Bella came back to consciousness with all the dignity of someone who had just fainted in front of total strangers: all at once and with a groan.

She kept her eyes closed and pressed a hand to her forehead. She knew she was in her bedroom because it smelled of the verbena she kept on her windowsill and she also knew that someone was nearby.

She opened one eye.

Gandalf smiled back at her from his seat in the rocking chair by the wardrobe. "Welcome back, my dear."

"I fainted," Bella said flatly. "I've never fainted before."

"Well, you did it spectacularly," he said. "A finer faint I don't think I've ever seen."

She would have glared if she didn't think squinting her eyes would inflame her headache further. Gingerly, she sat up.

"Well," Gandalf said brightly. "It appears that you are still in full possession of your capabilities."

"I. Fainted. I fainted while sending an eager, peaceful spirit back. My mother told me of the harder ones. The ones that force themselves in and the ones that simply won't be budged," she repeated leaning against her pillow and giving in to the urge to glare, despite the twinge in her temples. "Clearly, I'm hardly a shining example of a hardy medium who faces the mysteries of the universe with aplomb and ease. Gandalf, I can't do this. I'm sorry, but I just can't."

"You're just out of practice," he said. "And as for being hardy, you come from extremely hardy stock, Bella Baggins. Your great-great grandmother once took on two dozen ghosts from the Middle Ages and sent them on their way in the blink of an eye."

"That was never proven," Bella said.

He leaned forward. "You need to do this, Bella. It's your true inheritance. In fact, I believe it's your only inheritance at present."

She went cold all over once again, only this time it was the cold of righteous indignation.

"You know about that?" she asked through gritted teeth.

"I know a great many things, Bella Baggins," he said in that infuriatingly patient tone of his. He stood. "Come with us, Bella. If only to have an adventure and test those gifts of yours. What else are you going to do?"

She frowned and shook her head. "Gandalf, I don't think I'm strong enough."

"And how will you know if you don't try?" he asked going to the door.

He'd just moved through it when something else occurred to her and dreading the answer, she asked, "Gandalf. Who carried me in here?"

"Captain Durin did, my dear," he said smiling slightly. "He was most gallant about it."

Bella groaned again and covered her face with both her hands while Gandalf, damn the man, slipped out of her bedroom, chuckling as he went.

She sat and stared out of her window, looking at the fields through the gently waving verbena fronds. She let herself remember things that she hadn't considered in years. Things her mother taught her, games she'd played as a child, even the spirits her mother had spoken to before she had gotten too ill to call anyone anymore.

Bella sat thinking until the sun had set. Then she roused herself and got out of bed. After splashing some water on her face from the small basin on her vanity table, she changed out of her coveralls and blouse and put on a simple blue dress. Not bothering with stockings, she slid on her brown shoes, and went to the kitchen.

Bella walked into the kitchen and upon spotting Captain Durin leaning against the open door to the garden, she held up a hand when he looked about to say something. He closed his mouth and resettled against the doorjamb, pipe in hand.

She felt him watch her as she moved about her kitchen, filling the kettle and making herself a cup of tea. When she added a teaspoon and a half of sugar to her teacup, she could swear she heard that eyebrow of his rise. She ignored him, splashed some milk into her mug and then headed past him to sit on the stoop of her patio.

She cradled her teacup in her hand and stared out into the early evening light.

"You're welcome to join me," she said. "And feel free to light up."

"You don't mind?" he asked.

She shook her head. "I love the smell of a pipe. I may even have some of my father's supply around somewhere."

"I have enough," he said coming to sit down beside her, keeping a decent foot of space between them. "Thank you, Miss Baggins."

"Bella, please," she said smiling. "Miss Baggins makes me feel like I'm a schoolteacher."

"Thorin," he said hesitantly. "If you wish."

She nodded and then focused on warming her hands with her tea.

"I'm sorry," she said after a few minutes while she sipped her tea and he smoked. "You've found yourself a rather disappointing medium, I'm afraid."

"It seems to take a great deal out of you," he said.

"Yes," she said breathing in and out deeply. "It's not easy to begin with and well, I'm very out of practice."

"Are you all right now?" he asked.

"I don't think I'm going to swoon on you, if that's what you're asking," she said.

"A gentleman likes to be prepared," he replied.

She snickered into her teacup and nodded. "Yes, thanks for that, by the way. In any case, a nice faint followed by a cuppa always puts me to rights."

