Chapter Forty One: While We Were Apart

Notes: Another week begins! I hope you all enjoy getting to know Lydia's family a bit better.

Eating together was extremely reminiscent of how things used to be when we were younger. It was loud and the talking didn't stop the entire time. It felt so nice to catch up with everyone and banter like we used to. At certain times we would hit an awkward spot but someone always rolled into something else. Beren was too drunk to really hold a conversation and Elyssa was still under the impression that she was above all this, but everyone else was engaged with each other and wanted to get to know each other again.

It made me wonder why the hell we all insisted on not being involved in each other's lives for so damn long. It all felt so stupid…

Everyone gave updates on their lives since the last time we saw each other, and everyone landed pretty much where I expected them to. Elyssa and Rosalind were of course both mothers and married in Hobbiton. Beren traveled around between Hobbiton and Bree, and we knew he drank the entire way. He wasn't shy to share his life on the streets so Rose immediately offered her home to him as long as he didn't drink around her kids. He of course declined.

Percy's life at that moment was actually pretty surprising. He had started a carpentry business in between Bree and Hobbiton where they primarily made carts, wheelbarrows, and farm tools. But they recently got into doing household furniture and fixtures. It sounded like he was also on the straight and narrow after so many years of stealing, lying, and screwing people over. Elyssa couldn't make any snarky comments about how lowly he was when he spoke about him building his own hobbit hole and the ladies he's been courting. He might even marry a nice girl and start a family since he had been able to find a little niche area that didn't know or didn't care about his background. I would have never thought he would leave that life behind, because he was so good at it. I guess he was lucky enough to have something else he was good at.

I was not excited for my turn to come, where I tiptoed around the topic of Oli and I's current relationship but there was no getting past it, especially with my sisters in the room. I spilled probably more than I should have about my frustrations with my husband's treatment of me. Elyssa attempted to defend him at first but as I told her more instances, including our argument from that very morning, even she came around to calling him a 'pompous airbag'. Getting validation from my siblings felt…it felt freeing to put it mildly.

Then all attention went to Lydia, who we were dying to get more details from. Sure, she was always outside of the family line of work for the most part but none of us expected for her to be going on adventures or romancing with kings. Still, she seemed extremely reluctant to discuss details about her time away from Bree. We were persistent though, and Eerin was no help because he kept baiting her by dropping details that he knew about. I couldn't believe the details he was saying either, talking about goblins and trolls and orcs.

Rosalind leaned across the table and said to her, "I think we all have to insist, Lydia! It all sounds so exciting! You were always such a story collector, why don't you want to share them now that they're your own stories?"

"If we all had the time I would love to share all the stories with you but, as Eerin should know, it is a long story."

Eerin coughed a little and then nodded to her. "It is truly a long story, and you still have yet to finish telling all of it to me yet. But I think you can give them a quick summary. They're already intrigued and want to know more."

"No thanks to you, older brother," she sighed. She then crossed her arms on the table and gave in. "Alright, a very quick summary but then we must move onto other things. Agreed?" We all nodded, even Elyssa who was still trying to not look too interested, and Beren who was just starting to be able to form complete sentences again. "Alright, so last year I was still working at the Prancing Pony when I had a dwarf sit in my section of the bar. At that time I did not know him, but Thorin Oakenshield, previous crown prince to the Kingdom of Erebor, was looking to go on a journey to take back his birthplace from a fire breathing dragon that had sacked it sixty years before."

"I think that's the king she must have been wooed by," Beren whispered, not as quietly as he intended.

"I certainly wouldn't expect another king to show up in this story," Percy said before shushing him.

Lydia shrugged her shoulders, "I came across a few actually, but yes, Thorin would be the one to keep in mind. Anyways, he and his company, including Gandalf the Gray, somewhat invited me to go with them back to Erebor as their burglar. Hobbits are quite good at being quiet on their feet, as we are all aware."

Elyssa said sharply, "Oh so you were hired to steal? A glorified thief?"

"I went with because I wanted to follow Thorin, not because I was enticed by the job to steal from a dragon, trust me," she scoffed. "I was of course not interested at first, but my old master was so much of a bastard that it actually seemed like a good option. Plus I did think Thorin was awfully intriguing. So, I traveled with him, twelve other dwarves, and a wizard across Middle Earth to reclaim their kingdom. We came across trolls, orcs, elves, giant spiders, goblins, shape shifters, and more in this very dangerous journey.

"One way or another we had made it into Erebor, and another plus of me being a hobbit is that their scent was not known to Smaug, the dragon that kept the gold hoard in the heart of Erebor. I found the rare gemstone they wanted me to find but at the cost of waking the dragon…I feel like this story is already going far too long."

"No, continue!" I pressed. The other nodded and stared at her in disbelief.

She rubbed her eyes and stared at the ceiling as she recalled the events. "Smaug went and attacked the neighboring town, thankfully they were able to kill the beast and Erebor was reclaimed by the dwarves again. Unfortunately that was not the end of it though…Thorin had made promises of gold that he did not intend to keep, as gold sickness runs in his family and had destroyed his grandfather. Seeing this in him, I did not give him the king's stone but instead gave it to the town that he owed a debt to. The only other option was for them to go to war, and the townspeople were being aided by elvish troops. Mind you that there were fourteen of us.

