appearing amused and annoyed by the lad's antics.

"We have to find him! Bilbo will have our heads if anything happens to him!" Ori squeaked.

"Do you have any idea as to where he might be hiding?" Dwalin asked.

"Ah," Bofur's face became thoughtful, "maybe in Smaug's bedroom."

"Or your workshop." Ori added, looking at Bofur.

"Or the throne room."

"Or maybe the kitchens."

"Or maybe…"

"So basically he could be anywhere." Thorin said over the top of the three dwarves who blushed and nodded.

"We told him a lot about Erebor, described it to him and such." Kili said softly.

"And Bilbo was fine with that?" Balin questioned, surprised that their burglar was happy enough to allow the four dwarves tell her son stories of the kingdom that she had been banished from by the very dwarf who happened to be the lad's father.

"Yes," Kili nodded with a shrug, "she only got upset with us if we started telling him about orcs or goblins and such."

"And yet she was fine telling him about our encounters with Trolls and Spiders." Bofur snorted in amusement.

"Probably because we looked so incredibly stupid and she gets to tease us over it. And you have to admit," Kili said with a bright grin, "her retelling of the Trolls and Spiders incidents are rather amusing."

"Aye, true that." Bofur replied with a grin.

"Can you think of anywhere in particular the lad might be hiding?" Balin asked bring the two back around to the topic at hand.

"Plenty," Kili replied, "but he has to get to them first, and that's where he'll probably get lost. This is a very big mountain and he's only a little fellow who has never been here before. Even with all the tales we've told him, it unlikely he'll be able to get to any of the places he would want to go before he got caught by someone."

"So again, he could be anywhere?" Thorin rumbled in annoyance. He felt as if they were going in circles and that the lad was no nearer to being found than an hour ago.

"Not necessarily," Balin said, his face thoughtful, "as Kili said the lad wouldn't be able to get far, at least to the places that he would most likely go without being caught, and as he hasn't been caught yet, he is most probably still down in the lower levels of the mountain."

"That still isn't much to go on." Thorin said biting back a growl of frustration.

"But it is all we've got to go on." Balin replied, sending him a sympathetic look.

"It's as good as any place to start." Dwalin said, nodding his head at their fellow companions, who after bowing to Thorin left to his study to join the search for the lost Dwobbit.

"We'll find him Thorin." Dwalin reassured his king.

Thorin only nodded his head silently, praying that his head of guard spoke the truth.

Author's Note: So I've found some time to spend on this fic. Not a lot but some which is better than nothing. So now, the rest of the company knows about Bilbo still being alive and that Frodo exists.
I tried to give everyone in the company a moment in this chapter but ultimately I had to cut out some dwarves because basically, they were all talking over each other and nothing was being said. Actually a lot was being said and some of it was quite amusing but it wasn't relevant to the plot of this chapter. So as sad as I was to see little snippets go, this chapter did become tighter and stuck to it original purpose, which is to tell the rest of the company of Bilbo's situation and the existence of Frodo. Those of the company who didn't really appear or did but didn't say anything (Like Oin. Poor, deaf Oin. You can imagine how much fun I had writing his moments in this chapter, only for them to sadly hit the editing floor because as amusing as they were - to me at least- they took something away from the chapter, the seriousness and drama and I just got too carried away with his deafness that the chapter lost its main point. But don't worry, I have plans for Oin and he'll get his moments to shine later on in this fic) will get some nice Frodo/Bilbo moments later on, I just simply couldn't get them to work in this chapter, like Oin and his deafness.
Hmmm, when this is all over, I'm going to have to put up a fanfic that has all the deleted/extended/original drafts or 'scenes that simply wouldn't fit in' for this fanfic. I've got quite a few lol.
Anyway, hope you all enjoyed. Next chapter we'll be back with Frodo and finding out what shenanigans he's been up to while his poor ol'Da suffers heart-attack after heart-attack, lol.