"I ask you to do one thing for me, find Sansa Stark and bring her back to the castle and you can't even do that?"

Frustrated by their lack of success, Cersei Lannister was raging. It was the next day and Ser Boros and Ser Meryn had failed to bring in the Stark girl.

Ser Boros Blount and Ser Meryn Trant stood there taking the brunt of her rage as Cersei paced the room and raged aloud. It was best not to interrupt the Queen Regent in one of her tempers, so both men stood there silently taking her copious verbal abuse as their due. There wasn't much they could say, after they had failed in their mission: Sansa Stark was still missing.

"Useless stuffed shirts!" Cersei raged, her voice rising. "Gods, why do I even bother asking you to do anything! If you want a job done, don't ask a man!"

In his chair at the head of the table, Joffrey smirked. There was nothing he enjoyed better than someone else getting it in the neck.

"Now, now sister that is rather unfair. Not all men are useless. Just these ones-" Tyrion said as he sat behind his desk glaring at the hapless duo. "I remember giving specific orders about the importance of finding Lady Stark as soon as possible. Perhaps I failed to impart the sense of urgency we required, or the consequences should you not succeed."

"We did search high and low for her, my lord, but the girl's disappeared-" Ser Meryn protested.

"She is a high-born maid of six-and ten! She has no friends in King's Landing, no money, nothing! Tell me how the girl could be vanished into thin air?" Cersei had no patience for their excuses.

"I don't know, your Grace-" Ser Boros said in a sulk, resenting being dragged across the coals by the Hand. "I did say that she might well be dead."

"The mob probably tore her to pieces." Ser Meryn chimed, making things worse for himself.

"You idiots! The moment that the Starks hear a whisper about this, Ser Jaime's life will be forfeit and all thanks to you two bozos!" she hissed. She advanced towards them, fists clenched and the two men stepped back eager to avoid another ear-boxing such as they had earned the day before. Cersei had a heavy hand and she was snarling at them both in vicious fashion. "You heard how they like to carry out their own punishment – 'the man who passes the sentence must swing the sword'- Robb Stark will probably take him out and chop off Jaime's head himself!" she let out a distressed sob at the thought.

"Cersei, please." Tyrion tried to soothe his distraught sister with little success. She shot him a look of loathing which was somewhat undeserved. He was trying to help her find the damned girl, before any more trouble came of it. He wasn't the one who messed this up. It was these two clowns, failing in their duties.

This was the last thing we need! Tyrion thought, weary at their lack of success.Father was still away harrying the Riverlands, and the city was still seething with unrest which had yet to be quelled. At the moment they were all trapped in the Red Keep and the tensions were all getting to them causing them all to lash out at each other. The girl needed to be found and swiftly before any more damage could be done. All it needed was for word to leak out to the Starks...

Joffrey sat there with a petulant pout on his face. "So send someone else out to find her! I want her back, Mother. She shan't get away from me!"

"You think that she took the chance to run away, Joffrey?" Cersei seized on her son's statement.

Joffrey sneered at thought of his betrothed doing anything so daring of her own accord. " -I doubt it. The girl is biddable, and gullible. I don't believe the thought would have eve crossed her mind."

"She may have been hurt, or someone with a grudge against us may have captured her. It's very possible she may have been dragged off her horse by the mob. She wasn't a strong rider really and she was unarmed, of course." Tyrion fretted, worrying over the possibilities. "Gods help us, she must be found."

"Not by these two. Couldn't find their own arses in a brothel!" Cersei took a deep breath, closing her eyes briefly.

"Clegane will be back on duty in a matter of moments. He was out all night looking for her and dealing with any trouble, which is a damn sight more than you two clowns managed! If his Grace did not need men to guard him I would demote you both for your utter imcompetence!"

Boros went red with anger, rage at Tyrion's scathing words welling up but Cersei cut across them.

"At least he managed to find the chestnut. But where's the damned girl?" She made a noise of sheer frustration.

"We'll speak to him when he reports for duty. Get these two fools out of my sight, they annoy me even looking at them!" Tyrion spat. "Too scared to look for a girl!"

Boros and Meryn did not need to be told twice. They left the Hand's office in an undignified scramble.

Sandor Clegane arrived to report to duty, knocking to gain admittance to the Hand's Office. He'd got little rest since returning from his search in the town which was still simmering with unrest. His fearsome appearance was enough to quell any burgeoning trouble, not many people were fool enough to tangle with a man with half his face burnt off and his reputation – and that of his monstrous brother preceded him.

"Dog, there you are!" Joffrey said imperiouly spotting him entering the room. "I was just about to have you summoned. I have a task for you."

"My liege-" Sandor stood to attention, awaiting orders from Joffrey.

"Lady Sansa Stark is still missing. I want you to continue the search and track her down, dog." Joffrey ordered. "She must be found alive is that clear?"

