Elaine451: Thank you very much! Catelyn is indeed very confused. I think motherhood is a very important issue for Cat. She consideres herself -and I think she is- a great mother (to her true born children). Leaving her two youngest sons alone to fend for themselves in Winterfell weighed heavily on her conscience, especially when news of Theon's attack and their "deaths" reached her. Having lost her two daughters and not knowing anything about them for months was killing her. And watching her first born son die before her very eyes was just devastating. So I think she sees this baby as a sort of new found hope. Yet, she cannot forget who the father is. She hates Tywin and what he represents, but on the other hand, he has behaved kindly towards her (granted, not because he has found his heart, but because it served his purposes). She went from almost dying and having lost everything to having a family and a home again (she has Sansa who's going back to Winterfell, Edmure is alive and in Riverrun, and now she may have Arya back). So, she has mixed feelings about Tywin, the baby and the whole life she's leading now. ... I wasn't planning on including Sansa's perspective in this story. She will be mentioned, but we don't get to see her POV ... sorry.
Damoniaca4ever: Jua! Bueno, en realidad Tywin no es tan bueno ... El sigue haciendo de las suyas, sigue haciendo lo que quiere sin importarle lo que sufran otros. Quería controlar Westeros y lo está haciendo. No se preocupó cuando mataron a Joffrey porque se dio cuenta que Tommen era mejor. Ni le importó que mataron a su nieto ya que su plan seguía en pie (y hasta incluso había mejorado). Se las arregló para colocar a sus hijos donde a él le sirve: Jamie como hand of the King; Cersei fuera de King's Landing, lejos de Tommen y uniendo a la casa Tyrell con Lannister, y Tyrion controlando el norte. Salvó a Sansa, pero no porque pensara "ay pobre niña, es inocente", lo hizo porque la necesitaba viva para recuperar Winterfell. Y falta algo más, ya vas a ver ...
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10. Catelyn V:
She was counting the days until she could see Arya again. It took ten more days for the knight to finally show up at the doors. He was allowed into the castle and shown into the Main Hall where Tywin was sitting in his high chair and Catelyn sat by his side. When he removed his hood, there was no mistaking who he was. That burned face was his signature, the Hound, Sandor Clegane. But Catelyn only had eyes for the child: dirty, scratched face; short, messy, unkempt, greasy hair; callous hands with long uneven nails; ragged and ripped clothes full of stains, stinking of waste, death and rain. This couldn't be Arya, it must be just an orphan boy from the war he picked up on the way. This can't be my Arya, but please Gods, let her be Arya. Please.
"Child, please step forward" Tywin said authoritatively.
As the child approached them Catelyn was apprehensive. She looked at her face and knew it instantly. Those solemn, ice grey, northern eyes could only be Ned's.
"Gods be Good! Arya!" she cried. She stood up to hug the girl but was stopped instantly by Twyin.
"Are you sure?"
"Yes, I am. This is Arya! My daughter!" and she jumped out of her chair and went to her daughter.
"Mother?" the girl asked apprehensively.
"Yes! Yes! Arya, you're home!"
"Child, who is this man?" Tywin asked the girl.
"My name is Sandor Clegane" he interjected before Arya could speak. "I was in service of King Joffrey until I got fed up with his stupidity and left. I'm a free dog. I don't serve any master now. I found this girl, protected her and brought her home. Don't take my deeds as a token of my good heart. I want my gold."
"You should be executed for treason"
"But I won't, because I have brought your lady wife's girl back home."
"My Lord, please. Just give him the gold and be done with him. Please" Catelyn whispered quietly into his ear.
"Very well" Tywin said aloud "you shall be repaid handsomely for rescuing Lady Arya Stark. After that, you are to leave the grounds. Should you be found within the limits of the city walls you will be arrested for treason."
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Catelyn rushed down the hallways taking Arya with her. She just wanted to be alone with her long lost daughter out of the prying eyes of strangers. These people wouldn't understand how she felt, and she needed Arya all to herself.
"Arya, sweetie, I'm going to run you a warm bath" she said and stepped briefly out of the room to ask the chambermaid to prepare a bath for her daughter. "My sweetling, how I have missed you! Where have you been?"
"Many places. I saw them take off father's head, I was taken prisoner, I had to run away, I saw dead people lying by the side of the roads and rivers, I saw what they did to Robb's body" she was listing all these atrocious acts like they meant nothing. "I have killed men, you know?"
"Oh, Arya, Arya! I'm so sorry. I should have been with you." Oh Gods, the things she must have seen and done in order to survive. She couldn't stop her arms from roaming over her daughter's body afraid that if she stopped touching her she would disappear.
