Shortly after receiving the news of her husband's valiant death saving the king in battle, Dis, daughter of Thrain, sister of Thorin, King Under the Mountain, went into pre-term labor with her third child. Most dwarf babies come at night for reasons unknown, during the mother's twelfth month. This child was coming almost a full three months too early.

Thorin caught his beloved sister as the first pain shot through her middle and she doubled-over in pain. "NO! MAHAL, Thorin, NO. It is not time!" Dis called out to the gods even as she sought the comfort of her brother's strong arms. She cried out again with the birthing pains, "Fili, Kili…"

"Dwalin has them, sister," Thorin answered. "Balin, go for the midwife, and Oin," he called over his shoulder as he lifted Dis and carried her to her bed. "Do not despair, sister. Your husband even now is in the Halls of Waiting. He will not be joined by your babe. Of this I swear!"

Dis labored all night, through the next day and into the following night. Thorin never left her side, mopping her forehead, whispering to her gently and nonsensically in Khadzul. He had always loved his sister, since the first moment their mother had placed Dis in his arms as a babe. He had thought her the loveliest creature in Middle Earth and even as he watched her grow into a strong, beautiful woman, marry his best friend and begin raising a family of her own, he knew there would never be one he would respect or love more than she.

Her cries ripped at his soul. He willed his strength into her and when the midwife said that this babe would be the death of her, his wrath knew no bounds. He cast the midwife out of the house, lifted Dis into his arms and roused her from the effects of the draught for the pain that Oin had just given her.

"Dis, sister, awaken now," Thorin shook her gently. "Dis, you must awaken and birth this babe. Fili and Kili need their mam. I need you, Dis. I do not give you leave to take yourself away from me. Dis, please…"

Thorin's agonizing plea reached deep within the medicinal haze which wrapped itself around Dis. She raised a small hand to Thorin's face, "Brother, my love, help me…" Thorin raised his sister to lean within his arms and upon his lap. Then using his large hands, he pressed upon her stomach with all his might, helping her to push the babe from her body.

"Wait," Oin said. "The babe's head is out." Oin cleared the babe's mouth and unwrapped the cord from its limp neck. "One push more, my lady, should do it."

Thorin helped her push once again and the babe was expelled from Dis' body, in silence. Oin looked at Thorin with sadness in his eyes. "A daughter my lady, my king. Perfect in every way, but I fear too tiny. I am sorry."

"No, Thorin, please, please do something," Dis' distraught cry touched Thorin deeply and he cursed himself and his inadequacy. He was, after all, a killer, not a healer. He picked up the babe and gently shook her, meaning to send her to her father by placing a king's kiss of acceptance and respect upon her tiny mouth. At the touch of his lips to hers a tiny mewling cry came so suddenly from the babe that Thorin almost dropped her. He reached for the swaddling and wrapped the babe gently and placed her in her mother's arms. He had never seen so tiny a babe from any race in Middle Earth, nor one so beautiful and perfect…from the mop of darkest hair atop her head, to her midnight blue eyes, so like his own and his sisters. The tiny turned up nose, so like Kili's and pouty, pink lips like Fili's. It seemed this babe was the best of all of them and Thorin knew she would have his heart from that day forth…the closest to a daughter of his own that he would ever have.

Neither hell, high water, nor even the fierceness of Dwalin, captain of the king's guard, could keep the young princes from the doorway of their mother's room and they witnessed the miraculous birth of their baby sister. Fili, a mere five years old, stood with his arm securely around Kili's shoulder, the younger prince only three and not really able to understand the goings on. Dis, still so exhausted could only gaze up at her brother with all the love in her heart and whisper, "Thank you."

Thorin eased her gown from her shoulder and held the babe to her mother's breast as Dis drifted off to sleep. He refused to allow the midwife back into the house and never left his sister's side. When the babe was too tired to suckle, Thorin expressed some of Dis' milk and fed the tiny infant with a dropper. "You will be the light of this family, little mouse. You will bring back the joy to this house," Thorin cooed, having just finished feeding and changing the babe when Dis woke.

"Little mouse, brother? Why little mouse?" Dis asked gently.

Thorin brought the babe to her mother, laid her gently into Dis' arms and smoothed back his sister's hair from her forehead. "The tiny squeak she made upon her birth, sister. The squeak of a mouse," Thorin shrugged and smiled. "Besides, you have not named her yet, sister."

"Gili," Dis whispered to the little bundle in her arms. "Our little mouse's name is Gili," she smiled up at Thorin with tears in her eyes. "Will you now be father to my children, brother?"

"I have ever loved them thus," Thorin replied gently. "And though they may not be truly mine, they will ever be ours."