Well, here is chapter 12, updated very early because I promised some people that I would have it up yesterday!

This chapter is still not beta'd, and though I checked, some monstrosities created by my Autocorrect might have escaped my eyes... Please forgive me if that is so :P

Enjoy, and please leave some reviews! :D

Sandor had had some difficulty trying to make Sansa move away from that street after the SUV left. The pop star was more than convinced that the young woman that they had seen was her younger sister Arya. Sandor tried to convince her of the contrary, he told her that he was imagining stuff because she was still in shock. Sansa had not given up on her conviction that that had been her sister, but in the end the bodyguard had managed to make her resume walking away from that place, and he had successfully delivered her back to the Red Keep safe and sound.

Everyone had reunited in the Red Keep: Baratheons, Lannisters, Tyrells and Starks. There was all the security that there could fit in that place and more; it was like an unyielding stronghold prepared for war. When Sandor and Sansa arrived in the car that had been sent to pick them up, half a dozen of security people fell in them as soon as they stepped out of the vehicle, checking everywhere for any signs of danger that might be accompanying any of them. Sandor snarled at the guards and made his way to the interior of the Red Keep, dragging Sansa behind him.

As soon as they saw her, her family cried out loud in joy and ran towards her, surrounding her in a loving embrace. Sandor could see that they had really been worried for her, even though their initial priority had been to keep Governor Stark safe, not Sansa. Joffrey was with the Baratheons and the Lannisters in the large living room. When he heard that his bodyguard had returned with his fiancée, he immediately played the part of the worried boyfriend and hurried up to take Sansa into his arms. He played the part almost to perfection, hugging her and kissing her and calling her "my love" and "my lady" and checking if she was alright. Sansa was too shocked, and the only way in which she was able to react was by becoming stiff, and she was only able to mumble incoherently. Her family took it like a sign that she was too relieved to see her fiancé again and could not express her happiness accurately at that moment. When he saw all that pitiful mummery, Sandor rolled his eyes and grunted in disgust, taking his eyes away from the couple and the girl's family. Such hypocrisy and falseness made him sick to his stomach.

Not once did he mention what he and Sansa had seen in the streets while they were running away from the crowd. He ought to have told his boss and his family that they had found the shooters, that they had left in a black SUV and that the person that had risen all that hell was a young woman. But he didn't. Sansa had begged him over and over, before getting to the car that took them to the Red Keep, not to say anything to anyone. He had made him promise her, and so he had sworn not to say a word. Even though he didn't believe at first that what Sansa was saying was true, he starting doubting if maybe the singer was right after all. Maybe she hadn't imagined it, and the shooter was in fact her younger sister.

Sandor dreaded what would happen if that was the truth, and he dreaded the even bigger hell that would break loose if it was discovered. Because if Sansa was right, then Arya Stark had murdered Renly Baratheon.

Well, shit. As if there weren't enough complications already in that fucking house!

Three days later was the funeral of Governor Renly Baratheon. The funeral was held in the Stormlands, in the State of Stormlands, where he had been born and he had lived his whole life. It was impossible to say how many people attended the funeral. Renly was loved by many people, having managed to charm almost everyone that he had met in his life, and also his political career made him quite popular. All kinds of people attended his funeral: family, friends, celebrities, politicians, wealthy people that he had surrounded himself with... There were even common people attending his funeral, weeping and sobbing while the priest said some words that some people paid attention to and others didn't.

Sandor had never cared much about Renly Baratheon, always considering him to be a noisy spoiled brat politician. However, he stood still with respect, acknowledging that the deceased deserved at least that. He observed quietly the people that surrounded him, moving only his eyes around with vague curiosity. The first person that he saw was, of course, Joffrey, because he was standing right in front of his bodyguard. The young Governor didn't want to be in that place, and it was obvious: he was bored, and he looked bored. He didn't care about his uncle. He didn't care that Renly had died because Joffrey had been spared his own life. That could have been him inside that coffin instead of his uncle, if Sandor had not done his job properly and reacted in time! But Joffrey didn't care, he was glad that it was his uncle that had died and not him, and he didn't feel any remorse for feeling that way. Sandor had always known that there was something fucked up with Joffrey, he had had many chances to know that over the course of 23 years spent at the young man's side, but lately Sandor had been seeing a darker side of Joffrey that made him feel uneasy. He was finding Joffrey to be too cold, too cruel as of late. Sandor didn't think that was a good sign.

