Sansa had heard the expression "struck dumb" before and thought that this might be the first time she fit the expression. She actually wondered if there was a way for her to get up and run off and convince Aegon that this had not happened and that he'd imagined it. Could she, in fact, rewind time?

"Sansa?" Aegon said.

I'm sorry, she thought, Sansa's brain is exploding right now. She'll get back to you at her earliest convenience.

Aegon snapped the box closed and got to his feet. "So that's not how I imagined this happening."

Sansa jumped up. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I – I didn't expect it. You caught me off guard."

He looked at her incredulously. "Sansa, we live together. I moved out here to the States – to your hometown for you—"

She held up her finger and twitched it from side to side. "Oh, no. No, no. You did not move here for me, Aegon, because I didn't even want to move back here."

He waved a dismissive hand. "Semantics."

"Oh, no. No, no. Not semantics. I want to be very clear about what happened. You said you wanted to move to the States and 'give it a try', and I said I did not want that. Cut to weeks of you pleading your case as if we were in fucking court and me not having much of a choice."

"You always have a choice."

She threw up her arms in frustration. "Have you ever tried to argue with you?! It's like arguing with the sun! You don't give up until you get your way. I don't mind a good argument now and then, Aegon, but I'd sure as fuck like to win a few! I gave in to this because you convinced me that I had some 'ghosts' to put to rest or some such shit. The ghosts can go fuck themselves, Aegon, and frankly I don't know what ghosts you even mean."

"Your brother to name one. You've been pissed off at him since I met you. I thought you'd also want to get some closure regarding your family passing on. Maybe visit your old house, see some old friends—"

"And I told you that I had shitty friends. No, Aegon, you didn't want to come here because you thought it would benefit me, you wanted to come to the States because that's just what you wanted to do. I went along with it because I'm…because I'm fucking stupid."

He looked hurt. "Not because you love me?"

She folded her arms across her chest. "I hate being here."

He sighed and raked a hand through his hair. "Sansa, whether you want to admit it or face it, you do have things here that you clearly need to put to rest. I'm not stupid, you know. Don't think I haven't noticed how angry you've been since we arrived. Regardless of whether you want to be here or not I think you need to be to get some closure. I want this relationship to move forward, and I want you to move forward."

"How is proposing helping me move forward exactly?"

"I want to help you with whatever it is you need to do to get past the things that have caused you pain. If you need someone to lean on while you do it, I'm there. If you need a shoulder to cry on, you can have mine. Marriage means we start a life together. I proposed because I love you and I want to spend my life with you. I wanted you to have that assurance that I'm not going anywhere. I'm here for the long haul. I thought if you had that pledge from me," He held up the ring box, "This token, if you will, you'd feel more confident in doing what you needed to do to move past the things you're holding onto."

"And if I don't?"

He cocked his head to the side. "Do you really want to continue holding on to the things that pain you? Does that sound like a good idea to you?"

She pointed at him. "Don't do that. I hate it when you do that!"

He looked at her as though she'd gone crazy. "What did I do?"

"You did that thing where you ask me a question and frame it like I'd be nuts to answer any other way but no. Well, what if I want to hold on to all of that crap? What if I want to burrow right into the pain? What if I want to have fucking sex with it?"

"So then are you telling me no, you don't want to marry me? Are you telling me that this relationship is not as serious for you as it is for me? Is that what you're telling me, Sansa?"

"Don't put words in my mouth."

"Then what do you want from me?"

She didn't want anything from him at all. What she wanted could only come from herself and Robb. It was no wonder she felt as though she was spinning her wheels. Robb wouldn't set her free and since she kept going back for more, she was chaining herself to him and allowing his hold on her to grow.

She hated that Aegon was right. She did need to move forward. But she was real tired of feeling like she had no control over her life. Robb couldn't just let her be, not for long anyway, and Aegon liked to tell her what to do in his Aegon I'm-not-really-going-to-tell-you-what-you-should-do-but-I-am-going-to-make-sure-you-arrive-at-the-same-conclusion way.

"I need time," she said.

He nodded slowly as though processing that. "Time. You need time."

"Yes. I need to think." I need to think about what I want, she thought. Where I want my life to go. What I need, not what you need, and not what Robb needs.

"Are we…still together?"

"I…guess?"

"That sounded promising," he muttered.

"I'm sorry. Yes, we are, I just need…some space is all."

"Space in that you…want me to sleep on the couch for a while?"

She felt silly saying yes, but… "Yes."

He nodded and looked down. He rubbed the back of his neck, an agitated gesture. "Okay."

"I'm sorry," she whispered. "I'm not saying no I won't marry you. I'm just…as much as I hate to admit you're right, I need to put some things to rest. And I need time to do that. Being here has dredged up a lot of stuff that is just hard for me to deal with."

"I'm here for you, Sansa. You can rely on me, you know. That's what being in a relationship means. That's what being committed to one another means. Can you let me in a little? Let me help?"

She welled up in tears, frustrated because there were things that Aegon could not help with at all. Things he couldn't know about. Things that only she and Robb could know about. And those were the things that no one but Robb could help with and he made it all worse by telling her he was in love with her. "I'll try," she said, and her voice cracked.

Aegon drew her into his arms and Sansa sank into him, wishing she could unburden herself.

