The Three Women Of Durin

The Final Curtain Call

Rosie, Thorin and Bilbo plummeted up the stairs of the nearest building, moving fast and far left with only hope that Frankie and Kili had made it to safe ground. When Thorin came to the realisation that nothing was following them, he slowed to a stop with the others following in suite. They stood for a moment, hunched over, clutching their lungs and various stitches as they listened carefully to any and all noise. Finally, after several prolonged seconds, someone spoke.

"What was that?" Bilbo gasped as he stood upright, wincing slightly as he did so.

"My best guess...a cannonball," Thorin sighed, stretching out his right leg, shifting his weight onto the crumbling stone wall.

"Seriously?" Rosie huffed, "A cannonball?"

"Oh, do you not have those on earth?" Thorin asked, one hundred percent serious.

"No, no," Rosie said hastily trying to cover up her growing smile, "Just cannonballs remind me of pirates and stuff, not really middle earth but-" Rosie could feel herself rambling, "That doesn't matter now does it," A pause as the three settled back down into their own thoughts, planning and scheming in their own ways, "What do we do now?" Rosie finally spoke up. Thorin opened his mouth to speak but before he could do so Bilbo had already got there first.

"Higher ground," He said causing both Thorin and Rosie to turn to him with a little shock dancing in both of their features, this inevitably caused Bilbo to lose his voice a little, "I mean...that's what you taught me...to do...in situations like this," Bilbo continued, shifting is weight back and forth, for one of the bravest people Rosie had ever had the fortune of meeting, Bilbo sure did lose faith in himself far too easily. Thorin and Rosie shared a look.

"He's right," Thorin said, and so the small group began to climb the nearby stairwell. They moved in silence for a while, once again buried deep in their own little pits of ponderings till Rosie decided to speak her mind.

"Do you think Frankie and Kili are alright?" Rosie said softly, her voice reverberating gently down the spiralling stone.

"We can only hope," Thorin replied, just as tenderly. A beat.

"Are you worried about them?" Bilbo asked from behind Rosie, his light footsteps the quietest of the three.

"Me?" Thorin asked turning around to peer at the hobbit who nodded in response, "Yes...well...I'm worried about everyone, it's my duty to...and even if it wasn't they're my friends, family even,"

"Even me?" Rosie said jokingly, "And Frankie and...Cece?" She said, know finding the note of funny disappearing from her voice quicker than she would have liked it to. Thorin stopped abruptly on the stairwell almost causing Rosie and Bilbo to crash straight into his back. Slowly, he turned around.

"Rosie..." He said softly, his blue orbs looked at her delicately whilst he searched for the right thing to say. Rosie felt a breath hitch in her throat as he moved down a few steps to stand nearer to her, he was so close Rosie could feel the warm beating of his skin against her own. "You are...just as important to the company as anyone else...okay? I understand that in your situation you may think that, truly, deep down you don't belong...but...to us, to me...you remind me more of a home than Erebor did when I first walked under its walls..." Thorin finally said. This particular statement caused Rosie's eyes to widen.

"Thorin...how can you say that?" She spluttered out, shocked that he could even think a thing like that.

"It's the truth, I will swear it on anything," Thorin kindly smiled, the corners of his eyes creasing ever so slightly as he did so. "And you," he looked over Rosie's shoulder at the small hobbit, "You are...the bravest warrior I have ever had the pleasure of working with," Bilbo shuffled his overly large feet from side to side, not quite making eye contact with anyone.