As Yoren pulled into the Stark's driveway, Robb came running out the front door followed by Sansa.
"Thanks for the ride" Arya told Yoren as she unbuckled her seat belt.
"Any time lad."
Arya gave him a stern look which made him smile and wink at her. Before she could open the door herself, Robb had yanked it open.
"Hi Yoren." He gave Yoren a quick then turned to Arya. "Where the hell's my car?"
"Winterfell." Arya let out, before chewing on her bottom lip.
"All the way up there? Oh, i could just-" Robb said through clenched teeth as he wrung an invisible neck in the air. He let out an exasperated sigh, combed his fingers through his hair, clearing his throat.
"Keys." he held out his hand.
Arya closed her eyes. "in the ignition."
Robb laughed nervously, turning to Sansa. "Lets go" he said walking towards her car.
"What happened to your face!" Sansa cried as Arya came into her view.
Arya hopped off the car. "was going for the Sansa look." she told her as she shoved her out of the way and walked towards the front door.
"Thank you for bringing her Yoren." she said before closing the door after Arya.
"No problem." he mouthed.
Honk Honk
"Lets go!" Robb yelled from inside the car.
"Bye Yoren." Sansa yelled, running towards the car. Yoren waved at her, pulling put of the driveway.
Even after both cars were gone, Arya waited a few minutes before walking into the house. She knew exactly what to expect when she walked in. She wanted to extend her last moments of liberty.
She walked in to an empty sitting room.
"Arya" came her father's voice from another room. He walked out of the room they had conditioned to be Bran's room after the accident since his room had been on the second floor, and stair had become an issue. Not far behind was Cat.
No one said a word for what felt like minutes. Ned stood before his daughter, trying to find the right words. Cat stood next to her husband, never taking her enraged eyes off her daughter.
Arya didn't look her way though. She went from looking up into her fathers eyes to the floor, then back to her fathers eyes.
Ned sighed deeply before finally speaking.
"Where's Robb's car?"
"Winterfell."
Ned nodded. "And what were you doing in Winterfell?"he asked sternly.
Arya's eyes fell to the floor once again. She bit on her bottom lip. Hard. As hard as she could stand. She unclenched her teeth, meeting her fathers eyes again.
"Smashing windows." she admitted. She felt so embarrassed.
"Oh Arya." her mother whispered putting a hand over her face.
"I'm sorry! I'm sorry!"
"When? When! When are you going to stop behaving like a child!" Cat huffed out as she lifted her face from her hand looking at her daughter. "You're sixteen years old Arya. It's time you start behaving like it."
Arya felt a shock of heat run through her. Not this again. Why this. Why always this!
Cat took a step forward, as she spoke again. "At 13, Sansa was already..."
"OHHH!" Arya shrieked throwing her house keys at the vitreen to her right, breaking through its glass door. Her head fell. "Sansa" she whispered.
The room grew still as Arya began to weep.
" Sansa!" she repeated, choking on her tears before running up the stairs.
She felt it took her thrice as long to reach her room. Slamming the door behind her she threw herself on her bed, digging her face into the covers and grabbing fistfuls of her bedsheet, tugging and punching at her bed, squeezing at the sheets in her fists as hard as she could.
Her chest heaved as she sobbed quietly into the covers.
"they know how to deal with ordinary. but you aren't ordinary."
Arya sniffed hard, as Gendry's words echoed in her head. She began breathing more regularly.
"you aren't ordinary."
Arya sat up, wiping her face dry with a shirt that was hanging over the footboard. She let out a shivery breath feeling herself almost fully composed.
" it's so easy to get scared when you don't understand something"
Gendry was the last person she expected to think about at a moment like this, but the same words that had comforted her earlier were helping her once again. Arya smiled, surprising herself.
Suddenly the day's events began to weigh down on her.
She needed a hot shower.
She pulled her jacket off, rising off the bed and walking to her bathroom. She slid the shower door open and turned the hot water on.
