Author's Note: I don't know if this is the chapter that you've been waiting for, but I think it will be cathartic for you. Please enjoy, lovely readers, and take comfort in the knowledge that there is at least one more chapter to go!
Chapter 13: In which Tywin learns the whole truth and has his say.
Her words repeated themselves over and over again, playing on an endless loop, condensing into one singular piece of truth: she was not married. But he needed more than that, he needed to hear the words from her lips, needed to fully realize the truth that had lingered at the back of his brain, gnawing at him.
"Perhaps you might explain what the fuck that means, Miss Stark, and explain it quickly." He bit the words out, watching as she flinched at the carefully restrained anger in his voice. She opened her mouth to speak, then closed it. Tywin could see her struggling to string her words together, struggling to put voice to the truth buried by months of lies. "My patience, Miss Stark, was close to nonexistent before you stole into my home. It is now gone. Speak, or I will throw you out my door."
His anger seemed to unify her thoughts and she cried, "Gods, Tywin, don't you even care that the baby is—"
Sansa bit her lip and looked away.
"Say it, woman! You've lied to me for too long. Say it!"
"It's yours, Tywin. The baby is yours, not Willas'."
The truth that he had secretly known, but had covered in layers of anger and hurt and confusion, bloomed in his chest. Still, it was not enough; he needed to know why. Why had she not told him about the baby? What had driven her to deceive him so thoroughly?
Tywin stalked closer to her, crowding her with his palpable fury. He both hated and reveled in the awareness her warmth engendered, his body suddenly aching, desiring naked flesh on naked flesh to soothe away the emptiness of the last several months. "Tell me why, Sansa, why did you go to such elaborate lengths? We've been involved for years now…I want to know why you threw all that away, why you threw me, away!"
"Jaime came to the wedding, you know."
Her non sequitor took him aback, "What does my son have to do with what is between us?"
She glanced down at her burgeoning stomach and raised an eyebrow. It was a look she had worn only a few times during their relationship, one that he had unknowingly passed on to her. He allowed her a small nod, recognizing the implication of his poor choice of words.
"Well, he and his wife cornered me after the ceremony, and then he gave me the dressing down of my life, which forced me to reevaluate my actions."
Gods, he had passed on more than his expressions. How much of his personality had she absorbed? "And what conclusions did you come to?"
"When I found out, gods…I'd never been so terrified in my life. So many things were going through my head, but in the end, I told myself that you would be a bad father (I know what you're like with the ones you already have). I told myself that my baby would be better off as a Stark instead of a Lannister…"
The need for honesty that was bread into the Starks would be the end of them one day. How dare she make assumptions about his life, about the lives of his children? The still-rational part of his mind urged him to concede her point, but she'd pricked his pride, and once roused, it was a dangerous thing. "Since you seem quite content to let your spawn grow up among ignorant wildlings, I question your need to tell me any of this. Had you held fast to your lies, I would have been none the wiser."
"Oh, don't act so fucking wounded, Tywin. You know what you're like, your children do too, but that's not why I ran. I mean, that was the reason I gave, but it was all a lie."
"Well, you've tossed enough of those around the last several months; what is one more on the scales?"
Sansa's face reddened, and he smirked inwardly. Starks made such easy targets and even after prolonged exposure to him, Sansa was still Stark through and through.
She let out a huff before continuing, "I know, and I'm sorry for all of them, but they just felt so necessary at the time…looking back now, I know that it all comes down to what Jaime said. I was so godsdamned afraid of what people would say when they found out about us, what my parents would say. Gods, it was shallow and petty, so I covered it up. I put all the blame on you and kept none for myself and my weaknesses. Once I had admitted it, accepted it, I couldn't continue living the lie. One flight later and I was here, but it's also more than that. And you probably don't want to hear this right now, maybe never after the way I've treated you…
"These last six months have been torture. I feel like I can't breathe properly. I wake up in the middle of the night, reaching for you, and when I realize that you're not there, I cry myself back to sleep. I love you. I'm in love with you, but gods, I'm scared. What if I've fucked this up beyond repair? What if you don't feel the same? What if you decide to keep the baby but not me? What if—"
Tywin cut her off, covering her mouth with his own, luxuriating in the feel of her beneath him after months of deprivation. He felt her arms go around his neck, tugging him closer to her. He exulted in the taste of her for a long moment, then broke away, quieting her protests with a finger to her lips. "You've had your say, Sansa, and now I will have mine."
She nodded and attempted to move back, but he stayed her with a hand on her hip. "Honesty is not the sole province of Starks, but it does not come naturally to me, nor does talk of feelings. However, I will admit to feeling betrayed, Sansa. Trust is even more ephemeral to me than honesty, and you discarded my trust in you when you concocted your scheme. Those first several weeks I worried. You, who had been a constant in my life for over two years, vanished, and what clues you left behind did nothing to alleviate my concern. Then I find out that you are pregnant, and though common sense would dictate that I question anything I hear from Joffrey, that I question the your uncharacteristic infidelity, instead I played right into your plans.
"You left me, Sansa, you lied to me, denied me you and my child, all out of your fear of what others might think. And now you offer yourself to me, so guilelessly, hoping that I might have a shred of human decency to spare you after ensuring my everlasting enmity through your actions."
Sansa tried to break away from him, her eyes wide with fear, but he anchored her to him firmly. "No, Sansa, listen. Your punishment is this: to spend the rest of your life making it up to me. You are mine, Sansa Stark, and I'll not give you another opportunity to run."
Tywin saw tears well in her eyes and roll down her cheeks. He wiped them away and placed a soft hiss on her mouth. Though he could not forgive her yet, he knew that he would in time, and in time, he would make her his wife and welcome another child into the world. However, her body pressing against his reminded him that he had not been inside her, had not felt her flesh around his in far too long. He deepened the kiss, twining his tongue with hers, and set his hands to wandering across her body, reclaiming every part of her that he could reach. Sansa broke away, gasping for air as she laid her head against his chest.
"Either we move to the bedroom, or I will fuck you here and now."
Her weak laugh was muffled by her refusal to lift her head away from him, "Gods, we're a bit cliché, but I don't think I care. Bedroom, now, please."
Author's Note Part II: As I was talking to themysteryvanishing last night, it occurred to me that I have not actually revealed the sex of the baby. She suggested I take bets and see who gets it right…Sure, why not?