Chapter 13

Jaime Lannister POV

I'm hanging out in the TV room with Tyrion, but we're both just doing our own thing. He's playing a video game and I'm on my phone when I get a text from a number I don't recognize.

Ding. *Hey, is this Jaime?*

*Yeah, who is this?*

Ding. *It's Brienne, Coach Tarth.*

*Oh, hey. What's up?*

Instead of texting back, she calls me. That's a little strange, but I answer the phone anyway. "Hello?" I ask. Tyrion pauses his game and looks over at me.

"Hey," she says. "Is now a bad time?"

"No," I say. "I'm just chilling with my brother. What's up?"

"Theon said you wanted him to give you my number, and that I should call you."

"Yeah, I told him that," I say. "You just always seemed really cool, and I enjoyed the conversation we had at the party."

"Me too," she says. "It's hard to not see you as a high schooler still, though."

"Hey," I say. "We're basically the same age, I'm 20 now."

"So this isn't weird?"

"Not at all."

"I thought it might be," she says. "I almost didn't call, but I thought I should at least say hi since you wanted to talk to me."

"I'm glad you did," I say. "Do you want to hang out sometime?"

"Sure," she says, sounding surprised. "I like to go to this smoothie place after I go to the gym, do you want to meet there tomorrow?"

"Sure," I say. I didn't expect to actually make plans on the first phone call. "That would be awesome."

"Okay, cool," she says. "I have to go, but I'll text you when I'm done working out tomorrow."

"Okay, sounds good. Bye."

"Bye." I hang up the phone and Tyrion looks at me.

"Who was that?" He asks.

"Brienne," I say. "We're hanging out tomorrow."

"Is it like a date?"

"I don't know," I say, shrugging. "I'm just going to see how it goes and then I guess we'll go from there."

"Are you nervous?"

"I am a little actually," I say. "I didn't think I would be, but I've never been on a real date before."

Tyrion chuckles. "Wait a minute," he says. "I thought it wasn't a date."

"Shut up."

"Are you going to hit that?"

"What?" I ask, in shock. "How did we get to that?"

"I'm just asking," Tyrion says. "I think you should."

"Cut it out," I say. "I'm just going to hang out with her." There's a pause as Tyrion laughs.

"I'm also just worried Cersei will find out," I say. "I know she'd be mad that I'm even talking to another girl."

"You better hope she doesn't find out," Tyrion says. "She'd kill both you and Brienne."

"I know," I say. "You won't tell her, will you?"

"Of course not," he says. "I don't have a death wish, and she wouldn't believe me anyway."

"I guess that's true," I say. "Thank you."

"I don't even like Cersei," he says. "I have no reason to tell her anything."

"Yeah, you're right," I say. "Thanks for being so supportive, I'm glad I can talk to you. I don't really have many other people."

I know it won't be good if Cersei finds out I'm meeting with Brienne, but she knows I'll always be there for her. I feel like I need to branch out a little bit more and hang out with more people, and sometimes I feel like Cersei is dragging me down. I love her and I always will, but sometimes I feel like she does more harm to me than good.

Tyrion Lannister POV

I'm glad Jaime is pulling away from Cersei a little bit more, she's always been toxic to him. She's always been toxic to everyone, it's just the way she is. I'm glad Jaime realizes that, it took him a while to start to see her for what she is. I know it's hard for him to pull away from her. I may not fully understand it, but I can see that he loves her deeply.

Oberyn is picking me up today and we're going back to our apartment. I only stayed with my family for a little bit, it's still hard for me to be around father. I wanted to see Jaime and some of our high school friends, but it's time for me to go back now.

I'm heading out to Oberyn's car after talking with Jaime, he walks me outside. "Are you sure you can't stay longer?"

"Yeah, I'm sure," I say. "Sorry. It was good to see you, though. Let me know how it goes tomorrow."

"I will," he says. He gives me a hug. "Let me know when you get there."

"I will," I say. "Bye."

Oberyn helps me put my suitcase in the trunk and we get into his car. We start to head back to our apartment.

"Thanks for picking me up," I say. "I really appreciate it."

"No problem," Oberyn says. "I don't blame you for wanting to leave."

"I'm glad I got to see my brother," I say. "But it's really hard for me to be around my sister and my father."

"I don't blame you," he says. "If my dad fucked my girlfriend or boyfriend, I would never speak to him again."

"Trust me, I didn't want to."

There's a pause. "What exactly happened?" Oberyn asks. "You don't have to tell me, you can tell me to shut up."

"It is what it is," I say. "Basically she was staying over at our house, and I woke up in the middle of the night and she wasn't there. I figured she was in the bathroom or something, and when I walked by my dad's room on my way to get water I heard moaning."

"Oh, God," Oberyn says. "What did you do? I wouldn't even know what to do in that situation."

"I was worried my dad was hurting her, so I just went in without thinking," I say. "When I saw what was happening, I just freaked out and threw her and her stuff out of the house."

"That's so awful, I don't blame you."

"Yeah," I say. "I was just yelling at her, I've never been that angry in my entire life. I swear I could've killed them both, I'm surprised I didn't now that I look back on it."

