Chapter Text
Baela had declared imperiously one morning that she would like to tell people about the babe. People, meaning Jace’s mother mostly and her father and her grandmother. It was still a bit early for an actual announcement to the realm.
It wasn’t a huge surprise to him. Baela had had to unceremoniously excuse herself from dinner one evening to avoid retching at the table but it was enough that her pregnancy couldn’t be hidden from Joffrey anymore. He had taken it well for the most part. He’d only asked if he would have to go back to King’s Landing once the babe came, to which Jace had said of course not, not if he didn’t want to. Joffrey had only nodded solemnly, which still Jace did not know how to take besides with concern.
Still the fact that Joffrey knew meant they only had so long until he told someone- as a general rule, young children are not the best secret keepers.
So when Baela made her declaration he went to write a letter to his mother informing her of their impending arrival to King’s Landing. He was vague in their reasoning as it would be easiest to tell them in person. If they informed them via letter, sooner than later they’d have the Caraxes on their doorstep at the very least and Meleys and Syrax as well if the gods were feeling particularly humorous. Far easier for everybody to just go to King’s Landing.
And then he went back to bed. Baela had only become more demanding, and well– Jace was very inclined to indulge her. She had only just started showing, the slightest curve to her stomach which was only noticeable when she was not wearing so many clothes. He couldn’t quite wrap his head around it. That was his child. Their child. That Baela was growing inside her. He wasn’t sure he ever would. It was a wonderous thing and although he had thought that he could not love Baela even more he was proved wrong constantly.
She had accepted most of his fussing with a surprising grace so far which he attributed to how poor she had been feeling. She was not sick as often now though, which Jace was glad for even if it meant that he was not allowed to fuss so much.
And although Baela had said it herself, she hadn’t seemed thrilled to tell people about the babe. So much so that he almost wrote to his mother again to say they weren’t coming.
“The babe can’t be kept a secret forever,” Baela said when he asked if she was sure, one morning. Jace did not like the way she said it. It sounded like something she had merely come to terms with rather than something she wanted.
“That does not mean we must do this now,” he countered. Baela shifted in his arms.
“No. We must,” Baela said determinedly. She mouthed at his pulse point and Jace shuddered. “No more talking,” she demanded.
He was sure it was an attempt to distract him from asking her more, and he was a little ashamed to admit that it did work. How could it not? She had only become more maddening in pregnancy. It did however only serve to convince him more surely that something was wrong. He made a mental note to get to the bottom of it. Baela was not always forthcoming but he would not let her hide from him on this.
He tried again that night. “Is there a particular reason why we must do this now?”
Baela frowned. “Is there a better time?”
“Yes,” Jace said bluntly. “When you are ready.”
Baela scowled. She was annoyed with him, which meant that he was getting somewhere. “If we wait until I am ready we will be telling people with the babe in our arms and I refuse to do that.”
It would be quite the scandal, but the idea was not so horrible, little as Jace felt he could afford a scandal. He got the urge more often now, to hide away from the realm with his family, even though he always knew it was impossible.
Jace pressed a kiss to her forehead which only made her scowl more and he resisted smiling at the sight. She genuinely might leave him to sleep alone if he did. “If I can do anything—“
“You cannot,” Baela snapped. “It’s just me being stupid.”
“Nothing you worry about is stupid,” Jace said, because it was true. Baela was not a worrier in general, and when she did it was rarely for no reason.
Baela’s face scrunched up. “Does it feel real to you? The babe?” she asked.
“No,” Jace said honestly. He didn’t think he would truly believe it until the babe was here.
Baela smiled wryly. “Me neither. Even though it's been making me sick for the past three moons. ”
Jace thought he may have an idea what this was about. “And when we tell people it will,” he filled in. Balea nodded ever so slightly, confirming that he was right.
“And it scares me,” she admitted. He had never quite heard her voice like this, the slightest tremble betraying her fear.
“The babe?” he asked, although he felt stupid as soon as he did. What else would it be? The birthing bed was a woman’s battlefield, they said, which seemed more than accurate from what he knew. He didn’t think he would ever truly forget the sight of his mother as she labored with Visenya.
Worst of all, he didn’t know how to comfort Baela. He couldn’t promise that nothing would happen. That all would be well because he couldn’t know. He could do nothing if something did happen. She was more than right to be scared, and he did not know what to say to make it better.
