Arya slowly turned to face Sansa, a look of betrayal on her face. She thought that she understood her. Why she had to do this.
She looked behind them to see that Gendry was there. He wasn't looking at her. He was looking at the river.
She took a deep breath in and stepped a little back causing her siblings to step forward quickly.
"Arya, don't."
"Who says I'm going to drop?" Arya asked.
"Come on, let's go home and we can get you help. We'll even find the money to get you your fencing lessons back," Jon calmly said as he reached out a hand for her to take.
Arya instead ignored him and turned to face their sister. Her voice was low but she made sure that she could hear her.
"You said that I should come home in my own time. You said that I should do something that made me happy."
Sansa swallowed deeply before she replied just as quietly with, "I know and I meant that but we were so worried. We had to make sure that you were okay. We didn't know whether you were hurt or not, you weren't answering our calls-"
Arya took a tiny step back and watched as Jon took a step forward, his hand still outstretched.
She could see that Gendry was also slowly making his way to her but he seemed too shocked and unsure to do anything.
"Okay... Is this about Gendry? Do you think that we'll prevent you from being with him? We won't. We want you to be happy and if that's doing fencing and being with him then sure." Sansa continued. "I spoke with your old teacher, Syrio Forel. Remember when he used to tell us about the time he lived here? Where he learnt to fence, himself?"
"I do," Arya replied. "How is he?"
"He's doing really good. Had a cancer scare but he's really good and he can't wait to return to training you. Thinks you can be an Olympic star. We all do, don't we Jon?" Sansa asked, latching a hand on his shoulder to prevent him from moving further on.
Jon nodded. "Yeah. Sansa found some money to pay for your lessons. That is what you want, right?"
Arya shrugged. "Maybe. But maybe I want Mum and Dad more. Maybe I want us to go back home and be as we were before everything that has happened now. I miss Winterfell Manor and how we were happy. I miss being able to go to the woods whenever I wanted to walk Nymeria. Do you guys remember when Dad surprised us all with puppies? Robb had named his Grey Wind... Bran had beautiful Summer... Rickon could barely pronounce his, Shaggydog. Sansa had Lady and I had Nymeria. Funny how Jon's Ghost stayed loyal and healthier than the others. Ghost was always the misfit. Just like Jon is. Just like I am."
She took another step back. Jon took a step forward causing Sansa to stumble as she continued to grip onto his shoulder.
Sansa was freezing cold. But she was sure that she was warm. The fear of her sister falling into the freezing water sent chills down her body.
"You guys don't understand. You don't see me. Gendry does. Bran was your priority over me."
"That's not true and you know that. Sansa and I talked about it. I would look after you as best as I could whilst she dealt with Bran most of the time. Now come on and take my hand. We'll go home and probably visit Winterfell Manor."
Arya smiled at them. She wanted to home but Braavos was home to her now. With the cold and the snow twice a year...
Wherever she was that wasn't here, she was unhappy. She was screaming inside to be set free.
She hadn't wanted to move to London after the deaths of her parents. She hadn't wanted her brother and sister to argue about money or her and Bran. She hadn't wanted to sacrifice her extra-curricular activities to accommodate necessities.
In her mind, she was a burden to everyone she came across. She was exactly what Hot Pie had called her all the time.
Nobody.
And she felt herself fall and her body freeze.
...
Time moved slowly for Sansa as she watched as Jon took off his jacket and shirt before jumping into the river.
Her heart stopped as she heard someone scream out her sister's name.
Wait, wasn't that her voice?
She felt someone push past her and shout Arya's name out. She looked up. It was Gendry.
Move, Sansa! Move, you stupid bitch!
She finally forced her feet to move as she jogged up to the end of the dock to see no movement under the water. It was still.
"Jon!" She screamed. "Arya!"
This wasn't happening again. No, it wasn't.
She dropped to her knees and kept screaming as Gendry finally decided to take his coat off and jump in after them. It caused a big splash and Sansa didn't care as the cold water hit her face. She merely continued to scream and cry and slam the wooden panels of the dock.
Suddenly, Gendry arose with Jon who was spluttering and coughing. Jon's hands were gripping onto something under the water and Gendry struggled to swim onto the riverbank.
Sansa stood up and ran down the dock to the riverbank to help pull Gendry to the edge. She didn't even care that her trainers were now soaked to the core.