At Joffrey's side was his family. His siblings Myrcella and Tommen sobbed quietly, mourning the loss of their uncle. Their mother Cersei looked like she didn't give a damn about Renly, though she tried to dissimilar it by looking down at her feet and hiding her face behind a huge black hat with flowers in it. The rest of the Lannisters stood by her side in silence. At the other side of the coffin, right in front of the Lannisters and Baratheons, were standing the Tyrells. Margaery was clearly very saddened by the death of her husband. She didn't love him as her husband, but she had cared for him as a dear friend. At her side was standing her brother Loras, sobbing quietly and trying not to fall apart in front of everybody. Sandor paid the Tyrell family no longer attention and drifted it instead towards where the Starks where standing… with Sansa.

He was surprised when he caught the young woman's eyes staring right at him. He waited, guessing that she would quickly drift her eyes somewhere else at any second, but she held his gaze. He almost frowned, not knowing why she was looking at him that way… No one had ever looked at him like that. Her blue eyes had the most intense look that he had ever seen on her. He could see a few tears in her eyes, shed in pity for the Governor's death... But behind those polite tears, there was something else, a fire that he could not quite identify and that was boring into his very soul.

He felt a lump in his throat, and he wanted to look away, but he felt bewitched by those deep blue eyes. He always stared at her when she didn't see him, when she didn't notice his attention, but never before had he dared to hold her gaze in a way that felt so... so awkward, and at the same time intimate. He knew damn well that many would even say inappropriate, but he didn't give a fuck about those things. So he stared back for a long time, and Sansa's eyes kept lingering on him the whole time. It was a silent challenge, waiting, daring each other to look away first, but none of them did. There was something in the air between them, some strange energy that made Sandor feel like there was a rope pulling him towards the auburn-haired beauty. He had indeed felt something before, since the first time that he saw her on that fucking stage with her prefect dress and her perfect face and her perfect voice, but never before had he felt that strange sensation so strongly. It intrigued him, and it burned at his insides. It wasn't a painful burning, like the ones he had suffered as a child, but a pleasant burning...

He was slowly identifying some of the feelings that were forming that mess inside his chest. Longing, and rage... because she was there. Standing right in front of him, and yet so far away, unreachable.

He suddenly came to his senses and shook his head slightly, decomposing himself. In doing so, he was the first one of them to stare away. His eyes stared a moment to the grass beneath his feet before he raised them again, taking a peek at Sansa... but she had stared away as well after him, and she wasn't going to look at him again.

Good. He didn't need anyone in that fucking funeral noticing how Joffrey's bodyguard lustfully stared at the Governor's fiancée...

Buggering hells, dog, put your shit together, he scolded himself as he returned his attention to the funeral.

He was starting to worry himself. Yes, he had always felt somewhat attracted to Sansa, even though at first he hadn't missed an opportunity to mock or insult her. Yes, he had imagined her in sexy black lace underwear when she had her back turned to him, giving him full view of that glorious round little butt of hers. Yes, he thought he was the most fucking beautiful woman in the whole fucking world!

But ever since he bought that thrice-damned McDonalds for her, something had changed. He had started caring for real. It had been that moment when he had seen in her a normal young woman who just wanted to get away and couldn't. Ever since he had helped with that improvised ice pack in the kitchen, and she had claimed to be able to see beyond him, to see that he was a good person underneath a tough guy facade... Ever since he helped her find that goddamn ring so that she wouldn't get in trouble, and she had hugged him like he had just saved the world...

...Ever since he had felt terrified when he saw that they had left her behind with the crowd, and he had desperately run to find her... Ever since she called him, out of all people she could have called, for help...

Ever since all that Sandor should have known that he had fallen under the girl's spell, and there was no going back.

Once he realized that, while standing there in the middle of all those people in the funeral, he cursed mentally all the things that came to mind. How could he have let that happen? How could he have been such a fool?! Stupid, stupid, stupid dog!

She's a Stark, for fuck's sake! Joffrey's fiancée. Fucking idiot, he grunted in his mind. Stop thinking of her. Do not stare at her! Just. Don't.

