Back to the Start

by shortystylee

After ten years together, tragedy strikes in Sansa and Margaery's relationship, leaving Sansa to look back to where they began and how they got that far as she wonders if the world will right itself so that they can continue on. Planned as a series of one-shots from their relationship. Modern AU. Rating subject to change later.

6. Chapter 6: The Greatest Fan of Your Life

Chapter 6: The Greatest Fan of Your Life (September/October 1998)

September 26th, 1998

"Mags, this was the worst idea ever, especially in Kings Landing. Can you believe it feels hotter here than in Highgarden? It's the middle of September, for gods' sake. I swear to the Seven, winter is never coming to Kings Landing this year, maybe never again!"

Sansa watched her wife's eyes follow her as she wobbled her way across their condo from the bedroom to stop in front of the thermostat next to the kitchen, lowering the temperature for probably that third time that morning. Margaery was sitting at the kitchen table, her work-issued Apple PowerBook in front of her and various lab notebooks open and scattered across the table. Still dressed in the spaghetti strap tank-top and light blue gym shorts she'd worn to bed the night before, Sansa turned and headed off towards the living room, laying down on the couch and getting situated with a large glass of water and pointing the nearby fan at herself. Margaery had heard time and time again about how the acidity of Sansa's favorite Dornish lemonade now gave her horrible heartburn and she'd been relegated to either water or the caffeine-free ginger ale, which she claimed was the worst thing she'd ever tasted since that jungle juice Theon has cooked up in a giant blue plastic storage tub during her sophomore year.

"First, it's the crowdedness of the city that makes it this damn sweltering. No shady trees and open fields for breezes like in the Reach. And secondly," Margaery said, getting up from her spot at the table and kneeling on the floor in front of the couch, "Don't you remember how hot it was the summer we met? You spent that first semester sitting out on your roof because all the heat rose into your room and you couldn't survive without air conditioning."

"Oh, you shush. I'd spent eighteen years with summers didn't get over 75 degrees at that point. And besides, you're not the one carrying this thing around all day," she said, gesturing towards her stomach. "I'd always thought pregnancy was some magical gift, but the only gifts I'm seeing are swollen feet, sweat saturating through all of my clothes, and having to pee about a million times in a day. I can't even remember the numbers of times I had to leave to go to the bathroom during yesterday's parliament session... Monday's article is going to be a complete mess because of it. I'll be lucky if the editors don't toss me out of the building."

"This thing, love, is our son or daughter and you'll be over the top when you meet them, I promise. T-minus five weeks and counting, right? Not much longer." She climbed up on the couch next to Sansa, holding her up for a moment and placing the pillow back in her lap for her to lie down again.

"I do love them, Mags, you know that. I just can't wait until they decide to make their grand entrance. I'm so completely over at this point. If we have another baby after this, it'll be your turn."

Margaery laughed, running her fingers through Sansa's hair. It had been long and mid-way down her back when she had graduated from Highgarden, she'd come home a month or so ago with it cut in a layered style that was choppy and just barely hitting her shoulders, claiming that she couldn't stand it any longer in the heat with hair that long.

Pregnancy had not been kind to Sansa. Everyone at her office at the Kings Landing Times had been unbelievably supportive when she had announced that her and Margaery were going to have a baby, and that they had decided that she would be the one to carry it. If someone had told me then what exactly pregnancy was really like, Sansa thought, perhaps I wouldn't have been so romantic about the whole idea. I thought I had a good idea of what to expect, what with watching Mom through Bran and Rickon, and Robb's Jeyne too, but I guess not after all. After they began the in-vitro treatments and Sansa got the first positive test, her group at work had found out somehow – through Margaery it turned out in the end – and thrown her a surprise party during lunch in the break room, complete with a large tray of lemoncakes with "congratulations!" written in icing across it, a white letter on each square bar.

Shortly afterwards, however, she found herself battling with the most fearsome morning sickness she could've ever imagined. She'd expected a little bit, hells, she'd checked out and read just about every "what to expect when you're expecting" book from the library and each and every one of them send it was perfectly normal. What she didn't expect was that her morning sickness wouldn't understand that it was, by the nature of its name, supposed to happen only in the morning. It seemed to suffer from jet lag, creeping up on her during dinner with Margaery or the middle of the night, but it's favorite time to attack was when was she was out in the city doing research, trying to get questions answered by some cabinet member or CEO, or in the middle of watching a debate. Her supervisor understood, saying he remembered what it was like for his wife for their first child, and would simply wave her out of the room when she ran to the bathroom most mornings during their round table department meetings about the next day's issue.