"Did you say anything to your father after she left?" Oberyn asks me. "Feel free to tell me you want to stop talking about this, by the way. I just find this whole thing insane."

"It's honestly fine, I've never really talked about it before," I say. "After she left, I ran into my room without saying anything to my father. I called Jaime, and he didn't answer. I called him a bunch, but I think he was dealing with some bullshit with my sister. He called me back in the morning and we talked about it."

There's a pause, I think Oberyn is taking in everything I just told him. "Have you and your dad ever talked about it?"

"No," I say. "I've said as few words to him as possible since that happened."

"I don't blame you," he says. "I'm glad you have Jaime, he seems like he really helped you."

"He did," I say. "I loved my ex-girlfriend. We were supposed to move in together, I wanted to marry her. I knew she had slept around in the past, but I never thought she would do something like that. I thought she was a good person."

"She goes to our school, right?" He asks me. "Do you ever worry you'll run into her?"

"I know she got in, but I'm not sure if she actually went after what happened," I say. "I try not to think about her at all, it's too hard for me to go there honestly. I haven't spoken to her since it all went down."

"I don't blame you," he says. "I'm really sorry that happened, but I'm glad we got to meet because of it."

I smile at him. "Me too."

Oberyn's a good friend, I'm glad I got to meet him through a situation that was really shitty. I loved Shae, I thought she was the one. It felt good to tell someone the story, I haven't really talked about it to anyone but Jaime since it happened. Oberyn actually listened, and it felt good to know someone cares.

It's hard for me to believe that I'll find someone I love as much as I loved her, but I can hope so. I'm not focusing on that right now, though. I need to try to make something of myself so I can move on and never have to talk to my dad or sister again. I'll always have Jaime in my life, which means I'll probably always have to deal with Cersei in some capacity. I just need to remove the toxic ones in my family from my life as much as I can.

Daenerys Targaryen POV

Jon got back from camping a couple days ago, and he's staying over tonight so we can head to the apartment tomorrow and sign paperwork. We're also going to give our security deposit so it's officially our place when it's ready.

"I'm really excited to make it official tomorrow," Jon says while we're chilling in the living room. "Aren't you?"

"Yeah, I guess," I say. "It'll just be a really big adjustment for me."

"I know," he says. "But I'm glad you're actually trying and willing to compromise."

I smile at him and his phone starts ringing. He answers it. "Hello?" He asks. "Oh, hey Robb."

I look over at him as he listens to what Robb has to say. I guess he didn't expect for him to call, it seems like the don't talk on the phone all that much.

"Yeah, we are," Jon continues. "Yeah, that seems like it would be fine. Let me check with Dany first, and then I'll text you. Bye." He hangs up the phone.

"What's up?" I ask him.

"Robb wanted to know if we'd want to stay with him and Talisa after we sign the paperwork and do the deposit," he says. "I mentioned to him a couple days ago that we were doing that."

"I don't see why not," I respond. "I don't have anything pressing the next day."

"Okay, I'll let him know." He pulls out his phone to text Robb.

"Isn't that kind of out of the way, though?"

"I don't mind the drive," Jon says. "I haven't spent that much time with Robb recently."

"Okay," I say. "Then that sounds like fun. It would be nice to get to know them a little more, especially Talisa."

There's a pause as Jon's phone buzzes. "Oh," he says. "They want us to watch the baby so they can go out, apparently they've had almost no time to themselves since he was born."

"That makes sense," I say. "Is that something you want to do?"

"Not if you don't want to," he says. "I'm not sure if they actually want us to hang out with them or if they just want a babysitter." He chuckles.

I think about it for a minute. Maybe it would be nice to babysit Jon's nephew, I'll have to get used to stuff like that if I'm going to be a part of the family when we get married. I do love babies, maybe it would be nice to give them a night to themselves.

"I think we should," I say. "It would be good for us to do that."

"You think?"

"Yeah," I say. "Don't you want to get to know your nephew more?"

"I do," he says. "I just wasn't sure that was something you were comfortable with."

"I want to," I say. "I really don't mind, I think it would be fun."

"Okay," he says. "I'll let him know we'll do it."

We cook some dinner and then head back up to my room, where we end up having sex. We're getting ready for bed afterwards and Jon is brushing his teeth. I get dressed in comfy clothes and lay back in bed, he eventually comes in and lays next to me.

"Thanks for being willing to babysit baby Ned," Jon says. "I really thought you'd say no."

"Why?"

"You just don't have as much experience babysitting," he says. "I thought you'd be nervous and wouldn't want to."

"I am nervous," I say. "Especially on such short notice, I don't want to mess up. I want to keep the baby in one piece."

He laughs and hugs me. "We will," he says. "It'll be fun, and it'll just be a few hours."

"You're right," I say. I give him a kiss on the cheek. "We should get some rest."

"Yeah, I'm tired," he says. "Good night, I love you."

"I love you more."

We kiss and I try to fall asleep. Jon's right, I don't have much experience with babysitting. I'm willing to get more familiar with it, though. The baby is so cute and I'm excited to spend more time with him. I'm sure Jon will also be a great uncle, and I know it'll end up being fun.