"It's not a lack of love, but a lack of friendship that makes unhappy marriages."

~Friedrich Nietzsche

Ragnar stared deep into the flames fluttering in the fireplace in his office. A glass of scotch hung, untouched, from his fingers. His eyes were unfocused, deep in thought. He shifted when he heard the door open and the clatter of his sons enter the room. He turned in his chair to face them.

His sons, his beautiful sons, the lights of his life. Björn was his oldest. A man grown with children of his own. Björn was his firstborn son with his first wife Lagertha, a formidable woman that commanded respect and still served as his right-hand advisor.

Together they had two children, Björn, and Gyda, his only daughter. How he loved his daughter. Her light had brought him such happiness and when it was extinguished, he lost something forever. He could still see her hair in the summer wheat of Norway and her eyes in the color of the sea in the winter time. They say that man must love his sons more, but a man can be jealous of his sons, and his daughter can always be the light of his life.

He had twelve years with her and it wasn't enough. At twelve years old, Gyda started to get sick. She couldn't sleep at night and she had chills. She often told him and Lagertha that she was tired and then Lagertha told him Gyda was losing weight. It was when she started to get nose bleeds and Björn noticed red spots on her skin that Lagertha took her to the doctors.

Acute lymphocytic leukemia, ALL. Her doctor advised them to begin chemotherapy treatments. He also encouraged them to have Björn tested as siblings had an increased risk of getting ALL. Björn tested negative and the doctors gave them an optimistic outcome.

Something happened though. Gyda got worse, not better. They all tested to see if they were a bone marrow match but none of them were, not even Björn. Gyda was getting sicker and nothing was working. Ragnar was losing hope that his daughter would survive this terrible illness but then one day she appeared to be better. She was cheerier then she had been in months. She was eating again and she was laughing with Björn like she hadn't been stuck in a hospital for weeks, being poked and prodded every day. She was her old self again.

Lagertha always spent the night with Gyda and she said it was around two in the morning when Gyda flatlined. She called him as soon as the doctors started performing chest compressions and Ragnar was quick to wake Floki and have him stay with Björn. It was too late by the time Ragnar got to the hospital.

Lagertha was sitting outside, clutching her hands to her chest. She told him between sobs that doctors worked on Gyda for nearly twenty minutes but they could never get a heartbeat.

No amount of time with his children would ever be enough. It was worse than death, outliving your children.

He and Lagertha tried for several months to get back to each other. Gyda's death tore at them both but there was still love between them. Their love and Björn. Gyda's death left a hole in their family and in their hearts. One they all tried to fill.

Björn began learning how to kickbox. It became his great passion, something that allowed him to vent his frustrations.

Lagertha began volunteering. She went to soup kitchens and homeless shelters, finding Gyda's face in every person she helped.

Ragnar found Aslaug. She was the daughter of a long-dead war hero. Her father Sigurd had died in the Bay of Pigs invasion when she was young and she quickly found a home with her uncle. Her uncle was an Earl of The Northmen, the organization that controlled a large portion of the shipping in the state. When they met, Ragnar was Earl of Kattegat, a chapter of The Northmen, visiting Götaland to form an alliance with the Earl there Jarl Borg.

Aslaug lived in the area with her uncle and she enchanted Ragnar as soon as he saw her. She was as clever as she was beautiful and Ragnar found a freshness in her that he hadn't seen since before Gyda died. It was easy for him to fall under Aslaug's sway. She was easy to love.

They spent a few nights together in Götaland and Ragnar thought it would be easy to forget about their time together. Lagertha welcomed him home with open arms and Björn was smiling more. They were learning to live again.

Seven months passed without a word from Aslaug. The alliance between Jarl Borg was shaky but Ragnar was hopeful. When a small caravan arrived one-morning carrying Aslaug and her retinue, Ragnar was apprehensive. He welcomed her with open arms but froze at the sight of her swollen belly.

Aslaug was pleasant to Lagertha and Björn, never showing an ounce of dislike or hatred. Lagertha looked at her with suspicious eyes and bit her tongue as she watched Ragnar and Aslaug together. It wasn't until they were in the comfort of their own room that she accused him. "Did you have sex with her?"

Ragnar couldn't avoid the question so he didn't. "Yes." She threw a pillow at him. He dodged it easily. "How many times?" She asked. Her voice was thick with anger and tears. They had been married for nearly twenty years. He knew his wife well. "I don't remember." He said. She screamed a high, broken, roar that he felt in his bones.

