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King’s Landing was much the same as Myrcella remembered it. Her old bedroom had not changed nor had Mother. Tommen was grown a lot taller and of course Joffrey was gone. She found that she did not like the attention of being a princess as much as she once had. She didn’t like the attention of her mother as much as she once had either. Trystane was gone and Myrcella only wanted to be left alone. She didn’t need mother fussing over her hair and sending tailors to make new dresses and cooks to prepare her favorite foods. None of that fixed the one thing that was tearing her apart. She was supposed to be dead and Trystane had died in her place. It had been an accident but he was dead all the same.
On her third night back in her old bedchamber, Myrcella woke in the middle of the night from yet another nightmare about Trystane’s death. She curled up into a ball, hugging her knees and tried to stop the tears and sobs that wracked her body. An hour passed and she could take the inner pain no longer. She climbed out of bed, put on a robe over her sleeping shift, and headed towards the Kingsguard rooms. She only hesitated a moment when she reached the Lord Commander’s door. She had seen her father Ser Jaime at dinner twice since she had been home but never had a chance to speak with him. Mother still believed that she didn’t know he was her father. She tried to keep them distant from each other like always. Myrcella needed to see him without all that artificial distance. She knocked lightly on the thick wooden door.
“Myrcella? You’ve been crying.” Jaime said on opening the door.
She nodded. “Can I come in?”
“Of course.” He stepped aside and opened the door further to allow her to enter. “How can I help?” He asked as he closed the door behind her.
Before she could form the words to answer, Myrcella burst into tears again. “I just came for a hug, and so I wouldn’t be alone.” She sobbed.
And before she could say anything further her father was hugging her firmly. His presence was even more comforting than he had expected it to be. She lay her head on his shoulder and allowed herself to cry rather than continue the constant struggle to hold back the tears as she’d been doing for the past week.
“I’ll go back to Dorne and I’ll kill them.” Her father was saying. “No one can hurt you like this and not pay for it.”
“You can’t do that.” Myrcella said pulling away from him just slightly and looking up to meet his eyes.
“Why not?” He asked her confused.
“Because there’s something else you have to do first.” Myrcella told him. “I’ve heard the stories and rumors. I know you promised to bring Sansa and Arya Stark home to Winterfell. And I know that what people say about you isn’t true. You’re not an oathbreaker. There is honor in you. You only have prove to them what I already know to be true.”
Ser Jaime seemed to be at a loss for words. “You’d prefer I help the Starks rather than avenge Trystane?”
“Trystane was an accident. I know they meant to kill me but....I don’t care about me...I like Sansa and Arya. Their home was taken from them and their families all killed and they had no part in any of that. Sansa should go home. It’s not fair to keep her here. And it’s not fair that people should believe you have no honor when I know you do. You can fix all that.”
Jaime hugged her a little tighter and kissed her on the forehead. “You amaze me sometimes, daughter. You are the most unselfish person I know.”
“So you’ll do it, Father?” She asked him hopefully.
“For your sake I would do anything.” He said.
And she knew he truly would.