It took him a lot of effort not to do so, but he succeeded. For the rest of the duration of the funeral, he stayed out, looking only at the coffin and pretending to listen to the priest's words, not moving an inch. But the whole time, the only thing that was in his mind was that he was a fool. He had spent his whole life smelling danger, fighting it, avoiding it... and he hadn't been able to see the worst one until it was already too late.

Once the coffin had already been put two meters underground, the people started leaving after leaving hundreds of flowers around the grave. The Baratheons and the Tyrells stayed there, and people approached them to give them their condolences before leaving. Sandor stood behind Joffrey while he saw how everybody approached him and his family to say how sorry they were for his uncle's passing. The Starks were the first, and then some Lannisters, and then came other important families and politicians and some of Renly's friends. Suddenly, Sandor heard Cersei snorting indignantly.

"What is he doing here?" she hissed to her eldest son.

Sandor looked towards where the woman was looking and saw Gendry Baratheon talking to Margaery Tyrell. Gendry was a son born from one of Robert Baratheon's relationships previous to his marriage. he looked just like his father when he was young, tall and handsome and broad. He hadn't followed his family's footsteps in politics, and made his living as the CEO of a successful trading company. He was older than Joffrey, being 29 years old, and the contrast between him and his siblings was quite noticeable, as they all looked more Lannister than Baratheon. Cersei had always hated him ever since she married the boy's father, because he looked more like Robert than her own children did. It also didn't help how fond the former President had been of the boy. Out of all his children (both Cersei's children and the others he had had before his marriage), Gendry had probably been his favorite. Sandor had taken care of him sometimes when he was a kid and lived in the Red Keep, and he knew that the young man was polite and kind and didn't like to stick his nose in other people's business. He was quiet and responsible, and his siblings loved him.

Joffrey looked at his half-brother and shrugged.

"Renly was his uncle too," he answered to his mother's question.

Joffrey hadn't had the perfect relationship with Gendry as a child, not had he had a bad relationship with him. It was just quite indifferent, same as the relationships he had with his other siblings. He just didn't care, and as long as Gendry didn't mess with what Joffrey believed was his right as Robert's older legitimate son, he was okay with having an older brother. Sandor had seen them play sometimes when they were children, though now they barely even talked or saw each other.

"Yes, well..." Cersei hissed, clenching her jaw. "As long as he came alone and didn't bring with him any of the other ones, I suppose this visit isn't completely terrible."

Gendry left the Tyrells and walked towards the Baratheon/Lannisters. As soon as they saw him, Myrcella and Tommen jumped to hug him, happy to finally see their older brother again. He hugged each one of them with an arm at the same time and smiled, happy to be reunited with his siblings too. He talked with them for a little bit and then he walked over where Joffrey and Cersei were standing. Cersei didn't stop grimacing; she never made any attempt to hide with dislike for her late husband's extended family. Gendry ignored her disgusted expression and saluted her with a polite nod of his head, and then he centered his attention on Joffrey, who faked smiled as well as always. He had an impression to give to the crowd surrounding them at all angles.

"Joffrey," Gendry greeted him with a deep voice and a serene look in his eyes.

"Brother," Joffrey greeted. "I'm glad that you could make it here today."

"I couldn't miss the funeral. I'm sorry."

"You don't have to give me your condolences. You are part of the family and you must be going through the same hard times as all of us are," Joffrey said, still keeping up his act. Sandor knew that Gendry knew better, but the young man didn't say anything.

After saying excusing himself with a slight nod of his head, Gendry moved on to talk to other members of the family. He didn't even attempt to go near the other Lannisters, because he didn't want to talk to Governor Tywin Lannister (who disliked him just as much as Cersei did) and instead chose to approach his uncle Stannis and his cousin Shireen. After saying something to them that Sandor couldn't hear, Gendry walked toward the Starks.

Sansa was still with the Starks, and Sandor observed as Gendry approached her and, after exchanging a few words, they both hugged fondly. Sandor raised an eyebrow at that; he hadn't known that Sansa and Gendry were so close, and he discretely looked at Joffrey to see his reaction. Joffrey was also closely watching his fiancée and his half-brother with narrowed eyes and his arms crossed over his chest. He clearly didn't like seeing Sansa being so friendly with the dark-haired man, but then again, Joffrey didn't like seeing Sansa with anybody. Not even with her mother and her brothers.

