A/N Woo boy, this one's a doozy. Not gonna lie, it's gonna be a rough one so brace yourselves. I'm gonna go ahead and give you a small graphic depictions of violence reminder for this story as we go in cause people get hurted and angst is living it's best life.

Days passed, so similar and uncomfortable that they started blending together. After two days her arm came out of the sling and she was immediately sent into the hoard to look for the Arkenstone. Nearly two weeks passed before Dwalin reported to Thorin that the survivors from Laketown had reached Dale. The entire Company spent that night blockading the gate, except for her and Bilbo. They were all exhausted, except for Thorin who seemed to exist on the power of his illness alone. Thorin had the two of them down in the hoard with him, still searching.

She kept her eyes on him more than the gold, and that's when she saw him slide a necklace from a pile of diamonds.

"The white gems of Lasgalen. I know an elf lord who will pay a pretty price for these." He told Bilbo, then balled it up and threw it back in the pile before walking away. "Dawn is here, come."

She waited until he'd rounded the corner and crept over to the pile. That necklace was leverage with Thranduil, or rather, good faith since she had said she would try to get them back. She very much wanted that good faith if and when things went south.

Passing the table where it lay, she plucked it out of the pile and quickly stuffed it into her tunic. The gems were light as air, pressing between her shirt and tunic without even showing their shape.

Comforted by her find, she followed Thorin as he returned to the gate and called everyone up to the top of the wall. The sound of hooves preceded Bard as he rode in from Dale, every outlook and balcony of the ruined city shining with the gold armor of Thranduil's army.

"Hail, Thorin, son of Thrain. We are glad to find you alive beyond hope." He called up to them.

"Why do you come to the gates of the King Under the Mountain armed for war?" Thorin droned.

"Why does the King Under the Mountain fence himself in like a robber in his hold?"

"Perhaps it is because I am expecting to be robbed."

"My lord," Bard pleaded. "We have not come to rob you, but to seek fair settlement.. Will you not speak with me?"

Thorin led them all back down, but on his way paused to speak quietly to a raven that flew off to the west.

Josephine sat back on an unused stone as Thorin embodied as much drama as he could muster, not even giving Bard the respect of facing him.

They spoke, or rather Bard tried to reason with him and Thorin couldn't find reason if it walked up and bit him on the nose. It was exactly the meeting she expected, and Thorin ended it by turning from the passway and raising his voice to yell back at Bard. "Begone! Ere our arrows fly!"

She thought that was it, Bilbo would express his concerns and maybe some of the company would and then they'd go back to searching. But when Thorin's eyes landed on her, Josephine knew something was wrong.

"Give it to me." He snarled.

She frowned, putting on her best act of staying calm. "Give you what?" Hopefully it was just his delusions.

"You have the Arkenstone. I saw you take it." He stepped towards her and she took a step back.

"I don't have the Arkenstone, Thorin."

"I knew from the beginning, you sought something in this mountain. Give it to me!" He yelled, lunging at her.

Josephine jumped out of the way just in time. "I don't have it." She did her best to try and keep her tone even, to try and keep from provoking any worse reactions, but she wasn't sure anything would help.

He stalked towards her like a lion, eyes dark and unfamiliar. "I saw you in the treasure room. You slipped it into your tunic when you thought I wasn't looking. Now, Josephine, give it to me."

Thorin backed her up against a piece of rubble and came at her again. He pulled aside her tunic and his fist came back out with the necklace. Shock crossed his face when it wasn't what he expected.

"Thorin!" Bilbo admonished.

"The jewels of Lasgalen?" Thorin's chest heaved and his lips pressed together.

Josephine could see the anger building and tried to slip off to the side and get some distance between them, but like a reflex, it only seemed to make him react. Necklace still bunched in his fist he swung at her and pain flared in her face.

He threw the gems across the room and continued to follow her, shoved Bilbo aside and ignored the protests of the others.

"Not my birthright, but no less of a betrayal. You stole it for the elf, didn't you?" His voice lowered dangerously.

Josephine looked past him for a moment, quickly looking back again to not give away Fili who was creeping towards his uncle.

