#linasofia

“What in the name of all that is holy is going on?” Tova demanded to know as soon as she had taken in the scene in front of her.

“Do not worry about it,” Thorin said glumly but – of course – he should have known better than to tell her something as silly and deflecting as that.

“Explain!” Lo supported her friend, her patience worn out by the long minutes of waiting, “What is with that bucket and…is that blood?”

Thorin sighed heavily and Ori was actively avoiding my gaze as if not telling us what had happened would make the whole thing disappear, as if they could cancel nastiness by just not talking about it, which was – come to think of it – probably exactly what they usually did.

“Someone, and I can imagine what someone that has been – has put a small explosive into a dead animal and dropped it at our doorstep," Thorin admitted after a second reluctantly.

"An explosive? Into a dead animal? Someone made a carcass explode against our door?” Tova repeated in a very objective, serious tone.

“It’s a threat,” Ori murmured, “it means that they – whoever they are – know where we live.” His eyes flew to us and there was no doubt about where his preoccupations were laying.

“We can see that,” Tova nodded, grabbing the bucket, and emptying it into the kitchen sink before filling it up again.

As if animated by one single thought, Lo and me started putting together different supplies and threw open the flat door to check on the state of the hallway.

“What are you doing?” Fíli exclaimed – horrified – as he followed us out.

“We’re cleaning up the rest of the mess,” Lo declared haughtily, “we are not little princesses. You forget where I come from.”

“You’ve been born with a silver spoon in your mouth,” he mocked under his breath.

“If I’ve understood this correctly, it was our families that put yours out of their home and wealth,” Lo snapped back, “so do you really think that this is the first time I’ve been threatened? I am not afraid.”

“This is just so childish,” I agreed, “but how did he get in here?”

“It’s my fault,” the concierge admitted gloomily, “someone had damaged one of the garage cameras and I went to check on it; I guess he must have slipped past when I was away from the front desk.”

That made a lot of sense, I thought, and whoever had caused this ruckus would not have encountered any kind of problem to leave the building again as all the doors – with the exception of the main entry – were locked from the outside but not from the inside.

For all we knew, he could have walked out of the garage – brazen as hell – without being seen by anyone.

“I called the police,” the porter then went on, squaring his shoulders to show that he was ready to take responsibility for what had happened, “they should arrive in a moment.”

“Good, I’ve called Dwalin,” Thorin informed us, “and I want you to be prepared that there is a good chance that all the others will come over as well and try to baby us.”

A warm feeling of solace washed over me at the thought of the elderly gentlemen arriving in their pyjamas and slippers to make sure we were not overly frightened by the third stupid prank in a row.

“Do we tell our own parents?” Lo’s fingers threaded themselves into mine carefully, her eyes warm and steady.

“It makes me choke up to even think of them right now,” I confessed, but she was of course right, this kind of thing could and should not be kept from them.

It was late already, and my parents would be in bed, but it was my father’s flat that had been the object of an attack, so I pulled myself together and dialled his number.

As soon as he picked up, I laid out the facts in as neutral a tone as I could muster – trying hard not to burst at the seams as Thranduil’s words came back to me – and, for a long moment, there was silence on the other line.

“I told you that something like that would happen,” my father finally said, “are you ready to come home now? You cannot stay there.”

I had not thought that far. Nobody had. Or had they?

Turning around, I looked into the blank eyes of my friends.

Thorin mouthed: “He is right, you cannot stay here.”

My father’s name and his estate would protect me, I knew, but – somewhere deep inside – I also suspected that this was exactly what this Az-person had aimed at. He had sworn to hurt the men and what better way than to separate them from their girlfriends before smashing their faces to pieces?

“I am uninjured,” I replied slowly, “I am unafraid.”

“You cannot stay there,” my father repeated slowly, “they are dangerous. They’ll bring shame and destruction over you.”

“I am familiar with the feeling,” I quipped; it had slipped out, but now that the words were spoken, I could not help feeling how true they sounded.

