All the Roads are Winding

by ShirleyAnn66

Multiverse AU/multiple storylines for the price of one - "This experiment should, hopefully, prove the multiverse theory and I was just wondering...Do you think there are people who are destined to be together no matter what universe they're in? No matter what paths their lives may take?"

35. Addendum 5: Mad Jon aka Post Apoc

Addendum 5: Mad Jon Universe

Brienne sets the older children the task of patrolling the compound's perimeter while she ventures out to the ruins of the city.

She knows she should take a couple of the oldest children with her—there's safety in numbers—but this is a fast trip to search for reference books and salvage some parts for what she prays to the Seven will be a watermill and she doesn't want to put the children at more risk than necessary. Besides, the countryside has been relatively stable for the last few months and she hopes that means the worst of it is over—but she's not holding her breath. She'd been far too trusting already, she thinks bitterly, and her dreams are still haunted by those poor, broken bodies after the Mountain got finished with them.

The worst is knowing he's still out there, somewhere, with his men and his cruelty and his...appetites. She shies away from the memories. Bile, as always when she thinks of that time, is already rising in her throat and they don't have so much food she can afford to waste it by puking it up again.

She shakes off the memories and creeps closer to the city. The compound isn't far from it and she wonders every day if they should put greater distance between their camp and the remains of King's Landing. But the children have already lost so much; she can't find it in her to force them from the only home they have left.

She peers from a copse of trees on the outskirts of the city. She has a quarter mile to go before she's in the city streets themselves and just because she can't see anything right now doesn't mean there aren't people lurking in the dark houses and silent streets. She wonders where the Mountain has gone with his men and shudders at the thought of running into him again.

*/*/*/*/*

Brienne enters the city at first light and she's deep in the ruined streets when the scrape of a boot against pavement has her spinning round, gun at the ready. She peers into the shadows of burnt out buildings.

"Show yourself!" she barks. The gun is rock steady in her hands, and a distant part of her marvels at how much she's changed from the shy teacher's aide she had been only two years ago.

"Brienne?" a man asks, incredulous, and Brienne pauses, peering hard at the shadows in which he's hidden.

"Come out where I can see you!" she orders.

The man shuffles out of the darkness, slim with brown hair, a head shorter than her own six-three, his ordinary face is obscured by a thick, none-too-clean beard. Despite that, she recognizes him easily enough.

"Hyle?"

He gives her a grin as he eagerly nods. "Brienne Tarth," he says. "I should have known that if anyone was going to survive the hellhole we've fallen into, it would be you." He gives her a considering look then nods with pleased satisfaction.

For a moment, Brienne's blinded by rage. Even now, even after the world has ended, even after most of those mocking men are likely long dead, she remembers the bet, the deceit, the devastating humiliation. It should be less than important now, facing the man who had won the bet, but there's something about his eagerness, about his expectation that she would be glad to see him—

"Who else is with you?" she snarls and he blinks, looking startled.

"You know them all," he says, soothing, still grinning, "they're old friends. Owen Inchfield, Mark Mullendore, Ronnet Connington."

"Your friends, not mine," Brienne says coldly. "What of the others?" There had been so many in the bedroom that night, they had completely surrounded the bed. She still doesn't know how she managed to not only survive it but to keep moving forward with her head held high.

He looks suddenly sad. "The others…I don't know."

"Dead," Brienne says flatly, and feels no grief for the loss of that jeering crowd: Farrow and Ambrose and Bushy; Raymond Nayland and Will the Stork. Harry Sawyer. Robin Potter. If she had thought of any of them at all over the last two years, it was to hope they had died as painfully as so many others have done. Yet here is Hyle Hunt with three of those bastards who had stood round the bed where she'd given her virginity, and they had all laughed as Hyle took their money.

She stomps those memories back into the box she'd built around them, and fights the urge to raise her gun and shoot Hyle where he stands, then find the others and do the same to them. No one would hold her to account for it, after all; no one would even notice.

But that's because the world isn't the way it used to be, and because the world isn't the way it used to be, she cautiously lowers her gun although she doesn't holster it.

They need every able-bodied, reasonably trustworthy person they can find, and she's the only adult in a compound full of children—even if Jon Snow and Robb Stark would be offended by that description. But they're only fifteen and while she knows it's impossible, she would like them to still have some childhood left, even now.

She thoughtfully eyes Hyle. She doesn't want to believe he and the others have turned into homicidal monsters like the Mountain and his men, but the gods only knows what the new world has made them.

But she's alone with them in the heart of a ruined city, and she either takes them with her as ostensible allies…or they'll simply follow her and try to force their way into the compound anyway.

"Do you have food?" she snaps and her eyes narrow as Hyle grins as if he's won something.

*/*/*/*/*

They spend a cautious night in the ruins after she barricades herself in a cubbyhole with her gun close to hand.

In the morning, she sends Hyle and his friends to find or build a cart of something similar that they can fill with scavenged materials and drag behind them when they return to the compound. Not that she's going to tell them where the compound is, and she fully intends to walk behind them, her gun in her hand the entire way. She hopes she's being overly cautious, because even if they somehow deduce the compound's location and kill her on the way, Robb and Jon and the others will see them long before they find the compound proper, and all the children know sometimes they have to do what needs to be done.

It wouldn't be the first time.

Brienne ignores the memories away and heads to what remains of the Red Keep. She's hoping the maester's library is still there and the books are still intact. They have an entire city they can scavenge for materials but it means nothing if they don't know what to do with it all.

As she makes her cautious way through the deserted streets, she keeps hearing slight sounds behind her. It might be animals, but she suspects Hyle or one of the others is following her. But every time she spins round, gun in hand, to look behind her, there's no one there. Still, her skin prickles, and she doesn't holster her gun as she climbs Aegon's Hill.

She easily gains access to the courtyard of the ruined castle but the entrance to the Rookery is blocked with broken red stones that have fallen from the walls. She considers the rubble and thinks she can clear a path if she just moves two or three of the largest stones.

She holsters her gun—and that, she realizes too late—is her mistake.

They're on her in an instant, three men she's fought before, something she realizes between punches and kicks and bites and the pain as their blows land against her flesh, as her nose breaks and blood gushes from it, choking her. They tell her what they're going to do to her, in crude and lurid detail, and the threats add speed to her limbs as she desperately blocks every attempt to grab her gun out of its holster. She sends one man—Timeon—tumbling while she kicks another—Shagwell—away, and the third's—Pyg's—cheekbone breaks with a satisfying crack beneath her right fist.

Then Shagwell jumps on her back and pounds his fists against her ears and she bellows from the agony. She finally manages to tear him off her but both Timeon and Pyg are advancing with maniacal grins—and then three gunshots crack through the Red Keep in rapid succession, and her three attackers drop lifeless at her feet.

The echoes seem to last forever and the resulting silence makes everything surreal, as if she's in the middle of dream. She stares at the bodies, her mouth hanging open as her nose continues to bleed and her injuries continue to ache. Three on one, she thinks giddily, swaying a little, wishing she could just faint into blessed oblivion. Three on one...and now they're dead and she doesn't know if her saviours are going to be worse than what she had just been facing.

Then he strolls out of the shadows cast by mounds of fallen castle walls, and her jaw slowly drops as her eyes widen.

He's tall, almost as tall as she is, with shaggy golden hair brushing his shoulders. His thick golden beard can't hide the sheer masculine beauty and power and arrogance that radiates from him with every step he takes. She's caught in a dizzying moment of relieved recognition which makes no sense, but it's fleeting and most likely caused by the blows landed to her head. He prowls round her like some golden beast of prey and she watches him warily, like a mouse watching a cat, and lowers her hand to hover over her gun.

He inspects the bodies, using the toe of his boot to almost delicately push at them, then turns his attention to her.

"You shouldn't be out by yourself," he growls.

Brienne wipes the blood from beneath her nose and says, "I can take care of myself." Even she knows how ridiculous that sounds under these circumstances.

He raises an eyebrow. "Didn't look like it from where I was sitting."

She flushes. "They surprised me," she mutters.

"Yes, I noticed," the man says drily then slowly rakes his eyes over her and shakes his head. "We are truly living in desperate times if you're the best they could do."

Her shock turns to rage.

"Fuck you," she growls. "Rape is still rape, even if the world has ended."

He gives her a surprised and amused look. "I agree. Why do you think I shot them?"

She grits her teeth. "Who are you?"

His smile is bitter. "I used to be Jaime Lannister. Who the fuck are you?"

The name is familiar and she scowls. Several of the children at the compound are named Lannister, but that's not why the name is tugging at her memory. "Jaime Lannister...why do I know that name?"

He shrugs. "In the days Before, I was notorious for murdering the Mad King of Westeros." He gives her a bitter smile. "Not that it helped. We ended up burning anyway."

*/*/*/*/*

Brienne stares at Jaime, eyes wide even as blood continues streaming from her broken nose.

"You're that Jaime Lannister?" she says faintly, then finally puts her hand to her face to staunch the bleeding.

His smile is thin. "I used to be," he says. "Gods only knows what I am now." He scowls. "What are you doing here?"

"I'm here for the books," she says, then hawks and spits out a mouthful of blood.

Jaime glances behind her to what used to be the Rookery of the Red Keep. "Books?"

"Specifically the Grand Maester's books." Her voice is nasal and thick, her face swelling and bruising from the beating she endured at the hands of the three men now lying dead at her feet. "Especially any books that have to do with building things."

Jaime stares in disbelief. "Building things? You think you can rebuild anything in this godsforsaken world with any chance of success?"

She spits again. The bleeding is finally slowing. "What are our choices?" she asks. She turns to look at the blocked path of the Rookery then turns to look at him through bruised and swollen eyes. "Are you going to help or not?"

*/*/*/*/*

The woman is mad, Jaime thinks as he helps her clear a path into the Rookery then follows her inside. Mad, but determined. He decides it's safer to help her than to try and stand in her way.

Besides...it's not like he has anything else to do.

*/*/*/*/*

Hyle Hunt and his three friends are about as trustworthy as he is, and Jaime doesn't know what Brienne—he'd managed to pry her name out of her while they were rifling through the Grand Maester's library—is thinking when she tells him later that she's taking the men back to her compound in the forest on the outskirts of the city.

He decides that he'll leave her to her fate in the morning. He saved her from rape once; if she's stupid enough to go anywhere with these men, well...he's amazed she's survived this long if this is an example of her brilliant decisions.

He watches her barricade herself into a small nook, gun at hand, then spreads his bedroll in front of it. He wraps himself into his threadbare blanket and turns his back to his companions, his own gun at the ready, and listens to the four men speaking in low voices.

"She says she's the only adult," he hears one say. "We don't need to be saddled with a bunch of fucking children!"

"Yeah, but she said there are about twenty of them. There have to be girls there—and kids grow up."

Kids? Jaime thinks. Twenty of them? Gods, the woman is as stupid as she is ugly. He makes a note to leave before sunup and relaxes into a light doze that isn't quite sleep.

*/*/*/*/*

They leave the city the next day, Hunt and his friends pulling sleds filled with whatever they were able to scavenge, including the books Jaime helped Brienne carry out of the Red Keep. They lead the way, Brienne and Jaime bringing up the rear, with Brienne barking out directions when necessary.

Jaime glances at her and raises an eyebrow.

"Do you really think I'd turn my back on this lot?" she mutters and for the first time since the Event, Jaime laughs.

*/*/*/*/*

The compound is in a surprisingly well-hidden considering it's in a large clearing and includes a number of shacks and a large garden plot. But it's virtually impossible to see while tramping through the thick forest not far from King's Landing, and since there hasn't been any air traffic since the Event, it's more secure than Jaime had dared hope.

