First of all I apologise for this chapter. The story free flows so I don't know where it goes as I'm typing or where it leads. I certainly didn't mean for it to get depth like this. I hope its not too depressing and thank you for those who reviewed. It is definitely why this chapter exists.

Disclaimer: I do not own the Hobbit.

Chapter 7: Killing Time

'Plague.'

The word caught Jenny's attention and she looked up from where she was returning Gwaithe's earlier kindness when she was the one sick and was mopping his sweaty brow.

'It has to be ain't it? I heard that travellers have had to reroute so they don't go past Tharbard. The last rider that went past said that the sickness has gone straight through the prison. They're hauling bodies out and into the ground like it's planting season,' the boy continued somewhat callously.

At this point Jenny was less dabbing Gwaithe's sweaty brow and was patting it like one would a dog.

'That's terrible!' she couldn't help but cry out and this caught the attention of the two healers who were the ones in question gossiping.

They looked at her oddly before they placed her.

'You were from the group of riders from Tharbard just before the sickness broke out aren't you?' the main healer said sympathetically and the boy, her young apprentice, looked shamed at gossiping so blatantly.

'One of the few left,' Jenny said bleakly. The reason why she was sequestered next to Gwaithe in the sick rooms is that a majority of her accompaniment were also in this sick room or in the mourning rooms below awaiting burial.

It only took a day for Darrow, Roth and Wain to succumb to the sickness once they fled to the nearest settlement of Helms Deep and she honestly thought Gwaithe was not far behind. His lungs seemed more fluid than air and she felt sorry for his poor family that she had only very recently discovered even existed. The refocussing on her patient had her gentling her hand. No need to hurry the seemingly imminent death.

She could definitely believe that it could be a plague or something like it. The place certainly seemed to be asking for it. She looked around the rough-hewn and sooty walls of Helms Deep and the healers that were using dirty looking bandages from where welts had arisen on certain patients skin.

'They should have burned them,' she said musingly thinking back to Tharbard.

'What ya say?' the younger healer asked incredulous. It appears he thought he had just misheard.

'The bodies. They should have been burned,' she reiterated to them both as the main healer had also turned to her, 'if it's a plague then the bacteria or virus or whatever it is... it should be destroyed if the bodies are burned or you risk it incubating within the bodies and possibly making the plague worse.'

Perhaps she was a little too accustomed to the mortality of a medieval environment that she was becoming callous with concepts like dead bodies. Death was an unfortunate but a common occurrence for when she lived in Tharbard. People just simply died all the time. The look on the healers' faces at her words definitely seemed to tell her a few things about tact and appropriate bedside conversation. Like they could talk though.

'Your Grace, you shouldn't bother the help,' The Captain muttered from where he was stubbornly hunkered next to the fire place, 'they don't know you well enough to be accustomed to your brand of conversation.'

Jenny frowned at the Captain and worried a little at the glossy sheen on his forehead that reflected in the firelight.

'She's right though,' Halhorne piped up from a bed two rows over, 'destroying blight through flames is a known method of purging disease.'

Jenny had always thought Halhorne was the most sensible of the riders and she was glad she was once again correct.

'I reckon I saw enough room on the plains outside this behemoth of a structure for a bonfire,' Aiselith said sensibly as he sipped gingerly at his broth in the bed between them, 'We could easily build one to be hot enough to burn the dead.'

The two healers were agape at the direction the conversation was taking and it appeared they didn't know how to respond. Jenny however was nodding along with all the suggestions.

'It's a good plan Aiselith. Do you I think I should talk to the Captain of this place and ask if it can be done?'

Jenny stood up to go out regardless but Captain Kailen stood swiftly as well and Jenny paused when she was him stagger with the effort. She redirected to the fireplace and held her arms out as if to steady him but halted when the Captain gave her a warning glare.

