A/N: I'm so sorry.

I try being sweet
It's buried deep in me
Now I can only see red on red

A sensitive kid. That's what they had called him once, what others called her now. He thinks it may be one of the things they had in common.

But the boy he once was, the one who loved his mother and his dad and his sister, is so far gone he doesn't feel like he existed at all. Today, all there seems to be is the Hound. And right now, in this room, the Hound is alive, well, and seeing red

Sansa Stark is standing in front of Cersei, her wrists bandaged. He can see that she is holding her breath. Her cut lip barely trembling. He knows though, that the cut lip happened after the "accident", or whatever bullshit they would think of calling it.

"Little dove." Cersei smiles, though it never reaches her eyes. She tilts her head, and it looks like she's not only looking at the girl, but into her.

It would have terrified her once, he thinks, made her want to chirp and tell the woman everything. Now, it only seems to steel her resolve, and Sansa straightens her back, raises her gaze.

"I assume this…was a cry for attention?"

"It was an accident."

"An accident?"

"I slipped. And fell."

"Into your window."

"Yes. But as is the case with…cries for attention, it will not happen again."

"Oh, of that I am confident, little dove."

"It was so stupid of me. So minor. I would hate to inconvenience Joff with my trivial incompetency." Smart girl, he thinks.

"My son does have much to worry over. But don't you think the state of his fiancée warrants his attention?"

"I'm fine, but of course it is up to your discretion to tell him while he is away." Sansa casts her eyes down again.

"Hmm," Cersei tilts her head, still taking the girl in. Raking her over. "Take her back to her room, Clegane. And see she has no further accidents today. And no more bruises on her face." Cersei adds the last part as almost an afterthought.

It was two weeks ago, that Sansa told him about their plans to call off the engagement.

And he wants to know if you can really end something before you've started it; if you can break up when you're not really even fucking together.

But these thoughts make him feel lost and hopeless and like he's uselessly treading water. So when the familiar threads of anger start wrapping around his chest he embraces them.

Because what in the fuck was she thinking, trying to…was she really trying to fucking kill herself?

Was it his fault?

They walk in silence to her room, and silence seems how she's going to leave it as she closes the door.

But before he knows what he's doing his arm is out, holding open the door, and he's in the room after her.

"What were you fucking thinking?"

"Listen—"

"No. What were you thinking? And don't tell me it's none of my bloody business. I want some fucking answers."

Sansa exhales. Looking at the wall.

"Damn it, Sansa." He hits the wall and it makes her jump and it makes him feel like a monster. "What happened?"

"Nothing."

"Nothing is why you've a broken window and bandaged wrists and a cut lip?"

She's looking back at the ground, blinking too quickly. Her arms hanging uselessly at her side.

And Sandor thinks he can feel his heart breaking for her. Feels the anger rear up its head, demanding retribution.

"I cut my hand." She says finally, her voice small. "On the blade you gave me. I was…I was looking at it, and dropped it. Between the bed and the wall. And I picked it up, but grabbed the wrong end, so I cut my hand. And they…well I don't have anything sharp to cut my hand on in this room so I had to think of something so I broke the window…and I…I used the glass to cut my wrists to make it look like a suicide attempt. Because I could hardly tell them I had a knife."

His mind is spinning along with his stomach. The blade you gave me.

"So you didn't..."

"Try to kill myself? No. I'd hate to rob them of that particular chance."

And the anger is a beast in the room. It's roaring for blood. For action. To put an end to this, an end to her pain. To stop the people that keep putting her through this over and over again.

And aren't you one of them?

"I keep waiting." She's saying again, her voice barely above a whisper. "For them to do it. And I can't sleep because I keep wondering when they're going to do it and how and if…" She's shaking her head, mumbling sorry, sorry, sorry.

"Sansa." Her name breaks his voice.

"Yeah." She clears her throat. "So you don't have to worry. I didn't try to kill myself or anything, I'm fine. It's all just…fine."

"Sansa."

"You should probably go. Cersei's going to wonder where you are."

He opens his mouth and closes it.

"Why aren't you fighting? Why are you giving up?" He hears himself ask, but he doesn't know where the words come from.

"I think I'm saving the most people this way. I…I got a letter." The last part is barely above a whisper.

He shakes his head, not understanding.

She's moving closer to him, voice dropping low. "From my sister. From Arya. I don't…I have no idea how she got it here. But there were things in it…I know it's from her. It's not just them playing with me. And if…if I die maybe they'll leave her alone. They hate me, after all. I'm the one they really hate. Maybe Arya will be okay if I'm not around. Because then they can't use her against me."

And he's still wondering at how the girl managed to get into Sansa's room when he's demanding if she still has the letter, and she's shoving it into his hands as he's talking about burning it and what if the Lannisters had found it and what was she thinking doesn't she have any idea—

But her hand on his forearm silences him, because he can't remember the last time Sansa touched him.

"And you."

"And me what?"

"If I'm not around you'll be safer."

He barely manages to hold in his scream, to make it out of the room before he breaks something. That Sansa thinks she is going to lay down her life for a miserable old dog like him. A monster, a waste. That Sansa Stark…he's choking on it all. His emotion. Fear. Anger. Rage.

It's what makes him do it, he reasons.

It's why he marches straight to Cersei Lannister and says, "Arya Stark is back and Sansa knows where she is."