Author's Note: So I saw DOS again yesterday. I think watching it for a second time has helped my brain to accept some changes and certain...'cough' liberties taken with it. There are still things that my head is still strongly with but I'm sure upon a third, fourth and fifth watch of the movie, I will accept them too :)

Anyway, due to seeing the movie again, I felt motivated to post the first chapter of Part Three. I'm really happy with how Part Three is going, I only started writing it on the fifteenth of December and it is already almost fifty pages in length. That's not bad for someone still struggling with Dyslexia. Though this has taken up a huge chunk of life lol.

Part Three

Chapter Thirty-Nine

A Thieves Reunion

For the first time since her child and family had been torn from her side, Bilbo stirred from her catatonic state.

Her head rolled listlessly upon the rolled up jacket which had been tucked under her head as a substitute pillow so that her head would not be laying up the cold hard rock beneath her like the rest of her body and peered out into the darkness beyond the campfire.

"Miss-miss Baggins?" She heard Ranon whisper close to her side, his hand gently coming to rest upon her stiff shoulder. She didn't respond – she hadn't responded to his queries about her health or state of mind since her son was taken from her – she simply continued to stare out into the darkness.

Something was coming, something new. A change was in the air, she could almost taste it.

Her bound hands moved to her worn and ruined waist coat, nimble fingers slipping within the pocket, their tips touching the cool metal band that was hidden inside.

Her ring seemed to be humming, almost like it too could sense the change that was coming for them tonight.

Good change, bad change, Bilbo couldn't really bring herself to care anymore she just wanted change to come. She just wanted this journey to end, one way or another.

She withdrew her magic ring from her waist coat pocket, fisting her hand closely around the golden band before allowing her body to return to its familiar limp state.

Her eyes were beginning to tire and her eyelids were starting to droop when she heard the first hint of the change arriving. The snapping of a twig quite near to where she lay.

She felt Ranon stiffen beside her but he made no sound in regards to what they had both certainly heard, though she did hear him pulling his axe closer to him.

She listened to the voices by the campfire, listening for any alterations in pitch or something that might hint that the group circling it had heard or felt the change nearing them. She heard nothing out of the ordinary and allowed for her body to relax and simply waited for the change to come to her. And it certainly did and with as much speed and explosive power as one of Gandalf's fireworks.

One moment the night was cool and empty of any sound besides the crackling of the fire and the low voices of the dwarves sitting around it and the next, from all around them came the sounds of bellowing orders, charging feet and metal clanking against metal.

She was able to roll herself into a small ditch, away from the madness that had descended upon the camp, the startled cries from the campfire as they desperately grabbed for their weapons as their enemies charged at them.

She grinned a tad maliciously when she heard a particularly loud yelp of pain being yelled out by Bovin.

Her hand unclenched around her ring and with trembling fingers tried to push it upon her middle finger. Not an easy feat when one had bound wrists and fingers that refused to stop trembling.

She was almost sobbing with frustration when she felt a hand come to rest upon her shoulder causing her clench the ring tightly in her hand as she kicked out blindly behind her. She heard the satisfying yelp of pain as her foot connected with a leg.

"OI! Lass, watch it!"

All thoughts of making a run for it quickly evaporated from her head as she whipped around and took in the familiar reddish brown hair done up in an intricate three point star hairstyle.

"NORI!"

Said dwarf gave her a wickedly cheeky grin as he pulled her into an embrace. He didn't seem to mind that she was close to hysterical or that she was wiping her runny nose all over his tunic as she buried her face into it.

"What-what," she sniffed, rubbing her eyes and nose as she pulled back a little, "what are you doing here?"

"Heard some very nasty rumours that our little burglar was in a good bit of trouble. Came to see for meself if that was true," he spoke lightly but Bilbo could hear and feel his rage as he glared over to where Bovin and his company were being rounded up and having their wrists and ankles shackled.

Bilbo shuddered though from what she wasn't entirely sure, her mind was truly a mess of emotions and thoughts and all she really wanted to do was sit down and try and process everything that had suddenly happened to her.

The good thing about Nori was she didn't even need to say that this was what she wanted, he seemed to simply know.

He took her a short distance away, but still remaining within the light of the fire, sat her down upon a rock and cut the ropes that had been cutting into her wrists for days. Though she hadn't realised just how badly until she watch her blood run down her wrists.

Nori spoke not a word of this; he simply bound her wrists before inquiring about her health in an almost detached medical fashion that was so unlike him.

She answered his inquires the best she could, noting that his eyes had grown less dark and possibly less murderous as she reassured him that her injuries, besides from her hurt wrists, were near none existed.

"I'm more hungry than hurt," she reassured him with a smile. At least she hoped it came out as a smile, it felt more like a grimace to her.

Nori nodded and handed her a bag of dried beef jerky. She didn't even wrinkle her nose or grumble as she had once done upon being introduced to this less than desirable food. She ate every strip that was in the bag and almost down the whole content of the water bottle Nori had offered her.