“Tell him that I’ll stay right here,” Lo declared, sitting down demonstratively on the large couch we had bought, “I will not be chased out of my own home by a lunatic.”

“Baby,” Fíli interjected, thoroughly horrified by her stance, “it is not safe.”

“I will keep you safe,” she promised, a cold gleam in her eyes as she rolled her head side to side.

“That’s not…” Thorin gasped, rolling his eyes, and then stormed towards the door when the bell rang to let in Dwalin, followed by Balin and Nori.

“This is not your fight!” For once, our parents and the men’s guardians were agreed.

Tova, Lo, and I exchanged one meaningful look. If the men went home, they would draw Az’s anger as honey drew flies; they’d endanger their own family, darling Kíli, his single mother, upstanding Dori…

“No,” Tova said quietly but the word resounded like a shot in the silence of the room as everyone held their breath.

“No,” she repeated, “you cannot go home.”

“We’d pull him away from you,” Thorin tried to plead.

“Yes,” Tova nodded, “we know.”

“But where would you draw him to, Thorin?” Lo added, settling one slender hand on his shoulder, “We cannot be responsible for that.”

“A guard, a better lock, anything you can think of, father mine?” I purred into the phone that I still pressed – a bit too tightly – to my ear.

“You are not the target of this,” my father repeated, a beeping in the line letting me know that he was about to enter a conference call; to my utter surprise it was not work though but Lo’s father joining us.

So, I just put the call on speakerphone as well and let everyone participate.

“Is your girl as stubborn as mine? She just clicked away my call,” Lo’s dad spoke, seemingly not aware of my being on the line as well.

“She refuses to come home,” my father acquiesced, “even though this is not her problem.”

I saw Lo’s eye-roll and Tova’s pallor and my patience ran out.

“My God,” I screeched, “is it really that hard to understand? We are not dumb; we are aware that we are not in the cross-hairs directly, but we won’t abandon them to imminent and indisputable danger.”

“If you don’t want to come home, at least go to a hotel while I make sure that your complex is secured,” my father switched his strategy to soft pleading, something that was rare and – to a certain extent – precious.

“Please, love,” Ori’s hand wrapped around my shoulder tenderly, “go. Listen to your father!”

“I shall do that, if that is your desire,” I said amicably.

“Oh thank the Lord,” my father and Lo’s sighed unisono.

“If and only if you make sure everyone is safe and sound. We have strength in numbers, and I’d rather sleep in the street with them around me than alone in a hotel room,” I completed my sentence; silence fell with the weight of a hammer, resounding louder than a cry.

“Who is everyone?” my father asked deceivingly calm.

“You know perfectly well,” I purred.

“You want us to put of Durin’s folk? In the Ritz?” my father’s voice was now bleak and flat with shock.

“If you want me to be there, yes,” I winked at Tova who tried frantically to suppress the undignified and entirely inappropriate giggle fighting its way through the mask of good breeding.

“I think,” Lo’s father cut in, “it’s time we give up, old man. They’re…theirs now; our daughters have become proper gypsies; they travel in a pack.”

“You cannot,” Thorin started.

“Baby, be reasonable,” Fíli interjected.

All the while, Balin and Nori looked on with increasing alarm spreading over their faces as they understood just what we were demanding of our fathers.

“My love,” Ori’s hand tightened further around my shoulder, trying to shake me slightly, “don’t…”

“Daughter,” he sighed, “Jiji, my dear…”

“Yes?” I interjected, breathlessly, Ori’s slender hand in mine; I knew that I would not leave them behind because I simply couldn’t even imagine doing such a cowardly thing.

“Will you please go a hotel tonight until I’ve taken care of these things? Please?” my father asked insistently.

“You, your two housemates, your Ori, your boyfriends, their sisters, mothers, uncles, aunts, cousins, and whoever wants to come…” he went on when I didn’t agree despite his best impersonation of the severe and forbidding father of my childhood.

