What have you done?!

Elena's eyes fluttered open, Damon's voice ringing through her head like an alarm. Her head was pounding, her leg throbbing and her stomach was feeling like it was ready to explode.

But the feeling of the soft sheets against her arms, the feeling of the mattress under her body let her know that she was safe. That she was somewhere where Ramsay couldn't hurt her.

Elena sat up, holding her throbbing head as she let out a loud groan. Taking in the room she was in she soon discovered that she was back in her old room. They were in Winterfell.

Together with that thought came the doubt. What if this was another of Ramsay's tricks, what if she was actually still captured only instead of in a cell he locked her up in her room.

With that fear came the memories of that what happened before. Elena remembered the disappointed look on Damon's face. The look that almost literally screamed that he would rather have his brother back instead of her.

She still didn't understand what was happening at that moment. What had Damon planned to do? Was he killing his own brother? Somewhere deep down Elena was angry at Damon, knowing that he was the reason why their mother had died but above all she was angry about the fact that he had kept the truth from her.

"Please, I don't have any time for this right now." Elena heard Robb's deep voice from the other side of the wall. Her eyes widened as she shot up from the bed and ran towards the door, ignoring the pain in her leg as she laid her ear against the cold wood. She wasn't sure if it was truly Robb, maybe her mind was fooling her.

"It's Stannis, he wants to speak to you." Steven said, he sounded worried and exhausted. Elena smiled, knowing he was all right. She almost opened the door but Robb's voice stopped her from doing so.

"He can wait." Robb growled but then softly added. "Elena is still not awake and after Louis' funeral yesterday I really am not in the mood to speak to him."

Louis' funeral. Elena took in a deep breath and pressed her eyes shut, laying her forehead against the door. She knew this would happen. She knew she failed him. Instead of flying away from the castle she should've went back to Louis to save him.

"Steven..." Robb sounded tired. Elena supressed her sobs while continuing to listen to his voice. At least he was still alive. "I can't rule as a king on my own, not anymore. With all that's happened, all that we've lost, I just can't."

Robb frowned when an idea popped up in his head after thinking about his father. He helped his friend, Robert Baratheon, with ruling his kingdom.
"Steven." Robb repeated, his voice more confident than before. "I name you hand of the king, from now on you can speak in my name and help me rule as king in the north."

"What?" Elena heard Steven gasp.

"You're more fitted for this job than anyone I have ever known in my entire life. I've been thinking about this for a while now. I wish I could name you king, but it doesn't work like that." Robb explained. "I'm sure you will do the right thing."

"Your grace, I'm just a guardian." Steven stammered. Elena tried to concentrate on their voices instead of on the agonizing pain in her heart. "I don't know anything about ruling, I'm a farmer. I'm honoured but I don't think I'm ready for this."

"That's why I chose you." Robb said. "You know the value of justice, you know wrong from right because you've endured them both. As a guardian you always put the safety of other people above your own. That's a trade that is most important in leadership. "

"You're not just a guardian, Steven." Robb smiled and patted his shoulder. "You're the leader that everyone has been looking for."

Steven nodded and smiled slightly, thanking Robb. "Now." Robb sighed. "I'm going to check up on Elena again."

Elena heard him grasp the door handle and stepped back from the door.

"Robb." Steven said, stopping him from entering the chamber.

"If you're going to sit beside her for 4 days in a row again, you can at least bring a blanket with you." Elena heard the smile through Steven's voice.

"Thank you, Steven. I'll be fine." Robb dismissed him. Elena heard Steven's footsteps walking in the hallway, probably to tell Stannis about Robb's absence.

The door creaked as Robb entered the room with his head bowed down. Elena saw his blue eyes from under his brown curls. First he looked at the floor but then his eyes went up, frowning when he saw someone standing.

"Elena?" Robb's eyes widened when his eyes landed on her figure. "I, I don't understand, an hour ago you were-"

Elena ran towards him and immediately wrapped her arms around his chest, burying her face in the crook of his neck. Robb took his time to respond and mumbled, too startled about the fact that she was standing. Nevertheless his muscular arms wrapped around her small frame and pulled her closer.

