A/N Things that occur to me while going through my tumblr for you page that remind me of tragedies in relation to this series of things we never got to see because of changes:

There was no scene of Elrond bringing Anduril to Aragorn and even if there had been, Josephine wouldn't have been there to witness Aragorn's slutty v-neck moment and have feelings about it. Cause she would've had some feelings about it. Cause I have some feelings about it.

Anyway, we're still getting snowstorms like every weekend but then during the week its springtime. And I can tell because my eyes are very angry about pollen and I struggled towards the end of this chapter cause they're watery as fuck.

Which means we self medicate by eating ice cream...

and taking our allergy pill...

But it's really the ice cream that helps.

ONWARD

Gondor, 3020

Josephine leaned over the plans table and pointed, a charcoal pencil stuck between her fingers. "I think we can get a second floor in but we'll have to move the door to fit the stairs."

"It'll be twice as much stone." One of the four dwarves around the table observed.

"We may be under population capacity right now, but give it a few years and we'll have a whole generation of boomers born."

Bofur, the one dwarf she'd already known from the movies when they met, looked confused. "A what now?"

"Babies." She explained absentmindedly. "It's common after the end of wars which puts a strain on already damaged infrastructure. I'd like to prepare for it the best we can."

"Aye." He agreed. "Same thing happened in Dale after-" He cut himself off.

"The Battle of the Five Armies and Smaug?" She finished for him.

"Aye." He said again, and laughed nervously. "So, bigger homes then?"

A knock came to her study door and a guard came in at her response. "Your majesty. It seems…we are unable to find the King…"

Josephine smirked to herself. "Is there something he needs to attend to?"

"Well…no, but…"

"Is Lord Faramir also missing?" She looked up from the table.

The guard answered simply. "Yes."

"They're out hunting. Tell the kitchens to prepare for game and if the king is needed I'll take care of it in his stead."

The guard bowed and left and she went back to the plans, catching an amused expression on Bofur's face.

Josephine shrugged. "You know rangers, you keep them cooped up behind walls for too long they start going stir crazy."

"That they do, my lady." Bofur agreed with a smile.

Aragorn blew into their chambers that evening with clear eyes and windswept hair, mud caking his boots that he dutifully left by the door without question, after too many sharp looks from both Josephine and Ciril over the past year.

Josephine looked up from their breakfast table, her book, and her cup of tea. Her heart caught in her throat. There was the ranger she'd first fallen in love with. Dusty and worn, but free in a way he didn't get to be that often anymore.

He swept her hair back behind her ear and kissed her, a chill from the evening air still on his hands as he set several blue wildflowers over the pages of her book.

"You smell like the woods." Josephine observed somewhat wistfully, touching the soft petals lightly. "Was it a nice day?"

He placed a second kiss to her brow before stepping away to remove his sword belt and cloak. "Faramir managed to take a boar, and I a buck. It was a much needed break and the cooks were pleased."

Josephine gave him an amused smirk. "You worried the guards. You really need to teach me how to sneak out of the city so well."

"Yes, you still intend to make your own escape soon, do you not?"

Their secret and well planned days off were few and far between, separate from stolen moments with each other. Although, his were less of an ordeal to plan, hence why she hadn't gotten away yet.

"Except for informing you, and Boromir, and Faramir, and taking Halbarad so he doesn't have a coronary…Eowyn and I are both chomping at the bit for a girls day." Halbarad just had to be an honorary member, there's no way they'd get away from the city without him.

Aragorn looked at her sympathetically. "Capable warriors you may both be, but you have greater dangers outside these walls than Faramir and I."

She sighed, having been through this before and knowing her complaints were a deepening repeat of past conversations. "I know, I just sometimes wish…I appreciate the protection, I do. But I miss some of the freedoms. It wasn't perfectly safe by any means but I could go between towns and cities alone, at will, with cautious behaviors I'd grown up having so I didn't even have to think about them."

Josephine knew Aragorn didn't fully understand, she could talk about her world until her face was blue but just like she had trouble with the many constraints of Middle-Earth at times, he had trouble imagining a place with so few. So he laid his hand on her shoulder warmly, a promise that even though he couldn't change it, he was at her side regardless.

"If it gives you any consolation, it eases my heart to know you are guarded. You saw little of the dangers you could have found had you been traveling openly during the war, and without us near." His voice softened. "I am forever grateful you were spared such things."

She agreed with him, she could imagine well enough how bad things could get out there just by knowing the players that wandered the wilds. Some of the accounts she'd read from the archives touched on old tragedies and rumors circulated from traders and dignitaries in hushed tones during courts. Darker stories fell away if the teller saw her listening so she'd gotten better at eavesdropping. They acted as if she hadn't been face to face with armies of orcs just a year prior and would pale at hearing the details of a caravan attack. Because of course, an attack on traders within the borders of her kingdom wasn't something she needed to concern her pretty little head about, let alone be something she could stomach.

