A/N SO REMEMBER WHEN I SAID I DIDN'T HAVE A CHAPTER COUNT FOR THE BATTLE?

UM.

IT'S THE ONE AFTER THIS ONE.

HOLY

SHIT

BALLS

BATMAN

I CAN'T EVEN

FUCK

I'm having a moment. Like IT'S FUCKING HERE omg. I can't believe it. HOW DO I PROCESS THIS.

THE NEXT THING I'M WRITING IS THE BATTLE

Fuck, I hating writing long action sequences.

It's fine. It's not like more insane than Mordor or anything.

Except it is.

AHHHHHHH

Okay, we're good. We're fine.

But you're all probs gonna cry at this chapter.

K byeeeee!

She never fully knew how to think before a battle. On one hand she would think about after it, make plans as if her survival was assured. On the other she would be positive her good luck wouldn't hold. Statistically speaking, there were only so many battles she could see before she was killed, right? Hell she'd almost died at Morannon.

The letter she'd left with Elrond, her goodbye just in case, seemed so long ago, so meager. Too much had happened since then and she felt like there needed to be more. Softer, more personal even, than an eighty year old letter written in fear.

So when she was in Dale that day, she sought Legolas out. He'd be just thrilled to see her, she knew, but if anyone was going to break the news to Aragorn, he would do it as gently as anyone could.

"You want something." He said sharply when he saw her slip into the doorway of his tent.

"A favor. One last time…at least this decade."

"Another? Have I not done enough of your will for your liking?"

"Well, if I survive the battle you don't have to do anything. If I don't, consider it my dying wish."

"You wish me to carry a message?" He surmised.

"He needs to know what happened. If I…will you tell him?" It was hard to say, those words.

"Who?"

"You'll know when the time comes. I just…" She blinked back tears and cleared her throat. "I want that news to come from you. He deserves to hear it from a friend."

"Another 'friend' from my future?"

"God dammit Legolas!" She snapped. "Would you please just do this for me? He'll need to know his wife is dead!"

The words came out of her like she was throwing a punch. The bluntness caused a shift in his stance, it softened him, if only a little. There was a split second, maybe even less, where she could've sworn she saw the eyes of her friend again.

He sat on it for a few moments, leaving her nervous and emotional, before he dipped his chin. "I hope that is not news I will have to carry. But if I do, I will deliver it."

"Thank you." She let out a puff of air and relaxed. "If I don't see you before the battle, good luck." Turning to go, she was surprised when he said her name and stopped her.

"You truly intend to join the battle after your injury?"

The genuine concern in his eyes when she turned back threw her. "I have to, if I don't…there are lives I have to save."

"You can't possibly be so reckless."

"I'll be with the dwarves, they'll look after me." It wasn't that simple, but saying it to try and convince him might make some steps to convincing herself.

He looked unimpressed. "Like they did in the mountains?"

"That was different, we were captured, they took our weapons."

"You are in no condition to fight, you'll only be a liability to them."

Why now did he seem to be taking the time to care? She didn't need the reminder of how precarious this was going to be. "I have a job to do." She said firmly. "One day you'll learn that you can't talk me out of fighting."

He snapped his mouth shut and nodded, giving her the space to leave.

"Goodbye, Legolas." She said as she pushed back the tent flap and walked through the pavilion. With every step she became more and more aware that she might've just said goodbye to her friend for the last time.

From the top of the wall, shrouded in shadows, Josephine looked out over the dark valley. The eve of battle was an unmistakable, unchanging sort of feeling. Sour, like old milk and rotten fruit. A rushing wind you could see in the distance and know once it came, you'd have to move where it sent you.

"You have seen the eve of battle before. More than once I would wager." Thorin's voice said from the hall beside her.

"Too many times." She agreed, not moving from the cracked and beaten stone wall she was leaning against. "I thought once, that this was all behind me."

"We can never be certain of such things. I will not tell you how best to prepare yourself, we all have our ways, except set your mind on this. Try to dwell on your triumphs in those battles, not the losses, for only one of those will not bury you beneath its weight."

His words were a kindness, as much of a comfort as he probably dared to offer. She couldn't lie to herself, she was afraid of how she might react if he reached for her, for a light squeeze of the shoulder or touch on the arm. If she flinched it would hurt him and she didn't want that. But if all went well, this would be one of the the last days she'd ever see him as he was now, with only a few flecks of gray in his beard. Hell, even then she had no way of knowing if he'd still lived in her time, though she'd begun to have some suspicions.

It was Josephine who had to make the first move now, so she did, wrapping her arms around his chest and curling into a hug.

He stiffened for a moment, then relaxed and hugged her back, sighing deeply. "No matter what happens, to me or my nephews-"

"I don't want to talk about it." She interrupted.

"Remember what I said in Laketown." He continued sternly.

He was still holding her tight, not that she would've let him let go sooner if he'd tried. If she pulled away she'd have to face him, have to see him, instead of just hearing him say things she didn't want him to.

"If this is our fate, then so be it. You will not sacrifice your future for an old dwarf whose time has come. And Fili and Kili would never wish you to give your life for theirs."

She could see them lying there, on slabs of stone surrounded by candles. Hear Bilbo telling Thorin to look at the eagles. It was enough to make a knot form in her throat and she bunched his cloak up in her fists as she buried her face in his shoulder. "Please don't say that."