"Come in regularly to report on your progress, but I want you to keep searching until she is found. You are excused from your regular duties until such time as she is found ." Cersei added. "At least now we have someone competent on her trail. If she's still in King's Landing we should be able to find her. Ugh, those two idiots! We've lost a day at least now-"

Clegane bowed. "I'll leave straight away, your Graces."

As soon as Clegane left, Joffrey scowled. "There has to be reprisals against the people. How dare they mock and attack their king!"

Tyrion couldn't believe Joffrey. They were hanging on to power by the tips of their fingers.For the first time in years, the Kingsguard were afraid to enter the town for fear of attack by the enraged populace. And Joffrey was seriouslytalking about reprisals? Whenthey were trapped in the palace like rats in a golden cage?

"We should send some of the gold cloaks to round up some of the worst agitators."

"How pray are we going to find them?" Tyrion didn't even hide his sarcasm. "- in the great teeming mass of humainty that is our capital city?"

"We go into the town in force and we kill one man in ten...or maybe five. That will teach the small-folk not to insult their betters." Joffrey smirked at his grand idea. "That will be a lesson they will remember for a long time!"

This boy was going to be worse than Aerys if he was not firmly reined in. Tyrion almost wished his father would turn up at the palace. It seemed he was the only person who could control the boy; Cersei was completely out of her depth at this point.

"Joffrey, I don't think-" Cersei started to say dubiously.

"AM I OR AM I NOT KING?" Joffrey thundered, his neck and ears turning red. At that moment he really did resemble Robert Baratheon in one of his rages. "Those beggars insulted you, mother. They shouted sedition and treason. They threw dung at me! They called me a bastard!"

That's a damn sight more mild than what men call you in private, thought Tyrion. Gods, could the boy try and make the situation even worse?

"Uncle Stannis and his foul lies are poisoning my kingdom against me! I can't allow it! Send them out and make the people pay for their insolence, I demand it." he stormed out in a temper, slamming the door behind him.

"What do we do?"

Tyrion sighed, as usual he was going to have to pick up the pieces and he'd likely get little thanks for it either. Someone was going to have to be the voice of reason in this family before they all imploded.

Sandor headed to the stables to fetch his horse. Back out on oatrol, still trying to track down the Stark girl wherever she might have gone.

If the lass has any sense in that little brain of hers, she'll take this chance with both hands and get away from the capital and the Lannister's long grasp.

Perhaps he had underestimated the little bird. She'd taken all the abuse Joffrey and the Kingsguard had thrown at her, still chirping her sweet courtesies to all and sundry despite the fact she would have every right to hate these people for what they had done to her family. The first chance she had to escape their depraved clutches, the girl had taken it. At least he hoped just a bit that she had. Knowing her, she'd probably been ravished and thrown in a ditch, her slender white throat slit.

The lass has no friends and no common sense either. She's alone in a dangerous city boiling with resentment and anger towards her kind. So foolish and trusting, anything might have happened to her.

"C'mon Stranger, we've work to do." he muttered to his great black beast of a horse as they headed into the city.

Enjolras

Combeferre and Marius went to find their leader, who was still awake and working in his room. Seeing the light of the lantern shining from underneath the door, they knocked once and pushed the door open. Enjolras sat in his shirt-sleeves, hand raking through his curls as he laboured over yet another piece for the pamphlet.

"I suppose you've come to reproach me for the way I spoke to this Sansa lass, aren't you." he said looking up at his guests.

Enjolras didn't care if it sounded like he was sulking- well maybe he was a little bit and it didn't help that he felt terrible for the way things had escalated between the two of them.

He hadn't meant to raise his voice to her, to speak so disparagingly of people she evidently knew and felt strongly about. The tears that had sprung into her eyes at the mention of Ned Stark. She was a northern girl she must have had a great deal of loyalty and respect for him. Perhaps she shouldn't have mocked her, assuming that she would only have interest in a tragic dashingly handsome figure like the late Lord Renly. She had spoken a great deal of sense about Renly, showing she had some understanding of the issues at hand.

"Weren't you listening when Eponine told you those men threatened her down that alleyway? She's young, unarmed and gently-bred. She must have been terrified." He could hear the reproach in Marius's voice and though he felt a bit resentful he knew deep down that the other man was right. He had behaved abominably. If truth be told he was a little ashamed of himself right now.

"Gently-bred. Well, I suppose you'd know all about that, wouldn't you Marius?" he couldn't quite help jabbing.

Marius ignored the jab at his own aristocratic background. "Listen to the way she talks, the way she dresses, that silver dragonfly pendant round her neck... I know she looked like she'd been dragged through every gutter in King's Landing backwards but that dress was silk and there was silver thread and tiny pearls in the embroidery on it. It must have cost a pretty penny-"

"She was literally shaking as she faced you but she didn't back down."

