If Only It Were That Easy...
Everyone was silent, looking at Joffrey afraid that he might explode. No one dared to say anything, not did they dare to move. They just looked at him, measuring his reaction. His expression was calm and still, and he was so still that he seemed to be made of rock.
Everyone had started celebrating right after the news came in that Joffrey had won in the Reach. Everybody had believed that he was going to win in Dorne as well, so that was it. People had opened champagne bottles and they were starting to make toasts when suddenly one brave voice dared to speak up to announce that they had been wrong, and that Robb had won in Dorne.
That meant that Robb had 16 points. One more than Joffrey, who only had 15.
Robb Stark was the new President of Westeros.
Curses and explanations of disbelief had been heard all over the room right after the news came in, and several politicians had expressed their disappointment and disbelief until they all started noticing Joffrey, and they felt silent because of him.
Joffrey's expression was calm, yes. But the vein in his neck and the vein in his temple were beating furiously. The glass of champagne that had been given to him had been shattered inside his clenched fist. Some bits of glass had cut his palm, and champagne and blood dripped from his hand unto the floor.
Tywin Lannister looked uncomfortable standing next to his grandson. He was the first one who dared to break the silence, clearing his throat before saying.
"Well, that is it then."
Joffrey ignored him. He threw the shattered glass on a table and walked towards the exit.
"Sansa, we are going home!" he called his wife, who immediately left her chair and followed him. Sandor followed them both.
Millions of thoughts were appearing all at once in Sansa's head. The most prominent one was, Oh gods... What's going to happen now?
She knew that Joffrey was angry, but he wasn't in full rage mode. He was Vice President, that was something at least. But she wasn't worried because of what might happen to her because of her husband's disappointment... She was worried about her brother. Robb was the President now. He was the most powerful man in the whole country, but his enemies had also gotten much worse because of it. What happened to Theon popped up again in Sansa's mind, and she shuddered.
Apparently Joffrey read her mind.
"Don't worry," he muttered. "I won't touch your beloved brother."
She sighed in relief, though a little bit of fear remained in her. She did believe that Joffrey wouldn't touch him, or at least not yet. What Sandor had said earlier was true, there had been too many deaths already... It would be stupid to try to harm Robb. However, while her fear for what might happen to Robb disappeared, the fear for what might happen to her became stronger. Joffrey wasn't very angry now, but he was disappointed, and he wasn't a nice person when he was disappointed. Would he do anything to her once they were back in the mansion?
At least Sandor was there with her, but Sandor couldn't always save her... She knew that he wanted to keep her always safe, she had seen it after Theon's funeral when he yelled at Joffrey after he tried to hit her in the street. But that was dangerous, and she didn't want him doing it again. If Joffrey wanted to lash out at her, then fine, she would endure it. But she didn't want Sandor getting hurt.
But Sandor was stubborn as a mule, and she also knew that he couldn't care less about his safety, not anymore. Because of that, she prayed that Joffrey didn't do anything to her that night.
She was lucky. Joffrey drank a few shots of whiskey to calm himself down after he got to the Red Keep, and then he went straight to bed. Sansa was safe that night.
Joffrey stayed calm for a couple of days. Sansa called her brother the next day to congratulate him for winning the elections. He was her brother after all, and her husband could not deny her that phone call. She wished she could see her brother, but he was extremely busy those days. He had meetings with all kinds of people, and also with the current President, soon former President, Doran Martell. Robb had to have a meeting with Joffrey as well, due that his brother-in-las was his new Vice President. Sansa didn't know when that meeting was going to happen, but she wished that Joffrey would take her with him. She knew he wouldn't, though. He would leave her home, alone, so that she had as little contact with her family as possible. He would make up some excuse in case that Robb asked about her, and that would be it.
Sansa barely saw her husband in the days following the elections, and she was glad. She only saw him at night, when it was time to sleep, and that was more than she wanted to see him. She wished she could go away on tour or to film a movie or a video clip, but filming wouldn't start in months. Joffrey had told her to have her schedule free, so that they could go on their...
...On their honeymoon.
