Read. Enjoy. Review. (The reading and enjoying are for you ... the reviews are for me!)
I own Lenora Baratheon, no one more.

Lenora

There would be no feast that night. Or any night soon, even though the royal party would be staying at Winterfell for a few days longer then they planned. Lenora had been praying in the sept for Bran when she heard the trumpets, the hunting party was almost returned to the castle. She quickly stood up and gathering her skirts she ran out of the sept and toward the Hunter's Gate so that she could meet the party. They weren't there yet, she opened the gate and ran into the Wolf's wood intent on meeting them. She ran for almost a mile before she caught sight of them.

Ned Stark and her father were at the front of the party. Just behind them rode her uncle Tyrion, Robb, Theon, and Joffrey. When Robb caught sight of her he laughed and nudged the sides of his horse, encouraging the animal into a gallop so that he could meet her. He stopped the horse just short of her and grinned down at her, not noticing her distress yet. "Once you and I are Lord and Lady of Winterfell I won't allow you to go on hunts either," he told her. "But I will require you to run out here and meet me at the end of every hunt so that I can pretend that you missed me."

Lenora could not even manage a tight smile at his joke. That was when he realized that something was wrong. "Nora, what happened?" he asked, moving to hop down from the saddle of his horse.

Lenora stopped his action with a shake of her head. Ned and her father had caught up now. "My Lord," she gasped, looking at Ned. "It's Bran. He's not well. No one saw, so no one can be sure. But he must have fallen from the tower. Maester Luwin is with him now, but it does not look good." She paused for a moment, her grey gaze flitting between Ned and Robb, "I'm so sorry," she told them both, her voice catching slightly.

Ned turned to look at her father and Robert nodded, "Go Ned," he told his friend. And then even though he had given his friend permission to leave his presence Robert forced his own horse into a gallop and the two men rushed toward the castle.

Lenora watched after them for a moment before she turned to look at Robb again. He had his hand extended to her. She had no idea what he meant to do, but she trusted him. She placed her hand in his and with one giant yank he had pulled her off the ground and onto the horse. She was seated sideways in front of him, halfway in his lap, halfway in the saddle. "Is this alright?" he asked her, his breath tickling the outside of her ear.

She nodded, and before she could say anything Robb had started to gallop toward the castle after their fathers. She could tell that he was worried about his younger brother, she was touched that he had taken the time to help her onto his horse though, despite his worry. She would have understood if he had left her to one of the other men on the hunt, her brother had been there after all. Joffrey would have been well-suited enough to see her back to the castle. But he had done it himself. It was kind of him. Kinder than she had expected from a hard, northern man.

Once they made it to the yard in front of the stables Robb climbed off the horse and held out his hand to her, carefully helping her down as well. Once she had her two feet planted on the ground she expected him to leave her there and run for his brother. He did run toward the Great Keep, but he kept a hold of her hand, pulling her along with him. It was only once they were standing outside of Bran's chamber that he dropped her hand and turned to look at her. "You don't have to," he told her.

Lenora raised her eyebrows at him, wondering what he meant by that. She didn't have to what? She was about to ask when she saw his eyes quickly dart toward the chamber door. He meant that she did not have to go in with him if she did not want to. She nodded, "I will though," she told him, moving a step closer to him so that she could reach out her hand for his and give it a gentle squeeze. Robb smiled down at her for a brief moment before he turned toward the door, steeling himself for what waited on the other side.

Lady Stark and Bran were the only ones in the bedchamber. Ned and her father had already been through. They had left with Maester Luwin to discuss the plans for Bran's care. Lenora let go of Robb's hand and let him move further into the room first. He pressed a kiss against his mother's cheek and asked her how she was doing before he moved around the bed so that he could kneel beside Bran and hold his brother's small hand between both of his.

Lenora waited for a moment, unsure if it would be right for her to interrupt this moment. But before she could decide against it Robb looked up at her and his blue eyes caught on her face. She nodded and moved further into the room. She curtsied low to Lady Catelyn. "Please accept my sympathies, Lady Stark," she told the older woman, her voice a whisper. "I have spent this afternoon praying to the Seven that Bran will recover from this."

Catelyn nodded her silent thanks. Lenora looked at her and then glanced at Robb, unsure if she should stay. It was clear that Lady Catelyn wanted to be left alone. "May I sit with you for a bit, Lady Stark?" she asked her once Robb had nodded his encouragement to her.

