Work Text:
Jaime goes to work the next day, because that is what he does. He goes to work, watches tv, bickers with his brother and works out at his favourite gym. Life is easy that way.
But now, whenever he does anything he imagines what the inhabitants of Tarth’s house are up to. He knows too little about his wench to answer his own questions.
So he goes to work and ignores his wandering brain.
Brienne does not mention her kids, of their strange yesterday meeting on her lawn, or anything on the matter of the file. The only thing she does is silently scanning said report files and placing them in the data base so everyone involved can reread her notes on the “totally important” meeting.
If it wasn’t for that, Jaime would be very doubtful that yesterday even happened; it all just seemed so strange. It is not that he can’t imagine Brienne as a mother – if there was anyone more capable of managing a single household with five teenagers it would be his wench. It is also not that he can’t imagine anyone willing to play house with her and raise the kids. It is just… different.
Different from the secretary who dutifully works from nine to five and in her weekends. Different from the strict face she wears when dealing with his difficult contacts. Different from her never ending typing behind the standard office computer, writing most of his correspondence. It’s as if he’s seen her in a different light and can’t look away.
The next morning after meeting the group of chaotic teenagers, Jaime checks his online bank history at least every hour or so, always making sure Brienne isn’t accidentally walking past behind him and sees the strange order. Around lunch he receives a message detailing the shipping information about the presents from the Tarth children. Their book and necklace will be shipped today and arrive at their house before tomorrow.
Jaime has no way of contacting them with the details, so he can only hope one of them will be home to receive it before their mom accidentally finds out. Maybe he should find an excuse to keep his secretary here for overtime? Make up another important development in the company or something?
Immediately, he feels bad for thinking it. If there should be anything he learned yesterday, it is that these five buggers don’t like him keeping their mum busy outside of her working hours. So instead, he holds his tongue and lets her leave according to schedule.
It feels weird to keep a secret from his secretary; she knows almost everything about him after all. Brienne knows about all the important meetings and whatever is discussed during them. She plans his business trips for him and always remembers what he likes and dislikes about different places, foods and people. She even remembers the suits he sent to the dry cleaning and reminds him to pick them up on his way back home.
Maybe that’s why he feels so strange that she managed to keep such a big part of her own life hidden from him. ‘Hidden’ might be the wrong word; It’s not as if she actively hides five teenagers in her house – Jaime checked Brienne’s profile in their system and all kids are officially mentioned and all.
Jaime just hoped Brienne knew she could share this kind of information with him, as friends. Had he never asked her about family? He couldn’t recall. Not in a non-joking way at least.
Jaime has also refrained himself from making any jokes about her upcoming birthday. The Jaime from before wouldn’t remember his secretary’s birthday, after all, so why should this Jaime do so? Also, he’s scared that he’ll give the kid’s plan away somehow and he doesn’t want that.
Their office has a birthday policy: they celebrate all the birthdays of that week on the Friday lunch break with a piece of cake and a birthday card. Coincidentally, Brienne’s birthday is that Friday, but she has to share it with two other folks from administration downstairs.
They sing their single celebratory song and cut the simple factory produced cake and then Brienne is back at her desk before he knows it. She doesn’t like the attention and would probably avoid any and all off-tune singing and mediocre birthday cakes if she could.
“A happy birthday to my favourite wench!” he tells her as he drags his own chair out of his office to sit next to her. His secretary rolls her eyes at him and takes a bite out of her cake. “Let me guess, you’re going partying this weekend to celebrate? A pub crawl around the city and you will be hungover on Monday?” he grins at her.
“So you can slam the doors extra loudly ‘on accident’ and I’ll be stuck with an even worse headache? No, thank you very much.” She answers jokingly.
“Did your kids give you anything?” Jaime holds his breath for an answer, but Brienne doesn’t seem to mind him mentioning them. A small smile appears on her face.
“They bought a book for me, it was very nice of them.”
“A book doesn’t sound that special..” It does, it was. Jaime remembers Sansa’s disappointment in him not knowing it, Pod instructing him around the site to make sure he bought the special edition with the green hardcover and nothing less.
“Maybe not, but it has a special meaning all the same.” She pushes her cake around on her plate. He wants her to tell him about that meaning. At first, Jaime was annoyed with Tyrion for foisting this secretary on him, but now he wants Brienne to know that he would gladly listen to her explaining a book to him on their lunch break. He didn’t exactly know why that was, but he just did.
“Explain then.”
“It’s a fantasy series: knights, dragons, monsters and magic, you know the drill probably. Podrick once chose to read the first book for a school assignment, but it was still way above his reading level, so we spent a few middays wading through it together. Then we continued it for fun.”
Brienne smiles at the memory and Jaime is mesmerized by the way it makes her eyes shine brighter and her face look softer. Something in Jaime’s stomach feels very light and he couldn’t say for sure it was the cake.
“It has a lot of different characters, so everyone has something to be invested in. You’ve met the five of them, so you probably noticed they don’t always have a lot in common.” Jaime remembers the opposite; a collection of grinning faces working together to convince him to do their bidding, but he won’t be telling Brienne that.
“This story has something for every one of them, a way to feel represented. And it’s main theme talks about loyalty and doing good for the sake of goodness, so it’s not a bad thing to like, I suppose.”
