a/n: Includes swearing.
The ages for the characters are as listed:
Robb - 20
Jon - 20
Sansa - 18
Arya - 16
Bran - 14
Rickon - 11
-
Jaqen (female) - 16
-
Gendry - 27
-
-
********Game/of/Thrones********
*
North Snow Private High School for Girls;
A Change of Pace:
Chapter 13: —
The Upshot:
The police came. The ambulance took the three of them away to the hospital. Krissi was restrained to a bed, still unconscious, with a uniform keeping watch over her and a nurse. Gendry was taken into surgery to get the bullet from his leg. And Arya was left alone, the healthiest of the three.
She was left in a room, with a officer outside the door. The doctor told her she was in shock, and made sure that she was wrapped warmly before he left her alone. A nurse stayed while her parents were called, but it would be nearly three hours yet before they got here. The tears had stopped coming, and the nurse had cleaned up most of Gendry's blood from her skin—she could smell it as she lay there, exhausted and numb—and gave her a pair of scrub pants so she wasn't just wearing a skirt.
Her brain was sort of at a stand still, as she waited for her parents to come so that the police could question her properly, she was under eighteen so a parent needed to be present when questioned. She wanted it to be over with already, but it wasn't.
It was forty-five minutes that Gendry was in surgery and put in recovery. When Arya found out he was out, she made a racket until they let her see him, but she had to sit in a wheelchair, even though she wasn't hurt, and keep wrapped up. She would have agreed to anything as long as they let her see him.
The nurse wheeled her in, and left her alone at his bedside.
She looked upon his handsome face, his expression smooth and painless, his bright blue eyes hidden behind closed lids. His shaggy black hair clung to the sweat on his forehead. He was wearing a gown and tucked under a blanket, where she could see that his leg was propped up on a pillow.
She watched him breathe easily, and she knew that he was okay, but she wouldn't feel better until he was awake, and she saw his blue eyes again, until she heard his rough and gentle voice. She wanted to take his hand, to hold it, to make sure that he knew she was there with him and okay, but she held herself back.
She sighed heavily as she waited for her parents to arrive, and wondered how they were going to react. They'd be relieved that she was okay; scared about what she'd been through; upset that she never said anything the summer that she had been back, when they find out after she talked to the detective. She wondered if the police had called Gendry's family too, like they had hers and Krissi's.
She'd never thought about things like that before. If he had any family, friends—a girlfriend. Why had she automatically think that he was single? He was a man, handsome, smart, funny, nice, brave. Of course he had a girlfriend, otherwise he was gay! Arya shook her head. She needed to stop that, he was her teacher, she was his student. Look what happened last time a girl thought that she loved him and they should be together.
Arya sighed forlornly, and sat back in the wheelchair, never taking her gaze from Gendry's face, his rising chest as he slept; always feeling the urge to reach out to him, to caress his cheek like he had done two hours earlier, but held back, mentally scolding herself, telling herself she was disgusting.
She must have nodded off sometime, because she opened her eyes to someone calling her name softly.
"Arya,"
Arya moaned and blinked, rubbing the weariness from her eyes, and looked to find Gendry looking at her with those blue eyes. "Gendry! You're finally awake." She jumped to her feet, the blankets falling from her and to the floor, she didn't realize what she called him, but he had, though he said nothing.
"Are you okay?" Was the first thing that he asked, looking her over as best he could from his current position.
Arya nodded, her hands gripping the edge of the bed. "Just shock, they said, but that was hours ago."
"Were you here the whole time?" He wondered.
She nodded. "I wanted to be here when you woke up, to make sure that you were okay before my parents came."
"They must be worried about you," he said.
She just gave a small shrug, she didn't want to think about that right now. "What about your parents?" She asked him. "Won't they be worried?"
He smiled sadly. "I never knew my father, and mother died when I was just a kid. The only things that I remember about her was that she had yellow hair and she sang to me. I lived with my uncle until I was seventeen, but he's gone now too."
"Oh. I'm sor—"
"It's okay, you didn't know." He patted her hands in reassurance. He gave her a small smile. "Did you speak to the police yet?"
"I can't make an official statement until my parents get here, but when they find out you're awake, they're gonna want to ask you a few questions." She was quiet for a moment, a worried expression on her face.
"What is it?" He asked.
"Am I going to get in trouble?" She asked. "It was my—"
"Stop saying that!" He chided her gently. "It wasn't your fault."
But the girl still didn't look convinced. Gendry sighed, she was being stubborn, trying to take all the blame. But no one was to blame, not really. How could any one of them think that this was going to happen? If anyone was to blame, it was himself. He was the one that Krissi was infatuated with.
"Arya Stark?" a nurse questioned, peeking inside the room.
"Yes?" Arya turned to her.
"You parents are here," she said. "They're waiting in your room."
"Okay, thank you." The nurse disappeared, and Arya turned back to Gendry. "I guess I have to go."
"Yeah," he agreed.
"I'll come back, and said goodbye, okay?" Arya asked, almost nervously like she wasn't sure if he wanted her to or not.
