Chapter 38

Jon Snow Stark POV

Sam and Gilly are getting married today, and I'm actually really excited. I know Ygritte will be there too, but I think it'll be fun. We're going to be witnesses at the courthouse, and then we're going out to eat. Sam's dad will watch Baby Sam for the day. I thought they might want him there, but having him with Sam's dad will make it a lot less hectic and easier to manage.

I told Dany she could come, but she's actually hanging out with Cersei. I was surprised, but apparently she wants to meet with Dany and Dany felt like she should. I just hope it goes well and nothing toxic happens.

I show up to Sam and Gilly's place and knock on the door, Ygritte answers. "Oh, hey," she says. She actually sounds surprised to see me. "Come in."

"Hi Jon," Sam says. I hand him the gift I got him and Gilly, which is a gift card to a restaurant and a bowl. I wasn't sure what to get, but people always need dishes. "I'm so glad you could come."

"Of course," I say. "Congrats to both of you."

"Is Dany coming?" Gilly asks me.

"No," I say. "She's meeting with her friend, and she wanted you guys to have the private wedding she knows you want."

"That's nice of her, but we really didn't mind," Sam says. "Whatever she's okay with."

"She just asked me to send pictures," I say. "I was fine with that."

"Okay then," Sam says. "That makes sense."

"Are we ready?" Ygritte asks.

"Yeah," Gilly says. "Let's go."

We get into Sam's car, and he drives us to the courthouse. You can make an appointment there, which I didn't know. We get there, and Ygritte and I sit in the lobby while Sam and Gilly go up to the front to fill out paperwork.

"Are you excited?" Ygritte asks me.

"For what?" I respond.

"For our friends to get married," she says. "I think it's about time."

"Of course I am," I say. "They deserve it with everything they've been through."

"Are you and Dany next?" She asks.

"Maybe," I say, laughing. "I kinda want to wait until we're done with college."

"Makes sense," she says. "She may not want to wait that long, though."

"I think she'd be fine with it," I say. "We may get engaged before we graduate and just not get married until after."

"Not a bad idea," she says. "I hope she's willing to wait that long."

I'm not sure why she keeps saying that, this is stuff that Dany and I have talked about. I hope she doesn't mean anything by it, I don't want to read too much into it.

Sam and Gilly finish up the paperwork, and we go into the courthouse to witness the ceremony. Sam and Gilly look so genuinely happy. I know we're young, but I can tell they're ready for this. They're more mature than a lot of us, they already live together and have a kid.

After they finish up the ceremony, we head to a restaurant that Ygritte made us reservations at. We sit down and order drinks before actually talking much.

"So how does it feel to be married?" Ygritte asks.

"Not different at all," Sam immediately says. "I feel like I was always married."

"What do you mean?" Gilly asks.

"I just always knew that I wanted to spend my life with you," he says. "I knew you were the one really early in our relationship."

"It took me a little longer," she says. "I'm sorry to say that, but it did."

"I always knew Sam was the one for you," Ygritte says. "I think I knew before you did."

"I was just really guarded," Gilly says. "I knew during my emancipation process that you were the one."

"That's when you knew?" Sam asks.

"Yeah," Gilly says. "After seeing how much you sacrificed for me and all the support you gave me, not many young guys would do that. That's when I knew we were in this forever."

Sam smiles and they kiss. Sam really has done everything for Gilly. It doesn't surprise me, he's always been incredibly kind and giving. It makes sense that he stepped up, I'm really happy for them. They both deserve happiness, and Gilly deserves to feel safe.

I know Dany and I will get there, we're about to have our 3 year anniversary. Maybe Ygritte was right, maybe Dany doesn't want to wait much longer. I know I want to marry her, I just think we should wait until after college to actually do it. I'll have to think about it, especially since I know she's the one.

After finishing dinner, we pick up Baby Sam and go back to Sam and Gilly's place before I head out. I want to give them some privacy, it is their wedding night after all. I'm glad they had their happy ending, they deserve it.

Daenerys Targaryen POV

Cersei wants to meet with me today. I'm not sure why, maybe she's finally going to apologize for everything or tell me that she's changed. I don't have high hopes for that, but I do wonder why she called and specifically asked to meet.

She asked me to meet on the front porch of her dad's house. I'm not sure why she's not inviting me in, maybe she's still mad at me for the argument we had. I know she's been out of control lately, but part of me does miss her.

"Hey," I say, walking out of my car and sitting down next to her. She has a drink in a paper bag, that isn't good. "What's up? Why did you want to meet?"

