Gendry
They had been given a contract on the night of the party. He was ecstatic. Everything was happening so fast and the label wanted the Five Kings. But being back down South had dimmed some of the magic. He had told his parents the good news and his father insisted that they have a lawyer look over the contract before they sign anything and see if there was a better offer out there for them. L.A. after all was a big place in the music business. So he and the guys were waiting to see what the lawyer had to say about the deal.
Jaqen was still a problem. He was still following Gendry. He knew that he was in a car three spaces behind him watching while Gendry waited for Arya to talk to Varys about selling some of her paintings. He had a zippo lighter that had his father's crest on it and he was flipping it opened and closed while he waited. For the last week he had not been able to go anywhere without Jaqen following him. To make matters worse to get his plan to work he had to rely on an unlikely ally and be a jerk to his loving girlfriend in public. He sat thinking that it would all be easier if Arya knew what was happening but he did not want her to know about it all until it was all over and done with. There was a tap on the window and Varys slid into the passenger seat.
"Your shadow is still following you. But I have it all under control. He will be out of the car in ten minutes and the cops are waiting around the corner to take him into custody if he shows any hostility. I hope you know what you are doing young Bull. I would be pained if anything happened to you. I have an interest in you now and I want you to succeed." Varys handed him a cigarette and left the car.
Part of the plan was to look like his morals were deteriorating. He had been putting on a good show of it. He had made sure that Jaqen had seen him "drinking" and driving. He had put iced tea in a whiskey bottle and had been taking long drinks from it. Hot Pie had been helping him with his image as well. He was bringing some of the groupies with him and they have been driving around without Arya all week since they had gotten back. He hadn't even touched one of the girls but he made a point to flirt, but had explained that he had a girlfriend that he was faithful to and that they were helping him put a bad guy in jail with their actions.
He hoped that standing outside smoking while Arya was inside doing business would be enough to tip the scale and have Jaqen do something rash. Gendry put the cigarette to his lips and flipped the lighter opened. He brought the flame to the tip and lit up. He took a drag and had to fight the urge to cough. If he coughed then this image would be destroyed. He was on his fifth puff when he heard a car door open and close and Jaqen walked over.
He had changed since Gendry had last seen him. His hair was now black and short and he no longer wore his artist clothing covered in paint and clay. He was in green pants with a black shirt. There was something wrong with his nose and he was missing a tooth. Gendry smiled knowing that he was the reason behind his face looking so different. But the biggest change was the animalistic look in Jaqens eye. It sent a shiver down Gendrys spine.
"Waters this day has been a long time in the making. I have found you to be less then deserving of Arya and have come to take you out of the picture." A gun metalized in Jaqens hand and Gendry felt fear for the first time. He hoped that Varys had been telling the truth and the cops were on their way.
"I don't know what you mean." Gendry said as he flicked the cigarette away from him into the road. "What I do is none of your business and neither is Arya for that matter. She is mine and she will never be yours. Whatever you think I am doing is nothing more then the delusions of a pshyco."
"You have been seen drinking and spending time with loose women. You are not good enough for Arya and once you are gone I will be there to help her mourn the loss of your stupid life. It's time to say goodbye Gendry." Jaqen lifted the gun aiming at Gendrys heart.
Where the hell are the cops? Gendry stood still like a deer caught in the headlights. Then there was a strike of blue and someone barreled into Jaqen. A shot went off and Gendry felt an intense burning in his right shoulder. He crumpled to the ground and he was aware of a scream coming from the door of the gallery where Arya was.
The world swayed and the ground felt like it was rolling in time with his heartbeat. He knew that he must have hit the ground hard and that his head connected with the concrete of the road. There was blood obscuring his vision and he felt the need to vomit. Things had not gone according to plan. He wasn't supposed to be shot. This was not what he had wanted.
