Author's Note: Hi Everyone. Yeah sorry for the late update. Work has been stressful of late and I've just been feeling all-round down. I'm feeling a bit better now. I'm in a better place now than I was in on Friday, the stuff I need to have done for my job is now manageable and I've made significant progress with it, so I'm feeling quite good.
Anyway, HAPPY AUSTRALIA DAY to all

Chapter Sixty-Six

When One Hates being Right

Bilbo stirred from a heavy slumber to the sounds of furious voices trying to remain quiet. She winced as she moved her head and found that her hands were oddly stiff and heavy, a dull throb humming within her fingers.

What… what had happened? She rolled over awkwardly, biting on her bottom lip to keep a small cry from escaping her as her hands, which were bandaged to almost to the point of obscurity, twinged painfully.

Once she had managed to roll over to her other side she saw a good many of dwarves crowded a few metre away, Frodo sitting happily upon Kili's hip as Thorin spoke in a low voice, trying to keep the company calm. Memories of what had happened last night came back to her and she swallowed thickly as she pushed herself slowly and carefully into a sitting position in her bed in Oin's infirmary.

"Good morning." She said, watching with barely concealed amusement as her dwarves jumped, spinning comically around to face her.

"Mama!" Frodo cried his whole face breaking into a wide grin.

"Well you're looking better." She said with a good deal of relief as she watched Frodo fight Kili to let him down.

"Yup! Kili I want to get down!" Frodo squirmed furiously against his older cousin arms. "Kili!"

Bilbo let out a humming laugh as she watched Kili, instead of doing as Frodo requested, just bounced him over into Fili's waiting arms and then back again. Frodo tried to keep a pout on his face but he was obviously having too much fun to keep it up and was soon laughing.

"This is an infirmary." Oin grumbled without much venom, "take your shenanigans elsewhere."

"It's fin…" Bilbo started but was silenced by Oin giving her one of his 'doctor knows best' looks.

"We'll be quiet." Fili promised ignoring Frodo's huffing and squirming to be once more released.

"How's tha' hands lass?" Oin demanded as he strode over to her bed, pulling up a chair.

"They're fine." She lied, wincing as Oin took her right one into his hard, tough paws.

"Liar." Bofur snorted. Bilbo stuck her tongue out at the fur hatted dwarf.

"How would you know?" She retorted with snark, "Are you my hands?"

"Nope, but I can see ya face." Bofur replied with a teasing air, though his brown eyes were filled with concern for her.

She opened her mouth to retort back at him but with Oin changing her bandages all words in her mouth were quite simply forgotten. Her hands were awful, what she saw of them before Oin smothered her palms and fingers in smelly ointment and re-wrapped them once more in fresh bandages.

She stared down at the white clubs at the end of her wrists with a wary expression.

"And how long will I be stuck with these?" She asked almost fearfully. Oin just gave her a look before carrying his equipment back to his office.

"Oh… well, that's encouraging." Bilbo grumbled as she glared disdainfully at her poor paws.

"Well yer were the one who grabbed the knife." Dwalin pointed out with a snort.

"Oh hush up." Bilbo muttered as several of the company stared at her with wide eyes.

"You grabbed the knife?" Kili choked.

"Yes, I did. I never claimed to be smart." She added grouchily while her dwarves continued to choke. "At least, not smart when it comes to weapons."

"Lass…"

"Oh hush, it's done now and can't be undone." She pulled her legs up to chest and rested her chin upon her knees, her arms wrapped loosely in front of her calves. "Besides, it is hardly important."

"Hardly important?" Several dwarves bellowed while Bilbo rolled her eyes.

"Yes, it is." Bilbo retorted impatiently, "what is important is finding out why someone was trying to kidnap my son."

There was an almost deathly silence that filled the infirmary causing her to stare at them questioning.

"What?"

Nori cleared his throat, his dark eyes questioning.

"Why ya think that lass?"

Bilbo shrugged.

"Guess it just make the most sense, that's all."

"Sense?" Dwalin growled, "Some dwarf attacked you with a knife…"

"A blunt one." Nori interrupted him quietly as Bilbo nodded.

"Yes, a – blunt – knife," Bilbo agreed, "and when I walked into my room, he seemed genuinely startled to see me. Hardly a well-planned assassination attempt if I ever read about one."

