Billie had never been graceful, she always had a bruise or two incurred from banging into something and she had hit her head more times than she could count. But this one had to take, if not the cake, a cake somewhere.
When her rescuer had pushed her behind him she had gotten her feet tangled up around each other and she had gone careening backwards to smack her head against the pavement. She must have blacked out for a minute, because she didn't remember anything after that, her eyes blinked open, anything like how she had got into this car!
She was lying stretched out across a seat, her cheek was sticky with something. The radio was switching back and forth between the rock station and the outlaw country station.
"No more! I can't listen to them moo about Mama any longer!" Someone nearby said, their voice sounded kind of familiar.
"They aren't mooing!" someone else retorted, weird his voice sounded familiar too.
"They are too; listen to this guy it's been 3 minutes of cow noises!"
"If you two break the radio you're paying for a new one." A deep voice growled. The other two stopped bickering for a second, Billie heard the rush of wind coming through an open window.
"So can we listen to rock for one song?" the first voice asked.
"Mmmmmm," the second voice stretched out the noise, "No." the country got turned up and they were off again. Billie very slowly sat up. She was in the backseat of a truck; her three rescuers were squished together in the front. God, her head hurt, she reached a hand up to cradle the lump that had formed behind her ear, her hair was sticky too. What had she rolled in? The truck went over a pothole, causing all the fries in her stomach to slosh up into her throat, she managed to swallow them back and then let out a groan. The ponytail brothers turned around, one was blonde, the other brunette but other than that they looked almost exactly alike.
"Oh," she thought, "Twins."
"You're awake," Blondey said, then he frowned, "How are you feeling? I'm not sure you should be sitting up."
"Yeah, you're still bleeding," his twin said. Billie was about to say she felt fine, but then the fries sloshed back up and instead she leaned over and puked on the floor. The driver let out a curse and pulled the car into a parking lot.
"Sorry," Billie mumbled when she was done. The driver got out, opened her door and helped her out of the car. Her legs were wobbly so she found herself leaning against him.
"Don't worry about it we're here." Billie looked up, they were standing in front of the emergency room entrance to the county hospital.
"Oh, no, really I don't need to – " she tried to back away but her Jello knees wouldn't support her and before she knew it the driver had scooped her up and was carrying her bride style towards the entrance.
"Yes, you do," he growled. Billie was going to protest but apparently the rest of the fries wanted to escape too, so she pressed her lips together, praying they would stay put. Then they were through the automatic doors and the duty nurse was rushing forwards, twittering at her rescuers elbow.
"What happened?"
"She hit her head on the pavement, I think she might have cracked it open and she just threw up her dinner." The nurse said something over the intercom and an orderly with a rolling stretcher was there. Her rescuer lowered her gently onto the starched white cotton padding.
Billie hadn't really looked at him yet, but now she did as he walked with her back into the ER. He was tall, with thick black hair and a well-styled black beard that framed his handsome face. He looked down at her and his grey eyes flashed. Recognition dawned, the guy who's face she had almost bashed in earlier! They rolled into a brightly lit room, her rescuer went to a sink to wash his hands and donned a pair of latex gloves.
"You're a doctor?" Billie croaked, his ears went pink and then red, they'd done that at the restaurant too, did they do that when he was embarrassed? Well that was absolutely adorable.
"Yes," he said, turning her head to the side to better examine her injury, a nurse walked in and affixed a strap around the top Billie's head, a leather strap, she secured the other end to the table.
"Um, what's that for?" she asked.
"You did crack your head open," Doctor Rescuer said finishing his gloved pawing through her hair, "I'll have to stich it up. The strap is to stop you from moving." There was a buzz as something powered up, it sounded like electric hair clippers.
"We'll have to shave your head around the wound," the nurse said, already putting the metal edge next to her scalp.
"What?!" Billie practically shrieked, "Wait, really I'm feeling much better! There's no need for that!" A sharp pain pressed into the back of her neck, "OW!"
