Alys

She's grateful that they are at least not meeting in the throne room.

The council chambers are an unfamiliar sight to her, and thus a far more welcome one than the long room leading to the throne of swords where the mad king had sat and decreed his warrior of fire against her father and Brandon.

Alys follows Ned through the keep to it, and glances around the space taking in the stained glass windows and a long wooden table with enough chairs lining it to fit the positions of the small council. With the head of it holding the largest chair.

Robert Baratheon sits there now, and as she and Ned walk towards the table she feels his gaze upon her clearly.

She wonders what he sees looking at her… The girl who stole away with Elia Martell and the two heirs of Rhaegar? Or Lyanna, for despite their differences in features Alys is well away of the fact that she and Lyanna are twins, and shared many more features than they differed.

From the grief that passes over his light blue eyes Alys feels that it's more of the latter. Though she also notes the tight balling of his fists against the arms of the chair.

"Lady Alys," Jon Arryn greets her first, and she bows as is proper to them both.

The King and his Hand. She hopes, because there is nothing else to do, that they will both fill the roles better than their predecessors.

"Your grace," she greets before looking to Robert, "Lord Arryn."

"I've spoken with Doran Martell already, as well as Elia Martell." He speaks clearly, and with all the hardness and seniority that the Hand should have. "We would like to confirm the story of your actions with you now, as well as hear your reasoning."

Alys nods, sparing a glance to Ned who gives her an encouraging look that troubles her a small amount. He trusts her word, and that is her greatest strength here for he has no reason to believe that she'd lie about any of this.

Strange, she feels, considering he should know that she is capable of it as she is with Jon.

But, she knows, it's the fact he doesn't believe she'd ever lie to him.

She swallows her guilt and goes through her story. She'd spent plenty of time going over it with Elia. It's all a mixture of truth and lies.

She went for them the night of the seige out of fear for their safety when she saw men climbing the Holdfast, truth. She hid them in her room for the days after with the help of Howland, truth. She and Howland smuggled them out on a ship during the storm and then traveled southward, truth.

Alys had found out she was pregnant a few months before this and told no one but Elia who helped her hide it, lie. She felt fearful of Ned's reaction of her pregnancy adding to her want to leave Kings Landing, lie. Aegon caught a fever somewhere after they passed through the Boneway, lie. He passed before they even arrived at Sunspear, lie. Alys became bedridden from the travels and her pregnancy, lie. She gave birth in Sunspear with the help of the Martells, lie. Ned arrived after she'd given birth with news of Lyanna's death, lie.

It feels overwhelmingly like the lies outweigh the truth.

But Robert sits and listens, and Jon Arryn nods along and asks questions where he feels the need.

And Alys lies.

It feels strange how easy it all is. It had never been in her nature to go for lies over the truth.

But now she was depending on them. For Jon, for Aegon, for Elia.

"It's treason regardless of the reason." Robert huffs and she holds tightly to her sleeves, her eyes darting to look to Ned who frowns.

"A woman's mercy," Jon states, looking to Robert with cool collection to his eyes. "A mother's mercy. Should we punish all those who show compassion?"

"We'd be no better than the mad king then," Ned states, his own voice hard in his defense of Alys.

"Elia is one of my dearest friends, and has been here for me during my time in the Mad Kings court," Alys speaks up, wringing her hands before setting her shoulders and looking to Robert directly. "I meant these actions in no way but out of fear for my friend and her children. One of which she's already lost to death. Rhaenys is young, and only a girl. I ask, your grace, that you look to her with kindness. She has done you no harm, and if given the right opportunity she will continue to do no harm."

"Until she's a woman grown and looking for her families restoration," Robert growls out. "For revenge against the man who slew her father and took the throne of her house."

"She's a Martell as well, and if raised in the right environment she could hold no love for a house that shamed it's own name when it burned people alive for sport." Alys keeps her voice steady and is sure to keep Robert's gaze.

This was not something she needed to do, to vouch for Rhaenys. Her role was simply that of assurance that there were no lies about Aegon. Doran and Elia were bartering for Rhaenys themselves.

But Alys wanted that girl safe, and to do that she needed to assure Robert that she'd be no threat.

Robert, for his part, keeps her eyes with his own. His jaw is tight but the grief is still there in his eyes as she speaks and she wonders if she's reminding him further of Lyanna with her boldness.

