Bring Me With Her

The Truth

The young woman took a deep breath as she woke up to what sounded like music. Talia rubbed the sleep from her eyes, and she could feel the dry tracks of the tears on her cheeks as she recalled the events of the night before.

If it weren't for the soreness in her throat, and the numb, heavy feeling she had in her chest, Talia would've been sure that last night had been a dream. A really...crappy dream. But it wasn't. Thorin was here...and he and Talia had screamed so loudly at each other that she was surprised her neighbors hadn't threatened to call the cops.

She remembered running back into her house that night. Talia had crashed into her bed, crying her eyes out. It wasn't because the blow to her cheek hurt, or even the fact that Thorin had accidentally hit her. It had all become too much for Talia to take in: Thorin was alive, and here, in Texas, on her front lawn. He had yelled at her as if coming home was what she had done in order to leave him, the way he thought she was planning to do.

That had pissed her off more than anything. She had never planned on leaving him, not permanently at least. Talia remembered how much of a mess she was back then. She had gone through so much during that last month of her time in Middle Earth. She went through the pain of seeing Thorin suffering from the dragon sickness...and she had paid many prices for it. Thorin had almost killed her for stealing the Arkenstone, and then she had witnessed the bloodbath of the Battle of the Five Armies...she had even witnessed the death of Nori, something she still wasn't completely over.

She just wanted time alone. She just wanted to find room to breathe again. Was it so wrong of her to want that? Even now, she couldn't say that she was better. Even though she believed that Thorin was dead for nearly a year, even though she had tried to move on, she could only say that she was a little less of a mess than she was back then. And seeing him last night...Talia didn't even want to look in a mirror right now.

So many thoughts were running through her mind before she finally cried herself to sleep. Thorin was here...why was he here? Did he really come all this way just to yell at her? No, it had to have been more than that. Why would a king suddenly drop everything just to give some foreign girl a piece of his mind? And all because of an emotional involvement with her? There had to be more.

What if he...what if he still loved her? Despite the fact that Thorin showed up unexpectedly at her home, and immediately started pointing fingers at her...he could've just been mad. Even though it wasn't always his intention, Thorin's anger was always the dominant emotion that he would show. And then Howard came out, and that had only made things worse...what if last night was not at all what he really planned?

After all...Talia had kind of left Erebor with no announcement or explanation. And if he was alive this whole time...oh God, she really did leave him! She left him, lying helplessly in his room, right after telling him that she basically didn't give one about whether he would live or die. If he really did come here because he still loved her...Talia had felt like the most selfish person in the world. She didn't deserve to have him back in her life...not after all that she said and did to him.

But then Talia's mind shifted to other thoughts. Thorin thought that she came home to "escape him"...and she knew perfectly well what that sounded like. As much as she didn't want to think about it...what if Thorin was still affected by the dragon sickness and the Arkenstone?

Talia didn't know what all Thorin had been up to these past months...he could have very well relapsed, as she had greatly feared that he would. What if Thorin still saw her as an object that he could just drag back to Erebor with him? Talia couldn't deal with that. As much as it would break her heart...she couldn't go back to living like that, living in fear of someone she loved so much.