“I shall, father,” I chirped happily, “and I guess I’ll see you at Lo’s dad’s party. Will Smaug be there?”

My father sighed and Tova threw me a warning glance while Ori’s hand went cold in mine.

“Ah,” my father sighed, “I wondered when that was going to come up.”

“We knew it would,” Lo’s dad – about whom I had completely forgotten – commented softly. The old boys knew, and they had talked about it behind closed doors; the feeling of betrayal and of impuissant rage made my vision go blurry but Tova’s eyes – stern and serious – and Lo’s determined, feline grin kept me from flying off my handle.

“He will be there,” I was informed tentatively.

“Good,” I hissed, all the anger that had been buried under fear and dread bursting through with destructive violence.

“Jiji,” my father said gently, “one fight at a time, hmmm? Pack up your precious Ori and leave this place. I’ll come look at things tomorrow!”

I couldn’t argue with that and so, I clicked the conversation away and turned to the others.

“This might take a day or two, please pack as much as you need – your practise clothes amongst other things – and let’s meet again here in 20?” I ordered, ushering Dwalin, Balin, and Nori out of the door so they could go prepare.

“We don’t need protection,” Balin smiled, but we all caught Dwalin’s look of worry; he disagreed, now that both he and Thorin no longer slept at home, the old man was alone in the big house and they – obviously – preferred knowing him to be with the others.

“We need you to organise the troops,” Tova purred softly which made a blush creep into the old boy’s cheeks almost instantly.

“Dís and the boy,” Lo interjected with huge, wet eyes, “someone has to make sure that they make it to the hotel safe and sound.”

“Promise that you’ll be there,” I pleaded as well, “that you’ll count heads and make sure nobody else thinks they’re above this.”

“Ah,” Balin sighed, “you vixens could sell ice to a snowman.”

As he was pecked on the cheek by three women, he sighed again and gave Nori a shove so hearty it would have propelled any of us through half of the room. “Let’s go, man, we have to bundle up your brother and the kid.”

Thorin’s face was dark as rainclouds as he watched Tova throw things willy-nilly in her bright blue suitcase.

“I hate this,” he muttered under his breath.

“I’m sorry, baby,” Tova said, kneeling between his spread thighs and cupping his jaw gently, “it’s only for a few nights at most.”

His eyebrows rose in astonishment as he assured her that it was not the idea of sleeping in a Ritz that distressed him; like a slap in the face, it hit Tova: this was not the first time that he had to pack the bare necessities and flee.

“I should not have brought this on you,” he groaned, “on Lo and Jia. I…”

“We have brought this on ourselves,” Tova laughed, throwing back her head and guffawing open-mouthed, “we are not afraid, Thorin, this will be fun. We’ll make it fun; I promise.”

Thorin sighed; he had seen the carcass of the dead animal, the disgusting smell still clung to the inside of his nose and made him nauseous. All he wanted to do was to take his things and run as fast and as far as he could; it was his fault, his curse, his name that had brought his precious friends and the woman he loved within reach of a dangerous maniac.

“It will be great,” Tova repeated, “and I am not going anywhere, and neither are you.”

She could read the impulse to flee clear as day in his eyes, but she would not let him go.

“For better or for worse, Thorin, we’re in this together,” she smiled, “and I cannot believe that you don’t get that.”

“Jia…Lo…they should not have done this…” he mumbled, “they should just have gone and been safe.”

“Love,” Tova forced him to look her in the eye, “we cannot be safer anywhere in this world than where you are, you know that, right? Nobody has ever loved us the way you do.”

Oh, he would have died for her, Thorin realised yet again, he would have strangled Az with his bare hands if he had caught him in the act.

“Baby,” Fíli lifted his best shirt – thin with use and soft to the touch – into the sports bag miserably, “I am not looking forward to repeating that Country Club experience.”

How would he look, strolling in by her side into a hotel so expensive neither he nor his family could ever afford it? It was ridiculous to him that they’d sleep in an ultra-secured room only because Az – that idiot – had made something explode.