She took her things to the guest room and stayed there for the night. Later they discussed the implications of Aslaug's pregnancy. "If it's yours, I'm leaving you." She whispered across the narrow space between them. Ragnar looked up and watched many emotions cross her face. Fear, anger, sadness, vulnerability, but the one that broke his heart was the pain he saw there. He had not seen that look since their daughter died and he was the one who put it there now. He hung his head and only cried when she left the room.

Aslaug gave birth to a healthy baby boy and a DNA test was ordered immediately. Three days later, Lagertha left him. Björn chose to go with his mother and Ragnar was left with a new son, an old lover, and divorce papers.

He grew to love Aslaug. She bore him four beautiful sons that made him into the father he is now.

Ubbe was first. He had such passion for life and adventure. His passion extended into all cultures and ideas. He was the only one of his sons to study abroad in school and he traveled the world. He explored different countries and studied different religions all for the sake of learning and knowledge.

Hvitserk was his third son and the second with Aslaug. Ragnar often thought that Hvitserk was lost in the world. Never really finding his place amongst his brothers. He was closest with Ivar and Ubbe but enjoyed quality time with all his brothers.

Sigurd was his third son with Aslaug and fourth overall. Sigurd kept himself apart from his brother's. He resented his younger brother, Ivar because of his disability. Aslaug spent an inordinate amount of time with Ivar, fearing for his health and safety and, as a result, neglecting her other children.

It wasn't Sigurd's fault any more than it was Ivar's. Aslaug was not a perfect mother but she did her best. Ragnar couldn't say much either. He was emotionally absent through most is his sons' childhood and left Aslaug to attend to the boys. He spent nearly two decades traveling for The Northmen and left Aslaug at home with the boys for most of those years.

Ivar was the last son gifted to Ragnar and he was the most difficult. Ivar the Boneless, he was called. Ragnar gifted him with the moniker after doctors told them he had DDH, Developmental Dysplasia of the Hip. Through most of his childhood, Aslaug insisted he not walk for fear of hurting himself.

Throughout his early years he would haul himself around on his hands, building impeccable upper body strength at an early age. After doctor's assured Ragnar and Aslaug that Ivar could walk, Ragnar took him to physical therapy.

When he was a teenager, he started complaining of pains in his hips and Aslaug took him back to the doctor claiming his DDH came back. As it turned out he just had Inflammatory Arthritis of the Hip. Aslaug nearly insisted that Ivar remain bed ridden but Ragnar took a rare step in his son's care and overruled her. Daily doses of regulated painkillers and physical therapy kept the worst pain at bay.

Although Ivar maintained a noticeable limp into his adulthood, he turned into a frightening young man.

And he was frightening in every sense of the word. It wasn't just his ability to walk that grew with him. His aggression and savagery grew as well. He was close to Ragnar's best friend Floki and Floki's hatred for the Saxon organization was quickly transferred to Ivar. Ivar made it a point to rid the world of the Saxon organization as if it was his personal mission. Ivar's cruelty extended beyond just Saxon's. He was cruel to those he claimed to love, using his brother's humanity against them at every turn.

Ragnar loved his youngest son and he knew that his behavior was a result of Aslaug's coddling and Ivar's own insecurities. When Ivar was a boy, Ragnar told him that everyone would always underestimate him. Not only that, but people ridiculed Ivar for his disability. Less so now than when he was younger but scars of childhood never truly left him. He carried those words with him. Cripple, lame, disabled, lesser, inferior. He wore them as a shield.

Ivar's cruelty was a defense he used to keep people from hurting him and it worked, but it also kept people from loving him. Ragnar hoped to change that.

Nearly twenty years after she bore him his last son, Aslaug was taken from them. The coroner said it was an accident, these things happen, but Ragnar didn't believe him. A bullet to her heart with her back turned was not an accident.

Ragnar and his brother Rollo spent the better part of a year tracking down the individual responsible. In the end, it turned out to be a rogue soldier for the Saxon army. A warrior who wanted to prove himself to his kings. Ecbert and Aelle didn't claim him and assured Ragnar that he could do what he wanted with no retribution from either one of them.

Ragnar did but the relationship between the Northmen and the Saxon organizations had never been the same. Neither had Ragnar's sons.

He gazed at them now. Björn, standing proud and tall in front of his father. Ubbe standing beside him. Hvitserk and Sigurd quickly helped themselves to Ragnar's liquor shelf. Ivar was the only one missing.

Ivar was the purpose of this meeting. Ragnar had recently made a deal with a powerful man and Ivar was the lynchpin.

He stood from his desk and faced his four oldest sons. "Shall we begin then."