He finally reached the bank and pulled Jon to it. Sansa could now see that he was holding an unconscious Arya to his chest.
The men struggled to pull Arya onto the snow and when they did, Jon began doing chest compressions.
"We-we n-need to m-make her w-warm," he stuttered.
Sansa nodded and ran back to the dock to retrieve the discarded shirt and jackets before grabbing their duffel bags and heading back to them.
She gave Gendry his coat and took Jon's spare coat out of his bag before wrapping it around Arya when Jon had taken a brief break from resuscitating her.
Sansa also flung his jacket around his shoulders as he continued to perform CPR.
"Call an ambulance, Gendry."
Gendry nodded, taking his phone out to phone for help as Sansa started to pace, her shoes crunching in the snow.
Please, God. I know that I haven't spoken to you in a while but please don't take her away from us. We have lost so many... It's just us...
Then she heard spluttering.
"Oh, God..." Sansa breathed out when she saw her sister's eyes open.
Jon looked up at her, suddenly feeling colder and weaker. "We're going home. Right now."
...
After getting the last early coach back home, the siblings stepped into their small home to see that Osha and Bran were watching a movie.
"Arya," Bran smiled.
Arya didn't return the smile. She just went to her room, pulling Jon's jacket tighter around her body.
"Arya?" Bran frowned now.
Osha gave them a sad smile as she stood up and got ready to leave. She thought that they needed to be together, alone.
"Call me whenever you need me, yeah?" She told them before patting Jon's shoulder and leaving.
Crap, Sansa thought. She forgot to pay her but she was too tired to. She will transfer the money later.
"Hey, Bran. How are you?" Jon asked as he sat beside him.
Bran pointed at the TV and turned back to Jon before opening and closing his mouth. He knew the words. He had them in his mind. It was a matter of getting them out.
"The... Mummy..., I like... it."
Jon chuckled. "I like The Mummy too. It's scary and surprisingly it doesn't give me nightmares anymore. Hey, Sansa? Why don't you come and join us and-"
"We aren't going to talk about what happened this morning?"
"Sans... It is late, we're all tired. Let's just watch The Mummy with Bran, okay?
Sansa's face contorted into rage and confusion and... was fury in the mix? She wasn't sure. She wasn't sure of anything.
"You almost died! She-her... Her heart stopped!" Sansa cried out. "How are you downplaying this? She didn't talk for the duration of our trip home!"
Jon sighed and rubbed his face. He couldn't deal with this. Not now. Not this night. At this rate, she'll give him a migraine and he really needed to be at work tomorrow.
"Talk to her tomorrow. Call her school to inform them that she is safe and well at home but something happened that she cannot attend school for the rest of the week. She will return next week. Talk to her then and I'll talk to you on my break if I get a chance."
Bran looked up at him and Jon smiled, ruffling his hair. For a paralysed from the waist downwards teenager, he was happy. Happier than he had been in a long time.
"Do you want popcorn, Bran? I'm sure if we ask nicely, Sansa will make it right?"
Sansa slowly nodded, tears running down her cheeks. She turned so that Bran couldn't see them when he turned to face her.
"Popcorn... please?"
"Of course, Bran. Anything for you." Her voice wavered. She hated sounding so weak.
She turned around and headed to the small kitchenette to take a sachet of popcorn from the cupboard and stuck it in the microwave, setting the timer.
Gripping the counter tightly, she allowed more tears to fall. She didn't know how much her heart could take of this.
She almost lost Arya. She almost lost Jon. It would have been her and Bran. Then she wouldn't know what to do. She wished she could go back to her days of naivety and innocence. Being young and free of any worries and commitments.
I'm going to go fucking crazy. These siblings of mine will cause me to have a heart attack!
An idea struck her mind.
She had heard Ygritte speaking with another model about some jobs on the side. If she took some up, she could protect Arya. She could take her back home to Winterfell Manor. She could get her another horse. She could even pay for Bran to have private physiotherapy sessions. And pay for him to be homeschooled so he could go to university on time and study his beloved anthropology.
Then Jon wouldn't have to worry about them and money. He'll be able to continue to live his life as a bachelor.
Sansa took her phone out of her pocket and saw that it had 15% left. She quickly sent a text to Ygritte and hoped she would reply in time.
She had to do this. She had to make them happy again. The insanity was creeping through all of their minds and poisoning them. She needed to stop that.