In-Between

Summary: A collection of little moments in the life of Tauriel and Kíli from the time they leave everything behind after the battle. There will be kids, old friends and new faces along the way… and the War of the Ring is approaching.

Look, what I've found? A new chapter almost finished sitting on my hard drive. So, if you are still interested, I finished it. Enjoy!

"You need help, Nethon?" Aragorn heard a familiar voice behind him as he drew his sword through the skull of a Wrag.

"Nah, I'm good," he turned to the voice with a smile and a nonchalant shrug after freeing his sword. Just as the words left his mouth, a knife whisked past right next to his ear and hit an Orc right between his eyes. "Or not," he watched the Orc fall. "But just for the record, you distracted me, mellon."

"It is good to see you, too," Tauriel smiled. "Come on, I see you lost your horse."

Aragorn hopped on behind her without wasting a second. Those damned creatures were everywhere.

They managed to get rid of a good deal of them before Tauriel's horse got run over by a huge beast and they tumbled on the ground in a messy heap. He was still seeing stars from the fall when another Wrag ran past him and he, as on a reflex, reached for it and hauled himself up.

The Wrag had not stopped as he was wrestling with its rider and suddenly he realized that the cliff was approaching fast…

After a mysterious axe killed the second, no, the third beast on top of him, Gimli managed to climb out from under the smelly pile he'd found himself under. He took a second to regain his breath when a strange female voice reached his ears.

"Rhaich!" a young woman exclaimed not far from him. He had no time to wonder about her presence, though, as he realized that she was cornered by two beasts and their riders. He also noticed that her hands were empty but she looked ready to tackle the Wrags by her bare hands.

"Here, lass," Gimli called out to her and threw his second axe for her to use. Thoriel caught it unperturbed and started cutting down the Orcs and Wrags with practiced ease.

Gimli wasn't standing idle, either, as he joined her with an impressed look.

"I'll be damned. If it isn't an Elf wielding an axe." Gimli spared a surprised glance at the girl.

"I'm not an Elf, Dwarf," Thoriel spared him a sideway glance.

"You've found quite a strange looking Dwarrodam, Master Elf," Gimli observed, looking at the companion of Legolas who was walking up to him.

"That's because I'm not a Dwarrodam," the short girl frowned at him affronted.

"These folks are confusing me," the Dwarf grumbled indignantly. First an Elf who claimed not being an Elf and now a skinny Dwarf who denied to be one. "Who are they anyway?" he asked Legolas. "Ah, that one's an Elf, right?" His eyes fell on a third woman who was approaching them. She had to be an Elf, he thought.

"She is, my friend," Legolas smiled. "She is my sister, Tauriel."

"I see she got lucky, huh? She looks nothing like you," he grinned. "And she's got a dwarven marriage braid," he observed with a raised eyebrow as Tauriel stopped next to them.

"Gimli, this is Tauriel," Legolas introduced them. "Your cousin's wife," he added and if he was all too amused by the situation, it was only the twinkle in his eyes that gave him away. Gimli looked at him and scoffed. He was getting better at reading the Elf. He started laughing.

"You must think yourself witty, Elf, but there is no cousin of mine who would wed an Elf," he said, finding the idea hilarious. His laughter stopped abruptly, though. "Except…" He looked at the red-headed Elf then at the strange not-Elves and not-Dwarves. It downed on him then. The brown eyes of the tall one… and the smile of the other. "By Mahal's beard!" He looked positively dumbstruck. "You're Kíli's Elf." He looked back at Tauriel. Tauriel bowed her head. "That is not possible," he narrowed his eyes.

"It is," Tauriel smiled patiently. "Well met, cousin."

When long silence followed, Legolas put a hand on Gimli's shoulder. "Kíli lives, Master Dwarf."

Again, long silence but then, "That beardless little bastard," Gimli laughed out. "His Amad's gonna skin him alive."

"Where is uncle," Thoriel looked around with a worried expression, looking for Aragorn.

Aragorn's death crushed everybody. And he was not the only one lost in the ambush.

The rest of the way to Helm's Deep was solemn, the silence was only broken by silent murmurs and the occasional mournful melodies of the people of Rohan.

