Eddard
"I want to go back North Ned. This place is no good for our family." Catelyn said as she paced back and forward at the foot of the bed.
"You are exaggerating dear. This place is not so bad." Ned said from the bed while looking at the different piles scattered around the bed.
"Really Ned." She threw her hands up in exasperation. "Rickon was found under the bleachers writing a vulgar poem, Bran was smoking pot in the back yard, Sansas boyfriend broke her arm, and Arya she is going off the deep end."
"Out of all our children Arya is the least of our worries. She is doing better here then any of them. As for the others I will admit that you are correct there." Ned said closing the laptop.
"No I am worried about Arya. She is taking auto classes, making strange paintings and dating a strange boy. That is worrying me." She looked at her husband and the look she gave him was a dare to contradict her.
"There is nothing wrong with her grades, she is doing well in extracurricular activities, and that boy is a good boy. He also makes good grades, doesn't drink, do drugs and makes her happy. The one with that I worry most about is Sansa. Joffery is not good enough for her." He cracked his knuckles.
"Is there something that you could do about that with his father? Didn't he get in a fight with his sister's boyfriend?" She sat in the edge of the bed and wrung her hands.
"He did. When I talked to his father about that he said that he handled that." Ned opened his computer back up and started typing.
"What about Bran? He was smoking pot." Catelyn rubbed her eyes and looked over at need wanting him to find the solution to the problem.
"Seriously?" Ned looked over the top of his computer and lowered his glasses. "If memory serves I remember you being experimental smoker in college."
"That is not the point. I was in college. You were there as well." Catelyn huffed.
"Then that settles that. And Rickon was just being a small boy. He even cried when he was caught." Ned said going back to his work.
"So you are not going to do anything about our family spiraling out of control?" Catelyn demanded standing up and walking to her side of the bed and arranging her nightstand.
"It is not out of control darling. But I will talk to all the children tomorrow at different times and discus what has been going on with them. Would that make you happy my love?" Ned sounded extremely tired. He gathered all the papers on the bed into a neat pile and turned off his computer. "Now let's go to sleep."
Ned put all the papers and his computer on the nightstand and turned off the lights and slid down into bed and snuggled in next to his darling wife.
"I love you Ned."
"I love you to."
Bran
Bran had really fucked up. Robb had caught him and his friends in the back yard. And the worst part was he and Jojen had made another joint and he was finally getting the hang of the whole thing. His brother was okay with the whole thing, but then his mother had come out and seen what he and his friends were doing and she went ballistic.
"Bran Stark what in the name of the Seven are you doing!" She had shrieked.
"Nothing mother. It is. Jojen has a medical card. Honestly." Bran looked up at his seething mother with blurry eyes.
"Alright, but you don't. Now I want Jojen and Meera to go home. Is one of you okay to drive?" She demanded.
"I am ma'am." Meera was timid at the anger that was rolling off his mother in waves.
"Then I suggest that you leave." She snapped. "Bran I want you to march right up to your room and go to bed. I will let your father deal with you when he gets home from the hospital with Sansa."
So Bran had marched up to his room and curled up on his bed. He fell asleep in no time and had vivid dreams. He had a dream that there was a coffee cheese cake the size of the dining room table was waiting for him out on the lawn. He was so hungry. He woke up and it was still dark so he fell back to sleep. Then he dreamed he was being chased through the halls of the house trying to find a door that was unlocked. He finally found a door that would open and he ran inside and hid. There waiting for him was a giant bag of Cheetos all for him. He had just opened the bag and started stuffing his face when the door was pulled opened and a zombie snatched the Cheetos away and locked him in the room. He just sat by the door and cried because his snack had been taken by a monster.
"Bran, Bran wake up! Mom says to wake you up or you don't get any waffles! I get to eat them all if you don't get down to the kitchen!" Rickons voice penetrated the sleep fog that swirled around his groggy mind.
"Shut up Rickon. I am not feeling good. I will be down once I go to the bathroom." Bran mumbled with his head under his pillow.
"Well mom says to hurry. Oh and Robb said that he talked to dad. I heard them talking. What did Robb tell dad? Robb said that someone was in deep shit, then mom smacked him and I want to know who is in the shit. You know everything, so who is in the shit? Is it Sansa? She has a sling on and a red cast on her left arm. Is she in the shit?" Rickon kept talking until Bran got out of bed.
He highly suspected that Theon told him to keep talking until Bran was out of bed. Since he had no choice he threw off the blankets and swung his legs out of bed and stood up. The room swam and his vision was blurry. He lurched over to his desk and grabbed his new glasses. They helped slightly when he slid them on. Instead of blobs of color things were more defined blobs of color.
