JON
Everything was dark around him, and he felt like he was floating in a warm, bottomless lake. He didn't know how long he had been lying there when he heard the most beautiful voice that had ever reached his ears. It was soft and gentle and reminded him of a summer breeze. Jon could spend the rest of his life listening to this voice.
"Jon wake up." He was awake, why was the beautiful voice trying to get him to wake up when he was awake.
"Jon, please I just want you to wake up." The voice was begging him now, the voice was very close to him and whispering to him.
By now the darkness was giving away to the uncomfortable light and he was starting to feel pain everywhere in his body. Why in the gods name was he in pain? The more the voice begged him to wake up, the more pain he was in.
He was starting to realize that he was indeed waking up, as the lovely voice was begging him to do. Now he didn't feel like he was floating in warm water. No, now he felt like all his limbs were made of lead and he felt like he could barely move them.
He could hear the voice even better now, he had heard it before, he was sure of that. But it was still as beautiful as before. The person who the voice belonged to had to be holding his hand, the voice was so close that it had to be the person who the voice belonged to the one holding his hand.
The hand was small and warm, he tightened his hold on the little hand and gave a low grunt.
"Jon." The surprise in the voice was palpable. "Jon are you awake?"
He did his best to open his eyes, but it was slow work. As he opened his eyes, light stung his eyes and the pain was so great that he thought that his body was on fire.
"Maester Luwin!" the voice shouted. There was a lot of noise as he felt another person came to his other side. They were talking about something that he didn't get.
He tried to open his eyes again and this time it was a little easier, but only just. As he opened his eyes, he saw red.
It took him a little while to realize that the red being that was holding his hand and the owner of the lovely voice, was Sansa.
"Hi." His voice was raspy, and he barely recognized it. Sansa was very close to his face and clutching his hand to her chest and there were tears in her eyes, but not of sorrow, but happiness.
"Jon, you scared me half to death." Sansa was smiling down at him and her eyes were filled with tears. "Never, ever do this to me again, I thought that I was going to lose you."
"Jon." He looked at the maester, he seemed a little worried. "How are you feeling?"
"Horrible." Was the only thing that he could groan out, his throat was dry, and he hoped for a mug of water. "Water." He begged; he really needed some water for his throat.
Sansa reached for a jug that was on a table nearby and poured water in a mug. She walked back to Jon and put her hand under the back of his head and helped him drink. The water was warm, but it was better than nothing.
Jon laid back on his bed after the mug of water, even drinking water was hard. It was so hard that in fact he was starting to feel sleepy again, he tried to mumble something to Sansa and the maester, but sleep overtook him again.
The next time he woke up, it was a little easier for him to wake up. The morning light was streaming through the window and he noticed that someone was sleeping with their head next to him.
The long red hair was a dead giveaway, it was Sansa that was sleeping with her head on her arms and she had her upper half on his bed. "Sansa." He rasped out. His voice was a little better than it had been before.
Sansa woke up slowly, she looked at him and tried to blink the sleepiness out of her eyes. She looked so adorable when she was sleepy. But when she realized that he was awake, a smile spread over her face.
"How are you feeling." She asked him, Jon could hear the concern in her voice. It really warmed his heart to hear that she cared so much. He could see that her clothes were sticking to her body, as she was sweating from the heat in the room and her lovely red hair was sticking to her face.
"Like someone tried to kill me." His voice didn't rise above whisper. Sansa smile turned to a frown.
"Don't joke about that, you have been in and out of consciousness for the last two days." That was strange, Jon could only remember waking up once. "You have been talking in your sleep about the Others and the burning of King´s Landing."
Jon could feel his stomach drop, but then he realized that everything that he had said could be written off as the rambling of fever dreams and the result of the milk of the poppy.
"Are we alone?" he asked her, he wanted to speak with her without having someone overhear them.
"Yes, maester Luwin went to speak to father just a few minutes ago, and he left me in charge while he is gone." The answer was accompanied by an impish grin.
"So, I am at the mercy of the Queen in the north?" He couldn't help the quip that slipped out. Jon noticed that her face seemed to redden a little, and she bit her lip. Had he said something wrong?
But that thought fled his mind as she gave him a small smile. "Yes, and now you have to do whatever I want." The tone of voice that Sansa used made Jon blush a little, but he did his best to ignore it.
He decided to quickly change the subject. "Has something happen when I was out?"