They had also been met about half a mile from the entrance to the compound by four teenagers: Robb and Jon, Dany and Margaery, who held guns on them until Brienne convinced them she was not a prisoner and was indeed leading five grown men to their safe haven.

He turns round, inspecting the small settlement while Jon lets out a piercing whistle. He hears the rustling as children cautiously creep out of hiding and make their way towards them. He turns back to see the children, both boys and girls ranging in age from teenagers to almost-toddlers, some of whom are obviously siblings and—

His heart stutters to a halt as he stares at the three golden-haired children who are staring at him with puzzled frowns.

"Gods," he breathes. "Joff? Myrcella? Tommen?"

"Dad?" Myrcella says. "Dad!"

And then he's on his knees in front of them, pulling them against him, holding them as tight as he can, unable to believe they're in his arms.

And for the first time since the Event, Jaime Lannister cries.

*/*/*/*/*

Jaime leaves his children sleeping peacefully in their shack and goes to find Brienne. She's sitting by a small campfire, alone. Hyle and the others had been given their own shack, and the older children were given the task of watching them.

"You shouldn't have brought them here," he murmurs as he settles himself on the other side of the fire.

"How many survivors have you found, Jaime? We're not stupid. We're cautious; we've been betrayed before and we've learned from it." She sighs. "I would prefer to have left them to rot in King's Landing, but there are not so many people left in Westeros that we can abandon each other."

"Is that how you ended up here? One grown woman and twenty children, hiding in the forest?"

She shifts a little beneath his cold gaze but she doesn't look away. "What choices do we have if we want to survive?" She gives a small shake of her head. "Anyway, I fancy Robb, Margaery, Jon, Dany and Jeyne Westerling would not appreciate still being called children, especially after the last two years."

"Mayhaps not," he says. He glances round the clearing. "You've done better than I would have expected," he grudgingly admits, "but you're still vulnerable."

"Look at the cities," she says flatly. "They ended up still vulnerable, too."

His grim mouth relaxes almost into a smile. "True," he concedes. "And now you have five grown men as well, some of whom have not seen a woman or girl in two years."

Her gaze doesn't waver. "Aye," she says, "and I'll geld the first man who lays a hand on any of the children."

"But not on you?"

Her smile is cold. "If I do not consent to it, then yes."

"Ah," he breathes and his smile is cruel. "Hoping you might have a chance with one of them, now that you're one of the few adult women left in Westeros?"

She surges to her feet, her face burning as bright as the fire. "Fuck you," she snarls. "You should just be grateful we haven't murdered you for your weapons."

His soft chuckle follows her as she stomps her way to her shack.

*/*/*/*/*

He doesn't know why he's needling her so much, except she's going to die, Jaime thinks grimly after Brienne disappears into her shack.

He walks away from the fire to pace the perimeter of the clearing. She's going to die, and she's going to take all these children with her. She's too trusting, and that's fatal in this new Westeros. Oh, Before the Event, Hyle Hunt and his cronies were probably decent enough people, but that was more than two years ago. Two years of struggling to survive after the Event, two years of coming to terms with the fact that all the people you love are gone and you're alone.

He stops in his tracks and closes his eyes, struggling to breathe beneath the weight of grief that never seems to ease.

His father and mother. Tyrion.

Cersei.

Sweet Cersei, vulnerable and fragile. Life with her had never been easy, but he had loved her anyway. His double cousin, they grew up as close as siblings and he had always known what she was like. They never should have fallen in love; never should have married; never should have had children, but it wasn't until after Tommen was born that he realized just how mentally ill and fragile she truly was. He's sure she never fully understood what she'd tried to do to the children.

But gods—a part of him had still loved her, even after their divorce. And while she was on her meds, she was...fine. Not his excitingly volatile Cersei, no, but a safer Cersei—safer for her and him and their children.

And then the Event took her away from him, and—he'd thought—took away their children, too.

He'd been in Meereen when the Event happened, fighting in a conflict caused by reasons he can't even remember. The children had been in King's Landing with his parents, going to private school, while Cersei...well, Cersei had once again been in Maegor's Sanitarium after going off her meds while he was deployed. Tyrion had been in the Summer Isles, and Jaime has always hoped he'd been in some open-air whorehouse, worshipping the god of tits and wine, when the Event happened.

He prays they all died quickly, especially Cersei. The thought of her wandering this devastated world, fragile and beautiful...

He shudders away from the thought.

It took him two years, but he finally made his way from Meereen to King's Landing. Not because he had any hope of finding anyone alive, let alone his family, but because he had nowhere else to go. Past sins cast a long shadow, even after the end of the world.

Jaime had made his way back to King's Landing with some vague idea of finding his father's house and mayhaps killing himself there, on its broken foundation. But in the end, he couldn't do it. Mayhaps a part of him felt like he didn't deserve to be given such a quick end when he didn't know how Cersei died, or his children, or the rest of his family.

Yet here he is: in a hidden settlement controlled by a lumbering, great wench, a hidden settlement filled with children...including his own.

He sighs as he returns to the shacks and the fire.

He doesn't know what he's done to be so lucky as to be reunited with his children, but he's here now, with them, and wherever they are, he'll be there, too.

And somebody has to help that far-too-trusting woman protect all these children against those vipers she's just let in the door.

*/*/*/*/*

The compound in the forest is more secure than Jaime had expected at first sight. After several more evenings patrolling the perimeter, he knows there's a fence-like structure hidden in the treeline. Further inspection shows it's not so much a barrier as an early warning system, and he learns from his children there are specific actions for everyone to take if something breaches the perimeter.

Several days later, a muffled clanging sounds through the clearing, and the youngest children immediately stop what they're doing and run frantically towards the trees behind the shacks. They scramble up rope ladders, into the treehouses hidden high in the branches while the older children grab their guns.

Jaime jogs up to Brienne. "Where's the breach?" he demands.

She gives him a distracted look from her beautiful eyes, a scowl on her face. "North side," she growls and leads Robb, Jon, Gendry and Margaery in that direction, with Jaime trotting along in the rear.

"Where are Hunt and the others?" Robb asks.

Brienne rolls her eyes. "Out hunting. They're probably the ones who've breached the perimeter," she says drily.

They don't find humans; instead, there's a family of wild boars snuffling in the grass on the north side of the clearing. Brienne's eyes light up, and they make short work of shooting as many of the animals as they can before the rest disappear back into the forest.

They spend the rest of the day repairing the fence, butchering the animals, and when they return, Brienne sets Hunt and his friends the task of readying the smokehouses so the meat can be cured and preserved.

There's already a root cellar and several large, aluminum barrels they use as cisterns. They don't hold much water, but it's enough to keep them going for several days if they can't make it to the river. Gendry tells him they're thinking of building an actual underground cistern if they can figure out a way to make a form of cement to seal it.

Jaime's reluctantly impressed with Brienne's determination to build a permanent settlement in this clearing and the way she manages to keep all these children—twenty of them ranging in age from eight to sixteen—focused and motivated enough to keep working and keep going.

Mayhaps she isn't going to die quite as quickly as he expected.

*/*/*/*/*

Jaime hears most of the story from Joffrey, Myrcella and Tommen: the school trip to Harrenhal; the Event that happened while they were touring the prison cells of the castle; the eventual decision to make their way back to King's Landing, with the goal of reuniting the children with their families where possible. But there's something the children refuse to tell him, something that causes Tommen to shut down as he goes away somewhere inside.

Jaime joins Brienne on her next patrol and broaches the subject.

She scowls and says, "I made mistakes, and people lost their lives."

Jaime says, "I think that's happened more often than not in this brave new world of ours."

"Don't mock me."

"I'm not, but even Joff refuses to tell me how you ended up as the sole adult responsible for twenty children. It can't have started that way."

Brienne is almost stomping by now, speeding up. He easily keeps pace.

Brienne glances at him from the corner of her eyes and grinds her teeth, then says, "We were stranded at Harrenhal. The entire school was there—"

"Did you have a child in the school?" Jaime asks, sick sympathy twisting his gut at the thought Brienne might have lost a child at some point in these last two years. He knows the feeling.

The question surprises a harsh laugh out of her. "Look at me, Jaime. Of course I didn't have a child in the school! I was friends with Catelyn Stark. The school needed more chaperones since they were taking all the students to Harrenhal on a field trip. They were desperate for more bodies, so Catelyn asked me to help out, and I agreed."

"Ah," he murmurs. His kids had transferred to the best school in King's Landing when they went to live with his parents after Cersei returned to Maegor's Sanitarium. That had happened while he was deployed. He had never even seen the school.

"It was the five hundred year anniversary of the Targaryen Conquest," Brienne says, almost to herself. "Harrenhal was re-enacting the Burning of Harrenhal." She glances at him and shrugs. "It's why the school decided on the field trip."

Jaime raises an eyebrow as he nods, remembering this from his weekly video calls home to his children.

"Pretty dark subject matter for the younger children," he says.

"The younger children were touring the castle during the re-enactment."

"Not much better, really," Jaime mutters.

Brienne flashes him a surprisingly sweet smile, then says, "True. Anyway, we were in the dungeon when the power went out. It took us...I don't know how long to realize the power wasn't coming back and we needed to find our way out in the dark. Thank the gods we still had a couple people who were smokers!"

Jaime frowns. "Your cell phones should have been protected from the EMP—"

"It's a national historic site...or used to be. We turned in our electronic equipment at the gate."

Jaime raises an eyebrow. "Even the teenagers?" he says, skeptical.

Brienne's smile is almost amused. "Even the teenagers—or they'd have had to wait in the bus." She shakes her head. "Even if they hadn't, we didn't have any teenagers with us; they were watching the Burning of Harrenhal. Anyway, we missed the Event, although everyone told us how the sky turned as red as blood and then all the power and electronics went out. Phones, computers, cars—nothing worked. Nobody understood just how wrong things were until several days later, when the power still hadn't returned and the food began to run out."

"When did you decide to try to make it back to King's Landing?"

"A few days after that, while there was still enough food left we could take some with us. There was…" She hesitates, chewing on her bottom lip. "There was a group of men who had decided to try and make it back, too. Led by the largest man I'd ever seen." She grimaces. "We only saw his strength; we should have seen what was in his eyes."

"Who's we?"

"There were eight of us, eight women. Me. Elia Targaryen, Catelyn Stark, Lysa Arryn, Maege Mormont, Briony Hill. Alyssa Frey. Alerie Tyrell. There were seven men: Joss. Raff. Dunsen. Chiswyck. Eggon. A man I only ever heard called Shitmouth, which did not go over well with the mothers. And Gregor Clegane, also known as the Mountain."

Jaime hisses in a sharp breath.

Brienne's narrow. "You know of him."

"Of them," he mutters. "I've been in the Riverlands."

"There's recent news of them?"

"Oh, yes. And their band has grown." He sighs. "But the Mountain's Men have competition: they along with the Bloody Mummers, and the Brotherhood without Banners have unofficially divided the Riverlands between them. What they'll do when they run out of innocents to terrorize is anyone's guess."

Brienne rubs her brow and scowls. "I'd hoped…" She shakes her head and takes a deep breath. "We were eight women, seven men, and thirty children. The other teachers and chaperones decided to stay in Harrenhal with the rest of the children. They tried to stop us so we slipped away in the middle of the night with those kids who wanted to come with us, and those who didn't have a relative as a chaperone.