He brushed his hand over her hair, but continued his thought. "How grateful I am for you, Josephine. For your sacrifices, and your compassion."

Her breath hitched and she knew he was saying goodbye without saying the words. He let her linger, she wasn't sure how long. But her tears had soaked into his tunic by the time she pulled away, tugging at the hood of her cloak to wipe her eyes. "Don't-" She hiccupped. "Get all squishy on me now you grumpy bastard."

He chuckled deeply, his own eyes were damp but he held his composure. "I am not the one crying, petulant child."

Sinking a hand into one of his pockets he took out a silver clasp with a barely visible hinge. Gold cut into the surface in lines and curls and he reached in again to pull out a beard comb. "If you would permit me?"

She took a seat on a piece of rubble by the wall and held her hand out while he undid her braid and took out the beads she still wore. Just like Legolas and the other dwarves before him, Thorin was adept at the craft and worked smoothly through her hair, plucking bead after bead from her hand until they were all accounted for and braided in tightly. Finally, into the single stiff braid he'd woven, he pressed the clasp around it at the base of her skull.

"There." He said. "It won't come loose with ease. It should easily last you the battle and your journey home."

Josephine felt her eyes burn again and choked out, "I'm gonna miss you, you know."

"Send word once you arrive in Gondor, I will be waiting to hear that you are home." With a tight smile he hesitantly touched his fingers to her cheek and kissed her forehead. "Now come on, I think I hear Bofur's singing echoing from inside, we'd best join the festivities. There are many tables in Erebor upon which the two of you have not yet danced."

In a large hall fires had been lit. The people of Laketown gathered, and while the food was meager and the tensions were high, somehow there was still a push for music and song. Bofur's voice dropped deep as he sang as loudly as he could from one of the centermost tables. It was forced joy that strained his voice and there was no ale to loosen it, but still he managed. Around the room people danced as the dwarves played old instruments they'd found around the mountain, their own still sitting in Goblin Town or Thranduil's dungeon.

Josephine felt love and warmth and sadness all at once, watching the dwarves sing and dance and play. They wouldn't all be around when she got back, there wouldn't be another time like this. Somewhere along the line they'd become her family just like the Fellowship had, friendships that broke her heart to leave behind.

"Don't think of it as taking our minds off of the battle." Thorin said beside her. "Think of it as your friends giving you a going away party. I will ensure we throw one even larger for when you visit from Gondor." He smirked and nodded towards the Company.

Bofur caught sight of her and waved his hand to get her to come over.

Josephine took one last moment to feel the pain, then she jogged across the room, took his hand, and let him pull her up onto the table.

They finished the drinking song he'd been in the middle of and he muttered something to Kili who relayed it to the others with their instruments. The first few notes filtered through the air and for a second she was back in Minas Tirith, it was a song from southern Gondor and she looked at Bofur in surprise.

"I'll admit we don't know many songs from that far south, but Nori and I went as far as Pelargir once and remembered this one. You start, I'll pick it up as ye go."

Since she'd hesitated, they started again and she dramatically slapped her left palm into Bofur's. "I'll swim and sail on savage seas, with ne'r a fear of drowning…" Ah Gondor, seafaring people who only sang about things if it involved the sea. "And gladly ride the waves of life, if you will marry me…" Leading, she walked him through the first few steps, giving credit to her dance instructor that had driven her nearly mad in the days leading up to her marriage.

In the next verse she quickened the pace, sure the others would follow and her and Bofur's steps sped up.

Seamlessly he took up the next. "My dearest one my darling dear, your mighty words astound me, but I've no need for mighty deeds when I feel your arms around me…" He bellowed the last bit comically and swept his hat off his head to bow.

Faster and faster they spun and danced and sang until the last line when he dramatically dropped to his knees and mimed asking for her hand.

The night went on like that, songs and dancing and strained merriment with moments of joy that made her forget. Each of the dwarves made sure to garner a dance, as if they'd been warned by Thorin of her pressing stumbled, Kili blushed awkwardly, and Fili puffed out his chest looking more like he was trying to be a pigeon than a dwarf, but no one mentioned goodbyes.

As the hour drew late, she sat down next to Balin, wrapped her arm around his, and leaned her head on his shoulder. She wouldn't say goodbye, except to herself. But he seemed to understand, somehow, what she meant by it.

Glasses, bowls, and anything that could hold drink had been collected as people began to filter out. Those that were called to fight tomorrow were dragged low by the thought, and two precious bottles of wine that had been found made the rounds. It was no more than two sips of wine in her tin cup, less for Bilbo on his own refusal.

"Hm." She mumbled as she looked at the dark red wine.

"What is it?" Bilbo asked from beside her.

"The parting glass."
"The parting…what?"

"An old song from my land, don't ask me to sing it, I wouldn't make it through the first line without crying." She could barely make it through what she was saying now. "It just…"

Bilbo's hand wrapped around hers and he forced a smile. "It's alright, Josephine. I understand."

She sat with him, hand in hand, taking the smallest of sips until their wine was gone. It wasn't long after when everyone went off to their bedrolls, preparing for the early call. Tomorrow, everything would be decided.