Eerin said, "Driven mad by gold, you had to betray him."

"Yes. To protect him and the others, I gave the stone to the other side to use as leverage to get what they wanted. Once Thorin found out though…I had to leave Erebor before something worse happened to me."

Percy frowned deeply and asked, "Are we supposed to be excited that this man had interest in you, Lydia?"

"I'm doing the entire story a disservice by summarizing it so. During our travels to Erebor we had several moments together that I'll remember for the rest of my life…" Her voice shook a bit and she cleared her throat. "That sickness changed him entirely, he was not Thorin during that time. I assure you he was the most incredible man I had ever met before he was overcome."

Eerin said, "Keep going with the story."

"More armies showed up to the fight. Dwarves from the iron hills were there to aid the others. As well as orcs, who had chased us across the continent, were also looking to destroy the line of Durin and take Erebor's riches. I fought in this battle and it was only because of Thorin's gift of mithril chainmail that I can say I'm standing here today. I found my way back to fighting by his side and he had, at least in that moment, broken the curse of gold in him. We fought together against his nemesis, a pale orc who had killed his grandfather and started the war that took his father and brother as well. I did everything I could to help, but although Azog had been killed, Thorin was also mortally wounded."

Beren put his arm around her shoulders and laid his head on her shoulder comfortingly. "Oh Lydia…"

She took a moment to collect her thoughts before continuing. "Once he passed, I left Erebor for good. I stayed with a friend I had met on the journey for a short while then made my way back to Bree. Those dwarves had become like a family to me so when I left them behind, I wanted to be with you all again."

"Which is when she came to take care of me," Eerin finished. "Which I guess leads me to what I've been up to since we were all together last…" A silence fell over all of us as he took a drink of water and attempted to get comfortable in his chair. "As you all know, when Mom and Dad were on their last legs I was the main person who took care of them. Of course all of us had our ways of helping them, but I made sure I was the one who had the most contact with them so no one got sick. Well…I did get sick from them."

"Shit," Percy breathed, clenching his fist.

"It's why I had to kick everyone out…and I knew that if I told you all that you'd want to be involved and help me but I didn't want you all to get sick too."

We continued to be silent for a few more, long moments. I had my suspicions but it felt so much heavier when it actually left his mouth.

"So," I sighed and put my hands into my hair, "you gathered all of us here to…"

Eerin hesitated for a moment but then said, "To say goodbye, yes."

Rose immediately started blubbering loudly while the rest of us continued to process the information. Heat began to burn behind my eyes as reality came down onto me.

Lydia reached out and put her hand on Eerin's arm. His eyes began to well up too. "I cannot even begin to form into words how endlessly grateful I am that everyone showed up today. We had been distant from each other for so long, but I would have regretted it for forever if we all didn't see each other again. I owed it to all of you to tell you in person why I handled things the way I did…I'm sorry if I inadvertently separated us all in the process."

"You are not responsible for how we acted after the entire thing happened," Lydia said sternly. "I know I was pissed and didn't want to talk to anyone else when I ran off to Bree, but I didn't do anything to try and reconnect with anyone either. I don't think any of us did."

We all nodded in agreement.

Percy added, "You did not break anything Eerin…I just can't believe you've been suffering with that terrible sickness by yourself for so long…"

"Yes, I just wish we knew," Elyssa said sharply. "We weren't that far away and we could have helped you. We didn't need to be around and risk getting infected but we could have helped you somehow…"

"It's not like I was making it out alive anyway," he chuckled, wiping his eyes. "I appreciate the sentiment though, Elyssa."

Beren said, "I think I would have stayed quiet about being sick too if that meant that Elyssa wasn't going to 'take care of me'."

That broke a laugh out of a few of us. Elyssa, being the quick wit, said back, "Oh I didn't say I was going to take care of him. I would have sent your belligerent hind end in, might finally teach you some responsibility before the consumption took you too."

"I don't think I like being weaponized in this scenario," Eerin mentioned.

"I don't think I like dying in this scenario!" Beren complained.

The conversation around Eerin's condition slowly faded off as we bantered with each other, falling right into how we were before our parents got sick. I think we had all forgotten how easily we could get along with each other if we just put in a bit of effort. We were all rude and crass and brutally honest but it felt like home to be around them all again.

I didn't want to go back to my cruel, disgusting husband. Being around my brothers and sisters for a few hours provided more happiness than he did over the entire relationship together. I wasn't afraid to share that bit of information when Elyssa made the mistake of asking me about the state of my marriage. It was like the dam broke and words fell out of my mouth. Most would have thought I would have grown out of it as I got older, but it only seemed to get worse and worse.