Sansa nodded. "Yes, father has asked all the lords of the north to come to Winterfell, he wants to start the rebuilding the castles on the wall, and he wants the lord's inputs on how to fund the project. He has also sent a letter to lord Bolton that he is to come to Winterfell to answer for the crimes of his son." The name of the bastard son of Roose Bolton was enough to make Jon want to punch something, but in his current state, Jon couldn't hurt a kitten.
When he had realized that it was the Bolton bastard attacking them, all thought had gone from Jon´s mind, the only thing that he could think about was to keep Sansa safe from the monster. Jon had sworn to her that he would protect her, and he had failed her so many times, but not this time.
Ramsay would never again get his hands-on Sansa again as long as Jon drew breath. For the first time in his life, Jon had been a little afraid of himself. He had rushed without any thought into battle, and for a moment he had forgotten that he still had the body of a ten-year old.
But the battle madness had more than made up for his small body, and the fact that Jon was a skilled swordsman and his opponents were both not very skilled when it came to a battle against armed opponents. It had been very clear to Jon that the men that Ramsay had with him, had never had any lessons on how to handle weaponry.
"That´s good. We need to get the castles up and running as soon as possible." Jon tried to sit up, the pain was unbearable, but he tried anyway. But Sansa wasn't having any of it.
"Jon, what on earth do you think you are doing? You are hurt and you can't be sitting up so soon." She put her tiny hands on his chest and forced him to be still. As soon as her hands were on his chest, his heart started to beat so fast that it was like it was trying to break out of his chest.
"You have to be still Jon, you are still healing and the more you move now, the more risk it is of you ripping the stiches open." Sansa was frowning at him as she scolded him. Jon sighed and nodded.
Silence filled the room for a while before Sansa spoke again. "Your children are fine by the way." Jon had to stifle a groan at that, he doubted that she would stop referring to the dragons as his children anytime soon. Over the course of the last half a year, Sansa had jokingly referred to the dragons as Jon´s children when they were alone, she had heard from the introduction of Daenerys when she arrived in Winterfell in their last life, that she styled herself as the mother of dragons and now Sansa seemed to enjoy teasing him and calling the dragons his children.
She was smiling at Jon again and there was a twinkle in her eyes.
"I know they are fine." Jon replied softly, he knew that they were just fine, hiding in their cave and sleeping the day away, so that they would have the strength to hunt when night would fall.
Jon was glad that he had managed to keep them away from the battle, he didn't want anyone to know that he had dragons the size of garrons in the wolfswood. It wasn't time to reveal the dragons to the world just yet, they had to grow bigger, and the north had to become stronger before Jon would let it be known that he was the son of Rhaegar Targaryen.
It also wouldn't be good, if some guards knew about them. The more people that knew about the dragons, the more risk there was of people finding out. And even if the dragons had arrived after the guard had taken Sansa and Robb away, maybe one of the bastards' men could have runaway and told someone about them. And how would Jon even begin to explain where the fire had come from without mentioning dragons?
Sansa opened her mouth to say something, but she was interrupted.
"JON YOU ARE AWAKE." They both looked at the door and saw that Arya was running towards them, and by the looks of it, intended to tackle Jon. But Sansa saved him from the excruciating pain of being tackled by a five-year old, Jon didn't think he could take being attacked by Arya, when he was as injured as he was.
"Arya, you have to be careful, Jon is hurting right now, and we have to treat him like he is made of glass." The last bit was said with a devious look in her eyes. Jon stared at her in bewilderment for a moment and then he intended to respond but again there was an interruption.
"Arya, don't tackle Jon-." The voice of Robb Stark cut itself of as he entered the room. "Oh, Sansa you stopped her, that's good, I thought that she was going to try to shake Jon awake." Wait, what? Arya was going to shake him awake?
Why were the women in his life trying to kill him?
SANSA
Arya ignored their brother and bounced off to where Jon was lying on his sickbed and started to pepper him with questions. Robb, now having noticed that Jon was awake, was walking over to Jon, but Sansa decided to stop him.
"Robb, can you do me a favor?" Her older brother looked at her with surprise, he glanced at Jon, where he lay in his sickbed and sighed.
"Sure, of course." The defeat in his voice was apparent, he must have been looking forward to seeing Jon.
"I need you to stay here and watch over Jon, he cannot move or sit up, maester Luwin´s orders." Robb´s face lit up with happiness that she wasn't asking him to leave the room and he could talk to Jon. "And don't let Arya start crawling all over him, his stiches could open and that would be very painful for him and we would need to close them again."