"You're all right, you're all right." Robb whispered when Elena started to cry, one of his hands softly rubbing circles on her back.

"You're safe." Robb whispered and placed a soft kiss on the top of her head. He was shaking, his mind still processing the fact that she was back with him.

"Don't ever do that to me again, you hear me?" Robb's voice broke at the end, tears escaping his eyes while he was planting more kisses on the top of her head. "You scared the fuck out of me."

Elena nodded with her face buried in his clothes, inhaling the scent of them. It was then that she realized that all along he wasn't someone she just made up in her mind to keep herself sane.

Elena slightly pushed herself from Robb so she could look him in the eye. "Sansa, Is she safe? Is she here?!"

"Yes, she's all right." Robb whispered, laying one of his hands against her cheek. He sighed and laid his forehead against hers, closing his eyes.

"I'm so sorry, Robb. I should've listened to you when you said it wasn't safe." Elena sobbed and clenched his shirt in her fists.

"No, don't do that." Robb whispered and lifted her chin up so she looked at him. "Don't apologize. It wasn't your fault."

"Ramsay he-" Elena sobbed and clenched her fists even tighter than before. Her body started to shake, her lips trembling. "He tortured us, he..."

"Ssssh." Robb shushed her, pulling her closer against him and nuzzled his face in her hair. "I know, I know. Ella has already healed most of your injuries. I'm afraid though that she's incapable to heal the most severe ones."

"We'll have to heal them over time." Robb whispered, thinking about the mental injuries Elena must have now. "Just remember, I'm here for you."

"I know." Elena pulled back again and looked up at Robb. She stood up on her toes to reach him and pressed her lips against his. One of her hands pulled him closer by the back of his neck.

For the first time in weeks, she finally felt safe again. Maybe it was just the feeling of his arms around her, the warmth radiating from his body. Or maybe the familiar scent he brought with him.

But right now all that mattered to Elena was the fact that he was there, standing and breathing. Alive.

~

"Damon, I wanted to-" Steven spoke after he had entered Damon's room. He saw him sitting in the window, his feet dangling off the edge.

"He has it, he has the doll." Damon said, thinking that was what Steven wanted to hear. "That was our last chance, our last chance at taking him alive. Now my brother either has to die or all of the world will succumb to his power."

"Damon..." Steven sighed, his fingers pressing against his forehead. It was something he did quite often when he was stressed out.

"God, I want to be so mad at Elena for ruining our last chance!" Damon groaned, stepped away from the window and started pacing while pulling on the roots of his hair.

"She was disoriented, distressed. It wasn't her fault." Steven objected.

"I know, that's what is so frustrating about this whole situation!" Damon yelled and started to pull on his hair in frustration. "There is nobody to blame and I hate it!"

Damon threw a vase against the wall and then plumped down on his bed, letting out a deep sigh as he buried his face in his hands. "I'll have to kill my own brother." Damon spoke softly. "I'm not sure if I'm capable of doing that."

"Maybe you aren't." Steven sat down next to him. "Damon, I think I've found another way."

"What are you talking about?" Damon lifted his head from his hands and looked at Steven.

"There was a woman in the dungeons with Louis. I got her out of there. She was talking about a prophecy about the darkness and its end." Steven told Damon. "It was your daughter."

"What?" Damon stood up immediately, his heart racing and his head pounding.

"She has been with Ethan this entire time, Damon. He didn't kill her." Steven stood up also and placed his hand on Damon's shoulder, trying to calm him down. "She's in the dungeons, Stannis doesn't trust her."

"My daughter." Damon stammered. For the first time in his life Steven saw tears forming in his friend's eyes. Damon leaned against the wall for support. "My own daughter is alive."

"Yes and she has caused herself a lot of trouble." Steven sighed.

"What are you talking about?" Damon looked up at him, his hands shaking. He didn't know if he was ready to be a father again. It had been 16 years since he last saw his daughter, 16 years since he last heard her laugh. She would be a stranger to him.