"I didn't expect that you'd need a break like this from me," he murmured. "But I get it…I think. You haven't been yourself since we got here. If time is what you need, then time is what you'll have."

Now she felt awful. She went to him and put her hands on either side of his face. "I do love you, Aegon." She did love him, in her own way. It just didn't compare to how she loved Robb, and that was the problem. She kissed him softly. "You don't have to sleep on the couch. I think I'd like for you to hold me."

He leaned in and kissed her. "Then that's what I'll do." He kissed her again and then walked away. Sansa could see he had tears in his eyes and she felt awful for it. She didn't want to hurt him. It was the last thing she wanted to do, and yet she'd hurt him in ways already he couldn't ever know about.

xxxxxxx

The last person Robb expected to show up at his door was Aegon.

"Is Sansa okay?" he asked immediately. His first thought, as always was of her. Lately it felt as though his only thought was of her. It'd been over a week since he'd seen or heard from her and needless to say he wasn't doing well.

He wasn't eating, he was having trouble sleeping, and he was having difficulty concentrating. Sansa was close by, and yet she may as well be across the pond for the distance between them. He didn't know what to do for her or for them. He hoped that she would eventually come to him, but it was nearing two weeks now and she hadn't. He was at his wits end and it wasn't a good feeling. Now Aegon was standing before him looking somber and it worried Robb.

"Sansa is fine. Physically anyway," Aegon said. "Can I come in?"

Robb stepped to the side. Now he wondered if Sansa had said something to Aegon about them. She wouldn't do that though, would she?

"Do you want something to drink?" Robb asked.

"Uh, water would be fine."

Robb nodded and set about getting them both glasses of water while Aegon sat at his kitchen table. "What's going on?" Robb asked.

"I asked Sansa to marry me."

The glass in Robb's hand slipped and fell into the sink and shattered. Aegon jumped up to make sure he was all right and help him clean it up. Aegon spoke and Robb heard nothing. Sansa…married? His Sansa?

"Did she say yes?" Robb asked, forcing himself to sound normal. He felt anything but. There was a ringing in his ears and he felt almost as though he was outside of himself in this moment.

"She said she had to think about it," Aegon told him and threw some glass shards in the trash. "I wanted to ask you first before I asked her, but she and I got into a bit of a row over you so it just ended up coming out."

Robb didn't even bother picking up any shards of glass; his hands were shaking. "What was the row about exactly?"

Aegon threw more shards in the trash. "She claimed I had an obsession with you," he said with a laugh. "I asked her exactly how things went when she came to see you after that double date. I got the feeling things didn't go well considering she slept on the couch that night."

"She did?"

Aegon nodded.

Guilt, Sansa? Or something else? Robb wondered.

"She's been off since we got here," Aegon continued. "I thought coming here would be good for her to put some things behind her, but she's been on edge and I don't know how to help her. She is not all that great at letting me in. I came here to see if you could maybe tell me your side of the story of what happened between you to make her so angry?"

Robb sighed and raked a hand through his hair. He was torn between wanting to help Sansa, and not wanting to hurt her more than he already had. If he told Aegon the truth – leaving out how they'd been sleeping together – would she see it as a betrayal? He had so many things against him in her eyes as it was, could he really afford one more?

"What did she tell you?" he finally asked.

"She told me that someone she thought was a friend told you she'd been racing and that you sent her to live with your grandparents because it scared you."

"It did," Robb replied. "Scare me, I mean. She was self-destructing and I thought maybe I wasn't helping her and maybe I wasn't as equipped as I thought to help her through her grief."

"Well, you were grieving, too."

"Yes," Robb said with a nod. "It wasn't an easy time for Sansa and I. We depended on each other. Probably too much."

"She said that you guys were co-dependent."

Robb nodded. He supposed one could say that. His therapist had, too. Now he saw it a bit differently. He'd been in love with her then just as he was now.

The glass cleared away, Aegon leaned against the counter facing Robb. "What can I do to help her? Help you?"

"Have you asked her how you can help?"

"She doesn't know. She just said she needed time."

"Then I guess you give her time."

Aegon looked at him in frustration. "That's it? That's all you've got for me?"

"She's not exactly letting me in either, Aegon. Sansa is stubborn, I'm sure you've figured that out. And since our family died she's kept things closer to her chest. She had a lot of…anger. And guilt. She wouldn't really talk to me since she went to live with our grandparents. She shut me out, and I don't…I don't blame her. I know she felt betrayed by me. She trusted me and I let her down. I sent her off without asking her, without talking about it because I was just so damn scared for her…"

Robb shut his eyes and heaved a sigh. He didn't want to cry in front of Aegon, but God, he felt as though his world was crumbling around him. He feared losing Sansa but he didn't know how to keep her either. How was he going to live without her if she accepted Aegon's proposal? How was he going to fix this gulf between them? Did he let her go or fight for her? What was better for her peace of mind?

"I'm sorry," Aegon said softly. "I didn't mean to dredge up a whole bunch of shit for you."

"It's fine. You…you really love her?"

Aegon nodded. "I do."

"I'm glad. Sansa deserves to be loved and cherished. Do you? Cherish her, I mean?"

Aegon smiled. "Yes."

"Good."

Aegon held out his hand and Robb shook it. "Thanks, Robb."

Robb nodded. "I didn't do much, but you're welcome."

After Aegon left, Robb sat down and buried his head in his hands and had himself a good cry.