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Jaehaerys Targaryen was born a healthy child, with his mother’s grey eyes and not a single hair on his infant head. His first cries were loud and clear, and mingled oddly, with his mother’s tears of joy and the crash of swords against swords at the foot of the Tower of Joy. By the time Eddard Stark reached his sister's room at the top of the tower her birthing bed had already become her deathbed. Yet, she still held her son, the wet nurse had barely been able to wipe his little face clean before his mother had demanded to hold her child, for she knew she would not have long to do so. And with her son in her arms she made her last request of her brother. The last desperate words to fall from the lips of the once brilliant winter rose were to beg her brother to protect her son, the only proof there would ever be of her and Rhaegar's love. It was for love of his sister that Eddard Stark was quick to claim this last piece of her as his own seed. In order to protect the innocent babe from the newly crowned King Robert Baratheon, for his friend had already allowed cruelty to be visited on the children of Rhaegar once, he could not allow him to do so again. And that should have been the end of it, the little Dragon prince would have been renamed Jon Snow and been raised within the warm walls of Winterfell as part of his uncle's family watched by all the North. He would have been known as the Bastard of Winterfell, the one mark of dishonor upon Eddard Stark, the bane of Catelyn Stark, a much loved brother to his siblings. But ignored by the realm at large until he came into his own as Lord Commander of the Night's Watch. All this would have been but for one thing. When the babe’s hair finally grew in, it was as fine a silver as his true Father’s had been.
The Lady Catelyn Stark
The newly married Catelyn Stark was practiced at being motherly and nurturing, having looked after her younger siblings after their mother’s death. And yet, she could not bring herself to care for the grey eyed babe that lay beside her own blue eyed son.
When she had been betrothed to Brandon Stark she had resigned herself to an unfaithful husband, it was known throughout the seven kingdoms that the wild wolf was overly fond of brothels and known to fall in with the maids. But with Eddard, quiet, noble, Eddard she had hoped for more than a loveless marriage surrounded by her husband's mistresses. She was sorely disappointed when Eddard had returned from the south without the sister he had gone to retrieve and instead with a babe not a month younger than her own. How she had raged to herself when he had demanded he be cared for with his half-brother, but her husband was adamant on the matter that he should be treated as any other Stark would be.
So now, 8 months since her husband's return she sat in the boys shared nursery finally in the warm walls of Winterfell gently rocking Robb in her arms as Jon Snow lay nearby in their crib sleeping the deep and complete sleep that only babies can. A wet nurse puttered about in the corner idly tidying up. As she rocked she began to compare the sons that had been born to her husband.
Robb had blue eyes and a round face; he was a healthy child but not too pudgy as some babies are wont to be. Jon was smaller with grey eyes and thinner limbs. Robb had been born with a full head of auburn locks and Jon was still bald, or no it looked as if some hair might finally be growing in. Catelyn paced closer, still rocking Robb gently in her arms, and peered down at Jon. Yes there was hair on his head, perhaps a pale blonde.
The color of his mother’s hair perhaps? They all whispered that it had been Ashara Dayne who tempted Ned away from his marriage bed. Could it be the pale locks of those desert people manifesting in this northern bastard? She reached down and touched the babe’s smooth head, leaning into the crib to examine it more closely. No, the hairs were too pale, too clear to be blonde.
Only one family had silver-white hair.
In a rush certain things became clear to Lady Catelyn Stark. The most joyful of which was that her husband had not in fact disgraced their marriage bed, the rest was treason. Her hand began to tremble. Only one man had the answers she now sought. Her grip on Robb tightened and she turned to the wet nurse on the other side of the room and ordered in a trembling voice, “Willa, go and fetch my husband.”
Sensing the desperation in her mistress the maid felt the need to inquire, “Is everything well my lady”
Catelyn steadied herself and smiled, “Yes, yes everything is fine. I simply need to speak with Ned.” With a nod and a curtsy Willa left in search of the Lord.
In the emptied room Catelyn turned and placed a sleeping Robb into the cribb beside his sleeping cousin. She then turned her attention to the babe she had hated a mere moment ago. The words Ned had spoken to her when he had arrived at the camp with the babe in his arms held new meaning. He had presented the tiny bundle in his arms in much the same way Catelyn had shown him her own son turning the babes face out from the comforting warmth of his arms to be seen by the world. “His name is Jon, he is my blood. ” Perhaps he had thought with those grey eyes and already slim features that the boy would have none of his sires' features. Clearly he should have waited till the boy's hair had grown out to make such an assumption.
“ Catelyn”, Eddard Stark called as he entered the room, “You sent for me?” He sounded surprised, which was to be expected at this point. She had not exactly been affectionate since their arrival in Winterfell. Some had gone so far as to call her cold, though she had been cordial in all things, there had been little of the budding companionship from just after their wedding. But perhaps with this revelation that would improve.
Catelyn was unsurprised to see his brother close at his heels. Benjen had been like a ghost since their arrival in Winterfell, the tall youngman’s thin frame seemed gaunt in the face of his grief. Eddard was barely any better and they had been nearly inseparable since the formal handing over of the lordship of the Keep. Catelyn thought it was understandable they had lost nearly all their immediate family in less then a year. All they had was one another, and the babes of course. However in the last few days there had been a change in Benjen as if he had come to some decision. Whatever it was, Catelyn, nor any of the keeps gossip mongers had been privy to his decision yet.