"She can bring people back from the dead." Steven explained but didn't continue, trying to find the words to tell Damon.

"And?!" Damon urged him to go on.

"She revived Gillian, Elena's best friend." Steven sighed. He shook his head, knowing this wasn't enough to explain. "Elena's already in a weak state, if she sees Gillian, someone who died in her arms, she will break. Aidan told me she had an encounter with darkness during the battle and that she almost let it in. Now imagine what would happen if she sees her lost friend."

"We could've known that this would happen." Damon sighed and sat down again. "Dammit!" He yelled.

"Maybe you can show her how to control it." Steven said.

"Maybe." Damon clenched his jaw. "You know thay it took me 2 years to control it, right? We don't have that much time if what you say is true, that she already almost let it in."

"We can at least try, we have no other choice." Steven sighed.

"I will see what I can do." Damon nodded. "But first, I want to see my daughter."

~

"Steven!" Elena yelled. He saw him standing in the courtyard, talking to Stannis and Melisandre. It had been 8 hours since she woke up, the first 7 she spent with Robb.

"Elena?" Steven frowned but then groaned when Elena jumped into his arms and nearly crushed his ribs. "It's good to see you too." Steven chuckled and embraced her.

"You don't know how much I missed you." Elena whispered but Steven didn't hear her, her words were muffled because she was buried in his warm clothes.

"Shouldn't you be in bed, resting?" Steven said and held her upper arms, forcing her to look at him.

"I've done enough staying in one place for the coming months." Elena said, smiling faintly. Then her face turned grim, her eyes filling with sadness as she looked into his blue eyes. "I'm so sorry about what happened to Louis, it was all my fault Steve. If I hadn't been so determined to save Sansa he would still be here."

"No, I'm sorry, Elena." Steve smiled sadly. "I shouldn't have let you go. But no matter whose fault it is, it always comes down to one thing. Louis wouldn't want us to dwell on the past. He would want us to keep on fighting, okay?"

"Okay." Elena nodded and casted her eyes down to the floor. Only if it were that easy.

"Come back here!" Someone screamed from inside the castle. Steven and Elena both turned their heads towards the location, both frowning.

The doors suddenly slammed open, revealing a man with mid-length dirt covered dark brown hair and frantic dark brown eyes. He ran into the courtyard while wearing dirty clothes covered in dried blood.

"Stand still!" A guard ran through the door and chased him.

The prisoner looked back at his pursuer but then tripped, falling face-first in the frozen mud. Elena ran towards him, thinking that she could help the guards.

"Elena, step away from him." Steven took in a deep breath when he recognized the clothes the man was wearing. "Elena, please, get back inside."

She turned around and looked at Steven, now even more curious than before. The man slowly stood up, the way his body moved and looked seemed familiar to Elena.

"Please Elena, you don't want to see this." Steven begged but Elena only spared him a glance. She slowly walked towards the prisoner, her fingers wrapping around Gillian's dagger on her belt. Seeing the gash in his chest, with only dried blood covering it she thought it was a white walker.

The man turned towards the approaching human, his dark brown eyes looking up at hers. There was no sign of recognition in his eyes, not even a glimpse. His eyes were as empty as a corpse. But they weren't icy white, his skin wasn't covered with ice. He wasn't a white walker, no, he was something entirely else.

Elena narrowed her eyes, not seeing much due to the mud covering his face. But the familiarity in his eyes were enough for her to recognize him anywhere. The dagger fell to the floor as Elena sucked in a deep breath.

"Gillian."

Author's note

Hellooo there little guardians

MERRY CHRISTMAS!! I hope you're all having a great time, I am after all. There are like a lot of presents waiting under the Christmas tree to be opened, like A LOT. You won't believe. (not that that's the most fun today though, my brother is finally home after half a year and it was horrible)

I wanted to write a Christmas special but then I remembered that they don't have Christmas in westeros, dammit. So I reunited Gillian and Elena hoping that that was enough Christmas-y for you guys xd

That was it for this chapter, again, Merry Christmas and see you next chapter!