"We started walking on the King's Road but quickly left it—even that soon after the Event, it was no longer safe. We kept inside the forest that parallels the Road and, oh, about half-way to King's Landing, we stumbled upon a small homestead. It was already abandoned, and we decided to rest for a few days. I took the older children and we went out to set snares."

She pauses, grief twisting her scarred features. "I never should have left them alone," she mutters. "We heard the screams and the shouting on our way back. By the time we got there, the Mountain was raping Elia...he was covered in her children's blood, their poor, broken bodies beside her...and he was laughing."

Her hand curls round the grip of her gun.

"Shitmouth was cheering him on. The others were raping the rest of the women." She grimaces. "Shitmouth was yelling something about how he wanted Elia next because he'd killed his woman too quickly just to shut her up." The knuckles of her hand turn white. "Poor Lysa," she whispers. Then, more loudly, "They'd barricaded the children in the house. I just thank the gods every day they didn't start with them, and that I'd taken all the older girls with me."

They walk in silence, then Jaime says, "What happened?"

Brienne shrugs. "I...went berserk. Thankfully, we'd returned to the yard beside the barn and everyone was too busy to notice us. There was a—a—crowbar or something leaning against the barn and...I grabbed it...and..." She blinks rapidly, lips pressed in a tight line. "Turns out, his mouth wasn't actually full of shit; just blood and teeth."

Her face is pinched, but Jaime can't tell if it's from rage or grief or horror or nausea or all of them at once.

She says, "The Mountain's head was full of cement, or at least that's what if felt like when I hit it."

Jaime hisses in a sharp breath. "You did what?"

Brienne shrugs. "I had to get him off her."

They walk through the trees in silence, checking the makeshift fence hidden by brush, making sure the crude alarm system they'd created is still in place.

They work silently until finally Brienne says, "It's a blur after that. First time I ever killed a man; first time I ever shot a gun."

"All the other women were killed?" he says.

She shakes her head. "Shitmouth killed Lysa almost immediately but when we attacked, most of the surviving women began to fight back. Then Gendry let the rest of the children out of the house and well…we drove them off pretty quickly from sheer force of numbers, and the fact we managed to keep their guns out of their hands. But the Mountain's Men killed three more children and Raff murdered Maege Mormont. She at least managed to take him with her. Then we were alone. We buried our dead, left again for King's Landing, and learned to stand guard and do whatever it took to protect ourselves.

"But Elia...Elia killed herself almost immediately. She couldn't...her babies..." Brienne shakes her head. "Briony Hill ended up pregnant, but something went wrong. We lost both her and the baby. We lost Alyssa and Alerie the first time we explored King's Landing and…" Her hand goes to her scarred cheek. "Gendry managed to save me, but he was too late for the others. And Catelyn...Catelyn died the first winter from what was probably pneumonia, along with five of the children."

"And then there was only you."

"And then there was only me."

*/*/*/*/*

Brienne glances round their settlement and allows herself a moment of cautious pride and optimism. She still wishes she could move her band of children back into the city, into real houses rather than the crude shacks they've cobbled together, but given the world they now live in, they haven't done too badly.

They created the perimeter fence, set up an early warning system; built treehouses, hidden high in the branches behind the shacks, so the younger children have a chance to hide in relative safety if the settlement is attacked. They patrol the perimeter daily, and their daily hunting trips outside the clearing are as much scouting expeditions as they are the search for food.

Brienne shies away from the memories of those first few months, after the Event: the aftermath of the Mountain's Men, King's Landing, finding this clearing, and struggling to keep everyone together and secure and alive. She's grateful they're now at the point where they can try to make this place a home.

But it's only a matter of time before they're discovered by another roving band of outlaws and sooner or later they're going to run out of ammunition for their guns. They also need to make another trip to King's Landing before winter sets in, to scavenge materials and scour the libraries still mouldering in the city for more useful books. The watermill is coming along nicely: small, to fit the size of the river at this point, yet it will still allow them to easily and quickly grind what little wheat they can add to their food stores for the winter, and eventually, she hopes, to grind other grains and herbs.

Hyle Hunt and Mark Mullendore step out of the shack the four men had built for themselves. Hunt sees her and gives her what almost seems to be a flirtatious smile. Brienne rolls her eyes and turns away but not before she sees Margaery Tyrell bounce up to Mullendore and pull him away from Hyle with a winning smile.

Brienne hides a sigh. The oldest children are sixteen, going on seventeen, and Margaery's not the first one who is beginning to think of love and sex. Brienne sees the way Robb Stark and Jeyne Westerling look at each other, and Jon Snow and Ygritte Wildling have been seen more than once with purple smudges on their necks.

She's had a frank conversation with those children who are now teenagers even though her cheeks were practically glowing from embarrassment. Still: better they all understand the risks especially since she can't stop them. She has a small patch of tansy growing beside her shack and still has last year's supply of moon tea for whenever the girls may want or need it. She remembers Briony Hill and shudders.

As for the five grown men, well, she told them again she would regret having to geld them and therefore remove what may be necessary future diversity out of the gene pool, but she would do it nonetheless if they laid one finger on any of the younger children, or on the older children without their consent.

Jaime had laughed then turned to the other men and told them he'd happily help her.

She sighs.

Jaime.

He's in the clearing, shirtless in the warm late spring sun, chopping wood. Brienne tries to watch him without appearing to watch him. He swings the axe, the muscles of his back moving smoothly beneath his skin and a shiver runs down her spine and turns her limbs to liquid.

She's a fool, she tells herself grimly as he drives the axe into the stump they're using to chop wood and gathers up the cut logs. She watches as he carries them to the lean-to they've been steadily filling stocking then she glances up at the hot sun blazing in the bright blue sky.

It may be late spring, with summer still to arrive...but winter is coming.

She turns to her passel of children as Tommen reluctantly joins them.

"All right," she says, "are we ready to go check and reset snares?"

Arya nods a tangled head and Brienne absently notes she's going to have to shave the girl's hair off again because they'll never get a comb through it now. Sansa and Tommen both look a little sick at the thought of the dead rabbits. Brienne wishes she could put them exclusively on other tasks, but if they're ever separated from the group, they need to know how to survive, and that includes setting snares and skinning rabbits.

Myrcella looks resigned to the task, while Bran and Lyanna look almost as eager as Arya. As for Joffrey...Brienne glances at the sullen golden-haired boy and hides a shudder of distaste. He sometimes seems to get so much pleasure out of seeing the poor furry bodies in the snares that she's almost afraid to turn her back on him or leave the younger children alone with him.

She glances back towards the lean-to just in time to see Jaime step out and look over in their direction. He raises a hand in a salute that she awkwardly returns then leads the children towards the gate. When they get there, she glances over her shoulder and finds Jaime staring after them. Their eyes meet and for a moment, she feels like she's pinned to the ground by his stare...then she turns and leads the children into the forest.

There's no point yearning for something she'll never have, she firmly tells herself. He probably wouldn't be any better than Hyle, anyway.

*/*/*/*/*

After several very warm days, Brienne tells Margaery and Jeyne Westerling she's going to the pond and slips away from the clearing.

The pond is a part of the river where the banks are wide apart and the water is placid. The water comes to Brienne's mid-chest at its deepest point and the bottom is filled with smooth rocks and sand. She brings the children here sometimes to teach them to swim and to just allow them to be children. But everyone knows that if she's going to the pond by herself, then it's because she wants some time alone.

Brienne strips, leaving her clothes on the sloping river bank and steps into the river, the sun warm on her skin. She ducks beneath the surface and she swims for a while, then floats on her back. She stares up at the clear blue sky until her eyes burn, then she closes them and dreams she's back on Tarth. Behind her eyelids, she leaves the water and dresses in different clothes, then returns to Evenfall Hall where she greets her father, who grins his wide grin and tells her she's almost late for dinner.

Her eyes prickle with tears and she blinks them away. She stands then lets out a squeak of indignation as she realizes she's no longer alone. She instinctively crosses her arms over her meagre breasts and drops down until the water is lapping at her chin.

"Jaime!" she sputters angrily. "What are you doing here?"

"Margaery told me you were at the pond." He glances round then gives her a smirk. "You've been holding out on me. Who knew we had our own bath?"

He pulls off his shirt then raises an eyebrow. "You don't mind if we share?"

She bites her lip then shakes her head. She can easily break him in half if she has to, she thinks, but she knows he won't touch her. Besides, she doesn't know why, but she really does trust him.

Still…she watches with wary eyes as Jaime strips down on the riverbank.

He's thin, as they all are, but even so, he's beautiful. Half a corpse, she thinks, giddy, and half a god, and she doesn't know if she should laugh or weep or rage at the fact it took the end of the world and being the only adult female in sight for a man like him to notice her.

She brings herself up short.

He's not here because he wants to fuck her, she reminds herself. Remember Hyle and the others. And—she peeks—Jaime's cock is limp. He's not getting in the water because he's aroused by her. He just...needs a bath.

She averts her eyes as Jaime steps into the pool and glides towards her, breaking the surface beside her. She gives him a baleful glare as he swipes his wet hair back off his face and gives her a glimmer of a smile. His smile widens at her expression before he ducks below the surface and scoops two handfuls of sand from the bottom. He gives her one and begins to use his to scrub at his chest.

He shrugs. "Not as good as soap, but you make do."

She snorts a little at that.

"You've done well, Brienne," he says after a moment of charged silence. "The compound is secure and well hidden. But you know you won't be safe here forever."

"I know," she says. "I keep hoping..." she stops, chewing on her bottom lip then shrugs. "You're the only parent we found."

Jaime pauses in his scrubbing and stares at the wet sand in his palm.

"I had nowhere else to go," he finally says. "I didn't think they were alive."

She hesitates then says, "Do you know what happened?"

He shakes his head. "I, too, was underground when the Event happened, clearing out a bunker filled with insurgents and hoping I wouldn't get killed in the process. Witnesses told me the whole sky was on fire. Those in Meereen thought it was the Red Comet."

"But then how—why—?" she shakes her head. "A comet strike should have burned the whole world."

He sighs. "I don't know. No one does. All we do know is the power went out and we died by inches."

"Not here," she says, her voice bleak. "Here we died by leaps and bounds. It took about six weeks for us to make our way back from Harrenhal. King's Landing was already deserted, except for roaming bands of madmen." Her hand goes to her ravaged cheek.

They'd called him Biter, she thinks and shudders.

She realizes Jaime is watching her with a peculiar expression on his face and she blinks away her memories. Those men, at least, are dead, thanks to Gendry and the others.

"Do you think we should leave here?" she says.

"You may not have any choice, especially if people like the Mountain find you again. There are other settlements, although the closest ones I've found are on the other side of the Blackwater. Some you'll want to avoid at all costs, but some—well, trading networks and access to more resources are always good, and there's strength in numbers."

She frowns and is suddenly struck with the absurdity of having this conversation while they're standing naked together in a river pool. But the world is no longer amusing and she has the lives of twenty children in her hands.

"How far away are the settlements that might be welcoming?" she asks.

He shrugs, and even as thin as he is, his shoulders are broad, well-defined muscles rippling beneath the smooth surface of his skin. She abruptly averts her eyes and begins to scrub her rapidly diminishing handful of sand over her shoulders.

Jaime says, "There's one about two days' journey from here, mayhaps three."

She scowls. "Should I go and make contact with them? Feel them out?"

Jaime looks at her with a half-smile on his handsome face. "And leave the children alone for that long?"