Whenever Sansa thought about it she felt desperate. She didn't want to go on that trip. She didn't want to be alone with Joffrey. She didn't want to be married to him! She didn't want to hold her end of the deal they had made before their wedding...
But she had no choice, had she? She never had a choice.
Joffrey called her to his office four days after the elections. She wondered what he could want, but he went to see him. Joffrey didn't like to be kept waiting... Sansa checked her reflection in the mirror before leaving her room; Joffrey got mad when she didn't look pretty, so she made sure that there weren't dark circles under her eyes or that her hair was messy. She hated looking pretty for Joffrey, but she preferred to live in peace and not have him insulting her. She left her room and crossed the hallways that led to her husband's office. She knocked before walking in.
"Sit down, Sansa," was the first thing Joffrey said right after she entered the office.
She did as he told her and say in the black leather chairs in front of Joffrey's desk. He didn't look at her, he was focused on looking at something in the screen of his computer. She waited in silence until he spoke again.
"We are leaving in four days, after I meet with your brother," he informed her. "It's about time we leave for our honeymoon, don't you think?"
Sansa's stomach turned, and she felt sick. Joffrey was asking her that on purpose. He knew how much she was dreading the honeymoon, how much she hated the idea of it, how sickened she was by it. Joffrey loved her discomfort, and he chuckled when he sensed her tension.
"Well? What do you think?" he asked.
She wanted to tell him that she didn't want to go, that she wanted to stay in King's Landing. She said something different;
"Where are we going?" she decided to answer his question with another question. Joffrey looked at the screen again.
"We are going on a cruise in the Caribbean. Lovely, don't you think?"
"Y-yes," Sansa mumbled. "Very lovely... Do we have to go now?"
"What do you mean?"
"I mean... Can't we go later? The elections were less than a week ago, everything is so recent... Wouldn't it be better to go later?"
"No," Joffrey said. "No, I want to go now, so we will go now. Doran Martell will still be the President for a couple more months, but once your brother is the President and I become Vice President I will have a lot of work and no time to leave this damn city..."
Sansa didn't say anything, she knew it was useless. She had to get used to the idea that in four days she would leave the city to go on the worst honeymoon ever with her husband, whom she hated and wanted dead. It was going to be a nightmare.
"We will have to move," she said all of a sudden, not really thinking before saying the words. Joffrey stared at her confused.
"What?"
"We will have to move," she repeated. "To another place. This is the President's house, we are living here only because President Martell allowed you to stay after your father died because he had been eight years in office. Now this place is my brother's."
"You fucking Starks..." Joffrey muttered with venom in his voice, suddenly very annoyed. What had angered him was the realization that he would have to leave that place. He loved the Red Keep mansion, and he didn't want to leave it. Now he would have to leave it and hand it over to Robb Stark, and that felt like a punch in the gut. "You all are such... a pain... in my ass..."
Sansa just stared at her husband, saying nothing else after he muttered that. She could feel him getting angry by the second, and she knew she shouldn't say anything else. She had provoked him enough already. Joffrey leaned back on his chair and looked at her; his gaze was so intense and intimidating that Sansa unwillingly lowered her gaze to her lap, trying to avoid his eyes. She remained there not moving not saying anything until Joffrey moved his hand, gesturing her to get away.
"Leave," he said. "I don't want to see you for the rest of the day. Leave, now!"
He didn't have to say it twice. Sansa stood up from the chair and quickly left Joffrey's office. She walked through the hallways, and her quick steps led her to her old room. She hated the whole mansion, but her old room was the only place where she felt safe. She had locked herself there during uncountable hours while she was still single, looking for moments of peace and quiet when no one would bother her. She closed the door behind her and walked to the bed. It was placed right in front of the window, and she laid down on the bed and hugged the pillows while she looked out the window. She wanted to fall asleep and dream of a better world and a better life. Maybe when she woke up she would find that weeks or months had passed, and Joffrey was home and she could go back home...
She sighed. Having dreams wasn't illegal, and she only wanted to dream...
She closed her eyes, and right after she did that someone knocked on her door. She opened her eyes again and frowned.
"Go away," she said, thinking it was Joffrey or maybe Cersei or someone else from that family. She didn't want to see any of them.
