Thirteen years into King Jon's reign.

Jaime looked up in confusion as Janali knocked on the door frame to his study. She never came this far into their rooms in King's Landing, formality ran supreme here.

"What's wrong?" Their unflappable nanny almost looked afraid.

"You need to come down stairs, Ser." Jaime shot up from his seat and followed her.

"It's Renly and that stupid contraption again isn't it?" He muttered. "I told Pod to toss the damn thing out. Did he break anything?"

"It's nothing like that." Janali said softly. "It's Ty."

They rounded the corner into the courtyard before Jaime could ask anything else. He looked up to see his eldest living child sitting forlorned on a bench, his long gangly legs sticking out in either direction one elbow resting on each. Beside him, Amena stroked his hair. Arya stepped into his view, her eyebrows furrowed tightly.

"It's my fault." She huffed. "I didn't see them. Janali and I were talking about Cersei and I just said it. Jaime, I'm so sorry."

"Oh Gods." He sighed deeply.

"I'm-." He put up his hand to her shaking his head slowly.

"It's fine." He whispered. "It was bound to happen. Where's my wife?"

"With Jon in Dunksondale." Arya sighed. "I could ride out and take her place."

"Just catch her before she comes home. I don't want her blindsided." He shook his head again before moving towards his son.

Ty's eyes cast up at him and Amena scampered back like she'd been caught doing something wrong. Jaime smiled at the girl before sighing at his son.

"I suppose we should have a chat." He told him evenly.

…..

"I don't understand why you never told me." Ty whispered harshly, batting the tears off his face angrily. Jaime reached his hand up and cupped the back of the boys head.

"There are people who would use that information to harm us." Jaime explained. "To harm King Jon. We weren't sure when it would be safe to tell you. You saw today that grown adults can slip. We needed to know that you could keep this secret."

"I can keep it." He breathed.

"I trust you." Jaime told him.

"Like I'd want anyone to know." He growled.

"What do you need to know?" Jaime sighed.

"Who knows?"

"Our people." Jaime told him softly.

"Grandfather?" Ty croaked out the words.

"No." He told him remorsefully.

"I'm not the true heir." He shook his head. "I shouldn't get-."

"Enough." Jaime said sharply, grasping Ty's face in between his thumb and index finger. "You are your mother's son just as much so as your is just as much yours as it was yesterday. And even if by some bizarre upside down your grandfather didn't want you to have it, your mother will be the Evenstar before anyone else and she wants you to have it. Tarth is yours. It has always been yours. You chose it over the Rock, pleasing Lord Selwyn more than anything else has, ever."

Ty nodded and Jaime let go of his face. Slinging his arm over the boys shoulder and pulling him to him.

"I know you don't like to talk about her.."

"She wasn't always what she became." He breathed. "She was never kind, but she wasn't always cruel. She would have loved you." Jaime swallowed hard. "Not like your mother does, she was different. Her love wasn't free. It was possessive, it came with expectations, just like our father's had.." He stopped his ramble with a wince. "I'm not very good at this. Your mother-."

"You're better than you think." Ty sniffed, leaning in to his father's shoulder.

The two of them were still like that an hour later when Brienne stormed into the room, tears brimming on her eyelids.

"I'm so sorry. We should have told you. I love you so much-." She whispered, holding him tightly to her. "I'm so sorry my Bright Star."

"It's alright, Mum." He breathed her in deeply. "I'm alright."

"I'm sure you have questions." She pulled back, stilling her shoulders and tightening her jaw.

"Da answered them." He shook his head. "I don't have anymore right now."

Brienne raised an eyebrow at Jaime over her shoulder. He gave her a tired grin. There was a creak from the door and she turned to see Amena standing there, her dark hair hanging over her face.

"I'm-. I didn't mean to interrupt."

"You didn't." Ty said quickly looking back at his mother. "We have studies."

She bit her lip, but nodded just the same. He turned back to Jaime, tired grin still stuck to his face before hugging his mother again before heading out the door.

Brienne watched him go.

"We waited too long." Jaime told her in hushed tones.

"What did he-?"

"Tarth." Jaime couldn't help but sniff back a laugh. "All he was worried about was that he couldn't be the Evenstar."

"Of course he can be-."

"That's what I said." He swished his wooden hand through the air, the jointed fingers swinging back and forth.