He made a noise that may have been a chuckle and once again, Bella felt awful that she wasn't what they needed. She turned to him.

"Look, I haven't been in touch with that particular crowd in ages, as mum was never one to join in, but I'm sure I can give you some names of other mediums that would be happy to help," she said. "Respectable ones, of course, no charlatans."

He nodded. "I'm afraid we're on a bit of a deadline. They'd need to join us quickly."

She frowned. "Oh. That does complicate things."

"I hadn't expected a ghost to be so, so," he made a face.

"Ghostly?" she offered.

"Sad," he said.

"Oh," she said surprised. "Well, they say that a ghost is a soul that is untethered from its mind, which always sounded like a rather bleak existence."

"Can anyone become a ghost?" he asked.

"Well, technically," she said. "Although they tend to be spirits who died violently or with unfinished business or very strong ties to the world."

She sipped from her mug and took a deep breath, enjoying the scent of his pipe.

"It's better when they've actually moved on," Bella said. "They're in a better place. Quite literally. Mum had one woman who was a regular. Every Wednesday afternoon at three, she'd come by and Mum would call for her sister who'd died when they were both twenty-five. They'd talk about nothing in particular for the full hour."

Bella stared down into her mug. "I often wonder if it was a good thing that mum did or a bad thing."

"What did you decide upon?" he asked quietly.

"That it was a bit of both and not quite a majority of either one." She shrugged. "Not like I wasn't tempted to try it myself, but..."

"But what?"

"My mother's gone," she said. "And my father was here. And the war came and people needed food and well... Mum would always say that the dead could wait and the living could not." She looked at him. "The dead have time, Captain. It's the one thing they definitely have. The living do not."

He stared back at her and then nodded slowly. "Does it hurt?"

Bella blinked at him. "I'm sorry?"

"When you call for them," he said. "Does it hurt?"

No one had ever asked and she'd never asked her mother and something about this man asking her just sent everything in her reeling.

"No," she said softly. "It doesn't hurt when they're here. It hurts when they leave."

He nodded and they stared out into the dark for a while.

"You're all obviously welcome to stay the night," Bella said after several minutes. "The roads are quite winding and not pleasant to manoeuvre at night."

"That's very generous of you," he said. "But I wouldn't want to impose."

She waved her hand. "This house was built for more than one person and, to be honest, could use the noise. Please, do stay."

He inclined his head. "Thank you. We'll leave at first light."

They sat in silence for a bit longer.

"Your parents, I believe Gandalf said they were no longer alive?" he asked.

"That's right," Bella said. "My mum died before the war. A nasty case of pneumonia that just settled in and wouldn't let her go. My father passed a year ago. His heart just gave out one day in the orchards."

"I'm very sorry," he said.

"Thank you," she replied. "And may I ask, are Fili and Kili related to you at all? There's a very striking resemblance."

"My nephews," he said and the corners of his mouth curved up. "They've joined me on this quest of sorts. Defying their mother's, my sister, wishes." He sighed. "But they've survived a war, they can survive this."

"Do you know, Gandalf hasn't exactly said why you need a medium?" she said. "Are you just airing out an old home?"

"Something like that," he said carefully. "I haven't…seen the home in several years. But I've heard stories and there's a very strong possibility that there will be several ghosts that will need to be, ah…"

"Sent on their way?" Bella offered.

"As you say," he said.

Bella hummed and sipped her tea, making a face when she realised it had cooled in the evening air.

You could go, a voice that sounded suspiciously like her mother said. Darling, things are changing here, and you don't want to see what those two are going to do to the nursery. You're only going to be upset and feel powerless. Remember, I was Belladonna Took before I became Belladonna Baggins, and we Tooks hate to be powerless. It makes us reckless.

Bella frowned.

Tonight was the first time I've ever done what you did, she thought. It could have been a fluke. Never to be repeated. And besides, what do I know about properly sending spirits on their way?

You know everything I know, darling, her mum's voice said. You read the same books, and you have the same abilities. Don't be so busy holding on to what you're going to lose that you miss the chance to live, Bella.

Bella sighed and shook her head. Even when she wasn't there, her mum made quite the argument.

"All right," she said turning to look at Thorin. "I'll help you." His eyes widened and she continued, "I mean, they're like the one Gandalf brought, right? Your ghosts? It's just an old house that needs to be cleared out, correct?"

