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Chapter Forty Eight - Hoping Beyond Hope

It's been a few days now. The Durin's had been moved to the Royal wing, placed in separate rooms to recover. Both Fili and Kili were healing nicely, but they would still have to take it easy for the next weeks to come. Thorin on the other hand, hadn't woken up. Maura had yet to leave the King's side, clutching his hand in hers. Her head gently resting on his chest that continued to rise up and down normally. The healer was trying so hard to stay strong, that this was just a normal part of the healing process, but she was beginning to think he may never wake up. What if he was stuck in this comatose state for a long time?

The door into Thorin's private quarters opened. Maura hadn't moved from her position, even when she heard the footsteps coming closer.

"Maura. Lass, what are you doing?" Balin sighed with concern.

"What does it look like I am doing. " She muttered.

" Maura. Hovering over Thorin's body isn't going to wake him any faster. You've done all you can do, to help him. The rest is up to him and if he were awake right now, he wouldn't want you sitting around doing nothing. When was the last time you ate something? Or got some sleep?" Balin pressed.

The healer sat up, rubbing the tears and sleep out of her eyes. Part of her knew Balin was right. But she didn't want to be away from his side when he did wake up. The elder Dwarf placed a hand on her shoulder and gently squeezed it. "Lass come on. You should get something to eat and get some air. It will do you some good. "

"Okay. I'll be out in a minute." She told him. Balin nodded and the healer was alone. Maura stood up from the chair she was in, still holding Thorin's hand in hers. She leaned over to whisper something in his ears. " Please come back to me." She moved her lips away from his ears and kissed his lips and pulled away. Maura laid his hand over his chest and left the room.

The healer wandered down the quiet hall until she heard familiar voices coming from the great hall. She rounded the corner and found her companions and Bilbo. The wounded were still coming into the mountain. The Dwarves had built a temporary bridge where the original walkway had been before Thorin had ordered it to be broken so no one could enter the kingdom. She saw Oin attending to a solider, bandaging his arm, as more wounded Dwarves were carried in.

"Lass, there you are. I could use some assistance." Oin declared coming up to her. " This group needs attending to first." he informed, and the two healers got to work, doing what they do best. While they were doing that, the others went back to clearing more of the chunks of stone to the side to make room for the injured. Maura had some pretty interesting conversations that had her laughing with the solider's she attended to. Dwalin and Balin both smirked and rolled there eyes, when noticing less and less of the Dwarves were going to Oin and over to the female healer.

Both Balin and Dwalin turned to the side when they heard chuckling coming beside them. " That lass has got her hands full now. Those lads will keep her busy. She bandaged me up real good." Dáin said holding out his arm for them to see.

Evening rolled around. Maura and Oin did a once-over of all the wounded that were now lying on the makeshift beds in the great hall. Fires going all around. Maura wandered back down the hall to check on the two brothers. Fili was happy to see her, and asked if the state of their uncle had changed, but Kili just grunted his responses to her questions when she asked them if anywhere else hurt. Or if they needed anything. The young woman was just leaving out the door when she heard Fili asked Kili why he was treating her this way. Maura left before she could hear more as she made her way down to Thorin's quarters to check on him. She sat on the edge of his bed and placed the back of her hand on the king's forehead. His feverish temperature had come down lots since this morning when she checked it. It was just about back to normal. Getting up from the bed, Maura went over to the hearth and threw in more pieces of wood to feed the fire and left the king's room and headed back down the hall to join the others for something warm to eat.