"He didn't ask-?" She stopped and his eyebrows wrinkled.

"What?" He watched her face carefully.

"Nothing." She breathed sitting next to him. "Are you alright?"

"As long as Ty's-."

"Jaime." Her voice was soft and he dropped his head back and stared at the ceiling.

"I was.. I wanted to tell him good things.." He took a staggered breath. "I wanted to give him something of her."

"Of course you did." She took his hand in hers and squeezed.

"I couldn't think of anything." He whispered. "Everything I wanted to say was a half truth."

"It's complicated." She reminded him.

"Is it? Or was she just that much of a monster and I didn't see it until it was too late." He turned to look at her and she winced at his face.

"Too late for what?" Brienne asked him softly. "We stopped her. We saved Ty. We helped build a new government, a good one at that, if I do say so."

"I didn't stop her in time for Joffrey, Myrcella and Tommen." Jaime swallowed, and Brienne moved her other hand to his cheek, brushing it across the coarse` hairs there. "I wasn't a father to them. I didn't protect them."

"You couldn't." She reminded him.

"I should have tried." He shook his head.

"Darling." She pressed her forehead to his. "Don't do this to yourself. They wouldn't want you to remember them like this."

"Wouldn't they?" His voice croaked out of him. "I couldn't think of one good thing to say about the woman I practically worshiped for forty years. I sired four children with her and I couldn't-." He swallowed hard and she carded her hands into his hair, as he dropped onto her shoulder. "I'm sorry."

"You can talk about her." She kissed his temple. "You know that. You don't have to apologize."

"I don't want to talk about her." He whispered.

"Alright." She pressed her lips into his temple again. "Ren was out riding his 'dragon' again."

"I told Pod to hide the damn thing." Jaime muttered."He's going to get hurt."

"He doesn't mind getting hurt. He's fearless." He could hear the smile in her voice.

"He's reckless." He spit, and she hummed in agreement.

"He's your boy." Brienne reminded him softly, Jaime snorted at that.

"That he is."

"You're a good father." She pulled away from him, framing his face with her hands. "You're a good husband. You're a good man." He leaned back into her and she claimed his lips. "And I love you."

…..

Brienne watched Jaime chase Renly and his 'dragon' (pieces of fabric and wood and string around what could loosely be called a wagon) down the hill beside the White Sword Tower. Jon squealed, bouncing on his father's hip as he ran. Tom sat on the bench with Amena and Pod, covering his eyes in horror at his little brother's eminent crash. Brienne's mouth twitched into a smile. As much as Jaime had longed for a girl, he was the perfect father for their boys. She looked at Amena in silent question and she gestured behind her towards the Godswood.

She found her oldest son at the foot of the heart tree deep in thought.

"Worshiping the old Gods? Your Aunt Sansa will be proud."

"Lyanna's influence I guess." Her son shrugged as his mother settled down beside him.

"Still no questions?"

"Not really." He hummed. "I think the shocks worn off."

"Has it?"

"No." He huffed. "I keep wanting to say a part of me knew, but that's not true. No part of me knew." He leaned his head onto her shoulder and she cupped his cheek with her hand. "Tell me the story."

"Are you sure?"

"Father did better than he thought, but he could barely keep his words from tripping over each other." Her son sighed deeply. "It was torture for him. You're better with the stories anyhow."

"You all love your father's stories." She raised an eyebrow.

"It's the voices. He does the voices."

"I may need to refrain from doing the voices Tyrick." She told him evenly, he snickered.

"Before you were born, when we were still in Winterfell, your father and I petitioned your aunt and uncle to make an appeal for your life to be spared. We asked that we be given a chance to keep Cersei alive until you were born, or to rescue you afterward. After much reflection, Sansa took that appeal to her brother, the future King. She reminded him that she and the Dragon Queen had much in common with your predicament, we weren't sure it had worked. Sansa was unsure it had worked.

"You know that your father left for King's Landing before I did. When he arrived, Tyrion told him that Danaerys wouldn't wait. Not after Cersei had taken another Dragon from her. Your father thought that he could get close to her and convince her, but uncle Tyrion had confided in Arya that he didn't know if his brother was strong enough to do what needed to be done. He loved her, Ty. You have to know that you were born of love." She looked at her son now, her eyes pinched. The young man nodded back at her and she leaned back against the tree. "Arya had snuck into the kitchens and managed to have Cersei given Moon Tea. It's known to encourage labor to start, and to make it go more quickly. Although it didn't seem to encourage either of those things for your brothers." She added bitterly. "But Cersei was better with the womanly parts then me and you were soon on your way, as planned. She'd planned to disguise herself as a midwife and kill the queen on her birthing bed the second you were clear of her, but that plan changed when they realized they needed Euron Greyjoy to solidify the iron fleet, but that's another story.