The nausea gave her a little bit of reprieve towards the end of May, thankfully just in time for her 23rd birthday, as well as a particularly scandalous affair between one of the married cabinet members and a well-known energy lobbyist that came to light. Sansa had been suspicious of it for a while and had been pulling informants out of the woodwork to try to get this story to press before any of the other news outlets in Kings Landing picked it up. The article was given the front-page headline, another huge first for Sansa, but the next day she was met with more bad news at her doctor's office. She'd known for a while that she'd have to have the appointment to test her for gestational diabetes for a while now, having to get it a bit earlier than most once her mother has told her she'd had it with both Robb and Arya, but she never thought they would tell her she had it too. In her mind she had always ate correctly, still exercised between bouts of nausea, and really tried to do everything according to the book. She told herself that when her mother was pregnant they didn't have these types of resources like they had nowadays.

She was wrong. After downing an obscene amount of the most saccharine liquid she'd ever tasted in her life, watching Margaery fidget nervously in the seat next to her while they waited, and then getting her blood drawn, her doctor came back in, telling her in the nicest way possible that basically her results were very high and they'd need to her to come back in to the office two days later for the longer three hour test in order to confirm.

Even after that first test I still thought I was invincible. Never thought I was one of those "it'll never happen to me" types, but I guess I was still a bit naïve.

Thinking that the first test had been a fluke, Sansa went about the next two days as she normally would. Two days came and went quickly though, and she soon found herself reliving the same basic test, except about three times as long, waiting for good news that never came. She listened as her doctor explained all that she'd need to do to control the problem, eat right, keep exercising... even going so far as to write a prescription for the glucose meter that she'd need in order to keep tabs on her levels and the insulin shots. A nurse came in to instruct Sansa on how to use the machine and give herself the injection, letting her know that she can call or come into the office at any time if she needed help or had any questions. Simply nodding and letting her brain absorb all the information, she put up the mask she'd used a million times in the past, except this time it wasn't used to block out the other girls in high school, the taunts of the pounding hockey sticks from rival forwards seconds before the puck drop, or her real thoughts when interviewing a member of Parliament that clearly had no idea how to do their job. The phone in their apartment rang minutes after they arrived home and it wasn't until Sansa heard her mother's voice on the other end of the line that all her walls came down and she sank down to sit on the floor of their kitchen, legs straight out in front of her, and finally let herself cry.

I can't believe that was over two months ago, Sansa thought. Mags is right, only a little bit longer to go. She placed her hand on her large stomach and smiled. I am excited to meet you, little guy or gal. Mom's just nervous as all hells and I'm sorry, but you're pretty uncomfortable to carry around in the heat. I'm sure you understand.

Her thoughts were interrupted when Margaery shifted on the couch, lifting Sansa's head out of her lap. "Sorry, love," she began. "Time to get up and ready. You've got to be excited for the baby shower, yea?"

Shit. That snuck up.

"Yea, about as excited as I can be to see all my friends and family in this state I'm in," Sansa answered, pushing herself off the couch.

Margaery quickly stood up next to her and rose up on her tip toes to be closer to Sansa's height. "Stop it with that. I'm tired of hearing all these self-deprecating statements about how you're fat or you look awful. No one thinks that. Your family doesn't, your friends don't, and you know for damn sure that I don't think that. Now, come on, you're gonna grab a shower, put on some clothes that you didn't sleep in, and we're gonna open some baby gifts and have one hell of a good time, got it?"

Sansa stood quietly for a minute before nodding her head, moving it so little that it was probably imperceivable to the human eye, but she took a deep breath and walked around Margaery. No use in trying to procrastinate, she thought. Today's the day, nothing I can do to make it go away.

She'd only made it a couple of steps around the corner towards the hallway leading to the bedrooms when she heard Margaery's footsteps behind and then felt her lay her hands softly on both her shoulders, letting the shorter girl pull her to her chest. She let herself relax, wishing she could melt fully into her, feeling warm breath on her neck and recognizing the familiar smells of strong coffee, the rosy perfume Grandma Tyrell gives each year, and fruity body wash that she's grown to associate with her. A few breathes later, Margaery finally spoke.

"The way you're acting... this is about having to see your mother, isn't it?"

...and there it is, Sansa thought, nodding her head in the affirmative. Should've known she'd figure it out sooner or later.

She allowed Margaery to turn her around, hands leaving her shoulders to wander up and down her arms and gave her a look that Sansa understood as simply a request to talk to her.

"I know she's only here throwing this party for me because she regrets everything that's happened. And I do want a relationship with my mom, Mags, I really, really do... but we haven't talked to each other properly since Dad's accident, save for me sobbing on the phone a few months ago, so when was that? Almost two years ago this December..."