"Gendry!" He heard her scream. She was at his side holding his head in her lap and was pressing down on his shoulder. There was a man in an EMS uniform there trying to get Arya to move away and let them work on him. But she wouldn't move.
He lifted his left arm and put a bloody hand on her face and she looked down at him.
"It was the only way love. I'm okay really. Now move away and let this good man do his work." His hand fell away and he passed out. But right before he was totally unconscious he heard the last remark from Arya.
"You are so STUPID Gendry. I love you, you are a dumb ass."
Arya
She sat in the waiting room of the hospital holding Helens hand and waiting for news from the doctor who had been working on Gendry. The shot had gotten lodged into his shoulder blade and they had to cut him opened to take it out. She was still seething that she had hidden the fact that Jaqen had apparently gone crazy and had been stalking them for some time. She had heard the whole thing from the cop that came to talk to Robert. He knew the whole story and had been helping his son and the police the whole time. Arya didn't know who had been maddest when they had been told this, herself or Helen.
The woman had punched Robert in the arm so hard that he had a nice fist shaped bruise developing on his arm. Arya had smiled at him while a nurse had given Helen an ice pack for her hand and had just walked away while Robert had whimpered in pain.
The doors to the operating room burst opened and the surgeon came out with a smile on his face. Arya let out the breath that she had not known that she was holding.
"Your son is fine Mrs. Baratheon. There was no permanent damage to his muscles or the bone. I suspect that Gendry will make a full recovery in six to eight weeks." The doctor smiled as Helen threw her arms around his neck and jumped like a girl half her age.
"Thank you doctor for the good news." Robert came and extracted Helen from around the doctor neck.
"Can we see him now?" Arya asked in a timid voice.
"You sure can. But don't stay to long. He is a little out of it. We had to put him under and the pain meds are strong."
They were lead into a recovery room and Gendry was propped up on bed with a mountain of pillows around his right side.
"Hi beautiful." Gendry smiled and Arya giggled because he looked like Dopy with hair.
"Hi Stupid." Arya went and sat on the edge of the left side of the bed. His mother came into the room and started to shuffle around like a hen. Myrcella and Tommen came into the room with Robert. They had a large balloon thing to cheer up the room. They tried to talk normally and then Tommen had to bring up the unpleasantness regarding Jaqen.
"So the dick head was arrested. They threw him to the ground and he is all messed up." Tommen grinned from ear to ear, but no one in the room shared his glee.
"I'm just glad that he won't be around for a long time and that he won't hurt anyone again." Gendry said with a fierce voice.
Arya took his hand and squeezed it gently. Myrcella stood by his bed with her phone on video call so Aegon and the guys could say hi and see that he was alive. Beric made some comment about a Bull being tougher then a bullet. They all laughed and Arya smiled. They stayed the whole afternoon and then it was time to go. Arya lingered there after everyone left the room.
"What were you thinking?" She asked when everyone was gone.
"I was thinking that I had to keep you safe. He was following you first. I didn't want him to hurt you so I took one for the team."
"Is that supposed to make me not mad at you?"
"I think that it might help. I took a bullet for you." He gave her a lopsided smile.
"Hum? What can I do to repay this great kindness?" Her hands went from his uninjured arm down his torso to the junction between his legs.
"Arya I'm hooked up to monitors. If my heart rate gets fast they will be coming in and check on me. We can't be doing this." He tried to push her hand away but she wouldn't stop her stroking and massaging.
"Well then keep calm and they won't come in and catch us." She smiled as she flipped the blanket from his lower half. Her mouth connected with his semi flaccid member and she began to work on it hearing the deep groans of pleasure. She snuck a look at the monitor and saw that his heart rate was indeed increasing with every stroke of her mouth.
"Oh gods Arya that feels so good." He was panting and holding onto the pillows with his good hand. IT took her fifteen minutes of work till he finally got his release and she was pulling the blankets over his body when there was a knock on the door. Arya had pulled her chair up to his head and they looked innocent. The nurse shot a look between them and placed a food tray on the table by him. Arya was shooed out of the room when the nurse shot her a look that clearly said that she had to leave now. She gave him a quick kiss and told him to keep his phone on.