Walking to the mirror she saw the mess she was. Her face was streaked with dirt. Her eyes were swollen from all the crying. Her nose looked polished and red. Her hair too, was covered in dirt. She looked awful. Perhaps better than she'd looked ealier since her tears from just now had cleaned off most of the dirt from her face.
She pulled the rest of her clothes off. The mirror had already begun to fog. She passed a hand over it, glancing one last time at her face before walking into the shower.
To think that's how she'd looked earlier when she'd been with Gendry.
"Ugh!"
xxxxxxxxxx
"Ugh!"
Gendry leaned into the mirror as he lightly patted his swollen nose with the tips of his fingers. She'd gotten him good. He could already see the beginnings of a bruise under his left eye.
"Ugh!" he groaned again, closing his eyes against the image in the mirror.
He adjusted the towel around his waist before walking out of the steamy bathroom, kicking aside his school bag. He had to study! Final exams for the semester were right around the corner.
These had the toughest months of his life. Trying to adjust to the new job and school. And actually caring about it.
I'll study tomorrow.
He sunk down on his couch, a bit too quickly as a small lightning like pain struck his nose. He patted at the swollen skin again, remembering the Stark girl, and with the memory, the current of shock he'd felt at the sight of her tear soaked face returned.
What had she been crying about?
He'd only known Arya a few months, but not well enough to assume much about her character. Yet he couldn't let go the idea that Arya Stark wasn't one to cry. Yes, she was a girl. A 16 year old girl with uncontrollable emotions. He recalled being 16 and how unpredictable his feelings were.
Thinking about Arya Stark though, crying seemed quite surreal.
She had been crying though. And he found he liked that she could cry. She was this tough, brave little fighter, with more guts than sense. Completely rash and bold. But seeing her cry hadn't weakened his image of her. In fact he found himself pleasantly surprised. In all honestly, it gave her depth.
He sighed. What could have possibly made her cry?
He thought back. It used to be her home. He wondered why they'd moved when the house seemed perfect. Ned Stark still owned it.
Who was Jon? He remembered the name had been scratched out. The wounds on the tree looked fresh. Obviously a brother, he assumed, since the names all belonged to the Stark children. However he hadn't been mentioned by Yoren.
All the thinking made him sleepy and he decided to skip dinner and settled for a beer. He twisted the cap off the bottle and walked to his room pulling the towel off him and slipping under the covers. He swigged the full bottle in one swig, then tossing it to the floor.
He flinched at the pain in his nose as he reached over an turned the table lamp off.
Tomorrow, ill study he thought.
Maybe i'll ask Yoren about Jon, too.
xxxxxxxxxx
It was early. A quarter past 8. But the day had drained the life from her.
First the morning's incident with her mum. Then taking Robb's car and driving up to their old place on Winterfell.
She hadn't known what she was suppose to do there until she'd walk up the hill in front of the house and came close enough to the giant oak tree to read the names.
An anger born within her had welled up her and she pulled out her pocket knife and walked towards the names carved on the pale white tree trunk, viciously clawing at the name on the bottom. The tree began to bleed sap, but she could still see Jon's name, so she continued to claw until she couldn't see anything through her tears.
She pressed the back of her left hand to one eye. Indeed, she was crying.
She threw the pocket knife as far as she could. She needed to hit something.
She couldn't remember how she'd gone from crying to throwing rocks at the windows of the house. but she had several windows to keep her busy for a while.
But then Gendry had arrived. After the struggle and the heart to heart, there had been her parents downstairs and then more crying.
Now as she combed through the tangles in her hair, she glanced over at the bed through her dresser mirror. It looked so welcoming.
But then there was the knock on the door, and the memories of earlier. She could jump into bed and pretend she was asleep. Ignore whomever was on the other side of the door.
"Arya" came Ned's voice.
Arya took a deep breath. "come in."
Hesitantly, Ned walked into the room. He was holding a black box in his hand.
She tossed her brush into the half open drawer of the dresser and crossed over to her bed, sitting at the edge.
Ned joined her, setting the box on his lap.
They both stared at it in silence. She'd been preparing herself for this all day.
As much as she hated that it had been her mother that had found out about it first, Catelyn Stark was by far the lesser of two evils.