"Perhaps." Is all he says before he slumps back into his chair and frowns down at the table rather than keep her gaze. "Or perhaps she'll do the opposite." He says it low enough that Alys thinks it's for himself rather than the others in the room.

After a few moments of silence more Robert sighs, "that'll be for Jon and I to discuss with the Martells in the end." He sounds put out on it, and Alys wonders if he'd not realized how ruling would be without a war being raged. "As far as you, well as Jon says, can't fault a woman, a mother, her compassion." He waves a hand in dismissal before looking up to her, "I'll only ask that you don't smuggle any other Targaryens off. Gods know I've got enough to deal with the ones on Dragonstone."

A chill in her bones she can do little else but nod before bowing. "Thank you, your grace." She says before turning and leaving the chambers.

Ned stays behind and she walks alone entirely ready to spend the rest of the day alone in her room with Jon.

She spends the next several days either in her room with Jon or in Elia's room with her and Rhaenys. The little princess seeming torn between being happy to be back to the familiarity of the keep and upset at the restrictions of her confinement. Doran is not risking them leaving the Vault yet, where they are watched carefully and trusted guards of House Martell always nearby.

Alys herself is more than comfortable keeping to the secluded part of the keep. More for Jon's sake than her own, as she worries over the rumors already starting to swirl about him.

She knows though, that keeping him inside won't actually do anything to still rumors. The best for that will be when they return north, he'll be forgotten in favor of more present affairs. Oberyn is also aware that hiding away in the keep will do nothing for rumors, and thus it's him that convinces her to not do so.

"They'll be talking of it anyway," he shrugs as they walk to the gardens, a cyvasse board under his arm. "If you hide away you make it seem something to be ashamed of."

"For many it would be," Alys points out.

Oberyn glances over and down at Jon in her arms, "life is nothing to be ashamed of. Certainly not the life of a child."

She can't help but smile at that, "I agree." She bounces Jon a second, watching him smile at the flowers as they pass by. "I don't know that I'd ever be ashamed of Jon."

"Good," Oberyn nods, motioning to a small bench for them to sit upon. "The last thing a boy needs is a mother ashamed of him."

She smiles further and sits, holding Jon well enough so he can look out towards the Blackwater. Eventually the cyvasse board is set and Alys turns Jon carefully in her grasp, rocking him lightly as she reaches and moves her first piece.

Slowly they settle into an easy afternoon, and Alys finds that she has perhaps just a bit missed the outside of her room.

And, it's certainly the easiest of the things she misses to fix.

Jaime

Alys, it seemed, was avoiding him. Or at least, was suddenly very busy as to not be anywhere that Jaime looked for her.

Though, in fairness, he hadn't looked for her in her rooms. It was more simply that he never found her where he would have expected had it been a few months prior.

Even, it seems, the Godswood in the evenings like she'd developed a routine for.

That or he just continually missed her.

That was somehow harder to believe than the idea that she was avoiding him.

Perhaps, he'll acquiesce, that he should have questioned her on her 'son' a bit more carefully. It certainly was a clear point of tension for her, one she didn't wish poked at.

But in his defense he only wishes the truth.

One he figures he knows well enough now. That perhaps the good Lord Stark was not so honorable as he seemed, and Alys was saving him face.

It soured Jaime to think of it. That for one Ned Stark would look down his nose at him when he had his own stains of dishonor upon his cloak. But also that he would drag Alys into his mistakes, would allow her to hold his dishonor as her own.

Jaime busied his days without Alys, once again despite her being near, with sparring against his father's men. Hours out in the yard hitting sword for sword and more oft than not knocking Lannister guard after guard to the dirt.

At least they could not refuse.

It certainly made things better, if only momentarily.

Until, of course, he walked through the Godswood or Garden and didn't see Alys anywhere leading to him eating his dinner with little appetite.

He feared even his father had noticed his soured mood.

A mood soured even further, to his own surprise, when he does start seeing Alys about the keep once again. In the gardens particularly.

But, to his disappointment and a bit of annoyance, she was never alone.

The obvious attachment of her apparent bastard was there. But as was the somehow more annoying accompaniment of Oberyn Martell.

