Thank you all so much for reading and for the wonderful reviews. Jaime is a difficult character to write for because he's not black & white. It's challenging to capture that, and to write a romance for him without making him out of character - though there are several great fanfics on here that have managed to do that, and I appreciate all of you who are reading this one. And I appreciate the encouragement.

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Chapter 27

It was still dark when Edmure Tully sent up the peace banner, opened the gates and surrendered Riverrun. It was not a simple matter for Edmure's men to be taken prisoner, the castle searched and secured, and turned over to the Lannisters; the entire process took hours and hours. Of course, it had not gone exactly as planned. Once the castle was secured, Lannister soldiers marched Edmure into Hoster Tully's solar where Jaime, Lady Genna and Lord Emmon waited. Jaime motioned for his men to wait outside.

The Emmon Frey, new Lord of Riverrun, was so angry he was shaking. "I will have his head off! I rule Riverrun, by the king's own decree. I am lord and I will have his head!"

"For what crime?" Thin as he was, Edmure still looked more lordly than Emmon Frey ever would. "I did all that was asked of me."

"Oh?" Jaime had not slept since Riverrun had opened its gates and his head was pounding. "I do not recall asking you to let Ser Brynden escape."

"You required me to surrender my castle, not my uncle." For a man who was going to spend the rest of his life as a prisoner, Edmure was entirely too pleased with himself for Jaime's taste.

"How did he escape?"

Edmure was silent for a long time, clearly not intending to answer the question, though Jaime's murderous expression must have made him reconsider. "Fish can swim," he said with a smile. Jaime exhaled in annoyance. In the confusion of the castle changing hands, it had been many hours before Jaime had been informed that the Blackfish was not amongst the prisoners.

"You have to find him," Lord Emmon yelled.

"After the trouble Ser Brynden took to leave us, I doubt he'll come skulking back," Jaime snapped. Unless it is at the head of a band of outlaws.

Ser Emmon left in a flurry with his wife trailing after him – no doubt to take inventory of his castle. "Is there more that you would care to tell me?" Jaime asked Edmure when the two of them were alone.

"This was my father's solar," said Tully. "He ruled the Riverlands from here, wisely and well. He liked to sit beside that window. The light was good there, and whenever he looked up from his work he could see the river. You will never know how sick it makes me to see you in this room, Kingslayer. You will never know how much I despise you."

Jaime sensed someone in the doorway and turned to see Sansa, along with several guards that were escorting her. She had a scared look on her face, having heard Edmure's words to Jaime. They were to stay in the castle overnight before traveling to the Twins the following morning. Edmure had taken Jaime up on the offer for Lady Roslin to accompany them to Casterly Rock, and Jaime would have to negotiate with Walder Frey to make that happen.

Jaime had waited to have Sansa brought over to Riverrun from their camp until he was certain the castle was secure and there were no enemies left within the keep. He saw Edmure's eyes go to Sansa, watching as his Tully blue eyes met hers. Edmure was plainly startled by his niece's presence at Riverrun. "You're Sansa aren't you?" he asked quietly as he looked at her.

She nodded. "Hello…Uncle."

He smiled faintly. "You were just a little thing no higher than my knee when I last saw you but…I'd recognize you anywhere. I can see your mother in you."

Jaime saw Sansa's eyes turn glassy with emotion at the mention of Lady Catelyn and stepped towards her, taking her arm. "We'll be fine here," he said, dismissing her guards. He met her eyes, silently asking if she was all right.

"I'm fine," she whispered to Jaime, looking curiously at her uncle.

"Your mother will be very happy to know that you are...well," Edmure said quietly, clearly looking Sansa over for any bruises or visible injuries.

Ser Addam entered the room, a white cloth folded in his hands. "You asked for this, my lord," he said, handing it to Jaime, before turning on his heel to resume assisting with the takeover of the castle.

Jaime handed the cloth to Sansa. "Your brother's standard from the top of the castle. I thought you would like to have it."

Her tears fell then as she clutched the silk cloth. "Thank you, Jaime" she whispered and he gently wiped the tears from her eyes with his thumbs.

She leaned against him and Jaime ran his hand over her hair, trying to comfort her. He met Edmure's eyes and could see he was surprised by his kindness toward Sansa. It went against Jaime's instinct to allow an enemy to see how much he cared for Sansa – that she was his greatest weakness – but he couldn't bring himself to let her to cry without comforting her. "Despite your feelings about my presence here, I expect my lady wife's does not offend you. Is there anything in the keep that you feel Sansa should have as a keepsake? Before Riverrun is turned over to my Aunt and her husband."