"Sansa," a raspy voice came to hear from outside the doors.
She gasped and sat up on the bed right at the same time that Sandor opened the doors. He didn't come inside the bedroom. Instead he stood there, looking at her.
"Do you want me to leave?" he asked, and she shook her head.
"No! But you shouldn't be here!" she exclaimed, alarmed. What if Joffrey or someone else saw and got the wrong idea? Sandor wasn't supposed to be there talking to her when he hadn't been assigned to take care of her...
"Everyone left, and Joffrey is locked in his office," Sandor explained. There was no danger of being seen by anyone. "I came to ask you if you wanted a ride somewhere."
"A ride?" she asked, confused.
"Yes, a ride. Do you want me to drive you somewhere?"
She didn't need to go anywhere, but she did want to get out of the Red Keep mansion... She usually didn't go out without getting Joffrey's permission first, but she guessed that he wouldn't mind her going out if his most trusted bodyguard was with her. Joffrey still thought that Sandor was loyal to him.
She nodded, and jumped off the bed. She went to her new bedroom to pick up her purse and her phone and some money (she never went out without those things,) and then she followed Sandor out of the mansion. They got inside one of the black Mercedes that was parked with the rest of the cars, and Sandor drove away from that place.
There was a lot of traffic that day in the city. King's Landing was the biggest city in the country, home to millions of people, and driving was sometimes awful. Sansa didn't mind to be stuck in traffic that day. She was happy by just being away from the mansion, and anyways she didn't have any place where she had to be. Sandor, on the other hand, looked impatient. Sansa knew he didn't like traffic, but she could see that his hands were sweaty and she could see on the fear view mirror that his forehead was also sweaty. Was he nervous about something?
"Is something wrong?" she asked him. He shook his head, but she didn't believe him. "Sandor?"
"I heard you two talking in the office," she told her then. "I heard that he wants to take you away..."
"It's only for two weeks..." Sansa murmured, but Sandor didn't listen to her.
"The three months that he gave you are already over... He can't take you away. I won't bloody allow it!" he rasped. Sansa could sense his distress.
"And what are you going to do? Throw him overboard and let him drown in the Caribbean?"
"It's tempting!" Sandor chuckled. "But no, I will do something better... I'm taking you to your family."
Sansa's eyes became wide with shock, and her mouth fell open. She stared at Sandor through the rear view mirror, alarmed.
"You can't do that!" she cried, knowing exactly what he wanted to do.
"Oh yes, I can!"
"I can't go to Robb! I can't tell him the truth!"
"Yes you can, Sansa. I won't tolerate for another fucking second that you stay in that bloody mansion with that fucking asshole, I won't," he said, behind dead serious.
"But when he finds out he will go ballistic! He will kill Robb, and he will kill me, and he will kill you!"
"Over my dead body! Besides, if your brother can't save your neck from Joffrey and if he can't save his own ass, he won't make a very good President! If he can't defend his own people then how in seven fucking hells is he going to defend a whole fucking country!"
"Stop yelling!" Sansa cried, and Sandor shut up when he realized that he had upset her. He was just too nervous and too desperate. He wanted to get her out of that her she was living and she wasn't doing anything to make things easier! "I know what Joffrey is capable of! And he won't sit down to wait for Robb to come after him... He will have his revenge if he finds out I said anything..."
"Well, then I suppose he can't know anything," Sandor muttered. "You go to your brother and you tell him the truth. He will immediately deal with Joffrey and with anyone that had anything to do with what happened to your father and to Greyjoy. It's not like he's going to publish in the newspaper that he's coming after Joffrey! And even if he did, what would Joffrey do? He can't do anything because the whole bloody world will know it was him, and then his ass will be buried deep in his own shit!"
Sansa realized that Sandor was right, and she felt much better. It could work. Maybe they could get away with it, and then she would be free, finally free...
"Will you stay with me?" she asked then. "If this works? If I can go back home, will you stay with me?"
She hoped he said yes. She dreamed of a brighter future, one where Joffrey was gone and Sandor was at her side forever. She would love to take him home with her, to Winterfell, and spend long days in the snow with him and feel happy again.
