Chapter Text
Lyanna Stark remembered the day she gave birth to Jon. She was only 18 years old at the time, her boyfriend Chris Snow was just sitting in the chair by the corner, being of no support what so ever.
“Can you please hold my hand? I’m in a lot of pain.” Lyanna pleaded to Chris.
Chris would just look at her annoyed and reply, “that is why you ask for some pain medicine, and…. if you can leave me some when the nurse is not looking.” He would just smirk and wink at her. Lyanna knew deep in her heart Chris was no good for her, everyone told her, but she was just too stubborn to listen. She wanted to prove everyone wrong. Chris was a nice guy, when he didn’t drink and do drugs, but that was hardly never now.She had meet him at a party the year previously that she was not supposed to be at. She had lied to her parents regarding where she was going. But for Lyanna that started to become an everyday occurrence.
Lyanna grew up in Winterfell, the Starks were well known around town, her father was the head pastor at the Winterfell Church. Lyanna had two brothers, Ned who was following in their father’s footsteps and becoming a pastor himself and then there was her younger brother Benjen. Growing up Lyanna was either at home or at church. She never had many friends except for the ones at church and even then, her family was always strict on who Lyanna could see and not see, especially when it came to boys. Imagine a boy going up to Lyanna and asking for a date and then imagine two guys almost 6 feet tall just staring down at you waiting for you to make some type of move, so suffice to say Lyanna never went out.
But everything changed for Lyanna the day she met Chris Snow. Chris was 6 feet, with wild dirty blonde curly hair, the deepest blues eyes she had ever seen, the poutiest kissable red lips and very brooding. Lyanna fell for him hard. To the 17-year-old it felt like love at first sight, but to the 37-year-old it more like lust and infuation at first sight. When Chris would look at her she felt like she was the only women in the world. He made her feel beautiful and sexy. He brought out wants in her she never knew she had. The first night she had made out with him, she had let him touch her in places that her mother always told her was going to be just for her husband, and Chris was most definitely not her husband, but damn did it feel good.
In the beginning she would sneak around with Chris when they would go out, because she knew her parents wouldn’t approve. Chris was older, he drank, did drugs and had his own apartment. She would say she would be at some friend’s house or another, but she would be with Chris at his apartment or they would be parked outside of town at an abandoned barn and be messing around in the back of his car.
Lyanna didn’t want to lie to her parents anymore and finally told them about Chris, “Daddy I have something I want to tell you and mom.” Her parents looked at her with so much love trust in their eyes. Her brothers were also at the house that day and so was Catelyn, her sister in law of three months.
“Of course, sweetheart, what is it?”
“Umm…” Lyanna was wringing her hands and fingers together nervously, “I have a friend….and ummm…his name is Chris Snow….and I would like to go out with him.” Just forgetting to mention the fact that they had been sneaking around with him for the past two months.
Her family looked at her surprised, Lyanna had never mentioned a boy’s name in her life and they were all caught off guard. “Okay” her father spoke, “How old is this friend of yours?”
“He’s 20 years old.”
“And how exactly did you meet this 20-year-old Chris.” Her brother Ned asked.
Lyanna looked at him annoyed, “I actually meet him at the church, he was in one of the bible classes that I was teaching.” Lyanna lied. Her parents wouldn’t know if it was true or not, she had taught bible classes for the past two years at the church and her family usually wasn’t in the classes with her. Her classes usually consisted of teenagers from school or some of the students from the college in town.
Her dad nodded his head, “Okay that is fine, you may go out with this Chris, but I first want to meet him.” Lyanna nodded and watched her dad and brothers walk out.
Catelyn came and stood next to Lyanna, “So, how did you really meet this Chris?”
Lyanna looked at Catelyn surprised, “How did you know?!”
Catelyn smiled, “I was once seventeen, I know how it works.”
Lyanna looked around to make sure no one was left in the room, “Okay, but first promise me you won’t tell Ned or anyone else.” Catelyn nodded. “I meet him at a party that I wasn’t supposed to be at.”
“Ah, okay. But sweetheart just be careful, he is 20 and your still only 17, just don’t do certain things you’re not supposed to do or comfortable doing. Do you understand what I am saying?” Catelyn put a reassuring hand on her.
Lyanna gave her a smile, “Of course, I would never.” Catelyn gave her a hug and walked away. Lyanna looked relived, now she just had to talk to Chris and beg him to act a little different around her family so they would approve of him. But all that begging was for naught.
