One That Got Away

Chapter 17

"They've been too long," hissed Mara as she paced the living room. Fili, Kili and Andy sat on the beanbags with a bag of chips Kili picked up from the convenience store on their last trip over.

"They have to drop off the truck and get a taxi, Mara.They'll be a while. And David probably wanted to grab some food," Andy said gently, leaning back in a fatigued relaxation. Mara gave her a withering look which once more failed to wither the woman.

"Why are you so worried? Thorin can take care of himself. Plus the Twins will watch over them," Fili said passing Kili another Fanta. Kili beamed at his brother.

"They could get arrested! Detained. Arthur could turn them in! A car crash. A mugging, killed, kidnapped they could die!" she said, her volume going up so high she was nearly silent and dogs would be covering their ears soon.

"Mara calm down. Eat something, they're fine," Andy said firmly but Mara kept pacing. Andy looked to Fili and Kili for help. Kili nodded and stood up.

"Mara, let's have a song," he said taking her hands in his so she had to stop walking. Mara gave him a shrewd look.

"I'm not some dorky teenager who you can trick into calming down by making her sing," she said firmly and Kili raised a skeptical eyebrow. "What song?" she sighed pulling out her iPod and speaker.

"That one about daggers," he said and Andy gave him an incredulous. "Or was it grooves?" he sounded troubled.

"Moves Like Jagger," Mara said and set the iPod down as the music started. "Come on get up, we're all dancing," she said grabbing Fili, and Kili offered Andy a hand. The music started up and the four were bouncing and swaying and laughing.

"So get in the car! You can ride it wherever you want, get inside it. You wanna steal, but i'm shifting gears, I'll take it from here. Oh yeah, yeah and it goes like this!" and then they were all singing and laughing and just going wild.

-

Thorin froze, a six pack of ale halfway to the cart and David glanced at him from the wine rack.

"What?" he asked. Thorin shook his head, a small smile on his face.

"Nothing. She's singing." David he gave him a confused look and put two bottles of champagne in the cart.

"Okay, weird," David said, pushing the cart down the row. Thorin could still feel her voice reverberating up and down his spine in the base of his skull and through his heart like a drum beat over his chest. "Twins put that back, we are not buying fourteen boxes of poptarts!"

-

"Oooh! You called me up again tonight, but ooh, this time I'm telling you, I'm telling you!" Andy crowed as the four danced around the living room, barefoot and wildm the house filling up with life and music. Kili span Mara around and around and the two toppled back on the bean bags in laughter.

"You go talk to your friends talk to my friends talk to me!" the two cheered and laughed a tad on the maniacal side. The next song started playing and Mara froze, a chill shooting up her spine. Fili dropped Andy's hands and moved quickly to the iPod. But the slamming of a car door made him freeze.

"They're here," Andy said in relief. Mara ran to the door as it opened and Thorin stepped in. He looked up and a smile spread across his face a split second before Mara leapt into his arms and he wrapped his arms around her. Mara could care less that her Twin brothers were walking into the foyer with bags of groceries, or that David was watching her and Thorin with a scathing look. She didn't care that Kili and Fili were sharing twin smiles or that Andy was looking at her feet in an attempt at giving them a moment. All she cared about was that Thorin was holding her in his arms and he was safe with her and no one could stop her.