Sansa and Gendry stopped embracing each other, and started engaging in conversation. From where they were standing, Sandor couldn't hear what they were saying, nor did he care. However, Joffrey did have some curiosity. When he stopped receiving everyone's condolences he turned around and faced his bodyguard with a severe expression in his face.

"Follow her around until everybody is gone and she returns back to the house," he ordered Sandor in a low voice, not wanting anyone to hear him, "and then you come to meet me immediately. Understood?"

Sandor wanted to protest, but he resisted the urged and nodded. With no as much as a good bye, Joffrey left, walking towards the exit of the graveyard followed by his family. Once he was left alone, Sandor got distracted for a few seconds... until he sensed a presence next to him, and turned his face to find Gendry Baratheon staring at him with a thin smile in his face. However, he seemed a little upset, and he was as pale as a ghost, when mere moments ago he had been fine.

"Hello, Sandor," the young man said, offering his hand to Sandor. The bodyguard extended his own hand and shook it.

"Gendry. Long time no see."

"I know, I've been real busy in the last few years, I didn't really have time to stop by the Red Keep as I used to do before," Gendry commented, shrugging. He looked at Sandor for a few seconds in silence until he finally said. "Thank you. For saving my brother, I mean."

"Huh. I didn't think you cared much about him."

"Well, he's an asshole," Gendry admitted, and shrugged for the second time, "but he's still family. So yeah, thank you."

"You are welcome. I'm sorry about your uncle, though."

"Yeah... Well, these things happen, don't they? The same happened with my old man. At least uncle Renly passed away smiling like he always did."

There was an awkward silence after that, in which Gendry didn't seem able to come up with anything else to say, and Sandor didn't want to say anything else. Sensing that the conversation had come to an end, Gendry patted Sandor in the shoulder and walked away. Sandor only had a few seconds alone until he sensed a second presence at his side, but he almost smiled when he saw that it was Sansa. However, his expression remained bored and a bit harsh, as always.

"Hey," she said, shyly.

"Hi," he said. Then he pointed towards Gendry with a quick move of his head. "What did you say to him? He was pale as a dead man after talking to you."

Sansa's expression became worried and she bit her bottom lip (which instantly made Sandor feel like he was going crazy, which had never happened to him before).

"I told him I saw Arya..."

Sandor immediately forgot all about how sexy he thought that Sansa was when she bit her lower lip, and stared at her with eyes as big and round as places.

"You did what?!" he hissed. What was she, stupid?! "Why did you do that?!"

"Because Gendry is Arya's boyfriend! ...Or was, before she disappeared. Anyways, he had a right to know. He was desperate after she banished in thin air, and he has been looking for her everywhere. He deserved to know."

"But it wasn't your sister!" he hissed, mad at her for bing so indiscreet.

Sansa looked defiantly at him and reached for her purse. She searched for something inside of it and fished out her iPhone, unlocking it and looking for something in it, a picture. After she found it, she handed it over to the bodyguard, who took the iPhone and looked at the screen with little interest, until that changed when he realized that the face making a goofy expression to the camera was the fucking shooter that they had seen in that back street. Sansa had been right! Arya Stark was the shooter...

Holy fuck!

Awestruck, he returned the iPhone to Sansa, not really knowing what to say. That had been completely unexpected, and he didn't know whether to say something good or bad about it.

"Did you tell him everything?" He asked then, wanting to know how much Sansa had revealed to Gendry. If he knew that Arya Stark had been the shooter and he told someone else, shit would start to go down like a demolished skyscraper. For his relief, Sansa shook her head.

"No, of course not! How could I tell him that the woman he loves killed his favorite uncle while trying to assassinate his brother?! I just told him that I saw her, I didn't specify how or when or where."

"Good," Sandor rasped. "Well... your sister is a damn good shot," he commented then. Sansa sighed and then she threw her phone inside her purse again. Now that he took a good and close look at her, Sandor noticed that the girl looked exhausted and nervous and scared. She had damn good reasons to be feeling so, given what her sister had done.

"Yeah... A very good shot," she nodded."She almost blowed my fiancé's brains out."

