Thank you to everyone who responded to the last chapter! A particular thanks goes out to Hermione Granger (thank you so, so, so much!) As to those who wondered at Paladin's questionable language, I feel it's justified on his behalf, he has been hanging around those rude dwarves ;)

Just a warning for those of you who don't like angst there is a bit of it in this chapter but it's easing off, I promise :D

Please forgive any mistakes I make, you lovely people!

Read. Enjoy. Review.

Chapter Ninety Two # Titanium #

For a moment, Paladin did not know what to do. Fíli was staring at him with such a blank expression that he had no doubt the dwarf truly did not know who he was.

"No," he murmured, shaking his head. "No, no, nope I did not just trick, trap and kill more than a dozen orcs just to be rewarded with another damned amnesiac prince of Durin! No way! Fíli, snap out of it!"

The dwarf's bloodied eyebrows furrowed in confusion and fear. "I… snap… out of… what? Who are you, what are you talking about?"

Paladin took a deep breath and tried not to panic, doing his best to remember the possible causes of amnesia.

A head injury is the most likely, his mother had told him, especially when accompanied by trauma. There are also illnesses, poisons…

The fact that Kíli still did not remember all of his life before the Shire was not a good omen for his brother, in Paladin's troubled mind.

Paladin Took, you are an idiot! Panicking yourself is going to do nothing to help at all!

"Alright, Fíli," he said slowly. "It's alright… You do know me. No, I know you don't remember me, I know, but you know me, and I know you."

The dwarf shook his head and dug his fingers into the ground, trying to crawl away from the hobbit. "I d-d-don't, I don- ah!"

"Hey," Paladin put a gentle hand on Fíli's shoulder as the dwarf cried out in pain, halting the frightened retreat. "It's alright, I'm a friend. I'm here to help you. We were kidnapped by orcs, they put you through hell and now your mind is playing tricks on you. You do know me. I promise."

Moans and whimpers of pain accompanied the shaking of Fíli's head. "I… I…"

"You're going to be alright," the hobbit insisted gently. "Your mind is just trying to protect itself but it doesn't need to, not in this way. You're going to be fine, I swear it. Just take a deep breath and look at me. Take a good look. You know me."

"I don't," the dwarf's voice trailed off as he blinked his terrified blue eyes at Paladin. A faint trace of what could be recognition flickered across Fíli's eyes but it soon died away and he swallowed. "I don't know you…"

"Yes you do," Paladin's own fear pushed at his patience but he made sure that he did not lose it. It was not Fíli's fault and he knew that the dwarf would be utterly terrified, so he kept his voice as gentle as it could be, as if he was talking one of his children out of a nightmare. "Your name is Fíli, son of Dís. You are eighty three years old and your favourite food is sweet bread rolls, because Kíli stole you some when you were sick as a child and because he traded some from Belle Gamgee on the first morning you had seen him for twenty years."

"I… how do you…?" Fíli's breathing began to quicken.

The hobbit continued in a soothing voice. "You adore your mother and admire your uncle – though he exasperates you upon occasion and you strongly disagree with some of the decisions he made in the past. There is nothing you would not do for your brother, and in return he thinks the sun rises just for you. And you absolutely dote upon my son. His name is Pippin, he is five and a half years old."

Fíli's frown morphed from confusion to concentration. "Pippin… I don't… Pippin."

"He idolises you," Paladin murmured.

"Pippin," the dwarf whispered. "Pippin…"

"Look at me," the hobbit replied. "Take a good long look. Your memory's hiding from you Fíli, it's hiding to protect you, but it does not need to and you can call it back. You are in control, Fíli. Everything's going to be alright. Just look at me. You know me, Fíli."

Shaking like a feather caught in a thorn bush on a breezy day, Fíli stared at Paladin. After a long moment he turned his face away and swallowed, closing his eyes. The hobbit could see the dwarf's eyes twitching beneath his closed lids as if he was dreaming.

And then Fíli took a sharp breath and flinched, pushing his hand against his eyes. Paladin waited, his heart racing, until Fíli released the breath in a long hiss.

Then he opened his eyes, looked at the hobbit, and allowed his head to tilt to the side. "P… Paladin?"

