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FOR THE LOVE OF MY CHILD
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Eddard Stark watched with a serene smile as his daughters played in the yard. It had been so long since he had seen them both acting so happy and carefree that for quite some time it had broken his heart to remember that it had been partly because of him.
Of course, he would always remind himself that it had been mostly his first wife's fault.
At the beginning of their marriage, she had always talked excitedly of the many sons and daughters they would have together. How their sons would be proud gentlemen and heirs, while their daughters would be proper and educated ladies, admired and loved by all. Eddard had been slightly worried about her plans for their daughters but hadn't really thought much of it for many years.
At least until their third child and second daughter, Arya, turned eight. While their first daughter Sansa was the perfect little lady, Arya was the complete opposite. From a very young age, Sansa had loved fairy tales and dresses and being as charming as possible, while Arya always preferred to play in the mud with her brothers and practice different sports. Every weekend, when he was finally free from managing his company, he would take his sons and Arya to football matches and to eat junk food afterwards. He tried to involve Sansa in their outings but she always refused and it was Catelyn instead who argued with him to stop Arya from going.
It was because of this that what had started as mere disagreements turned into full arguments that usually ended with an angry Catelyn and with him moving into the guest room. It was hard for Eddard to have such fights with his wife but he bore it for the sake of theirs children.
Until the day Catelyn got angry with Arya for accidentally ruining her new dress and struck her, making her fall to the floor with the force of the hit.
No sooner had Eddard returned home that night that he senses something off and it didn't take him long to find his little girl crying in her room as well as how red and swollen her left cheek looked. He managed to stay calm until she told him what had happened and after soothing her and making sure she wasn't hurt anywhere else, he hastily packed some things for her and told her to wait for him in his car. After that he went straight to the master bedroom, pulling out a suitcase from his wardrobe and filling it without uttering a word.
"Ned, what are you doing?" – his wife asked him, resting her hand in his should only to be shrugged off with fury. – "Ned?"
"Leave me alone, Catelyn." – was all he said. This surprised her greatly. Ever since they had started dating she had always been Cat to him, never Catelyn.
Ned finished packing and then he turned to his wife.
"If you ever dare to touch my child again, I will destroy you." – he promised her, looking her straight in the eye.
"All this because of Arya, Ned?" – she asked incredulously just as the man was about to leave the room and made him stop on the threshold. – "That child is always acting like savage and I won't allow it."
"A savage? Are you even listening to yourself?" – he couldn't believe the words coming out of her mouth. – "You are talking about your own daughter."
"That girl is too wild. She has to be more refined."
"She's just a child."
"When she was her age Sansa already knew how to behave like a lady. So that is not an excuse." – she exclaimed.
Ned knew his wife wasn't willing to see reason on this topic so he decided to finish as soon as possible and take his daughter away from there.
"Even if you leave, I'm not going to stop trying to shape Arya into a proper lady. And if I have to strike her to achieve it, so be it." – she concluded, raising her chin stubbornly.
"Then it is a good thing my child is coming with me." - he told her smirking, leaving her speechless.
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The next few days passed normally for both father and daughter.
Ned had taken a few days off to take care of her and ensure she was settling comfortably in their hotel room. At first she had acted shy and teary eyed but after days without her mother's constant nagging she relaxed and smiled more, for which Ned was really grateful.
A couple of weeks later, however, and after much insistence from his wife and three other children, Ned and Arya returned home. Fortunately for Arya, her mother seemed to be more understanding and usually left her youngest girl to her own devices. Her relationship with Ned was a bit strained at the beginning, since neither of them knew what to expect from the other but things had started to look good for the couple too.
Until another incident, more serious and devastating for Arya, happened.
She had recently convinced her dad to let her join a fencing club and was very excited with all she was learning. She could barely stop talking about her teacher or the many friends she was making there. She didn't even mind that it was her father who had to take her to all her lessons instead of her mother like she did with her other children. She was actually happier that it was Ned, who encouraged her to practice and had even set a special room for her to practise at home.
But then one afternoon, her brothers had convinced her to show her all she had learned and thus had spent the next hour in the backyard with them. Everything had been going alright until Bran, only a five year old boy then, had come too close to her sword and had it not been for Arya's quick reflexes, the little boy could have ended up injured. But that hadn't seemed important for Catelyn, who had seen the entire scene from the kitchen and was now exiting the house, running towards them.
"Mom... I'm so..." – Arya started, but was silenced by a powerful slap.
"Shut up, you idiot child!" - screamed her mother.
