Author's Note
I do not own A Song of Ice and Fire.
Cat's third pregnancy is her roughest so far. She is so pale she might rival the snow, and often throws up in the morning. Perhaps it is the stress, for the Greyjoys have raised their banners in revolt, and soon enough Ned is being summoned to fight with Robert. Cat wraps her arms around him and begs him not to go.
"You have a family to think of now!" she cries, her Tully blue eyes glittering with tears. "Ned. Don't leave me with them."
"I must obey the King. You are Lady of Winterfell; you must rule in my stead."
"Ned, please." Cat cups his face in her hands. "They need you. I need you."
But he cannot disobey Robert's summons, not now his best friend is the King, and so he leaves to the Iron Islands.
#
When he returns, Arya is already two months old, a bundle of fury and claws with fangs to match her brother's and wildness in her long face. Ned holds her in his arms, and she is a Stark babe for all of a heartbeat before she is Tully with red hair and blue eyes and monster with white skin and glowing eyes. Cat snatches her back and hands her to Robb. Ned would protest – Robb should not be trusted with anything – but his son holds the babe and she is girl again as she is passed back to her wetnurses.
"She doesn't know you," Cat says weakly.
Ned smiles and agrees.
#
Cat comes to his chambers that night and lays down beside him. "She is like Robb and Sansa in her own way."
"I saw."
Cat closes her eyes. "I can't even request a wetnurse again, and she clawed the first so fiercely she tore her chest open."
"She is but a babe."
"Is it a Stark thing then? Were you and your siblings this way?"
Ned doesn't believe so, but he writes Benjen to request he visit, promising supplies for the Night's Watch in return, and in the morning he visits the Winterfell library.
He's unsure where to start, and so he begins with his family lineage, beginning with his family tree and settling in to seek out whatever information he can find on them. If this is a family affliction, then there must be something in the records.
At some point Luwin finds him, sees what he is doing, and silently sets to work seeking out more information. Ned is unsure if he feels better or worse for having the Maester's aid. He doesn't even know what he's looking for, anything that might sound similar to what he sees in his children, he supposes, but would that be in a book?
#
Benjen agrees to visit, though his Lord Commander is reportedly irritated by Ned summoning him in this way. Ned spends any free time he can in the library, though he is forced to let Luwin take the lead, as Robb is old enough now to learn his duties.
Part of Ned still fears having Robb in a confined space with Jon, but they eat together at meals and ride together without a problem. Still, they must never be left alone together. Robb can never be trusted with anything vulnerable. This is discovered when he is given a puppy, under the hopes it might give him a focus, and the maids find it half-devoured in the morning.
Robb must never be trusted alone with anything, least of all Jon. He should not be trusted alone with Arya – and yet when they are together, Arya does not scream. Sometimes Cat puts the babe in Robb's arms just to stop her screams.
"They sense each other," Cat whispers one evening, as their children sleep together in a heap before the window. It is the coldest part of the room, and a babe of Arya's age should be somewhere warmer – and softer – but they are quiet and calm for once. Jon is laid out before the hearth, his stuffed wolf bundled in his arms.
"Then they will be a force to be reckoned with when they're older."
It is a weak reply and Ned knows it, but he doesn't know what else to say.
"Ned." Cat looks down at Jon, and there's sadness and pain in her eyes. "What's wrong with them?"
"I don't know. Luwin and I haven't found anything in the books."
"But what are we to do with them? Will the Lords follow Robb? Sansa can be made perfect, but what shall we do with Arya?"
"Arya is a babe," he says. "Let us not consider that now."