"I would like that," he told her softly, and she gave a relieved smile. "Now go, your parents must be worried sick."
Arya nodded, grabbed the blankets and putting them in the wheelchair seat, waving at him before she left, pushing the chair in front of her and back to her room. She was nervous, she hoped that they weren't angry with her for lying to them.
But when she entered the room, that didn't seem to be the case, as her father gathered her into his arms, and held her tight. Murmuring her name over and over again, almost like a prayer, and her mother wrapped her arms around the both of them, crying into her hair. Arya wasn't sure that she had seen her mother ever do that before. She felt so safe her parents' arms, and felt herself breaking down again, letting the fear of the event roll through her again.
"Arya, are you alright, sweetheart?" He father asked, his head buried in her hair like her mother's.
"Yeah," she murmured. "I am okay. I really am."
"We got here as soon as the police called," her mother muttered.
"I know you did," Arya said. "I really missed you guys."
"We're so glad that you're alright, sweetie." Ned said, and they finally parted a little. "The detective that we talked to said that he wanted to talk to you now that we're here, the sooner the better, when it's fresher in you memory. Would you be up to that?"
Arya nodded, "I'll be okay."
"Alright." And after kissing her on the forehead, he went to find the detective.
Xx
The Starks finally sat down with the detective, back in Arya's room. Parents sitting on either side of their youngest daughter, Ned with his arms wrapped around her shoulders, holding her to his side, and Catelyn holding Arya's hand tight in both of hers, almost too tight.
The older detective, about her father's age, who's name was Yoren sat in a chair in front of her, a notebook in his hand and a pen in the other. He told her to start from the beginning.
"Which beginning?" Arya asked him. "Today's beginning, or when I started school at N.S.P.H.?"
"Does it have bearing on what happened today?" The man asked.
Arya nodded silently, and she could feel her mother's hot stare. Their daughter could hide things so well from them when she wanted. And this seemed to be one of those things, and something that she shouldn't have.
"Then start there," he said.
And that was where she started, it went much the way it had when she told Gendry. The detective asked questions to clarify facts, or asked her to go back and explain things in further detail, all the while writing in his notebook. Ned and Catelyn had been hearing this for the first time, and they ended up interrupting and asked why she hadn't told them what was happening, among a bunch of other things. But the detective didn't seem to mind; it gave him a look into her state of mind and Krissi's as well.
Finally, she got to today, what happened after school when she stayed behind in class to tell Gendry, and what happened when Krissi came with the gun, and all the she had said. She remembered it all, and wasn't likely to forgot it anytime soon.
When Arya talked about the gun and the shots going off, her mother started to silently cry again, squeezing her hands so tightly, that the girl believed she was going to lose all blood circulation in the limb. Because Arya couldn't, Ned soothingly rubbed her mother's back.
She told the detective about Jaqen and Uma, and how they could corroborate her story up until her and Gendry's encounter with Krissi. It turns out that Krissi had thought her plan through; she got the jump on Jaqen and Uma as they headed up stairs, locking them in the closet. They weren't discovered and freed until Arya had called the police.
"Alright, I have all I need for now. If I have any questions, I'll call." The man said, standing and heading for the door, tucking the notebook into his coat pocket.
"Are you going to speak with Mr. Waters now?" She asked him.
"Yes." He nodded. "I wanted to speak with you first, since Mr. Waters just had surgery a few hours ago." And then he left.
"Are you ready to go?" Ned asked, as Catelyn stopped crying once more.
"I told Mr. Gendry that I would say goodbye before I left," she said.
"Dear, you can talk to your teacher later—" her mother started.
Arya jumped to her feet and turned to them angrily. "I want to say goodbye to Mr. Waters! I said that I would, and he expects me to." She said firmly, her fists clenched.
"He just had surgery, Arya. I'm sure your teacher is exhausted after everything he's been through, and so must you. I think he would understand," Catelyn said.
But Arya shook her head. "He was shot because of me! He said that it wasn't my fault, but I know it was. I grabbed the gun, instead of sneaking out while he had her distracted like he wanted me to. And that was why he got shot!"
"Honey, he was right. It's nobody's fault. Sometime things in this world just happen," Ned told her softly.
"That doesn't change how I feel!" She protested.
"Your right." He agreed. "You've been through something traumatic and scary, and all you can think about are the what-ifs. But you can't change the past, Arya. It's set in stone. You can only live in the present and think about the future. Remember the past, so that you won't make the same mistakes in the future, that's all you can do." He gave her a soft smile, his hands clasped in his laps as he gazed at her. "You can say goodbye to your teacher, and then we'll head home."
"Okay." She said in relief. But then she realized, "What do you mean, home?"
"We're taking you home, Arya." Catelyn told her.
"What? But why?" she protested.
"Arya, someone just tried to kill you, we are taking you home." She stood up and her expression brokered no argument, but Arya argued anyways.
"But I don't want to go! What about Jaqen and Uma and school? What about Mr. Waters?"