On the one hand, he definitely agreed that this was no place for the girls in this very moment, but, on the other hand, he did not see why they had to take the men with them; he wanted to stay and protect this flat that had become his sanctuary and his home.

“Done,” Lo declared and closed the zipper on her expensive travel bag with a flourish.

“That was quick,” Fí commented, cocking his head at the surprisingly modest size of the luggage.

“You,” Lo grinned while pinching his cheek, “are the only indispensable thing I have, Fí, the rest is trivial.”

He would have lied if he had said that her words did not flatter him, but he still thought that it was excessive to drag three grown men to a hotel.

“We’d be fine here,” he insisted, “if he comes back, I’ll beat him to a pulp.”

His fingers slid over the workout clothes at the bottom of the stack in the nice wardrobe he and Lo had built together; he had given up Floorboll when his apprenticeship had taken off, but he considered returning for this one game.

He wanted to be on the court when his closest friends and kinsmen faced off against that villain; with a shrug, he threw the shorts into his bag as well.

Thorin and Ori would take him to practise and – together – they’d explain the situation to the trainer.

“I don’t want him to come back and find you alone here,” Lo mused quietly, “and I’d feel better if you are with me.”

“Don’t pretend,” Fí laughed, “you haven’t really looked scared a single second tonight.”

“I am terrified,” Lo admitted, “I am deadly afraid that he’ll hurt you. Allow me to keep an eye on you.”

She took a deep breath and went on: “So maybe I am a jealous woman in that sense, you are mine, Fí, and the idea that someone could come and hurt you without me being able to intervene or defend you drives me up the wall. You are mine like I am yours.”

“I hate that you have to flee,” Fíli echoed Thorin’s words without knowing it, “it is beneath you.”

My suitcase was too big and too heavy, I knew it, but I couldn’t stop piling useless things into it with trembling hands.

“My love,” Ori took the seventh dress out of my dithery fingers and hung it back into the wardrobe before pulling me onto his lap, “I think you’ve packed enough for three honeymoons. Are you alright?”

The undercurrent of anxiety that had flowed within my heart since we’d decided to give this whole love affair a go was like oil – thick, viscous, and, most importantly, flammable – and the events of this night had been the match that set everything ablaze; I was burning like a torch.

“I love you,” I sighed, “I love all of you.”

“I know, baby, and I love you…so, are you okay?” he replied gently, tucking the wild strands of my hair behind my ears one by one to give me the time to mull over the conflicting needs and emotions swirling wildly within me before verbalising them.

“You’ll come without discussion, won’t you?” I asked instead for I felt sure that Thorin and Fí would kick up a fuss.

“I will be wherever you want me to be, Jia,” he nodded, still holding my gaze, “but yes, this brings back old memories.”

They had been chased before, I knew, they had fled haphazardly to regroup in those buildings I had felt so happy and safe in.

“We are not them,” I whispered, sliding both my hands into his hair to make sure that he would not avert his gaze, “we are not the ones driving you out.”

“We know, love,” Ori reassured me, “but part of us thinks – aye, truly believes – that this is exactly what you should do. We are bad news.”

“Bullshit,” I cursed, “it’s all just strategy, Ori! I am not running, I promise, I will stand my ground!”

The check-in was chaotic to the extent that some of the employees seemed on the verge of fainting; we were checked – several times – for bodily injury, Kíli had transformed into a shepherd dog on the road and kept circling around us endlessly to keep us together, and the men had insisted on dragging every piece of luggage into the foyer themselves.

“My God,” I sighed, “we should definitely plan a family vacation.”

“You just want Dori to follow you around with sunscreen,” Lo laughed, “you’re such a spoiled princess indeed.”

Her words held no malice though and her eyes were warm and full of deep affection as she let it pass over those people who had left their houses in the middle of the night because they truly believed that they were stronger together.

“As I said,” Kíli declared, “if anything is ever the matter, you can count on us.”