XxXxXxX

December 15th, 1996

It'd been two in the morning when Sansa and Margaery had woken up to someone's incessant banging on the front door to the little one bedroom apartment that they'd been renting since the wedding. Both were initially hesitant to open the door since it sounded like whoever it was at the door was trying to beat the damned thing down. Margaery had finally sat up in bed, tossed the comforter off, and muttered something about how "burglars don't knock" and answered the door, only to find a soaken-through and very frantic Arya Stark, eyes brimming with tears and face stained with eyeliner that she must have smudged wiping at her eyes, clutching tightly at the hand of her 'just-friend' Gendry, a charade which Margaery had easily seen past since the first time she'd seen them together, the summer when Arya convinced her mother to let her move to Highgarden at the beginning of the summer instead of the end.

This was the first time that Margaery had seen Arya in a state like this. She wasn't unemotional, in fact it was really quite the opposite, but waking up to a teary-eyed and nervous Arya was an occurrence that she had never been privy to before.

The next few hours were a blur in all their lives that they wished they never had to experience. Arya pulled Gendry in the door, practically bowling over Margaery as she went past her, shivering from the cold rain and hurriedly trying to string words together to make a coherent sentence, but only managing to get out something about "dad" and "accident" and "hospital" and "air-lifted". Margaery decided that this was something that Arya could explain to Sansa alone and let her stomp off towards the bedroom. Instead of going along, she put her arm around Gendry, ushering him towards the kitchenette, taking his wet windbreaker from him and putting a kettle on the stove to get everyone warmed up. She tended to the tea and listened to the story from Gendry's much more calm mouth.

They'd been sitting around at the Stark house for the normal Saturday night movie get-together. Margaery and Sansa had both been over earlier for dinner and stayed to watch Toy Story, but had headed back home before Theon put in the second movie. When the phone rang, Theon was snoring in an armchair, Robb and Jeyne has already drove home to relieve their babysitter, and Arya and Gendry had been sitting on the couch finishing up Braveheart. Arya had shot an angry face at Gendry when she had to get up to answer it, but called back to him from the other room that it was her mother. There'd been an accident at the job site where Ned, his brother Benjen, and the rest of their crew had been working at that day. He explained to Margaery the little bit of what he had heard from Arya's half of the conversation with Catelyn and tried to stay out of her way as the pushed Theon out of sleep, yelled at him to phone Robb, and then announced to Gendry that they were going to walk to Sansa and Margaery's apartment.

Something had happened at the job site, one of those accidents that is always liable to happen during logging, one of the ones they always warn against, but something had happened and Ned and his brother had both ended up under two large logs, Benjen's leg breaking and Ned taking the brunt of it, trying to push his little brother out of the way, only to end up under more himself. They weren't sure what was broken, but both brothers had been air-lifted to the hospital in Winterfell. Catelyn had called as soon as she had heard what had happened.

When Sansa and Arya entered the kitchen about ten minutes later, it was still Arya that seemed to be calling the shots, the same way Gendry had explained that she did earlier, almost proudly. Five hours later, bags had been quickly thrown together and the whole group, Margaery and Sansa, Arya and Gendry, Robb, Jeyne, little Ned, and even Theon met at the train station in downtown Highgarden and caught the first train out of town heading north to Winterfell. The normally two day long drive would take closer to a full day on the high speed rail line that had just been completed, and there had been no way that all of them would've been able to catch flights in such short notice.

They arrived at Winterfell and were picked up at the station by Jon and Ygritte, first to arrive from his proximity due to being stationed at the Castle Black military compound only a couple hour's drive north from town. The ride to the hospital from the station was short and Jon quickly led the large group up to Ned's room. Margaery remembered standing in the hallway with Gendry, Theon, Jon, and Ygritte, the group of outsiders, quietly watching the family running to one another, quickly able to discern the dynamics of the family. Catelyn stood up from the bedside chair when she heard the group, only to be enveloped in a large hug from a crying Jeyne and a Robb that was clearly just trying to hold himself together. Arya had dropped Gendry's hand once she caught sight of her mother, but instead of joining the group she pulled another chair up and sat beside her sleeping father's bed, looking over him cautiously before deciding it'd be okay to grab his hand. There'd been no one for Sansa at that moment, and without Ned to be on her side, Margaery was still unsure of how to conduct herself around Catelyn. She knew that Sansa was uncomfortable around her mother and was so thankful when Rickon and Bran came in a minute later, clinging onto Sansa and saving her from her lonely stance in the doorway shifting her weight between her left and right feet.