She saw the look in Sandor's eyes softening.
"Little bird... I will stay with you even if this whole plane blows up in our faces."
Forever, he meant to say. No matter if it all works out, or if it all went terribly wrong, he would always be by her side. His words warmed Sansa's heart, and she smiled. She saw him smiling too, even thought it was a worried smile.
He's afraid, she realized, just like me. We both know that this could go wrong. But he's trying to help me all the same.
"I love you," she said then. She really wanted to say those words to him at that moment.
"I love you too," Sandor said, and the words came easily to him now because they were the biggest truth that he had ever said, and Sansa knew it.
Sansa tried to relax in the car then. It wasn't often that she could manage to be with Sandor alone anymore, and she wanted to forget about her fears and worries while they were stuck in traffic. For a few minutes she felt happy just by looking at him, and she blushed whenever her eyes met Sandor's in the mirror. Sansa's blushing made Sandor chuckle.
"You are becoming as red as your head, little bird. Why?"
"I don't know," she admitted. Sometimes she just felt shy, and Sandor's intense gaze had that effect on her. "I'm thinking about the Sapphire Isle. And Highgarden. And Sunspear."
"Ah," Sandor said, smiling. "Happy memories, aye?"
"Very happy..." she nodded.
"When we get you out of this damned city I will take you wherever you want," Sandor said. "Somewhere pretty. And I will make you sing louder than you did in all those nights put together."
After hearing him said that, Sansa blushed furiously. She leaned forward and playfully hit him in the shoulder.
"Sandor!" she scolded him, but at the same time she couldn't help but laugh.
"Oi! Don't hit the driver!"
"The car isn't moving," Sansa retorted, and Sandor grinned.
The car had stopped in front of a red light, and the windows of the car were tinted black, so Sansa saw no danger in doing what she wanted to do. While the car was still not moving, Sansa moved forward so that she was standing in the empty place in between the driver's seat and the passenger's seat. Sandor looked at her frowning, wondering what she was doing, but before he could say anything Sansa kissed him. Sandor gasped against her mouth, surprised, but he didn't protest. He kissed her back immediately, full of need of her. They hadn't been able to have a proper moment alone together since the day of her wedding... While they kissed, Sansa placed her hand on the back of Sandor's hair and ran her fingers through it, just like she liked to do. Sandor let go of the steering wheel and placed his own hand on Sansa's face, bringing her closer to him while he kissed her. He loved it when he felt Sansa smiling against his mouth.
The moment was sweet, but short. The traffic light turned green and the cars started moving. Sandor and Sansa didn't realize at first, but when the cars behind them started honking furiously, both of them jumped in their seats and realized that they were stopping the traffic.
"I'm going, I'm going, you annoying buggers!" Sandor barked, annoyed. He started driving again, but the car right behind them honked again. Sandor rolled down his window and stuck his arm out. He showed the finger to the car that was behind them, and Sansa burst out laughing.
She didn't want to be in the backseat anymore, so she crept through the empty space in front of her to the empty passenger's seat. The movement of the at almost threw her against Sandor.
"What are you doing?!" he exclaimed when he saw her. Then he thought it was a pity that it was winter and Sansa was wearing jeans. Had she been wearing a dress or a skirt in a warmer weather he could have caught a very nice glimpse at her long legs. Anyways, seeing Sansa in jeans was also great. She sat down on the passenger's seat so that she could be closer to him than she was in the back seat, and she touched his face while she looked at him with a loving expression. The side of his face that was facing her was the good side, but she didn't mind anymore which side she was looking at. He was just Sandor to her, there wasn't really a good side or a bad side of him. She caressed his cheek, covered in a short beard. He hadn't shaved in days, but Sansa liked it, even though it was all scratchy and rough.
Sandor felt sparks in his nerves because of Sansa's touch. He had gotten used to her touching him even though they could not openly display any affection very often. He had always hated people touching him, but Sansa's hands felt like glory on his skin. He left only his left hand on the steering wheel, while he placed his right hand in Sansa's thigh.