When she brought Chris around to her family, all hell had broken loose. He was an hour late to Sunday dinner and then on top of that he came drunk and smelled like weed. Chris thought it was the funniest thing in the world, her brothers and parents…. not so much. Her parents had forbidden her to see him ever again. Her brothers told her if they saw Chris with her they would take care of him and not in a good way. Catelyn also tried to dissuade Lyanna from seeing him again. Lyanna knew she should stay away from Chris but she wanted him, she needed him, and she was going to be with him, no matter how much sneaking around she had to do.
On one of the nights that she had managed to sneak away was spent at Chris’s apartment was the first time they had slept together, which wasn’t the fondest memory for her. She really didn’t want to sleep with him, but he got really upset with her when she tried to push him away. He started accusing her of being a tease, and made it seem like she owed it to him in some way, he kept telling her he loved her more then she loved him and when she would protest, he told her, “So prove it”. And he said there was only one way to prove it to him. So, she reluctantly agreed. Lyanna always imagined her first time to be slow and pleasurable, not hard and fast. He was rough with her and before she knew it, it was over. She was disappointed. Chris could tell the disappoint on her face, so he told her, “Don’t worry about it babe, the more we do it, the better it will be.” And her being a naïve 17-year-old, believed him or at least tried.
When she found out she was pregnant, she had never been more scared in her life, scared of what her parents and brothers might say to her, scared of what her brothers would do to Chris and scared of what Chris would say to her. When she told her mom, her mom stared at her and just walked out of the room wordlessly. Her father refused to speak with her, her brothers were upset but they didn’t ignore her like her parents. Catelyn was 5 months pregnant at the time so she just hugged Lyanna and told her she would be there for her no matter what, and Eddard tried to be the middle man between Lyanna and their parents, but their parents wouldn’t budge, they were disappointed in her and they told her to leave. Eddard and Catelyn tried to get her to come stay with them but Lyanna refused.
So, she went and stayed with Chris at his apartment. Being pregnant and living with Chris had finally opened up Lyanna’s eyes regarding him. She knew he didn’t care for her or for their baby. All he cared about was getting drunk and doing drugs. When they would argue about his partying ways he would leave in a rage and not come back for days. When he would be gone, Lyanna would be desperate because he was the one with money, and when he was gone there was no way for Lyanna to eat. One day her brothers had shown up at the apartment to check on her and they were both heartbroken to see the condition she was living in. When Lyanna had gone to the restroom, Benjen started to look around and noticed that there was no food in the cupboards or refrigerator, except for beer. They wanted to take her home that moment, but Lyanna had refused. She said she had to live with her choices and was going to make the most of her situation. So, they left, but not before they went and got her some food to last her a few days. One Sunday a week after her brothers had come by Lyanna opened the front door and found a week’s worth of groceries. Whoever did it, would come early in the mornings when she was sleeping and leave so she never knew which of her brothers did it.
Finally, the day came when her water had broken. It was Christmas Eve and she was alone in the apartment as usual. Chris had left early in the morning and promised to be back in 5 minutes, nearly three hours had passed. She started to feel the contractions an hour into Chris being gone, finally around the fourth hour the contractions were closer and stronger. Chris finally came stumbling through the door drunk as usual.
Lyanna got off the couch frantically and started walking towards Chris, “I need to go to the hospital, my water broke.”
“Fuck! Now! Can’t you wait? I have a headache and I want to take a nap."
“No Chris I can’t, I’ve been waiting for you for the past four hours, this baby is coming, please.” Lyanna looked at Chris and pleaded, which seemed to have sobered Chris up a bit, he just nodded his head and grabbed her by the hand and took her to the hospital.
When Lyanna was pushing, Chris was in the corner chair trying to sleep off his hang over. She knew he would be no support what so ever, but it still broke her heart. She really needed her family, she needed her mom. With one last push her baby was out. When the nurses put the crying infant on Lyanna’s chest she felt a warm sensation go through her body, that warmed her from her head all the way to her toes. In that very moment her baby had stopped crying and started to suckle his way towards her breast. She looked down at him and finally felt what real love was. He was the love of her life.
Jon had only been a few hours old when he was crying hysterically, Lyanna was trying to calm him down, she tried everything from feeding him, to rocking, to swaddling and even checked his diaper, but he kept crying, and Chris was getting annoyed, “why won’t he shut up, shut him up, I have a headache!”
Lyanna looked up at Chris, “I’m sorry, I’m trying but he won’t stop, can you please try holding him.” Finally, Chris got up from his chair and held his son for the first time. Jon instantly stopped crying and stared at his father. This made Chris feel something he had never felt before, “See he just wanted his daddy to hold him” Lyanna said smiling, but Chris got this look across his face, “Why doesn’t he look like me?” Lyanna looked at them both, “What are you talking about? Look at this hair, he has a head full of curly hair like you, and he has your nose. I hope he has your eyes, I love your blue eyes.” Chris looked at Lyanna and nodded his head but didn’t say anything and continued to hold Jon.