Robb frowned at that last bit; they both knew that it would be hard to keep Arya from what she wanted to do.
But non the less, her older brother nodded his consent. "And don't let him do anything for himself." and with that Sansa left the room as she heard Jon protest her last words.
She had been wanting to speak to her father, as they had both been busy for the last two days, she had been working with maester Luwin and helping him with taking care of Jon, and her father had been busy with the preparations with the impending arrival of the lords.
All the servants of Winterfell were making sure that everything was in order for when the lords would arrive in two weeks, and seeing them rushing about, brought back memories of when they had been expecting Robert Baratheon´s arrival in Winterfell, just before everything went to the seven hells.
As Sansa walked through the busy corridors, she could hear her mother ordering the servants about.
Sansa quickened her pace so that her mother wouldn't try to recruit her for the preparations, Sansa really needed to talk to her father and get back to Jon as soon as possible.
She arrived at the solar, but when she intended to knock on the door, it was opened. The doorway was filled with the color grey.
"Sansa, I thought you were with Jon." The maester of Winterfell said in a startled voice and his brushy eyebrows were raised high on his forehead. Sansa had been the person that had spent the most time helping the maester looking after Jon while he was recovering, and it must have been a shock to see her leave the sickroom willingly.
"Yes, I was but I really have to talk to father, and to inform you that Jon is awake, and I left Robb in charge of Jon while I am here."
That caused the old man to smile. "That should make Robb happy, he does so love to be in charge." Truer words had never been spoken, Sansa thought to herself.
The maester left, presumably to see to his patient and Sansa entered the solar of the lord of Winterfell. She noticed that her father´s desk was filled with letters, and her father was looking were tired.
"Have you been here all night?" Sansa asked her father. Ned Stark nodded his head and sighed. Her father had been working so hard these past months, while Sansa, Jon and Robb were coming up with plans, it fell on her father´s shoulders to make them a reality. He was also making sure that the guards were being increased and he had also been supervising the troop recruitment.
They had decided to use the Wildling threat to disguise the real reason for the increasing need for soldiers.
"How is Jon keeping up?" Her father seemed glad for the distraction she was providing.
"Better than we dared hope, I am just glad that he will recover." She said as she sat down in front of the desk. She asked him the question that had been burning on her mind for the last two days. "Has the Bolton bastard said anything?"
They really wanted him to talk, anything he said now could be played to their advantage when Roose Bolton arrived. Sansa had been hoping that he had said something to incriminate his father, she knew that there was no love lost between Roose Bolton and his bastard.
Her father shook his head. "No, he hasn't said anything of importance that would incriminate his father yet, but hopefully he will."
Sansa hadn't really been expecting it, but they had enough to search the Dreadfort to see if the Bolton bastard had any accomplices there or if he was hiding any victims in the castle.
"Father, there is another thing I would like to talk to you about." Her father frowned a little, but he was listening with rapt attention. "I think that you should increase the amount of guard around Ramsay Snow, and they shouldn't let anyone past them, if they are not with you."
Her father straightened in his chair. "I have the usual amount of guards around him, you think that it isn't enough?"
Sansa shook her head. "I think that Roose Bolton may try to silence his son permanently, or maybe some of Ramsay´s men may try to break him out."
"You think that Roose may try to kill his own son?" Sansa could see that the act of killing one's own kin, seemed unthinkable to Ned Stark, but to Roose Bolton it would be a trifle.
"If it would keep you from searching the Dreadfort, I have no doubt that lord Bolton would kill his bastard a hundred times." Sansa´s response seemed to leave the Lord of Winterfell stunned.
But after a moment he nodded. "Alright, I will talk to Ser Rodrick and ask him to double the guard."
That made Sansa feel a lot better. "Thank you, father, but you should make sure that it is only guards that have been here for a long time and ones that you trust with our life. I don't think that it would be a good idea to have any of the new recruits guarding the prisoners, they are more easily bribed or infiltrated."
The warden of the north nodded. "Aye, I agree with you there, sweetling."
Sansa smiled at her father, she was very glad that he was listening to her, when she was trying to help him, that meant a lot to her, there were so many fathers that just ignored their daughters when they spoke and didn't care what they thought, and the fact that her father cared to hear what she had to say meant the world to her.
"Father, have you thought about what the northern lords may say when you present them with the letter from Robert Baratheon?" Sansa had been pondering over what they might say when they found out that the man that claimed to be their king, refused to help them pay for the restoration of the Wall.