Edmure led them to his father's bedchamber and opened a dresser drawer, withdrawing a silver mirror. "This belonged to my lady mother. I don't remember her well, but, after she died, my father kept this. The rest of her belongings he gave to Cat and Lysa." Sansa had not strayed from Jaime's side, her arm linked through his. As Edmure offered her the mirror, she hesitantly crossed the room to approach him. Jaime leaned against the doorway to watch their interaction. "You should have this, Sansa. This shouldn't go to the Freys or the Lannisters. You should have something of your grandmother's."

Jaime watched as she considered the man who had just spoken such venomous words to her husband before hesitantly taking his offering, whispering her thanks.

"Has he hurt you?" he whispered to her.

Jaime knew he wasn't meant to hear his question to her, but he let Edmure ask it. Edmure would be his hostage at Casterly Rock and would have plenty of opportunities to speak to Sansa. If his words were enough to turn Sansa against him, Jaime knew there was little he could do to stop it. Jaime told himself to have faith in Sansa's love for him; in the relationship they had built together, piece by piece. She wasn't as faithless as Cersei had been.

"Jaime has not hurt me. I'm quite well, Uncle. I know what you think of my lord husband, but he's never harmed me or threatened me. Not once. And he never would. I believe I would be dead if it weren't for him." She raised her eyes and looked straight at her uncle. "I suppose that you and I both owe Jaime our lives."

Jaime couldn't help smiling to himself at her words of loyalty.

...

Sansa sat with Jaime in her grandfather's solar, her uncle Edmure having been taken to a tower room under guard until they left for the Twins in the morning. She didn't remember Edmure Tully, though he said he'd met her when she was a little girl. When she saw him, all she could think was that he looked like Robb. And in that moment, she missed the brother she would never see again.

Jaime had told her that Edmure Tully and his lady wife were to travel with them to Casterly Rock, where he would live as hostages until the war ended, and perhaps longer. Sansa was no stranger to such an arrangement. She couldn't remember a time when Theon Greyjoy had not lived with them. Sansa worried about her uncle's clear hostility to Jaime. Jaime had assured her that Casterly Rock was a huge castle, second only to Harrenhal in size, and they could live quite separate lives from any hostages. Still, she had tried to smooth things over when Edmure had asked if Jaime had hurt her. She had wanted to respond with venom, to tell him not to see her as a victim in her marriage, but she thought better of it.

It had meant a lot to her that Jaime had given her Robb's standard that she had seen flying atop Riverrun when they arrived. Joffrey would have made her tear it to shreds or burn it. She held it in her lap now as she sat beside Jaime on the sofa. She reached over and took her husband's hand. "Jaime? Truly, thank you for this," she said, gesturing to the banner in her lap. He leaned over and kissed her forehead.

"My lord?" A guardsman stood in the open door. "Lady Westerling and her daughter are without, as you commanded."

Jaime turned to her. "Do you wish to wait in the bedchamber?"

"I'd like to stay. If it's all right. I just want to see her." Sansa was curious about the girl her brother Robb had risked the war for; the girl he had died over.

Jaime looked at her for a long time before he nodded and turned back to his guard. "Show them in."

When Jeyne Westerling entered the room, Sansa supposed she was pretty enough, though she was even younger than Sansa was, and she couldn't help the dislike and jealousy that overcame her. Robb had risked victory in the war – breaking his oath to an ally and ultimately dying – to marry this girl. A girl he barely knew. Yet, he did not lift a finger to protect me. His sister. Robb wouldn't free Jaime, even though it would have saved Sansa's life and ended her torture. She felt tears begin to form in her eyes as she wondered if Robb had even thought about her; had even wondered how she was surviving in King's Landing.

Sansa turned her face away to wipe her tears, vaguely aware that Jaime was introducing her to Jeyne and her mother, Lady Sybell. She turned back to them, rising to her feet and murmuring words of greeting. She saw that Jaime had noticed her distress, and nodded her head, telling him she was fine as she turned her attention back to the girl her brother had married. Robb's queen had a puffy face from crying and there was a scab on her forehead, half-hidden by a lock of brown hair. Jaime noticed it as well. "What happened there?" he asked her.

"It's nothing," insisted her mother, Lady Sybell Westerling, a stern-faced woman in a gown of green velvet. "She would not give up the little crown the rebel gave her, and when I tried to take it from her the willful child fought me." The rebel? That's what she calls my brother?

"It was mine," Jeyne sobbed. "You had no right. Robb had it made for me. I loved him."

Her mother made to slap her but Jaime stepped between them. "None of that," he warned Lady Sybell. "Sit down, both of you." The girl curled up in her chair like a frightened animal, but her mother sat stiffly, her head high.

Jaime addressed the girl. "I am sorry for your loss. Robb Stark had courage and he led his men well. There is a question I must ask you. Are you carrying his child, my lady?"