Rickon continued to talk about Sansa and her cast and that she had let him sign it with a permanent marker. He finally got the silence that he wanted when he reached the bathroom and locked Rickon outside. He could still hear him out in the hall chattering away. He stumbled over to the sink and ran some water and splashed it on his face.
When he looked up at the mirror he thought that he was looking at a ghost. His skin was pale to the point of being translucent. There were huge purple rings under his eyes. He grabbed the hand soap, not caring that it was bad for his face and tried to wash some color into it. Then he got his teeth brushed and decided that it was as good as he was going to be without a shower.
Rickon was standing by the door waiting to ambush him as soon as he got out of the bathroom.
"And Arya has been smiling and humming all moaning and she has a funny bruise on her shoulder where her neck starts. Jon laughed when mom saw it and she went even redder then Sansas cast. She is going to see some guy named Jaqen today with Jon. They were getting ready to go after lunch. And …"
"Rickon shut up." Bran finally snapped.
"But I am just telling you what is going on." Rickon said pouting as they continued down to the kitchen.
"Bran there is some waffles left for you if you are hungry." Mrs. Clark said as Bran barged into the kitchen.
He made a straight line to the counter where there was one place left to sit. He fell into the waiting chair and started in on the waffles that Mrs. Clark set before him. He was on his second glass of orange juice when he noticed that everyone in the kitchen was looking at him.
"Whhaa iisss ett?" He asked his mouth full of food.
"You stink." Rickon said from the table.
"Rickon." Catelyns voice cracked through the room. "Bran I want you to shower. After you and you r father have a little chat." She looked at her husband as she said the last part.
Bran swallowed the mouth full of food and put down his fork. He was no longer hungry. He knew that he was the one that was in the shit that Rickon had mentioned when he was awoken that morning. He stole a look at his father and he was reading the paper, like every morning. But his mother was looking at him with sadness in her eye. He felt immensely guilty for what had happened the night before. He was never going to do it again, even if it made his headache go away.
He sat in the kitchen waiting for his father to be finished. He finally saw his dad put down the paper drink the remainder of his coffee and take his cup to the sink and rinse it out. Ned looked over at him and indicated that he wanted him to come along with him to his office.
Bran followed his father from the kitchen to the office. It was a different room then the study. It was off the kitchen and very small and cramped compared to the study. Ned sat behind the desk and Bran sat opposite him. He felt like he was in the principal's office at school, but this was one hundred times worse.
"Bran would you like to tell me why you are here today?" His father always had a way of making him uneasy with just the simplest questions.
"I was caught smoking weed with my friend Jojen last night. But father it was to get rid of my headache." He said trying to defend his action.
"Tell me about these headaches Bran." Ned leaned his elbows on the desk and rested his chin on his hands.
"They are constant; they start out small then get bigger. They are right behind my eyes. These glasses don't really help with making them go away, but they do help me see better. They move from behind my eyes to all over my head. Nothing that I had tried had worked and so Jojen had offered to let me use some of his medical weed. He gets headaches too. So I figured why not. And it worked dad. The headache stopped last night." Bran finished and looked at his stocking feet.
"Why didn't you tall your mother or I about the headaches sooner? We would have gotten you to a doctor and had a professional help you, not a fourteen year old kid. I don't even think that they give the medical cards to minors." Ned told Bran, making him feel even guiltier then he already did.
"I don't know why I didn't tell you. I guess it is because you have been so stressed since we moved here I didn't want to be a bother." He knew that was a lame excuse, but he didn't want to tell the truth about having visions that came true.
"Bran nothing that you have to tell me would be a bother. I will have your mother make you a doctor's appointment. And Bran I want to stress that what you did last night was not acceptable. You will be grounded for the next week."
"Yes father. Can I go shower now?" Bran asked.
"Please do." Ned wrinkled his nose at him.
Bran shuffled out of the office and up to take a shower. He did smell nasty and maybe a shower would make him not feel like less of a bad person for breaking his families trust in him.
Sansa
She woke up at seven despite having stayed up so late and having pain medication in her system. She just laid in bed thinking about what happened the night before. She had a broken arm, and all because her boyfriend had a tizzy fit and push her. She had to end things. With her broken arm people would understand, wouldn't they? They had to. And she had finally realized last night that she liked Sandor. She was not good enough at pretending to stay with Joffery knowing that she liked someone else.