“I have fought a war and yet I’m more scared than I ever was,” Baela confessed. Then she turned so she could look him fully in the eye. “I don’t want to die like my mother, Jace.”
Jace’s throat felt thick. He didn’t want to think of Baela dying, he didn’t want to think of anything happening to Baela. “You will not die,” he said. “You will have the best midwives, or anything else you want—“
“Will I have you?” Baela asked.
Jace’s brows furrowed. “Of course. You always have me.” The idea that she would not is laughable. That he would be anywhere else.
“But will you be with me?” Baela clarified. “I know it is not usual for men to be there but…”
“I won’t be scared off by the child bed, if that's what you’re asking,” he said, humor leaking into his voice.
Baela smiled. “I would hope not.”
“I will be wherever you want me,” he said earnestly. “However you want me. You only need to say the word.”
Baela pulled him closer to her, and pressed her forehead to his. “Good,” she said.
Her insistence that they must tell people now made more sense to him. Baela was not the type to hide from her fears, and no amount of hiding would make it easier to deal with. He could see why she would just want to get it over with. As much as he might wish otherwise, the babe could not be hidden forever, and if Baela wanted to do this, then he would let her.
***
King’s Landing was exactly the same as when he’d last been there, a moon ago. There were projects from the Crown aimed to better the city, to ease the smell and generally make it more livable for the smallfolk but they were slow going. It might be a year at least until there is a noticeable difference.
Joffrey seemed enamored with the sights of it though and if Jace circled once or twice before landing in the Dragonpit, well who was going to complain? Baela certainly didn’t as she followed his lead without a word.
“It’s not fair that Tyraxes is too small to fly still,” Joffrey huffed as Jace helped him down from Vermax.
“It’ll only be a few more years until he can,” Baela said, climbing down from Moondancer who had landed right near them. Jace resisted the urge to offer to help her down. It would certainly not be appreciated.
Joffrey was as unimpressed by that answer as he had been every time they had told him that as well. He was constantly asking about when Tyraxes would be able to fly. It may have been annoying to some, but Jace couldn’t help but sympathize and he was sure Baela was the same. He remembered vividly what it felt like waiting all those years for Vermax to grow.
There was a wheelhouse and a Queensguard waiting for them in the Dragonpit and Jace did offer a hand to Baela as she climbed into it. She took it although she also shot him at look as she did so, as if he asked for a wheelhouse to be sent. It was most likely sent because they had Joffrey with them and he was young to ride through the city.
“We won’t have to tell anybody anything if you keep looking at me like that,” Baela hissed in his ear when he sat down next to her.
“How else am I supposed to look at you?” he shot back, “You’re too wondrous to look at any other way.”
Baela’s eyes narrowed. Before she could reply Joffrey cut her off. “What are you whispering about?”
“Don’t worry about it,” Baela said dismissively. “Are you excited to see Muña again?”
Joffrey nodded, kicking his feet a little. “Egg was very jealous that I got to live on Dragonstone with you when I left. I’m gonna tell him all about it and then he’s gonna be even more jealous.”
Baela turned to Jace in confusion and he just shrugged. This was the first time he was hearing of this. “I’m sure Aegon missed you as well,” he said.
“He was having fun with Vis, probably,” Joffrey said miserably.
Baela glanced at him again, this time more concerned, which Jace could only return helplessly. “Probably,” Baela said, “But you were having fun with us, and now that you’re back for a little, you can all have fun together.”
Joffrey nodded, seemingly accepting of Baela’s explanation. “Muña doesn’t know about the babe, so I shouldn’t talk about it right?” he asked.
The change in topic was abrupt but Jace let it happen. “Yes. We’re here to tell her, so don’t mention it until then,” he answered Joffrey.
“How will I know when I can mention it?”
“We will tell you when we’ve told everyone,” Baela said. “So don’t concern yourself about it.”
With perfect timing the wheelhouse rolled to a stop. His mother, Daemon and Princess Rhaenys were waiting to receive them as well as two nursemaids with Aegon and Viserys.
For all of Joffrey's glumness in the wheelhouse he ran right to their mother as soon as he was out who began to fuss appropriately. Baela greeted her father and grandmother while his mother was preoccupied and Jace was in the process of that as well when he was startled by a small boy clinging to his leg.
“You have to spend time with me now,” Aegon said seriously as he looked up at Jace.
