Bonus upload - this is my way of apologising to those that have been waiting awhile for updates and I must confess that i have written the ending of this story and most of the parts in between. There are still a few sections that I am unhappy with but for now I'll share what I'm satisfied with... cause nothing is ever perfect right?

"I'll take the big bitch first. When she's good and wet, you lot can finish her off."

"My lord, I am Brienne of Tarth. Lady Catelyn Stark commanded me to deliver Ser Jaime to King's Landing."

"Catelyn Stark's a treasonous cunt."

"Orders were to take the Kingslayer alive."

"Nobody said shit about you."

"You're only making it worse." Jaime exclaimed. These men were all monsters, he knew how they liked to enjoy the spoils of war, he had seen it in his own camps time after time. "Lord Selwyn would pay his daughter's weight in sapphires if she's returned to him. But only if she's alive, her honour unbesmirched."

"Unbesmirched."

"Not defiled." He plainly responded.

"Fancy word for a fancy man."

"I hated to read as a child, but my father forced me to study the books every morning before I could practice with sword or horse. Two hours every day holed up in the maester's chambers. I learned a lot of fancy words."

"I bet you did." He smirked before he continued speaking, clearly impressed but what he thought to say. "What fancy tricks do you think your father teaches that delectably fuckable princess of yours while she's held up in his chambers?" He began to cackle as Jaime's jaw tightened. He and Vesara may have not been the best of friends but he would not have her honour or loyalty to him questioned.

"Still, your father, he'd pay your weight in gold to get you back?"

"You'll be a rich man till the end of your days. And your sons will be rich men and their sons after them. Lands, titles, you'll have them all. The North can't win this war. You're a smart man. You understand that. We have the numbers. We have the gold… Fighting bravely for a losing cause is admirable. Fighting for a winning cause is far more rewarding. Now that we're speaking together man to man, I wonder if you need to keep me chained to this tree. I'm not asking to be freed from my constraints, but if I could sleep lying down, my back would thank you for it. I'm not as young and resilient as I was once."

Admittedly, he was surprised that he had managed to wrangle himself free from his chains. He had felt the odds were in his favour until her was forced down upon the stump of a freshly milled tree.

"You think you're the smartest man there is. That everyone alive has to bow and scrape and lick your boots… and if you get in any trouble, all you've got to do is say 'my father' and that's it, all your troubles are gone."

"Don't…" Jaime began to plead as the realisation as to what was about to happen dawned on him.

"Have you got something to say? Careful. You don't want to say the wrong thing. I'll tell you what though… when I fuck your wife I won't stifle her screams as she calls for her maimed husband to come to her aid, I'll let you listen as her screams turn into moans while your boy watches as I defile his mother over and over again until I put a bastard in her belly. A bastard I'll name Jaime, in honour of the man that brought us all together."

Jaime went to interrupt before his face was forced further into the dirt next to the tree stump.

"You're nothing without your daddy, and your daddy ain't here. Never forget that."

Anger and fear struck him as he saw the blade hover above him momentarily.

The darkness was warm. Warmer than he had expected death. That was what he felt like anyway.

In this world he was whole. He could feel both his hands moving although he still couldn't see anything. He moved his feet carefully in the hopes that somewhere in the darkness he would find some light or some indication of where he was.

The more he moved he closer he felt he was coming to the warmth.

"It's too soon for you to greet my here my beautiful cub." The voice was almost musical and eerily familiar to him.

"I count every day I go without holding you and the more days I count the happier I become. In this place, the longer, the better."

The voice was getting louder and he was becoming more and more desperate to find its source. He could have sworn that he could see a faint outline of a thin figure in the distance.

As he got closer he saw the hidden figure staring at something. From her profile he saw her move ever so slightly to peer at him from beneath her crimson hood. As she moved a portion of her golden hair was set free from its confines beneath her hood.

She shuffled to face him straight on. There were many familiar features about her, for a moment he thought he had mistaken her for his twin. "Who are you? Where are we? Is this a dream or am I dead?"

"Neither."

He was face to face with her now, the woman he barely remembered, the woman he was scared would disappear if he reached out to touch her.

"I've missed you so much." The sound of his own whimpering in his chest sore.

"And I you." There was a sadness in her voice. "But you cannot stay here."

"Our family needs you to return, there is much to be done my golden cub, you have much to achieve, so much more of life to enjoy." Now he began to feel ill all over.

"I'm afraid life isn't as enjoyable as you may have dreamed."

"My son the knight. My daughter the queen. And my grandchildren…my husband…" she paused, he wasn't sure if there was sadness in her smile or whether she was holding back something that pained her. "He had loved me from the moment he met me. It was all so simple. The only thing in our lives that we knew was simple, our love for one another."

He couldn't say that he remembered much of his parent's relationship he only recalled how much softer his father was in her presence. He had hoped that faint echoes of that person still existed.

"Nothing is simple."

"Everything is only as complicated as we make it. But love, loving someone should never be difficult, it should be natural."

Natural.

Unlike his love for Cersei.

"How did you move past everything he had ever done?"

"I was conflicted by the ugliness, how gruesome some of his methods were. What kept bringing me back was the remorse he felt for those deeds, that he admitted when he was wrong… that he wasn't a monster, that he would do all that he could to keep me safe. That he would try for us, that he would try for our family."

He knew that he was conflicted as well. Cersei was his family. Vesara was his family but he did not love them the same. He knew he could grow to love Vesara but only if he was willing to give up his love for Cersei. He didn't know if he could do that.

Not for his son.

Not for anyone.

"I'm not my father."

"No you're not. You're Jaime. You're whoever you decide that is. Do not let others decide for you, we are Lannisters and we get to make the rules."

