A Vow Without Honor

The After

Ned

After the Greyjoy Rebellion, he'd taken to wandering the halls at night. Seeing the lives he had taken, the sons who had died, the son of the traitor who was now his ward who cried in the evening for his family – despite his insistence that he did not – made him worry for his own children. The war may have been over for the realm, but in his heart, it still raged, and he'd barely begun to heal the wounds from the last one.

Now he feared they would only fester.

But the sight in his daughter's room never failed to put him at ease.

Two small forms were curled up on the bed together. Small, but larger than they had been when he left for the Iron Islands. Could the wars cease for just one moment? He wished to see his children grow.

"I keep trying to separate them," his wife said behind him. Catelyn snuck around his side, leaning her head against his shoulder. "But Robb doesn't like to stay in his room. He winds up in here half the week."

Ned couldn't help but chuckle. "I think he ends up in here every night. He just happens to wake up before us some mornings."

He could feel her smile against him. "No one wakes up earlier than you. I believe you're out to convince everyone that you don't sleep."

Feeling smug, he wrapped an arm around his wife's waist, and drew her close to him. "And why should I sleep, when I have you sharing my bed?"

Catelyn smacked him lightly, shushing him for fear of the children, but he could see that look in her eyes, that desire.

Sometimes it still struck him as strange. She was always meant to be Brandon's, to share his bed, bear his children, be his wife, but Ned could not imagine his life without her, and not stand the thought of a world without their children, but would that not mean his brother and sister and father would be returned?

It was a dangerous road those thoughts lead down, and he'd thought on them far too often as of late.

To assuage it, Ned stepped inside the room and sat beside the bed where his oldest children slept, oblivious to the conflict in their father's heart. Robb stirred slightly as he ran a hand through his curls, but Myra never moved a muscle, soundly asleep.

"What are we to do with them?" his wife whispered from the doorway.

Ned returned to her, shaking his head. "Let us worry about that another time. They are young yet."

"They'll have to live apart eventually."

"Aye, but they'll always need one another."

Myra

Robb.

Talisa.

Mother.

Robb.

Talisa.

Mother.

Jaime Lannister sends his regards.

Robb.

Talisa.

Mother.

Jaime Lannister sends his regards.

Robb.

Jaime Lannister sends his regards.

Talisa.

Jaime Lannister sends his regards.