Game of Thrones: Crossroads

Chapter 18 of my Game of Thrones story, enjoy.

Reviews

Boris Yeltsin; Thanks :)
Marina Ka-Fai: Yeah, he is, well he's trying to make a good impression just now, so he's putting in some extra effort.
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Veridissima: Thanks, glad you enjoyed it, yeah, interesting to see their views, how similar yet different their thoughts are, glad you liked him :)

Now onto the story.

Disclaimer: Game of Thrones belongs to George R.R. Martin.

Chapter 18

It was after school and Gendry's mood could be described, at best, as melancholic. Despite his efforts otherwise, he couldn't get the incident with Arya out of his head and found it difficult to keep things under wraps. Apart from Edric who already knew, the only one of his friends who even suspected anything was Shireen. She had asked him about it and Gendry, despite feeling terrible for it, lied to her, told her nothing was wrong, that nothing had happened. He could see in her eyes that Shireen knew he was lying and was afraid. He understood why she was afraid; Arya had done the same thing he was doing, just before she joined Sansa's group.

Shireen thinks I'm going to desert them now too…But that's not going to happen, I won't let it.'

As he made that vow he pulled up in their driveway; then Edric turned to him.

"Please Edric, don't, I don't want to start some big discussion about what happened and what I should say to the others and what not." He remarked quickly, before Edric could speak.

Edric shook his head. "That's not what I was gonna say Gendry. What I wanted to tell you was, just try and relax a little; until we work something out properly, we can't do anything about Arya. Even if what happened between you changed something, we can't do anything until we're certain."

Gendry sighed and agreed with his brother before they got out the car and headed inside.

They entered the house and found Alyssa; she was picking up her purse, handbag and a few other items, as well as pulling on her shoes and jacket.

"Mum?" Edric enquired, curious at her actions.

She turned and smiled at her sons. "Ah boys, you're home. Good, I was going to leave a note, but you're here now. I'm just going out to pick up some things we need from the shops. Tell your sister when she gets home, okay."

They both nodded, with Gendry asking. "Where is Mya?"

"She'll be home a bit later than usual, she's around at Lyle's just now." Alyssa explained.

Gendry and Edric shared a look, not really wanting to think about their sister at her fiancée's house and what they might be doing. Edric headed upstairs, but before he could also head upstairs, Alyssa stopped Gendry.

"Gendry, is everything okay?"

Gendry froze and turned to face his mother, he didn't want to lie to her, but if she asked him about what happened on Saturday night, he didn't know how to explain or handle it.

Alyssa looked at her eldest son carefully, trying to discern his reactions to her words. "You've been acting strangely since Sunday morning, I'm worried, did something happen to you?"

Gendry let out a slow breath and then shook his head. "It's…It's nothing really mum, I just, I've just been having a rough time lately. I'll be fine, I promise."

Alyssa watched him go as he headed upstairs and finally, sighing worriedly, left and headed for her car.

It did not take her long to arrive at the local shopping mall. She parked and got out her car before heading in. She allowed herself to smile and began looking around the shops. One of the best things about the local shopping mall she found, was it had shops that had reasonable prices; ones for common every day customers as well as the usual shops that went for richer clientele. Her main reason for coming to mall was simple, she needed to buy new clothes for Edric.

'He's growing so much now, so fast, he's nearly as tall as Gendry.' She mused to herself. 'But he's still not as muscular as Gendry, so Gendry's old clothes are still too big for him.'

She smiled, still amused at the thought; although there was some sadness in her eyes. She thought fondly of her sons, she couldn't help but note how much they resembled their father in appearance, at least during his younger days. Now all Robert had in common with the boys was hair and eye colour. Alyssa was however thankful for that; she didn't need Robert's negative influence on her children, that was why she did her utmost to ensure they only saw him during visitation days and also tried to teach them well. Luckily her teachings had helped greatly and they avoided picking up any of Robert's bad habits. She knew Gendry went out with his friends to a club on weekends and knew he drank, but he never did so to excess like Robert did, for that she was grateful.

After making her purchases Alyssa had left the store and spotted someone in the, now much smaller, crowd. Someone who was one of the last people she wanted to see; Cersei. She did her best to avoid her but the Gods were not on her side. Before long she found herself standing face to face with the woman who was now married to Robert.

"Alyssa Waters. How surprising to see you here." Cersei remarked with thinly veiled contempt.

Alyssa gave her politest smile. "Cersei, nice to see you again."

Cersei glared, clearly aware Alyssa was lying through her teeth. "That's Mrs. Baratheon to you. I understand my husband was around at your house yesterday."

Alyssa's expression tightened at that. "Friday actually." She corrected.

It had been awful as usual. Robert had been typically over the top, annoying and kept trying to appeal to the children's good graces, turn them against her, much like he had during the custody trial. Only Edric, who had been too young to know any better, still showed his father any respect or seemed happy to see him. But thankfully he didn't fall into any of his father's traps. She noticed how Cersei froze when Alyssa mentioned that.

As she watched Cersei's reaction, Alyssa couldn't help but think. 'She's probably figured out what he's like. She probably thinks his visits to us are some excuse for him to visit a mistress or something.'

She wouldn't be surprised if that was the case, after all, it had been Robert cheating on her with Cersei which led to Alyssa divorcing him.

Cersei glared at the woman standing opposite her; acting so cool and haughty, despite being in the presence of her betters.

"Yes, Friday, he missed Myrcella's recital for that."

Alyssa sighed. "I'm awfully sorry Mrs. Baratheon."

Cersei rolled her eyes, did the woman think her blind or stupid, was she aware how transparent she was. "Right, of course you're sorry, as if you didn't plan it."

"Of course I didn't!" Alyssa snapped suddenly. "I would rather Robert didn't come around."

Cersei scoffed. "Oh please, now you've realized what you've lost without his money, you want it back, you're so obvious."

Alyssa shook her head. "You are delusional. Money isn't everything, I care more about my family, my children than money. Besides he's lied and used both of us several times, I never want him back, I'd rather he stayed out of my children's lives…I don't even why you're still with him."

With that Alyssa turned and walked away. Leaving Cersei standing behind, raging, not due to the woman's outburst and total disrespect of someone superior to her. But also because she was right, what reason did she truly have for staying with Robert. She sighed, she had put things off long enough, there was something she had to do now. She pulled out her phone and dialled the number, it rang a few times and then.

"Yes." Came the bored, slightly irritated answer on the other side.

Cersei took a deep breath and prepared to speak, she had already planned out everything she was going to say. "Father…"

End of chapter, hope you enjoyed it, read and review please.