Your father rescued you the next day and brought you to me in the Dragon Crypt. King Jon protected you from the Dragon Queen when she saw you as nothing more than a threat to her reign. He saw you for what you were, an innocent babe who had done nothing to deserve wrath, just as she and he had done nothing to deserve theirs. He killed her, right there, as you screamed in my arms as she threatened to make us all burn by dragon fire. Yara gave us safe passage and I took you to Tarth, and you kept me from jumping from the highest heights as I mourned your father."

Ty blinked up at her in surprise, but she only smiled sadly.

"Dragons and Lions and Wolves and Krakens all schemed and plotted and worked together to protect you; to give you your best chance." She gave him a serious look. "Do you want to know about her? Cersei?"

"I know. She was power hungry, mad and spiteful. She was the downfall of my siblings."

"She was." Brienne took a deep breath. " She was also very beautiful. She had long golden hair like Lyanna, and sharp green eyes that wrinkled in the corners like your fathers, yours, Rickon's and Ren's." Brienne smiled. "She was clever, dangerously so, and witty, like your father. She loved your siblings, and the choices she made were ones she thought would protect them, she just miscalculated. She would have loved you the best she knew how to love."

"Not very well."

"Someday I hope your father will have healed enough to tell you that's not the truth. That there were moments when she loved well." She swallowed. "I know their must have been, because your father has loved me well Ty."

She looks up then, and sees her husband's body leaning against a nearby tree. She gives him a soft smile over their son's shoulder and he wipes at his damp face with the sleeve of his lame arm.

"Your grandfather Tywin was heartsick when your grandmother passed. I don't judge him for that son, I was a widow for all of 63 days and it was nearly more than I could bare. Tywin's grief and anger made him cold and calculating. He made them believe that they were limited in the roles he'd cast for them. Maybe if Cersei had been left to choose a path she'd have chosen differently, maybe not, but it's sad we'll never know. It's all in the past." She pulled back and wrapped her son's face between her hands.

"But you my Bright Star. " She smiled at him. "You are the future, and the sacrifices made to insure that you are here with us unite us all. The secret of who you are, a secret of the likes that tore this kingdom unsounder is one of the things that unite us now. And you shall become whoever you wish to become, and if when the time comes that's still the Evenstar then Tarth will welcome you. It's yours. It's always been yours."

"Da said the same thing. Those same words."

"Those words are a promise, a vow even." She kissed his face. "Especially from your father. Are you alright?"

"Yes."

"You'll tell us if your not?"

"Yes Mum."

"You should go and find Amena. She looks as if she's worried herself silly today."

His face changed when she said this and she couldn't help but smile at the sparks of Jaime she could see in him at the mention of the girl. He stood and helped pull her up, turning to see his father for the first time.

Jaime flinched in surprise when Ty hugged him tightly, before brushing the tears off his own face with his own sleeve and wandering off.

Brienne exchanged a long look with her husband before slipping her hands to his face, followed quickly by her lips.

"I don't know why the fates allow me to have you." He whispered brokenly in her ear. "But I'm yours. I've always been yours."

…

"I thought he'd see me differently." Brienne whispered into the the darkness of their bedchamber. Jaime blinked up a the ceiling. "Not as his mother." He shifted on to his side and studied her face where it pressed against the pillow, her arms hugging it to her body. He reached forward and ran his stumped limb her back, offering her nothing but his soft eyes in response." I've always felt that if he knew, he'd think less of me."

"Oh My Darling. If he was going to think less of anyone it would surely be me." He sighed, his other arm coming up and brushing the hair away from her face. "We should have talked about this."

"We're talking about it now." She breathed.

"I honestly didn't think we'd ever have to tell him. I thought it would be like it was with Mrycella. That he'd just know some how. That it wouldn't be anything."

"He had no idea, Jaime. He-." Her voice rose quickly before her words dropped away. "He trusted us."