"There are a few things that I think that they might say, but what worries me is the fact that they may demand to stop paying taxes to the crown." That had occurred to Sansa as well, it was reasonable for the lords of the north to refuse to pay the taxes, when the king didn't help them to prevent war with the wildlings.
Sansa knew that they would have to make peace with the freefolk sooner rather than later, they needed their numbers to defeat the army of the Dead when it came marching on the wall, and the fewer wildling among the dead, was better for them.
But her father wasn't finished. "If the lords of the north stop paying taxes, what is to stop Robert from demanding that the Riverlands and the Vale stop doing business with us until we pay, or threating the free cities that he will stop doing business with them if they trade with us."
Sansa nodded, that had occurred to her. "I agree with that he might entertain those ideas, but I think that the threat of the lords of the north just letting the Wildlings past the wall and into the south may trouble the Riverlords and the lords of the Vale more than the thought of angering Robert."
Her father frowned at that, he didn't seem comfortable with threating to let the wildings loose on the south, as was understandable, Sansa didn't like the thought either.
So, she continued. "But I don't think that we must threaten him with that, the Riverlands and the Vale are more bound to you than Robert. It was your marriage that bound the Riverlands to you and Jon Arryn´s marriage that bound the Riverlands to the Vale. That was the alliance that broke the Targaryen dynasty, not Robert Baratheon." She fell silent to let that thought sink in, then she continued.
"As for the free cities, Robert would be hard pressed to tell them what to do. I know that there is a shortage of timber in Essos and the north has that in abundance and fur is a luxury item in a lot of the free cities, especially in Pentos and Braavos, they will want to trade with us more than they want the trade with Robert Baratheon, not only that but Robert Baratheon owes a considerable amount of money to the iron bank and some of the free cities, so he is not really in a position to demand anything of them."
Her father was looking at her with a proud smile on his face. "You have clearly been thinking about this."
Sansa smiled at him; she may be a grown woman in a child´s body but she did love making her father proud of her. "I also think that you should invite Jon Arryn to Winterfell."
This caused her father to rise his eyebrows to his hairline. "Whatever for?"
"Jon Arryn is hand of the King and is the second most powerful man in the kingdoms, and as this matter affects both the north and the crown, a representative should be made available to the lords of the North to listen to their complaints. And who better than the man that raised you and Robert to mediate this dispute?" Sansa had to admit, that was not the only reason she wanted the man to come to Winterfell, she had never met the man in person and she really wanted to get the measure of him before they would have to move to take back Jon´s birth right.
She wanted to know what the man thought of Robert as a king and if he would side with house Stark when it came time to choose between Jon of house Targaryen or Robert of house Baratheon. If they managed to keep him alive this time.
"Alright." Her father spoke. "I will send Jon a letter with all haste and invite him to Winterfell, but he will not make the two week deadline for the first meetings, but if he agrees to come north and takes a ship to White Harbor, he could make it to Winterfell in a months' time if the winds are kind."
Sansa nodded, it would be good to have two weeks for the lords of the north to talk to her father before Jon Arryn would arrive. "Alright, I am going back to Jon and see if he is still amongst the living, after all I left him with Arya and Robb."
As she left the solar, she could hear her father chuckle at the thought of Jon being hugged to death by Ned´s younger daughter.
JON ARRYN
He was fuming as he left the room that he had made his wife stay in. Lysa had confirmed everything he had suspected about her.
She had indeed been having an affair with Littlefinger for years now, and Robert was indeed Petyr´s son and not Jon´s. She had apparently been planning to pass him off as Jon´s offspring and let Jon think that his legacy was secure, while Lysa and Littlefinger were laughing behind his back at their deceit, and how they had played the hand of the king, the Warden of the east and the lord of the Vale.
This could not stand, he had to do something about this, they would not get away with this. Littlefinger was still in the dungeons and his cheating wife was going to be in her apartments until Jon decided what to do with her.
On one hand it would be entirely reasonable to divorce her and take another wife, but he was reluctant to break the alliance to the Riverlands, sure there was no war at this time, but how could Jon be sure that the unstable peace after the Greyjoy rebellion had been crushed, wouldn't be broken.
The thrice damned Lannisters were always trying to spread their influence, and Robert was just letting them invade his court. It seemed that every time that a position at court opened, Cersei Lannister managed to talk the king into letting a Lannister fill it. Jon wasn't sure how she did it, since Robert despised his wife.