"Mom!" – called Robb, her eldest, astounded by her mother's actions. She, however, didn't pay him any attention, busy with grabbing Arya's sword with one hand and her daughter's hands with the other.
"You. Are never playing with this again." – full with fury she hit the girl's hands with the sword repeatedly, ignoring her sons' screams and Arya's howls of pain.
Only by miracle did Robb managed to push his mother away from Arya and as soon as the girl was free she ran away without looking back.
By the time a hysterical Bran called his father, Catelyn had already dropped the bloody sword and left with Sansa to her dancing lessons, uncaring of her other child's disappearance. Ned, on the other hand, dropped everything and returned home immediately and started a search for his girl.
And found her he did.
And it was with a broken heart that Eddard carried his broken and unconscious daughter and took her to the nearest hospital.
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The next few days were a blur for Arya, but Ned hadn't stayed idle.
As soon as he knew his daughter would make a full recovery and there wouldn't be scars, he returned home.
"Go pack your things." – he said to his sons, who were waiting for him in the family room. The boys hurried to obey and then he went to find his other daughter. She, contrary to the other two, refused to leave the house until her angry father yelled at her to hurry. Finally he found his wife in their room, acting as if nothing had happened.
"How could you?" – he asked, furious with the woman and barely able to contain his desire to slap her.
"What are you talking about, my love?" – she tried to kiss him but he pushed her away.
"This is the last time you hurt Arya, Catelyn."
"Oh please, that girl had it coming. She could have hurt Bran." – she defended herself.
"And instead you hurt her and now she is in the hospital." – Ned explained.
"It was just an accident, Ned. No need for her to exaggerate all this." – Ned was so angry by this that he grabbed her by the hair and looked her straight in the eye.
"My daughter's hands were nearly damaged beyond repair and you dare to say she is exaggerating. Don't you dare, Catelyn." – he threatened her before letting her go to fix his suitcase. – "I'm leaving and I'm taking my children with me."
"You can't do that!" – Catelyn argued, angry now too.
"Watch me."
"If you want to leave with that daughter of yours, fine. But Robb, Sansa and Bran stay.
Ned preferred not to listen to her anymore and as soon as he finished packing he left the room. Fortunately, the three kids were already waiting for him near the door.
"Robb. Bran. Sansa." - Catelyn called them. Only Sansa tried to run towards her, while the boys only held onto their father.
"Come on kids." – Ned told them, opening the door and grabbing Sansa before she went far.
After that, he took them to a hotel and settle them for the night before going back to check on his other daughter. The next day he took them to see Arya and when they saw her bandaged hands, they ran to her and started crying, making her cry too.
A week later, she was released from hospital and Ned was finally able to take them all to the new house he had bought. 'Now,' he thought, 'she can heal her body and mind peacefully.'
Or so he believed.
Somehow Catelyn had discovered where they lived and there wasn't a day when she didn't come to get them to return home. When that didn't work because Ned refused to even open the door, she started threatening him. But he still wouldn't let her see the children. Not until the trial for divorce and custody.
Thankfully, he thought, it wasn't long before their divorce was settled but the custody fight had turned into a nightmare. By the time the case has reach the family court, Catelyn was already in a relationship with her childhood friend, Petyr Baelish, a relationship that seemed far too intimate to be new. It had been a blow for Ned, but that only made him more determined to take his children away from her. And he was almost certain of his victory when Sansa started crying in front of everyone that she just wanted to be with her mother. Obviously the woman's lawyer used this to their advantage and sure as hell that it worked, since it was decided that the children could choose which parent to live with.
Ned was almost sure he was going to lose his other three children to that harpy. But luckily for him, Robb and Bran, witnesses of their mother's cruelty towards Arya, wanted nothing to do with the woman. Only Sansa pleaded to stay with Catelyn. And he couldn't do anything else but accept it since the judge assured him he could still visit her.
Six months after the end of the trial, Ned was trying to get Arya to return to the fencing club. But everything he did was proving to be useless. Arya's wounds had healed, but the experience had been so traumatic for her that he could only watch his darling girl scared of doing anything physical without being able to do anything to help her. In the end he accepted her decision and returned to the club to pick her daughter's things.
One year later, he would make sure everybody knew how happy he was of having gone that day. Since that was the day he had officially met the woman he was sure he would spend the rest of his days with and who would love and cherish his children like her own.
He would say that was the day when he had met his daughter's fencing instructor, Cersei Lannister.
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A/N: And it had to be done, there are simple not enough Ned/Cersei stories out there. I hope you like it and since English is not my native language, I apologise for any mistake. Let me know what you think :)