This actually got the woman's attention. She turned to look at her, "You do not have to, Lady Lenora," she told her. "This is your family's last night in Winterfell, I would understand why you would want to spend time with them."

Lenora shook her head as she moved further into the room. "I am to be a ward of Winterfell for the next year. And after that, the Gods willing, I will marry your son and be your daughter by law. Bran is my family. He is as much my brother as Joffrey or Tommen. And you are as much my mother as my own." She paused for a moment, glancing at Robb for more encouragement, "I am spending time with my family, My Lady."

Lady Catelyn looked up at her, her face did not soften, the worry lines around her mouth and between her eyes did not disappear. But she nodded and briefly lifted her hand up to Lenora. The young princess reached out a grasped the older woman's hand. She gave it a gentle squeeze before letting go and moving around the bed so that she could sit beside Robb. He pulled a chair to his side so that Lenora could sit next to him and close to the bed without having to kneel beside the bed.

"I don't understand," he murmured quietly once Lenora was seated beside him. "Bran has been climbing the tower walls for years. My mother always worried that he would fall, but the boy was always so sure footed. What tower did he fall from? Do you know?"

"I believe it's called the Broken Tower?" Lenora asked him, turning to look at him with her eyebrows raised. "The one near the North Gate."

Robb nodded, "That one's Bran's favorite," he told her, his eyebrows knitting together in confusion. "He'd never have fallen from that once."

Lenora quickly glanced at Lady Catelyn to make sure that the older woman could not hear them and that they weren't upsetting her. "If he didn't fall, what? Was he pushed?"

Robb shrugged, "I'm not the one to ask," he whispered. He reached out and grabbed her hand, giving it a squeeze. He smiled when for the first time Lenora did not flinch at the sudden contact. "Thank you," he whispered. "It means so much, your being here."

Lenora squeezed the young man's hand in return, "Where else would I be?" she asked him.

...

"I suppose we have you to thank for Joffrey's visit this morning, Uncle," Lenora teased, smiling down at her uncle before she sat down at the table beside her uncle. He was sitting alone, but from the empty plates on the table it was clear that her family had already broken their fast. She smiled at the servant who brought her a cup of wine and hurried away to get a plate of food for her then she sniffed the air and the smile fell from her lips. "Why do you smell like dog, Uncle Tyrion?" she asked him.

Her uncle chuckled. "So Joffrey did go to see Lord and Lady Stark?" he asked his niece. "Good."

Lenora nodded, "Yes," she confirmed, "he came a few minutes ago with matching red marks on both of his cheeks. It might be a good thing that you're going to the Wall, he was angrier than I have ever seen him." She paused while the servant placed a plate of food in front of her, she wasn't hungry, but she knew that she must eat. She hadn't eaten all day yesterday. "I'll ask you again, why do you smell like dog?"

"I fell asleep in the kennel," Tyrion admitted with a smirk and his eyebrows raised.

"I suppose that's better than falling asleep at the whorehouse," Lenora replied, taking a bite of the bacon on her plate. She liked it, the teasing. It had been that way as long as she could remember with her uncles, more so with Tyrion though. Jaime's teasing had always been tempered by the fact for a large part of her life he had been the only parental figure she had known. "What are you going to do during your trip to the Wall? I've heard that there are three types of Black Brothers: the builders, the stewards, and the rangers. There aren't any whores on the Wall, I would imagine."

"There aren't many whores on the Wall," her uncle corrected her, "but I would wager that there might be a few. Unfortunately, the few there are will not be my type, that I can assure you." Lenora smiled weakly at her uncle's response. The smile disappeared from Tyrion's lips at the sight of it, "Cheer up, Sweetling," he told the young girl, reaching out to gently chuck his niece under the chin, "this won't be goodbye for us, you know that."

"Do I?" Lenora asked her uncle, looking around the hall they were sitting in. "I am seventeen years old, Uncle," she told the man next to her. "Lord Stark and my father were raised together, almost as brothers. Lord Eddard is my father's best friend. And in the seventeen years I have been alive we have never come to Winterfell. So how am I to believe you and Uncle Jaime when you tell me that this isn't goodbye, that we will see each other again?"

Tyrion sighed, this goodbye would have been easier if the princess was stupid, like her brother. The girl shrugged, and just like that her melancholy disappeared, "I suppose you'll both come back up North for the wedding," she told her uncle with a smirk.