Her scowl deepens. "I can't take twenty children into hostile territory. I know we're vulnerable, but they're still safer here than out there. I can always leave you and Hyle and the others with them. Or mayhaps I can take all of you with me and leave the oldest children in charge of the others. They're smart, disciplined, and most of the children have learned to defend themselves over the last two years."

"Most?"

"Rickon and Tommen are still so young," she sighs. "I can't quite bring myself to put guns in their hands yet."

"I suppose not," he murmurs. He idly scrubs at his arm with what's left of his handful of sand, frowning in thought. He says, "Do you trust Hunt and his cronies?"

"No," she says promptly.

"Do you trust me?"

Her mouth quirks up. "Where are you right now?" she asks drily. "And please note you're still alive and in one piece."

He slowly grins. "So, yes, then?"

She flushes and nods.

"I can take Hunt and his friends to this other settlement. Act as your emissary. Sound them out."

Brienne raises an eyebrow. "And make sure Hunt and the others don't sell us out?"

Jaime shrugs. "Mayhaps I'll be able to leave them behind."

She brightens at the thought then she deflates. "What does it matter? If this other settlement is willing to accept all these children, then we're right back with Hyle and his friends."

"With more people to keep them in check," Jaime says. "You have the six oldest children to help, and many of the others are prepared to fight, but if those men were to work together..."

Brienne scowls. "I know," she snaps, "we've been here before." She softens. "I don't want them here any more than you do—or than the children do, either. But there's so few of us left, we can't just eject them from the compound. Or at least we need a better reason than 'they're creepy'."

Jaime actually smiles at that. "Unfortunately, I understand. So I'll take them with me and encourage them to stay at the settlement." He raises an eyebrow. "We'll go in a week or so. It depends on how my children react to me leaving again."

Brienne nods and silence descends between them, broken only by Jaime slipping once more beneath the water and returning with two more hands full of sand so they can finish washing themselves.

It's not until they're on their way back to the riverbank that Brienne notices she'd been standing straight in the water as they finished bathing. As they dry themselves and dress, she's shocked to realize that she feels no embarrassment at the fact Jaime has seen her naked body. She glances over her shoulder at him and mentally shakes her head.

Of course, it's not as if he's looking.

*/*/*/*/*

Brienne honestly doesn't understand why she instinctively trusts Jaime Lannister so completely...only that she does. When she worries too long at the question, she ends with telling herself he saved her life at the Red Keep and that's enough. Or mayhaps it's because he's joined her in the river pond several times over the last two weeks and has never once noticed she's as naked as he is.

She wishes she could say the same for herself. Her dreams at night have become filled with images of Jaime's naked body, and she wakes, yearning for something she's refused to allow herself to even think about since Hunt and his friends had so completely humiliated her. If she were a more desirable woman, she would have already begged Jaime to fuck her. Even now, at the end of the world, she knows he would only laugh at her.

She's embarrassed by the intensity of her lust for the man, worried he might notice, but at night, safe in the privacy of her shack, she tells herself it doesn't matter. Jaime never has to know she dreams of him in the dark of night as her hands drift to the juncture of her thighs to ease the hunger thrumming through her. There's so little pleasure in the world right now, she thinks. She imagines him heavy against her, moving inside her as she moves her fingers, and thinks there's no harm in this.

*/*/*/*/*

Jaime dreams of Brienne's acres of freckled skin and amazing blue eyes, her small breasts that will perfectly fit in the palms of his hands, the thick blonde hair guarding the sweet heat he knows is hidden between her thighs, and wakes, hard and aching and taut with lust.

He lays on his back, trying not to groan with frustration. The children are sleeping in the same room, their soft snuffling sounds filling the small space. He quietly rolls from his blankets and steps outside and lets the air of the late spring evening cool his body.

There's movement in shadows behind the shacks, and he sees Ygritte and Robb taking their turn at guard. He strolls to the communal fire pit and finds Hyle Hunt sitting by the banked coals, a cup in his hand.

Hunt glances at him, then reaches down and shows him a bottle of whiskey, lifting an eyebrow in question.

Jaime considers it then shakes his head and sits down not far from the other man. He would have preferred to have the pit to himself, to think on Brienne and wonder what it is about her that draws him to her; she's so unlike Cersei…and mayhaps that's the reason. He ponders how best to draw Brienne closer without startling her away. She's so fucking brave and honorable while still rightfully wary. After all she's seen…

"Are there really other settlements out there?" Hunt asks, startling Jaime out of his thoughts.

Jaime nods.

"Close?"

"The one we're going to is the closest one I know. It's about three or four days away, on the other side of the Blackwater." He frowns. "You really hadn't found any?"

"We stuck inside King's Landing. There were a lot of resources, after all. Shelter. Food. Guns. Ammunition." He grimaces. "We had to be careful, of course, but still. Pretty easy life, in a lot of ways, especially compared to this place."

"Why are you here, then?"

Hunt shrugs. "Women," he says.

Jaime's eyes narrow. "The girls are only sixteen."

"Sixteen was the age of consent, Before," Hunt reminds him, and Jaime scowls. Hunt sees his expression and laughs.

"Don't worry; I think most of the older girls are spoken for already, and I'm certainly not interested in waiting for the others to grow up."

Jaime straightens.

Hunt laughs again. "That's not what I mean! I mean, I, personally, am setting my sights on Big Brienne. Any port in a storm, right? And she's done a hells of a good job with this settlement. She's definitely going to be the one in charge for years to come. A woman of influence and power, even if it's just in this settlement and over children…well, that's for me."

Jaime raises an eyebrow. "You don't want to be in power yourself?"

Hunt winks. "One step at a time, Lannister. One step at a time." His smile turns mocking. "You know what it's like to over-reach in your struggle to the top. You killed the King and thought you'd get the Iron Throne, didn't you?"

Jaime's face is cold and expressionless. "If I said no, would you believe me?"

Hunt laughs and airily waves his hand. "What does it matter now? The entire royal family is likely dead anyway and nobody cares anymore if you shot Aerys Targaryen in the back or not."

"You seem to."

"Well, we can't pretend you're not the Kingslayer." He glances at Brienne's shack. "She know who you are?"

"Of course."

"Ah, good," Hunt says and takes a sip of whiskey.

"Why good?"

"It means you're no competition…assuming you could get your cock hard enough to fuck her in the first place."

"What the fuck are you nattering about?" Jaime growls.

Hunt rolls his eyes. "Brienne isn't the most forgiving soul in the world, and she would never lower herself to fuck you, even if you managed to keep it up long enough to do the job." He leans closer. "Look, I want a woman. Any woman will do, and if I have to settle for Brienne, well…it's pretty dark at night now. I mean, I managed to fuck her once; I'm sure I can do it again."

Jaime stares at the other man with a kind of appalled fascination and only manages to stop himself from shoving his stupid, smug face into the fire by reminding himself that they need diversity in the gene pool.

He seizes on the only thing that makes any sense and doesn't enrage him to quite the same extent. "You and Brienne?"

"Once. Before." Hunt laughs. "The guys and I, we had a—" He stops as he sees the expression on Jaime's face. He blinks and mumbles, "We knew each other in university. It didn't work out."

Jaime raises an eyebrow and thinks he needs to ask Brienne about what really happened with Hunt the next time they're alone. He can't believe she fell for such an idiot…although mayhaps he hadn't been quite so obvious Before.

"You think you can convince her to take you back now?" Jaime asks.

Hunt chuckles. "Well, let's face it: she's not going to get anybody else, is she?"

*/*/*/*/*

The men are ready to leave several days later. Jaime pulls Brienne aside and they once again go over what Brienne is willing to trade with this other settlement, and what supplies they most need.

"Vegetables, or vegetable seeds for next spring," she says. "Fruit or plants for next spring. Ammunition, of course, or a recipe for gunpowder. We don't have much to trade, though. Some smoked meat and…" she frowns, thinking. "Moon tea, I suppose."

He lifts an eyebrow. "But you don't want to ask to join them?"

Brienne chews on her bottom lip, her eyes wide and blue and worried. The combination goes straight to his cock, and he edges a little closer.

"Let's see what kind of people they are," she finally says and gives him a helpless look from her magnificent eyes. "I have to protect the children."

He cups her cheeks in his hands and kisses her for that, then kisses her again because of her adorable squeak of surprise at the first one. The third kiss is because she hasn't punched him or broken his arms, and the fourth…the fourth is because he can't help himself and he's rewarded with her lips softening and parting to allow their tongues to dance with each other.

He's only just pulled her flush against him when he hears Hunt shouting his name. He reluctantly eases away.

"We have to go," he says, his voice husky.

She's staring, eyes wide and dazed, her plump lips swollen and red.

"Walk us to the gate," he murmurs, and she nods, still unable to speak.

He doesn't kiss her again, but he looks over his shoulder as they leave, and locks into his memory the image of her staring after him, still stunned, with his children standing beside her.

*/*/*/*/*

There's no time during the days to think of Jaime's kisses, but at night, alone in her shack…

Brienne allows herself to dream.

*/*/*/*/*

Jaime and the others return several weeks later, and when they do, they have four women with them.

The women are sisters. They're Dornish, and Brienne thinks they're some of the most beautiful women she's ever seen. They explain they're emissaries from the Martell Settlement, and have come to trade with Brienne's Town. Even she can hear the capital letters when they use the phrase.

Obara Sand is the oldest, the obvious leader of the small group, and seems to have caught Owen Inchfield's eye. Nymeria is dark and sultry and perpetually amused as Red Ronnet Connington fawns over her. Mark Mullendore seems taken with the youngest of the group, Sarella, which does not sit well with Margaery, and Tyene hasn't left Jaime's side since she arrived. In the meantime, Robb, Jon and Gendry are watching all the women with wide-eyed fascination, although Jeyne Westerling and Ygritte glower at Robb and Jon, and eleven-year-old Arya even kicks Gendry in the shins then runs away after she notices him staring at the Sands for too long.

Brienne watches the shifting and swirling dynamics, and her heart sinks into her stomach. These women are obviously dangerous, resilient, and resourceful survivors, an asset to any group struggling to survive…but Brienne has a settlement filled with traumatized teenagers who are just beginning to explore their sexualities.

This is going to be a nightmare.

She sees Jaime's amused expression as Tyene says something and leans her golden head closer to his.

This is going to be a fucking nightmare.

*/*/*/*/*

The Sand sisters are most interested in moon tea and explain to Brienne that the Martell Settlement has grown to several hundred people. They need their land to grow food and haven't managed to find enough wild-growing tansy to provide every woman with moon tea, if they wish to use it.

They inspect Brienne's thriving tansy garden and eagerly agree to exchange vegetables and seeds for moon tea. They're also fascinated by all that's been done in the settlement, although Brienne and the children are careful not to reveal their security measures to them.

The days speed by because if Brienne isn't with one Sand sister, she's with another, and between trade negotiations, entertaining their guests, and maintaining the settlement, the only time she's alone is when she goes to her shack to sleep.

Brienne eventually finalizes a deal with Obara, and they agree she should be able to supply a year's supply of moon tea for fifteen women in the fall. Brienne also agrees to expand her tansy garden, and next fall, she'll hopefully be able to supply moon tea for all the women in the Martell Settlement as well as for the girls in her own settlement.

As for Jaime, he's made no effort to get her alone or to kiss her again, and she's hurt by that even though she also understands it. His children have glued themselves to his side since his return, and the few times he hasn't been with his children, Tyene's been close at hand. Tyene is breathtakingly beautiful, almost ethereal, and Brienne can't blame Jaime for being enamored even as it hurts her heart. She tries to resign herself to the fact that Jaime and his children will be returning to the Martell Settlement with the Sands, and vows to see them off with a smile.

