When Arya woke in the morning Jaime was already gone. Somehow that was worse than if he had stayed. She reached over and found that his side of the bed was warm. He hadn't been gone for long. She kept her hand on the warm side of the bed and finally allowed herself to cry. She managed to dry up her tears before the maids came to help her bathe and dress. Then for some reason the smell of the rose petals in the tub set her off again.

"Are you alright m'lady?" Asked the thin freckled red haired maid. Arya didn't know her name.

"I'm fine."

"You're crying. Is there anything I can do to help?" Red asked.

"I said I'm fine. I'm not crying. Just...just...get out!" Arya yelled at them, both the red haired maid and the blonde one. She didn't need people staring at her like this.

Once they were gone she realized her predicament. She was still in the tub, her spear was across the room, and the floor was wet from where one of the maids had clumsily spilled water while trying to fill the tub. There was no way she was getting out of there safely. She finished washing herself and then clung to the sides of the tub to push herself to her feet. There was nothing nearby to hold on to and steady her as she stepped over the side. She couldn't decide if she should step out with her good leg or her bad leg. Either way she was likely to slip. She wasn't afraid of slipping, or of falling. However she didn't want to fall so hard that blacked out again. Jaime might just come up to check on her after breakfast and she didn't want to be blacked out on the floor naked when he did. She heard a knock at the door. Too late.

"Arya?" He was already opening the door.

"Wait!" She found her voice too late. He was already in the room, the door swung shut behind him. He only stared for about three seconds.

"Where are your maids?" He said as he crossed the room and grabbed a towel. He wrapped it around her without really looking at her as he did so.

"I sent them out." She admitted.

"Why would you do that?" He said as he scooped her out of the tub and carried her over to the bed. "Clearly, you needed help to get out of the tub."

"Because they didn't need to see any of my stupid tears." She said, frustrated.

"You're okay with letting them see you naked but not letting them see you cry?" He said, taking a seat next to her on the bed.

She wondered for a moment if he was really talking about the maids or about himself. She hadn't flinched or even tried to cover herself when he came into the room. She had only stared back at him. She didn't even know why.

"I'd rather not let anyone see me cry." She said.

"Not even me?"

"Especially not you." Arya said. "Maybe you should send them back in her so they can help me dress."

"I could help you dress." He said teasingly.

"No you couldn't." She said, a blush on her cheeks.

Grinning, Jaime got up from the bed. "I'll send them in."

Once he was gone Arya breathed a sigh of relief but some part of her wanted to laugh about the whole thing. He could have turned around and left the room and sent the maids back rather than did what he did. Except that he was her husband and seeing her naked shouldn't be so out of the ordinary. She supposed she couldn't complain. It could have been worse.

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After breakfast Jaime went straight to the practice yard. He couldn't think clearly after what had just happened. Two things were troubling him about the incident. For one, this was the first time he had seen just how bad the flogging she had received really had been. Most of the skin was healed enough that there were no longer open sores but there were still a lot of lines. Many more lines than a few lashes worth. Why had she even been flogged anyway? It was fairly normal to need to hold back family members during executions. He'd never known of any incidents of them being punished for it, unless she had killed someone in the attempt. It seems like she would have been executed too if that had been the case. He couldn't help but wonder what had truly happened. And he couldn't stop thinking about how much he wanted her after seeing her like that. He'd almost gotten the memories of the wedding night out of his mind. Now he needed a sword to rid himself of these thoughts all over again.

After a couple of hours one of the servants interrupted his practice to tell him that Lady Arya wasn't in her room and no one seemed to know where she had gone. He headed back into the castle to see for himself. Sure enough, she wasn't in her room. He had no idea where to start looking. He headed back into his chambers to change out of his sweaty tunic and join the search. His shirt was off and he was reaching for another one when he heard something like a muffled sob. He turned towards the sound and for the first time noticed the human sized lump under the blankets on his bed.

"Arya?" He said approaching the bed. She seemed to be curled up on her side. "Are you alright?"

She didn't answer him so pulled back the blankets so he could talk to her. Her eyes widened at the sight of him shirtless, then she blushed and grabbed the blankets and pulled them back over her head again as if to hide from him. She had obviously been crying. He felt a little bit bad for finding her like this when she hadn't wanted him to see her crying and she clearly wasn't comfortable with his lack of a shirt. But what was she doing in his bed? He went and put on a tunic before trying to speak to her again. He didn't try to pull the blankets back again.

