There and Back Again

Chapter Eighteen: Taking the Next Step

Thorin took a deep breath as he stood outside of Thalia's door, he could not remember the last time that he had felt so nervous and he hoped that they were comfortable here; he recalled how dated the chambers had been. 

The last person to use them had been his grandmother more than a hundred years earlier, they had collected a lot of dust and Thorin had ordered them scrubbed clean for Thalia. 

"Thorin," Thalia greeted opening the door to him, she was a little surprised that he had arrived early since she had not been expecting him for another hour. 

Not that she would send him away, it was something that could not be avoided and Thalia knew that there was much for the two of them to discuss. 

Thorin shifted uneasily, this was worse than any battle that he had been in and he wished his stomach would stop tying itself into some awful knots; he feared making a mistake that could ruin this moment. 

It had been a long time since he had to deal with children, his own experience limited to that of Fili and Kíli and they were over one hundred and sixty years old now. 

"We were just sitting down for lunch... you could join us," Thalia suggested holding open the door for him to enter, she was not sure how they should do this but she doubted that there was an easy way. 

Standing outside for a moment, Thorin nodded his head before he moved inside of the chambers; he doubted that he would be able to stomach much when he was this nervous. 

His eyes quickly landing on the twins who were sat at the table and Thorin felt like he had never thought that this could be possible in all his years. 

No one would be able to deny that the little boy was his son, Theo looked so much like Thorin had done when he was a young dwarf; he would never be able to hide away from this connection. 

Shutting the door behind Thorin, Thalia paused trying to work out just what to say to the twins; she felt lost and she wished that there was a book or something to tell her what to do in a situation like this. 

Samara looked up from her dinner and stared at Thorin, her awfully familiar blue eyes seeming to stare right into him and he had to remind himself that she had no idea who he was.

There was silence for a moment and Thalia moved forward feeling rather useless, she wished she had been able to think of a way to break the news to them; she just did not know how to put this into words. 

"You're late," Samara stated as firmly as she could, her feet did not touch the floor in her chair and they swung a little as she stared at her parents; it had been a long time coming and she was hungry. 

Thalia blinked trying to take in what Samara had said, this was not what she had been expecting from her eldest; she was not even sure that they had been expecting when introducing the twins to their father for the very first time. 

"I'm sorry... I got lost," Thorin whispered a little in awe, he couldn't take his eyes off Samara or Theo who were both watching him in return; he had never thought that he would be a father in the first place. 

To experience this now was a completely new thing for him, even after helping his sister raise her own two sons after the death of her husband when they were only babies. 

Samara nodded her head stiffly, her blue eyes turning to Theo who gave her a small nod before she turned back to her parents who still looked rather confused. 

"You're forgiven," Samara conceded with a nod of her head and Thorin could not help but think about how much she reminded him of his sister when she was much younger.