Adding to Brienne's tension is Hyle Hunt, who she sometimes thinks is actually trying to flirt with her. It's annoying, but to be honest, she doesn't pay enough attention to know for sure.

Just over a week after the men's return with the Sands, the visiting women are hunting with the older children, the weather is gloriously warm, and Brienne finds herself truly alone for the first time since their arrival.

Spending some time in the water may be just what she needs, Brienne decides, and slips away to the pond.

*/*/*/*/*

Jaime notices Brienne's departure, and after explaining himself to his children, follows her to the pool. She's already in the water, her back to him as he steps from the trees. He watches her muscles move beneath the skin of her back as she scrubs herself clean.

He shakes his head to clear it and calls, "Brienne."

She freezes then cautiously turns her head to look over her shoulder. Her eyes are wide and startled.

"What?" she says.

He smirks as he shrugs and begins unbuttoning his shirt. "Just wanted to let you know I was here," he says.

She drops so she's covered to her neck as she spins round to gape at him then spins round again as his hands move to his pants. Probably a good thing, he thinks, because he's already hard and aching, longing to fuck her, but she needs to understand he hasn't been avoiding her since his return.

"What are you doing?" she manages to squeak.

"I'm joining you for a bath," he says as he steps into the water. He glides to her and stands, a wicked gleam in his eyes as he stares at the back of her head. "It's not like we haven't bathed together before."

Even her shoulders blush, he discovers, and for some reason that pleases him. He wonders if he'll be able to persuade her to at least kiss him again if nothing else. Not that there's any place that looks comfortable enough to lay her down and explore all those freckles. Besides, with Tyene Sand stuck to his side like a burr for the last week or so, he'll be lucky if he can persuade Brienne not to drown him.

"Are you so craven you won't even look at me?" he says and she spins round at that, rising to her full height.

He struggles to keep his gaze firmly on hers although he wants nothing more than to look his fill at her body. Her eyes are wide and vulnerable and beautiful, and she doesn't look away, although he has no doubt it takes every inch of her considerable courage not to do so. There's a wariness and sadness in her eyes that he hopes he'll soon be able to ease.

"Hi," he says softly.

She blinks, a confused frown wrinkling her brow.

"You've been extremely difficult to get alone, and between work, my children and Tyene Sand's determined pursuit, I haven't had a moment to myself either."

She rolls her eyes, putting her hands on her hips. "I've seen how much you've been suffering," she says drily.

His grin is slow and wicked. "Have you been watching?"

She flushes again and it takes all his willpower not to glance down at her bare chest to see if her breasts blush, too. With luck, he'll eventually be allowed to look his fill.

Jaime says, "I've told Tyene the first time I met her that I'm not available. She says she loves a challenge."

Brienne frowns. 'Not avail…?" Her eyes widen.

"Ah, you do remember," he purrs and puts a tentative hand on her shoulder. He feels her tremble at his touch and he eases closer. "I know I do," he murmurs and gently presses his lips against hers.

*/*/*/*/*

She's dead.

She must be dead; it's the only reason she would be dreaming she's wrapped in Jaime's strong arms while they kiss each other as if their very lives depend upon it. And they're naked, in the pond, and he's pulled her to him like he wants to absorb her into his very bones and gods gods gods his cock is hard and pressed against her and almost almost almost where she desperately wants it.

She hooks a leg over his hip, and her other foot slips out from beneath her and with a squeaking yelp, she falls, pulling him with her under the water.

They scramble back to the surface, coughing and choking, spitting out water.

Brienne is burning with embarrassment, thinking she's ruined her one chance to maybe have sex with a man who isn't doing it to win a bet, and then Jaime starts to laugh as he wraps his arms round her.

"We're ridiculous," he says, burying his face in her neck as his shoulders shake with mirth. She cringes, then her eyes widen as Jaime says, "Only I would try to fuck you for the first time while standing in a pond filled with slippery rocks!"

His amusement is contagious and she starts to giggle, and then they're howling with laughter, clutching at each other as they try not to slip again. In the midst of it all, she registers three things: he said 'first time'; his hands are stroking over her back, down to her ass, and he's pulling her flush against him once more; and his cock is still hard and still only almost where she most desperately wants it.

*/*/*/*/*

They make their way towards the riverbank where they'd left their clothes, still laughing in between deep, heated kisses, stumbling and slipping and almost going back under the water more than once. When they finally leave the pool, they spread their clothes on the ground for a makeshift blanket and Jaime lays her down as sweetly as if she were some beautiful girl; as if this was happening Before, and there was nothing to fear or worry about.

As he joins her, their legs tangling together, hands stroking, mouths tasting and tugging, making each other gasp and buck and squirm; as he finally presses her down and eases inside her, she allows herself to pretend she's beautiful, and surrenders herself to the moment and to him.

*/*/*/*/*

Brienne's relaxed, sated, the sun warm on her bare skin. But it's not nearly as warm as the weight of Jaime's arm and leg flung over her, holding her close. He's dozing, his breath ghosting against her neck and shoulder, and she fiercely tells herself to remember every touch, every sensation, to burn this moment into her memory. She closes her eyes and drifts and it almost feels as if the broken world away from this pond doesn't exist.

She allowed herself to dream in the dark privacy of her little shack and reality has surpassed all her dreams...in some respects. He's beautiful and very...she bites her lip to keep from laughing...enthusiastic. There are faint shadows on her hips left by his hands; darker shadows left by his lips on her neck and breasts. What her dreams flitted over, though, are the marks he will leave on her heart. It's those marks that worry her most.

When he leaves her...and he will leave her...

She remembers Hyle, taking money from that crowd of boys standing round his bed. Remembers the humiliation, the black pit of despair she descended into, and her determination to not let them win that was all she could use to crawl back out again.

She pushes those memories away. It was a long time ago in experience even if not in time. The world has forever changed and there are, surprisingly enough, worse things. She hopes they can convince Hyle and his friends to return to Martell Town with the Sand sisters, and as for Jaime...

She presses her lips tightly together.

Mayhaps she can convince him to stay...but he has three children who take priority. If he decides they would be safer in Martell Town...well...she can't beg him to stay. The safety and well-being of the children are the priority for all of them.

Jaime stirs, smoothing his hand over her torso and down to her hip. She closes her eyes at the sensation.

"I can hear you thinking," he murmurs in her ear and she opens her eyes at that, craning her neck to glare at him.

"I'm relaxing," she says.

"Your muscles are tight, and I don't think you've managed to nap at all, have you?" He lifts his head and grins as he continues caressing the length of her body with long, slow strokes.

She blinks. "You were sleeping, Jaime," she says, flushing a little as she softens beneath his touch. "How would you know?"

"I've learned the art of dozing without sleeping," he says with a wink and leans in to kiss her.

She relaxes against him, thinking they need to dress and return to the others; her heart will break even more when he leaves if they do this again; she shouldn't be distracted like this, even if it's only for a few hours, because the world is too dangerous to let their guards down for long; they may not make it through another winter, and saving the children really should be her only focus.

Jaime pulls her flush against him, and his hands are warm and searching, his kisses deep and hungry. She meets his hunger with her own, and thinks she can be forgiven for wanting this, for wanting to seize whatever moments of happiness she can find, no matter how fleeting. The world is ended, she thinks as his caressing hands turn more demanding, making her gasp and arch against him, and if there's no happiness to be found, then why bother surviving at all?

*/*/*/*

Hyle takes one look at them when they return and his expression turns thunderously contemptuous. He turns to Jaime and sneers, "So, stole my idea, did you?"

Jaime frowns but before he can speak, Brienne says, "What idea?"

Hyle says, his eyes hard as flint, "Didn't he tell you? Martell Town won't let him in. Nobody wants the Kingslayer."

Brienne's eyes are narrowed. "What does that have to do with 'your idea'? What's 'your idea'?"

Hyle laughs, harsh and angry. "Why, to fuck you in order to control you, of course. And you're just stupid enough to fall for it! Have you forgotten he's the Kingslayer? You think he's not going to kill you once he no longer needs you?"

Brienne gapes and Jaime sees red. He takes a step towards Hyle, his teeth bared in a snarl then stops in his tracks as Brienne begins to laugh.

Jaime turns to stare at her, shocked that after everything that's happened in the years since the Event, this is what finally breaks her.

She's laughing so hard tears are actually rolling down her cheeks. She pauses, looks with disbelieving eyes at Hunt and then goes off once again into gales of laughter. Her arms are wrapped round her stomach as she doubles over.

Everyone else in the clearing—those children not on patrol, the Sand sisters, and Hunt's friends—hurry towards them and Jaime doesn't know if he should punch the equally confused look off Hunt's face or if he should throw his arms round Brienne and tell her she's going to be all right.

Finally, Brienne pauses, gasping for breath and again looks up at Hunt, her eyes swimming in tears of laughter.

"That was your idea?" she finally manages to say. "You thought all you had to do was fuck me in order to control me? You?" She starts giggling again and clamps a hand over her mouth, struggling to get herself under control. "Oh, gods—you really did think you were flirting with me, didn't you?" And she's laughing uncontrollably again.

"Brienne?" Jaime says, treading carefully. For a moment, he has a sudden, harsh memory of Cersei, the way she was that night he came home to find her putting antifreeze in the children's food. She'd been laughing then, too, before she started screaming.

He peers intently at Brienne.

No, he thinks, there's none of the blank emptiness he'd seen in Cersei's eyes that night. Brienne just seems…genuinely amused...and that's even more confusing.

Brienne finally gets herself under control and she straightens, swiping the moisture from her eyes.

"Hyle," she says, almost kindly, "you are so fucking stupid, I'm tempted to geld you just to ensure you can't pass the stupidity on to unsuspecting children."

Hyle sputters and Brienne shakes her head and holds up her hand.

"You humiliated me," she says, and now her voice is cold even if she still has a smile on her face. "You and your buddies. You treated me like a joke, as something to be used and broken for your own amusement, then tossed away like garbage."

Jaime draws in a loud, hissing breath and his hand drops to his gun. Brienne glances at him.

"Oh, it wasn't rape, Jaime—it was a frat boy bet about which one could 'seduce' me into letting them...how did you and the guys put it that night while they were handing you cash? Ah, yes: 'pop my cherry'."

Jaime's mind whirls. "Handing him cash?"

Brienne waves his words away. "I'll tell you about it later." She turns back to Hyle and his friends. "The only reason any of you are still alive is because there's been more than enough death already, and if the human race is going to survive, we need to stop killing each other. But just because I've allowed you to stay here doesn't mean I've forgotten—or forgiven—what all of you did."

Hyle sneers. "You're only turning on us because the Kingslayer fucked you. He only did it so you would allow him to stay here. Nobody else is stupid enough to have him, no matter how much he fucks them." Hyle's glance goes to Tyene Sand then back to Brienne, his sneer deepening.

Brienne raises an eyebrow. "That's not why he fucked me."

The tightness in Jaime's chest eases a little.

"You didn't know I'd fucked you for money," Hyle says.

"Well, that makes you a whore, Hyle, but as for Jaime, well, he already knew he was welcome here, if he chose to stay. Just as you were, just as all the children are. Even our guests from Martell Town are welcome to join us, if they wish." She glances at Tyene then at Jaime then returns her attention to Hyle.

"Really?" Jaime says. "You still think...?" He sighs and rolls his eyes.

She flashes a scowl at him then returns her attention to Hyle. "I'm no longer that girl you knew several lifetimes ago." She smiles a little. "Even then I wasn't so easily controlled, no matter what you and your fellow frat boys thought." She cocks her head to the side and thoughtfully considers him and his friends.