While talking about our relationships, I admitted, "Oliver Grubb has become one of the most despicable, cruel, and boring people I have known my entire life! He expects me to show undying gratitude that he decided to marry me despite my name and reputation. Like I should be his unconditional servant because I was in a situation where I couldn't say no to him. It just took me too long to understand why he was interested in me. I was a pretty, young girl that had no prospects whose best chances were to give my life to him. He likes how vulnerable I was and how easy it would have been to get what he wanted from me."

All the heat rushed to my face and out of my ears when I realized everything I had said. My siblings stared back at me, eyebrows raised. I turned the embarrassment into more anger, like I usually did. It often would turn into a vicious cycle.

"He seemed so smart and caring initially but as soon as he brought me home I was not his equal, I was something he needed to have control over! As if I was some sort of project! But once he realized the only thing he could change about me was my last name, he just neglected me entirely and became downright mean! He couldn't remove the fact I was a Barclay the same way he couldn't remove the color of my skin or the way I was raised. You all should have seen his face when I got tired of it and got a tattoo-"

My eyes grew with everyone else's once I realized what I admitted.

Elyssa looked like all the veins in her face were going to explode. "Genevive Francis Barclay?! A tattoo?! Are you out of your mind?!"

Lydia quickly stood up from her chair and pulled her hair away from her back, flashing her own tattoo of trees at the base of her neck. "I have two tattoos! One here on my neck and another on my leg! I thought I was the only hobbit in the whole world that had tattoos!"

"Shut up, there's no way!" Beren pulled up his sleeves and exposed horribly done tattoos all over his arms. Percy hastily unbuttoned his shirt and showed us his back that was covered in a tattoo of a bear and axes. Even Eerin pulled up the bottom of his sleeve to show an aged tattoo of an arrow on his thin and frail forearm.

We all looked to Rosalind who stared at us in complete awe. Elyssa slowly shook her head in horror and Rose was unable to look her in the eye. She admitted lowly, "I…have my flower tattoo somewhere I can not show you."

Elyssa said, "You've got to be joking. One of the most sacred traditions of our kind, to keep our skin clear and pure, and all of my siblings have broken that rule?! As if we're not all outcasts already and you all sully your skin in such a way that we could all be banished!"

Percy, who always had the least patience for Elyssa, said, "I don't know El, maybe you need one too. Seems like it's informally becoming a family tradition."

"Absolutely not!"

Beren said, "If we liqueur her up I bet we could convince her to get one."

"I will have this conversation end immediately or else I'm leaving!"

While we all laughed evilly, Rose reached over and hugged her reassuringly. "Be still sister, I will not let this rabble defile your precious skin."

We all spoke to each other nonstop until the sun began to set. All of us were dumbfounded how quickly the day had flown by. Elyssa and Rose had to go home to their families and Percy had to get back to his business. I knew I had to get back to my husband as well, though I had no idea what trouble I was going to be walking into.

We all took turns saying goodbye to each other, but we each took extra time to say goodbye to Eerin. As much as we didn't want to admit it, most of us knew that was going to be the last time we saw our big brother.

I hugged Eerin as tightly as I dared. He felt so thin and frail, I was afraid I was going to break him if I wasn't careful. I kissed his cheek and looked into his deep, brown eyes. "Thank you for getting us all together, this was so special."

He gave me a small smile and I realized how much he looked like our father with the way his wrinkles creased into his face. "Thank you for coming, Gen. Now get out of here before you get what I got," he joked dryly.

I gave him another small hug, I guess we were becoming a hugging family, and then turned to Lydia. I took her wrist and pulled her to the side while Eerin continued to say goodbye to the others. I pull her close and whisper in her ear, "What can I do to help? I live so close by, I know there's more I can do to help him…during the end."

She looked back at him for a moment before turning back to me and sighing. "He doesn't want anyone else in the family close to him from now on. He is hesitant to even let me close but it's harder since it's becoming difficult for him to function by himself…"

"Tell me anything. I will happily bring over food or more books or wave through a window. I swear, just say the word and I'll make it happen." I took a moment to take a breath, to steady my emotions. "Today…has felt like the first day I felt like I belonged somewhere in a really long time. At the very least I owe it to him for acting like I didn't care for the longest time, but beyond that I just know I can be helpful."

She pressed her lips together and had to think for a few moments before responding. "Gen, he won't want you to see him get sicker and sicker."

"I'm fine with that! Perhaps I can just drop off clean blankets or clothes. Or maybe some fresh vegetables or bread!"

That seemed to set a light off in her head. "We could use the food. You know I've never been a cook. That would honestly be such a help."

"I promise you that if I go home and my husband hasn't kicked me out of the house or cut me off, I will make sure to drop off food as much as I can."

She stared at me gratefully for a moment and then pulled me in for a hug. I could almost feel a weight lift off her. "Thank you Genevive…" I felt a wetness seeping through to my shoulder and my heart felt weak. I tried to hold off tears as I hugged her back.

After everything that happened that day, the good and the bad of it, I at least felt like I had my family again. I felt connected to something, I had forgotten what it felt like to have people there for you and love you unconditionally…I could have regretted us taking so long to be together again but I just felt so grateful. A breath of purpose filled me up, so even as I walked home to my husband I did not fear for the future.