Interlude III—Season Four

Jorah has already departed; Daenerys heads down to breakfast to meet him with her children in tow. Daenora and Eleana skip in front of her. Jeoreys waddles by her side, interested in following his siblings' lead but reluctant to leave his mama. She doesn't mind. She likes having them close. Over the course of her life she's seen far too many horrors befall the children, the true innocents.

"Not all children, I'm afraid," Tyrion says. "You didn't know my nephew."

But Tyrion does dote on her children. He might pretend otherwise, but he has a soft spot for them all. And in turn they worship him.

"Papa!" Daenora squeals when they reach the mess hall.

Jorah stands, grinning. He smiles so much more these days, content with everything in his life. Dany is proud of the fact that she's been able to give him that, that sense of security that was missing for so long.

That she helped to extinguish.

Jorah will never play down his own role in that.

"I was stupid," he'd told her years ago, sharing the same pillow, his thumb tracing circles on her hipbone. "A desperate man. I thought I wanted to go home, to Bear Island. I hadn't even realised that home had changed for me. I should have told you the truth."

"I'm not sure I would have listened," she'd admitted. She's as hot tempered as any dragon, everyone knows it. Would she have listened if he'd confessed his crimes? Or would her pride have got the better of her? Her outrage at the how without thinking of the why?

Either way, it's all in the past.

Jorah bends down to kiss each of his children as they reach him before bestowing the same upon her, lingering a fraction longer than he should.

All of the heartbreak, all of that distance, all of it had been worth it for this moment, she thinks, sitting surrounded by those she loves the most creating the better world she had always strived for.