Evie watched as her husband stared vacantly down at his plate of food, a spoon poised in his hand although he had no intention of using it. The hobbit sighed, her teeth catching the edge of her lower lip as she watched him, as still and silent as he had ever been, his eyes directed forward and his thoughts going nowhere.

It had been more than two weeks since Dis had announced her pregnancy and the rulers had renewed their efforts to discover a way to end the drought, and yet no solution had been found. Every idea proved hopeless, every attempt in vain. They had managed to secure a small supply from the Shire and the waterways there, but even those favorite rivers were beginning to dry up and there was only so much the Shirefolk could spare, even for their greatest trade partners. There was the Lhûn and the Forlond, which were not so very far away from the Blue Mountains, yet they provided only so much water and their reserves were failing as well. Both rivers extended all the way to the sea, which was undrinkable. What water the dwarves could collect from these great streams was hard to store due to the heat, and they had no way of maintaining it within the mountain's depths. Durin's Folk were even losing their economy, for the forges could not be maintained with so little water to control their fires. Times were getting desperate, and the leaders had to think of something soon.

The king and queen were dining together privately, just the two of them at a small table. They had not held many large dinners lately, and had preferred to keep to themselves as they tried to find a resolution to their grave dilemma. But what could be done?

"Please try to eat something…"

Evie begged him, her voice as soft as she could make it. Her coaxing was lost on her beleaguered husband, who replied only by dragging his spoon through his stew without lifting even a sip for consumption. The hobbit's brow furrowed in frustration, but she knew Thorin and if he was in a mood there was little but a flood which could break him of it, particularly during these dismal times. The blonde tried a little of her own food, as if to demonstrate for him the act of eating. She was not so very hungry either, which for one of her race was a sign of dire straits indeed. It was hard to eat when so much was going on (or not going on, truly), but she knew that she would not have the strength to do anything at all if she did not sustain herself. She also knew that Thorin's mood would only worsen if he starved himself.

"Please, my love, if you just –"

Evie's words were lost to the crashing sound of shattering porcelain as the king scooped up his bowl with one mighty hand and sent it hurling at the stone wall beside him. It split into dozens of pieces, which rained artlessly down across the floor. Evie gasped, covering her mouth with trembling fingers and setting her wide grey eyes on the dwarf sitting before her.

"What am I to do, Evangeline? If you know, tell me! Tell me what it is I am supposed to do to spare my people from the disaster to come?! We are running out of water. What few crops we have are dry and withered, our drinking supply is short, and we will have no hope come this winter unless it rains soon and hard. Nothing I do makes any difference. So tell me, if you have all the answers, what it is I should do."

His words were venom, and the sting of them struck her. Evie swallowed, and the act was painful in her parched throat. She stood slowly, shakily, and stepped towards the broken pieces of the bowl and the spilled soup. The queen had to lean on the table for a moment to stop herself from stumbling, but after a shallow breath she was able to bend down and start collecting the shards of china in her cloth napkin.

Thorin was a very decisive, very temperamental dwarf, but he was rarely violent. He had scared her terribly, and the hobbit's small heart beat frantically in her chest as her fingers slipped over the slick pieces of dinnerware she tried to pick up. She could feel tears prickling at the back of her eyes and she stubbornly refused to let them gather, forcing herself to focus on drawing her breath in and out and not on the dwarf who had risen from his chair and was now standing above her. She could feel his presence looming over her like a storm cloud, but it was no answer to their prayers. Her every thought had been on the rain and its desired coming, and yet now her mind was empty. Shell shocked, Evie continued to scoop up the remains of their dinnerware, completely unresponsive to the way the rough edges pricked her fingers until they bled.

Thorin knelt beside her, taking her hands in his and removing them from her unsafe work. He kissed the backs of her fingers before wrapping them up in his own napkin to try and stop the bleeding.

"Evie, I am so sorry…"

He whispered, his voice soft and gentle when it had been cruel only a moment before. She could not look at him, could not bear to meet his eyes…

"Your highness, is there – oh goodness!"

One of their attendants had entered the room upon hearing the commotion, but Thorin turned and the look he gave her was enough to send her away, even without the following verbal command.

"Leave us!"

The female dwarf hesitated for a moment, her gaze scraping across the scene laid out before her, but she could not disobey her king. Her eyes called out to Evie before she turned away, but the hobbit's gaze was still trained on the mess spread out at her knees. In a moment they were alone again, and Thorin's voice was quiet once more.

"I have never felt so powerless in my entire life… I want to be strong – for you, for our people, and yet I have never been weaker. Everyone is looking to me for an answer I do not have, and I cannot simply hide from their questions. What is a king if he cannot protect and provide for his people?"

His grip was tight on her fingertips, stopping up their bleeding and demonstrating the emotion behind his words. Evie sniffed in a deep breath, steeling her heart as she chanced a glance up at her husband's face. The pain caught in his eyes, the torture sunken into every wrinkle of his expression, the pleading way his brow furrowed for her… She sighed, leaning into him and resting her flushed cheek against his shoulder.

"We have always known that this life would not be easy…" She recognized, closing her eyes and drinking in the familiar, comforting smell of Thorin's hair as she tried to relax despite the impact of his outburst. Sometimes she had to remind herself that he was just a dwarf, with the same beating heart and strained mind as any other. Even as his wife she could fall into the easy amazement so many felt towards him, that he would always find them an answer and that he could never do wrong. Thorin Oakenshield, who had brought them so much happiness…

"Everything has been good for us here… It will be good again. We will make it so." She felt him tense against her, his hands constricting even more around hers. "Somehow we will find a way.."

"I know how."

The certainty in his voice startled her, but the hobbit sat up and looked at him, her grey eyes searching his blue ones, which were directed at the ruined bowl below. She followed his gaze to a larger piece which had still maintained its curve and was covered by a second which rested flatly on top of it. Between the two, a small amount of soup had been trapped.

"We need to build more tunnels. If we adapt the way we store water for the forges, we could build our own reservoir within the mountain and use the strength of the forge to push the water where it needs to go. We used to have something similar in Erebor, but I did not think of how it might work here until now. It would be difficult and it would take some time, but then we could have a way to preserve the water we do have and keep it cool. If Durin smiles upon us we may even find a well within the mountain if we go deep enough…"

There was a spark in Thorin's expression which Evie had not seen in some time, and it ignited her own internal flame.

"If we developed a system of caves and tunnels…" Thorin trailed off, completely submersed in his flowing ideas. The dwarf looked at her, grinned for the first time in months, and kissed the top of her hands with breathless excitement and thankful tenderness. "I have to go and call a council meeting, we must begin at once – please do not trifle with that, I will send someone to clean it up."

He paused, and Evie thought the fire in his eyes might burn right through her.

"I love you," he told her, kissing her cheek and springing to his feet. The king left the room in a few long, eager strides, and Evie's hands fell to her lap as she stared at the open door in dull astonishment.

It seemed that even after twenty seven years of marriage, Thorin Oakenshield could still surprise her.

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Author's Note: A warm and grateful hello to everyone who is still reading! I know it's been a long time since my last update, and I apologize to you for that. Things have been very busy for me lately and I didn't want to post anything until I felt it was truly ready… I should have things moving along a lot more quickly now, however, so hopefully if you are still interested in where Evie and Thorin's lives will take them, you will not be disappointed! Your comments are always appreciated, and I can't tell you how much it means to me that you're still reading after all this time – thank you so much and hopefully you will enjoy the rest of this crazy adventure! xoxo!