She tried to snuggle down in her bed willing herself to go back to sleep, but it was a week day and her body was used to getting up early no matter what. While lying there with her eyes shut thinking of the best way to get rid of Joffery her mother peeked in and checked on her.
"I am awake mother. You don't need to be so sneaky. It wouldn't work with me. I always know when you check on me." Sansa said to her mother with her eyes still closed.
"How are you feeling dear? Are you in pain?" Catelyn walked into the room and sat on the edge of Sansas bed.
"A little. But I will be okay." She sat up in bed and looked over at her mother.
"It will hurt worse at the day goes on. So I want you to take this." She held out her hand with a small pill in it.
Sansa picked it up and put it in her mouth. Her mother handed her a cup of water and she took the pill.
"Whenever you are ready to come down stairs there will be breakfast ready. Mrs. Clark is making waffles." Catelyn took the water and patted Sansa on the head before walking out of the room and shutting the door.
She sat there waiting the medicine to take effect. Her arm was hurting more then she had told her mother and she was grateful to her for bringing her the pain pill. After about fifteen minutes of sitting there waiting for pill to work she got out of bed and went to her vanity to brush her hair and see what the damage was.
She looked at the face reflecting in the mirror and could not help but be frightened of who was looking back at her. She had not washed off the makeup from last night so there was eye shadow and mascara smudged around her eyes and her lipstick had smeared around her mouth. She figured that her lips would look like that if she had spent the night making out with someone. She wished that she had. It would have been a much more fun way to spend the start to the New Year, not in some stupid hospital ER.
She pulled on her bathrobe and slid her feet into her slippers and walked to the bathroom. Once inside she washed her face, brushed her teeth and her hair all one handed. That was not very easy. She did not want to have to do everything one handed until her arm was healed. This was going to suck. She was going to need to ask how she is supposed to shower. She sort of remembered that she was not supposed to get the stupid cast wet.
Sansa didn't feel like getting dressed yet so she went down stairs to the kitchen to have breakfast. She knew that the pill her mother had given her would make her sick if she didn't eat something.
"Oh Sansa you poor thing. Just look at that arm. You just sit down and I will get you some waffles and tea." Mrs. Clark bustled about getting the things for her favorite Stark ready. "When I heard about you're your poor arm I knew that I had to make you your favorite breakfast."
"You are the best Mrs. Clark. To amazing for words." Sansas blushed and sat waiting for her tea. "What do I do when I need to take a shower?"
"Wrap it with plastic wrap." Jon said as he walked into the kitchen all groomed and ready for the day. He was an early bird as well. "Just be glad that it was not your leg. You would have to put a garbage bag over your leg and hang it out the side of the shower. It is a pain in the ass."
"Well thank goodness that Joffery didn't shove my lower half over the flower pot." Sansa tried to joke.
Jon was not amused as he sat beside her at the bar. She saw the vein pulsating in his neck. He was not a fan of her boyfriend, none of her brothers were. But they all liked Aryas. It was not fair that they liked that guy of hers, either of them for that matter and hated hers. She knew that they were not far off the mark on that point, but she didn't like to admit it.
"Jon is this whole broken arm thing going to make Arya not want to continue to talk to me because Joffery was the one that shoved me?" Out of everyone in the family Jon would be the best person to tell her the truth. Bran would be next but he was in deep shit and she didn't want to join him there.
"Probably. If you dump that guy you are seeing I think that she would start talking to you again." Jon took a sip of his coffee flirting with Mrs. Clark. "You make the best coffee in the world Mrs. Clark. I have really missed your cooking. Are you sure that you do not want to elope with me?"
"Jon that is no way to talk to a woman. I am old enough to be your grandmother." Mrs. Clark blushed and gave him his waffles.
The two Starks in the kitchen were eating in happy quiet when their parents and Robb, Arya, Theon and Rickon filed into the room. They were all chatting and talking and the noise level rose to a happy family level. Her brothers all made sure she was okay and her littlest wanted to sign the cast. Her mother handed him a marker telling him that it was permanent and that she had to be careful not to mark anything but the cast.
Her parents and Robb were chatting in hushed voices when Rickon points at Arya and yells out "What is that bruise on your neck Arya?"
All conversation stopped and everyone turned to look at Arya.
"It is nothing Rickon." Her sister blushed and would not look at anyone.
"Is that a hickey Arya?" Her mother demanded.
"No mom. It is not. I think it might have happened last night at the gig. Things were pretty rough there. Jon was there. There would have been no time for that to happen. Go on ask Jon if he left us alone long enough for a hickey to happen." Aryas voice was high pitched and on the defensive.
