When Bilba arrived home, nearly skipping with glee, she was surprised to see Fili and Kili crouched near her front door, their ears pressed to the wood. All the items she'd bought from the market were still out laid next to them in her garden.

What are you two doing?

"Gandalf's back." Fili said.

"We're pretty sure he and Uncle might kill one another," Kili said.

Bilba's eyes narrowed. "Not in my house they won't." She started to stomp in, and then hesitated, as a thought occurred to her. She looked back to Fili. "Do you still have that contract?"

"Yes," He answered slowly, "Why?"

"Good," Bilba ignored his question and put a hand out. "Give it to me."

A moment later she opened her door and stalked inside. The Pretty Pretty Princes tried to grab at her but she shook them off and continued.

As soon as she did the sound of raised voices came from her living room. The day before she might have tried to scurry past, or not gone inside at all. Now, however, her Took side was wide awake and feeding off the supreme confidence she felt after her talk with Fram.

So she headed straight for it. Just as she reached the entrance, darkness spread out over the walls, the wood began to creak, and she watched as Gandalf, already taller than anyone had the right to be, seemed to grow another three to four feet.

"ENOUGH! IF I SAY BILBA BAGGINS IS A BURGLAR, THEN A BURGLAR SHE IS!"

The wizard towered, looming over Thorin, who stood in front of him gazing up at him......................and something extremely odd, even for her, happened.

Bilba looked at the Dwarven King. To this point she'd only talked to him a couple of times and he'd insulted her, apologized only to insult her again and, overall, dismissed her. She had no reason to like him and a plethora of reasons not too.

She could remember how he'd loomed over her the night before but now, as the wizard towered over him in turn, he seemed no larger than a child. Thorin had his face raised; not backing up an inch, but she caught the flicker of uncertainty deep in his eyes.

Her mind flashed to the pain she'd seen in them earlier, and took in too the full armor and sword he wore, as though he were so used to feeling unsafe he felt the need to protect himself even in the peace of the Shire.

A presence behind her alerted her to the arrival of Fili and Kili, silently watching Gandalf threaten their Uncle.

It made her angry.

She marched forward and shoved in front of him, looking up at Gandalf with her hands planted firmly on her hips.

"HEY!"

Gandalf, for his part, looked startled. Around her the blackness faded, the groaning ended, and the wizard returned to his normal height, which was still really tall, but was at least somewhat more reasonable.

"What is wrong with you?" Bilba demanded. "You dump an entire company of Dwarves on me unannounced, run off before I can yell at you as you so richly deserve and now you try to BREAK MY HOUSE? What, precisely, did I do to deserve this?"

Gandalf looked about to answer, but Bilba was already spinning back around. Thorin had his mouth open, always a bad sign with him, and was undoubtedly about to say something idiotic about not needing her help.

She pulled out the contract Fili had given to her and slapped it against his chest - and, wow, he had a broad chest – and ordered "SHUT. UP. Every time you open your mouth you start off fine but then you forget entirely to shut it again."

Thorin looked annoyed but, for once, kept his mouth shut.

"I'm going." Bilba said flatly.

Thorin's mouth opened again and, really, if he spoke it would probably make her want to abandon him to Gandalf, so Bilba did the only thing she could think of and slapped a hand over his mouth. "What did I just say?"

He looked stunned, his eyes locked on her, and she could almost swear she detected the faintest hint of amusement deep in them. Did Thorin Oakenshield actually possess a sense of humor?

Bilba signed in exasperation and removed her hand, her Baggins' side horrified while her Took side danced with glee.

"As I said, I'm going. As far as Rivendell. If I haven't proven I can take care of myself by then I'll have myself escorted back home and you'll never have to see me again. Agreed?"

It should work out perfectly. He could make Gandalf happy by letting her come and then could claim he'd given it a fair chance at Rivendell, but it hadn't worked out. It allowed him to be in charge in all aspects, while not looking bad for getting rid of her.

Meanwhile, she could go to Rivendell, and hope it jogged her memory about what happened to her family. The thought made her stomach clench in an almost painful manner but she doggedly kept quiet. She would do this. She would put the past to rest, and then would return home where Fram would be waiting with open arms.

Thorin considered her, before finally saying, "Agreed. You may accompany us to Rivendell, at which point the Elves will see you safely home."

"Good." She stepped back. Behind her Gandalf began to speak, and Bilba held up a hand for silence. "I'm still not speaking to you, try again tomorrow."

Now the look in Thorin's eyes was unmistakably amused. She hoped he didn't get used to it. No doubt he'd be unable to avoid saying something idiotic and she'd be forced to yell at him again in the near future.

"It's too late to get to Bree before nightfall, you might as well spend another night here and we can leave in the morning." She couldn't in good conscience send them out now, particularly since she'd be going with them and didn't feel like starting out her trip in the dark.

She turned back to where Fili and Kili were standing slack jawed in the entrance. "Don't just stand there; you left all my purchases on the front stoop. Go get them in, now!"

They obeyed, and Bilba rubbed her temples. All these males were giving her a headache.

Without another word she headed back to her room, and proceeded to fish out her sketchbook and pencils. They were hidden in her wardrobe, at the very back, on the bottom. It was the first time she'd touched them in years and she couldn't stop the small smile at the feel of them in her hands. It really had been far too long.

Getting back to her feet she headed out, past Gandalf and Thorin who were standing in the same position as when she'd left, and out the front door where Fili and Kili were bringing her groceries in.

She went down the stairs to her bench at the bottom of the garden and sank down with a sigh.

Honestly, how was she even going to make it to Rivendell if there was this much drama after having only met them the night before?

Had it been the night before? She worked back through the timeline, and groaned in annoyance. It felt like she'd met them years ago already.