"That's the spirit," Tyrion told the young girl. "Just keep that up, will you? You'll need it as the days get colder."

-.-.-.-.-

Cersei

She found Lady Catelyn in the young boy's room. She had already relayed her condolences to Ned and Catelyn the night before, but she had to see the boy for herself, she had to see the damage on her own. Her brother had told her that he believed that the boy would live, but she needed to make sure that if he did live he wouldn't be able to tell anyone what he had overheard in the tower the day before.

Lady Catelyn was sitting alone in a chair beside the bed, she had barely left her son's side since yesterday afternoon. The boy himself was pale, the skin on his face almost the same color as the sheets he was covered with. But he was breathing, and it was not labored. He had not woken up yet, but Tyrion was right, it appeared that the boy would live.

Lady Catelyn did not notice her when she first entered the room, she was too engrossed in the prayer wheel that she was weaving. She did not look up until Cersei was standing next to her. When she noticed Cersei she stood up quickly, a shocked look on her face as her eyes quickly dropped to the bedclothes and robe she was wearing, compared to Cersei's royal gown the lady of Winterfell looked a mess.

Cersei smiled gently at the woman, "Please," she gestured to Catelyn's seat. "Sit."

"I would have dressed, your Grace," Lady Catelyn apologized as she sat back down in her seat beside her son's bed.

Cersei shook her head, "This is your home, I am your guest." She glanced at the boy in the bed and smiled down at him. "Handsome one, isn't he?" she asked. And he was a handsome child. She hadn't noticed it the afternoon before when he had caught her and Jaime in the tower. She had been too worried about what the boy might have overheard to notice him. But she could see it now. He was a strong boy, of course, he was fighting for his life now. Of course he would continue to fight for his life until he woke up.

Lady Catelyn was quiet, but she nodded her agreement. Cersei was quiet for a moment. "I almost lost my first child," she told Catelyn, unsure of why she was telling her this. She was partly the reason that Catelyn Stark might have lost her son. This was partly Cersei's fault. But the words were falling from her lips faster than she could catch them. And it felt good to say them out loud, to get her version of the story out to someone who did not known the truth. "Lenora," she confirmed to the shocked woman in front of her. "Barely a day old and already a dark haired beauty. She was a fighter too. A Targaryen spy at the castle tried to poison her. She was not even a day old and she had to work so hard to beat the fever and the poison that tried to take her."

"I - I never knew, your Grace," Lady Catelyn told her.

Cersei smiled sadly, "Not many do," she told the woman. "Not even Lenora knows. But that is why she went to live with my brother at Casterly Rock. She was safer there than at Kings Landing so soon after the war. Robert was crazed, he beat his hands bloody on the walls, cursed the gods - the old and the new, for what had happened to his daughter. She was so small, and she looked just like him." She paused and shook her head, "A little bird without feathers. So innocent, so helpless, really. She was five or six before Jaime brought her back to us, all the time we had lost." She paused, she was losing herself in the story, she was sure that Lady Catelyn was wondering why she was telling her all of this. "If little Len was able to fight than so will your strong, handsome Bran. I'll pray to the Mother every morning and night that your boy comes back to you as soon as possible."

"Thank you, your Grace," Lady Catelyn told her with a solemn nod.

"I hope it will not take five years this time," Cersei told her before she left the room in search of her own daughter so that she could say her goodbyes.

She found the princess in the courtyard, helping the bastard boy saddle the horses, she hung back, hating to admit that she was curious of what a royal princess and a Northern bastard could have to talk about. "So you're really off to join the Night's Watch?" Lenora asked as she struggled to heave a saddle onto a large horse. The bastard chuckled as he rushed forward to help with the saddle. The two moved with a familiarity, Cersei wondered when he daughter had found the time to befriend the bastard. "Why?" Lenora asked once the saddle was in place.

"Why must you go?"

The bastard, Jon, shrugged, "There will be no place for me here once Lord Stark leaves for King's Landing. Lady Stark barely suffered me to say goodbye to Bran, she will be less generous about me living under Winterfell's roof once her Lord husband is gone."

"But Robb, he would never -"

Jon nodded, "You are right about that. Robb would never force me out of Winterfell, but what is there for me here?" he asked, "Truly? There is nothing."