Their father folded down the corner of his paper and looked at Jon. Jon shrugged.
"I did not let her out of my sight, even when she and Gendry thought that they were alone."
"So Sansa Joffery broke your arm?" Arya asked, trying to deflect the heat from herself.
"It was an accident. He did not mean to do that to me. I do not need to be defending his actions."
"Rickon go get Bran." Catelyn said trying to defuse the tension.
"Yes mommy. I can do that." Rickon chirped.
"And Rickon make sure he comes down fast and doesn't lie in bed. Talk his ear off." Theon said.
"If there is anyone that can do that it would be Rickon." Ned laughed as he went back to reading the paper.
The kitchen stayed silent waiting for Bran to come in. When he came in the kitchen a nasty smell entered with him. It was a strained time while Bran ate. Sansa let her mind think out a plan on how to break up with Joffery. But there was a small nagging part of her mind that reminded her that he had been different the last way. He had been nice and sweet to her after she had given him that gift. Acting like a real boyfriend. Maybe she was jumping the gun. He could be changing and if she broke things off with him she would never know. She had to talk with someone, someone who would give her advice. She would talk to her father. He was the one that would know what to do.
"When father is done with Bran I would like to see him. Is he going to be busy all day mother?" Sansa asked as she walked her dishes to the sink.
"It shouldn't take to long to talk with Bran dear. So you should be able to get some time with him after that. How is your arm dear?" Her mother asked yet again.
"It is feeling better mother. Thank you." She sat back down and chatted with Mrs. Clark about what they were going to have for dinner and the upcoming trip to the store. She waited twenty minutes and then went to find her father. She was sure that he was done giving her brother a hard time.
"Father can I ask you a question?" She asked poking her head around the door.
"I wanted to talk to you Sansa. Thank you for coming to see me before I had to go find you. Come on in and make yourself comfortable." Ned said.
"I wanted to talk to you about how to break up with a guy. I figured that since you are a guy you would know the best way to do that."
"If I was the one being doing the breaking up I would tell the truth. It isn't always the easiest thing to do, but it is the best. Why do you want to break things off with Joffery?" Ned asked trying to hide his glee and curiosity.
"I just do not think that he is the guy that I want to be dating. I mean we don't have anything in common." She said, lying again.
"Is that the only reason? Because I think that things might be more complicated then that for you. You did say some things while on the pain meds last night. You were very clingy to Sandor. I like that guy. I would be happy if you decided to date him." Ned watched as her daughters cheeps turned pink.
"I do not think that I will be dating anyone after I break up with Joffery. I just have to be honest? That's all I have to do?" She asked.
"As far as I am concerned." Ned looked her in the eyes and then continued. "But you have to be careful. Joffery has a temper. I do not want the other arm to be broken. Just be safe dear."
"I will daddy. When should I do this? Should I do it fast or wait till he does something that really causes us to have a reason? Because he really has been making an effort to be a good boyfriend this last week. If things keep going that way then I don't want to break up with him." Sansa confessed.
"You will need to decide that on your own. It is not something that I can tell you." He said.
She walked out of the room and went to her bedroom. She sat down and checked her phone and saw that there were calls from Margaery, most of the girls on her squad and Sandor. There was no call from Joffery. She was sitting on the bed thinking about the best day to break up with him when the phone rang.
"Sansa it's me. I am so sorry that I broke your arm. I didn't mean to hurt you. I had champagne in my eyes and it was burning and stinging and I didn't realize that I had pushed you that hard. I really didn't. I want you to know that I did not mean to hurt you at all. I want to make it up to you. Do you want to go to dinner with me? We can go to the restaurant that Loras owns, High Gardens? It is on the coast and the view is beautiful. I to take you there. What do you say? Will you come with me?" He sounded so eager and anxious to hear her answer she felt something akin to like creeping over her.
"I think I can do that. I will ask my parents, but I don't think there will be a problem with that." She said.
"Great. I will come pick you up at eight." He said, without any of the smugness or gloating that she had become accustomed to in his voice.
"Alright. See you then." She hung up the phone and leaned back on her bed. "What am I going to do now?" She asked out loud to no one at all.
Arya
She felt so embarrassed that her family had seen the hickey on her neck. She had thought that the shirt was going to cover it up. She had been wrong and now she felt like an idiot. She was going to kill Gendry and then bring him back and kill him again.
As soon as she got to her room she called him and started to yell at him.
"You stupid dumbass. You left a hickey on my neck!" She shrieked into the phone.
