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Someone was harming children in the city and assigned to the case, Jon and Jaime were working around the clock to find whoever it was and stop them. It wasn’t easy though because the person wasn’t sticking to a particular type. Boys, girls, ages, race. It all changed with each new victim found and Jon didn’t want Sansa, with their daughter, staying at their apartment alone anymore with him working so much and hardly home. Their apartment building was perfectly safe with an always-locked lobby in addition to a twenty-four hour security guard but still, Sansa didn’t protest. She simply packed things for her and Ros and went to stay at her parents’ house. Sometimes, cases – especially a case like this – just hit Jon harder than others and Sansa did anything she could to help ease his mind – just a little. And if that meant staying with her parents instead of at their apartment then that is what she would do.
On her playmat spread on the floor of the family room, Ros was sitting and happily playing with her grandpa, Ned spread out on his side next to her. Sansa was close by, sitting at the kitchen table and while keeping one eye on her daughter – just to see what she and her dad were up to – she worked on her doctorate, typing away on her laptop. It was taking longer than she would have liked but it couldn’t be helped. She was a mother full-time and continuing her work through her charity at the Ros Wallace center full-time and she was only one woman. Rickon sat across from her, working on his own homework, and Catelyn was sitting in her armchair, sipping from a glass of wine and watching her husband and granddaughter on the floor with a smile.
“What’s this one, Rosie?” Ned asked, holding up one of her plastic blocks.
The toddler leaned towards the triangle-shaped block with her finger pointing. “Pizza!” She exclaimed knowingly.
Catelyn laughed and Ned chuckled. “I’ll accept that,” he said. “Can you put it in the box for me?” He held it out for her to take, which she did, and he moved the plastic box closer to her. She seemed determined to push it through the hole intended for the star-shaped block and promptly ignored her grandpa when he tried to show her the proper hole for the triangle.
Ros suddenly stopped and looked to the television that was on but muted. Her entire face lit up and pointed to the screen. “Daddy!” She exclaimed happily.
Everyone’s eyes whipped to the television and sure enough, Jon was on, speaking into an array of microphones from different news networks, and behind him, there was a swarm of police, yellow police tape, and a body of water. Sansa immediately felt her heart squeeze and her throat began to close up. She looked to her husband’s face. He looked exhausted and he hadn’t shaved in a few days and his clothes were more wrinkled than usual. Ned lifted the remote and un-muted so they could hear what was being said.
“As previously stated, we are waiting for the identify of the victim-” Jon was speaking.
“Rickon,” Sansa quickly cut in, standing up. “Can you take Ros outside?” She asked his brother. Ros was too young to have any idea as to what her daddy was talking about or what was going on in the news story but nonetheless, Sansa didn’t want her anywhere near this.
“Yeah,” Rickon immediately said without hesitating or argument and stood up, going to collect his niece. As he hoisted her up in his arms and began carrying her towards the back door, Ros waved over his shoulder to the television.
“Bye, daddy!” Ros shouted out.
Ned turned up the volume and pushed himself up to sit on the couch. Sansa sat next to him.
“I will say that the victim is a Caucasian male, between twelve-to-fourteen years old. As I have stated, once we confirm identification and contact the family, we will have more information for you. Thank you.” Jon turned away from the microphones and walked away even as all of the reporters shouted more questions after him.
One of them turned towards their network’s camera. “That was Detective Jon Snow, confirming that the fourth victim was found late this afternoon. This appears to be the work of the same person or persons who is responsible for the other children-”
Ned abruptly muted the television again. This story was all that was in the newspapers and on the news every night and none of them felt like hearing the same details again. It was too upsetting and Sansa didn’t even know how Jon was handling it. Not well, she could assume. He had been gone for a few days, he and Jaime sleeping at the police station and Sansa would drop off fresh clothes for him but the desk sergeant always took them from her and she hadn’t seen her husband – he always out somewhere, chasing yet another lead that led them nowhere closer. Sometimes, he talked about how long he was going to keep doing this. It hadn’t even been ten years that he had been a homicide detective but there were plenty who hadn’t lasted even that long. If a detective didn’t harden themselves to what they saw – and fast – they weren’t able to take it.
