Disclaimer: I don't own it, as I'm sure everyone knows.

Chapter 27: Painkillers

Love? What is it? Most natural painkiller.

—William S. Burroughs

When the portal spat Gemma back out in Lake-town, she nearly went careening into the water. She'd appeared on the very edge of a dock, and it was only her quick reflexes that stopped her from taking an unwelcome dip, allowing her to grab onto a post and swing back around onto the dock. She sat down hard on the dock, and took a few minutes to suck in some deep breaths. Portal travel was truly awful; it made her stomach feel like it had been flipped inside out. Gemma was somewhat glad that, in all likelihood, that would be the last time she had to experience it.

Her bag was all in order, thankfully, and the pill bottle was still safely zipped into her coat pocket. The wind whistled, blowing cold air off the lake, and Gemma was glad that she'd had the forethought to wear her winter coat. While it had still been early fall in her world, it was now winter in Middle Earth, and any day now the frost would descend upon the lake. This cold wind was a relief, just as the darkness of the night was; she hoped it meant that no time had passed here since she'd left. She hoped it was the same night she'd left. She prayed that she could be so lucky.

Gemma rose from the ground and began to jog towards the inn. She passed no one in the streets, but that was to be expected, as it was late at night, and, if it was still the night of the feast, the townsfolk would be wasted enough to stay inside.

Her hopes were dashed when she reached the old inn at which the Company had stayed the night. The door was locked, the windows dark. It looked entirely empty. Gemma banged on the door. No answer. She tried again, harder, until finally it opened to reveal a very tired looking woman in her night clothes. Gemma recognized her as one of the few maids that had been dispatched to run the inn during their stay.

"Inn's closed. Sod off," she grumbled, clearly not happy about being woken.

"Where are the dwarves?" Gemma asked desperately, paying no mind to the woman's mood. It was probably a good thing that the maid was so tired, as she surely would have questioned Gemma's strange attire and luggage were she more coherent.

"Don't you know? They left for the mountain this morn."

That was not what Gemma wanted to hear. Cursing, she turned away from the woman, fully prepared to run all the way to the mountain if need be. By now, the last light of Durin's day would have come and gone, meaning that, if all went according to plan, the Company was already inside Erebor.

She had not wanted to miss that. She had only been gone a few hours, had planned to return later that night, in time to sneak back to Thorin's room. Oh God, what had Thorin thought? What had they all thought of her? I'll tell you what, she thought to herself bitterly, they thought you'd abandoned them in the final hour. They thought you were a coward, running away to escape your fears without even saying goodbye. And in a way they wouldn't have been wrong. How could she have done this to them, to him, especially after the night they'd shared? Oh God, right after… Gemma felt nauseous. And her trip was probably all for naught; Kili was probably dead or beyond saving by now. Damn that stupid portal and it's time twisting. Damn it, damn it all.

"Er, Miss? I did hear that a couple o' them dwarfs stayed behind. One was sick or somethin'," the maid said, catching Gemma's attention once more. The woman rubbed her eyes tiredly, but seemed to be a little less hostile now that she was a little more awake. "My neighbour said she heard from Guilford the fisher that they're over at the home of Mister Bard. 'Course, that could just be a rumour. Old Guilford isn't the most reliable source, like ta stir up gossip about all sorts o' things."

Gemma didn't stick around to hear exactly what sort of things Guilford the fisherman gossiped about. Throwing a quick "Thanks!" over her shoulder, she took off running. Some of the dwarves were still here, and, she prayed, Kili was still alive. Part of her knew that it was all still rather hopeless; her painkillers weren't a cure, and if Oin couldn't do anything even with the meds in effect, then Kili would still die. But she couldn't just do nothing. She just had to hope that the painkillers helped; otherwise her departure would have been for nothing.

The silence blanketing the town now felt eerie. Gemma had this sick feeling in her stomach, like the aftermath of the portal still remained. Her bag bashed against her side as she ran, but she took no notice. Finally she reached the house of the bargeman. She clambered up the steps and pounded on the door continuously until it was finally opened by a bewildered looking Sigrid. Gemma, spotting the top of Bofur's hat over the girl's shoulder, pushed past her without a word, leaving the poor girl looking even more confused.

"Gemma?" Bofur caught sight of her first. "Lass… we thought…"

Gemma silenced him with a wave of her hand. "Where's Kili?" she demanded, deadly serious. Bofur led her to the back of the house, where Kili lay on a bed. Oin was standing over him, a worried Fili at the old dwarf's shoulder, attempting to hold Kili down as he convulsed in pain.

