Would've, Could've, Should've // Ned Stark // Hayley Marshall

13. Duty & Honor

Jaime found Tyrion in a brothel with his arm around one of the Northern whores. Tyrion looked at his brother is half amusement and half annoyance as Jaime poured a goblet of wine drinking it contently.

"Do you know the meaning of a closed door in a whore house?" Tyrion pondered.

"You are going to tell me no doubt" Jaime remarked "Our sister wants you back at the keep. Don't leave me alone with these people."

"Get to know your new mother in law, she seems great. She seems smart you will have to be more discreet." Tyrion mused and Jaime glared back at him. 

"Tyrion." Jaime grumbled. 

"Well this is the first of many courses" Tyrion corrected him. 

"I thought you might say that" jaime mused as he walked to the door and opened it again. 5 whores ran giggling into the room as Jaime headed out.

"Come before sun down" Jaime called back to him.

"Close the door!" Tyrion shouted back. 

+

"I have never seen a man sicken so quickly. We gave a tourney on my son's name day. If you had seen Jon then, you would have sworn he would live forever. A fortnight later he was dead. The sickness was like a fire in his gut. It burned right through him." Robert remarked.  "I loved that old man."

 "We both did." Ned agreed. "Catelyn fears for her sister. How does Lysa bear her grief?" Robert's mouth gave a bitter twist.

 "Not well, in truth," he admitted. "I think losing Jon has driven the woman mad, Ned. She has taken the boy back to the Eyrie. Against my wishes. I had hoped to foster him with Tywin Lannister at Casterly Rock, thats the bitches father." Robert added to Hayley. 

"If your wife was anyone else I would yell at you for calling her such things." Hayley informed him honestly and Robert chuckled. 

"Now remember that when I say what I say mum." Robert added. "Jon had no brothers, no other sons. Was I supposed to leave him to be raised by a crazy woman?" Robert questioned. Ned would sooner entrust a child to a pit viper than to Lord Tywin, but he left his doubts unspoken.

"Crazy," hayley tsked. "Women dont like to be called crazy." She remarked. "It makes us crazy."

"You didnt know the loon." Robert offered. "Catelyns sister." Hayley looked to Ned. 

 "The wife has lost the husband," he said carefully. "Perhaps the mother feared to lose the son. The boy is very young." 

"Lord Tywin had never taken a ward before. Lysa ought to have been honored. The Lannisters are a great and noble House. She refused to even hear of it. Then she left in the dead of night, without so much as a by-your-leave. Cersei was furious." Robert sighed deeply.

"Cersei was furious?" Hayley questioned. 

"That the loon would reject her fathers offer. She thought it was Lysa taking a damn stab at the lannister name." 

"Ah, that makes more sense." Hayley offered. 

 "I am sworn to protect him. How can I do that if his mother steals him away?" Robert questioned. 

"Mother taking her own... not really stealing." Hayley corrected. "She clearly loves her son. Thought it was for the best."

 "I will take him as ward, if you wish," Ned said. "Lysa should consent to that. She and Catelyn were close as girls, and she would be welcome here as well."  Ned remarked  "I have more concern for my nephew's welfare than I do for Lannister pride," Ned declared.