Tauriel was riding with a blank expression but silent tears were running down on her daughters' faces. Mirel took it especially hard. She adored the man.

It broke her heart to see her daughters in grief and she chastised herself for thinking that she could have shielded them from any loss and harm had they stayed at home. Life had been getting more and more dangerous. There was just no way to save them from hurt no matter where they were. She knew that. There was no safe place left in Middle Earth (she hoped against hope that Dóra and Doran were safe) and, at least, this way they were doing something good. Yet, she would have given anything to be able to wipe those tears of loss from her daughters' faces.

Gimli was understandably furious when they told him what had happened to Dáin and his kin. He was ready to take on Sauron and all the Easterling horde that was responsible for the death of his family all by himself. But after his rage had ebbed somewhat, he slumped down on a log by the fire and stared into it without any further comment.

The silence stretched out after that in the little group.

"So," he broke the silence at once. "You tell me that Kíli went to Erebor to claim the throne."

"He did," Mirel nodded.

"That's good. If I understand it right, it is him or me that could come in succession and let me tell you, I was always comfortably distant from that cursed stool."

It wasn't difficult for Éowyn to notice the Elf when she had first arrived with her companions. With her blazing red hair, she stood out among the crowd. She wasn't at all what she had imagined when Aragorn told about her. She wasn't really any Elf she would have imagined. She looked… wordly. Even the blonde prince with his comely manner looked somewhat otherworldly. But not this woman.

She could easily see why Aragorn fancied her.

Even despite her crushed heart, she had felt for the woman when she found out that Aragorn had been lost in the battle.

At the moment, however, she found it hard to share in her joy as she was standing in front of the man whom they had believed dead. It was difficult to be happy for her when Éowyn herself wanted to run up to the man and make sure that he was real… that he was truly alive.

That was not her place, however.

As the Elf gave back the jewel to Aragorn, Éowyn squared her shoulders and went on helping the people who looked just as lost and bereft as she was feeling.

"Legolas," Tauriel started as they stood on the battlements of Helm's Creek. "Promise me, when this is all over, you will come back with me to Mirkwood." In the silence that followed, Tauriel looked out at the orcs down and added, "Or go back by yourself. Either way, please, talk to father."

"I hear he's a real pain in the ass," Gimli supplied, sensing the tense mood. "But again, I also hear that about you," he shrugged, looking up at Legolas.

"Maybe that is why it is so hard for them to get along," Thoriel joined in from the other side of the Dwarf. Tauriel smiled a little.

"If we see the end of this war, sister," he looked at her with a solemn expression, "I will return to Mirkwood."

"Thank you."

Tauriel was looking around her furiously and with quickly rising panic. They were retreating, the numbers of the Orcs so great that there was no realistic chance of keeping the Deep.

Before it all began, a kind of calm had settled on her… or more like acceptance. It unsettled her when Legolas lashed out at Aragorn, never having seen him so out of control… so afraid. Not even when he was running up to Ravenhill with her into a certain trap.

But finally everybody settled down and was ready to face the inevitable.

It had gotten out of hand so quickly, though.

Men and Elves were falling as quickly as Orcs were climbing through the massive walls. It seemed that whenever she struck one creature, two others took its place. They were just so many. And she had lost sight of both Thoriel and Mirel. The last time she saw her younger daughter in the midst of the tumult was when Aragorn grabbed her by the gate but Thoriel seemed to have completely disappeared.

So as people were milling into the hall in alarmingly small numbers, Tauriel was frantically searching for her daughters. She had caught sight of both Legolas and Gimli and she knew that Aragorn was making his way to them, too, but her daughters…

The relief she felt when she saw Mirel was immense. But the seconds only dragged by until she spotted Thoriel, too, pressing through the closing doors, pushing two young boys in front of her. Her shoulders sagged with the closing of the large doors.

They were there. They were alive.

But with relief came another realization as her eyes scanned the all too small crowd in the hall.

They were trapped.

"Is there no other way for the women and the children to get out of the caves?" Aragorn looked at the king. When no answer came, he pressed on. "Is there no other way?"

