Alright everyone, here it is, the last chapter...happiness and sadness all rolled into one.
I hope you enjoy!
The veil. Ali didn't bother opening her eyes. She was too tired. But she knew where she was, if it wasn't the caressing warmth that flowed around her skin like water, it was the certain gentle peace that filled her. She hung suspended in the gentle embrace, curled in on herself, finally resting.
A deep vibrating sound echoed around her. It didn't form words, not in the sense that Ali was used to, but she understood nonetheless. You did good. The veil trembled around her, letting her know without disturbing her rest. You deserve this rest. Ali smiled lightly and sighed. She needed time, to sleep, to heal, to think about what she really wanted to do now. Wake when you are ready to start a new journey. Wake when you are ready to live your life once again.
Four years had passed. Thorin sat in Ali's tomb, much like he did every morning before breakfast. It wasn't as grand as he'd wanted it to be, but he knew it would suit her. A simple marble coffin in the center of a round room. He'd built it so the light would stream in through a small window, reflecting off the vibrant surfaces. She'd want light in her life, as she'd brought so much into his.
Thorin ran his hand along the smooth surface of the coffin lid. Someone had brought flowers. Most likely Bilbo, he'd been here on his yearly visit this past week and hadn't left till just yesterday. Ali would love these flowers, nothing grand, just small tightly interwoven blossoms.
Not a day passed that he didn't think of her. He'd grown accustomed to the deep hollow beat of his heart. It reminded him of his promise to her. Thorin smiled lightly and watched the sunbeam dance on the white stone. If she were here, she'd be proud of him, of that he was sure.
Slowly, ever so slowly Ali opened her eyes. Around her the veil shimmered in a dark ethereal sort of way. Below her feet two worlds rotated around each other, wavering as if she were watching them through the Aurora. They were both her worlds. One from birth, and one from death.
There were others though. Ali hovered placidly, watching farther off worlds shimmer in and out of view. For now she didn't need them, she decided. Ali turned her attention back to the two at her feet, each pulling into itself. Like she was a satellite zooming down onto the exact place she'd last seen.
In one, she still lay, collecting snow, on a park bench. She'd gotten a rather impressive blanket going now. Ali smiled at her big yellow jacket. The one she knew Thorin hated.
In the other, her vision flew through Dale. Rebuilt. People walked through the market, all smiles, it was summer now. Down through the halls of Erebor, teeming with life, dwarf, elf, and man intermingling. Into a white room, bright even though it was underground. A simple coffin adorned the room, she didn't need to be a genius to guess whose it was.
"It's a difficult decision." Galadriel shimmered into Ali's peripheral, but she couldn't take her eyes off the two scenes.
"If I go home to Earth, then I can find my dad." Ali watched herself collecting snow. "I'm not the same person I was before, I'm stronger now."
"It's expected that you'd have questions for him." Galadriel spoke, her voice as soft as the veil.
"If I go back to Middle-Earth, then I can be with Thorin." Ali watched the light twinkle off the white stone. In all reality she wasn't sure she was ready to jump back into either of those situations.
"There's more here than just those two options." Galadriel waved her arm gracefully, worlds began sweeping under them, passing faster and faster. "If you return home, you will begin your mortal life again, uninterrupted as we promised in the beginning, but you will sacrifice the good you could do elsewhere."
"Why?" Ali asked, "why can't I return home and leave again?" It hadn't been a prominent question for her so far, but it had lingered somewhere in the back of her mind.
"Every journey must come to an end," Galadriel lowered her arm and the spinning planets slowed back to a halt. "When you can no longer keep traveling, when your body becomes too weary from experience, this is the place you will want to return to. So you can feel the one thing you can't in the veil, to grow old with the ones you love."
Ali nodded, it made a bit of sense. Hesitantly she glanced over to Galadriel, someone who had chosen not to fully enter the veil. "Why didn't you stay here?"
"I'm already living an unending life," Galadriel didn't take her eyes off the two possibilities that manifested below them, but there seemed to be an edge of something close to sadness in her voice. "If one day I chose to return to Middle-Earth, then I still wouldn't know true peace. Time itself, is a complicated master of us all. We'd like to think it's equal for all, but it's not. It flows faster for some, slower in some worlds, and unending for others. If you continue to travel this path you'll find how difficult time is to comprehend. For example, only minutes have passed for you in your original home, yet years have elapsed back on Middle-Earth.
It hadn't occurred to Ali to think about what it would be like to live forever. To watch everyone around her slowly age and leave her alone. At least she was given an option, unlike the elves. Was it worth it? Could she handle that sort of commitment?
"I know what I want to do," Ali whispered, watching her white room gleam. "But I'm hoping we can work out something slightly different."
"What did you have in mind?"
"I want to go back to where it all began."
Thorin's heart raced as he paced Bilbo's living room. Ali was going to be here any moment. How long had it been? Five years, three months, and twelve days. Of course he knew how long it had been.