"Arya, there was a shooting at your school, it's going to be closed for a week at least, while the police investigate. We think it would be best if you come home for a while, be with family while your dealing with what happened." Her father informed her quietly. Unlike her mother who told her what was happening, he explained it to her.
Arya sighed, her lips pursed but nodded. "Okay... but I'm saying goodbye to Mr. Waters, and I need to get some things from my room, and check on Jaqen." She told them, her arms crossed over her chest firmly, daring them to deny her this.
"Of course, dear." Her mother finally said.
Xx
It was almost an hour later, when the detective was finally done interviewing Gendry, and Arya was finally allowed to go in.
The bed was raised, and he was half sitting up from his interview, a nurse was checking his intervenes line. He looked tired, about to fall asleep, but he seemed to perk up as she walked in, clad in a pair of big and baggy green scrubs' pants that dragged on the floor so she rolled the bottoms of the legs. There was some dried blood on her white sleeves, and brown smears on her sweater vest, her whole uniform was ruined.
"Hey," she said softly, coming over to his bed as the nurse left. "How did it go?"
"Good." His voice cracked, a little dry, and he took a sip from the plastic cup that was sitting in front of his on the little tray table that hung over his bed. "Sorry I ruined your uniform, Arya." He looked her up and down.
She looked away for a brief moment. "It's okay, it's just clothes. I'm really happy you're going to be okay, Mr. Waters."
"That makes two of us," he chuckled. "You talked to the detective?"
"Yeah," she nodded, picking at the blanket at the edge of the bed. "He was nice. Didn't drill me for answers, just let me talk."
"Yeah. And what about you're parents? I assume that it was their first time hearing about Krissi?"
Arya bit her lip. "They were a little upset that I didn't tell them..."
"Hmm. You came to say goodbye, right? Are you going home then?"
Arya nodded. "The school's going to be closed for a bit, my mother said. So they're taking me home for a bit, said it would be good to be around family."
"They're right." He told her.
"But what about you?" She protested, looking at him.
Gendry smiled. "I'll be okay, Arya. They're going to keep me here for a day or two, and then send me home—with a cane."
"A cane?" She couldn't help but chuckle. "Like an old man cane?"
He shook his head, his eyes glowing with laughter. "You shouldn't laugh at you're elders," he teased.
This time she laughed, and he loved her laugh. She hardly did it, he knew, so when she did in his presence, he paid attention. The way her lips stretched wide with the smile, and her grey eyes crinkled. She was beautiful, even if she didn't know it. He wanted so much to tell her, but stayed his tongue just in time.
"Go." He told her softly but firmly, and he watched as that spark of laughter left her eyes and lips and she looked sad again. "Go be with your brothers and sister and your parents, Arya."
"Tell me you'll be okay." She told him stubbornly. "Promise you will,"
His expression grew serious as he looked her in the eye. "Arya, I will be fine, I promise you."
She was silent for a long moment, her eyes narrowed as she searched his. "I'll take you at your word."
"Good." He gave her an easy smile. "Now go home."
"Mr. Waters?"
The both looked to the doors at the interruption.
"Mum, what are you doing?" Arya was surprised, embarrassed and a little angry that her time with Gendry kept getting interrupted.
"Mrs. Stark!" Gendry said, sitting up a little straighter; he had been casual, too casual with her daughter and she was giving him a look.
"Hello all!" Ned stepped into the room alongside his wife.
"Daddy!" Arya groaned through her teeth, and Gendry couldn't help the twitch of his lips at her reaction and embarrassment.
"Mr. Stark!" he greeted. And now he knew who Arya took after most, her father; strong features, dark hair and grey eyes. And when he looked back to when he met her two brothers last year, she saw that her brother Jon was the same; strong features, dark hair, grey eyes. "It's good to finally meet you, though the circumstances aren't."
"We just wanted to thank you for saving our daughter, Mr. Waters." Catelyn told him.
Arya's face grew hot with complete embarrassment.
"Thank you." He looked sidelong at the girl, her cheeks red as she turned her face away. "But Arya's the one that saved my life, Mrs. Stark. You should be very proud; you have a strong and caring and brave daughter."
"We are and we do." Ned told him and stepped up to the bed and held out his hand. Gendry shook it firmly. "But you were with our daughter, and you helped keep her alive. We owe our greatest thanks and our debt."
"You don't!" he protested firmly. "We saved each other, therefore we owe each other nothing."
"You're are a good man, Mr. Waters." Catelyn murmured, nodded gravely before she turned and left, but not before a glance at her daughter who looked like she was on fire.
"Thank you again, Mr. Waters." Her father said. He looked to his daughter, a small smile on his lips. "We'll be waiting outside, Arya." And he followed his wife.
"They seem very nice." Gendry said.
Arya groaned a little, before finally raising her head again to find him smiling at her. She gave a little smile back. "Goodbye, Mr. Waters. Get better soon,"
"Goodbye, Arya. Have a good time with your family," he said, touching her narrow shoulder briefly before she left. He sighed as he was left alone once more in complete silence. He was in so much trouble.