Jeyne burst from her chair and would have fled the room if the guard had not seized her by the arm. "She is not," said Lady Sybell, as her daughter struggled to escape. "I made certain of that, as your lord father bid me." She made certain of that? How could she? Sansa considered the mother, and found it wasn't difficult for her to picture the woman forcing moon tea down her daughter's throat at Lord Tywin's request. No wonder her daughter can't get out of the room fast enough.

"Unhand the girl," Jaime said to the guards, "I'm done with her for now." As Jeyne fled sobbing, Jaime considered her mother and seemed just as disgusted with her as Sansa was. "Lord Westerling has his pardon. What else would you have of us?"

"Your lord father promised me worthy marriages for Jeyne and her younger sister. Lords or heirs, he swore to me, not younger sons nor household knights."

Sansa wrinkled her nose in disgust at her dead brother's mother in law. At her naked ambition. "You'll have your marriages," Jaime assured her.

"I have two sons as well," Lady Westerling reminded him. "Rollam is with me, but Raynald was a knight and went with the rebels to the Twins. If I had known what was to happen there, I would never have allowed that. He did not know of…of the understanding with your lord father. He may be a captive at the Twins."

Sansa didn't like the way Lady Sybell continued to call her brother and his men "the rebels." And it seemed to Sansa that she had plotted with Lord Tywin to betray Robb. In order to secure advantageous marriages for her children. What was worse, her cold manner reminded Sansa of Cersei. As if Sansa needed more reason to dislike the woman.

"If Ser Raynald is still a captive, we'll pay his ransom for you," Jaime assured her.

"Mention was made of a match for him as well. A bride from Casterly Rock. Your lord father had said that Raynald should have joy of him, if all went as we hoped."

"Joy is my late uncle Gerion's natural daughter. A betrothal can be arranged, if that is your wish, but any marriage will need to wait. Joy was nine or ten when I last saw her."

"His natural daughter?" Lady Sybell looked as if she had swallowed a lemon. "You want a Westerling to wed a bastard?"

"No more than I want Joy to marry the son of some scheming turncloak bitch," Jaime said coldly. "She deserves better. Your daughter is worth ten of you, my lady. You may stay as my guest at Casterly Rock –"

"No." Sansa could see that Jaime was surprised when she spoke up from behind him, but she couldn't help herself. "You are right, Jaime. She is a turncloak. I don't like the way she speaks about my brother and I don't want her in my home."

Lady Sybell's face darkened. "Your brother was a rebel against the crown-"

"You keep saying that," Sansa interrupted, "but it seems you were quite happy to wed your daughter to him and to live here with him when the war was in his favor. When you believed she would be queen."

"How dare you?"

Jaime's voice was like ice. "You would be wise to watch your tongue when addressing my wife. If Lady Sybell's presence displeases you, my love, she is not welcome at Casterly Rock. You may stay here, my lady. Enjoy the Riverlands."

Lady Sybell opened her mouth to argue, but Jaime called his guards in to escort her out before she had the chance. Jaime walked over to where Sansa had resumed her seat and dropped to his knees before her. "I'm sorry you had witness that."

"She knew Robb was going to be killed before it happened, didn't she?"

"I believe so."

"I'm sorry, Jaime, if I spoke out of turn but I didn't want her-"

"It's all right," he said, wiping the tears that were now forming in her eyes. "I meant what I said. I'll not force you to have anyone in your home that you don't want there. And the Rock will be your home. I have sent word to Walder Frey that the crown will require all of his hostages from the Red Wedding. Including your mother."

Sansa looked at him in surprise. "Why?"

"The Freys are not to be trusted. And after witnessing their treatment of Edmure…I thought it best to bring your mother with us to Casterly Rock. She will be a hostage," he said gently, "but she would not be in danger of death."

"Thank you," she whispered, cupping Jaime's cheek. "I know you're doing this for me." She considered him. "You must be tired. You haven't slept since the castle fell." She leaned forward and kissed him. Jaime rested his head on her lap as she hugged him, kissing the top of his head.

I'm going to see my mother again. It didn't seem real to her. She'd long ago accepted that she would never again see her family. Sansa looked down at her husband and ran her hand over his head. I wonder what my mother will think of me? I'm in love with Jaime Lannister and carrying his child. She thought of how her uncle had assumed that Jaime had hurt her - that he was cruel to her in their marriage. She knew her mother would think far worse. Sansa couldn't help feeling afraid of what her mother's reaction would be when they were reunited.

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Thanks for reading! At this point, the plot of the books is largely being left behind, since we're about at the end of Jaime's story in the books. In the next chapter, Jaime speaks to Lady Stark.