Paladin released the breath he had been holding and allowed his chin to fall against his chest. "Oh, thank the Valar…"

"What's going on?" the dwarf began to panic as clarity returned to his eyes. "You were… you'd escaped – the orcs!"

"No, no, it's alright," Paladin insisted quickly. "The orcs are dead."

"Dead?" Fíli opened his eyes and there was terror in them, so much terror and panic.

"Yes, and we're safe for the time being, but that's not important right now. How do you feel?"

A breathless laugh shook Fíli's torso and made him wince. "Not good."

"Alright," the hobbit nodded calmly. "Let's do something about it then, shall we?"

"What can you do?" Fíli's voice was soft, shaky - frightened. "I'm… I'm b-broken, Paladin… I don't think you can do anything about it."

"Don't be an idiot," Paladin scoffed. "Of course I can. And you are not broken, not by a long shot."

Fíli closed his eyes. "Paladin, you don't… you don't understand. They… they… I forgot my own name, I was just alone, alone in the dark and I couldn't remember who I was or what was going on and I… Mahal knows if… and then I woke up and you were, you were a stranger and then everything came flooding back and my head feels like it's stuck in Smaug's jaw and I remember everything and I don't want to remember…"

As Fíli trailed off, Paladin squeezed the dwarf's hand. "Fíli, what did they do to you?"

The gaze Fíli turned on Paladin did not look like the prince's usual bright eyes – they were terrified, vulnerable, haunted – they looked like the eyes of a little boy who had gone through hell.

"Do… I have to tell you?"

Paladin tried to smile and shook his head. "No, no you don't, but it will help me help you."

Fíli pursed his lips and turned his head away.

"Can you perhaps tell me where you are injured?" the hobbit asked gently.

A single tear slipped down Fíli's cheek. "Everywhere."

"Alright," Paladin murmured softly, though he was starting to panic himself. Now that Fíli had overcome his memory lapse, the hobbit was reminded of the sickening severity of the physical wounds that marred the dwarf's body. "It's going to be alright."

Fíli did not respond.

"Do you mind if I check you over? My mother is a healer, you know, and I'm not too bad myself."

Fíli nodded slightly, still looking away from at the hobbit.

Taking a breath to steady himself, Paladin began running his hands gently over the back of Fíli's head, checking for any wounds. He could feel a few lumps and bumps and a little blood, but he had no idea whether they were serious or not – given that Fíli had apparently regained his memory led him to believe that they were not responsible for the amnesia – at least not directly.

When he was done, he moved onto Fíli's neck, probing it as gently as he could.

"Do you think you have any broken bones?"

"I don't think so," the dwarf whispered, closing his eyes.

"Good, good," Paladin murmured, turning his gaze to Fíli's bare chest.

The very sight made his stomach churn – there was no inch of untouched skin. There were more bruises and welts and cuts and burns than Paladin had ever seen before, forming a macabre shirt of reds and blacks and blues that stretched across the dwarf's torso and arms. Paladin had already cut through the bonds around Fíli's hands, but the vicious red marks were still there, and he did not even know where to start.

From head to toe, Paladin, his mother's voice reminded him, breathing over bleeding over bones, burns and others, but you must make sure the spine is intact.

Once he was certain that none of the wounds were severe enough to cause heavy blood loss, Paladin moved onto Fíli's legs. The dwarf winced and whimpered when the hobbit touched his blood-soaked trousers with hands so gentle they could scarcely harm a butterfly and Paladin's heart sank. His hands were painted with Fíli's blood.

"It's alright," he murmured, refusing to allow his voice to shake. He wiped his hands against a nearby tree and took Fíli's hand again. "It's going to be alright, Fíli, I promise."

The only response Fíli gave was the tightening his fingers around Paladin's.

With his right hand Paladin continued his examination, easing Fíli's torn boots off to reveal his swollen, blistered feet.

"Alright," he said. "Fíli, I'm going to need to look at your legs, alright?"

Fíli pursed his lips and nodded slightly.

Carefully peeling away the blood-soaked, torn trousers, Paladin had to stop himself from gagging when he saw Fíli's legs. They were covered in a lacing of claw marks and teeth marks and knife marks – and they were all oozing blood.

"By the Valar, Fíli," he could not help himself.