After reunions and Catelyn's attempt at an explanation, the attending doctor asked them all if they could join him in the waiting room and let everyone know what was happening. Uncle Benjen had told them all about the accident, with one of the cables failing on the flat bed truck and sending a number of logs falling off to where they both had been picking up the rest of their equipment at the end of the day. The doctor explained that the weight combined with the momentum of the logs had caused the injury and that Ned had injured three of the vertebrae in his lower back, as well has having numerous broken ribs, a body full of bruises, and enough pain that he'd been at the point of delirium and they'd been forced to knock him out until he stabilized. They wanted to keep him in the hospital for a few days to monitor everything and get the pain manageable before releasing him to go home, but the doctor had told them that in the grand scheme of things that everything was going to be alright, albeit having to be in stabilizing casts for this back and ribs for about twelve weeks.

Hours later and most of the group had left the hospital to grab some lunch and drop off all the bags back at the Stark house. It had been Robb's idea that it would be a good idea to get Rickon out of the hospital, since the youngest Stark was starting to get a little stir-crazy and it would do all of them some good to get a bit of fresh air. The nurses had some regular check up work to do on Ned and it would go smoother without all the spectators anyways. He'd left with Jeyne, Theon, Jon, Ygritte, Bran, and Rickon filling up the mini-van. Arya had volunteered herself and Gendry to stay behind, along with Margaery and Sansa, and everyone knew it was pointless to try and get Catelyn to leave the hospital.

Arya immediately dragged Gendry to the basement cafeteria, saying that she remembered from when she was in here for her broken leg that the food wasn't half bad, and asking Sansa and Margaery to join, but Sansa had replied that she wasn't hungry yet, that she'd get a drink in the cafe on their floor in case the doctors needed anything. Sansa had went into the little coffee shop to order, and in the time that it had taken Margaery to circle the floor twice looking for the bathroom and get back to the cafe, Catelyn had sat herself down at the same table as Sansa. Margaery stopped in the doorway, knowing that this was possibly the first time Sansa had spoke with her mother since they had went to Robb's wedding and also knowing full well that the conversation which happened at the wedding could barely even pass for a conversation. I've had more heartfelt conversations with strangers on the bus, she remembered thinking. Whatever they're doing, I'll just let them.

She stood quietly in the doorway and watched the awkward body language between mother and daughter become more natural until finally Sansa sat her coffee cup down on the table and threw herself into Catelyn, arms going around her and winding through auburn hair two shades darker than her own. They sat like that for Margaery isn't sure how long, she could see heads nodding and that was the only way she knew they were still talking. Finally, Catelyn stood, brushing long hair out of Sansa's face and walking towards the doorway, towards Margaery. She was coming to talk to her next and Margaery had no clue the direction that this was going to go in.

"I know I've been shit at showing it," Catelyn abruptly started, leaving Margaery to visibly wince at the swear word that sounded so awkward from her mouth, "but that girl in there with the cappuccino, I love her with all my heart-"

"Mrs. Stark, maybe this isn't the best time to -"

"Don't interrupt me, please," Catelyn said over her. "I love her with all my heart. All of my children. Even Arya when she mouths off to me, even Bran when he outsmarts me to get what he wants, even Rickon when he reminds me more of a wolf-child than a fourteen-year-old, even Robb when he says we need to move up the wedding because Jeyne's pregnant, and," she paused, bringing her hand up to the side of Margaery's head, "even Sansa when she tells me she's chosen to be with you. It was my mistake to cut off Sansa because she loves you, I've known that for a while now. We were so close when she was growing up and I'd always envisioned what her wedding would be like, meeting the man she'd choose, listening to Ned explain to him on the doorstep what would happen if he hurt our baby girl, meeting grandchildren, everything. But I've come to terms now, especially with all of this happening so suddenly, that what I wanted for Sansa was my dream, not hers, and I've already fulfilled mine. For years I've listened to all of the family explain to me how perfect you two are for each other and I'm ready to be a part of your lives, if you'll let me."

She'd stood there stunned, in front of the hospital coffee shop, for the longest few seconds of disbelief before she looked over at the little table that Sansa was sitting at. She caught her gaze and saw the huge smile come across Sansa's face, looking odd against eyes blood-shot from crying and the bags under her eyes that told of the lack of sleep she'd caught on the train, and knew what it meant.

"That's all both of us ever wanted," Margaery said.

XxXxXxXxX

"I know, babe, I know. But you know too, that your mother is trying her best to make up for what happened in the beginning, yea?" Margaery said, still holding onto Sansa in the hallway, who quickly nodded.