"I just wanted to talk to you," she says. She isn't looking at me. "I have some stuff I want to tell you."

"Are you doing okay?" I ask her. "I haven't really talked to you since you left the hospital."

"I'm okay," she says. "Bronn and I broke up."

"What? Why?" I ask. I'm trying to hide my relief at hearing that.

"He felt like he was hurting me with the drug stuff," she says. "We just decided to take some time apart, it was never meant to be serious."

"That's probably for the best," I say. "Are you getting sober?"

"From drugs yes," she says. She gestures to the paper bag. "Clearly I'm not going to stop drinking."

"I still think you should," I say. "But it's your choice."

"I know you think that," she says. "And I bet you're thrilled that I broke up with Bronn."

"Not thrilled," I say. "Slightly relieved, yes. But not thrilled."

"Yeah, whatever," she says. "I know your thoughts on him."

"What did you want to talk about?" I ask. "Can we get to that?"

She takes a deep breath. "Jaime wants me to tell you about something that happened at the beginning of our senior year," she says. "I don't think it's a huge deal, but you have to promise to not tell anyone."

"Okay," I say. She's making me nervous. "What is it?"

"Do you remember the treehouse?"

"Of course," I say. "That's where me and half our class lost our virginities."

"Well, during the first football game of our senior year," she says. I can tell she's nervous to talk to me about this. She's still avoiding eye contact. "Jaime and I went up there."

"You did?" I ask. "Why?" I know why, but I'm curious what she's going to say.

"Dany, come on," she says. "You know why. Don't make me say it."

I just nod. "I know," I say. "I've always known, I think."

"Exactly," she says. "So we don't need to talk about it."

"So why are you telling me this?" I ask. "Why does it matter that you guys were in the treehouse years ago?"

"Well, I'm sure you can imagine what we were doing that night," she says. "And I guess Jon's brother Bran decided he wanted to see what was up there."

"Okay," I say. "And?"

"He came up and he saw us," she says. "Jaime freaked out, he was really scared that he would tell someone. He walked up to him and grabbed him by the shirt."

"What did he say?"

"He just asked what he saw," she says. "Bran said he saw nothing and he didn't know what Jaime was talking about. Jaime got mad and pushed him out."

"Is this when Bran got a concussion?" I ask. She nods. "What were you doing?"

"I begged him not to," she says. "I said he didn't know what he was looking at anyway, he was only 9 or 10. That didn't matter, Jaime didn't listen."

I pause. I really don't know what to say, I'm just so angry that Jaime would hurt a child like that and that Cersei wouldn't stop him. I knew they were secretive, but I didn't expect this from even Cersei.

"Cersei," I say. "I always knew you were mean, I always knew you were selfish. But I never thought you were evil, I always thought deep down you had a conscience."

"I do," she says. "Come on, you know I do."

"Why didn't you tell the truth?"

"I didn't think it mattered," she says. "It was just a concussion, he was fine."

"For real?" I ask. "That's your justification?"

"Well, Jaime was the one who wanted to tell you," she says. "I didn't think it mattered."

"How could you say that?" I ask. "Why wouldn't you tell me when I started dating Jon?"

"I knew you'd get mad," Cersei says. "It was years ago, it has nothing to do with you and Jon."

"He's always thought Bran just fell," I say. "Bran was kept from doing a lot of stuff he loved after that."

"Oh whatever," she says. "I would have had to admit what we were doing if I told you, I could never do that."

"I've always known," I say. "Come on, Cersei. You know I've always known."

"That doesn't mean I want to admit it," she says. "Especially with how judgemental you are."

"You know, I'm really not," I say. "I've just been concerned about you."

"Well it's stupid," she says. "Clearly, I'm fine."

"Let's stick to the topic at hand," I say. "Why would Jaime want me to know this now?"

"He said Brienne makes him want to be a better person," she says. "Some blah blah blah bullshit like that."

"So why didn't he just tell me then?"

"I said I would," she says. "I figured you'd want to talk to me when you knew anyway, I'm sure you'll want to talk to him."

"I will," I say. "Definitely. I just can't believe this."

"Jon's brother is fine now," she says. "It's so not serious."

"You don't think it was traumatizing for him to see that?" I ask. "And then to get blamed for it and injured from it?"

"You guys weren't even together," she says. "This never would've mattered if you never got with him."

"I would still think that was horrible for both of you to do," I say. "And the fact that you're justifying it is even worse."

"So what?" She asks. "Do you just hate me now?"

I take a deep breath. "I need to go," I say. "I need to think about all this." I get up and start to walk to my car.