"You honestly believed it, didn't you?" she says, and her lips begin to twitch again and she presses them tightly together. She clears her throat and says, "You honestly believed I would be, what? Desperate enough to settle for you? You're not actually the last man on earth, and even if you were, I wouldn't take you." She shakes her head. "I think it's best if you and your friends return to Martell Town when my visitors are ready to leave." She glances at the Sand sisters, who are watching her with varying degrees of respect and surprise. "If they'll have you, that is."

*/*/*/*/*

It's surprisingly difficult to get Brienne alone the next few days. Or maybe it's not surprising, Jaime thinks ruefully. Brienne has barely even looked at him since her confrontation with Hunt and his buddies.

Well, at least Tyene appears to have given up her dogged pursuit, so that's something.

Not that Jaime, too, isn't busy. He patrols the perimeter, teaches the children survival skills, spends time with his own children, and thinks about Brienne.

He knows others in the settlement don't understand it. He's not certain he understands it either. Brienne is not what one would consider beautiful. Her face is scarred, her breasts are small, she's taller than he is and he's six-two, and she could probably break him in half if she so desired. She's as different to Cersei—beautiful, fragile, volatile Cersei—as it is possible to be...and mayhaps that's part of what draws him to Brienne.

When he looks in Brienne's eyes, he sees nothing but honesty beneath her wariness and rage. When he talks to her, he hears the strength that underpins her beliefs and her desire to protect the children. This hell they've fallen into may have scarred her, but it hasn't broken her, and that makes him want to protect her all the more because of it.

Mayhaps he doesn't need to understand what draws him to her, or why. Mayhaps he just needs to accept what is.

He sits by the communal fire pit and watches her with brooding eyes as she again demonstrates to the younger children how to tie a snare and inspects their efforts. The sun is shining on her straw-coloured hair, making it gleam in the sun.

And he desperately wants to fuck her—or at least hold her—again, although that should really go without saying. At least to her.

He glances at Hunt sitting on the opposite side of the fire pit and Jaime can't help smirking at the sight of the other man's bruised and swollen face. Hunt and his friends have been approaching him the last few days, separately and together, trying to get him to admit he's only interested in Brienne because he wants control of the settlement and the children. After all, he once murdered a King in a failed attempt to gain the Throne.

He just sneered and walked away from each encounter...except one. Hyle Hunt made the mistake of daring to ask if Jaime had closed his eyes and dreamed of another woman while fucking Brienne, like Hunt had done. Jaime's fist broke the bastard's nose with a satisfying crunch.

Hunt and his cronies can't leave soon enough, as far as Jaime is concerned.

Jaime watches as Brienne smiles at the children then strides away to her shack. He stands without sparing a glance for his companions and hurries after her.

Mayhaps he can convince her to at least talk to him; to at least tell him if she believes Hunt's accusations or not.

He knocks.

There's a moment of silence and then Brienne opens the door.

She looks at him in silence, her face expressionless, her beautiful eyes wary.

"Martell Town really won't let me in," he says, "but that has nothing to do with what happened at the pond."

She blinks and Jaime wonders what she'd say if he told her all he wants is to stay here, with her, and drown in her eyes.

He says, "I'm not going to dignify Hunt's accusations with a denial, but if you want me to go, I'll go. I won't go far because I have to be near my children, but I can live outside the settlement if that's what you want."

She frowns as she tilts her head to one side. "Why would I want that?"

He scowls. "You've been avoiding me."

"Well, I was embarrassed that everyone knew what we'd been doing just from looking at us."

Jaime raises his eyebrow. "Really. That's it?"

She flushes. "Well…" she looks down and shifts uncomfortably. "I've started my period," she mutters.

Jaime frowns. "And?"

Her blush deepens. "And…well…you know…"

Jaime's frown deepens. "Do you think this is just about sex?"

She flashes a quick glance at his face before she looks away again.

"You do," he says, his frown clearing.

"Well, what else is there?" she mutters.

Jaime bites his lip to keep from laughing. "Well, sex is definitely important," he says, his voice so solemn she finally looks at him long enough to give him a suspicious glare. "It's been a long time for me," he says with a shrug. "But I didn't fuck you just because I wanted to fuck you...although I really, really did want to, just in case you didn't notice. But this...what's happening between us...this is also fueled by your bravery and strength and determination and optimism and the way you've done everything you can to protect the children in your care and the way you don't take any shit from anybody and a million other things there's not enough time in the world to describe and they all make me want to fuck you again until you scream my name."

Her head jerks up at that, her eyes widening and darkening. She quickly cranes to look round him.

"Jaime! You never know who might be listening!"

Jaime shrugs and leans a little closer. "Let them listen. We'll tell the younger kids I'm tickling you unmercifully."

She blinks at him then a reluctant smile curves her lips.

He smiles as some of his tension eases. "Did you believe what Hunt said?"

She snorts a little at that. "I don't believe anything Hyle says," she says drily. "Like I told him, you didn't have to fuck me to stay here and we both knew that before that day at the pond."

"So why have you been avoiding me?"

She shrugs. "Tyene is beautiful."

"Yes, she is," he says, "but she isn't you."

"There's nothing special about me."

"Let me decide that, okay?"

She scowls.

He leans closer and murmurs, his voice low and dark, "Let me in and I'll show you just how special you are."

She licks her lips and he almost groans. "I—I—like I said, I'm on my period."

Jaime reaches out and cups her cheek. "I'm not talking about sex," he says, "although I'm not averse to a hot make-out session, if you'd like." He smiles. "Do you have bad periods? Do you need a back rub or something?"

She gapes at him. "A back rub?"

He shrugs. "Cersei used to get really bad cramps. A back rub seemed to help."

"I...I've never had a back rub," Brienne says with dawning interest.

"Then let me in."

She slowly smiles and steps aside.

*/*/*/*/*

A few days later the Sand sisters leave, taking Hyle, his cronies and Margaery Tyrell with them. Brienne isn't surprised; Margaery's smitten with Mark Mullendore and even though they tried to convince her to stay, she's determined to stay with the man she claims to love.

Life is a little more difficult now that Margaery and the others have left them, with only five sixteen-year-olds and two adults left to protect the others. Still, it's peaceful enough and even...Brienne barely dares to think the word: happy.

*/*/*/*/*

Late spring turns to a summer filled with long, hot, dry days and Brienne's grateful they settled so close to the river. They finally finish the waterwheel and she and Gendry, Robb and Ygritte go to King's Landing to scavenge pipes and eaves troughs. When they return, Gendry, Edric and Mya cobble together a makeshift irrigation system so they can water their far-too-meagre crops even as day after day passes without rain. The days are endless as the heat and the sun dry out the trees that surround them.

Brienne and Jaime drill into the children the need to be careful with their communal fire, the need to watch for sparks and to ensure any fire is banked or completely out before going to their shacks for the night. Jon Snow and Jeyne Westerling work with the younger children to build rafts that they keep ready on the river bank while Jaime trains all of them—even Rickon and Tommen—on evacuation procedures.

"At least the river's relatively calm from here to the Bay," Jaime mutters one afternoon as he's out hunting with Brienne.

She nods. "Still deep in parts." She shakes her head and sighs. "It rained more last year."

Jaime smirks at her. "You can't control everything, Brienne. And you and the children have made enormous progress in just two years. More than some others have done." He grimaces then shakes his head. "You've built shelters, established and maintained a protective perimeter. You're growing, gathering and storing food for the winter. You have water, and you're close enough to what's left of a city to scavenge what you need when you need it."

"But it's not going to be enough, is it? We're not going to be able to stay here, are we?"

Jaime hesitates. "We can," he says and shrugs. "I just don't like not having a line of sight."

"Nobody can find us unless we show them where we are."

"That's not quite true anymore. Hyle Hunt and his cronies have no reason to protect us anymore. Martell Town is friendly enough at the moment...but what if they run low on resources and they know we have them? What then?"

He looks round at the trees and underbrush. "We're hidden; but so is anyone who comes looking for us."

"So what are you suggesting?" she growls.

Jaime sighs and rubs his temple. "I want someplace high, so we have a line of sight in all directions. Someplace we can fortify with food and water, weapons and ammunition. Someplace where we can withstand a siege, if needed."

Brienne stops and turns to stare at him. "You want a castle," she says flatly.

He quirks a smile. "I want a castle."

*/*/*/*/*

There's two years' worth of dust in the lobby of Baratheon Tower, the tallest office building in King's Landing. The rioters had been here, too, at some time during the fall of King's Landing. Brienne can see where the scorch marks of fires long cold scar the walls. She wonders what happened here, how the fires went out. For a moment, she can see the screaming, raging crowds and wonders if there was anyone here trying to stop them. Wonders if beneath the rubble lie the bones of someone just trying to stem the madness.

She wonders what it was like in those expensive offices immediately after the Event. It must have been annoying at first...at worst...after the power went out. Mayhaps it was a little frightening once they realized they needed to evacuate the building by walking down a pitch black stairwell. Mayhaps a few of them had flashlights that still worked...mayhaps.

She wonders how long people waited before deciding to leave. She wonders how it felt to make that long, slow trek down that dark stairwell, the relief as they made the street...only to realize the vehicles don't work either. She wonders—

"Stop," Jaime murmurs and she turns, blinking.

"Don't think about it," he says, kindness beneath the stark grief in his eye. "Don't imagine it."

"How...?"

His half-smile is sad. "Cersei was institutionalized in Maegor's Sanitarium. Sometimes it's like a waking nightmare when I think about it too much."

"I'm sorry."

"Yeah. Me, too." He looks away. "Let's find a stairwell."

*/*/*/*/*

They light their lanterns and climb, carefully and slowly, to the top floor and from there, they find the ceiling access and step out on the roof and into the heat and the sun.

"Thank the gods it's only twenty storeys," Jaime groans.

"Bloody high enough," Brienne mutters.

"Going down will be easier."

They walk to the edge and Brienne scans what she can see of the city while Jaime peers through binoculars at Visenya's Hill.

She slowly turns and walks to the northern edge of the building. There's the Hill of Rhaenys, where the remains of Rhaegar's Palace still stand. At the foot of the Hill is Flea Bottom—revitalized into a trendy shopping district—now nothing but burnt-out ruins.

"There are people living in the ruins of the Great Sept," Jaime calls.

Brienne frowns. "It's on a hill, easily fortified. Makes sense."

"And there's some land available for crops, which I can see are growing. It looks like they may have some animals, as well. I see fences."

Brienne's mouth suddenly waters. "Cattle?" she asks hopefully. She'd dearly love to taste beef again.

Jaime's grin is fleeting. "Mayhaps. I can't see anything in the fenced areas. Mayhaps whatever animals they had have died."

Brienne deflates. "Mayhaps."

He joins her on the northern side of the roof and lifts his binoculars to peer at the Hill of Rhaenys and the rubble of King Rhaegar's silver palace he had built after the death of the Mad King. Even now those parts of the palace not blackened by fire still gleam in the sun.

Jaime says, "You really weren't exaggerating when you said King's Landing was burning."

"No," she says, her voice soft. "I'm amazed so much of the city is still undamaged." She sighs. "Of course, it would have been worst round the Palace. When people want answers, they turn to the King."

Jaime lowers the binoculars and looks at her. "Did you ever talk to other survivors?"

