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“Ros!” Sansa Snow gasped as the two-year-old slipped from her lap.
In a moment, Sansa’s heart seized and she thought she had actually dropped her daughter. But little Ros giggled as she sat down on the floor of the wagon, her body bouncing from the uneven ground beneath them and feeling it directly was much more fun that sitting in Sansa’s lap. Sansa released a breath and bent over, leaning down to make sure that the hat was still securely on the toddler’s head. There was a briskness in the air and when the wind blew, it made the fall morning that much colder.
It was a Tuesday, mid-morning, and the Snow family were the only ones taking a hayride but the farmer of the corn maze was more than happy to take them out when they showed up for pumpkins and apple cider. They had never done something like this with Ros before and she was probably too young and wouldn’t remember it anyway but they left the city and drove out to the country all the same. Jon really needed to get out of the city. His boss, Captain Baratheon, practically demanded it and Sansa was willing to do just about anything and take her husband anywhere to attempt and get his mind off of things as much as possible.
Someone was murdering children in the city. Jon and his partner, Jaime Lannister, were working around the clock to find out who would be doing it and had called in the FBI to help. Jon hated that he couldn’t solve it and he hated that he had to admit he needed outside help and he hated himself for this happening and he wasn’t able to stop it. Jon and Jaime were both running on fumes and were hardly functioning as humans. They couldn’t possibly be help to anyone or to solving anything if they were barely living themselves. Baratheon forced them each to take a day off and Sansa swooped into action. Jon had been talking about moving out of the city. The murders – all the solved and unsolved cases – were wearing on him and he didn’t know how much more he could take. Sansa didn’t know how serious he was. She didn’t know if it was just this case and he saying he wanted to move away was just a passing comment one made but didn’t mean. But on Jon’s (forced) day off, Sansa decided they should all see what a day out of the city truly was like.
Sansa looked at her husband now as the horse-drawn wagon slowly rocked its way through fields and in and out of sections of woods. It was the perfect fall day. Brisk with a warm sun and clear sky with foliage on fire all around them. It was breathtaking. And everything out here was just so open and quiet. It was definitely like nothing they were accustomed to where they lived. Sansa had never thought of moving away. She had been born and raised in the city. She had married a man of the city and she just thought that they would raise their daughter in the same kind of environment. But being out here on a random Tuesday, there was something about it. Maybe it was the crisp and clean air. Maybe it was how quiet it was. Maybe because it was so different and she could easily imagine them out here, somewhere like this if not here. She looked to Jon next to her. She slipped her arm through his and he had clearly been a million miles away but the instant she did that, his head turned, his eyes were on her and when she smiled, he smiled, too.
She couldn’t remember the last time she saw him smile and something that had been tightly wound inside of her without her even really realizing it began to uncoil. All from Jon finally smiling.
Jon looked down to Ros and when he saw that she had picked straw up from the bottom of the wagon and was bringing it towards her open mouth, he swiftly bent down and swooped her up into his arms. She squealed with laughter and both parents smiled at her. Jon stood her up on his thighs and held her up securely so she could look at everything around them. She beamed happily as she stretched her hands out, clasping and unclasping her fingers as if trying to grab puffs of air.
“It feels good out here,” Jon commented.
Sansa nodded in complete agreement. For something that was completely different, it felt right out here. She couldn’t even begin to understand how something like that was true but it was. The Snow family had come out here for the first time, arriving just an hour before, and already, Jon was smiling, Ros was having a ball and Sansa was happy because both her husband and daughter were. It occurred to her that while Jon was working this case and was gone for such long periods of time – and when he was home, a cloud of tense anxiety followed him – Ros had grown quiet, too, as if the toddler was able to sense that something was different in her life, with her daddy, than what he usually was and she didn’t understand it.
“I could see us out here,” Jon then said, smiling a little as he did. Ros was now twisting herself back and forth, dancing to a song she was humming and making up on the spot, and Jon made sure his hands were firm as he held her.
“Can you?” Sansa turned her head as the farmer steered the horse and wagon along the path. They were heading back into the trees. She wondered if the farmer was taking them on an extended hayride – not that any of them would possibly mind that.
“Can you?” Jon asked her back.
Sansa didn’t answer right away. She tilted her head up and looked at the branches of the trees overhead. The leaves were bursts of red, yellow, and orange and even as they slowly rolled past, some were falling down, twisting weightlessly as they danced back to the ground. Jon reached an arm up and caught a massive yellow leaf, holding it up for Ros to see. The girl giggled and instantly reached for it so she could hold it herself. Jon let her hold it and just make sure that she didn’t try to put it in her mouth. The leaf was nearly as big as her face and Sansa took her phone out so she could take a photo as Ros held it up. Sansa had this image in her head of framing this picture on one side and conserving this leaf on the other side. A souvenir from their time here or… a memory from when they made a life-changing decision because moving out here from the city would be nothing less than life-changing.
She looked at her husband and how his face was relaxed. He was smiling and the wrinkles in his forehead were smooth and gone. Ros was laughing and chattering and was obviously having so much fun with her parents on this wagon hayride and yes, she was only two and it took little to make her happy but after the past few weeks the Snow family had been having, the three being out here together was a reason to be happy. Sansa had missed their little family. Their unit of three. And she would never tell Jon this but the past few weeks had been hard for her, too. Worrying about, wanting to help, wanting to keep their daughter safe. She wondered if her face and demeanor seemed visibly more relaxed to Jon, too.
“Okay,” Sansa heard herself say.
Jon broke into a slow smile. “Yeah?”
She nodded her head and smiled. “We should see what kind of houses are out here. I bet we could even buy a little bit of land, too, if we find just the right spot.”
Jon wrapped an arm around Ros, holding her firmly, and leaned in, pressing his lips to Sansa’s. “Thank you,” he then said in a quiet voice that made Sansa’s insides tighten. She smiled faintly and brushed her nose against his. She then looked to Ros. She was watching her mama and daddy and obviously had absolutely no idea what was going on but they were smiling so she was smiling, too. Sansa looked back to Jon.
“It’s for all of us.”
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