What Was Left

Chapter 7

"Why did you not tell her I was alive?" Jaime's voice startled Tyrion as he entered his solar the next morning.

Tyrion's hand shot to his chest, as if trying to stop his racing heart from bursting through. He turned to see Jaime sitting in his ornately carved chair, feet up on the large heavy table at which he worked upon matters of state. "Godsdammit, Jaime!" He stammered. "You scared the shit out of me." Tyrion glared.

"I ought to beat the shit out of you." Jaime answered, unmoving.

Tyrion eyed him indignantly. "Oh, that's the thanks I get for saving your life?" He remarked with exaggerated hurt.

Jaime rolled his eyes. "Saving it, or ruining it?" He questioned, his voice livid with blame.

"I would say you did a fairly good job of the latter, yourself." Tyrion lowered his eyes at his brother, and regarded him spitefully. He walked slowly and deliberately toward the table at which Jaime sat.

"I did what I had to." Jaime bellowed, moving to perch on the edge of the chair, and stare daggers at Tyrion. "I protected Brienne. The only way I could." His voice fell with painful regret.

Tyrion sighed, contemplating his actions in the matter. Perhaps Jaime was correct. It may have been quite possible that he should have told Brienne that Jaime lived. Although he doubted it would have changed anything. Sansa had written to him of how devastated Brienne had been when his brother had left. Then there had been the matter of the babe. Her world had undoubtedly been shaken to its core. He had no wish to add to her pain. 'After all, Brienne had been the one wronged. There was no way of knowing if she would have even wanted Jaime back in her life.' Tyrion tried to defend his reasons to himself, while, giving his thudding heart time to relax.

Jaime, too, allowed his anger to cool before continuing. "Please tell me, Brother." He begged. "Why did you not go to Brienne, confess that I lived still, and asked her to come to me?" By now, there was more hurt in his voice than rage.

Tyrion shook his head. "Do you honestly think she would have run to you with open arms after what you did to her?" He rebuked. "Besides." He softened. "I did not know if you would live or die. She thought you dead already. Would it have been better for her heart to break twice?" He hoped Jaime would see his logic.

"At least she would have known. Perhaps she would have taken me back." Jaime pressed on, imagining the wonder it would have been to open his eyes upon Brienne's loving face. "Perhaps she would have forgiven me by now." He conjectured. "I would not have missed so much time with her, with them." He lamented, remembering the tiny precious child sleeping at Brienne's bedside, his child, their child. "I could have told her my reasons." Jaime's voice grew even more sad. "Those I should have admitted when I left her, instead of making her think I did not want her." He lowered his face in his hands. "I could have told her that I was so wrong." He bemoaned the choices he had made.

After a long moment, Jaime looked up at Tyrion with anguished eyes. "Now, she won't even speak to me." His face clouded to think of how she had pummeled him, and ordered him from her chambers.

Tyrion's eyes snapped upward. "What did you do?" He growled, seriously.

Jaime sat defeated, his eyes distant. "I had to see them." He explained. "I needed to ensure they wanted for nothing." His face fell, thinking of Brienne's angry reaction upon seeing him returned from the dead.

"From your current mood, I can only take it that things did not go well." Tyrion surmised, already concluding that his long lost brother had found his way to Brienne's chambers. Jaime's only reaction was to shake his head

Jaime closed his eyes and shook his head. "That would be an understatement." His voice was a choked whisper.

Tyrion exhaled loudly, closing his eyes and raising his fingers to the bridge of his nose. He squeezed the bone firmly, hoping to forestall the headache he could feel this day turning into. "Please tell me you did not go bursting into her quarters declaring your return to the living?" Tyrion hoped.