Author's note: This story is essentially finished in my mind and I have most of it written down, I am posting chapters as I edit them to make sure the story continues to fit together and flow. It's a long burn, longer than I intended but that is just how the story ended up coming out of me. This is my 1st published fanfic or really any published writing, so hopefully it's enjoyable. Comments and likes are welcomed encouragement to keep going. Thanks for reading!

—-

Prologue

She groaned. She struggled to open her eyes, to breathe. The air felt warm and heavy, the smell of smoke and iron hung in the air. She finally forced her eyes open and found she was surrounded by twisted and broken metal, moonlight caught and played on the glass that covered everything. Her head hurt, her leg hurt, she raised her hand to her face and felt something warm and sticky, she pulled her hand back and it was covered in a dark substance.

Her head lolled to her right, her eyes falling on him. She couldn't tell if he was breathing or not, he was covered in blood, his arm was at an unnatural angle. She looked away, searching for a way out.

He moaned and coughed. She looked back at him, catching his piercing blue gaze. His face was covered in blood, his mouth in a hideous leering smile, he looked triumphant, even as blood poured from his mouth.

"Not quite as planned I suppose," he murmured. She stared at him as he began to cough, blood spraying on her as he kept eyes transfixed on her, he kept smiling, smirking at her with his bloody mouth.

She said nothing and started to pull on the door but it was not giving. He started laughing, more and more blood pouring from his mouth. She felt her desperation growing, she starting pulling at the door more frantically and it was getting hard to breathe. The smoke was getting thicker, the smell of blood was choking her, his laughter the only sound filling her ears.

She felt the heat of her tears as they began to run down her face. It was hopeless. With resignation she closed her eyes and let the darkness consume her.

—

Present

Sansa Stark ran her fingers over the flowers of the lai around her neck as she stared out the window of the shuttle bus and sighed. She looked around at the other passengers in the bus, most were happy smiling couples, likely on their honeymoons, or families with excited over stimulated children. She sighed again and frowned. "You have to be one of the only people this annoyed to be in paradise…." she thought to herself.

The girl in the seat across from her caught her eye and smiled at her. "Are you here all alone?" she asked noticing the empty seat next to Sansa.

"Not exactly, I flew in alone but I'm meeting my family at High Garden Resort, my brother is getting married," she replied.

"Ohh! That is the really fancy one! How exciting!" the girl exclaimed, "We are here for our honeymoon. Don't you just think it's the most beautiful and romantic place you've ever seen?"

"Well congratulations, and yes it is lovely here," Sansa said. She didn't want to discuss romance but her long trained manners won't allow her to say so. Sansa glanced across the girl to her husband that was sleeping against the window, the girl seemed slightly desperate to share in her excitement with someone and clearly at the moment that was not going to be her husband.

Sansa continued to make polite small talk with the girl, all while hoping she was staying at another resort on the bus's route. She was hoping to have a few more moments to compose herself before she was with her whole family for the chaos of the next several days.

"… well hopefully there are some super cute groomsmen that you can get some "beach time" with," the girl laughed as Sansa tuned back into what she was saying.

Sansa shrugged. "If you only knew….." she thought.

The girl noticed her slight frown. "Oh no, that looks tells me maybe you've been there done that, well maybe try for a cabana boy then," she winked.

Before Sansa could say anything further the bus bumped to a stop and the girl stood up and shook her husband. "Thanks for the chat! I hope you have fun and enjoy your trip, I'm sure the wedding will be amazing!" And with that she departed.

Sansa watched her go, she felt a pang of jealously towards the girl, that she could be so carefree and in love and enjoying this beautiful place. She closed her eyes and tipped her head back and began to steel herself for what came next.

—

Sansa had not been with her entire family in one place since she left for college two years ago, this mostly was due to the fact that she refused to come back home to Winterfell even on school breaks. She loved her family but there had been tension, mostly with her mother, and there were other people in town that she had wanted to avoid at all costs. But now here she was, in paradise, and everyone would be together again. She supposed there was no way to get out of her older brother's wedding without it causing a major blow up. Her hope was that everyone would be far too focused on Robb and Margaery's big day for any of the past tensions and issues to make it to the surface.

She was thankful Arya's boyfriend Gendry had been able to come. Even though the sisters were to share a suite she knew she'd actually get her own space since Arya would stay with Gendry and everyone would pretend not to notice. Arya and she had joked about her parents' sense of propriety and about keeping up appearances.

"Everyone is always watching, watching and judging, so we have a duty to present our best always" she thought bitterly of a past conversation with her mother.

Despite that she knew her real distress would be with seeing Robb's best friend and best man, Jon. Honorable Jon, who always did the right thing, even when that had meant betraying her.

—

Sansa stepped off the bus and into the lobby of High Garden Resort. It was breathtaking, the fanciest of all the resorts on the island based on what she had seen out the window on the trip here. She looked around taking in the view, breathing in the salt sweet air and could faintly hear the ocean.

"I can do this. I will not be unhappy in such a beautiful place," she told herself.

"Sansa!" she heard Jeyne exclaim from off to her left.

She turned and was greeted by a hug from her childhood friend. She had not seen Jeyne in several months. Jeyne's father worked for Sansa's. They were best friends growing up but the distance had grown between them since late high school. Sansa knew a lot of that was her doing, she had kept so much to herself while Jeyne had always been so open with her. When high school ended Sansa had escaped and gone out of state to school, Jeyne stayed in town, went to the local community college and was working part time. The physical distance didn't help the friendship but Sansa knew she had started the emotional distance long before that, it was something that she still felt guilty about when she thought about it.

However, standing there in paradise Sansa felt her heart swell with joy at seeing her old friend.