"He still does." He soothed, moving closer to her. "You saw him today, he still does. He understood the reasons."

"I hope so." She breathed.

"And you gave him something I couldn't." He reminded her. "Kind words about the woman who bore him. Soft parts of her that I can no longer find. You did that for him, because you are his mother. As much today as you were yesterday, as much as you have been since the day he was born."

"You gifted him to me." She reminded him, rolling onto her side and kissing his lips sweetly. "Everything I love, you gifted to me."

…..

"Lord Lannister." Ty straightened his back and turned slowly at the sound of his King's greeting.

"Your Grace." He said stiffly, bowing just as rod straight as his mother does.

"I was hoping you and I might take a walk."

"As you command, Your Majesty." He glanced up to check the Kings Guard, half expecting to see his mother, but it was Ser Galway instead.

"It was more of a hope and less of a command Lord Lannister." Jon grinned.

"Of course, Sir." He nodded stiffly.

"I'm sorry." Jon looked slowly to the left and then to the right, the boy followed his gaze. "I'm looking for Tyrick Lannister? The little boy who used to call me Uncle King and once took a piss on my shoe while he was learning to use a chamber pot. Have you seen him?"

Ty turned as red as Brienne and it made Jon laugh.

"I'd rather not die of embarrassment right in front of my Liege if you please Uncle Jon." Ty moaned.

"Much better." It irritated him, how the older Jaime Lannister's children got the more formal they became. Suddenly realizing that Jon was only truly uncle (well, almost truly) to their Winterfell cousins and not them, even though they had been the ones to grow up beneath his feet for the last decade plus. "Arya mentioned that she made a mistake yesterday." Ty looked away. "I just thought.." He took a deep breath. "I just thought that maybe you'd like to hear the opinion of someone who'd had a similar even take place."

"Hardly the same." Ty muttered as Jon came to stop at a bench in the walkway.

"More than a little similar." Jon tilted his head to one side.

"You were legitimate." Ty pointed out.

"Grew up a bastard." Jon shrugged. "And you are legitimate. I did it myself with my kingly powers."

Ty smirked at him, his eyes rolling slightly.

"You weren't.. Your parents weren't.. Siblings." He murmured.

"My grandparents were." He countered. "And Dan-." He stopped swallowing quickly. "The Dragon Queen was my aunt."

"They say that makes people mentally weak." Ty whispered. "When children are born of family members."

"I met both your brothers and your sister. I would only describe one of them as mentally weak." Jon whispered.

"Tommen took his life." Ty snorted.

"He was all but a prisoner. He freed himself the only way he felt he could. He was a sweet child. Good hearted." Jon told the boy quickly, he'd spent a fair amount of time thinking about Tommen Baratheon in his early years as King. He wasn't sure why, and he didn't like to dwell on that for long. "Myrcella was beautiful and kind and smart. She had your father's quick wit."

"So perhaps it's fifty-fifty? Is that what you're telling me? My sweet sister, me and Rhaegar Targaryn are the good ones? Maybe I won't go mad and ruin a city?"

"Cersei Lannister wasn't sired by siblings."

"Cousins." Ty countered.

"I guess you're right. You're doomed. I slayed the Dragon Queen for no reason." He sighed mournfully and Ty snorted again. Jon ruffled his hair before his face went serious again. "I was angry at my father."

"Which one?"

"Both." He huffed out a laugh. "But I meant Ned Stark. He'll always be my father."

Ty swallowed and Jon continued. "He saved me. Protected me. Raised me. Loved me."

"Do you think if Catelyn Stark had known that she wasn't betrayed, that she would have loved you?" Ty asked boldly. "My mother speaks of her as if she hung the moon… but yet.."

"She tried to love me." Jon whispered. "But she couldn't. She didn't have your mother's heart. She and my father weren't a love match at first, their marriage built on honor and convenience and I was.. Inconvenient."

"From what I understand, I made for complicated war strategy." The teen japed.

"As did I." Jon snickered. "That's why I'm talking to you. I understand in a way most won't. My secret birth started a war that your secret birth ended. You're very important to all of us that waited for an end to Winter. And if you ever need to talk to someone who understands? I'm here."

Ty looked at the man who'd slayed a queen for him, his dark broody eyes studying him in earnest. He nodded once, and returned his gaze to his hands.

"Thank you."

"Anytime." The King shrugged. "You and I should stick together, I think."