“I’m very sorry, my Prince,” the empty handed nursemaid said, “he did not want to be held—”
“It’s alright,” he assured the nursemaid. He knelt down to be level with Aegon. “I missed you too, Egg.”
A grin split Aegon’s small face.
“Aegon, leave Jacaerys alone,” his mother scolded suddenly, “You’ll see him at dinner.”
Aegon pouted but when Jace assured him that he could sit next to him at dinner he went back to his nursemaid without fuss.
That night at dinner, he could feel his mother’s curiosity boring holes into him the entire time. He had discussed it with Baela and they had decided against sharing their news then. It was a private family dinner, but it just didn’t feel right.
It all almost felt like a dinner back at Dragonstone, before the war. Of course that meant that there was the gaping absence of Luke at his side as he indulged his younger brothers in games at the dinner table. It stung like an old wound, and as soon he thought that it stung more. Luke was not an old wound. It had been little more than two years, no time at all in the grand scheme of things, but for every year that Jace grew older, the longer Luke stayed four and ten.
He could not shake the thought the entire night though he did his best— and thought he succeeded— to not let it show.
Baela had perhaps noticed, even though she spent the entire dinner chatting with Rhaena and mediating between her father and grandmother, but she didn’t say anything that night when they went to bed.
Before they had retired to their rooms though, his mother invited them to lunch in her solar the next day and Baela had only needed to give him a glance for him to know that that was when she wanted to announce it. It was made even better timing when Princess Rhaenys invited herself with a stern, “I think the Lady Hand should be involved in matters of the realm.”
Nobody disagreed that it wasn’t a matter of the realm, which mostly spoke to his mother’s curiosity. And well, it wasn’t not a matter of the realm. It was the next heir to the Iron Throne, a fact as inescapable as anything else. The babe was for the realm as much as Jace himself had always been for the realm.
Baela wasn’t sick the next morning, which seemed a good omen. Baela was not so convinced— occasionally when she wasn’t sick in the mornings she was much more sick later. But she was in a mood all morning either way. She still seemed convinced to do it today, little as she wanted to talk about it. That was fine though and when Baela demanded his attention that morning he paid her special care, in an attempt to make her feel better.
By the time they had to get ready for lunch, he liked to think he’d succeeded as Baela seemed much more relaxed.
The lunch itself was pleasant enough. He had half expected to be accosted for answers as soon as they stepped foot in his mother’s solar but neither of them asked and neither did Baela offer. Finally when they had all finished eating, Princess Rhaenys bit.
“I know you did not travel all this way for no reason, Baela. So out with it,” she demanded.
Baela didn’t appear startled by her tone. Calmly, almost too calmly, she answered, “I am with child, Grandmother. That is why I’m here.”
Shock emenatedb. Then Princess Rhaenys stood and embraced Baela tightly. With the spell broken, his mother stood as well.
“Oh that is wonderful news!” his mother exclaimed, hugging Jace, “I know you will be a wonderful father Jacaerys.”
“How far along are you?” Princess Rhaenys asked Baela.
“About three moons,” Baela said.
“Have your symptoms been bad? I have a few tricks that might help,” his mother offered.
“They’re getting better,” Baela replied. Her tone was standoffish, and Jace could tell that she had not quite been prepared to be interrogated.
“You ought to come to Driftmark when your time is near,” Princess Rhaenys said, “Your mother would have, had she been able.”
Baela scowled, looking overwhelmed and annoyed and opened her mouth to respond but his mother was asking another question before she could.
“Have you thought about names yet?”
Jace wrapped a protective arm around Baela. “Mother. Princess,” he said warningly.
They both fell silent.
Baela took a breath. “I haven’t thought of where I would like to have the babe yet, Grandmother, but it will probably be my lord husband’s seat. And no, we have not discussed names.”
They both at least looked apologetic. “Sorry sweetling,” his mother said. “I didn't mean to overwhelm you.”
“Are you well?” Princess Rhaenys asked in lieu of any apology. It seemed to mean something more to Baela, who he could feel relax minutely at the words.
“I am more than well,” Baela assured her. Princess Rhaenys nodded solemnly.
“I am so happy for the both of you,” his mother said, “A babe is such a wonderful thing, truly. I remember—”
The door to the solar opened suddenly, and a servant entered, interrupting his mother’s reminiscing.
“Your Grace, there has been an incident in the yard with Prince Joffrey.”