Xx
It was almost 10:00 p.m. when they left the hospital.
"He's the one, isn't he?" Her father murmured to his daughter as they walked from the hospital and through the parking lot to the car, his arm around her shoulders, holding her close. He's almost lost this, he thought.
Arya's heart felt like it had stopped in her chest. Did he someone how realize what she felt for her teacher? No. He wouldn't be this relaxed or calm if he did. "W-what?!" She gasped.
"The teacher that you met your first day, after your mother and I left."
"Oh. Yeah. He found me on the curb when I was crying, and then he stopped them." She explained as they made it to the car, her mother already waiting. And they climbed in.
"I'm glad he was there," Ned whispered as they buckled up and started the car, pulling out. But Arya wasn't sure which time he meant.
Xx
When they arrived at the school, Arya had to argue and beg her parents to convince them that she could go to her room and get her things by herself. Her mother was seriously against it, and so was her father, but Ned could see that she wanted to say a private goodbye to her friend. He gave her twenty-minutes, other wise he was coming in.
She jumped from the car and ran to the Sophomore Dorm. When she got to her room, she found a rather stressed out Jaqen, pacing the walls. The girl pun around to her and gave her a crushing hug.
"Oh my Gods, Arya! Are you okay? She demanded, finally pulling back and noticing the blood on her uniform.
"I'm fine." Arya told her. "It's Mr. Waters' blood."
"What! Is he okay?"
"Yeah. He just got shot in the leg, he's in the hospital recovering." Arya explained, sitting on the edge of her bed. Jaqen sat down next to her. "I heard you and Uma got locked in the closet?"
Jaqen nodded, angry and embarrassed. "That crazy bitch got the drop on us. We had last class together, and were headed straight up to meet you, and the next thing we knew, we were shoved into a dark supply closet and she locked the door. We were on the second floor near the stairs, but by the time that we found the door and light switch and started yelling, the halls were cleared. I'm so sorry, Arya!"
"I'm glad you weren't there." She said.
"If we were, maybe Mr. Waters wouldn't have gotten shot!" She protested.
Arya shook her head. "You don't know that. Everybody lived in the end, so it turned out all right."
"We were stuck in that fucking closet for almost two hours, were heard the gunshots, but we couldn't do anything about it. We didn't even have our cell phones, they were still in turned off in our lockers."
"Are you going to be staying here?" Arya asked. "While the school's closed."
"I called my mum right after I was done talking to the police, she going to be here the day after tomorrow to pick me up." She looked at Arya. "You're going home, aren't you?"
Arya silently nodded and got up. There first thing that she was did was change out of her soiled uniform and scrub-pants, and put them in a plastic bag; she changed into a pair of track pants, a plain tee and blue hoodie over top and a pair of skater shoes. She packed a bag of her clothes, with Nymeria and the soccer ball that Gendry let her have last year, and a few other things as well. She didn't take her blankets, but took her pillow.
"I'll see you in a little while?" Jaqen asked.
Arya nodded and gave her friend a hug, a small smile on her lips as she left, her bag slung over her shoulder, and pillow tucked under her arm. She made her way back to the car.
"Did you get to say goodbye to your friend?" Ned asked.
Arya nodded demurely. He started the car up again and pulled out of the dark parking lot, finally head home.
She leaned her head against her pillow where she put it against the window, her eyes closed, she watched the streetlights and car headlights flash by.
Xx
She groaned as the slamming car doors woke her, and would have fallen out of the seat when her dad opened it, if it weren't for her seatbelt. He caught her pillow though, before it hit the ground.
"Daddy?" She groaned, trying to rub the sleep and tiredness from her eyes.
"We're home, sweetie." He murmured. "Let's get you fed and then into bed."
"Okay." She undid her seatbelt and slipped from the car, while her dad grabbed her bag and locked the car up.
It was late and everyone seemed to be in bed. Ned sat Arya down, not at the dinning room table, but the soft couch in the living room, and left her to help Catelyn in the kitchen.
She almost fell asleep again, waiting, but the smell of hot food woke her. She didn't complain that she wasn't sick when her mother set a tray on her lap with a bowl of chicken soup, because she felt like she was starving right now and would have eaten anything. She crushed some crackers in as her mother briefly caressed her head, turning the television on low.
She ate her soup quietly, almost mechanically, without thought. She tasted the hot liquid briefly as she chewed it and swallowed. Soon she was finished and full, the warm food in her belly making her even more tired and she yawned. She turned the TV off, and took her dishes to the kitchen. She hugged her parents— who were talking quietly in the dinning room, she knew they were talking about her but she didn't care at the moment—before she went upstairs to bed.
The only thing she managed to do was go pee before falling into bed, still in her pants and hoodie, her skin still a little sticky from Gendry's blood, asleep within a few minutes.
Xx
She didn't dream, she was too tired to, but she knew they might come later.
