DISCLAIMER: The characters and locations of The Hobbit do not belong to me. They belong to JRR Tolkien, New Line Cinema, and probably a host of other people I've forgotten. I'm only borrowing them for a little entertainment, and I'll put them back when I'm finished with them. Inara, however, belongs to me and I would like to be consulted before she is used in any other works. Evendim and Ithil-valon have standing permission to use any of my characters in any fics they choose.

ALTERNATE UNIVERSE WARNING! This story is set in an alternate universe. This means that some of the features, faces, and places might differ slightly from the original. This is intentional and WILL NOT result in canon characters behaving in out of character ways. It DOES mean they might develop in slightly different ways.

THIS STORY IS NON-SLASH.

DEDICATIONS: To Evendim, who first gave me the courage to post and has given me such pleasure with her own AU series. I would never have been so bold without your help, thank you from the bottom of my heart. To Ithil-valon, who has been more than a loyal friend and has helped me through some really tough times of late, and who has been the best beta-reader anyone could ask for. And to AJ, without whom my life will be a lot poorer. Rest well, my darling. You are sorely missed.

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Many Many thanks to all my loyal reviewers! I am so please that y'all like this tale so well! I hope y'all continue to enjoy it. Another chapter tomorrow night!

Final Chapter. Y'all have been a great bunch of readers... and I'm honored by the response I've gotten from my humble tale. Thank you all!

Part Eighteen

Inara was in search of Kili.

The younger Dwarf had taught her the bow and they had become fast friends over it. And she had some questions she wanted to ask that she was certain the others would never answer. Such as the phrases Thorin had been shouting in his delirium. Khuzdul was a private, secret language, never taught to outsiders. And she was desperate to know what he had been saying. He had sounded so broken, so lost, that she wanted to understand.

She found Kili just coming back into the mountain and waylaid him quickly before he could get into any mischief. "I need to talk to you," she said without preamble. "In private."

Kili grinned at her. "In private? Of course. I knew you'd come to your senses one day and run away with me." He took her down the hall a short way to a small room off to the side, barely noticeable. Once inside, however, his teasing stopped completely and immediately. "What is it? You're troubled, even I can see that."

She nodded, almost unable to speak. What if the things she had heard were sacred, secret? "Thorin – he raved in his fever," she said softly. She couldn't look him in the face. "In Khuzdul. And my name. I – I need to know what he said." He'd asked her forgiveness when he woke, but those words had been so despairing, so lost, that she NEEDED to know. Had he been cursing her? No, that would have been anger. But she had to know. And she couldn't ask HIM. Now that he'd been released from the healers' care, he had thrown himself into ruling his kingdom. They were together again – but not as they had been.

Kili simply stared at her. Out of all the things she could have chosen to talk to him about, this was the most surprising. "Not at all what I was expecting," he said finally as he rubbed at the back of his neck. "You could have asked Balin."

"He wouldn't answer this question and you know it," Inara offered back with a sigh of frustration. "Kili, please. Tell me what he said. I have to know."

He sighed heavily. "Inara, it's Khuzdul." He tried to explain it to her with a look and she obviously wasn't understanding. "I can't. We don't tell others about it. It's ours as few things can be." But he hated the look on her face. She was his friend, she was his aunt, really, Thorin's wife, and he was about to get himself in trouble again. But he couldn't tell her. He couldn't. Could he? Finally he shrugged. "Tell me what he said."

Relief flooded through her and she recounted every syllable though she stumbled across some of the words. She told him everything, right down to the anguish she'd heard, the desperate, longing sound of her name as he cried out.

Kili considered her for a moment longer, stalling for time. How could he explain it? Thorin had essentially cut out his heart when he sent her away, and he was mourning the action, but it was so much more than that. He had let NO ONE see the true depths of his pain, and only fever had forced it from him at the last. "I don't know how to explain it. If it was just the words, it would be easy. But some of Khuzdul is in the sound, the emotion BEHIND the word. If how you describe it is true – he was in agony, and not of the body." He caught her eye and held it. "Did he ask your forgiveness?"

Slowly she nodded. All of this was very mysterious, but if it helped her to understand, then she'd answer anything he asked. "After he woke. And I gave it. Kili, please, I don't understand!"

The others would kill him later he was sure but he had to answer her. He had to give her some peace from the uncertainty he saw in her. "He was grieving. He was sure you weren't there, that you were gone forever. That you had died on the battlefield and he'd had no chance to make amends for his mistake. That he'd lost any chance he still possessed to tell you he loved you. And he wanted to join you." That was the worst of it. The words she had spoken, even without hearing them from Thorin's own lips, he understood them. They were pleas for death to take him and end his suffering. To take him and allow him to be with her once more.

Inara's eyes widened in shock. He had wanted to die? That seemed so unlike the proud, stubborn Dwarf she had given her heart to. "Tell me he loved me? Kili, he did it all the time. Not in words, perhaps, but I knew. It was why it hurt so bad when he sent me away. I thought he'd stopped." She felt tears in her eyes but wouldn't let them fall.

Kili grabbed at his temper with both hands. The two of them deserved each other. "Dwarves feel deeply, Inara, more deeply than most give us credit for. And Thorin even more so, for all he hides it. He could no more stop loving you than he could stop breathing." He took her by the shoulders and pushed her out the door. "Go to him. You two have to work this out between you. And think of something else, Inara." He watched her for a moment to be certain he had her full attention. "He might not have told you – but did you ever tell him?" And with that he stalked past her and left.

She stood there for several long moments, considering his words, before stiffening her spine and heading for the throne room. Kili was right. She needed to tell him.

Thorin was holding an audience when he saw her. He rose slowly, watching her come forward, nearly holding his breath. She fairly radiated with purpose and he was concerned. No, not concerned... it was time to be honest. He was afraid that she would leave again. She had forgiven him, but things between them still hadn't been right.

She stopped at the bottom of the stairs and he watched her for a moment before going to meet her. Silence fell about them once more as he took her hands in his, but neither spoke. A spell seemed to hold them in place, eyes locked together, unable to speak. They were oblivious to the onlooking throng; they only saw each other.

His fingertips once more traced the scar on her cheek and she leaned into the caress, her eyes closing against the emotion it provoked within her. Finally he found his voice. "You are the most beautiful thing in my life," he said softly. "You are kind and gentle and fierce and fiery. You hold my heart, and always will. And you mean more to me than all the treasure under my Mountain. As the Arkenstone is the Heart of the Mountain, so are you mine. I would live in exile once more rather than be parted from you again." He held her eyes again, willing her to understand that he meant every word. "I love you."

She kissed him then, not caring that there were so many watchers. "As I love you," she murmured. "And the only way we will ever be parted again is in death, I swear that to you. How could I leave my heart?"

He gave a gentle pull at her hand and drew her up onto the dais with him. "You belong here, with me," he said softly. "Balin!" he called and the old Dwarf came near. "What other business is there I must see to?"