"Oin!" Gemma called, and he and Fili turned around, surprised. Gemma tossed her bags to the side and pulled the pill bottle from her jacket. "I brought him something to get rid of the pain. Then you can treat him, right?" She said it slowly and loudly, so that even the half-deaf dwarf couldn't mistake her words.

"Lass… Thorin said… we all thought…"

"I know, I know. You all thought I abandoned you. I didn't, I went back for these, so we could save Kili. We don't have time to talk about this! Can you save him or not?"

Oin glanced at Kili, frowning. "The poison has spread too far. I don't think…"

"Try," Gemma commanded in such a cool tone that it would be impossible to refuse. Oin nodded after a second. Gemma came forward and shook two pills out of the bottle. She grabbed Kili's head and forced his mouth open, popping in the pills and ensuring that he swallowed them. "It'll take a little bit for them to take effect," she said to Oin.

"Alright, yes… Bofur! Remember what Mister Bard said about the pigs eating kingsfoil? Go find me some, lad." The dwarf nodded and took off. Oin began grabbing things off the bedside table; half-finished mixtures of herbs and other ingredients that filled the room with strong smells. Fili just stood there, staring at his brother. Knowing that neither of them could do anything more, Gemma tugged him from the room. He looked lost, his eyes out of focus.

"Fili, Oin is going to do everything he can, and the painkillers I gave Kili will help," Gemma said once they were out in the kitchen. Sigrid padded over to them and offered them both some tea, apparently having recovered from her earlier shock. Gemma assumed that Tilda and Bain were asleep. She thanked the girl, accepting the mugs, and firmly told Fili, "Drink your tea." The young dwarf grasped the warm mug in his hands but did not take a sip.

"Did you really go back to your world to help Kili?" he asked in a hoarse voice.

"Of course. You guys are like my family. When I came back from the feast and saw him in such pain… well, I couldn't just stand by and watch." She sipped her tea.

"Uncle said you left us. He said you were scared away by some accident during the feast and you disappeared. We didn't want to believe it, but you were gone so long. Thorin, he was… devastated."

Gemma set down her mug and rubbed her forehead wearily. "Your uncle says a lot of things, but in this case he's not wrong. I… wasn't in a good frame of mind when I returned and found Kili like that. I wasn't thinking straight. Maybe I wouldn't have left if I had been, but if I can help save Kili, then I'm glad I went. I didn't think I'd be gone so long, I planned to come back that night but I suppose magical portals are very reliable." She looked Fili square in the eye and said, with all the sincerity she could muster, "It was always my intention to return to Middle Earth."

"But how did you? Return, I mean. You had the stone to keep you there, how did you get back?"

Gemma unzipped her coat and pulled back the collar to reveal her bare neck. "The moonstone's gone. I crushed it."

Fili looked up at her sharply, and she knew that he grasped the significance of what she had done. He stood and pulled her up from her seat, then wrapped her in a crushing hug, which she returned. Fili's shoulders shook, and Gemma realized that he was crying. She embraced him even tighter, tucking his head under her chin and rubbing his back. He was terrified, and with good reason; Fili and Kili were inseparable, and if Kili were to die, Fili would be destroyed. "Shh," she soothed as she rubbed his back, "everything will be alright sweetheart." Gemma supposed that it was a little odd to call him that, as he was technically older than her by several decades, but she'd learned that dwarf years were quite different from human years, and had come to realize that the dwarf brothers were really only in their late teens by human standards. Gemma had become something of a mother hen over the course of her travels with the company, which surprised her a little bit. She'd never thought she had the capacity for that nurturing instinct.

Mac had been right when he said she was different, but it wasn't just the F.B.I that had changed her; Middle Earth had caused changes. In some ways she had changed for the worse, becoming more ruthless, more warrior-like, and more on edge. Her time here had worsened her illness, increased her stress. Yet her newfound family and motherly instincts were one of several ways she had changed for the better, and Gemma couldn't help but think that it was worth it.

Their little moment of peace was broken by a great rumbling, almost like an earthquake. "What was that?" Gemma asked Fili.

"Rumbles keep coming from the mountain. They started a few hours ago. They others would have been inside by then, if all went well. Master Bard was convinced that it was the sound of the dragon awakening when we heard the first one." Fili replied solemnly, wiping his eyes. Gemma felt horror rising in her chest.

"Where is Bard," she asked, realizing for the first time that the man was not there. It only made her more panicked; if the dragon had awakened, Bard seemed to be the only one who knew how to kill it. He'd shown her that big black arrow, which she could only assume was the same as the black arrows the dwarves had described in their legend.