"Oh, yes," she says, "we saw a lot of refugees on our way to King's Landing, although we tried to keep the children safely out of sight. There were almost a million people in the city, after all, and most of them were trying to figure out where to go and what to do." She grimaces. "I don't know what happened to the King. For all I know, he's still there, living in his broken Palace and trying to rebuild the world."

Jaime snorts. "Mayhaps King Rhaegar could surprise me for once," he mutters as he lifts the binoculars once again to his eyes. "But all those people…gods…"

"Don't imagine it," Brienne says quietly. "I'm sure it was the same as in Meereen, or any other city."

"Mayhaps," he says, his face grim. "Doesn't make it any better."

"No."

They're silent until Jaime finally says, "There are people at the Palace, too, I think. Or at least there have been. I can see what looks like campfires."

Brienne nods and they walk to the eastern edge of the roof and stare at the Red Keep.

"Funny," she mutters. Jaime raises an eyebrow and she shrugs. "Rhaegar's Palace is destroyed but the Red Keep still stands."

Jaime's smile is bitter as he once again looks through his binoculars. "Somewhere, I can hear the Mad King laughing."

*/*/*/*/*

They spend the night on the roof. The air is hot even after the sun has set, and they search for signs of life in the remnants of the city as lightning plays on the horizon.

Even now, Brienne thinks, there's a kind of harsh beauty to it all as they see, here and there, the wink of light that proves there are still survivors in the ruins.

"Get some sleep," Jaime finally says. "I'll take first watch."

Brienne nods and kisses him good-night.

*/*/*/*/*

"Can we defend this place?" Brienne says the next morning as they eat their breakfast of smoked pork, flat bread, and water.

Jaime shrugs. "We can defend any place," he says. "The more important question is how long the building will stand."

Brienne frowns. "Hundreds of years," she says.

"Will it?" Jaime shakes his head with a frustrated sigh. "I wanted to use this as our castle, but without an HVAC to circulate air, we'll likely need to remove at least one panel of glass in whatever floors we occupy."

Brienne frowns. "It's a closed system, yes, but we wouldn't suffocate in that building for years!"

Jaime grunts in frustration. "I don't know enough about how high-rises were built to know if there'd be enough fresh air seeping into the building even without an HVAC—but we also have no way to maintain the building. If windows weaken and fall out, there's nothing we can do about it, except board up the empty spaces. And while we could use the roof for a garden, it's not enough space to grow enough food to sustain a growing population over any length of time."

Brienne raises her hands in surrender. "This place was your idea!"

Jaime sighs. "I know." He gets to his feet and wanders towards the eastern edge, scowling at the Red Keep. "Gods. The last place I want us to call our own is the Red Keep," he mutters.

Brienne frowns. "I know it has a lot of bad memories for you—"

"Do you?" He turns and glares, his eyes cold and angry. "You have no fucking idea all the memories that heap of stone holds for me!"

Brienne blinks, taken aback, then she says, quietly, "No. I don't. But I do know we can't allow those memories to hold us hostage." She touches her scarred cheek. "We need to keep going anyway."

Jaime immediately looks shame-faced. "Brienne—"

"It's all right," she says and gives him a half-smile. "Really. But you wanted a castle and that—" she nods towards the Red Keep— "is the only one I see."

*/*/*/*/*

They make their way to the Red Keep where they spend a couple of days searching through the various buildings of the castle and sleeping at the top of the thick wall that protects the castle. They take turns standing guard and watching, waiting to see if anyone creeps out from some secret corner of the Red Keep. By the end of the third day, they decide they must be the only people there...except for the bones of the men who had attacked Brienne the day she met Jaime, remnants of whom can still be seen at the foot of the Rookery.

They take the bones and throw them from the eastern wall, then cautiously explore the Red Keep with an assessing eye. There are spacious albeit overgrown gardens within the walls of the castle and they discover the ancient and heavy portcullis can still be raised and lowered using chains and pulleys.

"I'm amazed it still works," Jaime murmurs as he raises it again and she nods. "It's been what? Ten years since King Rhaegar abandoned the place?"

"About that, yes," she says and shivers. Despite her brave words on the roof of the Baratheon Tower, the Red Keep symbolizes the bloodthirsty madness of King Aerys II. Too many people passed through this very gate only to disappear behind these imposing red walls; there were too many whispered stories of the atrocities committed in the Mad King's name.

She shivers again.

King Rhaegar tried to make a new start by building a palace, not a castle, on the Hill of Rhaenys, and the Red Keep was something that most people did their best to pretend didn't exist, especially after Maegor's Holdfast was converted to Maegor's Sanitarium. Brienne supposes she shouldn't be so surprised that none of the survivors in King's Landing chose to live here.

She glances at Jaime. "You really think we'll be safer here?"

He sighs. "I don't know," he says, "but here we have walls and a portcullis, and we can see what's coming at us…to a certain extent, anyway. In the forest, we're hidden, but so is everybody else, and we're far too vulnerable to animals and nature."

"We have nineteen children. It would be virtually impossible to defend this place."

Jaime gives her a grim nod.

"True. But we can't stay in the forest. And there's something more, depending on how long-term we want to think."

Brienne gives him a puzzled frown.

"The settlement is on the river, a bit downstream from where the Gods' Eye River meets the Blackwater Rush. Both of those were dammed almost a hundred years ago. Nobody's maintaining those dams now."

She pulls in a sharp, hissing breath. "How much water is in the reservoirs?"

"Enough to wipe out everything in its path all the way to the Blackwater Bay, no matter which dam breaks."

"But it should take at least a hundred years before either dam fails. Right?"

Jaime gives her a wry smile. "Right. Or it could happen tomorrow."

*/*/*/*/*

They make their way onto the walls of the Red Keep and walk to look south and across the mouth of the Blackwater Bay.

"Martell Town is another day's walk in that direction," Jaime says, pointing.

Brienne squints, and imagines she can see, very faintly, small columns of smoke twisting into the sky, although mayhaps it's only wishful thinking. At least she knows they're a form of ally, unlike the unknown survivors living here in King's Landing.

They stroll the walls to look to the west, towards their own settlement. Jaime lifts his binoculars to his eyes, then growls a curse. He shoves them at Brienne and she looks through them with a puzzled frown.

Then she sees it and she freezes in horror, her hand gripping Jaime's arm.

There, on the horizon, in the depths of the forest—

"Fire," she whispers.

*/*/*/*/*

It takes them only a day and a half to get back to the settlement, jogging and walking, and sleeping only for a few hours before moving again. Mixed with the smell of summer wilting beneath the heat of the sun is smoke, and Jaime wonders how far the fire has travelled if they can already smell it. The wind had shifted in the night, and he thinks it's now behind the flames. Fear grips him in a way he didn't think was still possible after the Event and all that has happened since.

By the time they get to the settlement, the smoke is growing steadily thicker and Jaime imagines he can hear the fire as it steadily eats its way towards them.

They find most of the younger children huddled in the settlement, but the five oldest and Bran are gone.

"They're trying to see where the smoke is coming from," Sansa explains. "They've taken Bran because he's the best at climbing trees."

Jaime glances at Brienne.

"We should be ready to evacuate at a moment's notice," he says.

She nods, grim-faced yet determined.

They know what can happen with forest fires. In the days Before, he'd seen the videos of the evacuations of the Riverlands, people barely escaping with their lives through walls of flames. If the wind continues in this direction, or gets stronger, pushing the flames ahead of it even faster and sending sparks flying ever farther...

Brienne claps her hands together. "Right. We've practiced this. Sansa, Joffrey—take two children each and start loading as much of the food as you can onto the rafts. Mya, Edric—take the rest of the children and start packing what's necessary out of the shacks." She turns to Jaime. "Go with Sansa and Joffrey. I'll go with the others."

Jaime nods. "What we can't take with us, we'll put in the root cellar and the cistern."

As he hurries the children away, he hears Brienne say to her group of children, "We'll use blankets to wrap everything. Come on, let's make it a game."

Jaime turns round at that and yells, "I fucking love you, Brienne Tarth!"

She spins and gapes at him. He grins and salutes her, then turns and hurries after his own passel of children.

*/*/*/*/*

By the time the rest of the children return, the smoke is obviously thicker and Brienne imagines she can hear the crackle of the flames even though the others assure her the fire is still a long ways away.

"But heading in this direction," Jon says, his face grim, "and moving fast."

Brienne glances up at the sky. Night is falling, and fire never sleeps. She looks at Jaime, who gives her a grim nod.

"We leave tonight," she says. "Throw anything else you hope to save into the root cellar, then we'll launch the rafts and go."

They make short work of it, and she leads them to the river where she and Jaime get the children on the rafts and launches one raft after another before it's finally time for them to get on their own raft.

She wants to look back, to remember this small place of safety they had carved out for themselves: the shacks, the cistern, the root cellar, the waterwheel. She wants to weep at leaving it all, at taking that illusion of stability and safety away from the children yet again.

But there's no time for such luxury. The thickening smoke is making darkness fall even faster. She glances at Jaime and gets on the raft, and he pushes them away from the bank and into the middle of the river, and then they're caught by the current and all they can do is hold on and let the river carry them where it may.

*/*/*/*/*

Night has long fallen by the time they make it out of the forest and Brienne is weak with relief as they finally run their rafts aground and pull both the rafts and the children on to land. They're still not safe, but King's Landing is now less than a day's walk away, and there's at least the promise of shelter there.

Jaime walks to where she's busily getting a small campfire started while the children ready their bedding for the night.

"You know we have no choice now, right?" she says, glancing up at him. "We need the Red Keep."

He nods. "I know. There's no guarantee this fire won't reach King's Landing. The Red Keep is made of stone, it's on a high hill, and it's actually a working castle. It may be the safest place in the city." He frowns. "But we won't be the only ones who know that. If the fire reaches King's Landing, we won't be the only ones looking for safety."

She sits back on her heels and gives him a steady look. "I know," she says, "but we have no choice."

*/*/*/*/*

They cannibalize the rafts and use the materials to build sleds that they take turns pulling towards the city. They reach the Tourney Grounds and stop for the night. As night falls once again, they can see the glow of the fire in the sky behind them as it steadily eats its way closer.

Once most of the children are asleep, and Robb and Gendry are standing guard, Brienne walks back the way they had come, staring at that red-orange glow. The wind has picked up, and while it's feeding and driving the fire, it at least helps to keep the smoke here to a thin haze.

Jaime quietly steps to her side and slips an arm round her waist.

"We were building a home," she whispers.

"I know," he whispers in her ear, pulling her close. "We're just going to have to build a new one."

She turns towards him, wraps her arms round him and buries her face in his neck.

*/*/*/*/*

Later, after they've finished their own guard duty and finally sought their makeshift bed, Brienne snuggles closer to Jaime and whispers, "You told me you loved me."

"I did."

"Why did you say that?"

"Because it's true."

*/*/*/*/*

Brienne takes the lead as they straggle through the streets of King's Landing, and the back of Jaime's neck prickles every step of the way.

They spent almost four days and nights in the Red Keep without seeing any sign of survivors within its walls, but the castle is huge. Still, he supposes if there are people hiding deep in its walls, they'll show themselves soon enough. He just hopes they'll be able to survive it if they do.

Jaime closes the portcullis behind them with relief and follows the others into the heart of the castle. He finds the children huddled in a cluster beside the sept.

Jaime puts down the leads of his sled and goes to stand beside Brienne. Together they slowly turn and look round them. His gaze slides over the remains of Maegor's Sanitarium—once known as Maegor's Holdfast. Its walls have fallen into rubble and are black with scorch marks. From the looks of it, bombs of some kind had been used to destroy it. The first time he'd seen it—the day he rescued Brienne from her would-be rapists—he'd wondered if the building had been destroyed by its former residents.