Sandor
Sandor had been sitting in the courtroom with Margery and Sansa when he got the word that Gendry had been shot. He felt torn with the need to protect Sansa and Margery from the events of the trial of Joffery's rape but he also wanted to go to his friend. He knew that today was the day that they finally got the creep Jaqen behind bars but he never suspected that Jaqen would go so far as to shoot Gendry. He didn't show Sansa the text knowing that it would scare her and that she had enough on her mind but his hope to spare her was dashed when she got a text from Arya.
"Oh my god. Gendry has been shot!" She whispered to Sandor and Margery beside her.
"What do you mean he was shot?" Margery whispered back.
They were hearing testimony from a computer specialist for the defense that was trying to say that the video was a fake and that it was just really good computer rendering. Willis, who was second chair due to the fact that his sister was one of the victims was allowed to question the witness and he was laying into her about her knowledge of the field and then he had his own witness come up and refute all that the computer expert had said. It wasn't interesting so they felt safe to whisper together.
"I don't know. All Arya had said was that Gendry was shot by Jaqen. Sandor do you know anything about this?" Sansa looked at him and he knew that she knew that he knew what was going on.
"Jaqen has been stalking your sister and Gendry for some time now. The cops and the Baratheons had arranged that he be arrested today and I guess things didn't go as planned."
The people in the row in front of them turned around and shot the three of them reproachful looks and they decided that they should leave the courtroom to finish their discussion.
"Jaqen has been stalking them! For how long? And does Arya know about this?" Sansa demanded as they were safely outside the court room away from the angry looks of the people in the gallery.
"As far as we know Jaqen has been following Arya since they first met. But then Gendry beat him up and that seems to be when he went off the deep end and started following Gendry. That's all I know. I swear Sansa. If it had been any real danger I would have told you and Arya. We never thought that Jaqen would go this far." Sandor hung his head in sadness. Margery was on her phone calling Myrcella to see what Gendrys condition was. Sansa continued to lecture Sandor about how these lapses in communication are dangerous and not conducive to a start to a relationship.
"He is in surgery but they say that he is okay and that he should have the full use of his arm. He is going to be okay!" Margery came skipping over to them and she hugged Sansa.
Then the doors burst opened and Loras came out of the room looking wildly around for his sister. It was her turn on the stand and Sansa gave her a hug for strength and Sandor gave her a hug as well and after Sansa nudged him in the back he gave her a small kiss on the forehead.
"Thank you Sandor and Sansa. I know that I wouldn't be here doing this if it had not been for you two." She squared her shoulders and walked into the courtroom. Margery had asked that they not be in there so they sat waiting outside. She had said that seeing her brother there would make it hard enough, but seeing her friends would make her cry on the stand and she didn't want to do that.
Sansa and Sandor sat on a bench and waited for her to come back out of the courtroom. They waited for an hour. They called Arya and Myrcella several times to get updates on Gendry. Arya had stopped answering her phone but Myrcella said that he was out of surgery and that they had been in to visit him and that Arya had stayed behind. Sandor could imagine what Arya was doing to the poor drugged up Gendry.
The doors of the courtroom busted opened and Margery was there standing triumphantly with her grandmother and her parents beside her. A look of pure happiness on her face. Sandor recognized that look. It was the same one that Sansa had worn when she had left the courtroom when the verdict of guilty had been called during her trial with Joffery.
"I did it. I even made some of the jury members cry. That bastard is going to go away for a long time and there is nothing that the Lannisters can do about it." Margery said when she reached her friends.
"You are one of the bravest people I know." Sansa said as she embraced her friend and fellow "victim".
"I think that he won't be out until he is an old man and hopefully by that time he will be too old to get it up." Olenna said as they stood together.