"Easy. Easy now." Nori said, taking hold of the bottle to slow her frantic drinking. "You're going to make yourself sick."

"Never stopped us before." She retorted back at him but she did slow down her drinking pace.

"Sir." Bilbo and Nori turned to look at a dwarf dressed in a smart suit of armour who had stopped a few feet away from them.

"Report." Nori replied easily as if he had been bossing around the king's guards all his life instead of spending a good chunk of it running from them.

"The prisoners have been secured and we are ready to return them to Erebor to face the judgement of our King." The guard spoke stiffly and Bilbo couldn't help but think that if his back was any straighter it would snap under the pressure.

"Good oh." Nori said with a wave of his hand, "We'll head out at first light. Get someone to bring around the ponies and wagon, there's a good fellow." The guard gave a stiff nodded before marching back to his fellow guardsman, relaying Nori's orders in a quick, curt fashion.

"I don't…" Bilbo started before blushing and shaking her head.

"You don't what, lassie?" Nori asked her gently, crouching down in front of her again, wrapping a spare blanket from his pack around her shoulders.

"I don't want to be near them." she waved her hand towards Bovin and his company, her head hanging low and stomach turning.

"You won't lass." Nori reassured her fiercely, "I won't let them near you ever again. I'll make sure that there is at least, at least a dozen guards between them and you at all times." He cupped her chin with one of his thieving, weather worn hands and made her look him in the eyes, "I promise you lassie. No one who you don't want anywhere near you will ever touch you under my watch."

"I know Nori, thank you."

He nodded before he suddenly became nervous, swallowing several times as he looked about him before glancing back at her.

"Speaking of um… touch… Bovin and the rest… they didn't… I mean, if they hurt you in…"

"No." She squeaked her cheeks flaming with horror and humiliation. "No, Nori, nothing like that happened… not ever. I am… I mean, I was just a parcel to them, to be delivered to…" she waved her hand vaguely, "they never lay a hand on me, not – not like that."

"You sure." Nori asked his tone gentle but the fierce look had returned to his eyes, "because if they have Bilbo, they…"

"No. No, Nori not ever. Yes, they hit me and hurt me, but not one of them, not once, ever did what you're…" she let her words trail off and watched silently as Nori shoulders dropped forwards as he closed his eyes in relief.

"Good. That-that is good. Because if they had," his smiled turned sadistic, "they wouldn't be returning to Erebor alive. I don't care how disappointed Thorin, Dwalin and the others would be, none of those lot would be returning with breath in their lungs if they…"

"But they didn't!" Bilbo interrupted him because it hurt to think about what he was implying could have very possibly happened to her, not to mention the throw away comment about a certain dwarf king's was also making her chest ache. "But they didn't Nori. They didn't lay a hand on me, not like that. They would never lower themselves to that level, not for a hobbit."

"Now, what's that's suppose to mean?" Nori growled and she simply shrugged, looking away from him and into the dark trees around them.

They sat together in silence until the desire to sleep became simply too strong to ignore.

"Don't," Bilbo whispered when Nori finally coaxed her into getting some rest, "Don't leave me."

Nori smiled down at her fondly as he pulled the blanket up around her chin.

"Wouldn't dream of it Lassie. Now sleep. We have a big day ahead of us; you'll need all the rest you can get."

Bilbo nodded her head slowly, her eyelashes brushing against her cheeks as sleep started to fog up her mind. But she didn't fall into a proper slumber until Nori had taken one of her hands in his, his thumb gently stroking the back of it, soothing her into a dreamless sleep.

TMPoT

Nori ignored the looks he was being given by both the King's guards and the prisoners. What did he care what they thought as they looked at him holding the hand of the Halfling traitor who was meant to be dead. Not a wit.

He had never cared for what others thought of him or of what he did, and he wasn't going to start now. He just prayed that the little Halfling beside him had learnt not to care either.

Oh the looks she was going to receive when they arrived in Erebor, the whispers that would follow her wherever she went. He would do his best to silence them and to make the judgemental eyes look elsewhere. He refused to allow gossip and looks hurt their burglar.

He had, after all, always been fond of his fellow thief. Not of course to the same extent as his little brother or the young princes or Balin and Bifur had. And certainly nowhere near the same level of fondness that his King and a certain miner turned toymaker had towards her. But still, she had understood him in a way no one else had ever done so before and more to the point, she had wanted to understand him. She had wanted to be his friend, instead of seeing him as a means of gaining something that would usually be inaccessible.

She had been a good friend to Ori as well. She had coaxed the lad out of his shell, had taken an interest in his desire to be a scribe instead of scoffing at the idea like most others had and still did, had fussed over him like an elder sister or possibly even a mother but not to the point of overwhelming him or making him do what she thought he should do like Dori sometimes did. And even though Dori had sided with their king with his decision to banish her over the whole Arkenstone mess, Nori knew that his elder brother missed the little Halfling deeply. Missed talking to her over different teas and wines, comparing notes about both, and simply chatting away about general comforts of home.