"So?"

"So," She glanced at Thorin before shifting her gaze to Frodo who was turning over a book Ori had bought him over in his hands, clearly finding it far more interesting than the conversation around him, "I don't think he was there to kill me, I think he was there to take Frodo." This thought scared her far more than the idea of someone lying in wait trying to kill her did.

"The knife was for show." Balin continued her train of thought gently, "meant to threaten but not be used. You must have given him quite the incentive to use it, lassie."

"Thanks… I think." Bilbo replied dryly.

"But kidnap Frodo?" Kili said causing Frodo to jump in his arms, looking up and away from the book he had been looking at and stare around him in confusion. It was with gentle encouragement from Ori did Frodo turn his attention back to the book, "Why?"

Bilbo looked at Thorin who met her gaze with solemn tired eyes.

"Because he is Durin." Thorin sighed, rubbing his forehead wearily.

"Are people…" Bilbo stopped chewing over her words carefully, "are there dwarves unhappy with…"

"My reign?" Thorin asked her without showing any expression at all causing her shift uncomfortably where she sat in bed. She hadn't meant to hurt him, for she knew him well enough to know that when he wiped his face of emotions it usually meant that he was deeply hurt or greatly worried over something but was trying to hide it from the rest of the world.

"Yes." She winced as she spoke, "Well, not quite. What I mean is," How did she manage to spew out all that nonsense to a dragon and keep a more or less calm head while doing so and yet, here she was floundering about for the right words to say to her dwarves, her friends, her… to him. But then, she shouldn't really be surprised truly, she had always had troubled saying the right things when it came to Thorin, but still, it was infuriating, "are there dwarves who are unhappy with the return of a King to Erebor? I imagine that a lot of dwarves were able to gain quite a bit of power during the time Smaug sat inside this mountain. And that those dwarves might not be happy about having some of their power removed once a king returned to the throne."

Nori let out a long, low whistle.

"Impressive, lass." Dwalin snorted while Bilbo simply looked a little bewildered.

"So… I'm right?" Bilbo asked her tone questioning.

"Aye,"

"Alright then…" Bilbo blinked, a little taken aback over being right, which to be honest, she hadn't expected that at all.

"But why take Frodo?" Ori squeaked worriedly.

"To start anew." Thorin grunted his eyes dark and somewhat murderous.

"We don't know that." Balin said though he sounded quite dishearten.

"Not for sure," Dwalin grunted.

"So it's more than just rumbles then." Fili said softly to Thorin.

"Seem so now." Thorin growled deep in his throat.

"Huh?" Bilbo stared at them with wide eyes.

"It's what you said lass," Balin said softly, "there are dwarves under this mountain unhappy at their loss of power with the return of a King. Unhappy with what kind king Thorin has turned out to be." Bilbo stared at Balin in disbelief.

"Because I wish for equality between nobles and common-folk." Thorin stepped forward. "for rank to mean little. We are of one people; we should treat each other as such."

"And that's… bad?" Bilbo frowned, "Sounds like the Shire." She added the smallest hint of wistfulness to her voice.

"Not everyone wishes to live like hobbits in the Shire, lass." Gloin rumbled his own tone holding regret.

Bilbo let out a heavy sigh.

"Clearly. So what now?"

"You don't need to worry about that Lass." Dwalin grunted.

"Aye, you just focus on getting healed."

Bilbo sighed in exasperation, rolling her eyes.

"My hands are cut; I'm not dying from a mortal wound. Stop being so dramatic."

"Not dramatic lass just concerned." Dori moving forward to fuss over her, clucking over her currently mess of curls, picking up a loose curl and humming over it.

"Uh huh. You're not going to tell me are you?" She stared at Thorin who looked back at her stubbornly before growling out in exasperation, "When your trial is over…" He didn't finish his sentence seemingly thinking it was better to simply stare at her moodily to convey his annoyance over the matter.

"Well, I suppose that's better than nothing." Bilbo retorted with little grace as she half-heartedly scowled back at him before grimacing, her hands were starting to ache something awful.

She glared furiously at the traitorous limbs.

"I'll give you a draft for the pain." Oin spoke obviously reading and understanding her facial expression. Bilbo grimaced.