"You could marry," Lenora suggested. "You could have a family, a life."

Jon snorted at that. "And tell me, Princess, what Lord or self-respecting man would let his daughter marry a bastard? Even Ned Stark's bastard? What woman would want her children to have the surname Snow?" He shook his head, "No, it is much better for me to make a life on the Wall, to find my honor there."

Lenora was quiet for a moment, "But you will come back to Winterfell to visit, won't you?"

Jon chuckled, "Would you want me to, My Lady?" he asked, teasing.

"A brother of the Night's Watch is always welcome at Winterfell," Lenora told him, her tone playful for a moment before it turned serious, "and the brother of my future husband would be even more welcome."

Jon smiled at her and reached out as if he was going to hug her before he remembered his place. "Maybe they will make a true Stark of you after all," he told her. He turned away from Lenora for a moment, his dark eyes landing on the Queen before he turned back to Lenora. "Take care of him, will you?" he asked the princess, meaning Robb Stark. "You'll be kind to him?"

"Of course I will," Lenora promised. "You'll take care of my Uncle Tyrion when he's on the Wall with you, won't you?" Jon didn't say anything, but he nodded. Unlike Jon, Lenora did not care about their stations. She stood on her tiptoes so that she could wrap her arms around the young man's shoulders. "And promise me that you will take care of yourself as well," she commanded.

She caught sight of her mother over Jon's shoulder and pulled away from him once she had gotten his word that he could take care of himself. She silently pulled away from Jon and nodded at him before she walked toward her mother, her eyes dropping down to the ground as if she was ashamed of what her mother had seen. But Cersei knew her daughter better than that, she was worried about what her mother might say about it in Jon's presence, but no, she was not ashamed of caring for the bastard. "Mother," Lenora greeted as she came to stand in front of her mother. "I was on my way to say goodbye to you."

Cersei smiled at her eldest daughter and nodded, "I'm sure you were," she old her daughter, her tone hinting at the fact that she knew her daughter would much rather be helping the bastard with the horses than saying goodbye to her mother. "Have you said goodbye to your uncles?" she asked as the two women walked away from the stables toward the glass gardens.

"I have," Lenora told her with a nod. "They both promised to come back to Winterfell to see me as soon as they could, but even if they ride as fast as possible it will still take a fortnight to reach me from King's Landing." She shook her head and forced a smile onto her lips as she glanced at her mother, "I fear I will be entirely lost to my family once you have left this morning," she continued, keeping her tone light, making a joke out of the situation she was in.

Her mother reached out her hand and grabbed her daughter's, giving it a gentle squeeze before she looped her arm through her daughter's pulling the younger woman closer to her as they walked. "You will write to us though," she commanded, hinting to the morning not long ago when she had asked her daughter to spy on the Starks for her. With what had happened to the boy, Bran, it was more important than ever that Cersei know if the Starks were suspicious of her. "You'll tell us of your studies and your doings, and everything you learn about the North, won't you?"

Lenora nodded, not rising to her mother's bait.

"And of course, Bran," Cersei continued. "You must let me know the moment he wakes up." She shook her head, her lips forming a hard line. "The poor boy."

"Robb thinks it's the oddest thing," Lenora admitted to her mother. "Bran has apparently been climbing the towers of Winterfell for years now. He's always been sure-footed. Never once has he slipped, let alone fell. Robb is sure that something else has happened."

"Something else?" Cersei asked, her voice tense.

Lenora did not notice, she nodded, "He thinks the boy was pushed," she whispered. She glanced at her mother and shrugged her shoulders, "But yes," she agreed, coming back to the conversation at hand, "I will write to you as soon as he wakes up. Gods know that I pray it will be soon."

Cersei couldn't say anything in return. Her words stuck in her throat at the thought that Robb was suspicious, that he thought that his brother had been pushed. She forced a smile onto her lips when she caught sight of her daughter's confused look, no doubt her daughter was wondering what she was thinking. She leaned closer and pressed a kiss to the top of the girl's dark head, "Go now," she told her, "say your goodbyes to your father and your brothers and sister. I suspect that we will be leaving before midday."

Lenora kissed her mother on the cheek and moved away from her. She turned around before she had gotten too far and smiled at her mother. "I know that you do not want to leave me here, Mother," she told her, leaving no time for Cersei to argue with her before she continued. "And I know that Father has pushed for this betrothal in part to hurt you. You must not let him know that it does. Be strong, Mother, as I know you can be." She paused, bit her lip for a moment, "After all, I learned my strength from you."