"Mother is that any way to talk in front of such young people?" Margery's mother looked at the three "children" then glanced at her husband.
"Um yes mother, I don't think that you should talk like that in front of the children.
"These children as you like to call them are more adult then you two dunder heads." Olenna said as she banged her cane on the ground. "Now you three should go and have a good day."
"Actually Grandmother one of our friends was shot today so we will be seeing him in the hospital." Margery said to her grandmother.
"Oh well that is to bad. You all have fun. Shootings are tough to heal. I have experience with bullets. I have never been on the receiving end of a gun but I imagine that they hurt like hell." The good lady kissed her granddaughter and led her son and his wife out of the hallway.
"Is she always like that?" Sandor asked.
"Always." Margery smiled after her family. "Now let's go see Gendry."
Bran
Meera was lounging in the pool on a floaty while the boys played water basketball. Bran was in the lead with the most baskets. He loved being in the pool. He was able to walk and move without falling and hurting himself. It was part of his new recovery regiment to work in the pool. He was able to walk without assistance longer now then he had been the week before and he knew that he was on the way to being fully able to use his lower body.
"Bran, Rickon! Your father and I have to go to the hospital. There has been a shooting and Arya and Gendry are involved." Catelyn's voice interrupted the boy's merriment.
"Is Arya okay?" Bran asked fearing the worst. That his vision had been false and that Jaqen had killed her or Gendry.
"Gendry has been shot in the shoulder. He should be alright. It was the boy Jaqen who shot Gendry. I never liked that boy. He was to shifty. I am so glad that your sister chose Gendry. Oh I can't imagine how Helen is taking this. Your father knew that something was going to happen today. Will you look after Rickon Bran?"
"Sure mom. You go comfort Helen." Bran shouted from the water.
"Dinner is inside." She called over her shoulder as she walked away from her younger children.
Bran looked over to Jojen who was in deep conversation with Meera. He knew that this was not how either he or Jojen had seen the event happening. Gendry was not supposed to be shot. They had always seen the cops getting there before he fired the gun.
"Meera I don't know what is happening. I am losing it. I told you so." Jojen held his head and started to cry.
"Joey it's okay. This is nothing that you could have prevented. You know that you don't always see the true turn of events. You knew that Jaqen would be arrested and that it would prevent Arya and Gendrys death. That is the important part. You still have the sight." Meera stroked her brother's head and tried to comfort him.
"But I didn't see that he would be shot. I like Gendry. If I knew that he would have been hurt I would have told him to watch out. I would have warned him. And Bran never saw him fire either. It was always peaceful."
"But they changed things on us. They changed it all. Now there is nothing that we could have done. Calm down and relax. No one is dead and that is the important part of this."
Bran and Rickon watched the interplay of the siblings. Rickon swam over to his brother.
"What is he talking about? You saw this happening?"
"Since the tumor I have been able to see things Rickon. Jojen has the same infliction as I did. My visions have been less accurate then his. But we saw that something was going to happen with Jaqen and Gendry. But we never realized that it would be so fast." Bran tried to explain.
"You mean that you see things? Like an X-Man or something?" Rickon asked.
"Um yeah. I guess so." Bran said.
"That is so cool. I wish that I had that power." Rickon squinted his eyes and tried to do move the pool table with his mind. "I'm not an X-Man. Bummer man." Rickon went and swam some laps in the pool.
Bran swam over to the Reeds and started to see what the siblings were talking about. He was scared that Jojen would go over the deep end. Bran knew that Jojen had been feeling inadequate about his visions lately but he never knew that Jojen had such bad feelings about how much he relied on his visions. Bran was worried that Jojen would be losing touch with reality. Things had gotten worse when Bran had started dating Meera and they had had to exclude Jojen a little to have time to make their relationship real. As Bran swam over to them he decided to break things off with Meera for the sake of his best friend. Jojen needed his sister. The thought of not spending lazy afternoons reading plays out loud together or watching movies and having kiss fights pained him, but the desperate look on Jojens face settled it for him. In order to save his friends sanity he would stop being Meeras boyfriend.