"Would that have been a good thing or a bad thing?"

"That's a completely inappropriate question!" Sansa exclaimed, pretending to be horrified, and Sandor almost laughed.

"Come on, little bird. We both know that you have an answer for it. Admit it, you wish that I hadn't saved Joffrey's ass. Right now you would be free of him, and your brother could have a better chance of becoming President. Maybe Renly would have had a little accident later on, perhaps..."

"Arya has her perfectly good reasons to want Joffrey dead," Sansa blurted out before she could stop herself from saying those words. She realized that what she had just said could get her in trouble... but she trusted Sandor. She knew, after all the time that she had spent with him and knowing how he felt about Joffrey, that he wouldn't do anything to get her in trouble. She took a deep breath before adding: "But I can't tell you those reasons. If I do, you won't believe me, and if you do, Joffrey will kill me. He would kill me even if you didn't believe me..."

"Why?" Sandor asked, not liking the turn that the conversation was taking. He wanted to know, he wanted Sansa to finally tell him what was wrong... Because he knew that whatever it was, it was something that was really, really, really messed up, and it infuriated him to not be able to figure it out...

Sansa shook her head, unable to say anything else. The bodyguard could see in her eyes how scared she was.

"I can't, it's just... Please, I have to go. It's been a very tiring day."

She walked past him and walked away in the direction in which everyone else had left, and Sandor just stood there still as a statue, looking at her until she disappeared. Even then, when she was no longer in sight, he stood there watching in that direction, frowning, thinking about what she had said moments ago. Something was not right, and the wheels inside Sandor's mind started turning, slowly putting small pieces of information together... It all felt like a puzzle, and he really wanted to solve it. He wanted to know what was wrong in that picture, what Sansa had meant with her statements all along, what it was that he couldn't see...

He remembered that Sandor wanted to see him as soon as Sansa left to go back to the house in which they were staying while they were in Storm's End, and he started walking towards the exit of the cemetery, but hie didn't stop thinking about that matter for a second.

He knew that to figure out what was happening he needed to revise what he knew already.

What did he know? He knew that Sansa was terrified of Joffrey. Not scared, terrified, even though he was her fiancé and should not be feeling like that, it wasn't normal. Sandor wasn't stupid enough to think that what she was scared of was of beatings, he had seen her after Joffrey slapped her in a rage fit, and she didn't panic in those occasions like she did whenever Sandor asked her what was really wrong. No, the beatings where the consequence of the reason why Sansa was afraid of Joffrey, not the cause. He also knew, after what had happened the other day with Arya Stark and the shooting and what Sansa had just hinted before, that it was the same reason why the younger Stark wanted to kill Joffrey, or at least there was a link between both women's reasons.

What else did he know? He knew that Sansa was scared enough that she didn't even dare to break her engagement to the Governor. Sandor wasn't fooled anymore by the thought that she was some kind of gold-digger. Then, he also remembered the look on Arya Stark's eyes... It was a look that he recognized perfectly, thirsty for revenge. But revenge for what? It couldn't be for her sister, because as far as Sandor knew, Arya had disappeared before Joffrey started hitting Sansa, because that had been...

Sandor froze suddenly, as shock hit him once he was finally able to put all the pieces of the puzzle together. He felt like a lightbulb had just been lit over his head in the air.

Everything had started after Sansa's father had died. She herself told him once that that was when Joffrey started hitting her. That was when Arya had disappeared. And now she came back, after all that time, just to try and kill Joffrey in front of thousands of people? It all made sense now.

Governor Joffrey Baratheon had ordered the death of Vice President Eddard Stark.

"Oh shit..." Sandor muttered under his breath and shaking his head. Now that he knew the truth behind everything, he started worrying about the kind of mess that he was willingly stepping into by sticking his nose inside other people's business.

He knew that he could get in a hell of a lot of trouble, but he didn't want to back off now. Not now that he knew everything and that he knew that he felt what he felt for Sansa. He couldn't just turn her back to her.

Now he had to go and meet Joffrey to see what the little shit wanted, and he had to try and confirm if his theory was true. And then, if he could, he would try to find a way to help Sansa, if it was possible...

He pretty much doubted it.