Fíli took a deep breath. "They… they wanted… they…"

"It's alright," Paladin swallowed. "You don't have to tell me. It's alright…"

The orcs, the foul, twisted, despicable, evil, evil, evil beings had tried to devour Fíli's legs. While they were still attached to his body. Paladin felt sick, so, so sick but he knew he did not have time to deal with his own feelings.

"It's alright, Fíli," he repeated in the most comforting voice he had. "You're going to be fine. I promise."

"You can't," Fíli rasped. "Paladin, you cannot promise that!"

"Of course I can," he scoffed. "I got you away from those orcs, didn't I?"

Fíli frowned. "I… how? How did you… I don't remember, Paladin-"

"You couldn't remember," he assured the panicking dwarf. "You were unconscious at the time. I found a little holey cave type thing beneath a tree, I think it used to be a spiders' hoard. Anyway, there was a lovely supply of bags and weaponry there and I thought that I would follow the example of the Boy Alone."

"The boy alone?"

"There is a folk story among our people," Paladin explained, pushing Fíli's hair away from his forehead to get a better look at the wound tracing his hairline and to offer what comfort he could to the prince. "About a large family who leave for Bree to celebrate the Yuletide with relatives. In the mayhem they accidentally leave one of their sons at home, sleeping in his bed. There are so many in their party that they don't even realise he is not with them for days. By that time he has been happily going about his life without parents – he can eat whatever he wants, play whenever he wants and stay up as late as he chooses – but he is a smart child and he notices some unfamiliar, unsavoury folk lingering around his house. He soon realises that they are thieves, planning on robbing his house. So he uses his toys and other bits and pieces around the house to set booby traps for the thieves. By the time his parents rush home they find him curled up in an armchair eating cookies with two robbers tied up by his feet."

"A children's story?" Fíli winced. "You followed a children's story?"

"Hey," Paladin smiled softly at the dwarf's tone. "It worked, didn't it? Everything's going to be fine now, they're all dead and you're safe. Safer, anyway."

"You killed them? All of them?"

"I didn't enjoy it," the hobbit wrinkled his nose. "I just did what I had to do to get you away from them."

A slight smile tugged Fíli's lip up at the corner. "Thank you, Paladin."

"You're welcome," the hobbit smiled back. "You're very welcome. Now, you don't happen to have any healing herbs or alcohol, do you?"

Instead of making Fíli smile, the quip just made the dwarf's breathing quicken and drew out a small sob. "Of course not… Paladin, it's bad, it's really bad, and the chances of getting infected and getting worse, even for a dwarf… Paladin, I'll be dead by the end of the week."

"Hey, hey!" Paladin scowled. "Don't you dare talk like that! You are not going to die, you hear me? You don't have permission."

Fíli's blue eyes were swimming with tears as he locked them onto Paladin's, and his lower lip was quivering. "Paladin… Paladin I'm scared."

The hobbit's own eyes filled with tears and he reached out to take Fíli's hand again. It terrified him, seeing Fíli in such a state, and it broke his heart, too. "I know. I know… but it's going to be alright. I promise, I'm not going to leave you here, I'm not going to leave you and I'm not going to let anything happen to you."

"I've been the big brother all my life," Fíli whispered, clinging onto Paladin's fingers with a frighteningly weak grip. "I know that isn't a promise you can keep!"

"Fíli, I've been a big brother all my life too," the hobbit replied fiercely. "And you know that is a promise I will do anything to keep!"

At those words Fíli's eyes widened and his mouth popped open slightly. Then he took a deep breath in and out and nodded. "Alright…"

"Good," Paladin smiled. "Now, I do happen to have some plants that might just be able to help, so hang on for a moment-"

"You do?" Fíli frowned heavily. "Where?"

"Well, there weren't just weapons in the spider's hoard. There were clothes, shoes, and bags. And in some of the bags were supplies. They're just over here, less than fifty feet away so don't worry, I'm not going far." Paladin stood up and strode back into the road where he had ambushed the orcs. Their corpses still clogged the pathway, but he did not have time to deal with them. Instead he ducked into the hollow of the tree where he had stashed what viable supplies he could find and ran back over to Fíli. "See, I'm already back. I even found some water in one of these bags."