"It is alright Jojen. We all knew that Jaqen was loose cannon. There was always a gun in our visions. It was always a possibility. You have done nothing wrong." Bran tried to put authority in his voice to snap Jojen to reality.
"But we didn't see him firing the gun. We never saw it. Just like I never saw that you would lose your ability to walk or that Margery or Sansa would be raped. I haven't seen anything that has been able to help people all year. If I can't help people what use are these visions?" Jojen demanded.
"Joey maybe it is time to stop trying to see. Just try to be a normal person. Get some friends and say yes when a girl asks you out. You can't help people if you keep yourself locked away from people." Meera stroked his head as it rested on the floaty.
"What do you know about this? You think having friends and a girlfriend will make it all go away? Bran did that and he isn't all better. If anything he is worse off because he doesn't want to see now. I want to see. You have poisoned him and his eyes are now closed. You have blinded him from his gift of seeing. You have poisoned me as well." Jojen shouted right in his sister's face. Meera was to shocked for words or for action when Jojen launched himself into the water and swan to the edge of the pool and vaulted out.
"Bran what is happening? Why is this happening now? Things were supposed to be better now. Now I have lost my brother and by the look in your eye I have lost you too." Meera drew her knees up on the floaty and started cry. Bran was torn between comforting his first love and going after his best friend.
Myrcella
Myrcella warily settled into her bed. So much had happened today. One of her brothers was all but convicted to prison for the rest of his life and the other had been shot. That had been one of the worst experiences she had ever lived thorough. Seeing Gendry and Arya coming into the hospital covered in blood, watching as the medical team swarmed around them and then took Gendry away.
Then she had gotten called from her uncle Tyrion that Joffery was as good as convicted after the jury viewed the video and heard Margery's testimony about the rape and that Joffery threatened and blackmailed her. Myrcella had little love for Joffery after all that he had done but it still hurt her to see what he had become. If only they had lived in a house full of love like it was now. Her mother was sick and destroyed everything she touched.
Myrcella walked into her bathroom and turned on the taps of her shower. There was a little amount of blood on her arm from where Arya had clung to her while waiting on word from Grendy.
Then her phone was ringing. She rushed to it expecting it to be Aegon to tell her goodnight and that he loved her before she went to bed, but it was an unknown number.
"Hello?" She asked into the phone.
"Hello little bitch." Jofferys voice was like ice and she wanted to scream.
"What do you want?" She barked. She desperately wanted to hang up the phone but didn't. No matter what happened to him and his soul he was her brother.
"I hear that your darling new brother was shot. That he almost died. Pity that he didn't. I have the pleasure of sharing my cell with his accused shooter. He is one crafty person."
"Why are you calling me?"
"My lawyer was able to get them to let me call my dear family to say goodbye. There appears to be no way that I can get out of this. I will be thrown in jail." Joffery gave a high pitched laugh that sent shivers down Myrcellas spine. "But I think with my new bff here I won't be in prison as long as everyone thinks. That's why I am calling little sister. It's a warning. One of these days we will be there for you and all those who stole out lives. You will pay for this and pay dearly. Sleep well darling sis. I hope that you have pleasant dreams." His laughter filled her ears and she could see him holding the phone while he laughed. His eyes glowing from hatred and his madness.
AN/ I am so sorry to all of you that have had to wait so long for an update. This has taken me so long because I have had sick kiddos. I'm sad that this one was so short but I wanted to get something up for you. I have to tell you that this story probably has three of four chapters left. Thank you all for sticking in there and waiting. I will try to get something up, but since I know it is almost over the characters seem to want to slow it down and not inspire me. Review and let me know what you all think. I don't know what will happen next. I'm thinking a prison break that threatens the kids prom? Maybe.