A few minutes later he put his hand over Sansa's hand, which still caressed his cheek. He caressed her soft skin with his calloused fingers, but he stopped when he felt something metallic and cold in one of her fingers. He touched it with one of his fingers, and realized that it was her wedding ring. Sansa tensed.
"You will be able to take this off soon, little bird," he told her. He put his hand again on her leg. "Everything will be alright."
The traffic became lighter and faster, and soon they arrived to the headquarters of Robb's party. Sansa looked at it through the window while Sandor parked, and she felt a knot in the pit of her stomach. All her worries and anxiety had come back all of a sudden now that she was there, and she was so close to doing that which she was so afraid of doing: telling the truth.
"Come on, little bird," he encouraged her. "You are almost there."
He was right, she was almost there. She might as well do it before she got cold feet. She was about to open her door to get out of the car, but stopped when she saw that Sandor was doing the same.
"No!" she stopped him. "Please, stay in the car."
"Why?"
"Please, I don't want anybody to see you. If something happens I want you out of all of this."
"Bugger that, I'm not leaving you alone."
"Please," she begged him. He listened to her, though he did it reluctantly. She thanks him, and then she opened the door and got off the car.
"Tell your brother to kick Joffrey's ass for me," was the last thing that she heard Sandor saying before she closed the door.
Sandor had parked the car in the street in front of the building of the headquarters of Robb's party. She crossed the road while being careful that no cars came and hit her, and then she walked all the way to the entrance of the building. She had to show her identification, but once the security guards saw who she was they immediately called a lady that led her straight to a waiting room next to her brother's office.
"He's in a meeting right now, but he shouldn't be there for long," the lady informed Sansa.
Sansa sat down on a couch in the waiting room. The lady left, and Sansa waited patiently for her brother to get out of that meeting. Who was he meeting with? He was so busy those days... Sansa knew that he was only going to get busier, being President wasn't an easy affair. She really hoped that everything would go well for Robb in Presidency, her brother deserved good things. He was a good man, and a very smart one, and she knew that he wanted to do great things for Westeros. The people loved him because of his friendly ways and because he often went out of his way to help people, even those he didn't know of anything, in any ways that he could. He didn't want Presidency for power. In fact, when he was younger he had run away from politics, despising them and the greedy powerful politicians that ruled over them all, but then he was inspired by their father, who was a great man and a great politician. So Robb got into politics, and now he was President, and he only wanted it to serve the people in a just way.
There wasn't anything in the waiting room to entertain her, but she wasn't getting bored anyways. She was too nervous for that. She felt the contents of her stomach stirring, and she had to fight the urge to bite her fingernails. Would Joffrey believe her? Of course he would! Sansa could never make up such a horrible lie about anyone, Robb would know that everything she said about Joffrey was true! And then what? Would he send people to arrest Joffrey and the people that were his accomplices? Would Joffrey go to jail for the rest of his life, or be executed? There was death penalty for the worse criminals of that country. Sansa didn't wish for the death of anyone, but she would definitely not cry for the loss of Joffrey. Once he was gone, Sansa would go back to the North, to Winterfell. She would write new music, songs about love and happiness and freedom. She would visit her father's grave and tell him how much she loved and missed him. She would do so many things... Perhaps she could start a new family? Her own family... with Sandor.
She smiled at the thought, and she tried to imagine what a family with him would look like. Kids, and maybe a dog or two. Or three! She knew that Sandor loved dogs, and she liked them very much too. It was a beautiful mental image, and she found herself wanting it to be true with all her might. She wondered what Sandor would think about it.
"Miss Stark?" the lady had returned to the waiting room, pulling Sansa away from her own thoughts. "Your brother is done with the meeting."
Happy, Sansa stood up from the couch and followed the lady out of the waiting room and towards the door of Robb's office. It was closed because she was still saying good bye to the people he was meeting with. The woman disappeared again, and Sansa waited there. She supposed that Robb was going to be greatly surprised of seeing her there. Then he would be happy. Then he would he horrified as she told him the whole truth.
The door of the office opened. Sansa could hear the voice of her brother coming out from inside. There were other voices talking too, so he must be meeting several people at the same time. First an unknown man came out of the office and left, and then came out a second man...