"The servants thought you were missing. They've started searching the castle for you. What are you doing in here?" He said gently.

"Mourning." She said with a sob.

He didn't know what to say. He went to the door to speak to one of the servants and tell them that Arya had been found. Then he went back to her and sat in the bed. He put his hand on her shoulder. She reached out from under the blankets and held his hand, never letting him see her face. He held her hand tightly while she wept for a long while.

Eventually Arya's sobs ended and she went quiet. Jaime wondered if she had cried herself to sleep. He was about to just leave and let her sleep when she spoke to him.

"Thank you." She said.

"It was nothing Arya." He told her then he got up and crossed the room and wet a cloth in the wash basin. He flipped back the blankets and passed her the cloth. She took it and washed her face. "How about I bring you down to the great hall for the noon meal? It would at least be a change of pace."

She nodded. "Sounds good to me."

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It was good to be in a hall filled with people again even if she did have to sit in Lady Lannister's seat. It had been loneliness that had driven her to Jaime's bed in the first place. She had known it was silly and even childish maybe to be lonely after only a couple of hours left to herself but the silence had forced her to face all the thoughts she hadn't wanted to face. She couldn't be alone anymore and she couldn't trust herself to make it all the way to the training yard where Jaime likely had gone to. So she had done the only thing she could. She had gone to his bed and curled up under the blankets, enveloped in his scent. She felt a bit better here in the great hall even if she didn't know most of these people. Arya listened to the gossip around her while Jaime spoke with the Stable Master Evard who was seated nearby.

"...At least the stallion is healing well. Most beasts take lot longer than that to get well after those sorts of injuries." The man was saying. "I hear the Queen's dragon isn't doing nearly so well."

This had Arya's attention.

"What happened to her dragon?" Jaime had apparently not heard this bit of news yet.

"There was this execution some weeks ago. The man's wife didn't want want him killed of course and she somehow broke through the lines and ran straight at the beast, plunged a spear right into it's belly. That didn't kill it so she pulled the spear out and tried again. She got him twice in the belly with a spear before the beast was able to move off of her. It opened it's mouth to breathe fire on her and she speared it in the eye and rolled away. I guess the queen's men got her then and the dragon is still trying to recover." Evard said.

Jaime turned to Arya and looked at her with with wondering amazement. She knew he was wondering if that had been her. She didn't know what to say.

"I can't believe that fucking thing didn't die." She finally said.

At that Evard burst into laughter. "That was you?"

"It explains why she likes spears." Jaime commented.

He was right about that. Arya had always preferred swords before. A sword like needle would have done nothing against a dragon. Nothing. She disliked being without a spear even now. But Jaime was probably right. Dragons couldn't get into Casterly Rock.

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Jaime had never seen a real dragon before but he had seen the dragon skulls in the Red Keep. As he carried Arya back up to her room it was hard not to imagine the sort of horror she must have felt that would have compelled her to take on one of those creatures all by herself. No one in their right mind would do such a thing. Only love or survival could make a person do that he was almost sure. Perhaps he had underestimated the depth of what she had felt for her deceased husband. If being married to the man for only ten days was enough to make her take on a dragon… That had to have been why the queen had her flogged too. Rumor had it that the queen treated her dragons like children. That she called them children. If Arya had hurt one of them then a flogging was probably merciful on the queen's part. He wondered if Arya saw dragons in her nightmares as well as flames. He wouldn't ask her that though.

When Jaime reached her room he simply put her on the bed without kissing her or doing anything else of that sort this time. They played a few games of cyvasse.

"I have to reply to some letters today." Jaime said as their game ended. "I can send Meg and Genna up to keep you company." He offered. The two handmaids were wary of Arya after she had shouted at them earlier but they would get over it soon enough.

"Alright. Will you come back tonight?" She asked him. He wasn't able to tell if she was hoping he would stay away or not.

"Is that an invitation?" He asked.

She reddened just a little. "It was a question about your plans."

"I plan to come back here if you'll have me." He told her frankly.

Arya only nodded in response so he left it at that and went to go deal with his correspondence.