"Must you?" She asked not even bothering to try and hide the whine in her voice.

"Aye. The little lad is also due for his next dose of medicine too." Frodo's cheerful expression immediately faded to a pout.

"Don't want it." He grumbled.

"Well, I don't want my medicine either but I still have to take it." Bilbo grouched, "And if I have to take mine, you little man, are most certainly taking yours."

Frodo huffed and pulled a series of highly amusing faces when Oin handed him his medicine but luckily he put up no fight and took it without much complaint. Bilbo kept as blank a face as she was able as Oin handed her her own medicine, pinching her nose the best she could with her bandaged fingers and downing the whole lot in one gulp

"Bleh!" She shuddered and pulled her own series of faces, "that is truly foul, Oin."

"We know," Kili, Fili, Dwalin, Bofur and Ori all agreed, grimacing themselves in memory of the evil concoction. Thorin said nothing but Bilbo saw his eyes darken for a moment before he caught her looking at him. He gave her a rather distant smile before he started waving the company out of the infirmary.

"Do I have to go?" Frodo asked suddenly looking defiant and defensive, arms crossed across his chest, one hand rubbing against his nose.

"He doesn't have to, if he doesn't want." Bilbo offered before turning to her little boy, "but you'll probably be very bored, sweetheart. I'm probably going to be sleeping." Which was the truth for already she could feel a strange sleepiness start to fog her head.

Frodo chewed upon his lip, sniffling softly.

"He might want to take it easy." Oin grunted, "He's still not completely well yet."

"Am too!" Frodo retorted before letting out a string coughs.

"Oh yes," Bilbo said maybe a tad sarcastic, "Completely and utterly well."

"Three guess where he gets it from." Kili teased causing Bilbo to glare at him.

"Should be six guesses, given that she ain't the only one who he gets his attitude from." Dwalin snorted and causing Thorin to smack his fist against his shoulder… hard.

"Truth," the rest of the company agreed before they started to leave the infirmary.

"Your father and cousins will be here soon." Ori told Bilbo with a gentle smile while Bilbo groaned.

"Oh, no." She moaned, "You told them? Why? Why would you tell them?"

"I think they'd figure out pretty quickly tha moment they see yah hands." Bofur pointed out, "What were ya planning? Hide 'em or something?" There was a slight pause. "Ya were, weren't ya?"

"Oh, it's going to me coming home pregnant all over again." Bilbo grumbled, trying and failing to hide her face in her bandaged hands "I'm never going to hear the end of it. Like those two idiots need more reasons to rib me half to death." She flopped back dramatically upon the bed, one arm coming drop over her eyes even though the action hurt her hand more than a little.

"Mama feeling sorry for herself." Frodo teased from where he was now resting his head by her own, his breath tickling her ear.

"Oh hush." She murmured, still not lifting her arm away from her face, mainly because it was too painful to do so, "I'm allowed to, I should think."

"Of course you are." Balin replied from somewhere nearby, "but first, sleep, heal."

Which to her, seemed like quite an excellent idea. Even though her tongue was still battle ready, her mind was, thankfully, ready for rest.

She settled back into the bed, feeling utterly safe, and allowed herself to be swept once more into a dreamless slumber.

Author's Note (Don't need to read, Author not really saying anything relevant to the story, simply having a bit of whine-fest): Sorry about this being a filler chapter, I'll be updating with the second half of this chapter (in an attempt to add to this one, I wrote more to it... which then ended up being longer than the original chapter and is now a chapter all to itself) shortly. Because its Australia Day and I haven't updated in awhile, due to stress and other stuff. I was going to update earlier, but I just... you all know how stupidly emotionally invested I am in this monster, that its my baby and how much I've struggled with writing this because of my dyslexia and so on. For the last two years, pretty much since I started working at my job, this fic has been my space, were I escape to and just forget everything else and just write and...And yeah, on Saturday, because I was in such a sad, stressed little place, i felt my space had been... don't want to say invaded because it hasn't been it just... I don't know, and maybe I'm still in that sad, stress little place, which hopefully I'll get out of it shortly, after all this stuff is over and I start reminding myself not to take everything so personal and that I am posting this on the internet and it's technically not my "OWN" work, it's fanfiction, so just get over it.
Anyway next chapter will be posted shortly.