Like Cersei.

He shies away from the thought and turns to look at the still-standing walls of the Throne Room. For a moment he hears the Mad King's voice echoing off its walls.

Too many fucking ghosts in this place, he thinks, and turns away.

*/*/*/*/*

They set up their living spaces in the White Sword Tower, mainly because its single entrance is easily barricaded, there are no windows near the ground, and the winding staircase means any attackers who can break through the door would have to climb up one at a time.

"Of course, it means we'll be descending one at a time, too," Jaime mutters and Brienne shushes him.

*/*/*/*/*

It doesn't take long to get settled, and that night, after their return from guard duty, Brienne admits to Jaime that it feels almost decadent to be sleeping in a real bed again, even if it is a bit dusty.

Jaime's grin is wicked as he rolls on top of her. "Well, I, for one, am going to enjoy having a completely private bedroom," he purrs and kisses her.

*/*/*/*/*

They cautiously explore the still-intact buildings of the castle, and Brienne and Jaime go on the walls several times a day to check on the fire. The air is filling once again with thick smoke that clings to their clothes and clogs their lungs, and Brienne is worried about Dickon Tarly's increasingly laboured breathing and hacking cough. She's told him to stay inside as much as he can with the windows closed, and hopes that will be enough.

Each evening the fire gets closer and she thinks it may have now progressed far enough to destroy their little settlement, their water wheel and their communal fire pit and their homes. She sighs.

"We're alive," Jaime says, putting his arm round her. "The children are alive. We have food and shelter and at least some small measure of safety. If we're lucky, everything we put into the root cellar will still be there once the fire is out and the ashes have cooled enough for us to return."

She sighs. "I know. It's just...I'm tired of the insecurity."

"Well, we're in a castle now, my lady." Jaime says, lifting her hand to his lips and brushing a kiss against her knuckles. He gives her a smirk. "Can't get much more secure than that."

She rolls her eyes but can't help but smile back at him. "Just remember that castles fall, my lord, if you're not careful."

Jaime kisses her. "Then let us be careful."

*/*/*/*/*

The wind picks up that night, howling in gusts round the White Sword Tower, and in the morning, the plains between the forest and King's Landing are burning.

*/*/*/*/*

They go out in groups of four to scavenge through as many houses as they can, as quickly as they can.

That's when they find their first survivors.

Three filthy, semi-feral-looking children, the oldest not much more than thirteen or fourteen. Lommy, he calls himself, and the boy with him is Hot Pie, and the silent girl clinging to Hot Pie's hand is called Weasel. She looks to be no more than five years old and Brienne thinks it's a miracle she's still alive.

She shifts her gaze from the three children to Jaime, who looks for all the world like a little boy presenting three half-starved kittens to his mother while begging her to let him keep them.

Something gives way inside her.

"I fucking love you, Jaime Lannister," she says with a resigned sigh and is rewarded with his eyes lighting up as a grin spreads across his face.

She turns to the new children. "Right. Let's get you settled then."

*/*/*/*/*

"Next time, can you find adults?" she says that night in their bedchamber, her head resting against his chest.

His chuckle rumbles against her ear.

"I'll see what I can do."

*/*/*/*/*

Adults find them instead.

Four of them. Two couples: three men and one woman, and after mutually cautious negotiations, guns at the ready on both sides, they come to an even more cautious agreement. The newcomers settle in the Tower of the Hand, their meagre food supplies are added to what was brought from the forest, and their much-needed bodies are put to work guarding the castle.

*/*/*/*/*

The fire eats its way closer until it finally reaches the outskirts of the ruined city. As building after building begins to smoulder then burn, more and more of those who had clung to survival in the dark houses and basements creep to the Red Keep, begging for safety from the flames. One day, a group of fourteen—on horses—approach the gate.

Jaime and Brienne run to meet them, guns at the ready.

"By the gods," the leader says, a tall man, red-haired and thin, "Jaime fucking Lannister."

Jaime's eyes widen. "Addam? Addam Marbrand?"

The stranger laughs. "What's left of him, aye." His grin is sincere even if his eyes are wary. "How did you end up here?"

"The same way you did: by accident." Jaime looks at the motley crew behind Addam. "Horses?"

Addam nods almost proudly. "Thank the gods for hobby farmers, Jaime. There are a couple herds currently running wild in the Riverlands...if those assholes ever stop killing them long enough."

"Which assholes?" Brienne asks sharply.

Addam gives her an assessing look. "Pick a group. The Mountain's Men; Brotherhood without Banners; Bloody Mummers. They're all doing their best to destroy the Riverlands and everything in it." He cranes his neck to look up at the towering walls of the Red Keep. "They'll eventually come here, when they've run out of sport elsewhere."

"We know," Jaime says, and orders the portcullis to be raised.

*/*/*/*/*

"How are we going to feed everyone?" Brienne says as they pace the wall. It's finally begun to rain, dampening the ashes of the burned out forest, and slowing the spread of fire within the city walls.

Jaime gestures towards the Blackwater Bay and the ocean beyond. "Think we can find some boats?"

*/*/*/*/*

They learn to ride, forcing themselves to continue even though their bodies ache and some days they can barely make it up the stairs of the White Sword Tower to their bed.

Jaime leads Addam and several others back to the settlement to rescue whatever survived in their root cellar and cistern, and Addam tells him they found some cattle roaming freely near what remains of Rosby.

"And who knows what we might find in the Reach," Jaime says to Brienne in the privacy of their bed the night they return from herding a half dozen cattle back to the Red Keep. "We're talking about going on a scouting mission in the spring."

She rolls on her side and looks at him, her eyes luminous in the moonlight shining through the window. "I'll go with you," she says.

Jaime reaches out and gently strokes her cheek. "You're needed here," he says softly. "You're the one holding all of this together."

Even in the dark, Jaime can see she blushes. "No, I'm not. It's you."

"I'm the Kingslayer. People are afraid of me and that makes them obey me—but they trust you."

"Then they need both of us."

He pulls her close and buries his face in her neck. "Please don't ask me to rule," he whispers against her warm skin.

Her arms are strong and sure as she holds him. "You're already ruling, Jaime," she whispers in his ear, "and if you can risk yourself by riding off for gods know how long, into gods know what kind of danger, then I can go with you and make sure you make it back in one piece."

*/*/*/*/*

The sad part, Jaime thinks, is that she's right. As their population continues to slowly grow, he and Brienne are spending more and more of their time adjudicating minor disputes, ordering people around, working with everyone to ensure there's enough food for the winter, and making sure no one within the Red Keep is a danger to anyone else. They've even become diplomats, making contact with the other two settlements on Rhaenys' Hill and the Hill of Visenya before they went on their mission to Rosby.

The survivors who trickle into the Red Keep range from half-starved, desperate people who approach the gate without much hope and who literally no longer care if they live or die to those who have begun to hear rumors there's safety to be found behind the thick, red walls.

Their settlement is made up of almost a hundred people now, although more than half of them are under the age of twenty. With the other two settlements, there are less than three hundred people in a city that once housed a million souls.

Some days, when he thinks about where he is and what he's doing, Jaime honestly doesn't know if he should laugh or cry.

*/*/*/*/*

"You need to call a Great Council," Addam tells him. The air has turned cool and the crisp of winter is in the air.

"You know better than that," Jaime says with a scowl.

"We have eighty-three people here now, Jaime, and they're all looking to you and Brienne for leadership. Right now, they're still willing to follow you, but we need to make it official. We need to declare someone as King before someone else decides to simply take the Throne by force."

Jaime shakes his head. "I'm the Kingslayer, remember? Not a King...but I will support Brienne as Queen." He shakes his head. "Not that she'll like that."

"You're both already doing the job," Addam says. "We just need to make it real."

Jaime scowls. "I'll talk to her."

*/*/*/*/*

The night before the Great Council he takes Brienne to the Throne Room, more for his own moral support than because he really wants her to see it.

They pace the length of the room, their lanterns held high, and they're almost at the foot of the dais when Jaime sees that that ugly fucking chair really is still there. King Rhaegar truly had tried to distance himself from everything to do with his father.

They stop at the foot of the stairs, staring up at that monstrosity. It used to be intimidating, Jaime thinks, and now it's just...nothing more than a waste of good swords.

"I killed him here, you know," he says, and his voice feels dampened by the silence and the dim light and the dust.

"I know," she says.

"The official story is that I killed him in self-defense after he attacked me."

"I know. There were conspiracy theories, saying you were trying to usurp the Throne for yourself. But the real reason you were condemned in the public eye was because you were his Kingsguard. Your job was to die for the King, if need be. Most people thought you should have let him kill you."

Jaime's smile is bittersweet.

"People always had a romanticized view of the Kingsguard, including me. Highly trained men and women in dark suits and sunglasses, willing to take a bullet for the royal family." He stares at the Iron Throne with a twisted smile. "I was very proud, you know. I was the youngest person ever to be accepted into the Kingsguard and it was exciting and sobering to be given such a high honor, to be by the King's side wherever he went. I would have gladly died for him. At first.

"Nobody warned me just how mad King Aerys truly was. Nobody warned me about what he did to his wife, or his enemies, or just how paranoid he was." He turns and deliberate looks into her eyes. "It wasn't self-defense."

Brienne says nothing, just silently watches him.

"He was getting increasingly paranoid. His political enemies were quietly...disappearing. He thankfully never asked me to do anything in that respect, but he didn't trust me. I had been to Essos, you see, and he was increasingly convinced Essos was plotting to attack him. Not Westeros—him. Personally." Jaime shrugs. "He may not have been entirely wrong in that respect, at least. If he had trusted in his Kingsguard, or if the Kingsguard hadn't turned away while he committed his worst offenses or if his useless son had grown a set of balls and taken steps to depose his father before things got so completely out of hand..." He shakes his head. "Doesn't matter now. Aerys decided Essos was plotting against him, and worse: had planted traitors throughout Westeros—but especially in King's Landing itself. He was being attacked…but he had the launch codes for Westeros' nuclear arsenal."

Brienne pulls in a sharp breath.

"Burn them all, he said. I think he believed the mythology of the Targaryen family, believed he would be reborn from the ashes as a true dragon."

"He was going to bomb his own kingdom?"

Jaime's lips twist into a bitter smile. "I tried to arrest him. It didn't go well."

"So, in a way it was self-defense."

He huffs something that might have been a laugh. "Don't try to excuse it," he says, shaking his head. "He didn't attack me. I shot him quite...deliberately. It was...easier."

He turns and looks at her.

"You deserve a better man to love you, Brienne."

Brienne looks at him and in the dim blow of their lanterns, her eyes are large and luminous, calm, and almost as beautiful as she is. Her lips quirk into a slight smile before she leans in and gently kisses him.

"You're a good man, Jaime Lannister, and you're the only man I want to love me," she whispers, then moves into his arms and kisses him again.

*/*/*/*/*

To absolutely no one's surprise—except perhaps their own—the Great Council officially names Jaime and Brienne the King and Queen of the Red Keep. They reluctantly accept the honor, then they have a small feast, officially name their Small Council, and life immediately returns to their new normal.

Jaime snickers as he eagerly helps Brienne out of her clothes that night.

"What's so funny?" she asks.

"I was hoping to be known as the Queen's Consort rather than King," Jaime says.

She frowns. "Why?"

Jaime's grin is wicked as he presses her down onto the bed. "Because being a Consort sounds really sexy," he says and kisses her.

*/*/*/*/*