They got one day. One day of happiness and calm. One day of peace in the Stormlands. One day when no one was in peril.

That day the sun shone, even in the usually rain-soaked Stormlands. The birds sang chipper tones and the flowers bloomed in vibrant colors. No stormwinds blew, only a gentle breeze rustled the grass where Joreen crawled. Her parents sat beside her. They had decided to venture out to the woods outside the castle for the day, in an attempt to forget their troubles. They knew the current calm wouldn't last. They were in the eye of the storm and at any moment it would make landfall once again.

Meera put her hand on her husband's right palm and stroked his fingers. The rest of his arm was covered in a stiff leather casing that went up to his elbow.

"Can you feel that?" she asked.

He nodded. "Yeah, I can feel it," he said with a sigh. "I can't bend it or lift it much, but I can feel it."

She interlaced her fingers with his. With some effort, he managed to bend his fingers around hers as well.

"At least you can hold my hand now," she said with a smile and squeezed his hand.

"I can," he replied. "But I can't do much else."

"It will get better."

"I hope so, because I need to be strong soon. When the king comes for us again. I know he will."

Meera leaned her head lightly on Gendry's shoulder. "He will," she sighed. " He won't give up. But we'll fight him."

"My forces are decimated after the wars. If the king attacks with all his men we'll have no chance. He'll crush us. He'll crush our daughter. I can't let him. I need to do something."

"Lord Arryn and Lord Lannister have sworn to be loyal to you in the past. Since the situation in Highgarden is resolved now you could ask for them to stand with you against the king. Lord Arryn still has sizeable armies."

"I can't ask that of them. They've both just became fathers as well. I can't ask them to walk away from their families to stand up for my family. Not against a king who has a dragon on his side."

"You should still ask them. Let them make their own decisions. They wouldn't just do it for our family. They would do it for their own families as well. To make sure this kingdom is safe for their children to grow up in."

As on cue, Joreen put some grass in her mouth and started chewing on it. "Jory, don't eat that!" Meera exclaimed and snatched her daughter up from the ground.

"Here," she said to her husband. "Hold this little wildling while I put down a blanket for her to roll on instead."

She put a flailing and drooling Joreen in her husband's lap and he used a rag to wipe off the little girl's mouth. As parents to a messy little girl, they had quickly learned to always carry around rags and towels to clean her up with.

"Goooooh," Joreen protested against her father's treatment of her.

"At least you get to roll around in the grass, Jory," Gendry said to his daughter while bouncing her in his lap. "I'm not sure I even saw grass before I left the orphanage. The septas kept us inside most of the time."

Meera gave her husband a horrified look. "I still don't think she should eat the grass though," she said and sat down beside them and patted her husband's hand again. "But I will certainly make sure she gets to be outside. She won't be a pampered little lady who is afraid of mud and grass stains."

"I don't think that is in any danger of happening with you as her mother," he said and smiled at his wife.

She smiled back. "Let me get that blanket so that you can put her down," she said and started getting up again.

"I can hold her for a while," he said and looked down at the little girl who seemed to have made herself comfortable nuzzled against his chest. "At least I can hold her. I can't lift her or carry her put at least I can hold her in my arms when I'm seated."

"You'll be able to lift her and carry her when your arm gets better," Meera replied.

"She might be too big then."

"Then you can do it with the next child."

He didn't seem to register the words at first as Joreen fuzzed and moved around in his lap, but suddenly he looked up at his wife.

"You mean..." he started, unable to find the words.

She nodded. "It seems like it. It feels just like last time."

With their daughter still in his arm, he inched closer to his wife. With some effort, he put his right hand up to caress her cheek before he leaned in to kiss her. The kiss felt the same as that first time, on a balcony overlooking King's Landing. Warm, safe, and exhilarating.

"I never had a family," he said. "Not until I met you. Now I have everything."

"You'll have a big family soon if we keep up this pace," she replied with a cheeky smile.

"Gaaahgah," Joreen added and reached out her hand to pull her mother's hair. She was apparently very excited about becoming a big sister.

That day everything was perfect, but they only got that one day. Before their world shattered once again.

***

Early morning sunshine and Joreen's cries woke Meera up the next morning.

She sighed and walked up to her daughter's crib. The little girl slept in a cot in their room since they were yet to actually have her sleep in the nursery that had been set up. She seemed too small to sleep so far away.