She flipped her pad open and began sketching the ouline of the drawing she'd been itching to do of Fili and the way he'd looked examining her sword the night before.

The lines quickly began to take shape and Bilba soon found herself lost in the work. She hadn't so much as picked up a quill in years but she fell back into it as though it had been mere minutes. Around her the world seemed to shrink and disappear, all the cares and worries melting away until it was just her and the scratch of the pencil against the paper.

So engrossed was she in the work she utterly failed to notice the footfalls on the stairs behind her, until they paused directly behind her.

"That's a good likeness of him."

Bilba jumped, and fought the urge to slap the book shut.

Thorin stepped around to the other side of the bench and gave her a questioning look. Bilba gave him a suspicious look in return, but nodded, and he sank to the wood with a sigh. With an odd hesitation, he held a hand out. "Would you mind if I saw it?"

Bilba didn't comment, but simply handed the pad over.

Thorin studied it. "You're uncommonly good."

"Uncommon," Bilba said with a laugh. "A word I can never get away from."

He shrugged and handed it back. "It's not so bad a word is it?"

"It is in the Shire," Bilba said, leaning back and closing the pad.

Beside her Thorin pulled a pipe out from somewhere in his coat and lit it, leaning back against the wooden back of the bench.

Bilba followed his gaze. The sun was beginning to go down, she must have been sitting there for hours, as evidenced by the soreness she could feel making itself known in her lower back.

"I'm against you going."

Thorin said it without looking at her, his eyes still focused out over the Shire, or perhaps even beyond it.

"I picked up on that," Bilba said. "You're not exactly subtle."

He inclined his head slightly, conceding the point.

"I get it," Bilba continued. "Fili explained it, or at least started to. The rest wasn't hard to figure out."

"Did he?" Thorin turned to look at her. "What did he say?"

Bilba ran her hands over the sheaf of papers she'd fashioned into her sketch pad, running her fingers over the coarse twine binding them together. "Just that it'd look bad back home if they heard you were waiting outside the mountain while I went inside." She looked at him with a frown. "I told him I didn't know why you were so worried about impressing them anyway."

"I need their help," came the short response.

"Help you should have gotten as soon as you asked," Bilba shot back.

His eyes darkened. "They only answer to the one who holds the King's Jewel, the Arkenstone."

"Which is a poor excuse and you know it," Bilba said. "I doubt they'd obey any random individual who showed up with the Arkenrock, and you can't tell me they magically forgot who you are."

Thorin stood up pacing forward to her front fence. "It's more than a rock."

"Pretty sure it's not," Bilba said. "Fili made it sound like an unusually pretty rock, but a rock is a rock."

She placed her pad and pencil on the bench beside her and got up next to where Thorin leaned against the fence. She turned back to face her home and leaned against the fence next to him.

"Have you ever heard the tale of Beren and Luthien?"

Thorin gave her a sidelong look. "What about it?"

Bilba looked away from him, down the lane toward Fram's home.

"Beren and Luthien wished to marry but her father forbid it. Not wanting to look bad, or to upset his daughter, he set an impossible task for Beren in order to gain Lutien's hand."

"Retrieve a jewel from the crown of Morgoth," Thorin said. "I'm aware of the tale."

"Thing is, he wasn't supposed to actually TRY it," Bilba insisted. "I imagine King Thingol simply expected him to give up and admit defeat."

Thorin pushed off the fence and, to her eternal surprise, grinned at her. The look transformed him, and she realized he was far younger than she'd initially believed.

"But he did try," Thorin said, "and he succeeded, in the end."

Bilba sighed and rolled her eyes in frustration. Trust him to miss the point entirely. "And if you do succeed, and go back with the shiny rock that proves you're who they already knew you were, what then? They didn't want to go in the first place."

He shrugged. "They will be bound to their word. If I return with the Arkenstone they will have no choice but to set out with me to destroy the dragon. If they refuse they will lose their honor."

And honor was vitally important to a Dwarf, she knew that much. No doubt it was why they hadn't outright refused him in the first place, but rather worked out a scheme designed to make him give up. Except they'd underestimated the stubbornness of Thorin Oakenshield, an oddity as she'd picked up on it almost immediately.

Her train of thought derailed suddenly as, down the lane she caught sight of Priscilla and Seth returning home from wherever they'd been. She sucked in a breath, and jumped behind Thorin.

He looked back at her with a frown. "What are you doing?"

"I don't want them to see me!" Bilba hissed. She'd already decided against telling Priscilla, or the Thain, about her decision to go. They'd no doubt be against it, or outright forbid it, and she didn't want that. It meant she wouldn't be able to get any additional money for her trip but she still had leftover coins from the trip to Bree, and that should be more than enough to get her to Rivendell and back - assuming she'd have to pay Rangers to take her and couldn't just convince the Elves to do it for free.

She peered around Thorin's back, and saw the two had gone inside. "They'd be against me going and I've heard enough about it from you already," she groused.

Thorin frowned. "Are they your kin?"

"No." Bilba retrieved her sketch pad and pencils from the bench. "I have no kin anymore, it's just me."

She looked back up to where the sun was sinking. "I better get back inside. I need to pack and I should probably get dinner going."

"Bombur is seeing to dinner," Thorin said. "Speaking of which, here."

He reached into a pocket and pulled out a heavy pouch of coins. "For the food, and also the lodging."

The pouch was dropped into her hand, and Bilba's eyes widened at the weight. "This is far to much!"

"I doubt it. I saw how much food there was." he said. "Keep it, if only to pay for the annoyance."

The annoyance of having to put up with him? She doubted that's what he meant but happily decided to take it that way.

He'd already turned around again to continue staring out over the Shire so Bilba shrugged, pocketed the money, and headed back into the house.

At least she wouldn't have to worry about paying for an escort back home now.