12) Winterfell: the end of a long journey.

There was an atmosphere of uncertainty in the air in Winterfell. On the one hand both Lady Catelyn and Jon had returned after their long journey. But on the other hand Lord Stark and his daughter Arya were still being held by the King. Robb was ready to call the banners and march south and he had to be convinced not to by his mother and Jon. Let's wait to see if the King sends instructions, Maester Luwin had insisted. If we march south it will be war, his mother had warned. We can't just call the banners and attack the capital if we don't know what's going on, Jon had reasoned. But Robb wanted nothing more but to do just that. He decided to give the king a week before he sprang into action. Jon would be the easiest one to convince, he thought.

"If we don't get a raven within the next seven days, we're marching to the capital."

"And what will we achieve?" Jon questioned him.

"I don't know. But I can't just sit here while my father and sister are in danger!" he sounded desperate.

"I share the sentiment, Robb, believe me. But attacking the capital will only endanger them even more. The minute the king and queen get wind we're marching, their lives are forfeit. Give it a week."

"Have you been talking to my mother? That's exactly what she said!"

"Well, I guess we think alike, then" Jon shrugged his shoulders.

"So you and my mother," he nudged Jon with is elbow. "What's your story?"

"What story?" Jon countered back.

"You and her. Telling jokes, finishing each other's stories, smiling over supper, agreeing on almost everything."

"Wasn't it you who told us to get over our petty resentment?"

"Well, yes, I just never expected .. this" he said uncertain how to express what he was feeling. "What happened?"

"Nothing, just a long journey."

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The horn sounded at the wall and Robb quickly climbed to the battlements. In the distance he could see a small host of soldiers approaching bearing the Baratheon sigil. "Get the archers! Arm the soldiers!" he instructed.

As the army got close, a lone rider approached the gate. Robb himself walked out to meet him.

"Ser Morrisey" he introduced himself. "We bring word from the King to Lord Robb Stark."

"That's me. Did you need an army to bring me word? Where's my father?"

"Your father is with us. If will you allow us in."

"Show me" Robb did not trust the man.

Ser Morrisey turned and gestured to his companions. Four figures started to ride closer: a soldier carrying the Baratheon standard, another soldier, a man flanked between them and a shorter man walking behind him. Upon closer inspection Robb's heart missed a beat.

"Father! Arya!" he yelled. "Open the gates!" he instructed.

Robb led his father and sister into the yard and welcomed the Baratheon men.

"Lord Stark, welcome home" he told his father. "Winterfell is yours"

.

The family enjoyed a meal all together like they hadn't done in a long time. They shared their experiences and told one another everything that had happened. Ned observed how everyone was in good spirits and watched as his children were all playing and chatting lively. He leaned over to his wife and whispered sweet words with a promise of a long romantic night in private. Life was looking up again.

Before he retired for the night, Ned went to his son Jon's room.

"Jon, I meant to talk to you" Ned told his son. "You risked your life for my family and me."

"They are my family, too."

"I know, son. I'm proud of you" he reassured him. "And I know you had a long journey with my wife."

"I did father."

"And, how did it go?" he prompted.

"It was alright. We ran into some issues on the road, but nothing we couldn't handle"

"And my wife?" he asked fearful of the answer.

"She was a fine travelling companion. She is very brave and resourceful. Did you know she could fish without a rod, just using a hook and a line?"

"No" Ned replied confused. "What happened to your hair?"

"We had to hide. At first I coloured it a lighter shade of brown and then I just shaved it off completely."

Ned was puzzled about the new state of affairs between his son and his wife but decided to cherish it instead of prying further into it.

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Catelyn took the chance to talk to her uncle before he left back for Riverrun.

"Family Duty Honor" she started. "We've always lived by those words. Everything I have ever done has been for my family, doing my duty and preserving honour. What has Lysa got herself into?"

"She has always been easily manipulated. That worm Baelish preyed on her weakest instincts."

"But she lied Uncle. She lied to me, her family! She sent me on a path that could have led to the death of my husband and my children. Family!"

"I know Sweetling, I know" he said and squeezed her shoulders.

"She's still in Petyr's clutches. He will show up at the Eyrie and they will marry. He will control her and take over the Vale for her."

"I'll go. I'll see what I can do for her. I'll protect her."

"Thank you uncle. I know you will."

"You put too much faith in me" he teased her sweetly.

"Don't tell father. It will break his heart."

"We'll keep this a secret. For now at least."

"If the truth gets out, Lysa's head will be on a spike."

"Let's stop our words at Family for now then. Let's leave Duty and Honor for another time" he joked.

"I told my husband and he agrees to keep it a secret. Apparently we are all keeping lots of secrets to maintain the peace."

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Ned and his wife met in their chamber later than night.

"So I hear you had an interesting journey in the south" he said playing with her hair short dark hair.

"You could say that" she replied.

"I wish I could say I like it, but ... I truly miss my long red locks" he shook his head.

"It will grow. But for now you have a woman with short dark hair and an ugly scar on her face."

"Never ugly"

"Marred face, marred hands …" she trailed biting her lips not to add and almost soiled to her list.

"So, tell me about Jon. What happened with him?"

"Nothing happened. We took a journey together."

"Cat, everyone has noticed. You look at each other, you smile at each other."

"What do you want me to say?"

"I asked him. He said nice things about you."

"I have nice things to say about him, too."

"Mh"

"Look Ned, we talked, we expressed things we felt, we had to rely on each other and we both survived because the other one was there."

"What happened? He mentioned running into issues on the road but would not elaborate."

"Nothing serious."

"I'm listening" he gestured for her to talk.