"I'll give it a chance. I really will," Sansa replied, pulling away from Margaery to head towards the bathroom to get ready.

They headed out to the baby shower a little less than an hour later, Sansa in a light blue babydoll dress that she had grudgingly bought last week after Margaery had persistently reminded her that a lot of her more formal wear didn't fit and that she wouldn't want to wear her normal black or gray pantsuits for work to the shower. Mags was right, she thought. It's got to be almost a hundred degrees out today and the idea of getting heat stroke in the middle of Aegon Square is not exact appealing. She was sitting cross-legged on a pillow in front of the couch. Margaery was sat behind her, fixing her hair. She'd allowed Margaery to braid the front of hair back, knowing that it would make her mother happy to see her a hairstyle that slightly resembled those of her childhood since she had cut her hair short.

It only took a minute or two for Margaery to hail a taxi, telling the driver they needed to go to the Cinnamon Wind Tea Shop down on Sixth Avenue, and helping Sansa squeeze herself into the backseat.

"I can hardly believe she's been here for three days and we haven't seen her yet," she said when Margaery let herself in the opposite door and scooted close to her. Her hand was quickly snatched and held in Mag's lap.

"Just wait. It'll be amazing, you'll see."

"How can you know?"

Margaery turned in the seat to face Sansa. "Well, hells, Sansa, think about it! Catelyn's been here for three days and you haven't seen her once. It's gotta be totally difficult to plan the shower from Winterfell so I'll bet she's here getting everything perfect. I don't think that Catelyn Stark does anything half ass."

"Yea," Sansa laughed, "I guess you are right."

She let go of Sansa's hand to stretch her arm jokingly over her shoulders, pulling her towards her and twitching her eyebrows up, which Sansa immediately recognized as her impersonation of Theon from the first time she'd met him. "Besides, I picked up Arya from Blackwater Station yesterday while you were at work, she told me all about the plans."

Sansa dropped her mouth open, scoffing and pretending to be appalled at Margaery, but second she saw Margaery quirk her head to the side, her face transformed back into a smile.

It only took about fifteen minutes to get from their apartment to the tea shop her mother had rented. Sansa wondered for a second how her mother knew that this was her favorite tea shop in the city, but figured either Margaery or Arya had helped her with that detail. She discovered the Cinnamon Wind during her first week in town. Only a couple of minutes' walk away from the Kings Landing Times offices, she'd stumbled in there after her nearly missing her first deadline from all the stress of moving and still having to do her research.

The place was perfect. All of the workers were welcoming from the first footstep she took through the doors, and she'd quickly learn all their names and little details about their lives, much like she had down on the other side of the counter working at the coffee shop back in Highgarden however many years ago. Sansa had always imagined tea shops as delicate places, plush carpets and sofas you sank into, lacy curtains, doilies for each spot at a table, but this place was different. It was sleek and modern, but still felt comfortable enough to spend time there. The floor was poured concrete, the ceilings were high and exposed to the ductwork that had been painted a deep warm burgundy. The walls were painted an equally warm gray, complimenting the colors in the ductwork, and the lamps and wall sconces crafted from iron and vintage jars worked to make the whole place well-lit against the dark walls. Each table was different, some bought from flea markets that were sanded back to their original glory, others that were handcrafted from reclaimed wood. There was a fireplace surrounded by wingback chairs, while all of the rest of the tables had eclectically upholstered chairs, some in seafoam green suedes, others in brightly printed fabrics, and the fabric on all of them was held in place with rows of brass studs.

Her mother had taken care of all of the preparations, with Margaery happily helping when she could, and she was sure that Arya had helped, just maybe less than happily than Margaery. Everyone was already at the Cinnamon Wind when they arrived, both guests of honor, and they were seated at a little head table in a room that had been decorated to be even more welcoming than it normally was. The tables were covered with crisp white tablecloths, Black-eyed Susans and baby's breath propped in vases in the center of each table. She noticed that each little place card either had the howling direwolf or the golden Tyrell rose.

Her mother was the obligatory master of ceremony, letting everyone know where to put presents, when the food was ready, and guiding everyone through the shower games she had planned. Sansa was amazed at how many people had came, work friends of the both of them were seated together, Aunt Lysa was making startlingly good conversation with Margaery's grandmother, even Jeyne Poole had made the journey down from Winterfell with Catelyn.

Sansa was seated at their head table, Margaery had volunteered to go up and get some snacks for both of them, but her face fell when Margaery returned with her plate filled with lemoncakes.