"You wanted to see me?" He asked Joffrey when he closed the door behind him after entering the office.

His boss was sitting on a comfortable desk, behind a mahogany desk. He was looking through the big window with views to the coast, and he played distractingly with a pen moving it between his fingers. When Sandor entered the office and spoke, Joffrey looked at him and nodded. He signaled him to come closer, and Sandor did that but he didn't sit down. Joffrey didn't offer him to take a seat anyways.

"Did you do what I told you?" Joffrey asked with his severe and arrogant voice, as usual.

Sandor nodded. "Aye. I didn't leave her until she came back to the house."

"Good. Did you hear anything interesting?"

"No," he lied. "She was just consoling your brother, that was all."

"Alright then..."

"Is there anything else you needed, sir?" Sandor asked, hating to have to speak in that polite way when he was on the job, and he hated it even more now after he had starting to have his suspicions. He couldn't wait to be able to confirm them.

"Actually, yes. Clegane, do you know how the investigation is going? About the shooting, I mean."

"I spoke with the detectives in the morning. They don't have anything yet. Whoever it was was very careful."

He could see that Joffrey was infuriated with the news. The young Governor paws his fist around the pen that he was holding with such strength that his knuckles turned white and the pen almost broke. Sandor had to stop himself from smirking seeing his boss so angry.

"Those imbeciles... They are good for nothing!" Joffrey snapped.

"May I ask something, sir?"

"Go ahead, dog," Joffrey said, turning his attentions briefly to some papers that were laying on the wood desk.

"Do you have any enemies?"

Joffrey's face shot back up as soon as the bodyguard asked that question, and he frowned, eyeing Sandor suspiciously.

"You'll have to be more specific, Clegane..."

Sandor cleared his throat, searching for the way to subtly ask the questions that he wanted to ask. "Have you done anything lately that might want to make something strangle you with your own guts?"

Joffrey grinned. Sandor didn't like that, it was bad news. It meant yes, he knew Joffrey all too well...

"Are you implying something, Clegane?"

"I've known you since you were a bawling hair ball. I've taken care you you since then, and I know that when you want things, you take them."

Joffrey dropped the pen and laid back comfortable on the leather chair, looking at Sandor with growing interest and amusement.

"Really? And what things do I take?"

"We both know that your favorite you is power. And taking power means crossing people... People who might later want to put your ass on a stick and roast you on a barbecue."

Joffrey threw his head back and laughed long and laughed, amused by his bodyguard' words. He didn't suspect a thing, because he was too stupid to actually think that Sandor might know something, and Sandor was putting it as if he was only pronouncing mere theories. In fact, they were still theories... He just needed to confirm them.

Finally, Joffrey stopped laughing and nodded, throwing his hands in the air.

"Guilty!" he exclaimed, like an amused kid laying a game. "I might have.. moved some strings, from here to there, from there to here... And some of those string I've pulled, and others I've cut..."

The way in which his green eyes shine maliciously as soon as he said those words dissipated all doubts for Sandor. Bingo. He was right. Governor Joffrey Baratheon had been behind the death of Sansa's father. That was why Arya Stark had tried to kill him.

Sandor was starting to feel really sorry for Sansa, and then Joffrey pulled him out of his thoughts, mentioning precisely Sansa's name.

"I need you to do something for me," Joffrey said, forgetting about what they had been talking mere seconds ago. "I want you to take my fiancée and take her away from here. The Starks are going to return to King's Landing for some time, and I don't want her spending more time near them. I want her away until they return to their filthy North."

"Where should I take her?"

"I don't care, wherever the hell you want. Pick one of my other residences and just take her there until I tell you to take her back."

"Isn't her family going to suspect anything?"

"I'll tell her that she's nervous and needs some vacations. They will believe it. Now leave me alone and go to make any arrangements that you need, I want her gone tomorrow morning."

He dismissed Sandor just like that, and the bodyguard bowed his head and turned around to leave.

His mind was an ocean of mixed thoughts at that moment. He didn't know what to make of everything that he had learned that day, it was all just fucking crazy.

One thing he knew, though. He was going to make sure that Sansa had a good time away from her shit fiancé, the girl deserved as much, and it was the least that he could do, to make sure she was alright at least for a little while.

He already knew where he was going to take her.