"He left after we heard the first rumbling." Fili replied.

"Where? We need to find him." Gemma looked around the house for Sigrid, hoping the girl knew where her father went. She didn't find her, but from outside she heard the young woman scream. Gemma sprinted to the door, with Fili on her heels, arriving just in time to see an orc lunge at Sigrid. Without thinking, Gemma stepped between, grabbing the orc's raised sword arm with both hands. The creature's jagged blade was dangerously close to her face, and for a couple of seconds they were locked in a battle of sheer strength. Gemma won by kneeing the orc in its gut several times in rapid succession, then pushing it over the railing and into the canal below. "Back inside!" she ordered, and Fili and Sigrid did not hesitate to obey.

The wooden doors of the house did little to hold back the onslaught of orcs which soon began pouring in from at least three different entrances, one being straight through the roof. Gemma fought with her only her fists, trying to work her way to the back of the house, where she'd left her bag full of weapons with Kili and Oin. Sigrid had taken up a frying pan as a weapon, but it did little good, and soon Fili was protecting the girl and her siblings, who had just awoken from the noise, with a chair.

Not for the first time, Gemma wondered how the orcs were tracking them. She thought back to months ago, when they'd first been attacked outside Rivendell. How had the orcs found them? Gemma was beginning to think that more was at work than a simple quest to reclaim a mountain; that something sinister was afoot. She hoped she was wrong.

Gemma found herself at Kili's bedside, the dwarf not looking much better despite Oin's efforts. Thankfully the painkillers seemed to have kicked in, so he was no longer convulsing and screaming. Just as Gemma grabbed her duffel bag, two more orcs bust through the ceiling. Gemma swung her bag at the closest, hitting it in the head. There was a solid crack and the creature went down, the butt of the rifle inside the bag having connected square with its skull. Gemma was quick enough to retrieve her brass knuckled trench knife from the bag, slipping her hand into the grip and whirling around in time to dodge the second orc's blade, and returning the attack with a stab to the stomach followed by a box to the face. The brass knuckles connected with a thud, and the orc was done for. Gemma tucked the knife in her belt and grabbed out her Sig.

She leapt back out into the kitchen and worked her way to the table, which Tilda and Sigrid were hiding under. Bain was stuck in a corner, but Bofur was covering him. The orcs continued to pour in from all directions, too fast to understand what was happening. Gemma was suddenly aware of a stinging pain and looked down to see that her left shoulder had been nicked by a blade and was sluggishly bleeding. She looked back up just in time to swat away another sword, this one aimed at her neck. In doing so, she caught a gleam of red and gold from the doorway, and spun around to see it was the blonde and ginger elves from Mirkwood: Prince Legolas and that one that Kili was sweet on. The two jumped into the fray and Gemma went back to dealing with the orc that had cut her. She couldn't get a good shot with the creature moving all over the place as it was, so she grabbed it by the front of its crude leather armour and dragged it towards her, pressing her gun to its temple and pulling the trigger before the orc could even attempt to retaliate.

"I'm quite thankful that I did not suffer the same fate back it Mirkwood," Legolas said, suddenly at her side.

"Yeah, sorry about that, I just had somewhere important to be. No hard feelings?" She replied as she elbowed an orc in the face.

"I suppose not," Legolas shrugged, equally nonchalant as he stabbed the same orc through the stomach. He pushed another creature out the door and over the porch, where it crashed into a boat and then into the water, propelling a second orc who had been sitting in this boat up into the air. The elf beheaded it with his twin blades, and the severed head let out a last gruesome hiss before joining its body in the freezing waters below.

Words in Black Speech were shouted from below and the orcs began to retreat. "Tauriel, come," Legolas called and took off after the creatures. Tauriel stood in the doorway but hesitated when she heard a shout from within.

"Kili!" Gemma said, overcome with fear as she remembered the dying dwarf. She pushed past Tauriel to get to where he lay on the floor of the kitchen, having moved at some point during the scuffle. He was groaning, his head lolling to the side, but the medication was in effect, as his eyes fluttered and his groans grew softer. Sigrid came out from underneath the kitchen table and cleared it off, gesturing for them to lift Kili onto it. "Is Bofur back yet?" Gemma asked desperately.

"Right here lass," the dwarf in question said from the doorway, seemingly out of breath. "I think I found that... whatchamacallit that Oin wanted."

"Athelas," Tauriel breathed from the doorway. Gemma was surprised that she was still there. The elf maiden took the herb from Bofur's hands and stroked it almost reverently.

