The Love We Never Had

Chapter Nine

There was to be five days of jousting. There were seven total days of competition, with the first two dedicated to the melee, the archery contest, the axe-throwing contest, a horse race, and the tourney of singers, with each of those two days ending with a mummer's show. Arya and Jaime decided not to attend the festivities the first two days, because Arya had been feeling under the weather, as she had a fever, and had been vomiting for hours. Jaime, assuming she had food poisoning, decided that their personal servants would cook for them for the remainder of the trip, and when she was feeling slightly better on the morning of the first day of the joust, they decided to head out to see it.

They were seated with Arya's family and their retainers in a box that had been specifically built for this tourney, to the right of the Starks were the Martells and their servants, including Ashara Dayne, but minus Elia as she was seated in the box above theirs with the King and the Whents. To the left of the Starks was Robert Baratheon and Jon Arryn, followed by Mace Tyrell. When they arrived they were questioned as to their absence the past two days, and they just responded with short answers that would not give too much away about her condition.

The first day of the tourney went by very fast, as there were only four jousts scheduled. Arya's brother, Brandon, rode the first joust against Donnal Whent, one of the four brothers defending the Lady Sarya's honor. He won the joust in one tilt, and did not even break a sweat. The second was a member of House Haigh against Ser Richard Lonmouth, Robert's drinking friend, who had apparently not left the bottle as he was defeated by a man who was not even a knight, and rode off quickly home shortly after. The third was a member of House Blount against a member of Lord Whent's house, which the man from Blount won. And the final tilt was Prince Rhaegar against Lord Yohn Royce, which the Prince won easily.

The second day was slightly more interesting, as the remaining three sons of Walter Whent were unhorsed, as well as the uncle, Ser Oswell, by a member of House Frey, Ser Arthur Dayne, Ser Barristan Selmy, and a mysterious knight who the smallfolk had taken to calling the Knight of the Laughing Tree as he had a red weirwood tree on a white field as his coat of arms. After the final joust of the day, a squire proceeded to read out the names of the remaining men in the final championships.

"May I present the remaining champions: Lord Brandon Stark, Janas of House Haigh, Travan of House Blount, Prince Rhaegar Targaryen, Entan of House Frey, Ser Arthur Dayne, Ser Barristan Selmy of the Kingsguard, and the Knight of the Laughing Tree." The smallfolk cheered as each rose and waved when their names were called, except for the Knight of the Laughing Tree who had disappeared after his tilt. Arya could hear King Aerys above her claiming that the Knight was his enemy, and that his men should hunt him down and kill him, so that the Knight could not assassinate him. Arya found it amusing, but dared not to laugh, as she had heard the stories of the people who disrespected the Mad King.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^TRIGGER WARNING^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

That night, while Rhaegar was leading a hunt for the mysterious Knight of the Laughing Tree, and the Knight was having one of the worst nights of his life, Arya was having hers as well. After eating dinner in their rooms, Arya felt her stomach begin to cramp, she assumed it was indigestion, until she started sweating, and then all of a sudden she felt a horrible pain as her stomach compressed in on itself, and she could not help but scream. Jaime was shocked, she was fine just a moment ago, and all of a sudden she had fallen to the floor and was screaming her bloody head off?

"Baby what is it? What happened?" He yelled over her screams, trying to find something wrong with her.

"It hurts. Make it stop!" She forced out through gritted teeth as she folded herself into a fetal position, with her hands on her barely there pregnancy bump, trying to protect the baby inside from whatever was wrong with her. Jaime glanced at her hands and put his there as well, trying to comfort her.

"Tell me where it hurts love."

"My stomach. Jaime what is happening to me?" Jaime felt his nerves grow, but said nothing as he lifted her skirts up so he could look at her stomach. What he found made his heard shatter. There was blood, not too much yet, but it was still flowing, and it was spreading all across her legs and her skirts. It was dark, abnormally so. Jaime had seen blood before, but it had never looked like this.

"I'm going to go get the Maester, I'll be back, don't move." Jaime said quickly as he rose to run and find the maester. By the time he had returned, Arya was naked, and sitting on the toilet, holding her stomach, and crying her heart out. When he pulled the door open, Arya looked over at him, heartbreak in her eyes.

"I lost him didn't I?" She asked quietly, looking over at the Maester that Jaime had brought, who was looking at her with such sadness in his eyes. He nodded at her, and she turned her eyes to the ground. The Maester cleared his throat awkwardly as Jaime just stood there, unsure, and broken.

"Has a large substance come out? A large clot, or another object?" The maester asked softly. Arya looked up at him and shook her head, no, her baby had not fallen out of her, not yet.

"I need to examine you, can you lay down on your bed?" She nodded, her heart in her throat as she went to lay down. Jaime finally shook himself out of whatever stupor he had fallen into and moved over to her, sitting behind her and holding her hand as she leaned against him. The maester came over and spent a few minutes examining her before he sighed.

"I'm sorry, but we need to remove the fetus, if it remains inside you may get an infection." Arya looked at him with tired and sad eyes.

"How do you do that?" She said quietly.

"Well, I will go get you milk of the poppy, and then you will drink a concoction of several different plants that will cause your body to go into labor, and with a few shorts pushes, the fetus will be removed and I will give you more milk of the poppy to help you sleep." Jaime held her hand the whole time, and when it was over, her helped her clean herself before putting her in a new night gown, and helping her into bed.

Over the next few days the devastated couple remained in bed, with only their household servants being made aware of what had happened. They were so immersed in their pain - and rightly so - that they missed all the drama outside, that ended with Rhaegar being crowned champion of the tourney, and crowning Lady Lyanna Stark as the new Queen of Love and Beauty as his wife sat only feet away from her, and the Stark brothers and Robert Baratheon looked on with rage growing in their hearts.