A/N Everybody okay? Y'all good?

Awesome, cause if you thought the JOURNEY was gonna be angsty, wait until we get into RECOVERING from it.

I mean that's not to say we don't get happy stuff and things don't get less sad and angsty, but your girls got literal torture trauma to suss through now that she's home so there's gonna be some angst.

What can I say, I've spent decades now putting characters through hell and figuring out the repercussions of that. It's like playing in a sandbox of trauma and hurt/comfort at this point which is just *chefs kiss* wonderful.

Welcome.

Josephine slept hard that night, barely shifting an inch while Aragorn held her. Aragorn himself didn't sleep. By dawn he thought he might have managed to memorize every bit of her face, her hair, and her hands, all changed from when she'd left.

Long after dawn, he finally slipped carefully out of their bed to speak with Ciril who he could bustling around outside the door. He wondered if she'd slept at all last night either.

He shut the door behind him quietly, worried he might disturb Josephine. Ciril was in front of the fire, cleaning blood and grime off of Josephine's breastplate. In the light of day he could see how well made it was, well fit to her with a couple fresh scores on the front that made him cringe when he saw them. Blades that had come too close.

"Good morning, majesty." Ciril said. "Should I send word to the kitchens?"

"Please," He said absentmindedly, pulling his attention from the armor. "Light fare."

She set her work aside and stood, drying her hands on her apron and heading down the hall. Aragorn picked up the breastplate, looking it over more closely, stopping at the golden tree on the inside. Whoever had fit her in her armor did it well, with care, and knew such a thing's importance to her. It was a small comfort.

From the main doors, he was interrupted as someone bellowed his name. Gimli barged into the room with Legolas hesitantly on his tail. Ciril came last and looked apologetic but Aragorn waved off her concerns.

"Where's the lass?" Gimli barked.

Aragorn held his finger up to his lips. "Sleeping, unless your exuberance has woken her."

"Oh!" Gimli mouthed. "Sorry…"

"Is she well?" Legolas asked.

Was she? No, not as far as he was concerned. But he nodded reluctantly and added. "As well as could be expected given what has happened."

Legolas seemed to understand on a deeper level than Gimli, not surprising given he'd been one of the few there to have actually seen her at the time of the battle.

"Her rest has been well earned." Legolas nodded with a sudden flick of his eyes towards the closed bedchamber doors.

Aragorn turned as they opened just enough for her to slip through. She'd taken her hair out of her braid and it hung limply around the shoulders of her dressing gown. Her eyes were rimmed with dark, tired skin and it was hard for her to hide her stiffness.

"Ah! There's the lass!" Gimli threw his arms open and met her more than halfway with a warm hug and a gentle pat on the back that made Aragorn flinch with worry, knowing what lay beneath her gown.

But she didn't so much as twitch and held Gimli close for a moment before straightening back up and looking over at Legolas.

The air in the room stilled and something cut between the two that both he and Gimli noticed, but didn't understand. Legolas didn't speak, but Aragorn was sure he'd never seen the elf look so sheepish ever in his life.

Finally, Josephine broke the silence, a cold expression on her face. "I want my sword back."

Legolas bowed his chin. "I have already sent for it from Mirkwood."

Josephine was still, stern, and somewhat frightening. Aragorn hadn't had any reason to think that bad blood had formed between the two during the journey but now he wondered.

"I told you so."

"You did." He admitted.

"Not bad for a thief and a whore, huh?"

Gimli coughed and his eyes flashed towards Legolas. "What is goin' on ye pointy eared-"

"There are many things spoken in that time I wish I could take back. I only hope now to gain forgiveness for them."

Josephine stared him down, unblinking. Second after second passed and no one dared interrupt her.

Legolas finally couldn't take it and shifted awkwardly. "Forty-one." After a few more seconds without her answering he went on. "But given it was you who slayed Azog the Defiler, I believe you won the contest by default.'

She blinked, just the hint of a smirk pulling at her lips as Gimli's surprise flashed on his face.