"As far as I'm aware, yes," he said slowly.

"Well, then," she said. "I'll help you, if you're all right with a medium who is a bit rusty."

"You seemed to handle the one inside fairly well," he said. "Apart from the fainting."

"Yes, well, that's bound to stop after further practice," Bella said cheerfully. "And it sounds simple enough. It's not like you're headed to the Misty Mountains or someplace like that!"

She laughed but her laugh choked in her throat at the look on his face. He stared at her with an ever furrowing brow as his knuckles turned white from their tightening grip on his pipe.

"Ohhh, you are headed to the Misty Mountains," she said her eyebrows rising. "You're one of those Durins, aren't you? I knew I knew that profile. It's very distinctive."

"What do you know about the mountains and the Durins?" he asked, his voice harsh.

"Not a lot," she said quickly. "Only that it's an area that most mediums avoid. There are just...too many. Too many angry and sad spirits. Far more than there should be. So I've heard." She winced as his face hardened. "I'm not explaining this well. Come on, I'll show you."

She stood and held out her hand to him. He stared at her outstretched hand, and she froze. However, she'd already made the gesture, and she wasn't about to rescind it so she lifted her head and just smiled at him.

He took her hand, and she bit her lip at the sheer breadth of his hand around hers. Her hand practically disappeared inside of his, and it was so warm. Practically hot. She actually felt weak in the knees, and they just stared at each other for a moment.

It occurred to her that this was an extremely powerful man. He practically vibrated with strength and determination all encompassed inside of a body that had no trace of excess anything; no fat, no roundness, just pure muscle and sinew.

And it was utterly startling to Bella to realize that he was standing in her kitchen and holding her hand in his rather large one.

She watched as something passed behind his eyes as he looked at her, and she wondered what he saw in her.

But, then he blinked, and she blinked, and they came back to themselves, and Bella tugged on his hand.

"I have some books you may be interested in," she said. "They're just in the study."

He rose to his feet, and once again, the sheer amount of him overwhelmed Bella, and she had to take a step back.

She turned quickly and dropped his hand.

Bella walked towards the study and jumped when she heard Thorin call out, "Balin, join us."

She glanced behind her and saw that not only had Balin fallen into step behind Thorin, but Dwalin and the boys and Tauriel had as well. A surge of nervousness went through her, and she had to remind herself that she had once stood up in front of the entire village in an attempt to persuade them to start planting gardens if they had any hope at all for food and they had started the communal gardens the very next day.

If I can persuade Amos Proudfoot to plant potatoes instead of just drinking what comes from them, I can show these people a book, she thought.

She turned into the study and sighed. "How did I know you'd be in here?"

Gandalf looked up from a book he'd clearly plucked off her shelves. "Because you have a very fine library, Bella. There are some editions in here that I haven't seen in years. Your mother was quite the collector, it seems."

"Not Mum, actually," Bella said going to the shelf on mediums. "Dad did this. He wanted to understand Mum better."

"Sounds like a top fellow," Kili said with a glance at Thorin that Bella didn't miss.

"He was a very top fellow," Bella said chuckling. She scanned the titles and then pulled down a thick book with a worn black cover.

She opened it and scanned the table of contents, then sifted through the pages. She stopped and then handed the book to Thorin.

"'An Account of Erebor'," she said gently. "Several years back, a gentleman scholar went to Erebor to see if the tales coming from the village were true. He said they were."

"Tales?" Fili asked.

"Tales of ghosts that poured out of the ground," Bella said. She rolled her eyes. "But that's the romantic spin on things. Scholars are rarely even handed when it comes to describing ghosts."

"I believe I take offense at that, my dear," Gandalf said.

"He actually went into the house," Thorin said, his eyes scanning the text quickly.

"So he says," Bella said. She hesitated and then said, "It makes sense that there would be so many in one place. It was the site of a great tragedy."

Thorin glanced up at her and she fought the urge to take a step back. "And what do you know of the…incident?"

"Only what's written there and," she turned back to the shelf and pulled out another book, "this one details, um, 'incidents' throughout Great Britain. It's not very long, but there's an account of the collapse of the mine."

She handed the book to Thorin, who was still intently reading the first book. Balin took the second book from Bella with a smile.

"Thank you, lass," Balin said.

"I don't suppose any of you are old enough to have a first-hand account of the day, are you?" Bella asked chuckling weakly.