"Er, what're you doing?" Bofur asked.

Tauriel looked up at Gemma and smiled. "I'm going to save him."

"Is this even going to work?"

"Shh lass," Oin said to Gemma as they watched Tauriel work. "I may not like elves, but as a healer I have a high respect for their practice in medicine. It is an honour to observe."

"Yes, but will it work? I don't put much stock in magic. I prefer good old drugs."

"It should, with any luck. Now tell me, what were those things you gave Kili? He seems to not be feeling a thing, it is quite incredible."

"Painkillers, and strong ones at that. I used to need them to sleep at night after I was once shot in the leg. He'll be completely out of it for a while."

Kili began murmuring nonsensical things to Tauriel as she worked, and Gemma cracked a smile. Even in a drug-induced stupor, Kili was trying to charm the girl. "Of course," she said to Oin, "that means he'll be saying some pretty strange things. Perhaps we should leave, save him the embarrassment."

"I think that's a very good reason to stay, actually," Fili piped up, and Bofur laughed. Gemma was glad to see the young dwarf looked a little more hopeful now, but she dragged them all into the living area anyway.

Suddenly as the first, a second rumble came from the mountain, and Gemma was reminded of another priority. "Bain," she called to the boy, who was huddled near the hearth with his sisters, "where is your father?"

"He was captured! Lady Gemma, you must find him. The dragon stirs!"

"I know Bain. Stay here, look after your sisters. I will find him." Gemma grabbed her bag of weapons, still sitting on the floor of the nearby bedroom. She threw on her winter coat, put the grenade belt around her waist, tucked her knife in the belt and attached a few extra ammo clips for her Sig, which was holstered at her side. "Bofur, I have a very bad feeling about all of this. If something goes wrong, protect the children and get everyone out of here. And take my bag." The dwarf nodded seriously.

Call it women's intuition, or whatever you want; Gemma's gut knew that those rumbles meant something horrible was about to occur. As she ran along the wooden docks twisting along the canals once more, she felt as if she were about to go to war. Maybe that was why she had brought all these weapons, hell, maybe it was why she was here in Middle Earth in the first place; maybe fate had something planned for her. Ha, listen to me, she thought. Fate. I sound like an elf!

The sound of swords clashing brought Gemma up short. Turning down an alley, she found Legolas locked in a duel with a particularly large orc, plus several others that were trying to gang up and overpower him. Now that just wasn't fair. Gemma drew her knife, which had quickly become her new favourite thing, and adjusted its brass knuckles in place. She tried to sneak closer, but apparently those massive elf ears were quite adept, and she suddenly found herself ducking away from a gleaming elvish blade thrust her way. When the elf on the opposite end of the sword realized that she was not, in fact, an orc, he let out a sigh of relief, and then skewered an orc behind him without so much as glancing back. Show off.

"We really must stop meeting like this. One of us is always at the end of a weapon," she jested as she punched an orc in the nose with her brass knuckles; it was sent reeling back into a second orc. Actually, Gemma mused as she watched both orcs fall into the canal, she really needed to stop meeting all handsome men like that; first Thorin, then Legolas, the Bard, and then Legolas again. It was not really the best impression, though it certainly seemed to have worked for her and Thorin. Well, she frowned, at least for a little while.

"I agree," Legolas said, but was distracted from saying more as the massive white orc that had been attacking him earlier rode off towards the Lake-town Bridge on its warg. Legolas made to pursue, but Gemma grabbed his arm.

"Let them go, there are more important things at hand. We need to find Bard the bargeman. Something terrible is about to happen." Gemma felt more certain than ever now.

And she was more correct than she could have known. Another rumble shook the ground and then there was an ear splitting roar from the heavens. Looking to the sky, her fears were vindicated, for Smaug the Terrible rose above the mountain in a halo of golden light. And he was headed their way.

AN:

Dun dun dun. I now understand why authors love to write cliffhangers. They're just so fun! Things are getting serious now, and I'm running out of chapters to post. I've got to get down to writing quickly, or last week's late post will be nothing compared to the absence I'll have totake!

As always, I'd love to hear what you think. Thanks to everyone who reviewed last chapter even though it was late. You are all wonderful people and I adore you.

I'm trying to get back on track after my slipup last week, so next weekend will definitely have an update. Especially because I have now school on Thursday and Friday due to my two-day Regionals track meet (Eep! I'm nervous), plus no school on the following Monday due to Victoria Day. Five day weekend? Yes please.