"But I thought- Thorin-"

"He could not speak of her deeds lest he give away her presence." Legolas explained. "If not for her, your kin would have fallen at Ravenhill. It was a noble charge, one that I made far more difficult than was necessary."

Finally her coldness softened. "I missed you."

She wrapped him in a hug that Legolas gently reciprocated, though Aragorn couldn't help but notice how consciously he seemed careful of her back. Had he been there when she'd been injured? Had he known this whole time just how taxing everything had been on her? Even if he had though, Josephine's order of silence would've kept him from saying it.

Legolas drew back with a smile and looked to Gimli who was between confusion and anger as he guessed at what had made her so angry at Legolas.

"Come my friend, we should not keep her, there is much rest she needs to account for." He squeezed her hand as a goodbye and drew Gimli back down the hallway.

Their visitors gone, Josephine allowed a slouch to creep back into her body and drew close to Aragorn, leaning against his chest.

"You should not be on your feet." He said, lightly wrapping his arms around her as she folded into him. "Did we wake you?"

Josephine shook her head. "Last night was a blur, I needed to get up and move a bit so it didn't feel like so much of a dream." He smelled like clean linens and the fragrant oils she put in her hair, like home. "I promised myself once that when I got back I'd let you put me on bedrest for as long as you wanted and I wouldn't complain but I needed to walk around."

Too much time traveling and planning and running and now that she could finally truly rest, she didn't know how. But she was afraid if she didn't figure it out she'd keep going until her body quit right out from under her.

"It will take time, you have seen much in your months away, of that I am certain." He smoothed back her hair, brushed his fingers along her cheek, and placed a kiss on her head. "Are you in pain?"

In all honesty, it seemed like everything hurt, from her head down to her toes but she'd gotten so used to aches and pains that it took her a second to answer him in any way other than promising she'd be fine. "I feel like shit."

He gave her another kiss that said all that needed to be said in response. I know, I understand, I'm here.

"The wounds on your back…"

Josephine stiffened, nervous though she didn't know why.

"How long has it been?'

Unable to muster anything above a hoarse whisper and answered, "Mid July." she swallowed a thick lump. "Goblintown."

His voice stayed steady and soft, an assuredness that gave her something to hold onto.

"Some of them were reopened in the battle, but I will do what I can. Lord Elrond will also be able to help."

"He's here?" She realized after she said it that she had in fact, sent him there as her personal mailman through the decades, but she hadn't considered he'd still be there when she got home.

Looking up she followed his hand to his collar where he pulled it aside and revealed an edge of blue fabric tied around his neck.

"He had a token of which to bring."

She touched it lightly and smiled. "I spent all night finishing it. It was your mother's idea."

His eyes filled with tears but he smiled too.

"You were a very precocious child."

Aragorn gave a chuckle and guided her towards the sitting room at a slow, careful pace. "I wish I had realized long ago that you were the woman who came to see her. It may have saved us a great deal of grief."

He arranged the cushions on the settee before the fire and helped her recline back against the arm, the comfort immediately offering some relief from the ever present aches and exhaustion. "Better you didn't, it would've made our meeting in Dunland really awkward and weird."

He cast her a glance as he draped a blanket across her legs and she amended herself. "Weird-er."

She wanted to tell him everything, but she was following the path their conversation took, avoiding the sharp hurt of the first day or recounting the journey in full from start to finish. There would be a time for that, when others came and she told it like a story of adventure and valor. These moments were only for the two of them.

He sat down on the edge by her legs and gazed down at her with soft eyes that drew her in like a magnet.

Josephine reached out for him, letting her fingers glance over his face, his hair, and his lips, before resting in his hands. "Sometimes I thought I'd never see you again." She whispered. "I'd do it all again if I had to." Every second, every agony, every fear.

He blinked back tears and kissed her palm. "If I could, I would take every moment of suffering you've endured. I heard you calling out for me in my dreams, I thought I would die for want of you." Her eyes slipped shut as he kissed her, trailing down her jaw and the bruises on her neck. When he pulled away his hands stayed wrapped around her. "Concern yourself only with healing and rest, meleth nin, I will see to all else until you are ready."