"You flatter us, lass," Balin said. "I was there. As were Dwalin and Thorin, but they were young things, then."

"We heard the stories from granddad," Fili said to her, coming to stand beside Balin to read over his shoulder. "A support beam gave way and trapped everyone inside."

"It didn't just give way," Thorin said not looking up from the book. "It was sabotage."

Bella raised her eyebrows and was very aware of the silence in the room. She glanced at Gandalf, but his eyes were firmly on Thorin.

"It was?" she asked as conversationally as she could.

From the look Thorin gave her under those expressive eyebrows of his, it didn't quite reach casual.

"It was," he said, his voice low.

Bella just nodded. "There's a photo of your grandfather in there. You have his likeness. I knew I'd seen that nose of yours before."

He merely arched one of those eyebrows and went back to reading, but Gandalf wasn't going to let his statement go.

"What makes you say it was sabotage?" he asked.

The air in the study seemed to hum with tension, and Bella felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand up as Thorin slowly raised his head to look at the professor.

"Because my grandfather may have been many things," he said quietly. "But he was not a fool and he did not employ fools. That mine was the finest one constructed in the entire country, and there is no way that a simple beam was the cause of the collapse. Something made it collapse. Someone made it collapse."

"Who?" Bella breathed, hypnotised by the cadence of Thorin's voice.

He looked at her and seemed to deflate. He shook his head and looked away. "I don't know. I was just a boy when it happened." He looked down at the book and Bella wondered if he was looking at the page with his grandfather's picture. "Four hundred men died that day. Another eighty died in the weeks afterwards. My grandfather lost everything. His land, his house, his good name, and eventually his mind." He scowled. "There was talk that it was his competitors in the region. The Greenwoods. But nothing could be proven, and it looked like an accident, like faulty construction and no one wanted to look further."

"No one wanted to go near the place," Balin said shaking his head. "It was cursed, they said."

"Cursed," Thorin repeated, his knuckles white on the spine of the book. "Our family never recovered after that." He looked at Bella. "We moved to London, attempted anonymity. And it worked. But we were penniless. I mean to get it all back."

Bella stared at him and swallowed. "I see."

"What is your interest in all of this, professor?" Thorin asked eyeing Gandalf.

"Purely academic," Gandalf said lightly.

Bella rolled her eyes. "Why do I doubt that?"

"Very well," Gandalf said. He stood by the hearth and repacked his pipe. "We just went through the worst war this planet has ever seen. Millions of souls were lost. Millions." He looked at the company. "Such a number. A number that even I have trouble comprehending, but there you have it." He looked at the empty hearth. "We're receiving reports of pockets of ghosts across Europe and Russia. Dense pockets that just stand there, as though they're waiting for something."

He trailed off and Bella suddenly understood. "You want to send them home," she breathed. "En masse, as it were. Am I correct?"

"You are," he said looking over at her and smiling sadly. "I had hoped to see evidence on this quest of what can be done to a group of ghosts. To see if there was something I could relate to others involved. If there was even a way to refine the process and automate it."

Bella shook her head. "No. No. Gandalf, you want to turn a medium into some kind of industrial vacuum? Mechanize what we do? I'm sorry, but I don't think it works that way."

"We?" he repeated lightly.

"Oh, leave it to you to ignore the important bits," she said glaring. "They. Them, whatever. Gandalf, it can't be done."

"It's quite the undertaking," Balin added. "Just one of those wore Miss Baggins out. What would a whole fleet of them do?"

"That is what I intend to find out," Gandalf said. He looked around the room. "These souls cannot be left on this mortal plane to simply linger."

"It's a noble thought," Thorin said, closing the book. "But it isn't our quest, Gandalf."

"No, no," Gandalf said quickly. "Yours is to find out what happened to your home and reclaim it." He inclined his head. "Miss Baggins and I will be your help."

"I can't go," Bella said quietly.

The room turned quiet once more and she felt Thorin's gaze like a heavy blanket settle on her.

"You said you would help," he said his voice low.

"I thought you meant clearing out an old home with a few wispy spirits lurking about," Bella said looking up at him. "Not to go where the world ends! Do you have any idea how dangerous this region is purported to be? Not just for mediums, for everyone!"

"What do you mean, lass," Balin asked, "when you say 'for everyone'?"