A few hours later, while Lyanna and Jon slept, Chris got up from his chair and went and looked at Jon in his little portable crib. He took a picture of Jon, kissed him on his forehead and he took a picture of a sleeping Lyanna and walked out the door. When Lyanna woke up an hour later, Chris was not in the room, Lyanna shook her head, “Figures”. But around him being gone for 4 hours Lyanna had started to worry, and then 8 hours had passed and then Christmas came and went. Lyanna tried calling Chris’s apartment but no one answered. She tried calling some of his friends, but they were all to hung over to understand what was going on. Finally, on day two she was discharged from the hospital and went and sat outside with Jon with nowhere to go. She got on a bus and went straight to the apartment, but when she got there, it was empty, it was as if there had never been a Chris Snow living there. Lyanna tried going to a shelter for women and children, but they told her they were full, in order to get a place to stay she had to wait in line early in the morning. Lyanna looked down at Jon and started crying, she had already felt like a failure as mother to her son, she couldn’t even get them a safe place to stay. So, she finally did what she should have done months ago.
“Ned…it’s me…I need…help.” Lyanna sobbed so much on the phone, it took Ned a good five minutes to calm her down and tell him where she was at so he could come and pick her up.
When Ned brought Lyanna home, she noticed a little one in Catelyn’s arms. A few months prior Catelyn had given birth to their first child, Robb or full name Robert Stark. He looked just like his mother.
Lyanna was finally calm enough to tell Ned and Catelyn what had happened. Ned was mad, he called up Benjen to see if they could go find Chris somewhere in town. They had gone to three different bars and even went to his friends house that Lyanna had given them the address to, but no one had seen Chris in days they said. They finally gave up and went back home and told Lyanna they couldn’t find him anywhere.
“How could I be so stupid?” Lyanna was asking Catelyn.
It was late at night and the boys had woken up their mothers for their feedings, so they both were having a heart to heart. Catelyn gave Lyanna a reassuring smile. “Not stupid, just in love.”
“But I have ruined my life, and I will probably ruin my child’s life. My parents hate me, they won’t even talk to me. And I feel like such a burden to you and Ned. You have a child of your own, I shouldn’t be here. We should be with Jon’s father, he should be taking care of us.” Tears were falling from her eyes and she just wanted to scream.
“You have not ruined your life…its…you’re just facing an obstacle right now. Everything will work its way out. And you have NOT ruined Jon’s life, just look at him.” Lyanna looked down at Jon, his big grey eyes just staring at his mother with so much love. “He is going to make your life better.”
After staying for weeks with Ned and Catelyn, Lyanna got a surprise visit from her parents. From the moment they lied eyes on Jon they had forgotten everything in the past. They made Lyanna and Jon move back into the house with them. At first Lyanna didn’t want to, she was still hurt her parents had kicked her out. Her parents had apologized and said that yes, they were disappointed in her but they were more disappointed in themselves and felt they had failed her as parents when she got pregnant. Lyanna finally came around and moved back in with her parents.
Her parents made her get a job to help support her and Jon. Lyanna’s mom watched Jon while she was working. They also told her to go back to school and they would help her out as much as possible, they wanted her to get an education, because they knew it was the only way Lyanna would be able to support her and Jon. She wasn’t going to get far as a high school dropout.
As the months passed by things had been looking up for Lyanna and Jon. Lyanna was waitressing and saving money on the side. After a year she had saved enough to take some night classes at Winterfell Community College. She was hoping to get a degree in finance.
One night in her Econ 102 class the teacher had made an announcement. “So, we will be doing a project over the next couple of months. I have paired you into partners already and with your partner you will be creating a start up company. I want you to report the step by step process of this company. I want to know how you will start this company, how you will be financing this company and so forth. The rest of the instructions are in this packet. Instead of a final at the end of the semester, this will be taking its place, so you better show some effort. I have the list of partners up at the desk, so please come up and get your packet and meet your partner.
Lyanna sighed, great she had to work with someone. Lyanna hated group projects, even in elementary school, she preferred to work alone. She got up and went to the desk and saw her name. And then finally saw who she would be working with. She had heard the guy’s name in class a few times and heard him ask questions, so she knew who he was. She walked over to his desk and sat next to him.
“Hi, umm, my name is Lyanna and I guess we are partners.”
He looked up and smiled, “Well, hello Lyanna, my name is Rhaegar.”