"Wait!" Cersei calls out. "Are you going to tell Jon?"

I just turn around and look at her. "What do you think?"

I get in my car and head home. I'm so angry, I don't know what to do. I'm definitely going to tell Jon, but I'm not going to bother him while he's out with Sam and Gilly. I'm just worried about how he'll react, I know he'll be beyond angry. I'm scared to tell him, but I know he needs to know.

I know Cersei is selfish and not a nice person, but I never expected this from her. I never thought she could actually condone violence like that. I also can't believe Jaime did that, I always thought he was a good guy deep down. I knew he'd do anything for Cersei, but I never thought he'd go this far.

I don't know when I'll talk to them next, but I'm definitely talking to Jaime about this. I need to know what he has to say for himself, especially since he's the one who wanted me to know in the first place. I'm glad Brienne is making him want to be a better person, but maybe it's too late for that.

Cersei Lannister POV

Of course Dany overreacted, I don't know why I expected her to be understanding. Everything happened years ago, and Bran was fine. He just got a concussion, so there's really no reason to freak out.

I walk back inside after she leaves and wait for Jaime to get home. He eventually does, and he sees me sitting on the couch when he walks in. "Hey," he says. "What's up?"

"I talked to Dany today," I say. "I told her the truth."

He pauses and looks at me. "Really?" He asks. "You actually did?"

"I told you I would, didn't I?"

"You did," he says. "But I didn't expect you to actually go through with it. I thought maybe you were just saying that to get me off your back."

"Well I did," I say. "I told her what we were doing, and that you pushed Jon's brother."

"How did she take it?" He asks.

"Just about as well as you'd expect," I say. "How do you think she took it?"

He sits down in a chair next to me. "What did she say?"

"She thought I was justifying it," I say. "She said it didn't matter if she was with Jon at the time or not, that it was a horrible thing to do."

"She's right," Jaime says. "It was."

"I know," I say. "I asked if she was going to tell Jon, and she just left."

"Was she yelling?"

"She wasn't that loud, but she was angry," I say. "I asked if she hates me now, and she just didn't answer my question."

"Is she going to tell Jon?" He asks.

"Yeah," I say. "I know she is, so prepare for him to beat you up."

"It's okay," he says. "I deserve it."

"What happened to you?" I ask. "You've never been this good of a person."

"I guess I just had a change of heart," he says. "It's never too late for that." I know what he's implying, and it pisses me off. I'm not going to have a change of heart, because there's nothing I need to change.

"Well I hope you're happy," I say. "My oldest friendship is probably over because of you."

"You were welcome to tell her the truth whenever you wanted," he says. "And you're right, I'm the one who pushed him. But you helped me cover it up and keep it a secret."

"Well you still did it," I say. "I don't deserve to lose Dany over it."

"That's ultimately her decision, and you need to respect whatever she decides," he says. He pauses. "Did she say if she wanted to talk to me?"

"She does," I say. "I don't know when, but she does want to talk to you."

"That's fine," he says. "I figured she would."

"I really don't recognize you anymore," I say. "You're not the same brother I grew up with, and you're definitely not the man that I fell in love with."

He looks at me. "You were in love with me?" He asks.

"Of course," I say. "I thought that much was obvious."

"I never thought you were," he says. "You didn't really say it, and you weren't exactly great at expressing it."

That really hurts. All these years later, and he never thought I loved him. I did, I always will in some way. I don't know how he doesn't see that after everything we've been through together.

"How dare you say that to me," I say. "How can you say you never thought I was in love with you when I risked everything to be with you?"

"I did too," he says. "We both risked a lot, I guess I just never thought your feelings were that deep."

I still don't understand that, but I really don't want to get into it with him. There's no point, it's definitely over now.

"You know, Jaime," I say after a pause. "Don't come crying to me when this thing with Brienne is over."

"What do you mean?"

"When this fizzles out like it inevitably will," I say. "Don't expect me to want you again. That ship sailed when you made me ruin my most important friendship."

"What if it doesn't fizzle out?" He asks.

"It will," I say. "And when it does, you'll have no one. Just remember that."

I walk upstairs to my room and shut the door. I know that was harsh and he'll probably always have Tyrion, but it still felt good to say that. I meant what I said about his thing with Brienne fizzling out, I know it will. It isn't serious, no matter how much he wants to believe it is.

I'm really upset he made me tell the truth, Dany and I could've patched things up and things could've gone on like normal. There was no reason to bring back up what happened years ago. She really is my oldest friend, and now I don't even have her. I just cry, and spend the rest of the night alone in my room.