But Jon had other problems to deal with now, because by now the entre court knew what had happened, and Jon could feel the gazes on him as he passed, he knew that they were laughing at him behind his back, he could hear the sniggers when he walked by the noble men and women that had made the court of Robert Baratheon, their playing ground in the game of thrones.
Jon stopped at the royal apartments, he had a meeting with the king, the first one they had together since Jon had found his wife with the whoremonger. The king had been busy entertaining some whore or five in the meantime, after all it had been almost two days since Jon had found Lysa and Baelish together.
"Your grace." Jon greeted as he entered the room. Robert was already halfway to being drunk and there where dark wine stains on his expensive tunic that was decorated in the crowned stag of Baratheon.
Robert Baratheon had been the very image of every woman´s idea of a gallant knight, but Robert seemed to be trying his best to move as far away from that image as he could, if by his drinking, whoring and eating were anything to judge by.
Robert had gained a lot of weight after he had come home from the Greyjoy rebellion that had taken place four years ago. Jon knew that if the king kept this up, he would be unrecognizable in few years.
"Jon." The king of the seven kingdoms bellowed, as he waved the goblet around his head, spilling the contents over the brim of the cup. "Great, you are here, pour yourself a cup, you look like you need it."
Jon snorted, he had never been much of a drinker, but right now he didn't mind one cup of wine. As Jon poured himself a cup of wine, Robert continued. "So, tell me what happened? Why is my hand throwing my master of coins in a cell?"
If Jon hadn't been so used to Robert and his ways, he would have been very irritated by him. Jon knew that it was the talk of the court that Jon had Littlefinger arrested for sleeping with his wife. Surely Robert must have heard of it by now.
"Surely you know Robert, you must have heard that Baelish was fucking Lysa and I walked in on them, and now I know that Robert isn't even my son but his." Robert swore loudly when he heard.
Robert´s ruff, loud voice filled the room. "I had thought that it was just rumors." He was silent for a while. "I am sorry Jon; I know how much you needed a son to inherit the Vale."
"Thank you, Robert, I appreciate that."
Robert turned thoughtful; it was a look that was very out of place on the man´s large face. "You know, you could always just name someone that you like to become your heir, many lords have done so over the centuries." Jon chuckled at Robert, sure Jon could do that, but it would have to be someone that the lords of the Vale respected.
Jon knew that Harry Hardyng was his next living blood relative, but Jon didn't like the boy when he had met him. Lady Waynwood had come to the capitol a year ago, and she had taken her ward, Harry with her.
The boy reminded Jon too much of King Robert to want him for an heir, but as Jon had thought that he had a son and that his line was secure, he hadn't put much thought into the matter.
Now Jon was being saddled with Harry Hardyng as an heir, but Robert was right, Jon could just name someone as his heir and marry that someone to one of the lesser Arryns, so that the Arryn blood would continue on in the ruling house.
It was something he could think on, but maybe there was still time to have another son. He was brought out of his thoughts by Robert´s loud voice. "What about the boy, my namesake? What will happen to him?"
Jon sighed, he didn't wish the boy ill, no he had thought that he was his son for so long that it was hard to think of him as anything else.
"I think I will send him to his grandfather, Hoster wouldn't blame him for his mothers' crimes." Jon stared into the cup that was still filled with Arbor Gold for a moment, then he drank deeply from the cup. Robert had been right; he had needed a drink.
"That is a good idea, the boy can stay in the Riverlands with his grandfather and maybe assist that bumbling idiot Edmure when he becomes the lord of Riverrun, the gods save us." Robert laughed at his joke.
Jon couldn't help but to grin, yes, a bumbling idiot was the correct way to describe Edmure Tully, even though Jon would never say it out loud, he respected Hoster too much to say anything ill about his only son and heir, even if it was the truth.
Then there was a knock on the door, Robert shouted at the person to come in. Jon watched Ser Mandon Moore walk in. Jon had never liked Ser Mandon, he had always reminded Jon of a walking corpse for some reason and the white armor and cloak of the king's guard made him look like he was wrapped in a funeral shroud.
"Your grace, Lord hand, there has been an incident." Jon could feel his stomach drop and cold shiver ran down his spine. What could have happened now? Hadn't there been enough trouble for this month?
"Well, spit it out, you dumb fuck." The king of the seven kingdoms bellowed out, as he waved his golden goblet around his head, demanding it to be filled again.
"Lord Baelish has escaped the dungeons and is nowhere to be found."