It was for all these reasons that Nori had disappeared upon the moment of hearing the first faint whispers that their burglar was in danger.

He known for awhile that she was alive and that she had a child who bore a striking resemblance to a certain King Under the Mountain, though he would never reveal his sources, never would he admit that he had at one time followed his sources to her home and saw them and her interacting and acting like one big happy family that made his heart ache and fight back the desperate and overly stupid desire to punch his idiotic king right in the nose the next time he saw him.

He had kept an eye on her and her child from the moment he saw that she was indeed alive and well, but clearly, not a close enough of one and he was still cursing himself for allowing her to be thrown into this horrific mess.

He should have seen this coming, should have stopped it in the shadows and allowed for his Halfling friend to continue living her life, raising her child in peace and safety.

Now, now even with her safe by his side he wasn't sure what was going to happen. His spies had informed him of the fact that her child, her father and three cousins had all arrived in Erebor now, though the little lad had disappeared within minutes of entering the great mountain and was currently running around lost while everyone, including Thorin himself, searched for him. His spies had also made mention that Thorin seemed to be taking the news of Bilbo's being alive and the existence of her son fairly well, but that said, they didn't know Thorin as Nori did. They had never witness their king in his darkest hour, never seen him when the gold sickness, Durin's curse, took hold and made the usually reasonable, honourable, loyal king lose sight of all logic, honour and sense and threaten the one person who should never, ever have been threaten by him.

It still made Nori feel cold all over whenever he remembered Thorin's uncontrollable rage as they discovered their burglar's crime, the way he had snarled at her, shook her, threaten to throw her from the battlements and watch her smash and break upon the rocks below.

If he, Nori, hadn't been so desperate to keep Bofur from murdering their king, struggling alongside Bifur and Bombur to keep the miner from lashing out at their king, to rip Bilbo from his cruel grasp and beat him bloody with his bare hands, Nori would have happily smashed Thorin one right in the face with his mace, King Under the Mountain or not.

He had heard her during the Battle of Five Armies, heard her whistles of warning when an Orc or Warg came too close to them when their back was turned, her cries of delight and excitement over the arrival of the great eagles.

He had been one of the few who had searched for her once the battle was over and done. His injuries had been of a lesser nature than others and so he was able to go scouring the battlefield before most were even allowed to walk around their healing tent.

He had been the one who had made Bofur finally accept that they would never find her body, had been the one who had found the miner sobbing his grief one late hour in the middle of a moonless night and convinced him that leaving Erebor, abandoning his family would not be what she would have wanted.

He was the only member of the company to have ever been told of the full extent of Bofur's feelings for their Burglar. He knew others, Balin and Dori even Bifur, suspected their depth, but he was the only one Bofur had ever told.

The miner slash toymaker had loved their little bunny lass and there was no doubt in Nori's mind that in another life the two of them would have been happily married with little dwobbits fauntlings running around their feet while Bofur worked his Toyshop with Bifur and Bilbo worked in the garden that company would have made for her, growing the pretties flowers, the sweeties fruits and the ripest, juiciest vegetables.

In a perfect world, Nori was sure that this would have been their story, but the world was far from perfect and to his knowledge the little lass sleeping beside him had no idea of Bofur's feelings and that they extended further than friendship.

No, in this world, she had fallen for a king who was a hard as stone, who had shown only brief moments of love – for obviously there must have been moments, the boy child of hers proved that – towards her.

Thorin had loved their burglar, and still did though he hid it well behind his impenetrable mask. And Nori liked to belief that the love his king held for their burglar was as true and unwavering as Bofur's, hopefully more.

He hoped for all involved that Bilbo was Thorin's One and that this huge misunderstanding – if one could even call the mess Thorin had created years ago a misunderstanding – would be cleared up and Thorin would accept Bilbo's boy child as his own and everything would sort itself out and life could take the path that it was always meant to take eleven years ago.

But then knowing his stubborn king and their stubborn burglar this might be a tad too much to ask, but he wasn't beyond hoping and he hoped that destiny and fate would be kinder in these next few trailing months for his company. That isn't too much to ask now, is it?

Author's Note: I didn't realize just how much I would enjoy writing for Nori until I randomly started to at the end of this chapter. So expect to see a few more Nori centered parts in the chapters to come. And yes, my Bofur/Bilbo flame is once more burning again. I can't help it, I just love these two - even though in DOS they didn't have as much screen time as I would have liked :( .
I'm still tossing up on if I want some kind of confrontation between Thorin and Bofur over their love for Bilbo in here. Bofur obviously knows that Thorin loves Bilbo and she him, but Thorin doesn't know that Bofur loves her too... For being such a smart dwarf, he is so dense when it comes to love, its almost as bad as his sense of direction, lol. I'm really not sure what I want to do about my truly non-existent love triangle.

Anyway, hope you all enjoyed this chapter. I should update with the next chapter probably around New Years - I'm not doing anything and I would rather be writing anyway, so yeah.

Bye for now :)