"Water?" Fíli licked his cracked lips.

"Yep, but I don't think it's any good for drinking," mourned the hobbit. "It smells stale and tastes foul. However, it will be fine for cleaning out some of these wounds, especially if we boil it first. This is good for drinking – have a swig."

Fíli gulped down several mouthfuls of the wine Paladin passed him and shuddered. "Thank you. But what if more orcs come?"

"I thought of that," Paladin assured him. "Will you be alright for five minutes?"

"Where're you going?"

"Just to the road," he promised. "It's about thirty feet behind us. If anything happens, anything at all, yell and I'll here you. I'll be back soon."

Fíli nodded grimly and clenched his jaw, while Paladin ran back to the road. Grimacing, he grabbed the first orc by his stinking leg and dragged him off of the path, shoving him down into the hole that used to contain the spiders' spoils. One by one he disposed of the bodies, and then he used a stick to scrape off the thick layers of cobwebs he had spread across the road and removing most of the visible blood. When that had been tossed down on top of the orcs corpses, Paladin wiped his hands against his trousers and nodded. There was next to no trace of the odd confrontation at all. Job done.

Then he returned to Fíli and set up the little cauldron he had found, pouring the water in and lighting a small fire beneath it. While he waited for the water to heat, he dug around in one of the other bags to find an old jacket to bundle up beneath Fíli's head.

"We'll be able to hear anyone coming," he said, covering Fíli's whole body with a huge cloak. "We're safe enough here for now."

Shuddering down into the newfound warmth, Fíli nodded. "Thank you."

"Pfft," Paladin scoffed. "Thank me when we're drinking ale in Erebor."

A faint smile flickered across Fíli's face. "That… that would be nice."

"Will," corrected the hobbit. "It will be nice."

"You sound so sure," the dwarf mumbled.

"That's because I am." Paladin said firmly. "We're going to get out of here."

As soon as the water was boiling, Paladin grabbed the cleanest cloth he could find and pushed it in, soaking it for a few moments before pulling it out and waiting for it to cool for a second. Then he began to gently dab and swab at Fíli's legs.

The dwarf hissed and cringed, but when Paladin paused he protested.

"Keep going," Fíli uttered through clenched teeth. "I'm fine."

"That's right," said Paladin softly. "You're going to be fine."

It took Paladin longer than he expected to clean the dwarf's wounds with the limited resources and the amount of blood and grime sticking to every wound, but eventually he could see what he was doing. Then he pulled out the bags of plants from the grey bag and studied them for a second.

"How d'you know what they are?" Fíli said, eyeing the plants suspiciously. "What if you poison me?"

Paladin raised his eyebrows. "I'm a hobbit."

"Fair enough…" Fíli winced.

"This, for example, is called Tipton Weed," he explained, whipping up a makeshift tincture with what little he had. "It's good for burns, wounds. So is this one here, it's called houseleek or the Healing Blade. That was always my favourite name; it sounds so much more exciting."

Wound by wound, Paladin treated Fíli's injuries the best he could with what he had. The hobbit would have liked to have had more dressings, but given that one of the bags seemed to belong to a healer he found enough bandages to properly dress the more worrying wounds.

As he did so, he found himself describing his one-man ambush to try and distract the tortured dwarf.

Paladin pulled the bow back and aimed it carefully, thanking the Valar once again that the weapon was of a manageable size, even if it was larger than what he was used to. He had fired a couple of test shots but he could hear the orcs coming now and there was no more time for practise.

When they came around the corner he breathed out and looked for Fíli. He had to get Fíli out of the way…

There!

The dwarf was slumped over the shoulder of one of the orcs as if he weighed nothing at all, and while it did not bode well for Fíli it did allow the hobbit to make a move. Taking his aim, Paladin loosed an arrow straight through the neck of the orc holding Fíli. When they tumbled to the floor he tugged on the first rope.

His ploy worked perfectly and half a dozen blades swung from the trees right into the pack of orcs. A few fell right away, while the others dissolved into a frenzy, but before they could figure out just where the threat was coming from Paladin yanked the second rope, releasing the heaviest rocks he could handle onto the orcs' heads.

