An Unexpected Journey? You Better Believe It!

An Interrupted Sleep and a Journey's Start

As Bilbo started to clean up, Jael placed her hand on his arm and cleared her throat extremely loudly.

The dwarves jumped, and the ones who had sat through her lecture hopped up quickly to help. With a very pointed look and another clearing of her throat, Bofur, Bombur, and Bifur also sprang up.

She glared at Thorin, and he stared straight back. Before either one of them could bend the other's will, the dwarves started to sing, and throw the dishes, and she quickly pulled Bilbo aside.

"I promise that nothing bad will happen to your dishes, Bilbo. Do you trust me?"

He nodded reluctantly, and hovered anxiously in the hallway, rushing into the kitchen as the dwarves finished. He breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that Jael had been right and that nothing had been broken.

Now that the dishes had been put away, Thorin and the group sat around the table. Jael sat in the corner watching them, not really caring about anything that was going to be said since she already knew it all, and just hoping that Thorin wouldn't be as long-winded as in the book.

She'd never actually managed to read his long-winded speech all the way through, although she had managed to sit through it during the movie, so she hoped he'd follow the movie in this case. But, knowing her luck, she would probably have to sit through his lecture. She decided then and there that if he did decide to lecture, she'd leave the room, find Bilbo's room, and grab a coat meant for traveling and rain and a handkerchief, and pack it in her bags so that he wouldn't be inconvenienced on the trip any more than necessary.

As he opened his mouth, Jael sighed. Nope. She wasn't gonna be able to sit through either of the versions of him talking. She was still too annoyed at him. She stood up and walked out of the room, ignoring all the questioning glances from everyone as she left.

She snuck into Bilbo's room and grabbed some of the essentials that she knew he forgot, completely ignoring the feeling that she was being a little too creepy. I know I'm being creepy! Stop reminding me, stupid conscience.

After she had silenced her conscience, she headed outside. Although normally she'd prefer to stay indoors and sleep, she had no interest in sleeping next to the dwarves, who snored, any more than she had to, especially since she knew that she'd have to deal with them for the next three months at least.

She set up her sleeping bag, glancing at her tent before deciding that it wasn't necessary. Neither the book nor the movie had shown rain falling on the night before they left so she was pretty sure that she'd be fine.

She quickly fell asleep with her two dogs on either side of her.

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Jael opened her eyes blearily. Waking up was never her favorite thing to do, and waking up before the sun rose was guaranteed to make her an unhappy camper, especially when she had not woken on her own.

She glared over at the dwarves, wondering if strangling them here would ruin the plot too much or if it would just change the place that they died.

No. It'd definitely change the plot too much; they wouldn't get into half as much trouble with no dwarves as they would with them. So that meant that she had to put up with them...but it didn't mean she had to let them escape unscathed.

So, plotting misfortune for the troupe of dwarves, she snuggled back into her sleeping bag. She'd catch up with them when Bilbo chased after them.

However, it wasn't long before the dwarves trooped back through the garden, and her eyes opened, bloodshot and furious.

She sat straight up and her voice was flat and filled with the wrath of someone who had just been woken twice by the same group of people.

"If you wake me up one more time, I will end you before you even have a chance to meet the dragon."

She made eye contact with each and every dwarf before she flopped back down onto her bedding with a huff and a muttered, "Stupid dwarves ruining the first good sleep I've had in ages. How'd they like it if I ruined their sleep? Of course, they'd hate it..."

Slowly she trailed off as she fell back asleep, and the dwarves looked at each other in shock, wondering what they were supposed to do in this situation.

Thorin finally snorted, and said, although extremely quietly, "Fine; we'll just leave her here. She'll catch up or not as she chooses. It has nothing to do with us."

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It was almost an hour later when Bilbo came running out of the door, contract signed and in his hand. He hurtled past Jael before crashing to a halt and coming back for her.

"Jael? Weren't you going with the dwarves?"

She sat up, rubbing the sleep from her eyes as she yawned.

"Yeah, but that doesn't mean I can't wait for you as well get all the sleep I want."

She smiled widely at him to take any sting out of her words and then got up, revealing that she was in a simple tank top and pair of pajama shorts. She rolled up her sleeping bag and quickly stowed it away as Bilbo looked away from her with a blush blazoned across his cheeks.

Although Jael saw his blush, she simply ignored it, calling for her dogs and placing their packs on them.

"Come on, let's go!"

She set off without bothering to change, and he followed, cheeks still what seemed to be a permanent red.

Although the dwarves had set off almost an hour before them, it still didn't take long for Bilbo and Jael to catch up. Idly, Jael wondered if one of the dwarves or Gandalf had been responsible for their slow pace.

She ignored Bilbo handing off the contract, and instead reveled in the incredulous and mortified stares that the dwarves were sending her way. Ah, revenge is sweet.

Kili and Fili walked over to her, "Why are you wearing that?"

"You guys kept waking me up, so I had absolutely no interest or time to be changing into other clothes. So, unfortunately, I am stuck wearing this."

She walked past them with a barely concealed smirk, deliberately heading toward Mr.-Frowning-Majesty-Himself. "Are we ready, Thorin Oakenshield~?"

With a short, distracted, nod, he gave permission for the company to head off.

It seems that he isn't pleased...but, he's the one who started this. So....here's hoping he goes insane before I do. Hmmm.....nah, I don't want him to go insane...that was...too sad. Here's hoping he capitulates instead!