Enjolras had noticed her reaction and it had rather intrigued him. Why was she so scared? Had the girl been abused?

"Why were you so horrendous to her anyway? You were ripping her apart for no reason?" Combeferre remarked. "I've never seen you get so het up, and over a girl of all things! Even though she'd be gorgeous once she had a bit of a scrub."

Enjolras couldn't have said why the girl irritated him so much, or why he was so discomfited by his friend's admiring words. She was beautiful, that much was certain, so lovely it was hard to gaze at her at close range.

"What do you mean, gorgeous?" he said to his friend, a dangerous edge to his voice.

Combeferre forged on, not noticing the chill in his friend's tone. "Come on, I know you're particularly single-minded and we all love you for it, but even you have to see she is stunning!"

Marius nodded in agreement. "I'm taken, of course but even I can see it. The loveliest complexion, those fantastic blue eyes and her bone structure is exquisite."

"I thought you were mad in love with that Cosette girl?" Enjolras sneered, just for the heck of it. He'd pretty much got over his disapproval of Marius's ridiculous crush on the wealthy merchant's daughter. But he wasn't going to be as foolish as moon over this mysterious high-born maiden in the same way. She'd never look at you twice anyway, he told himself ruefully. Sansa is way out of your league, Enjolras, don't forget it.

Marius snorted a little scornfully, "I might be in love; but I'm not blind, Enjolras. Combeferre is right, that girl is well-"

He found to his surprise he didn't much like them talking admiringly of her in that fashion.

"Do you mind? she's a maid in distress, not a piece of meat thank you!" he snapped.

"But seriously, I think you ought to apologise to the girl." Combeferre said earnestly not taking offence at his tone.

"Aye, perhaps you could offer her some help, seeing as she seems to have nowhere to go. She needs our help. Eponine was right; we can't leave a female in need, not if we can help her." Now Marius was getting in on the act.

"Wait a minute-" Enjolras protested.

This was going all too fast. How did they know that Sansa would accept their help anyway? After the way that he'd spoken to her, she probably wanted nothing to do with any of them ever again. Damn it, he was right! He was going to have to apologise to the chit.

"It's the right thing to do, isn't it?"

"Fine, I'll apologise to the lass, just to shut you two both up." Enjolras scowled as his friends grinned at him, knowing that he would do anything for a quiet life, especially where she was concerned. "Ask Eponine if she can bring her here again and we'll work something out."

Eponine had managed to catch Sansa up before she stormed off in a passion into the night.

"Look, I know you're mad. I can understand that, truly, but you really can't head off into the night. Come on, let's be sensible about this!" she said hurrying to catch the redhead up.

Sansa's face was scrunched up as if she was trying very hard not to start crying. "I don't understand why he was so hateful! If he didn't want me there then why didn't he just say so?"

"It's not that-" Eponine started to say, trying to comfort her as best she could.

"-Then what, Eponine? He turned on me the moment I spoke. I know he told me to be silent but I couldn't stand aside and allow him to say those things about Lord Stark, it wasn't right."

When Eponine impulsively gave her a hug, she sagged in her arms the weariness and heightened emotion of the day getting to her. "I'm so tired-" she said into Eponine's shoulder.

"I know dear friend, but there's no need to run off in the darkness, is there? Stay a while. Let us help you-" she raised her head and Sansa's gaze followed hers.

Enjolras stood a little distance off, as if unsure of his reception.

"Sansa?"

She blushed to have him see her so vulnerable.

"Go to him, Sansa. I think he wants to say something to you." Eponine encouraged.

Sansa moved towards him until they were two feet apart from each other and than stopped, staring at each other as if neither of them could tear their eyes away from each other.

"I said some things that were out of line-" Enjolras said, soft and earnestly. "I lost my temper and refused to listen to what you were saying. My pride and zeal caused me to shout at you when you were in obvious distress."

She stood there gazing at him, with huge eyes. He took another few steps towards her until he was so close he could have touched her easily, but he made no move to.

"I would understand if you wanted nothing to do with us, but I'd like it if we could start again, milady? Can we?"

"I-" she bit her lip as she gazed up at him. "Oh ser, I don't know-"

"Come back to the tavern, for tonight. Come home. We can talk in the morning , make everything right, I promise. Come home...The street is no place for a lass like you." his voice was so soothing and almost tender as he talked to her Eponine was rather surprised by him. Enjolras was so dedicated to his cause so remote and proud it was strange to see him act so differently.

Slowly Sansa put out her hand, letting him capture it in his. She gave him a shy tremulous smile.

"Can you forgive me?" he said to her so low and gentle Eponine who was right behind them nearly didn't catch it.
Sansa slowly nodded, almost nestling into him as he put his arm round her guiding her home.
Eponine followed the couple back to the tavern watching them carefully, lost in thought. Whatever thoughts she had, she kept them firmly to herself.