When the second wave of orcs had crumpled he returned to his bow and arrow, taking out the remaining five with relative ease. Then he scrambled down from the tree, ensured all the orcs were dead, and lifted Fíli up into his arms.

Struggling with the dwarf's weight Paladin stumbled off of the road and into the woods until he found a decent place to lower Fíli to the ground.

By the time he was finished with the story and the healing process, the only light came from their small fire. He rooted in the bag with the least dirt once more and pulled out the wrapped loaf of seeded bread he had noticed upon his first search. He ripped it in half and passed some to Fíli.

"It's stale, it's crumbly and it doesn't smell too nice, but it's not rotten or moudly yet. It's still good to eat."

"Are you sure?" Fíli narrowed his hungry eyes at the bread.

Paladin sighed dramatically. "For the second time, Fíli, I am a hobbit. I know my way around food – and I am an expert in knowing whether food is dangerous or not."

Neither hobbit nor dwarf needed further encouragement and for a moment there was silence as they demolished the food. Then Fíli paused.

"You said this came from a spiders' hoard?"

"I think that's what it was," Paladin nodded.

"So this food… these weapons, those plants… they belonged to some poor souls who could not escape…"

Paladin sighed sadly. It was something he too had given thought to. "They don't need it anymore."

"I suppose not," the dwarf finished the last morsel of bread and sighed. "Mahal, I'm tired…"

"Sleep," Paladin said quickly. "I'll keep watch, you just get some rest. You need it."

Fíli raised an eyebrow. "So do you."

Yawning despite himself, Paladin shook his head. "I'm good for another few hours. I'll wake you when I have to."

Though he did not look convinced, Fíli nodded and allowed his eyes to close. "Paladin?"

"Yes?"

The dwarf opened his sleepy eyes once more. "Thank you. For… everything…"

The hobbit smiled. "Anytime."


"What do you mean we're not going to look for them?" Alfr cried. "They are our friends, our kin, by Mahal Gimli and Pippin are children! And you're going to stand here and tell me that we're not even going to search?!"

"Calm yourself, dwarf," the elf looked down his nose at the dwarf. "There are already people searching. You would do better to catch up with your other companions."

"We have known you for what? Five minutes?" Alfr scoffed. "Yet you expect us to trust you with their lives."

Alfr did not care much for these newcomers. They were from Mirkwood, they said, and they claimed to be there to help, but most of what they had said had been shared with Glorfindel, Elladan and Elrohir in elvish – so much for the legendary courtesy of elves.

Now, however, the elves they had met the previous day began to translate.

"The trail of Estel, Gimli and Legolas…" Elrohir trailed off and cleared his throat before speaking again. "They were followed by orcs and the orcs came back. Without them."

"They sent Legolas to follow the trail," Elladan added. "He is the prince of the woodland realm, a good elf and he knows this place better than any of us. He will find them, if…"

"If they're still alive." Alfr finished shortly.

"If we follow them we are wasting time," murmured Glorfindel, meeting Alfr's eyes. "Believe me, it mourns me as much as it does you."

"I highly doubt that."

"Then you are obviously forgetting that there are few in this world or any other as dear to myself and the twins as Estel is," the elf replied.

"So we just leave?" Soren said softly. "We don't even go after Fíli and Paladin?"

"We sent the other half of our party to look for them. If they are out there we will find them."

The two dwarves exchanged a glance. The less time they spent on the road, the fewer opportunities there were for Framarr and Sindri to escape, and the others did deserve to know what was going on, even if the news was dire.

"Fine," Alfr sighed. "Lead on."


"Nori! Nori, wake up!"

The dwarf moaned and opened one of his eyes. "What?"

It was dark in the wagon but he could see tears on Nelly's face. That woke him up quickly.

"Nelly, what's wrong?" his heart seized up. They were three days into their journey in Mirkwood and he still had not been allowed to leave the wagon, but in truth he still felt awful so he had accepted Bofur's overprotecting orders without protest and Nelly had been by his side the whole time. But there had been no word on their lost kin. "Have they found them, are they-?"

Nelly shook her head quickly.

"What's wrong?" Nori propped himself up on his elbows.

"Nori, I'm sorry!" she sobbed. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry!"

