Never Again.
Arya walked up the stairs behind the man that had introduced himself as Bronn. She was trying to remember the long list of quirks he was reciting on her mind, but she had stopped listening somewhere near 'using double spacing'. Tywin Lannister was to be Prime Minister (or that was the talk on the street) and if she couldn't be part of the power-struggle like Robb, or part of the spy network like Bran, she would make sure every word publicly uttered by the new leader of their country was well written. She refused to stay back and wail everytime news from the war were broadcasted on the radio. Besides, if she were to be in the Prime Minister's service, and she did her job well, she could be among the firsts to hear about the fight in France, and Arya needed to know what was happening in France.
As she had been warned, Mister Lannister, was full of quirks, was unafraid to use foul language and was terrifying when his temper got the best of him. Arya had overheard more than once how his wife chastised him for the way he spoke to his staff. Funny enough, he would always sort of apologize to whomever he had screamed at after his wife made her thoughts known. Arya loved to hear them speak through the walls - not that she actively sought it out, mind you – because the way the older woman was with her husband, unavoidably reminded her of the way Gendry was with her.
More than once, Arya had been caught looking at the photo she kept on her desk. A photo of Jon and Gendry stupidly smiling at her behind the camera, embracing as the brothers they both wished one day they would become. Arya knew. She had eavesdropped on them once as Jon kept pushing Gendry to ask Arya to marry him. Gendry had refused, telling Jon that she wasn't ready for it. At the time, Arya had been relieved because Gendry knew her so well; at that moment, she wished she had been ready.
The last few days had been hard in 10 Downing Street. Arya knew about the struggles of Belgium and Holland, she suspected there was more danger in France than there had been for a long time, and she had heard two men whispering about negotiations with Mussolini. It didn't help that Jon, who had been sent home from an injury to his back where shrapnel from a bomb had cut halve his muscles, was constantly pressing her for information. It was that day, when the Prime Minister walked to her desk like many times before that Monday but happened to notice the photograph she had slightly turned minutes before.
"Who are those?" he asked.
"One's my brother, sir. He was just brought home to heal earlier in the month."
"And the other? Is he your fellow?"
"He is, sir. Gendry Waters. He is still over in France." She said, hopeful to get any information.
"Calais or Dunkirk?"
"I don't know," she said looking to her feet. "I just know he is with The Brotherhood, a man named Beric is their leader."
"I'm working to get them back home, Miss Stark," He said, looking at her in the eye.
"I know sir."
Tyrion dragged himself to his office after talking to the youngest Stark girl, with his heart on the soles of his shoes. He knew Beric, he knew which were the men he commended, he knew those men were in Calais, and he knew there was no way the would make it out of there alive. A voice in the back of his head reminded him that some of Beric's men had been sent to Dunkirk earlier in the month, but Tyrion's luck had seemed to run out when his wife had agreed to marry him, so Arya would have no fellow that would come back to her. He had gone to her desk for her to write the telegram that would inform those in Calais that there would be no rescue mission for them, but he had thought it too cruel to have her do it.
"Podrick!" he shouted once inside.
"Sir?" The young man said.
"Do you know how to write on the machine?" He asked his voice low, as he had always been aware of the thinness of those walls.
"Sir?"
"Do you?"
"Yes, sir, but I can find Miss Stark for you".
"No, you'll do. Write what I say and have it telegrammed right after."
Days had gone by and Arya waited for news. That particular day, a man dressed in a sharp blue suit had entered the Prime Ministers office. Not wanting to be indiscreet, but wanting to know, Arya stood up and cracked the door open. They were talking about France, she knew. She gasped when she heard about Calais, and she knew she had been caught. Mister Lannister, however, dismissed the man from his office and spoke loud enough for Arya to hear.
"I'll leave the list of men rescued from Dunkirk here in the very middle of my desk, and I'll check it when I come back from the washing room. Now, the list is alphabetically sorted, so, I'll start reading it from A to Z when I come back. Yes, that's what I'll do,"
The moment the Prime Minister was out of his office, Arya ran, took the list in the middle of it, turned it over, and found the letter W. There it was, on the very beginning of the
penultimate page: Waters, Gendry. Alive, minor injuries.
As she bolted outside for some fresh air, Arya promised never to eavesdrop again.