Shireen/Devan, baby's first step

"She's going to fall," Devan fretted.

"She's not. I'm holding her, see?"

"Why do you think little Cassana has not taken a step on her own?"

"She will, when she's good and ready," Shireen replied, making faces at her daughter. Cassana laughed.

"Your father said perhaps we should be concerned. Cassana's first nameday was three moons ago."

Shireen sighed. "I love my father, but he is hardly an expert on babies. He had but the one, and he was away in King's Landing when I took my first step."

Cassana was making gurgling noises to catch her parent's attention. They smiled at her encouragingly.

Shireen continued. "Your mother, who has raised seven sons, told me that every child is different. Your brother Allard took his first step two moons shy of his first nameday, but Stanny did not start walking until he was almost two. Yet they both grew up healthy and strong."

And yet only one was still living. Shireen regretted her words when she saw the cloud passing over Devan's face. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have mentioned Allard."

Devan shook his head. "No, I was just thinking that Allard was always in a hurry about everything. As if having been born the second son, he was trying to catch up to Dale every day of his life." He smiled. "We should talk about Allard. And Dale, Matthos and Maric. I want Cassana to grow up knowing about her uncles."

"Unc!" Cassana declared, her head bobbing up and down.

Her parents laughed. "No, dearest. Uncle," Devan said. "Uncle."

But Cassana had lost interest in the word. She was more interested in trying to cram her fist into her mouth, the baby new favorite pastime. But then something seemed to catch her interest. She started squirming under her mother's hold, her feet tap-tapping the floor.

"Do you want to go to your father?" Cassana asked. "Let's go to Father."

It was only a few steps to reach Devan. Shireen held her daughter's waist as the little girl tottered unsteadily forward.

Let go of her. As long as you keep holding her, she will never learn to walk on her own. Shireen could almost hear her own father's accusing voice. But she had let go, had done so on Cassana's nameday. The screams and the cries of the fallen little girl still haunted Shireen's dreams.

It was too soon. Cassana was not ready.

It is still too soon now.

Was it? She had felt Cassana chafing at her mother's restraining hands for weeks now, wanting to move faster. Shireen's eyes sought Devan. He nodded. Relaxing her grip on Cassana, Shireen watched as the little girl maintained her balance. Finally, she let go.

We can catch her if she falls, we're close enough, this time.

Cassana did not fall. But she did not move forward either, looking uncertainly at her mother, and then her father. Her lower lip was quivering, a precursor to crying, usually.

Devan smiled and held out his hands. "Come here, my brave girl."

Shireen nodded encouragingly to her little girl.

It took five steps for Cassana to reach her father, each new step steadier than the last. Devan had his arms wide open to receive his daughter, but Cassana did not stop to embrace her father. She continued walking towards the door. Shireen grasped her husband's hand and held on to it, tight, as they watched Cassana's progress towards the door.

Cassana stopped at the threshold, her tiny finger pointing at a figure beyond the doorway. "Stanny!"Cassana announced proudly to her parents.

Devan turned his face away to hide a laugh. "No, that's not Stanny, that's Grandfather," Shireen said, trying to suppress a giggle herself. Her father, who had never been called Stanny by anyone, ever. He would be mortified to be called Stanny by his granddaughter.

"Uncle Stanny will come and visit you soon," Devan told his daughter, when she was finally in his embrace.