"What are you talking about?" he frowned, putting his hand on Nelly's cheek. "What are you sorry for?"

"It's all my fault!"

"What's your fault?"

"It's my fault that the orcs came!" she whispered tearfully.

Nori's frown deepened. "What are you talking about?"

"I…" Nelly's lip wobbled and then she shook her head fiercely and buried her head in Nori's chest. "No, no, I can't you'll hate me, you'll hate me!"

"Hey, hey," Nori rubbed the little ones' back. "That's never going to happen. I promise."

"You promise?" she mumbled into his tunic.

"Of course," Nori hoisted himself into a sitting position and tugged her onto his lap. "It'd be impossible to hate you."

"That's not true," She shook her head several times, but took a deep breath and pulled back, playing with Nori's sleeve. "Nori, I didn't mean to, I promise I didn't!"

"I believe you," he nodded. "What did you do?"

"Well," she shuddered and closed her eyes. "I… I w-wet the bed, Nori! I wet the bed and I didn't want anybody to ever know because then they'd know that I'm… I'm pathetic and stupid and-"

"Hey, hey, hey!" he slapped her arm gently. "You are not pathetic or stupid, far from it."

Nelly stared at him tearfully. "Yes I am. I wet the bed – more even than Pippin does."

"So?" Nori shrugged. "It's not your fault. You can't control it. And what does this have to do with the orcs?"

Closing her eyes on her tears, Nelly swallowed. "I got up. I didn't want anybody to know, so I decided to fix it myself. I got up and I changed myself and cleaned everything up but I didn't want anyone to find out, so I hid them in a little hole I found in the boulders and I lit a fire and burnt them."

Nori nodded slowly. "Alright… Not the decision I would make, but I understand…"

"No, you don't!" she cried, before looking around nervously. "Nori, I lit a fire, I led them right to us and I'm the reason that they took Pippin and Papa and Fíli and Gimli and I'm the reason they hanged you!"

Nori's mouth dropped open. "Oh, Nelly…"

He had never seen so many tears pouring down a child's face before as she wailed and dropped her head onto her knees, hugging her legs to herself tightly. A couple of muffled, fragmented sentences met Nori's ears. "I told you… I'm sorry, sorry, sorry, I'm so sorry!"

"No, no, that's not what I meant!" he whispered, wrapping his arms around Nelly and drawing her closer again. "That's not what I meant. It's not your fault. This isn't your fault at all. Number one – the orcs came from another direction and number two, didn't you say you hid the fire in a little cave thing?"

She nodded slightly.

"So it can't have been your fault. And even if it was somehow, it doesn't matter, it was an accident. And don't you think for a moment that I'd stop caring about you just because of an accident – neither would anybody else."

Her tiny hands clutched at his jacket and she shivered. "They're going to be fine, right? We're going to get them back?"

Nori hesitated, then gave the most honest answer he could. "Hopefully."

"I want my Papa," she whispered.

"I know," he replied. "I know uzbadnâtha. I know."

A few minutes later the wagon door eased open. "Nori? Nelly?"

"Vinca?" Nelly wiped her eyes hastily. "What're you doing here?"

"Frodo's snoring, can I come and sleep with you?"

Nori smiled wryly. "Course."

The littlest hobbit lass clambered up and scampered over, curling up next to Nelly and Nori. The dwarf had scarcely shut his eyes when he heard the door open again.

"Nori!"

He opened his eyes again. "'ello?"

"I had a bad dream," Merry said. "Can I sleep in here? Please?"

Confused as to why he was Merry's choice of adult Nori frowned, but he nodded regardless. "If you want."

Merry climbed into the wagon and nestled up by Nori's side. The dwarf wrapped his arm around the little hobbits and leant his head back to go to sleep.

Until…

There were three soft knocks on the door. "Nori, may I come in?"

"Come on up," he told Pearl, rubbing his forehead as she hurried over, making herself into a bed for Vinca.

Then a few minutes later –

"Bofin and Bodin and I have come to protect you," Bróin whispered fiercely as he threw his baby brother into the wagon. The toddler crawled forwards and promptly turned Nori's legs into a cradle. The stunned dwarf had no time to respond. "We're gonna make sure no baddies get you in the night. Thank you for your cooperation."