She finishes her explanation with a shrug. “And it’s just a good book.”
Jaime can’t remember if she ever in the three months spoke so much about something other than work. “And why do you like it so much?” Brienne blushes at that and hastily takes another bite from her cake, taking her time to chew.
“I think I like the fact that all these different stories, all these characters, have to overcome some kind of evil, or inner conflict to find themselves. That, and Sansa and Pod are convinced I look like one of the knights in the story.”
“Is that where the nickname ‘Ser Mom’ came from?” Jaime asks. “Your kids used it to refer to you.”
“I was close with Arya, Sansa and Bran’s mom before she passed away, so we talk about her sometimes. Catelyn might be gone, but she’s still their mother. That’s why they gave me the honorary title of ‘Ser Mom’ instead.”
“So they are related?” Brienne raises an eyebrow in a single question. “I mean, I just wondered.”
“They are related, yes. I am just a family friend taking care of them.” Her voice sounds oh so soft when she says that.
Jaime knows there is a lot more story behind these words, but he also feels Brienne won’t appreciate him prodding for more information. Instead, he opts to joke, make her smile again.
“It just explains their alikeness, here I was thinking they were all related to you, with their stubborn gazes and frowny faces.” Instead of making the mood lighter, it has the opposite effect. Brienne crosses her arms over her chest and raises her chin in defence. “I won’t have them ridiculed by you. They might not be mine by blood, but I love them all the same and I won’t stand for it.”
Jaime raises his hands as if to show surrender. “I didn’t mean it like that.” He really didn’t.
Brienne nods at his unspoken apology and that puts the subject to rest. They finish their cake with light chitchat about nothing and everything.
The rest of that Friday is spent working on a new idea he has to present to the board and contacting his brother who is out of the city on a business trip. That weekend, Jaime keeps his end of the bargain he made with the Tarth children and refrains from contacting Brienne with work.
He doesn’t make any requests of his secretary that first weekend, nor the weekend after that. The third weekend of radio silence in a row, he deals with a persistent client himself and writes out a reminder for himself to get back to it on Monday. That is also the weekend he orders the Tarth children’s favourite book series for himself, and spends his free time slogging through the first few chapters.
Jaime never liked reading much and the books are packed with important information, so you can’t just skim over the chapters. You probably shouldn’t skip complete chapters either if you want to understand the story, but that’s what Jaime finds himself doing that Sunday evening.
He looks for paragraphs focussed on knights and finds it soon enough: a chapter talking about a fight between a Lady Knight and three thieves, her meeting a small boy who secretly followed her and them pairing up to find two missing princesses. Could this be the character that had given Brienne her nickname?
Tyrion sees the books lying around his living room and gleefully thumbs through them.
“Jaime, Jaime, Jaime, it can’t be true. Do I catch my jock of a brother reading children’s fantasy books in his free time?” Jaime tries to snatch the book away from his brother, but no luck there.
“Why are you reading them anyway?” his brother asks with mirth in his eyes.
“Brienne likes them,” Jaime finally manages to snatch the book away, “well her kids like them.”
“Her kids like them?” Tyrion raises his eyebrows in surprise before he sits down on the couch. He pours himself a large glass of wine while waiting for Jaime to respond.
“Yeah, did you know she has kids?”
“It rings a bell, I think she talked about them when we hired her. But that doesn’t answer my real question; you are reading books because some kids like them?” Tyrion pours another glass and hands it over to him.
“It’s.. I don’t know. I was just curious.” And then he tells Tyrion how he went out to collect some files and accidentally bought a birthday present and a mother’s day present for his secretary. He leaves out the part where said files weren’t even that important, but Tyrion has a blast with it anyways.
“You should use that story on business trips, it’s both hilarious and it makes you look like a sympathetic good-doer.” His brother laughs again over his glass of wine.
“It wasn’t really like that. It was just a weird morning, if I’m being honest.”
“But you survived it, right? You’re good with younger children, our nephews and niece adore you, but teenagers are different stuff. I’m just perplexed you left the house with the file and without any trouble. They sound like a handful.”
Jaime remembers the easy comradery between the four. The way they had yelled at each other, but without any malice or bad intent. Had Cersei, Tyrion and himself ever been like that? Probably not, if the only family member Jaime spoke to on a regular basis was his brother that he shared a company with. Tyrion and Jaime were tight, but that was mostly because they were stuck together in the many meetings they attended to.
The memory of seeing the five teenagers and Brienne on the front lawn appears in his head; a tight knit family. A real one.
“They are alright.” Is all he says.
Exactly one month after Jaime decided to visit his ‘sick’ secretary, he receives an envelope in his home’s mailbox. It has no stamps and doesn’t even seem to be properly sealed, so he’s sure someone threw it in his mailbox themselves.
The envelope contains a handful of cash and a simple hand written note: “As promised, and thanks.”
Jaime immediately knows where the envelope came from and he’s both a little concerned how they found out his home address, and thrilled that they would care to include a note like that.
He dumps the money on his mantlepiece, intending to hold onto it for a while. The note receives the honorary place of functioning as a bookmark for the books he’s slowly wading through.