She woke up briefly in the night when someone moved beside her. Sometime in the night, her father must have come in without waking her, and tucked her properly under the blankets, and Nymeria in her arms.
Gendry, she thought, cracking open her eyes. But in the faint light streaming through her cracked curtain, she saw red hair, not dark. "Rickon," she murmured, her little brother must have crawled in with her. She put her arm around her brother's slim waist and pulled him close to her, tucking him under her chin, she held the boy between her and Nymeria. Falling back asleep to his soft breathing.
Xx
She groaned and moaned when she woke up in the morning, she felt like a lump of shit on the hot sidewalk. When she cracked open her eyes, she glimpsed the clock; 11:17 a.m. She wanted to go back to sleep, but she just felt too gross in her skin to manage it.
She dragged herself from bed, and that was when she noticed that Rickon wasn't there anymore. He must've left earlier, probably at school. She stumbled around her room, found her bag that her father had brought up when he tucked her in, and dumped the contents onto her bed. She took the plastic bag with her soiled uniform in it and hid them away in her closet so her mother wouldn't find them and try and through them away. This was the uniform that she was wearing when she realized that she was in love with Gendry, and she was going to keep them forever if she could. She grabbed some underwear, socks, a long-sleeved Doctor Who (10th Doctor with the TARDIS) shirt and a pair of zip-offs, along with her toiletries and went down the hall to the bathroom that all her siblings shared to have a shower.
She washed herself twice before just standing under the hot stream and remembered.
She remembered the gun, how heavy and cold it felt in her hands, it warm after firing. She remembered Krissi's hysterical screams. How Gendry didn't make a sound as the bullet tore into his leg. The red that didn't seem to stop flowing. The smell of his blood still on her skin. She washed herself once more.
There was a gentle knocking at the door, but she started, jumping in surprise and fear, almost like it was the gun firing again. She put her hands out to stop herself from falling.
"Arya?" She heard the muffled voice on the other side of the door.
She quickly turned off the water and grabbed a towel, wrapping to around herself as she stepped from the tub onto the mat.
"What is it?" She asked.
"You've been in there a long time, sweetie. Are you alright?" Ned called quietly through the door.
"I'm okay." She told him.
"Alright. Come down for something to eat after you're done."
"Sure,"
When she knew that her father was gone, she took off her towel and patted herself drying before putting on deodorant and slipping on her clothes. She brushed her hair, cleaned her ears, and put moisturizer on her face but no makeup.
She went downstairs, and found not only her mother and father at the table, but also Rickon and Bran. Ned must have taken the day off work to be here for her, in case she needed a hug or to talk. Rickon jumped from his seat and gave her a hug before she sat, and Bran was giving her a relieved look, and his eyes seemed a little red like he had been crying. She didn't see Sansa, and while she knew that mother had allowed her brothers to stay home today, her sister would rather be at school—though Arya was kind of hurt by the thought, she tried not to let it bother her. How would Sansa feel if Arya had died yesterday, would she care, would she even cry?
"How was your sleep, dear?" Her mother asked her, setting down a plate of brunch in front of her.
"I slept pretty well," Arya said, sending Rickon a smile before she dug into her sausage and hash browns. "This is good." She commented around a mouthful.
"Arya," her mother started.
Arya quickly swallowed her mouthful, and looked her worried mother straight in the eye. "I really am, mum." She swore. "What happened yesterday can't be taken back, but Mr. Waters is going to recover and Krissi's going to get the help that she needs."
"You should have told us about what was happening," Catelyn murmured.
Arya sighed and took a bite out of her sausage. She just woken up an hour ago, and she didn't want to talk about this stuff in front of Bran and Rickon. She didn't know how much they already knew, and she didn't want to scare them, not when it seemed that Bran had already been crying. Her father seemed to know what she was thinking about as she looked at her brothers.
"Catelyn, she here and she's okay and that's all that matters." Ned murmured, taking his wife's hand in his and giving it a gentle squeeze.
Catelyn smiled softly. "You're right. I'm happy that you're here, Arya—safe."
"Thanks, mum." Arya gave her mother a small smile, continuing to eat. "Since you guys skipped school, what do you want to do?" She asked her brothers.
They smiled at her, and she knew that wanted to play soccer in the yard. It was what they had bonded over the summer. Though Arya had conflicted feelings about it, after brunch she went out into the backyard with the ball that Gendry had given her. Soccer reminded her of both Gendry and Krissi. The only relatively good memories of Krissi that she had was when they played soccer together, because they weren't enemies there, they were team-mates, but it had been shadowed by thunderclouds. But she only had good memories of Gendry. He'd shown her the game, taught her how to play. And as she played with her brothers, that was what she focused on—she didn't want to think about anything else.
Xx
It was later in the afternoon when the phone rang, and her mother called up that it was for her. She ran down the stairs, knowing exactly who it was going to be. She took the handheld from her mother and took it back up to her room, closing the door behind her, she flopped down on her bed and smiled.
"Hello?"
"Arya!" Jon sighed in relief.