She grabbed the sides of his face and brought his forehead down to her lips gently. He felt the coolness of her skin, he was somewhat surprised, he remembered her as a warm woman.

He wondered when Cersei lost her warmth.

Or if she had ever been warm.

x

She knew she would have to face her at some point. She was only grateful that their reunion took a significant amount of time to occur.

Court was busy revelling in their new found safety after the Battle of Blackwater Bay which gave less opportunities for compulsory functions that required her to face off with her good sister.

"Princess Vesara!" Cersei exclaimed in an all too familiar tone to Vesara, it was both pleasant and menacing, always followed by a courteously smile. Or perhaps it was a snarl, Vesara couldn't quite tell the difference anymore. "How blessed we are to have you return to us. We feared the worst when you and my nephew did not return from your sail to Storm's End."

Sailing.

That was what Cersei had told everyone that they had been doing when she 'disappeared'. Vesara hadn't sailed in a long time but she did have to credit Cersei for the somewhat believable lie. Vesara had known to sail on occasion, that was until her father had banned her from the activity in King's Landing. He would tell her that the small fragments of salty Dornishman blood that she had was to remain in the South, in King's Landing she was to be a perfect little doe.

"We all do strange things in times of grief. Losing a parent is not something I would wish on anybody, but you… you my dear have lost both. You are practically an orphan." She narrowed her eyes and smiled before finishing her glass of wine. "No matter, you are essentially a daughter to me, just as you are a sister to my children. And an aunt I suppose." The last few words seemed to be somewhat stuck in her throat.

Vesara continued picking at the grapes in front of her viciously tearing each grape from its stalk as distraction. She had always tried to give Cersei minimal responses to any comments that she made, she felt it gave the woman less ammunition for further attacks.

"And I am grateful to be considered part of your family my lady…" she was cut off by the echoing of footsteps that were getting louder as Joffrey came into sight, sashaying his elaborate crimson and gold cloak with a golden lion and stag emblazoned on its clasps around his chest.

"Ignore my mother dear sister. She has grown bitter." He took his sister's heavily jewelled cladded hand in his before placing a kiss on it. "She mourns the loss of her husband and the capture of your lord husband, it's all too much from her. Typical of women." He chuckled to himself before beginning to break his fast.

Cersei stiffened as she noticed Joffrey's actions.

"My that is an exquisite garnet ring. It is it new?" From the look on Cersei's face Vesara knew that the regent was well aware of its origins.

"It was a gift."

Vesara held her ring up admiring it with Joffrey only shrugging after viewing it briefly. There were two intricately etched lions rampant flanking a large red garnet set in gold.

"A very expensive gift. Did Jaime bestow it upon you before his departure?" Again, Cersei knew very well that Jaime had not given her the ring.

"Your lord father actually. A very unnecessary gift, none the less I am very grateful it was lovely thought." Cersei looked as if she was about to burst. They both knew exactly where the ring came from and Cersei had expected it to find its way into her chambers every name day since the time that she married Robert and yet it never came.

"It was my mother's favourite ring and he had the sense to give it to you. What place does a Baratheon have in claiming my mother's finest jewels? What else has he given you lady Vesara? What have you done to gain his favour as such? Opened your…"

"Enough!" Joffrey bellowed. "Leave us mother, I do not wish to hear and look upon your jealousy. The king deserves more than to behold such an ugly sight. Out. Let me break my fast with my dear sister and guest without your disruptions."

Vesara took more pleasure than she should have out of Cersei's outrage for her new gift. She had known that it would set her off she just expected that she would have waited until it was just the two of them rather than displaying such anger and jealousy in front of Joffrey or anyone for that matter.

"How dare she speak of my grandfather and yourself in such a tone. She has no respect for me or for my rule. No matter, I will remind my mother of her place.." She was wary about what her brother had planned. She had kept her distance from him since they had left Winterfell and he had displayed the type of man that he was becoming.

Cruel and ruthless.

She had to admit, from a young age he showed some sociopathic tendencies. His mother had always masked as ferocity and their father didn't care but now there was no limit to what he could and couldn't do. Vesara knew that one day that would be the case. That was her primary reason for keeping him at arm's length.

And now she feared that she would need to keep him close to ensure that they were in good graces and maybe she could keep him away from the poor Stark girl at the same time. She watched how he leered over her, making sure she knew that he was in charge.

They did say keep your friends close and your enemies closer. She knew it to be true, so true that it made her uncomfortable but she drew him in anyway.

"And how do you propose keeping a lioness at bay dear brother?"

"We take away something that she cares about."

"The list of things that your mother cares about is rather short." He lifted his chin and peered down at her past his chin before swinging forward to whisper in her ear. His hand was cold against her face as he used it to brush her long dark locks behind her ears.

"The regency." His voice was breathy.

"Grandfather did not speak against it. Mother will be furious. And you sister, you shall have the respect that you deserve after your husband shamed our family in his capture." As much as Vesara revelled in the idea of how livid Cersei would become she couldn't bring herself to whole-heartedly believe that this was a good idea.

"Joff…" He grabbed her wrist tightly yanking her towards him.

He could sense that she was about to refuse.

"We shall make a formidable team, you and I. We shall remind my mother that we are the children of Robert Baratheon, the Demon of the Trident. The people will cower in fear when they hear our names, they shall sit at our feet and sing our praises." His hiss was finished with a Cersei-like sneer.

"Very well brother. I am at your service."

The relationship with Vesara and Joffrey is always one that I have wanted to play with and I'm still uncertain about how realistic it is but I think it is something that this story needed to explore - they grew up thinking they were siblings and there had to be some sort of camaraderie between the two.