"It gives us leverage over Thranduil." She explained nervously. "We can bargain with him."

Thorin didn't answer her, in fact it was almost like he hadn't heard her at all. "After all I have done for you, you would betray me like this? Within my own halls?"

"After all I've done for you, you'd believe I wasn't doing this out of your own best interests?" She spat blood onto the floor and put her hand out flat at her side to stave off the company, hoping she could still talk him down before things went belly up with the whole company and Bilbo to boot.

"Everything you have done was merely to serve you and your journey home."

His hand rose again but this time she was ready and slammed her fist into his nose, hoping the crack she felt was his face and not her hand.

Clutching his bloodied nose, his gaze turned murderous. "How dare you strike me." He hissed, his voice then rising to a bellow that echoed through the hall. "I am King Under the Mountain, Lord of Erebor! In my halls you will respect my words!"

Josephine wasn't sure what else to do, except to try and derail his tirade. Fear and anger at being cornered boiled in her chest and the others were only holding back by her own order. So the next words came very easily, with a volume to match.

"And I am the High Queen of Gondor and the Northern Kingdoms! If anyone gets to stand in your halls and call you on your shit, it's going to be me!"

For several seconds the hall was silent, she watched Thorin as what she said worked its way through his twisted mind. But he didn't come out the other side any better than before.

"Now I see. The Arkenstone would make a pretty prize for your own halls, your majesty." He sneered. "Another emissary sent to rob me."

"I don't care about anything in this fucking mountain except for the lot of you. I don't have your damn stone!"

"I know you know its location." He growled. "Tell me."

"I don't know!"

"Where is it?!" He yelled. "Where is the Arkenstone!"

Like steam in a closed valve, Thorin's anger was rising, until it all but exploded. His hands went to her throat and she slammed onto the ground. She grasped at his hands, his arms, and his clothes but he was too strong to fight off.

The company started yelling and several pairs of hands reached for him while her vision started spotting. Slowly, he was peeled off her neck and she gasped, coughing as she was dragged to her feet towards the stairs and up to the wall. Thorin was going to throw her off into the river!

"Easy, lass!" Dwalin grunted. "It's me."

He half carried her up the steps while she came to and secured a rope. When it was knotted tight through a chain he grabbed her by the shoulders.

"You have to go. He'll kill you if you stay." Tears were in his eyes as he shoved the rope into her hands and pushed her towards the wall.

Below, Thorin was yelling and spitting like a cat, trying to fight off half the company that was holding him back.

Too stunned to say any goodbyes or thank yous, she stepped over the edge and half repelled, half slid down to the bridge. She crumpled as she hit the ground and crawled to her feet before taking off in the fastest run she could manage. Fear crept up in her spine and urged her away from Erebor.

A few minutes later as she was rounding a bend, there was a crack, a rumble, and a crash as the dwarves broke one of the gate's statues. It fell, breaking the bridge and cutting them off completely from the road.

Bard had also paused to look back and see what was happening, that's when he noticed her. He rode back up the road and jumped off his horse as soon as he reached her.

"What happened? What did he do?" He pulled off his scarf and pressed it to her nose, tilting her head back.

She choked as blood ran down the back of her throat and coughed it onto the road. "I'm okay." she croaked.

"I think there's little chance of that, you're shaking like a tree in a storm."

As he carefully wiped the blood off her face, Josephine couldn't get the image of Thorin out of her head. Looming over her, furious and unrecognizable, made up only of hatred and need.

"Come on, let's get you back to Dale."

She didn't notice she was shaking until they were riding back and she was knocking against his arms. She pretended for her own sake that the tears were from the cold wind, but in her heart she knew that winter had nothing to do with it.

"It's alright now, you'll be safe in Dale."

She'd barely be any safer in Dale than she was in Erebor. But in Dale, she wouldn't have to look over her shoulder for Thorin.

By the time they passed the first set of Thranduil's soldiers, she'd set a false, but stony demeanor back in place. She'd need a stiff upper lip and strong voice to deal with Thranduil, and he would exploit any weakness he could find.