"You don't know how good it is to hear your voice." Robb said; they must be using conference-call.
"I could say the same. It took you guys long enough to call, I was starting to think you'd forgotten about me." She joked.
"We could never forget bout you," Jon told her grimly.
Arya sighed, she knew the light-heartedness wasn't going to last that long. "When did daddy call you?" She wondered.
"Last night," Jon said.
"We wanted to talk to you," Robb said. "But dad shut us down, said that it was too late and to call later today."
"How much did he tell you?"
"The cliff notes."
"Then that's all you need to know."
"Arya, please don't shut us out. We need to know that you're okay." Jon murmured.
Arya let out a small gasp and bit her lip. She didn't want to cry, but she felt tears trail down her cheeks.
"Arya?" Robb whispered, concern coating his voice.
"I-I—" she started, but couldn't seem to continue.
"It's all right." Jon shushed her soothingly, almost like a mother. "You don't have to, we aren't going to push you."
"No. I-I—I need too, Jon." She told him.
"Okay. Okay. Whenever you're ready," he crooned.
"It was all harmless in the beginning," she said, sniffing and wiping her wet cheeks. "But then it wasn't anymore. I thought that I could deal with it myself, like I've done everything else. But it just kept getting worse and worse. And then I knew that it wasn't just about me anymore."
"You're teacher?" Robb asked. "The one that was shot." He remembered meeting Gendry, the guy seemed pretty cool.
"Uh-huh!" She sobbed. "Krissi was infatuated with him, and even though she threatened to get me 'gone', I knew that Mr. Waters was the only one who would listen to me. He'd already asked me once before and I told him no; if I had just told him the truth, none of this would of happened!"
"You can't know that for sure." Jon told her.
"You can't play the what-if game, Arya." Robb said.
"I know. I know." She sighed. "I try not to, but I can't help it."
"You're so stubborn, little sister." Jon said fondly, with brotherly-love, in a completely different way than the way Gendry had said it. "You try and carry the world on your shoulders, do everything on your own, refuse to ask for help. But sometimes there are just things you can't do alone,"
"That was why I went to Mr. Waters," she agreed.
"You did the right thing."
"Mum keeps asking why I didn't say anything to her, like she doesn't even know me at all." Arya mused. "Like she can't understand what it's like to be a teenager, all the pressure and expectations. It's exhausting, I try not to get annoyed, but it hard. She wants me to confide in her, but why would she think I would start doing that now, when I never did before?"
"Put yourself in her shoes, Arya." Robb reasoned. "You're her child, her youngest daughter. She loves you to bits, even when she get frustrated with all your stubbornness. You remind her of Aunt Lyanna. What do you think she felt when she got a call last night from the police, saying that you'd been in an incident, a shooting, and you were in the hospital? The three hour ride there must have been hell. And she wouldn't have been able to go to you immediately, she had to call dad, and the boys and Sansa were just getting out of school. For all she knew, you were dying, and she wasn't there. Imagine how you'd feel if that happened to anyone of us—she has six children, she probably has those feelings every day."
"Wow." Arya whispered, as she did think about it. She probably only glimpsed the tip of the despair and fear and helplessness that Catelyn must have felt when the police called, and now she felt like a selfish bitch. "I'm a horrible daughter,"
"No. Your just stubborn and high-handed and difficult because of all you opinions." Robb chuckled.
"But that's why we all love you, Arya." Jon said.
Arya felt the warmth spread inside her. "I love you guys, too. You're the best big brothers any girl could have."
"So, how are you really?" Jon asked.
Arya sighed. "I really am fine. I just want Mr. Waters to recover proper, and things to go back to how they were."
"If things went back to the way there were, you would be right back to where you started." Robb pointed out. "Look to the future, not the past."
"You sound just like daddy." She remarked.
Jon sniggered a little.
"I'll take that as a compliment." Robb growled.
"I've never been so scared in my life," she said suddenly, quietly. "I wanted to puke. I'd never even seen a gun before in real life, it wasn't as cool as they make it look in the movies. I held it, you know? I was trying to get it from her hands. It fired while I was touching it. It shot Mr. Waters while I was holding it."
"But your finger wasn't on the trigger." Jon reminded her.
"It might as well have been!"
"You need to stop thinking that! It wasn't you who brought that gun there with the intention of hurting someone, you weren't the one that aimed it, or loaded it. All you did was what you thought you had to do to live, and guess what? It worked! You're alive, and Mr. Waters is alive, and even the other girl is alive. You're alive! And we are so happy that you did what you did so that you're talking to us right now!"
Arya swallowed as she felt like crying again, and didn't try and stop it. Her brothers were slowly breaking down her walls, helping her deal with whatever this was—the survivors guilt that she was feeling, even though no one had died. But she would have taken that bullet for Gendry. He never did anything to deserve this, he was a good teacher and a good man, he just wanted to teach children so that they could grow up and have a future. It wasn't his fault whether his students fell in love with him or not. He was friendly, but not overly so. He helped his students if he could, like he did her—he helped her find soccer.