That, however didn't make this morning's discovery any less explosive on Cat's part.
Jon hadn't been in Arya's dreams in over two years now, so the fresh memories of the dream she'd had the night before felt alien.
She had dressed for school in a daze and before she knew it, she had pulled out the black case from where she hid it in the chimney.
She slid the key in, and heard the click. She shivered, opening it slowly.
"I have something for you"
"A present?"
"Close the door."
Arya closed and locked the door and when she came to her bed, she saw a shiny black box . Jon pulled out a pair of identical keys. They exchanged a look.
Jon slid the key in, and with a click, the case was open for Arya to see.
"Is it real?"
Jon smiled. "of course it is."
She carefully slid a finger over it. "why are you giving me this?"
Jon shrugged, closing the case. "i bought it on a whim. It's the only thing of value that i have. I want you to have it. So you can remember me."
Arya smiled as Jon handed her the case and keys. She took it, but Jon didn't let it go.
"I'm trusting you won't kill anyone or anything. Not even Sansa or Bran... This isn't a toy Arya. I'm not even suppose to have this. This is simply so you can remember me." he told her, finally letting go. Arya nodded
"I don't even want to think about what would happen if father or your mother found out you had this." he continued while he looked out the window. Cat and Sansa were sitting under the shade of the large red oak tree. Cat carefully placed baby Rickon in Sansa's arms.
Jon turned away and back at Arya who had hidden the box under her bed.
"Better find a better hiding place for that too. No taking it to school for show and tell either. You shouldn't try to rob a bank either. On second thought, maybe you should give it back. " he teased.
Arya rolled her eyes and smiled. Jon crossed over to her and held both of her shoulders and leaned down, looking into her eyes. "I'm going to miss you"
Arya jumped, hanging on to his neck in a hug. She never wanted to let go.
That had been 6 years ago, back in Winterfell.
She had slid her finger into the trigger guard, pulling it out of the case.
That was when the door had opened, her mother gasped, clapping a hand over her mouth. Arya's eyes had grown wide and she placed the gun back in it's case, slamming it closed.
But it was too late. Her mother had seen it. "Arya!" she had yelled.
"Arya." her father's voice snapped her back from her memories.
She looked up from the case to her father.
"Where did you get this?"
Arya bit her lip, rising from the bed. "It was a gift."
Ned nodded. "Jon."
It wasn't a question.
"It's the only thing i have of him."
"This isn't a toy."
"And i'm not a child. I don't want to kill anyone. Jon said i could learn how to use it, when the time was right. I'd never even taken it out of it's case until this morning. Mother freaked and she took it away and i thought i'd never see it again, and it hurt. It hurt because it's all that he left, and he left it with me!"
Ned was back to looking down at the case in his hands. Arya crossed to the bed and sat again, taking in a deep breath waiting for her father to speak. When he didn't she reached for his hands.
"I'm sorry about the windows. After mother took the gun and began yelling, i couldn't take it anymore. I took Robb's car, and drove home."
"This is home, Arya."
"No. It's just a house. It was just mother's way of starting over after Jon had left. After she drove him away."
Ned was shaking his head, clearly angered. "Arya, please, how many times-"
"How many times what? How many times must you repeat a lie before it sounds real?"
"Enough!" Ned huffed out.
Arya froze.
"I miss him too. But Jon's choice to leave was entirely his. He wanted to do something with himself. He wanted to prove to himself he could stand on his own two feet, you know that."
"Yes." Arya whispered.
"Jon was blood of my blood. My love for him, your mother respected it."
Arya nodded. Every time she had brought up Jon she could see how much it hurt his father. She loved him too much to hurt him. That was enough to stop her tongue from uttering stupid stuff she knew she would regret later.
It always left a knot in her chest. The inability to properly discuss the Jon issue because she loved her father too much to hurt him.
He placed the box in her hands.
"I don't want to find out you've killed Joffrey or Sansa." he joked.
Arya smiled weakly. No promises.