"We were attacked, we were robbed, we got lost."

"You were attacked? By whom?"

"Just some robbers."

"Were you hurt?"

"No. A bit, nothing serious" she lied. They pummelled Jon's face and almost broke his ankle. They almost raped me, beat me up and left me with a broken rib. Oh, and before that, he vomited all over me on the ship and I had to take care of him. We froze half to death, we starved together, and I hit my head in the river and would have drowned if he hadn't saved me.

"Good" he replied visibly relieved.

"There's something you should know, though. It's about Jon" she started but immediately shushed her husband when she saw anxiety reflected on his face. "Nothing bad. It's just that he's worried."

"About what?"

"His future. He doesn't seem to think you will provide for him. He knows we will take care of our children's future, but he's concerned about his. You should clear this up with him."

"I will" he promised. "I'll talk to him. Tomorrow. And tomorrow we'll deal with those damn letters Robert wants us to write" he added. "For now I have other plans" he said patting the bed gesturing for her to come. "Much better than that bed in Baelish's brothel" Ned joked.

"Argh, don't even mention his name. After what he has done to my sister. After what he caused us. He almost got us all killed."

"Is your uncle moving with her?"

"For now."

"He'll take good care of her. She'll be fine."

"I asked him not to tell my father and he agreed. I'm not sure his heart can take it."

"Like we said. Keep it secret to save his life"

"So we are just keeping all these secrets now. Secrets upon secrets. We know some of the truth, the King knows some of the truth. The Queen and her family know other things. My sister knows her things too. And there are a lot of things no one knows. But nobody does anything" Catelyn said somewhat frustrated.

"If we come forward, there will be war and I'm not sure how much support we'll get. If the Lannisters come forward, there will be war and we have documents to back us up which the Lannisters won't be able to refute. It is in everybody's best interest to just let it go."

"That doesn't sound like you" she said caressing his cheek. "That sounds like Robert. Have you traded places and am I going to lie with the King tonight?" she teased him.

"Ha! No. But yes, it was Robert who convinced me. For our sake and the sake of our people."

"You apologized and Jon and I will apologize. But no-one will apologize for what they did to Bran. We all keep quiet and nobody pays for their crimes" she finished not entirely sure if that was a good thing or not. The people who had hurt her son would not be held accountable for what they had done.

"But we all live, my love" he said kissing her lips. "We all live."

THE END

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THE END

So, no war then ... yes, all the crimes go unpunished, but at the same time, nobody sufferes unnecessarily... Good Robert saw to that ...

Would he have been so calm and collected if he had learned the truth in canon? Difficult to say. He was rather impetuous. He did relish the death of the young Targaryen babies and he did order for Daenerys to be killed. But at the same time, he did it so his realm would be secure. Here, he knows that both Ned and Cersei (and their respective families) pose a threat to his kingdom. Killing a girl nobody cared about who lived in a continent thousands of miles away is one thing. But killing Starks, Wardens of the North, and Lannisters, Wardens of the West, will surely have much more serious consquences. He needed to stop them all from acting out on their impulses and self-righteous sense of justice and honor, which would only lead to war. In this scenario, the best course of action to make sure his kingdom is secure is to keep everything secret and make sure none of the parties act on the information they have. Short of killing everyone (Cersei and her brothers, the children he considered his up until a short while ago, his friend Ned and his whole family) and plunge the realm into a bloody civil war, making sure they all stay quiet is perhaps the safest course of action ... or not ... But for now, it will work.

So, they all lie, they plot and obfuscate ... but in the end, they all live.

Still, the main point of this story was not so much to delve into the War of the Five Kings. Many stories tell that side of the plot, I have written quite a few about it myself (some with the Stark winning, some with them losing, some somewhere in between and some in which the war is averted altogether). My main focus was actually Catelyn and Jon. The idea here was to show both Jon and Cat (and Ned as well) a little bit more of the bigger picture they were unable to see in canon. And I tried to have a small scene or bit about both in every chaper. In each chapter, both Jon and Cat get to feel something about what's going on and about the other one.

In the first chapters I had both Jon and Cat complain about "He/She hates me. I hate him/her" and Robb basically saying "Grow up and get over it. It's not nearly as serious as you think and I need for the both of you to work together".

At the beginnig of their journey, I had both of them realize they needed each other but not wanting to admit it. For instance, they should have slept side by side and shared body heat when they were traveling in the North and it got cold at night. But neither was willing to show weakness.

In Kings Landing they were both wary and distrustful of each other (Jon thought she wanted to have him killed. Cat thought he had betrayed her and told the authorities about them), only to have those suspicions proved completely off base.

When they were attacked, they both tried to help each other and worried about one another.

At the Vale they both had a dose of reality thrown at them. Mya tells Jon about real bastards, and Cat gets to see how guilty Jon feels about being a bastard and a "burden" on the family.

But towards the end, they both become more aware of how far they have come.

To be fair, I don't blame either of them for feeling the way they did in canon. It makes perfect sense that Catelyn would msitrust Jon (when we all know he is a very decent guy who would never do what she feared) and it makes sense that Jon would feel shunned (when we all know he never was). They didn't need to love each other dearly, they just needed to coexist together in a civil way - which they did. It is a testament to the kind of people they were that they never acted upon their perceived slights and still managed to behave properly towards one another.

Do I wish they had had another kind of relationship? Of course. But it's easy to judge in hindsight and from an outsider's point of view. They can't question what they have no reason to doubt. So now, in this story, I wanted to give them reasons enough to question their own assumptions and hopefully see things from another perspective...

I hope you liked it.

Thanks!