It hadn't even been a particularly trying day, even the dwarves had been agreeable enough…for dwarves. But she was feeling bitter that evening, maybe a little jealous of Aragorn's field trip as much as she was glad he'd been able to go. Realizing this she took a deep breath and leaned her head into him as he stood beside her chair.

"Maybe I should try to expedite that day off." She sighed. "I think I'm feeling a little cooped up today, kind of wishing I'd gone out today too."

"You may come with me, at any time if you wish."

"No no," She patted him. "You need your boys day out just like I need my girls day out. But not tomorrow because I have a council in the morning." Going through her schedule in her head she went through the days. "Next week?...Maybe."

"Tomorrow." Aragorn straightened up and called down the hall for Ciril, who came from the other room. "Ciril, Lady Josephine is feeling ill, please see that her obligations tomorrow are moved."

Ciril looked them both over with a scrutinizing eye and Josephine knew she was positive no one in the room was feeling remotely ill, especially Josephine. Her mouth formed a thin line and she nodded, a conspiratorial glint in her eye. "Yes, my lord. I'd imagine Lady Eowyn will wake to find herself 'ill' as well?"

"Near certain. They work so closely after all." Aragorn agreed.

Ciril slipped out again and Josephine tilted her chin to look up at him. "So I imagine fresh air, sunshine, and riding over the plains will take care of this little ailment of ours?" A smile tugged at her lips and he kissed her again.

"A full day at least, and not a moment sooner than when the sun starts slipping behind the mountains."

Dale

Morning dawned to a meager meal, scrounged together by Sigrid. No word had come from the mountain and Josephine stared out at Erebor from the walls of Dale, as if she could will an answer from Thorin.

Bilbo, now that they were back together, stuck to her like glue. She was grateful, because if he hadn't she would've done the same to him.

"Do you really think he'll break free of it?" He asked her.

"I do. But the question is when and how many lives we'll lose waiting on it." She said bitterly.

"Did you know…This whole time…That he'd become…like this?" He spoke hesitantly, avoiding naming the illness as if him saying it would lay it even heavier on their friend.

"For the whole journey. I've been dreading it." She admitted, touching the pads of her fingers to her swollen cheek and being met with a sharp, deep sting with even the slightest touch. "Even though I know it should be temporary, a part of me is still terrified I'll be wrong."

"But if it's what you saw…why wouldn't it be true?"

Josephine shook her head. "The timing has been off almost from the start. The trolls, Goblintown…" She paused to swallow the lump in her throat that memory always seemed to bring back. "Kili's injury and how long we stayed in Laketown. Tauriel…It's all been off, I just wish I knew why."

Bilbo pondered. "Would it make any difference if you did? Whatever happened, you're fixing it now, maybe the best it can be fixed."

Josephine gave him a tight smile. "I guess it wouldn't matter in the end if I knew. I have to fix it either way."

"Besides. It'll all be over soon and you'll be off home to Aragorn." He said brightly. "We must be nearing the end, shouldn't we?"

"Six days or so." She answered nervously. "Give or take."

"Ah!" He gave her a bright smile. "This time next week, you'll be safe at home with your husband again, with a warm bed and full belly." Then he turned sad. "I don't suppose we'll ever meet again after this. You'll be a long way ahead of me by then."

Josephine couldn't stand his sadness. "Oh don't be so sure. You might have to befriend me again because I won't know you yet, but you'll see me. In hindsight, a lot of those days are starting to make a lot more sense now." She chuckled.

"Will I indeed? Well I have something to look forward to then."

"You'll keep me well looked after." She said fondly, thinking back to old Bilbo's warmth towards her. "It was sorely needed back then."

He took her hand and gave it a pat. "It's what friends do, whether the other knows them or not."

She knelt down and wrapped him in a hug, suddenly overwhelmed with appreciation for both him, and the friendship he'd carried for her all those years. Appreciation for his company now, and for the kindness and love he'd show her past self. Love, and no small amount of meddling in her love life, now that he knew Aragorn by name.

"I really am going to miss you when I go home to Gondor. I promise, I'll come visit."

"You had better. I'll be expecting the story, your whole story mind you, not these bits and bobs you let slip. And I'd best hear all about you and this Aragorn fellow as well. He must be quite something for you to do so much to get back to him."

"The whole story." She promised. "Every bit and bob."

Josephine swore to herself she'd make it to Rivendell and see him before he sailed, she knew she couldn't bear the thought of it if she didn't.