"Mags, babe, you know I can't eat these anymore. The Doctor would have a fit," she explained, thinking of the blood sugar test she'd have to take that evening.

"Well, actually, Arya made them and -"

"Hells, if that's the case then I really want to eat them!" Sansa joked.

She didn't notice Arya walk up the table, but she definitely heard her. "Hey! I resent that comment. I'll have you know that not only are those lemoncakes sugar-free but they're gods damn delicious. I worked for a week on them, so if you don't believe me, you can call Gendry and ask him yourself. He was my guinea pig for the taste-testing," she added, looked at the plate in from of Sansa smugly.

Well, as far as I know Gendry is still around, so at least they won't kill me, she thought. Highly doubt she'd poison her boyfriend, err, boyfriend-type person anyways.

"Fine, I'll try one."

Arya stared, narrowing her eyes, arms crossed, watching Sansa break off a corner of one of the lemoncakes and pop it into her mouth.

Seven hells.

Her eyes grew wide in disbelief.

"You're a miracle worker," Sansa managed to say between more bites. Surprisingly, Arya just gave her a knowing smile and returned to where she had been sitting.

Afterwards, her mother and Margaery started to take all of the presents out of the shop, and Sansa was left to find some other way to make herself useful. Even though she was this far along, she was used to her days being full, so after sitting around for the few hours at the shower she was starting to feel restless. She began to walk around the room collecting the flowers from the vases when she heard Arya's voice yelling behind her.

"Hey, preggers, wait up!"

She turned around, slouching a bit with one hand full of sprigs of baby's breath and the other resting on her lower back. There was no time for her to think of a clever retort.

"Arya Lyanna Stark! How many times have I told you not to call your sister that?" Her mother yelled from across the room. Sansa hadn't even noticed that her mother had come back into the building, but her gaze quickly went to her, seeing the daggers her eyes threw at Arya, the normal Catelyn Stark 'don't mess with me young lady' look they often got as children, Arya and Rickon much more often than Sansa.

Shaking her head, she walked the twenty or so feet over to Arya, hearing her groan loudly as she got closer. "Plenty of times, mom," she yelled back, obvious to Sansa that she was using all her willpower to tone down her usual snark. As their mother huffed and walked out of the building again with an armful of gifts, Arya turned to Sansa. "You'd think she'd stop scolding me like that by now. Gods! I'm 21 years old!"

"Maybe if you acted 21 years old then she wouldn't scold you like that," she suggested, only to have Arya roll her eyes at her in return. "Anyways, what's going on? Need something?"

She's nervous, I can tell. I wonder what she's up to. It's always something nowadays.

"Well, I know you got pretty much everything from your registry and I really did wanna get you something, but," she paused, biting at her lower lip as was her habit whenever she was nervous and trying to hide it. Sansa knew that Arya thought no one knew about this, that she was thought she was always able to hold her emotion in check, but they'd gotten much closer while at Highgarden. She wasn't transparent to Sansa, but she was much more so than when they were in high school. "Shit, Sansa, none of that baby crap is my thing, you know that. Besides, I figured the baby will have enough presents that maybe you'd want something for yourself."

She turned to look at her little sister, obviously dressed by their mother this morning. Her hair had been meticulously curled, pulled back away from her face, she was even wearing makeup. Well, makeup that was different from the pounds of eyeliner she wore most days. At least Mom let her choose her dress. It was much dressier than she would normally wear, but you could tell that she had a hand in the decision. It was a simple a-line dress, deep forest green with a lace overlay and cap sleeves, hitting just above her knees. Those shoes are definitely Mom's doing, she thought. Strappy sandals with heels? Jon and Theon would laugh so hard they'd cry.

She sighed. "Arya, you know you don't have to..." stops short, notices Arya's outstretched hand, holding a cassette in a translucent pink case. She couldn't make out what was written on the front, but it looked like Arya's tight left-slanted handwriting.

"It's not much," she paused for a moment when Sansa took the cassette from her, turning it over and over in her hands. Arya was still nervous, showing it in her lack of confidence and rambling words. "I know mix tapes are sort of uncool but I don't have a CD burner on my computer and Gendry's got this awesome stereo so he helped too. It's probably not a lot of the crap you normally listen to, but it's all songs about the baby... Gendry was adamant it needed to have a theme..."

"Oh, Arya," she managed to say before closing the couple of steps between them and pulling her sister into a crushing hug. I never expected this from her, Sansa realized as she started to cry loudly. Even if part was Gendry's idea, I can't imagine how much time it took her to get a tape full of songs recorded.