-.-.-.-.-

Robb

The goodbyes were hard. He loved his sisters, and had not planned on having to say goodbye to them. Especially in the gloom of Winterfell after Bran had fallen. His father had told him how proud he was of him and had shook his head when Robb had offered to come with him to King's Landing.

"There must always be a Stark in Winterfell," his father had reminded him. Robb wasn't so far gone as to suggest that young Rickon could be the Stark for the time being. "Remember all that I have taught you," Ned continued. "The people of the North will look to you for guidance now. Do right by them. Remember our words."

"Winter is coming," Robb told him, repeating the words that he had known since he was a small boy.

"And so it is," Ned agreed with a nod. "We must be ready when it does." He looked as though he was going to move on to say goodbye to Rickon, but he paused. "And be kind to the girl," he told his son, nodding toward Lenora who was a short distance away, kneeling on the ground so that she could be closer to her youngest brother's height for their goodbye. "She is a long way from home and her family. Summers in this land can be hard and unforgiving for those who are born here, I can only imagine what it will be for her once winter comes."

Robb nodded, "I will," he promised and then added, "I would have even if you hadn't warned me. I," he paused, looking for the right words. "I have come to care for her more than I thought that I would. I wouldn't want to cause her any unnecessary pain, truly."

Ned nodded, "That is very good," he told his son, "though I fear it might not always be as easy as you make it sound."

"It is easy for you and Mother," Robb pointed out.

"It was not always," Ned told him, his gaze landing on Jon for a moment. "It was not always."

Lenora's goodbyes were painful for him to watch. He was saying goodbye to his father and his sisters temporarily. They would be back in Winterfell in time. Lenora would never live with her family again. The younger children cried when she said her goodbyes, her father and mother seemed to choke up, there were tears in the princess' eyes when she hugged each of her uncles for the last time.

The only one who did not seem saddened by the farewell was Joffrey.

Lenora wiped the tears from her eyes when she stepped away from her family so that they could mount their horses and climb into the wheelhouse. She did not want anyone to see her crying. Robb moved to stand next to her, close enough to be touching. He did not say anything until the party had left the courtyard and the Winterfell household had turned to enter the castle again. Then he nudged the girl's shoulder and nodded toward the stables, "I did promise to take you riding, didn't I?" he asked, hoping that the princess would take the bait and allow him to distract her from her sorrow for the afternoon.

She smiled, tears still shining in her grey eyes, and nodded, "It's been a week since you made that promise. I was beginning to think that you weren't a man of your word," she teased before she grabbed his hand and led him toward the stable.

Author's Note:
Shorter chapter today, but I'm gearing up toward some very exciting things in the future.
I hope that you enjoyed this chapter. And if you did please take a moment to review! I love to read your reviews, so share them with me: the good, the bad, the ugly (just be nice about the bad and the ugly please!).
HUGE thank you to those who reviewed on the last chapter:
DannyBlack70: I love reading your reviews! I get ridiculously excited every time you write one. I played around with Jaime not pushing Bran from the tower but ultimately I decided that he had to. Lenora and Cersei are in some ways very similar, but with respect to Jaime they are two sides of the same coin. Where Lenora brings out Jaime's best side, Cersei brings out his worst. And that's going to come into play later.
As for Lenora's weaknesses, we'll be seeing them very soon.
I hope you liked this chapter as well! Thank you for reading!
Evaline101: Another multiple reviewer! I love it! I'm glad you enjoyed the last chapter and I sincerely hope that you liked this one too.
Confession time: the reason this story is written is because I wanted a story where Jaime was close to someone who wasn't Cersei. Seriously, it's the combination of some of my favorite GoT tropes: A Baratheon/Lannister heir, Jaime and Brienne's friendship, and a relationship between Robb Stark and a Baratheon princess. Put all of those together and Lenora was born.
Raging Raven: Thank you! I'm glad you're enjoying it so far! I hope that you like this chapter as well!
ZabuzazGirl: Glad you enjoyed it, here's the next chapter!
That's all I've got for now! You've gotten this far, the review box is just down below. Take a moment, write a few words. (They might be the ones to push me to update faster, you never know!)
Until next time!
Hugs and Kisses,
Chloe Jane.