Sansa wouldn’t call Jon a hard man but he was good at his job and she knew he wanted to keep doing it. What he did was so important and he honestly was helping keep their city safe. But Sansa would completely understand if after this case, he decided he would pack it in and focus on doing something else. She almost wished that he would.
…
The eleven o’clock news ran the same story with the same interview of Jon and no new information added. Her parents and Rickon had gone up to bed and Sansa knew she needed to get some sleep, too, but that wasn’t going to be happening anytime soon. She sat curled on the couch, Lady’s head resting on Sansa’s foot. (Ghost was sleeping in the hallway by the front door, waiting for Jon to come home though Sansa doubted he would be.) She had a crib upstairs but she also had a small portable crib set up downstairs for nap-time and Ros was sleeping in there now, the light from the television cast over her as her chest rose and fell steadily. She slept without a care in the world and that was exactly how it should be.
Sansa had sent a text to Jon just after the news had broke but she hadn’t been expecting him to respond and he still hadn’t. She wasn’t going to worry. This was what he did and she was the wife of a homicide detective for the police department and this was what she did. Try not to worry about him even though she did the complete opposite of that – especially now with this terrible, awful case that was rightfully consuming him. She wanted to always take care of him when things like this happened. Well, not exactly this. Jon – and the city – had never had such a terrible case and she could see piece by piece of him being lost to it and Sansa had no idea what to do to bring him back. Was there anything she could do?
She leaned forward and smiled faintly as she looked to her sleeping daughter. She wondered when they could go back to their apartment. She knew her parents loved having them here and Sansa did like having a safe place to go to when needed. She had seen, firsthand, how lucky she was for such a thing. But their apartment was their home and Sansa missed being home.
She heard Ghost’s chains as the dog suddenly rose to his feet and just a moment later, she heard the front door unlocking. She gasped before she could help it and scrambling from off the couch, she hurried from the family room to the hallway. Sure enough, it was Jon, dragging himself through the door, quietly greeting an over-excited Ghost. Sansa’s heard sped up at the sight of him. It had been days since she saw him last and that was just days too many to go without him.
Sensing her, Jon lifted his head and seeing her there, it took just a few seconds for tears to start glassing in his eyes. Sansa could see it in the warm light from the small lamp left on in the hallway and there wasn’t even a second's pause before Sansa was rushing to him. Her arms were thrown around his shoulders and Jon crushed her body to his, his arms squeezing tight around her, and as he pressed his face to the side of her neck, she could feel the moisture on her skin. She didn’t know how long they held one another. It didn’t matter.
“Is she awake?” Jon asked, pulling his head back. He knew she wouldn’t be. It was past eleven. Their daughter should be asleep.
Making sure the front door was locked up good and tight behind them, they then headed back down to the family room where yes, Ros was still sleeping. It was something no parent should do. It was a total rookie mistake. But Sansa didn’t stop Jon from doing it. He needed it, she knew, and he moved with the utmost carefulness possible. He lifted Ros from her crib and held her in his arms, mindful to hardly move her at all. Ros, thankfully, remained asleep and her head found her dad’s chest without waking up. He settled himself down on the couch and Sansa was immediately settling down next to him. She didn’t ask anything. She was quiet and he would be the one to break it. His lips rested to Ros’ head and stayed there as his fingers lightly trailed up and down her back.
“We’re calling in the FBI. They’re already on their way here,” Jon said. Sansa nodded. She had been wondering about that and she wasn’t surprised. He was quiet for another minute and then, his head resting against the couch cushion, he turned it and looked at her. “Once we solve this case and you get your doctorate, I don’t want us to live in the city anymore.”
…