"Do you know what time it is?" He sounded like he was still sleeping.
"It is nine in the morning. And you should get your ass out of bed and so something with yourself." She snapped. "I am going to kill you and dance on your dead body! My little brother pointed it out at breakfast and I was caught with a hickey!"
"Calm down. I will not leave another one on you where anyone will be able to see it." She could hear the smile on his lips as he said that last remark.
"No visible marks. Rule one. Rule two; I am not a play thing. I am an independent person and I have a brain. So let me do things my way. Rule three; you do not let the groupies that I know you have flocking around you touch you in any way. If so I will personally strangle you and whoever it is that is playing grab ass with you. Rule four…" Arya was just hitting her stride when there was a knock on her door. "There is someone at my door I will call you back."
"I will make my own rules in the time that it takes you to get back to me." He yawned into the phone.
"Fine." She hung up the phone and went and opened the door to her room. Her mother was waiting on the other side of the door.
"Arya I think it is time that we have a talk." Catelyn came into to room and sat down at the desk chair. "Please sit down. This is a conversation that might make you uncomfortable, but it is necessary now that you are in a relationship."
Arya sat on the bed horrified because she knew want was coming up. Her mother was going to give her the sex talk. Oh god this was going to be uncomfortable.
"You are now at a point in your life where you are starting to feel things. Things for the opposite sex," Arya opened her mouth to interrupt her mother but Catelyn held up her hand. "Do not interrupt me Arya. This is not easy for me either. I know that you know the basics due to the health and biology classes that you have taken, for which I am thankful of. But there are things that you do not know."
"Mom I know about safe sex. I know we are supposed to only learn about abstinence, but Winterfell taught us about birth control and condoms and everything in between." Arya said.
"I was not going to tell you about how to prevent pregnancy. I knew that you knew that already. We had to sign a release for you to take that class remember?" Catelyn snapped.
"Oh yeah. I forgot that." Arya continued to fidget.
"This was so much easier with your sister." Catelyn sighed and rubber her eyes. "What I want to tell you is that when you do have sex, and I am not going to kid myself like your father and believe that you and Gendry are not going to try it, I want you to know that sex is not just about the boy. It is not all about his satisfaction. My mother did not tell me this and I wish that she had. What I am trying to impart on you is that you need to make sure that you get sexual satisfaction as well."
"Are you trying to say to make sure that I get an orgasm, not just the guy?" Arya was shocked. Her mother was telling her that she was okay with her having sex and that she should make sure that she had pleasure as well.
"Yes this is what I am saying." Catelyn said. "My mother did not tell me this and the first few times I had sex it was just about the guy, not about me. Then I had a friend tell me that sex could be fun. I made a decision that if I had girls I would not let them have to learn what I did the hard way."
"So you want me to go out there and have sex with my boyfriend and not only that, but you are telling me that it is a good time and that I should strive to have orgasms? Don't get me wrong mom, but this is not what I was expecting." Arya said to her mother.
"I know that. Here is where the stereo typical mother talk comes in. I would prefer that you wait to have sex until you are older, but of you do I will not be angry. You have brothers for that. But I do wish that you would be safe and not do anything stupid. Use a condom and I will get you a prescription for the pill, the pill will stop pregnancy and a condom will stop you from having from getting an STD."
"Okay mom. I will do that. Is this talk over now? And if it is do I have to hug you, like I know Sansa would have hugged you." Arya looked her mother in the eye and she looked back at her.
"No we do not have to hug. I will leave you alone to think about things. And if you want to call Myrcella and talk things over her I would not mind. I feel like she is going to become a foster daughter." Catelyn smiled as she walked out the door.
Arya sat there for a moment not sure what to do. Then she picked up her phone and texted Myrcella.
My mom just told me that she was more or less okay with me having sex and that when I do to make sure Gendry gives me an orgasm. Then she tells me to share this info with you, not the part about Gendry giving you an orgasm, just getting one when you have sex. Is that weird or is it just me? -Arya
-So three things, first sorry for taking so long to get this up. I was so lost about where I was going to go with this. Two, the food dreams that Bran had are dreams that I have had since I have become pregnant with some differences and third that conversation that Catelyn had with Arya is one that my mother had with me, but she did it while I was stuck in the car and could not escape.
Thanks to those who read this and to those of you that I can't send thanks back to you when you review thank you so much. Reviews are helpful and I like to hear what you all have to say or what you are thinking.
The next post will be up as soon as I can get it written. I am out of my slump now so things should be coming up sooner then this one took.