"Your mother and Bran are leaving tomorrow morning. The hospital wing is finished. Your mother wants to take Bran and see how he feels." Ned said suddenly, completely changing the subject,
"Robb will be accompanying them so it'll just be Rickon, Sansa and you. You'll need to give Mordane a hand and behave when i'm at work."
"When will they be back?"
"Depending on how Bran likes the hospital they'll be back on Monday to either pack to stay longer or try and find therapy for Bran here at Sheffield." Ned answered, standing up and walking to the door.
He turned around and look at his daughter. His little fighter.
"Good night love. We'll talk tomorrow. Get some rest"
"Good night." she called, carrying the box back to it's hiding place even though it no longer needed to be hidden. She turned around to see her father still stood at the door. He has a look in his face. Like when you know something is coming but you can't do anything about it, but face it. Embrace it.
"Thanks" she said.
"Don't make me regret it."
He closed the door to her room and walked down the stairs to Bran's room. He was watching the television. Cat had finished packing and his suitcase sat next to door.
He bid him good night and walked to his study, where his wife sat on his desk marking a planner. She looked up at him when he sat across from her.
"How is she?"
"Alright. The gun was a gift from Jon. I'm letting her keep it."
"I should go talk to her."
"No. It's late. It's been a long day for both of you."
"I'm leaving tomorrow, i don't want to leave without first talking to her."
"You can talk tomorrow morning. You'll both be rested."
Cat nodded in agreement, reaching her hand to him over the desk.
"We should go to bed."
Ned kissed her hands. "I have to go back to the station."
"It's late."
"Yoren is waiting for me. It could wait for tomorrow, but he's already been waiting all this time. It won't take long." He told her rising and walking around the desk to pull out the chair his wife sat on, pulling her to her feet.
"You need to rest. Tomorrow will be a long day."
He led her out of the study and down the hall to the feet of the staircase.
"I won't be long." he kissed her and grabbed his keys from the bowl.
xxxxxxxxxx
Yoren was laying on the sofa in the tv room at the station, watching Seven Sinners.
He combed his fingers through his beard over and over again until he began to feel hungry. He stood, stretching, and headed for the lounge room.
Walking down the hall though, he bumped into Ned.
"Though you wouldn't show up."
"I'm sorry. Had to talk to Arya."
"Gendry brought her in again. She was at the Winterfell place. She might have broken his nose."
Ned groaned.
"I knew about Winterfell, but not about the boy."
"He's fine." Yoren assured him as they walked to Ned's office.
Yoren stopped at his desk and pulled from his drawer a folder, fat with papers and a candy bar, and joined Ned in his office.
"How does it look?" Ned asked as he took the folder from Yoren.
"Everything you asked for is there." Yoren sat in the chair in front of Ned's desk tearing at the candy wrap with his teeth.
Ned leafed through the papers, nodding occasionally.
Yoren ate in silence, idly playing with a pen he'd snatched from Ned's desk.
"So why are you lying to him?" he asked nonchalantly.
Ned looked up from the folder. "It's complicated."
Yoren nodded. "I'm sure it is. I mean, you're Ned Stark. You wouldn't be doing this unless you had a good reason. But don't you think he deserves the truth. The man trusted you to find out about his bastard son, trusting only you, and you're faking an investigation when you could have been using that time to find out who and where this boy is."
Ned closed the folder. "It's better this way."
"Alright." Yoren said.
Ned sighed, leaning into Yoren.
"The reason i didn't look into this boy's whereabouts, was because i already had before Robert asked me to."
Yoren's eyebrows shot up. "Oh?"
Ned stood from his desk abruptly and walked to the door closing and locking it.
"Unlike in the research i had you fake," Ned said, sitting back in his chair and stabbing a finger into the folder Yoren gave him. "the boy never died. His mother is in fact dead, but not the boy."
Yoren chewed and swallowed what was already in his mouth , clearing his throat. "Then why not tell Robert?"
"I'm not sure why Robert want's to suddenly find out about this son he never cared about before now. It could be nothing. Mere curiosity, as i hope it is. But since i don't know, i think it's in the best interest of the boy if his father didn't suddenly pop out of nowhere,. That is if Robert had any intentions of making contact."