Tauriel could sense the urgency in his voice and see the conviction in his eyes that there was still something to do. Everything was not lost.

"There is one passage," Théoden's man answered instead of his king. "It leads into the mountains. But they will not get far," he added as the Orc army was relentlessly pounding on the large gate. "The Uruk Hai are too many."

There were no other options.

"Send word for the women and children to make for the mountain pass…" Aragorn urged the man, "…and barricade the entrance."

"So much death," the king finally spoke but his voice was bereft of any hope. "What can men do against such reckless hate?"

In the silence that followed his question, despair was tangible. There was only one thing to do if they hoped to secure a somewhat safe passage for the women and children.

"Ride out with me," Thoriel broke the silence as she turned to the King swords in her hands and stone-hard determination on her face. "Ride out and fight."

Her words seemed to break the tense stillness of the people and even King Théoden's eyes lit up.

"For death and glory."

"For Rohan. For your people." Tauriel watched stunned as the men of Rohan straightened at her daughter's words.

"The sun is rising," Gimli observed gravely but there was something in Aragorn's eyes as he put a hand on Thoriel's shoulder.

"Yes. Yes. The horn of Helm Hammerhand shall sound in the deep," the king's voice rose and there was a new determination in the people around her, "…one last time."

They would not go without a fight.

"I know you," Gandalf looked at the Elf walking up to them. She seemed familiar and he even thought that he could put her into context but something was off. He remembered an Elf among the ruins of Dale but it was surely not this woman.

"Gandalf," Legolas turned to him. "This is my sister, Tauriel."

"You are Queen Mallasseth's daughter," his statement carried his incredulity. He scoffed surprised. This revelation did not help his wondering mind, though. "I met you once, Lady Tauriel. But you were only an Elfling then, sitting on your mother's arm. You are now a…"

"Mortal, if that is what you are wondering."

"Indeed," he mused. That was the missing piece of the puzzle. She was indeed there in Dale on the side of her brother. She was the one standing up against Thranduil's ways. She was the one on a mission of her own. But how does an Elf become mortal?

He was not left wondering for long as Éomer rode up to them with a companion on the back of his horse. A companion, who was profoundly cursing as she deftly hopped off of his horse and gave him a dark look.

"Thoriel," Tauriel's tone was reproaching.

"What did you just say?" Gandalf dismissed the reproach in Tauriel's voice.

"I said a lot of things," she gave him a strange look.

"Tell me," he said mustering up his authority.

It worked.

"I said 'You're a beardless orc's behind' and other things along that line." Gandalf raised an eyebrow while Tauriel shook her head disapprovingly. If anything, Éomer looked impressed. "I might have even insulted his father," she admitted with a shrug.

"You know you're insulting King Théoden's nephew," Aragorn pointed out.

"Well, being the nephew of the King doesn't make him any less stupid." She gave said nephew an indignant look.

But that was not what Gandalf was interested in.

"That wasn't what I heard," he spoke up. "Tell me what you said exactly."

"From the start?" Thoriel looked sincerely taken aback by the request.

"Please, no," Tauriel said flatly.

"Menu shirumund rakhas ukratin," supplied another voice and Gandalf gave its owner a sharp look. "That was what she said."

For a long moment, Gandalf regarded the small girl, then turned back to the other one who was still looking at him as if he were senile. Finally, he turned back to Tauriel. So that is how an Elf loses her immortality. He shook his head unbelievingly then began to laugh… with a happy, unbelieving laugh.

He heard it right – the girl had been cursing in Khuzdul.

"Gandalf, you're all right?" Aragorn asked concerned.

"Oh, my friend, I am more than all right. It seems that the Valar had smiled down on us all those years ago. The North is safe… King Thranduil and King Kíli will make sure of that, am I right?"

"Of course. They will kick some Orc arse," Mirel agreed wholeheartedly.

"Oh, by the stars," Tauriel sighed.

TBC

So, that was it. I have 2 or 3 more chapters planned for this story which are also mostly written. I just have to get my thoughts together. We'll see. Anyway, thanks for reading and sorry for the mistakes!