"Calm down," Bilbo hummed, turning the page of an old book. He had been reading that book the entire time Thorin was here, puffing away on his little pipe. Thorin wiped his sweaty palms on his jacket and sat down.
"I am calm," Thorin stood and started his pacing again. "What time did you say she would be back?" Thorin sat down and stared at Bilbo.
Bilbo pulled a lazy breath in through his pipe and let the smoke lazily escape his lips. Yet again he slowly turned the page.
"Did you hear me?" Thorin asked, his heart hammering in his chest.
"I'm sorry, what?" Bilbo looked up and tilted his head.
"Aaa, this is no good, I shouldn't be here." Thorin stood up and paced again. Finally Bilbo closed his book and placed it on the small table beside him.
"I think you're over reacting, don't you?" Bilbo tapped out his pipe, examining it closely to make sure it was truly empty. "Ali's been helping out down at the Shaklebottom Orchard. Sometimes they delay her a little with small talk, nothing unusual."
"I shouldn't have come, I should not have come. I could just go now." Thorin walked to the entrance then walked back, his hands on top of his head. Five years, three months, and twelve days, that was a long time for a human. "Suppose she moved on? Suppose she doesn't want to see me?" He wouldn't blame her, couldn't blame her really, they hadn't ended on the most pleasant of terms. Thorin sat in the little chair and glanced at the clock, five after four. "What time did you say she would return?"
"Well-"
"This is no good," Thorin groaned, cutting off Bilbo by standing and beginning his pacing again. "No, you're right, I should stay to thank her if nothing else." Thorin shrugged off his outer jacket. "Is it hot in here?"
"I swear Thorin Oakenshield. If you don't stop your pacing at once you will ruin my new rug." Bilbo chastised, wagging a finger at him. Thorin glowered but sat. Bilbo finally moved out of his seat. "Now stay here while I go fetch the kettle. We will have a nice cup of tea and you two can talk."
Thorin just nodded as Bilbo left him. Again he wiped his palms on his pants. When he had felt that hole in his chest fill he had set off for the Shire without a look back. It couldn't have meant anything else, anything but Ali had somehow returned. The rest of the company was hot on his heels of course, though they insisted on waiting in Bree. Desperately he wished he had forced Bofur or Kili to join him, they could have lightened the mood. Thorin went to stand again but sank as Bilbo returned with a tray of tea and cookies.
"I should leave," Thorin said once again jumping up and grabbing his jacket.
"Sit back down," Bilbo snapped. Thorin lowered himself back down.
Bilbo left the room again, muttering about dwarves. He would leave now. The front door opened with a quiet swoosh, letting light pour into the entry way.
"Bilbo I'm back! You would not believe what I brought home." Ali's sweet voice called from the door. Thorin jumped to his feet, jacket in hand, stomach doing flips, heart hammering violently against his ribs.
"Oh splendid, bring them to the living room, I have a surprise waiting for you." Bilbo answered. Thorin panicked. There was no clear way out anymore. He darted to the window but it was sealed, the other way and the fireplace blocked him. As he saw her shadow cross the hallway he did what any respectable dwarf king would do.
He stumbled over the back of the couch and fell behind it out of sight.
"Awww, tea and cookies! That was so nice!" Ali called from the other side of the couch. Thorin scrunched his face, and held back an irritated groan. Why had he jumped back here? His heart skipped a beat when he felt her sit on the very couch that he was laying against. Stupid, stupid, stupid.
"What are you talking about…?" Bilbo trailed off, as Thorin heard him entering the room. "I think there's one more surprise that's about to show up." Bilbo continued, his voice stern.
Thorin jumped to his feet, not so much courage pushing him to do so but a rash uncontrollable movement of his body. Stupid body.
Ali sat with her back to him, looking over at Bilbo, whose eyes snapped up to meet Thorin's. What in Mahal's name was he supposed to do now. Ali, apparently curious to see what caught Bilbo's attention, turned to look up at Thorin.
Thorin looked directly at Ali.
Ali turned back to Bilbo.
Bilbo looked expectantly at Ali.
Thorin looked to Bilbo who returned the confused look.
Ali shot out of her seat and stumbled back over the table, knocking the plate of cookies to the floor.
"Mother of God, Thorin!" Ali exclaimed, her eyes wide as she sat on the floor where she fell. "Where in God's green Earth did you come from?"
Thorin's palms were cold and his heart was hammering against his ribs painfully. Ali was even more beautiful then he remembered. The soft flow of her hair, the gentle line of her neck, the smooth way her clothes always fell around her hips. Think of something smooth to save yourself, he begged. "From behind the couch." Inwardly Thorin wanted to rip his hair out and fall over behind the couch again and just die.
"You were behind the couch?" Ali asked, righting herself and brushing off her skirts.
Out of the corner of his eye he saw Bilbo slink out of the room. Get back here and save me from myself, Thorin begged silently.
"Yea," that was it, five years, three months, and twelve days, and all he had to say was yea. His hands shook and he curled them into fists at his side. Think, think, say anything. "It seemed like a good idea at the time."