"He said that it wasn't my fault. But I knew when he said that, that he was blaming himself." She said.
"That's understandable," Robb replied. "The girl was infatuated with him."
"Don't say that! It wasn't his fault. He couldn't stop how that girl felt about it, he didn't even suspect!" Arya shouted.
She could hear the smile in his voice. "You're right. It wasn't his fault. Just like it wasn't yours. Maybe it wasn't even the girl's either. Something was wrong in her brain."
"Her brain?" Arya wondered. She didn't know much about the brain, but she did know that sickness could affect it in several different way, when the chemical balance was off. What Krissi saw wasn't really what happened, her brain twisted things to suit her fantasy. She was sick, and she hadn't even know it. "I don't..."
"Arya, sometimes things just happen, and that's the way it is." Jon said quietly. "You can't stop them even if you try. Thing happen indirectly that connect later on in life, it's not any one person's fault."
"Jon?"
"Yeah, little sister?"
"Did you just go all wise, the world-is-all-connected monk on me?"
"..."
Robb's loud laughter burst across the line, and Arya had to take the phone from her ear, lest she go deaf. He was gasping, and she knew grabbing his stomach, trying to keep himself from laughing apart.
"Shut up, Robb!" Jon's voice came in distantly. And Robb's laughter suddenly turned into a breathy, gasp-y ooof! and then Jon was back on the line as their brother was left gasping, and feeling the throb of an assaulted limb. "Sorry about that." Jon said, like nothing ever happened.
"That's okay." Arya laughed. "Who knows how long he could have went for."
"I can hear the pair of you, you know." Robb grumbled.
"We have to go, Arya. But were coming over on the weekend." Jon told her.
"You don't—" She started to protest, on account that it was an automatic response, even though she wanted nothing more than to see her brothers.
"We are anyway." Robb replied.
She smiled. "Okay."
"Alright. We love you, little sister." Jon murmured.
"I love you guys too."
"We'll se you soon, Arya." Robb said.
She was about to hang up, but she heard them still talking, distantly. Curious, she listened.
"I can't believe that you actually kicked me!"
"Serves you right. Who actually rolls around on the floor with laughter, you idiot?"
And then their voices finally cut out as they hung up. Arya sighed and did the same, but not before she laughed. The day after tomorrow and her brothers would be here, she couldn't wait. After talking with them, she felt better than she had in the last few days since Uma told her that Krissi was back.
She took the phone back down stairs, and asked her mother if she could help with dinner. Catelyn instantly set her to work chopping vegetables, as Arya told her Robb and Jon coming home for the weekend.
Xx
It was the next day in the afternoon, when the detective called the house. Ned had to return to work, and Catelyn made sure that her boys got off to school. It was Arya who answered the phone.
"Hello. Stark residence. How may I help you?" For a second, it almost felt like she was back behind the register at Holey Cakes.
"Hello. This is Det. Yoren."
"Det. Yoren!" She gasped. "It's Arya, the girl that you interviewed."
"Ah. So it is. Are you're parents home?"
"Not right this second. Did you find something out, is Krissi getting charged?"
"You're parents?" He tried again.
Arya's eyes narrowed. "Why do you want to speak with them? They weren't in that room with that gun, I was!"
Yoren sighed. "Right you are. I'll tell you, but I want to speak with your parents afterward. Is that clear, girl?"
"Yes." Arya nodded.
"Alright. The girl Krissi will not be going to prison—"
"What? What do you mean? She tried to kill us!" She protested.
"Let me finish, girl." He grumbled, and Arya bit her tongue. "She is sixteen. She was evaluated by a physiatrist, and deemed mentally unstable. She'll be held in a psychiatric hospital until she's eighteen, then she'll be evaluated again, and if she is cleared, she'll be tried for her crime, or be put back into the hospital for her sentence, or until she is mental fit again."
Alright. So Krissi was going to be locked away for the time being, for several years at least—the minimum being two.
"When that time comes, you and Mr. Waters may have to speak at the trial."
"But that won't be for a couple years, right?" Arya asked, already feeling nervous.
"Yes."
"Did you find out where she got the gun from?" She wondered. That had been bothering her for a while. Where could a sixteen-year-old like Krissi get a gun like that?
"It was registered to her aunt. We talked to the woman and discovered that it was missing, she identified the weapon as hers."
"Arya?" She heard her mother called.
"That's my mother, you want to talk to her?"
"Yes."
"Thank you, Det. Yoren, for telling me." Arya said.
Yoren made no reply as Arya covered the mouth piece with her hand and called out to her mother. "Mum, Det. Yoren's on the phone. He wants to talk to you about the case!"
"Coming!" And her mother was there, running through the dinning room door into the kitchen. Arya wasn't sure that she'd seen her mother run in her life.
She handed the phone over.
"Hello?" Catelyn spoke into the phone, giving Arya a worried look as she left them to it.