"Couldn't you sleep just a little bit longer, Jory," she said as she picked the little girl up. "You're going to wake your father."

Her husband slept peacefully for once. The pain in his arm and head made it hard for him to sleep still. Meera sat down beside him on the bed to nurse the little girl, hoping that Joreen would go back to sleep afterward. Unfortunately, that didn't seem to be the case.

Meera looked out the window as Joreen cooed and flailed on the bed. The woods outside looked very inviting as they basked in sunshine. "You want to go outside, Jory?" she asked the little girl. "You can hunt together with your mother."

The baby didn't protest so Meera strapped Joreen to her chest, using a long scarf that Marya had shown her how to tie around the baby, and quietly left the room. She just gave Gendry a quick kiss on the forehead before heading out.

If only she had known how long it would be until she kissed him again.

Meera had longed for her hunting trips while they had been at Cape Wrath. Out in the woods she felt in her element, she felt like herself, she felt free. She was a mother now, but she was still Meera. She was still the same as she had always been, and in the woods, she truly felt that. Hopefully, Joreen would experience the same connection when she got older.

So with her baby fastly secured to her chest, a quiver and arrows on her back, and her spear in her hand, Meera made her way to the woods. Even at this early hours the bushes and fields were full of life and sounds. Birds chirped in the trees, rabbits scurried in the grass, insects buzzed in the air.

And a baby wailed on her chest.

Joreen seemed to have liked the experience at first but she was definitely not enjoying it anymore.

Meera sat down on a log and loosened the baby from her restraints. Joreen immediately quieted down.

"You just want to move your little arms and legs around, don't you, Jory?" Meera said to the little girl who laid on the scarf in the grass in front of her. She grabbed Joreen's arms and helped her flap them around like little wings. Joreen giggled in excitement.

Then Meera heard a sound. Just a hint at first. A branch that broke. Then footsteps. Voices.

Meera grabbed her spear. She let Joreen stay on the ground so she could have her hands free.

A man stepped into the clearing. Tall, bearded, and with an ominous smile on his lips. She had seen him before, in the capital. Ser Bronn, the king's trusted commander. A couple of more men stepped out behind him.

"Lady Baratheon," he said. "Just who I was looking for."

"What are you doing here?" Meera asked. Fear stirred in her body but she did her best not to show it. "How did you get into the Stormlands? My husband enforced the border."

"I have my ways to get where I want," Bronn replied with a smirk. "There are many roads into the Stormlands and your husband doesn't have the soldiers to protect them all."

Meera heard Joreen starting to cry behind her. The cry cut right to Meera's heart and made tears fall down her cheeks. Joreen was so vulnerable and innocent. But she couldn't console her daughter right now.

"So what are you doing here?" she asked in a trembling voice.

"I've come to take you to the king," Bronn replied in an ominous tone.

"Well, I'm not going with you," she said and pointed her spear towards his throat. "I'm not going to him."

"I think you will. You will drop that spear on the ground because otherwise, my men will put an arrow into your daughter's skull."

The men behind him lifted their bows and aimed towards Joreen. Meera wanted to scream, but she didn't. She wanted to throw herself in front of those arrows, but she didn't. Because she knew she needed to act calmly to save her daughter.

With an audible thump, Meera dropped her spear. There was no other option.

But at that moment she saw something, a movement in the trees on the hill above the meadow. A faint sliver of hope.

Bronn was soon at Meera's side and brusquely pulled her hands behind her back. It hurt. Then he muffled her and put a bag over her head. All she could hear was the scream of her daughter. It cut through everything. It made her whole body ache. It made her unable to stop crying.

"Please don't take my daughter," she said through tears. "Leave her alone."

"As you wish, Lady Baratheon," Bronn replied. "The wolves will get to her soon enough anyway."

The wolves were many in these woods. Meera knew that. She knew that a baby would have no chance against them. But yet she had to ask Bronn to leave the girl. Because she had seen the trees move.

"Are you not going kill the girl?" she heard one of the men ask Bronn. "The king told you to."

"I've done many despicable things in my life," Bronn replied with a sigh. "But I won't kill a baby with my own hands. She'll perish in the woods anyway."

Meera could hear the screams for a long while as Bronn led her away. Joreen was left all alone in the forest, and she was scared. The screams cut into her mother's heart like a sharp dagger. Relentless and painful.

Eventually, Meera couldn't hear the screams anymore. All she could do was hope she was right about the trees.

Author's Note: One to go...