Sansa froze and paled when she saw him, and she wished the Earth would swallow her, or that she had invisibility powers and could disappear right then and there. But she wasn't that lucky. The man saw her.
"Sansa," said Tywin Lannister in an ice-cold tone. "What are you doing here?"
She gulped. She felt sweat dripping down her forehead. What was she supposed to do now?!
"I was going to visit my brother," she said. She might as well say the truth then, because what other reason could she have to be there?
"Oh? What for?" the man inquired.
"I only wanted to say good bye," she quickly lied. "Because Joffrey and I are leaving soon..."
"I see," Tywin said, but Sansa could see in his eyes that he didn't believe her lie. Oh gods. He took a step forward and got closer to Sansa. She almost took a step back, but the wall was right behind her. Tywin Lannister was the most intimidating man she had ever seen in her life. When he spoke, he did it in a low and warning tone. "I sure hope you know what you are doing, Miss Stark."
The message was clear as water. Don't say a single word, or there will be consequences, and you will regret them.
She quickly nodded her head, and then her brother Robb and another man came out from the office. Robb almost gasped when he saw his younger sister there.
"Sansa!" he exclaimed merrily. "What a happy surprise, sister! What are you doing here?!"
She opened her mouth, but no words came out of it. She had come there to tell him the truth, but she couldn't do it now, not in front of Tywin Lannister. Or maybe she could, and Robb could have him arrested or something before the man had time to call his grandson and tell him everything...
She was going to go for that option, but when she turned her head she saw that Tywin was gone. She felt her heart beating furiously out of fright, and she feared it might explode out of her chest. Was he calling Joffrey?!
She couldn't say anything. She couldn't risk it.
"I just wanted to say good bye!" she lied, just like she had lied to Tywin, but she did it more convincingly. She smiled so that her face would match her lie. She had to look happy.
"Why?"
"I'm leaving! For my honeymoon!"
"Well, that's great!" Robb exclaimed, though he was a little surprised.
"Yes... I wanted to see you before I left, so I wanted to surprise you."
"Well, you did surprise me. Have fun in your honeymoon, Sansa, you deserve it. Now come and give your brother a kiss."
Sansa kissed her brother on the cheek, and he did the same to her. After that they have each other a tight and affectionate hug, and Sansa left. She felt year stinging in the back of her eyes. Her only chance was gone...
She was walking down the halls when suddenly she felt a hand on her shoulder. She gasped and almost jumped, and when she looked over her shoulder she saw that the hand belonged to Tywin Lannister. The man's expression was dead serious, and not welcoming at all.
"I'm going to let this one pass, Miss Stark, and I won't tell my grandson of your indiscretion. I understand that everybody has a moment of weakness... But I will be watching you. And if I learn that you commit another indiscretion like this one I won't be so benevolent."
His words sent ice-cold shivers down her spine. She understood the message, so she quickly nodded her head to let Tywin know. Without a single word more, tywin left her alone there and dissapeared into one of the offices, and Sansa didn't lose a second in running out of the building.
She found Sandor inside the car right where she left him. He was surprised to see her coming back so early, and he immediatly started asking questions.
"What happened?" he asked when she saw that she was as pale as sheet of paper. "Was your brother there?"
"He was, now shut up and drive," she said, nearly breathless.
"What? Why? Sansa, what happened?" Sandor continued asking. He was getting worried. Sansa didn't reply, so he insisted. "Sansa, what happened?!"
"Just drive, Sandor!" she yelled, losing her nerves.
Then Sandor looked at the entrance of the building, and he saw Tywin Lannister coming out of the building. He was talking on the phone, but he couldn't be talking to Joffrey... He had promised he wouldn't say anything to him. Could Sansa really trust him? When he saw the man, Sandor became just as pale as Sansa.
"Oh, fuck," he cursed under his breath, understanding now why Sansa was so upset and nervous. He knew that something had gonr wrong, and he didn't have to think very hard to know what it was.
Sandor started the car again, and he quickly rejoined the traffic in the middle of the road, getting as far away from there as he could.
This is going to be a looong fic, I'm not having any of their butts saved anytime soon.