Xx
Catelyn kept throwing her looks, and Arya gritted her teeth and didn't snap at her. She remembered what Robb had said the day before, about what mother must have felt when she got that first phone call. Her mother was just worried about her, it wasn't her fault that Arya found her hovering maddening.
Her mother didn't talk to her about the call from Det. Yoren, so the girl knew that she was going to talk with father first before talking to her. Annoying as the fact was, Arya understood it. But she couldn't help wonder if Det. Yoren had told Catelyn something that he didn't tell her. She wondered what it could have been, but was sure that Det. Yoren was the kind of man who told you everything he could if you asked for it, leaving out no details.
Arya had been right. It was after dinner when her father called her up to his study, with her mother. Arya remembered the last time she'd been in here, it was last year, at the end of first semester when her parents told her they were sending her away. She was such a different person from than. That girl had no real cares in the world, hadn't known how easy it was to tip over the edge.
Arya sat in one of the other chairs in the room, Ned was in his spot behind his desk, and Catelyn was seated in the other chair not far from Arya.
"Arya, as you are aware, the detective that interviewed you a few days ago called this morning." Ned said.
"I know, daddy. I answered the phone," she said.
"Yes, you did." He murmured.
"The girl—" Her mother started.
"You can say her name, mum. Krissi. I'm not going to fall apart," Arya said with a slick flick of amusement.
"This isn't funny, sweetheart." Ned chided her.
"I know, daddy. But stop treating like I'm surrounded by eggshells." She told them. "I told you I was okay, and I am."
Catelyn looked at her for a long moment, before speaking. "Det. Yoren told us that after being deemed mentally unstable, Krissi will be held in a psychiatric facility until she is eighteen, were upon she will have a trial if is she is considered mentally stable."
Arya nodded silently. She knew this already, even before Det. Yoren told her, she had said much the same this to Krissi while the girl had a gun pointed at her.
"If that does happen and she has a trial, you and Mr. Waters will have to speak up about what happened that day." Ned said. Again, nothing new.
"Did he tell you how Krissi got a hold of the gun?" Arya prompted, trying to move things a long.
Ned nodded. "She stole the weapon with her aunt, who she had been staying with the day before it happened."
That little tidbit was knew information. Det. Yoren had told her that Krissi had gotten the gun from her aunt, but what he didn't mention to Arya was that it was the day before she tried to kill both Gendry and her. That meant that she got the gun after she saw them talking after practise, when Gendry had promoted her to team captain. Why did it always seem her best times where shadowed by Krissi—the same thing had happened on her birthday.
"Is that all?" She asked.
Her father nodded and her mother said, "The school will be reopening next weekend."
"Okay." Arya nodded and stood up, giving her parents a reassuring smile before she left. That meant that she'd be able to see Gendry again in another week. His wound should be healed by then, right? And he'd be back to school just like her and teaching and coaching soccer. And this time things would be different because Krissi wouldn't be there.
Xx
Arya went to be alone that night, Nymeria tucked in at one side, and the soccer ball tucked at the other. Her mother came to tuck her in, see how she was doing, and the girl quickly hide the soccer ball under the blanket, but she was sure that her mother saw, though the woman didn't say anything about it.
Xx
When Catelyn caught Arya going to bed with the soccer ball as well as Nymeria, she gave her daughter an uneasy look. "Arya..." When she heard about Mr. Waters from Arya during the summer, she pictured the man to be older, maybe Ned's age. But when she saw the dark-haired man laying in the hospital bed, she got an uneasy feeling inside her. Not because he seemed like a bad man, he was friendly, very handsome, and very young. And when they spoke, she could understand how a teenage girl that he taught might developed a crush. She saw the way that Arya acted around the man, and worry and unease plagued her. Did her daughter have a crush on this man too? She tried to reason that it was just because they had been through the same trauma together, and that bonded the two like no other, but her mind kept back tracking to Arya having a crush on the man.
Xx
Arya woke up early on the weekend so she wouldn't be asleep when Jon and Robb arrived.
She jumped into their arms when they got out of their car, Rickon right behind her, and Bran not too far afterward. Sansa was the odd sibling out; she didn't even come out to see them. Ned gave his boys a hardy hug, and Catelyn a motherly one.
They all visited with each other and went out to a restaurant for dinner. That night, the three youngest siblings had a sleep over in their big brothers' room, spending as much time with them before they had to leave Sunday afternoon.
Arya hugged her brothers extra long before they had to leave, the two young men didn't mind.
"You're going to be okay, Arya." Jon murmured, caressing the back of her hair.
"And if you ever need to talk, just call us like always." Robb said, pecking her head before they pull away.
"I'm going to miss you guys." She said, smiling happy and sad.
"Until next time," Jon said as they got into the car.
Arya sighed as she waved after them as they pulled out of the driveway and disappeared down the road.
She had a week left before she went back to North Snow.
-tbc-
********Game/of/Thrones********
Note:
Don't worry, I will have some more chapters for you next week. Hope you enjoyed, and stay tuned, just a few more chapters left. Please review, I would feel so much better if you did.
Thanks for Reading!
y