"Just a little anesthesia," Doctor Rescuer told her, "It should take effect soon and this will be over before you know it."
"Don't shave my head!" Billie pleaded, her words garbling together, "Don't-
(…. And Then)
Her phone was ringing, she tried to reach out a hand to grab it off her nightstand but found that her nightstand wasn't there. Well that was weird. Maybe Lizzy had moved it. She cracked open one eye and everything came rushing back.
She was in the ER, in a different part of it than where they had sewed her head back together, but she was lying on a cot and a blue curtain was pulled down the middle of the room, and it wasn't her phone that was ringing, it was the ponytailed twins, the brunette was busily pushing the call button.
"Hey," she said, her voice was still all croaky, "what are you doing in here?"
"I'm trying to annoy Uncle Thorin," the brunette said, smiling at her, "And Fili is trying to stop me."
"Unsuccessfully," Fili added, he sat down on the edge of her cot, "We didn't get the chance to introduce ourselves, I'm Fili and that," he pointed at his brother who was now holding down the call button steadily and giggling to himself. "Is Kili."
"Short for Killian," Kili said.
"No it isn't," his brother rolled his eyes.
"Well it could be!"
The curtain twitched aside and their Uncle Thorin entered, wearing a white coat and completely red in the face.
"You two are about this close to being grounded." He warned.
"You can't ground me!" Fili whined, "I didn't do anything!" Kili started laughing.
"You can't ground me either," he said, "I'm legally an adult."
"What you are is mentally unstable!" Thorin took a deep breath, "Please, just go sit in the car, both of you." Fili stood up and grabbed his brother by his ear, Kili gave a squawk of protest.
"Nice to meet you," Fili said to Billie as they left. Thorin let out a sigh, running a hand through his hair. There was a long minute of silence.
"So, um, thanks for saving my life," Billie said awkwardly. Thorin looked down at her in surprise.
"Oh it was nothing." He flipped through the clipboard he was holding. Then finally asked, "Why were you walking along the side of the road anyways Ms. Baggins?"
"It's kind of a long story," Billie sighed, then looked up startled, "Wait? How do you know my name?" Thorin held up her wallet. "Oh." He handed her back the beat up leather holder.
"We tried to notify your emergency contact but there wasn't one." He said, slipping a blood pressure cuff onto her arm. "You don't even have a cell phone."
"I do too," Billie protested, tried to reach into her pocket but then realized she was wearing a hospital robe. "Where are my clothes?"
"You'll get them back when your discharged," Thorin told her, "but we looked through the pockets and there wasn't any cell phone there."
"It's probably in your car," Billie said, "or on the side of the road."
"Fine," Thorin nodded, " Well then, do you have someone who can come to get you?"
Billie opened her mouth to say Lizzie, or possibly no, but she'd be just fine. Thank you. Then she remembered Lizzie kicking her out, she remembered her situation, no job, no car, only 130 dollars to her name. Her head throbbed, her eyes stated burning.
"Ms. Baggins?" Thorin asked.
And then she burst into tears.
Thorin clearly didn't know what to do. He dropped his clipboard, "Hey, no, don't. Don't do that."
"I'll cry if I wanna cry-y-y." Billie hiccupped, "You'd cry too if you'd had-d-d the day I've had-d-d."
"Sorry," Thorin's ears were pinken-ing, "Sorry. You're right I don't know your circumstances."
"Damn straight you don't-t. I got fired, my ca-ar was repossessed and now my best friend kick-kicke-ed-ed me o-out because I'm a sl-sl-oooob!" Billie buried her face in her hands, "I can't do anything right."
"Please," Thorin sounded frantic, "Please, it's all going to be okay."
"How do you know that." Billie sniffed looking up at him, "I'm homeless and destitute." He met her eyes, his ears growing redder by the second.
"Because," he said, "because you can come live with me."
There was a long pause.
"I can what?" Billie asked.