"Too many spirits in one place have a tendency to suck the energy right out of the air," she said. She frowned. "You know that moment right after a blast? Where everything is sort of quiet and numb, before the world comes to? Where there's this, this…lack? That's what happens when too many ghost congregate. Ghosts thrive on life, oddly enough. And if they're hungry?" She shook her head. "Too many can send anyone mad. Your energy and your life just gets taken away."

Everyone in the room stared at her. She fought the urge to fidget with her dress and simply took a deep breath and started again.

"There is a path behind a medium's eyes," Bella explained. "Professor Brown saw the path in my eyes and was able to follow it down and well, out." She stared at the book in Thorin's hands. "Most ghosts won't go where they aren't invited or if there isn't a clear path through, but if there are too many and if they died too painfully or in panic, they'll look for any way out." She looked up into Thorin's eyes and said, "They'll enter a mind but they won't get out. They'll stay and drive the living person mad. They call it ghost sickness." She shrugged. "I've never seen it. Neither did Mum. Only read the accounts."

"I have," Gandalf said staring at something only he could see.

"I believe I have, too," Balin said.

Thorin looked away from Bella and back down at the print of his grandfather and father.

She looked at Thorin. "Don't do this. Please. Don't go there."

"I have to," he said. "It's my home and I will not let it fester and fade."

"Have you not been listening to me?" Bella asked. "It's dangerous!"

"According to what? Your books?" he asked, arching an eyebrow and Bella bristled a little at the dismissive tone of his voice. "Forgive me, madam, but I will not let the unsubstantiated writings of members of a less than scientific profession sway me from my purpose."

"Oh, I say," Gandalf said finally speaking up. "Let's not insult one another, Captain. You have said your piece and Miss Baggins has said hers. You were aware of the dangers of this journey, and now you have more information of what types of troubles await you. Having her along will only help you further."

"I can't go," Bella repeated softly.

Gandalf looked at her and frowned. "My dear."

"No, Gandalf," she said shaking her head. She looked at the captain. "I'm very sorry, but I can't go. Not there. I know that I can't stop you from going, although I wish I could, but I can't go. I'm not strong enough, and I'd only be a burden to you."

Thorin stared at her and then nodded. "Very well. I…appreciate your honesty and your information. Thank you for your…hospitality." Then he turned away from her and said to his company, "We leave at first light. Get some rest now."

Without another look in Bella's direction, he thrust the book back into her hands and left the study. Dwalin followed him as did Balin after gently handing the book back to Bella.

Inexplicably feeling bereft and rather small, Bella turned to put the books back on her shelf. They felt heavy and cold in her hands where they once felt warm and filled with adventures. She knew much better now. She turned to go to her bedroom. She caught the eye of Tauriel, who nodded and gave her a small smile, then Fili and Kili who also nodded at her.

She brushed past Gandalf on the way out of the room and he said, "You are strong enough for this, Bella."

"I'm not. I'm sorry, Gandalf," she said quickly walking past down the hall to her room.

She quietly closed the door and leaned against it. With her hands pressed to her face she inhaled shakily. Sending one spirit back was one thing, but several? A dozen? More? She'd go mad. No one had ever done it, and certainly little Bella Baggins of the Shire was the last person to even attempt it.

She dropped her hands and went to sit by her still open window, inhaling the verbena.

Eventually, she heard the rumblings of the captain and Balin just outside.

"It's a shame we won't have our medium with us," Balin said.

"Better that she doesn't come than she does come and be utterly useless," Thorin said.

"I don't know, lad," Balin said. "Better to have some help than none at all."

"We can do this ourselves," Thorin said. "No one has heard from the region in years. It may all just be rumour and myth by this point."

"And if it's not?" Balin asked.

There was a pause, then Thorin said, "I will not leave my family home to rot. Not when it can be proven to rightfully belong to me. We've done without all our lives only to survive a war of unspeakable loss and violence. I will not have the future generations of my family live the way we did. Constantly moving, living in rooms too small to accommodate one person let alone a family." He sighed. "We've proven ourselves on the battlefield, Balin. We will prove ourselves fighting for our home."

"Still would feel better having a medium on our side," Balin said quietly.

"She's made her choice," Captain Durin said, and the tone of his voice sent chills down Bella's spine and her hands trembled.

The men headed back inside, and Bella was left sitting by her open window deep in thought, with the scent of verbena her only company.