More than once in the last week since he started seeing Alys about the keep once more he saw the pair of them walking together. Apparently in deep conversation and with Alys holding a soft smile to her face that simultaneously seems to twist Jaime's stomach in annoyance and enjoyment at seeing her happy.

Then of course, his time got only worse with his father delivering news that Jaime perhaps should have expected.

The new King Robert had accepted the betrothal to Cersei.

A part of him was happy, that Cersei and Tyrion were traveling to Kings Landing now and would likely be here within a fortnight.

But another part of him soured in the same way that he soured when he spotted Oberyn Martell.

And it seemed, there was little he could do about either.

He certainly didn't wish to speak with Alys while Oberyn was there, and he'd yet to find her on her own. He would have to find a moment where the two were parted, or hope that Alys missed him near as much and would seek him out in return.

And Cersei… well she'd always wished to be queen. He'll just be happy to see her once again, as it's been near three years now since he last saw her.

He wonders, faintly, if that has changed anything.

A part of him, perhaps a larger part than he'd ever admit, felt vastly different now than he had three years ago in that bed with her whispering plans of herself as queen and him always nearby as her kingsguard.

Eddard

Between the matters of building up a new reign and spending time with Alys and Jon, Ned finds himself with little time for anything else.

Robert, or Jon Arryn, both call upon him for varying matters. The small council seats, which Robert still asks him to sit upon despite Ned's insistence on returning home when it's all settled, have nearly all been filled. With the only two seats empty being the Master of Whispers, Jon and Ned both reluctant to return Lord Varys to his role despite his assurances that he serves the realm, and the seat of the Lord Commander of the Kingsguard.

It seems Jon is relenting on Lord Varys, willing to let the man return to his role that he is unarguably the best suited for.

And Ser Barristan, now recovered from his injuries on the Trident, has sworn his own fealty to Robert and offered his sword to stay on as one of Roberts Kingsguard. He'd said it was a life vow, one he wasn't going to break.

That left the issue of Jaime Lannister, an issue still frequently argued between the three of them.

Robert seemed to see no problem in either way, both willing to release him and willing to keep him. He almost seemed to think it funny, both keeping a man he'd named Kingslayer as a guard and as a way to pull one over Tywin who he'd been forced to acquiesce a betrothal to.

Jon, for his part, was simply urging caution in regards to releasing Jaime. And while Ned understood that that would set a precedent not easily revoked, he also did not trust Jaime Lannister in the slightest.

It was of some relief that he hadn't seen him around Alys the last few weeks.

Ned was tired near the end of most days. He ate his dinner with Alys, and visited with Jon after. And when he returned to his own rooms he often returned to letters of his own. Benjen writing of Winterfell, and writing with questions of their return. And letters from Catelyn, and the new Maester of Winterfell who'd stopped over in Riverrun at his insistence upon learning that Catelyn was pregnant a few months back.

He sits now, in his own room ready for bed and wondering that she must be near to giving birth. He finds that he misses her, a thing that comes up most often when all other matters are elsewhere and he's left to his own thoughts.

There is still the guilt mingled with his feelings towards his wife. Guilt that it was him and not Brandon expecting a child soon. Guilt that he did care for her, that he was the one who was building a future with her.

Alys has told him herself that he should not feel guilty, or at least that Brandon would not wish him to.

And she's right, Ned supposes.

Ned now, stronger than the guilt at least, mostly just misses his wife.

It was strange, he'd only known her a fortnight. They'd been strangers wed the very day they met. And yet since he left her bed he's missed her presence beside him.

And now, with the knowledge that she would be having his child soon, he missed her even more so. He wanted to be there, to greet his son or daughter as soon as he could upon their birth.

He feels that wish even stronger when he holds Jon.

Retiring to bed he can only hope that these next few months move quickly, the proper coronation, the wedding and the final tasks that need to be done to set Robert up as King. All so he can return to Winterfell, so he can continue to learn his wife, and so he can meet his first child.

Thank you for reading!

Thank you all as always for any reviews you leave! I know this is like very strong slow-burn with Jaime and Alys but rest assured we're getting there, I promise all the yearning will be worth it.

Also, though there's still a good chunk left to this fic, I feel like mentioning that I do plan to write through the GoT era storyline! My plan is to separate it into it's own fic, and I'll obviously talk more on that when we get closer, but still felt like it'd be good to let any of you who were curious know that I do have a plan for that!