Nori laughed in disbelief under his breath. What on earth did these children think they were playing at? Keeping him up all night? He was not their governess.

Then there was a soft knock Sam's wide eyes peeked in. Nori stared right at him.

"You go and tell anyone else that wants to come in that now is their final chance, alright? I actually want to sleep tonight, and you rascals are keeping me up!"

Sam disappeared, only to reappear a moment later with Frodo, Orla, Ola.

"Just roll with it," Nelly mumbled sagely to him, her eyelids closed and her fingers entwined in the dwarf's beard.

Nori rolled his eyes and leant his head back against the wooden wall of the wagon. He did not care why they were there or where they sat or lay as long as they did not wake him. Again.

The sun rose and Dana rose with it. The elves had set up a constant watch around them, so they had been told not to bother arranging schedules of their own. She half wished that they did set up watches of their own – at least that way she would have a reason for not getting a full night's sleep. All around her the camp began to stir, so she went to wake up the children for breakfast.

When she opened the wagon door her heart just stopped beating.

Too terrified to call out to the others, she staggered to the other wagon to see if Nelly was missing too, but when she flung open the door relief liquefied every her knees and she tightened her grasp on the door to steady herself on her feet. They were there, they were all there. No one else had vanished.

Nori was snoring lightly with Bodin on his legs, Nelly in his lap, Merry tucked beneath one arm and Pearl beneath the other. Vinca was sprawled across Pearl's lap, her curls hiding Ola's face. Orla was using her twin's lap as a cushion, while Bofin's head was resting on her legs. Bróin was curled up between his brothers, sucking his thumb with the innocent face of an angel that they would never see when he was awake. Sam was on the other side of Bodin, twitching like a dreaming puppy, while Frodo had woken up at Dana's entry and was rubbing his eyes while trying to detangle his limbs from Merry's.

"G'morning Dana," he yawned.

"Good morning, Frodo. What's everyone doing in here?"

Frodo shrugged. "I'm really rather hungry, Miss Dana."

She smiled and winked at him, then spoke in a voice only a fraction louder. "Breakfast!"

The whole wagon awoke with a start, with the children crawling all over each other to reach the door. Only Nori remained. He rubbed his neck and blinked at her.

"Morning, Dana."

"Good morning, Nori. How are you feeling?"

He gave a tight smile. "Fine. I'm fine. How are you doing?"

"Well, I've been better," she admitted with a wry smile of her own. "But I shall survive. You seem to have had an interesting night."

He nodded, avoiding her eyes and lighting his pipe. "Before you ask I have no idea why they all crowded in here."

She paused. "Really? You don't know?"

Nori raised an eyebrow. "You do?"

Dana smiled slightly. She knew it could not be her real smile – Gimli had taken that with him. "Well, I have a hunch."

"A hunch?" he raised his other brow too.

"Nori, you are a survivor. You provide hope to them – we got you back, you're alive, you're well enough. They hope that the others will return, too." Dana said.

The dwarf's face crumpled with guilt. "Oh…"

"We're going to get them back," she swore fiercely. "We are. I am not as strong as Dís, I cannot, will not lose my son."

Nori just nodded, staring at the wall.

"You give them hope, Nori," Dana said. "I'm not standing here telling you this for the good of your health – I'm telling you because it's the truth."

She turned to leave the wagon, pausing for only a moment to tell him the complete truth, because he needed to hear it (not because she was falling apart without her baby, no, no, no it was not for her sake she was saying it for his, wasn't she, wasn't she…wasn't she?)

"You give me hope, too."

I hope you enjoyed that chapter! Here it ends for today, I will update ASAP! Please let me know what you thought and whether you liked it!

There were a couple of references in this one, let me know if you spotted them ;)

DISCLAIMER: I am no expert on amnesia and my usual go-to medical professional (*cough cough* my mother *cough cough*) is on the other side of the world so I was largely winging this (I did research, I promise) and the memory loss Fíli experienced was more of a a state of confusion and amnesia brought on by trauma than it was caused by serious blows to the head, since the orcs wanted to keep him alive, so that's why he was able to snap out of fairly quickly. It I don't know if this is possible but if not let's just say it's a dwarven thing :D Thank you!