"Hells, Sansa, stop crying. It's just a present, yea?" She pulled back a couple inches, butt already sticking out from trying to not be crushed into Sansa's stomach.

She kept a tight hold on Arya's forearms, keeping her in place and smiling down at her, though not as far down she normally would have to thanks to Arya's heels and her flats. "It's the best present," she said firmly, letting go of an arm for second to wipe more tears from her eyes. "I love it, really I do. The sugar-free lemoncakes too, they were amazing."

"You two coming along?" They both looked up when they heard their mother's voice from the front door. "The spot out front is only a fifteen minute loading zone."

"Yes, mother!" Sansa yelled. She tucked the cassette tape into her bag and looped her arm through Arya's, leading her out of the tea room. "Sorry about the hug and the sobbing," she started again, much quieter this time. "Probably just these damned pregnancy hormones. You know the other day, the ticket officer in the subway looked at me funny when I couldn't find my monthly pass quick enough and I almost punched his stupid face in!" She didn't have time to ask Arya if she could believe it, she was already practically doubled over laughing.

Sansa couldn't control the smile on her face as they made their way to the rental car, continuing to crack Arya, and then her own mother, up with tales of her raging hormones and ridiculous reactions to everyday things. Everything went fine, she thought, watching the tall downtown buildings whiz by as Catelyn drove nervously through the city traffic. It was perfect. The games were perfect, the decorations were perfect, all of it. The back of the SUV was filled almost to the point that Catelyn couldn't see out the rear window. It didn't matter. For the first time in a very, very long time she felt the same support from her family that she had always had the first eighteen years of her life. Perfect. Minutes later, Arya was slumped over with her head resting on Sansa's side, sleeping, and she was leaned over even farther, eyes closed, resting on Margaery. She wasn't able to see her mother looking back at the two of them in the rear view mirror and smiling to herself.

XxXxXxX

Three Weeks Later

Catelyn Lyanna Stark-Tyrell, soon to be affectionately called Katie, came into the world on October 15th in a way that could've been used to predict the way the rest of her life would go.

Unexpected, for she was a little over two weeks early.

A little bit rude, for Sansa had made the most un-ladylike squealing noise in her seat in the press rows at the back of the Westerosi parliament building when her water broke.

With much reveling and a slight bit of fanfare, for when the floor speaker abruptly stopped the proceedings and asked her what the matter was, and many of the bristly old politicians started yelling their congratulations when she yelled about her problem.

Outspoken, for the loud ambulance that made it ways to the hospital and the earth-shattering screams and cries that came both from mother and daughter. Later, Margaery would tell Sansa she'd never thought she could physically make noises that loud.

Luckily, there was an intern shadowing her that day, actually for the past couple of weeks, and the young man, Podrick Payne, grabbed Sansa's cell phone out of her purse, calling the ambulance with a surprising amount of calmness she'd never seen out of the young man whose nerves made her wonder if he could ever handle interviewing some bigwig, but not anymore. Immediately after he hung up with the emergency worker he called Margaery, who was luckily on her lunch break in the city after spending the morning with her coworkers in the Kingswood wetlands.

Upon arrival, she was chided by the doctors for not listening when they said she needed to be on bed rest the month before her due date because of the diabetes, or at least not working they'd stressed, and in an unexpected move Sansa had bucked her usual trend of listening and continued to go to work. She rationalized that her intern was with her and her job wasn't physically demanding anyways.

Despite all of the nausea, sleepless nights, strict diet, insulin checks, and everything else that Katie had put her through for what seemed like forever, it was all out of her system by the time she saw fit to enter the world. Sansa was checked into the hospital at one in the afternoon, Margaery arrived a half hour later, dressed in her field gear, rubber boats and waders, and Katie was loudly announcing herself by four.

There were no issues, no complications, the doctors weren't even concerned with her weight. Once all of the parents had been called and Katie had been cleaned up, Margaery crawled into the hospital bed with Sansa, who was leaning on her side, watching Katie sleep in the wheeled crib pulled all the way against the bed.

Your mom was right, you know, she thought. About how I'd feel once I met you. You probably got some harsh vibes off me for the past nine months but I promise I'm not like that, not really. You were just, well, a bit trying, that's all.

She woke up in the middle of the night, a note on the table from Margaery saying that she loved her, little Katie, was proud of her, and would be back at the hospital at 9am sharp to take the two of them home, after squaring away some things at the lab. She explained that Sansa had fallen asleep about a half hour after dinner and the attending nurse thought it might just be better to let her rest instead of wake her up for a goodbye.