"I'm sorry I cut my hair, Mother. I know you like it long."
"Your hair? Oh my sweetling, don't worry, it will grow" she smiled. "But meanwhile, what do you say we wash this grease and slime off."
Her heart sank when she started taking the clothes off her daughter. Bruises and scars everywhere. She had fleas on her clothes and her skin was full of bites. She looked so skinny and tiny. When the tub was ready they stepped into the bathroom. Catelyn took her time bathing her daughter, not so much for hygienic reasons, but because she was really enjoying this quiet moment soothing and comforting her daughter. When Arya deemed herself clean she stepped out of the tub and her mother gave her a towel.
"I don't have any clothes" she realized.
"That's all right" Catelyn told her daughter softly. "Tonight you'll borrow one of my nightgowns, and tomorrow we'll try to find clothes for you."
"Why did you marry Tywin Lannister? I heard he killed Robb." Arya asked her mother as she put on the borrowed nightgown.
"Oh, my sweetling. So much has happened. When I received news of your father's execution, I was heart-broken. I cannot even imagine what you must have felt having witnessed it. I was with Robb and we were in the middle of a war. Robb had made a promise to the Freys, that he would marry one of his girls. But he fell in love with another and broke his promise. In the end it was agreed your uncle Edmure would wed a Frey girl, and we all went to the Twins for the ceremony."
"I was just outside. I could hear the music."
"Oh, Arya. Thank the Gods you didn't go in. They would have probably killed you."
"But they didn't kill you." Her mother did not know what to make of that. She could not tell if it was an innocent question or an accusation.
"No, they didn't, but at the time I wished they had. They kept me alive so I could marry Tywin. He had this grand plan to control Westeros which included marrying me so he could get his hands on Riverrun. He has Riverrun through me and Winterfell through Sansa, who's married to Tyrion"
"Why did you accept?"
"I fought it at the beginning. I even attacked him with a knife", and she smiled at the memory of that incident, "but then I realized it was the only way I could see Sansa. And now you have also returned to me. So I don't regret marrying him" And you'll soon have a brother or sister, she wanted to add, but not yet.
"Have you seen Sansa?"
"Yes, I have" she smiled. "I saw her at Joffrey's wedding."
"Is it true she killed that piece of shit?"
"Arya! Your language!"
"What? He was a piece of shit"
"Yes … he was … But Sansa didn't kill him. We had to fight to get her acquitted"
"What's a quit?" Arya asked confused.
"Acquitted" her mother smiled "means that you did not commit a crime and you don't have to go to jail."
"Was she in jail?"
"Only for a short while."
"I see … so now you're married to Tywin?"
"Yes, sweetie. I will never forget your father. But this is the best option I could find."
"Mother, I'm sorry you had to suffer so much."
"No, honey. I'm sorry you had to suffer. I'm a grown woman, I can take it . You're just a child. My child. … And there's something else" Here goes …
"What?"
"I'm pregnant"
"Is it father's?" she asked excitedly and her face lit up.
"No, sweetheart. I wish" she answered with a pang in her heart at the palpable disappointment set in her daughter's face. She was also a bit worried at how bad Arya had calculated time, she probably had no idea how much time had gone by since she had left Winterfell all those moons ago. She's still a little girl. "It's Tywin's."
"Did he rape you?"
Taken aback by her daughter's question she simply shook her head and replied "No" and waited to see her daughter's reaction.
After a short uncomfortable silence she asked "Do you love him?"
"It's difficult. I know the sort of man he is. I know what he has done. But on the other hand, he saved me, though not through the pureness of his heart, I know. And it's thanks to him that I was able to see Sansa and you. People change, my love. Circumstances make people change. He's been really good to me. We have spent a lot of time together. I will never forget your father and I will never stop loving him, and neither will you. But that does not mean we cannot start over."
"Is he going to be my father now?" she asked confused.
"No, honey. Your father will always be your father. But you can grow to like Tywin."
"Will we see Sansa again? And Jon?"
"Maybe. The war is over now. We could always go visit Sansa or she can come here. As for Jon, I guess we could go visit him at the Wall one day."
"So, I'm going to have another brother …"
"Or sister"
"I already have a sister, but I have lost all my brothers."
"Nothing will take the place of your brothers, but we can learn to love this new baby."
They spent the rest of the evening talking, playing and bonding like they had rarely done in Winterfell. Arya was not the sort of girl who needed cuddling and motherly hugs, but tonight she did. And her mother was more than happy to oblige.
TBC
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Up next: Tywin's reaction to Arya and the Hound ...