"Yes, i see. So the boy is alive? And he's doing well? He in no way would benefit from Robert's money?"
"Yes." Ned paused, leaning back on his chair. "The boy is doing well for himself. In fact," Ned hesitated. "you know him."
Yoren gasped, tossing the rest of his candy in the waste basket. "Who?"
Ned looked into Yoren's eyes. "It's Gendry."
Yoren's eyes grew wide and his jaw dropped "Fuck me bloody!"
"Yoren!" Ned grimaced.
"Sorry." Yoren apologized halfheartedly. " But, fuck! Gendry? My Gendry.? Gendry Waters?"
"Yes."
"Fuck me!"
Ned raised his eyebrows and gave him a stern look and Yoren held his hands up in surrender.
"Sorry. How did you find out?"
"Remember the night Theon brought him in? The night the man killed the Broker during that bar fight. I was in the interrogation room with him, and as soon as i saw him... It was as if i was looking at Robert. When we were young."
"Of course!" Yoren exclaimed. "I see it now! The eyes!"
"Everything. It's almost as if Robert cloned him."
Yoren nodded, clearly still in shock.
"It didn't take me long, to find out it was Robert's son. After two days, i had enough evidence. So i went to him. He wasn't leading a good life, but i could see he was a good person. I challenged him to become an officer and enroll in school. As you can see, right now wouldnt be the best time to introduce him to his father. Gendry is just getting his life together. He's learning to be responsible. His baggage is quite heavy. He doesn't need this aswell."
"Yes. I see what you mean now."
"Robert is a good man. He's been my closest friend for years. Knowing him as long as i have, i also know he doesn't always make the wisest choices in life. Not knowing what he intends to do with the knowledge of his son's existence..." Ned sighed. "I just can't help feeling protective over that boy. Even from his own father. It's better this way."
"And if he finds out? Robert. What if he has someone else look into it."
" There's a reason Robert came to me. He has people who could have done this for him. He needed discreetness. I'm the only one he trusts with this. I'll tell him the truth when the time is right. I'll deal with whatever wrath my deceit awakens in Robert. I've always been the only one who could deal with his temper." Ned stood, tucking his hair behind his ear thoughtfully. "No. Not yet. When I do decide to bring the truth to the surface, Gendry will be the first of the two I'll approach."
"Aye." Yoren stood. "It is better this way."
Ned smiled, taking the folder in his hand and coming around to Yoren.
"I can trust you with this." It wasn't a question.
"Oh, I don't know." Yoren joked.
Ned laughed. "Thanks for this." he raised the folder. "I really appreciate it."
"Yoren patted Ned's shoulder.
"I should head home. I have to drive Cat and the boys to the station early tomorrow."
"How long will they be in London for?"
"Depends on Bran. But Cat hopes to be back next week. Which reminds, you'll be there Saturday, right?"
"Sansa's party?"
"Yes, it's on Saturday." Ned and Yoren walked out of the office. Ned locked it after himself.
"Only if there'll be open bar." Yoren called back as he fetched his keys from his desk.
Ned smiled as both men walked out the east parking lot door.
"I'll see what i can do about that."
AN
So, on my last update i said i'd have Chapter 7 up right after chapter 6... I apologize for the awful delay. Life sometimes give us little time. So... Arya has a gun. I know it's not Needle, but it will play the role of it.
Ned is lying to Robert. I know this may seem very unlike him, but i think this is the same as Ned changing Robert's will and having him sign it. It's all with good purpose. Ned loves Robert and knows that both Gendry and Robert will benefit little from a reunion.
I also wanted to explore the Jon/Ned/Cat tension. It's not given the proper attention in the books/show.
I think Ned hates how Jon is treated by his wife but the guilt of putting his wife through having to see the fruit of his infedelity (whether it's really his child or Lyanna's, Cat doesn't know) so he is stuck in the middle and perhaps can't bring himself to approach his wife about it.
Anyway, thanks so much for your reviews! They fuel me! Keep them coming!