"Maybe it won't be so bad, a lot of joy might be able to come from this trip after all." She thought to herself.

"How have you been? How was your flight?" Jeyne inquired as she released her.

"You know, busy with school, trying to decide on internships for next year. The flight wasn't bad, I mean who can complain about 1st class, though I slept most of it."

"We got in this morning since we took the red eye, let me show you to reception so you can get checked in. I mean, I'm kinda dying to see what a suite looks like here."

Sansa smiled, appreciating Jeyne's sweetness. She knew it would be nice to have her by her side as a buffer when she got to the block of suites her family and the others were in. Her parents had always liked Jeyne and her father's relationship with Jeyne's father would also insure things would remain civil for the moment. With that thought she looped her arm into Jeyne's and headed to the check in desk.

—

Arya laid sprawled across the bed in Sansa's room of their shared suite. Jeyne sat in the chair and they both watched as Sansa unpacked.

"If I had known that the suites had their own separate rooms and bathrooms I would've told Gendry to save his money and we would've shacked up here," Arya sighed.

"Yeah that would've worked until he opened the door for room service and then mom, dad or Rickon spotted him in a robe. You are better off in his room a couple buildings over," Sansa reminded her.

Jeyne giggled, "Yes, no one can know that the Stark girls are not proper ladies. Think of the scandal on Page Six if word got out."

Sansa and Arya rolled their eyes. The joys of going up in a small-ish town where everyone was in everyone's business. And being one of the wealthiest families in town had only fueled gossip and speculation all their lives. In fact, both girls knew that people still whispered in dark corners years later about the time Robb had promised to take one of the Frey girls to prom only to change his mind when a new girl had started school and stole his attention. Old Man Frey and his sons still crossed the street and gave dark looks whenever they crossed a Stark. It didn't help that their parents bought into all the nonsense and had constantly held their children to such a high standard. In fact, the house had been in quite the uproar of Robb's decision at the time saying that such a slight could hurt father's business.

There was a knock at the door just then and Arya went to answer it. A loud commotion ensued and Jeyne and Sansa left the bedroom to be greeted by an entourage of men. Robb, Theon and Bran were taking turns hugging Arya, Rickon was also trying to get her attention.

"Well look at this! All five Starks in the room at once, oh and Jeyne, wow, it's like high school glory days all over again," Theon exclaimed.

"Not exactly," Sansa thought relieved, "Jon's not here."

She let Robb pull her into an embrace and then she saw him, standing just outside the doorframe, brooding. His grey eyes met hers and they stared intensely at each other. Sansa felt her heart clench, he still looked amazing, even after all this time. And then the gaze was broken as Robb released her.

"I just wanted to come down and say hello, we are headed down to the beach for volleyball. Also, I am to remind you about family dinner tonight," Robb told her.

"Like I could forget," her words coming out with more an edge then she intended. Robb looked at her with resignation. She immediately smiled, brightening her words, "I'm so glad to see you, all of you, but is Margaery really ok with a Stark family only dinner on the first night of the wedding festivities?"

"The Tyrells' flights were delayed so they will not be in till the morning so no, she doesn't mind."

"Mom says now that you landed there is no way for you to worm out of it. Then she complained to Dad about the fact that she had to trap us all on an island just to get a family meal." Rickon informed her.

Sansa sighed and looked at Robb, he smiled at her and tilted his head, his expression said, "What can you do?"

"If you want to come to the beach for drinks we can wait on you to change," Theon said as he eyed Jeyne up and down. Jeyne met his eyes and smirked. Robb shot him a cold look and Theon glanced at Sansa and flushed.

"I'm going to finish unpacking and then maybe nap before dinner, but you all have fun," Sansa said glancing out of the corner of her eye at Jon.

"Well suit yourself, I'm going to go wake Gendry up, we'll head down in a few."

"I'm going to go as well, I just need to go back to my room and change." Jeyne stated glancing at Theon.

"Alright Sansa, I guess we'll all see you at dinner, don't forget and don't be late," Robb said.

With that everyone turned and left the room and Sansa turned to head back to her bedroom, however she caught sight of Jon in the mirror and whirled around.

"Maybe we should talk, clear the air before we are going to be forced to be together for the next several days?" he stated. He still stood inside the door frame, he seemed unsure if it was ok to come in the room.

Sansa just looked at him, she could feel tears wanting to form behind her eyes, she couldn't do this with him, not now, not here. Seeing him for the first time, even after all the time that had passed, it was more overwhelming than she had expected.

"Honestly I'm not sure I ever want to talk with you again, I think our lack of contact for the last few years made that clear but if you feel the need to talk maybe you should go find my parents, just like you did the last time," she bit out.

"Sansa, that's not fair. I did what I thought was best, I never meant for you to get hurt, to betray you."

"I know Jon, you always do what you think is right, even when it's none of your concern."

"None of my concern?! You were my main concern, always my main concern. Please let me explain, I want you to understand."

"The time for me to understand has passed. If you wanted me to understand you should've tried long before now."

"But I did."

"If that were true…." she was cut off by the room phone ringing. Thankful for the interruption she walked over and answered it.

Once the call ended she turned to him, "You should go to the beach with the others, I need to get ready, my parents have summoned me to a private meeting."

Jon stared at her, he knew what that meant, they were going to tear open her old wounds. He wanted to tell her he would go with her, that he would help explain, defend her if needed, do what he had failed to do before, but he could tell by the set of her blue eyes she would not hear of it.

"Ok, I'll go, but Sansa I want to give you the explanation you are owed, and if you want to listen I am staying in room 437, building B."

"I'm pretty sure I already know what I need to Jon, but if my curiosity piques I'll let you know. Close the door when you leave." And with that she turned and left the room.