Tywin Lannister was in agony for five days after Tyrion shot him with the crossbow. Cersei sent away Maester Pycelle and would only allow Qyburn to attend her father. She would not leave his side until she was sure her father would live. On the sixth morning Tywin awoke, and demanded that Jaime come and speak with him.

"You sent for me father?" Jaime arrived and try to hide his worry. Tywin had to be aware of how Tyrion had escaped or at least have guessed it by now. What was he planning to do about it? If his father had been willing to execute one son, was he angry enough to sentence another? "I was here earlier this morning but you hadn't yet awakened by then."

"I don't care if you visited me while I was indisposed." Tywin said bluntly as was his way. "Your sister cared for me well enough."

Cersei allowed herself a small smile at seemingly having gained her father's approval.

"I called you here to make something clear." Tywin went on, " Helping your brother to escape his punishment was short sighted and stupid. However the truth of what you did will never leave this room. I still expect you carry out your duty to house Lannister, now more than ever. You are to leave for Casterly Rock before the end of the week. Arrangements for your marriage to a suitable woman will be made in the coming year. If you fail to do as I have asked not only will I never forgive you, I will send you to the Wall to live out your days. Is that clear?"

"Yes father." Jaime said. He would almost rather go to the wall. Almost.

"Good. Now get out." Tywin said.

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Jaime arrived at Casterly Rock several weeks later. The household servants had all gathered outside the gates to meet him. A few of them he remembered from childhood, many others were new faces. He hardly cared about the faces. He didn't want to be here. He didn't want to be anywhere.

"A bird arrived for you two weeks ago, my lord." Said Mikken the the steward as Jaime dismounted from his horse. Mikken a grey haired older main uncommonly tall and thin.

"Fine, just bring the message up to my chambers." Jaime told him.

"I've already left it there my lord."

Jaime went up to his rooms wearily. It had been a long journey. He skipped the evening meal and didn't bother to read his messages. Instead he went straight to bed without ever even undressing or getting under the blankets. He awoke the next morning to a loud knocking on his bedchamber door.

"Yes, yes, come in!" He called out.

"Another bird for you." Mikken said, bringing the message over to Jaime.

The Stark girl will arrive in Lannisport at the end of the week. The wedding will take place in a moon's turn. See to it that she accepts the arrangement or I will see to it myself. -Tywin Lannister

"What did my previous message say?" Jaime asked Mikken, confused. Mikken retrieved the parchment from the desk.

Arya Stark has been found alive in Braavos. I have paid good coin to have her brought back from Essos. You will marry her soon after her arrival. I trust that this Lannister and Stark alliance will be more fruitful than the last. -Tywin Lannister

So he was being forced to marry Arya Stark. An arranged marriage was bad enough but an arranged marriage to a woman who likely hated him was far worse.

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Arya Stark arrived on the docks at Lannisport in chains, with clothes torn, and covered in bruises, even a little blood. Four sellswords he had never met before escorted her off the ship and brought her to where Jaime stood waiting.

"What have you done to her?" Jaime asked the men his father had apparently hired. "She's clearly injured and her clothes are torn."

"She didn't want to come with us and she wouldn't cooperate the entire way here." Said one of the men with a scruffy red beard.

"Are you telling my father paid you to kidnap her from her home in Braavos to bring her here?" Jaime knew the answer without having asked the question.

The men shrugged. "We just do what we're paid to do." Another of them said.

"Do you have the key to her chains?" He asked them.

One of them handed it over. "I wouldn't unchain her if I were you. She'll likely try to kill you."

Jaime glanced over at the defiant look in the young woman's eyes. Perhaps they were right, perhaps she would try to kill him. But he couldn't keep her chained up in any case, especially not if he were going to marry her. "Did she bring anything with her?" He asked as he unlocked her chains.

"Just this." One of the men handed him a cloth sack which seemed to contain a sword and few trinkets. "But I'd keep the sword away from her if I were you."

Jaime took the bag from the men. "If my father has already paid you then you're dismissed." He told them. Apparently they had been paid because at that, they took their leave of him. Jaime turned to Arya. "I'm sorry about all this… clearly they were not gentle with you."

Arya only glared at him. "Of course they weren't. I was trying to kill them." She eyed the cloth bag in his hand and he knew that she would try to kill him too if she got the chance.

"You know why they brought you here?" He decided there was no point in wasting time on pleasantries. He might as well get straight to the point with this one.

She blanched white. "Only that I was brought back to be married. They didn't say to who. I'm not going to marry without a fight."

"Come with me. There's a wheelhouse to bring us back to Casterly Rock." He told her.

"No." She said, refusing to move. "I'm not going anywhere with you."

"Arya, I wasn't given any choice in who I was to marry either. My father decided my fate for me. No one defies Tywin Lannister. You might as well come with me and get it over with."

"Wait? I'm to marry you?" Arya asked in shock.

"Yes. So you can come with me willingly or I can signal to the household guard over there and have them escort you. What will it be?"

She hesitated and he should have realized in that brief moment what she was doing but he didn't realize until she had already grabbed her sword from his hand. He reached for his own sword with his left hand but she was faster than he was. Before he could even draw it she had her blade at his throat. "Stay back!" She yelled to the Lannister men who waited near the wheelhouse. "Stay back or he dies!"

Jaime kept his hands in the air and she only stared at him, she made no move kill him. "Well, are you going to kill me or not?" He finally asked her.

"You're not on my list, my list of people I intend to kill." She said defiantly.

"I'm sure I could be added easily enough. Maybe you just need to be a little angrier in order to kill me." He taunted as if he didn't care if he lived or died.

"You haven't actually done anything to me… yet. But maybe you should be on my list anyway." Arya said.

"I am sure I have plenty of reason to be. If you kill me now now you'll never get the chance to make me confess."

"You're not going to confess anything. Not if you think it's the only thing keeping you alive." Arya said with anger.

"It's not the only thing keeping me alive. My wits are doing that." He quipped.

Arya's eyes flashed with anger and she took a step closer to him ready to plunge her blade into him. She never got the chance. One of Jaime's men slipped up behind her and knocked her in the head with the flat of a sword. He had only needed to keep her distracted long enough to let his man get close enough. They carried the knocked out Stark girl to the wheelhouse and headed back to the rock.