For a moment she thought of asking him to leave, but he was family now and Jon was more his nephew than hers to begin with. But how could she even start? To speak of this at all is treason under Robert's new reign. He had been mad in his hate for all that had dragon blood. Unable to find the words, she took a steadying breath and stepped away from the crib gesturing for them to come closer.
“Is there something wrong with the boys?” Eddard questioned concern burning in his eyes as he stepped forward and looked into the crib. He scanned the infants as if for injury but they were both well, sound asleep and dreaming. He looked up in confusion at his wife.
“Jon’s hair has grown in,” she said while gesturing at her own. By this time Benjen had stepped up behind his brother to inspect the babes.
He let out a little gasp, “It's white.” Benjen turned his head and looked at his brother in shock “How is that possible?”
But Ned was in too much shock to answer himself, his eyes locked on the little tuft of white hair on his nephews smooth head.
“ Yes Eddard” Catelyn breathed out “how is this possible?”
“Forgive me.” Were the first words out of the honourable Lord Stark's mouth “It was her last wish, I couldn’t think what else to do.” They didn’t have to ask who’s last wish it was he spoke of, they knew, after all this was Layanna’s son.
“Brother what really happened at the Tower of Joy?” Benjin asked, anger and grief laced his words.
The Maester and Old Nan, who had been helping Catelyn to acclimate to her duties in the North, had also taken time to tell her stories of when Winterfell had been full of Starks. Happier times that gave her a longing for many children to fill the halls with laughter once more. Many of their stories had featured the wild little Lyanna, the woman that the kingdom had been torn apart for not a year ago. She was beloved by all the people and had carried the Wolf Blood that seemed to have skipped over Eddard, as fierce as she was beautiful they would say. They told tales of her admirable riding skills and of the way she convinced her father to let her learn the sword. But most of all they told of how she had her brothers wrapped around her little finger.
It was that love that added a hot kind of passion to the normally stoic Starks in the room. Eddard paced away from the crib before he stopped and turned back to the two standing over the babes. “ This can never go beyond the three of us. I need your word on it.”
“And you have it brother just tell us”, was Benjen’s immediate reply.
Eddard shifted his gaze to his wife, “Catelyn?”
Catelyn looked into her husband's eyes, a man she had thought to have dishonored her not more than half an hour ago and she saw the man who had spoken his vows with such determination on their wedding night, and who had made love to her with the same conviction that very night. “I swear by the old gods and the new that nothing said here today will ever leave our confidences.”
With that Eddard sighed and dropped into the nursing chair and settled before the cribbs. “ It’s a shorter story than it should be but it comes down to this. I don’t believe Lyanna was taken by force. That never sat right with me. Layanna was strong, she knew how to fight and she did so well anyone who tried to take her by force would find her more than a worthy opponent. And yet she was taken from the heart of Winterfell without even a sound. No, she must have left of her own violation. When we arrived at the tower of joy the kingsguard were not keeping her prisoner they were guarding her, I realize that now, but then, there, nothing had been clear. We fought our way up and, by the time we reached the top, it was only myself and Harland Reed, he and the wetnurse that had helped Laynna are the only others that knew of these events. By the time we reached her, Laynna was already fading, she had Jon in her arms, rather Jaehaerys is what she called him. With her last breath she begged me to protect him. You know the rest.”
The room fell silent, its occupants contemplating the many implications of this revelation.
Catelyn finally had to break the silence with the question that had been burning in her mind since she made her discovery “Why name him your basterd?”
“We were in the south, I didn’t know what else to do. After what Robert did to Rhaegar’s other children.”
“Robert didn’t kill Rhaegar's children”
“No. But he didn’t stop it and when he saw '' Ned paused a look of grief and disgust passed over his stoic features before he gathered himself and continued, “When he saw he laughed. A great big bellowing laugh like he would when we were boys. He laughed over their bodies, Catelyn, not even cold yet and the way the Mountain left them gods I saw nothing as horrible through the whole of my battles. After bearing witness to that, and knowing he still has men searching for Ayres other children, I couldn’t let there be any hint that Rheager might have sired another child, especially not from Lyanna. It's why I bypassed the Red Keep on my return ”
Another silence fell as they ruminated over the horror that might have befallen the newly born Jon if his true parentage had been discovered in the south.
Benjen was the one to break the silence this time. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
Ned couldn’t look his brother in the eye. “The less people who knew the better, secrets have a way of getting out when they have too many keepers.”
Catelyn broke the brothers silent sadness. “Well with hair like that anyone with half a brain will know he is a royal bastard now.”
“He’s not a bastard.” Ned said with certainty. “At the tower I found Rhaegar and Lyanna’s letters in a chest, with their marriage cloak, and a rock shaped like a dragon's egg. ”
Catelyn was in shock “Then he is the rightful heir to the iron throne. And those letters are the proof. Eddard. He can’t stay here.”