She laid there in the dark for a few minutes, noticing that the clock on the bedside table read a quarter past three, and realizing that she probably wasn't going to fall back asleep for a while. In the rush of getting her to the hospital from the Parliament building, Margaery had come straight from the Kingwood wetland area, driving the SUV that belonged to the lab, so the hospital bag that she had painstakingly prepped was still sitting at home. She grabbed her purse off the hook on the wall, flipped on the bedside light, and dug through the little belongings she had with her to try and find something to occupy herself with for a little while. The shops on the first floor are all closed, or else I'd go try to buy a magazine or something... and it's too late to go down to the nursery. She sighed, pulling out one of those little crossword books from airport bookstores, but shoved it back inside when she hit something hard and plastic. She was surprised to pull out a cassette tape, but once she turned it over and read the handwriting, she instantly remembered. The baby mix-tape that Arya gave me at the shower. I can't believe I haven't had a chance to listen yet, it's just been so hectic with work and getting the baby's room – no, Katie's room ready, she corrected herself, smiling though no one was around.

She felt around a bit more in her large bag, hissing a "yes" under her breath and pulling out her Walkman and headphones. I knew I kept these in hear for a reason. That'll teach the rest of the copy room to tease me about how big my purse is. Pressing the open button, she put the tape in and quickly close the lid, and hit the play button, making a loud clacking noise.

There was no part of Sansa that had an inkling about what songs would be on the cassette. She pulled out the little list of paper where the song list would normally be written down, but found only gel-pen doodles from Arya. Such is the life of the art school student.

The music started and she was flooded with nursery rhymes from her childhood. The memories of her mother singing them to her were a little fuzzy, but she clearly remembered singing them to her younger siblings and her cousin Robert when he'd visit. Next there were a couple of sing-song lullabies about the Mother or the Father, quite possibly the cheesiest of the cheesy songs that Arya could've picked. It suddenly struck her though, that she couldn't figure out she got these songs on the cassette. I've never heard a radio station that plays the Mother's Hymn, she wondered until a very familiar voice came into her ears.

"So by now, I assume that you've started to wonder how I taped these past couple songs. That's because, my dearest Sansa, I am an awesome younger sister. Lucky for you, the children's section of the local library has a music collection. Big surprise, none of these chart-toppers were checked out."

Sansa laughed. Leave it to Arya to put her two cents in everything. That was the last of the lullabies and it soon moved into more popular songs, or at least songs that were popular at some point in time. Every couple of songs Arya would pop on again and say something that would make Sansa laugh, remember little parts of their childhood, and realize that even though the baby was out that the hormones had not instantly stopped pumping through her system. Arya must have had to go to the library every other day to get all these songs on here. None of this is what she or Gendry listen to.

She soon fell back asleep, listening to Axl Rose sing 'Sweet Child of Mine', Whitney Houston belting out 'I'm Your Baby Tonight', or maybe some old classic like 'Baby, I Love Your Way.' When she woke up a couple hours later, a bit of sunlight had started to stream through the windows and the cassette had more than finished. It was just after seven, and she remembered the nurse from yesterday saying that was when she could come back down to the nursery. There was a terrycloth robe on the back of the bathroom door, probably the only amenity that the upgraded maternity room offered, but she shrugged it on over the scrubs she was wearing. She stopped short of the door and doubled back to the bed to grab her Walkman, putting the headphones on and holding the rest in her hand in the robe pocket.

Unsure of where she had left off, she started the tape again from the beginning, fast-forwarding through the songs she could remember as she made her way to the nursery. She stopped at one point and heard Arya's voice.

"Me here again. Bet you're real glad that Gendry's stereo has a microphone," she said with a bit of a chuckle. "Huh, what's that? Dammit, Gendry, I'm recording Sansa's present! Shut up!" There was a very disgruntled sigh after that. "Gendry says hi. Anyways, I know you've had a pretty shit go at pregnancy so far, and I know that sucks and all, but everyone is positive you'll make a great mom and no matter what you're feeling right now, the second you meet my new niece or nephew it'll be all worth it. Most of the songs have been just for fun, but I wanted to give you that really captures this... so yea. Here it is."

She finished up her walk to the nursery, finding Katie in her little crib easily. Closest row of cribs, third from the right. A nurse recognized her and nodded her approval as Sansa lifted a sleeping Katie out of the crib, walked over, and took a seat on one of the couches. Arya finished her little commentary and the next song started playing.

She recognized it right away, it'd been super popular on the radio in the beginning of the year, but it wasn't until the chorus started that Sansa realized the message behind why Arya had recorded this song.

I'll be better when I'm older

I'll be the greatest fan of your life

She wasn't sure she'd ever heard something more true in her life.