'Take Kai with you?' he grumbled once he was sure he wasn't at risk of Jenny grabbing him and he grabbed the mantle to steady him instead, 'he shouldn't be here.'

Jenny dithered but did regard the squire boy who had collapsed at the feet of the Captain and hadn't moved since. He didn't seem to be ill but rather exhausted. He had been the rider chosen to make for Helms Deep once the sickness that passed from Jenny to the other riders was not the usual cold. It took him two days for the round trip and two horses but when he returned he had a healer and a small party of soldiers from the standing army at the stronghold. It may be what had led to him not contracting the disease as so far it appeared he was in good health.

Jenny herself had recovered by the time the riders arrived and as far as she knew she was also the only one who had recovered from the illness. She attributed this to the extreme course of vaccinations she had put herself through when she had decided to travel to India. Thank goodness it was good for something as the India trip never panned out thanks to a cheating ex-boyfriend she would honestly rather not think about. Asshole.

'Sure,' she agreed, 'he shouldn't risk the chance that he get ill too.'

The Captain grunted and to her surprise knelt down next to Kai and gently shook him awake.

'Come on lad, you cant sleep here,' he murmured gently, 'you need to accompany the Lady to the Captain Eamon.'

Kai seemed determined to ignore the wakeup call but upon receiving orders sat up and rubbed his eyes.

'Take Lady Jenny to the Captain?' he repeated with a yawn.

'Aye, and keep her safe boy,' Kailen said gruffly and ruffled Kai's head so that all his ginger hair stuck straight up. Kai immediately patted it down frantically and peered at Jenny to see if she would laugh at him.

Jenny pretended she didn't notice the boy's moment of weakness and refrained from cooing at the young man getting provoked by his mentor.

'Off with yer,' the Captain said wryly and Kai quickly stood then wandered over to Jenny still looking like a bird that has had its feathers ruffled the wrong way. Hopefully he would sort himself out by the time they reached Captain Eamon she thought amused.

'A word of warning Your Holiness,' the Captain called out as she passed him on the way to the door, 'not everyone will know what to make of you in the future so I suggest you watch your manners and your words until you can be sure their the friendly sort. I think your mouth is where most of your troubles begin.'

Jenny paused in her step and there was silence before she turned a knowing eye to the Captain and gave him a wink.

'I hope you know I already have a excellent ability to discern people,' she said warmly, 'I knew from the start I would have the most noble and courageous men at my side for my travels and never once has there been a moment of fear. So my manners and words were not watched a single bit but I'll take your words to heart.'

The Captain leant back against the mantle and nodded, 'See that you do.'

Jenny faked a pout.

'Mind you, as a goddess amongst men I think I may talk about whatever I please to whoever I please thank you very much.'

'Aye, Your Eminence,' the Captain said wryly and Jenny swore that she saw him smile from the corner of her eye. She kept her grin and stepped out the room.

'Come Kai. Let's go see Captain Eamon.'

In her wake in the sick room where she couldn't have possibly seen was the suddenly grim expressions of the remaining riders and the shell shocked expressions of the healers.

'That woman is a Lady?' the apprentice asked aloud in shock and received a chastising smack from his Master indicating that he should get back to work.

'Aye,' Gwaithe rasped opening a rheumy eye having finally regained consciousness but barely holding on, 'that she is.'

The Captain who couldn't support his weight any longer collapsed into the cot assigned to him and gave an exhausted sigh.

'Well, Lady or not she better take care of my boy,' Kailen rumbled groggily and received affirming grumbles from the other riders until none said anything and only the unwell noises of the infirm and ill resounded in the room. The healers finally gave up in that silence and left the sick room upon realising there was nothing they could do for the damned and bolted the room behind them to prevent it spreading.

'The last ride eh boys?' Aiselith who was the most lucid of the ill said at last to the ceiling but none of his companions replied.

There was a pause.

'I thought so,' Aiselith whispered to himself and waited weary until he too fell asleep for the last time.

xx