Ali laughed nervously and moved her hair behind her ear. His heart gave a sharp thud when he saw there was no braid. Of course there was no braid. She wouldn't still have hers after he'd cut his own on the wall of Erebor.
"Well I wasn't expecting to see you today. I must look like a total mess." Ali absentmindedly flattened her skirts and smiled, though it seemed strained.
"I should leave," Thorin's hand clenched on his jacket and he circled around the couch. Brushing past Ali left a stabbing pain in his chest. This had been a terrible choice. Stepping out into the garden, Thorin felt defeated. The sun didn't seem quite so bright anymore and the flowers lost their luster.
"So that's it? You're just going to wander in here, hide behind a couch, then leave?" Ali snapped from the doorway. "You should at least apologize!"
Thorin turned to see Ali with her arms crossed, glaring down at him. She wanted an apology, fine, he could apologize, and Mahal knew he had enough to apologize for. But before he could open his mouth she stomped back into the hobbit hole.
Bounding up the stairs in one leap, Thorin skidded to a halt in the entrance. Ali stumbled around, surprised at his sudden entrance, and if he wasn't mistaken, a bit scared by it.
"I'm sorry. I'm sorry for the things I said to you. I'm sorry for not believing in you when you asked me to. I'm sorry for pushing you away. I'm sorry for striking out at you. But most of all I'm sorry for not being there when you needed me most. Even though time and again you were there for me, whether I knew it or not." Thorin took a step closer to Ali and stopped, the image of finding her on the ice playing through his mind like every day before this. "I'm sorry. I don't deserve to be here telling you this, but I am, because I'm selfish." His lack of words earlier no longer seemed to be a problem. "I'm selfish because I knew I had to see you again, no matter the hatred you felt towards me."
Ali's lip quivered when he finished, she stomped forward and smacked his arm. It didn't even hurt. "That's what you get for everything." Ali's shoulders shivered. Should he reach out to her? "That's not even what I wanted you to apologize for!"
Thorin opened his mouth, and then closed it. There were countless events, words, and actions that he could apologize for. Which seemed the most drastic?
"When you surprised me I fell over and knocked the plate of cookies off the table. Don't you think you should apologize?" Ali's voice sounded barely above a whisper.
The cookies? That was it?
"I basically condemned you to death on a battlefield I refused to aid you on, and you'd rather I apologize for cookies?" Thorin asked carefully.
"Of course I would, you don't understand how good those cookies are." Ali leaned into Thorin and rested her face on his shoulder. He couldn't move, his entire body felt struck by lightning. How long had he told himself this would never happen?
Bilbo appeared just down the hall. Silently he smacked his face and looked at Thorin, air hugging and pointing to Ali. Hesitantly his arms jerked up, feeling awkward as they circled her small body. She smelled of sunshine and grass.
Thorin couldn't take the wave of emotion that hit him. His knees buckled, dragging her down with him he rocked back and hit the wall. Ali gasped in surprise, jerking away. Now that she was here he wouldn't let go, couldn't let go. The soft dark waves of her hair caressed his cheek.
"Thorin, what's wrong." Ali asked, her hands gripping the sides of his tunic.
"Last time I held you in my arms I carried you from the mountain. You were so cold. You were so small. I-I should have been there. I thought I would never-" Thorin pulled her closer to his chest and kissed the top of her head. "If you would have me, I will make you all the cookies you desire." Thorin kissed the side of her head, his arms refusing to release her ever again.
"I don't believe you can bake," Ali spoke softly into his chest.
"I would learn, I would learn anything," Thorin promised, knowing this time he would keep his promise.
"Would you learn to yodel?" Ali asked quietly. He wanted to laugh with relief when she brought up something he didn't understand, too long he had gone without hearing something unexpected.
"I do not know what that is, but yes, anything." Thorin expected her to pull away, but instead she relaxed against him.
"Trust me. I won't ever ask you to yodel, I don't know if I could survive that." Ali's nose grazed the side of his neck and he shivered.
"There are things I still don't understand, but I won't allow my yodeling to harm you," Thorin assured her.
Ali snorted, trying to suppress a laugh.
"I'm serious," Thorin continued, she had to fully understand that she was safe with him now.
Unable to resist any longer, Thorin cupped the side of Ali's face in his hand and pulled her up to his. Her lips were soft against his, and sweet like honey. Ali moved to deepen the kiss, wrapping her arms around his neck. It was beyond intoxicating what she did to him. Thorin circled his arm around her waist and held her close, his head in a sweet flowered fog that she'd created for him. Then too soon, she pulled back.
"I wasn't serious. Thorin, I'm not scared of you." Ali shifted against his chest to get more comfortable. "The biggest fear I had was that you wouldn't come to see me."
"Then you have nothing left to fear."
Yay, she went back to be with Thorin. Hands up for everyone who knew that was coming :P
I actually originally wrote the ending with her not going back, but I was told that was heartless of me lol
But i enjoy this, I hope this is the ending everyone was waiting for as well.
Please let me know what you thought of everything now that its over :) and thank you for making this journey with me!