Chapter Text
It started with doves.
At first, they were sent to her office in packages sent through the mail with no return address. There was no blood, just a dead bird in a box. Simple.
Or, as simple as a veiled threat sent to her place of work could be.
Sansa Stark was a young up and coming prosecutor in Winterfell, working mostly in organized crime. For as frustrating as her job could be, she was good at it. She hadn’t lost a case yet- whether she was a lowly assistant or led the case herself. In the two years since graduating law school, she had certainly made a name for herself and was hoping to eventually make it to the office of district attorney. If she was being honest with herself, she really just wanted to put the bad guys away- to do her part to make the world a better place even if it sometimes felt as if she were moving pebbles when others were moving boulders.
While the birds were slightly disconcerting, Sansa was just to busy to worry about it. She dealt with the corpses herself and by the time she would make it home after a long work day, the thought was already gone from her head. Besides, the birds had been coming for months with no change. Never in any discernible pattern and never with any sort of message other than the reference to the nickname the news agencies had attached to her the year before.
The Little Dove of Winterfell.
In Sansa’s opinion, the name was tacky. She had, of course been doing all of this for peace, but in the court room she didn’t want to be compared to a symbol of purity or innocence. She wanted to be lethal. She wanted to gather criminals under her boot heel and crush them. She supposed that in time, she would be able to prove that she was a force to be reckoned with and that would just have to suffice.
Five months after the first bird arrived on her desk, one appeared on the windshield of her car.
A month after that, they started appearing on her doorstep. Regardless of the fact that she was starting to wonder whether she should tell someone her fears that now this person, whoever they may be, now knew where she lived. They were obviously fixated on getting some sort of reaction out of her and Sansa was bound and determined to remain as outwardly calm and collected as possible.
Until the doves started showing up mutilated and no longer in boxes.
Their innards would be spread across her welcome mat, blood spattering along the bottom of her white front door as if the bird had been slaughtered right there in front of her house in clear view of the street in broad daylight. Sansa thought that was pretty bold, knowing that the birds only ever arrived in the long hours she was at work- a coincidence, surely, because Sansa was nearly always at work. But still, she was certain there was no reason to be completely startled. She had dealt with pissed off criminals before and knew that once they realized nothing was going to change the way she was going about things, that she would give no reaction, they would stop.
*
Groaning as her alarm clock began blaring its incessant tune, she wiped at her bleary eyes, trying to make out the time. Blinking a few times through the scratchy feeling, she jumped up from her bed as she realized she had accidentally woken up an hour later than usual and now had no time to do her hair or eat breakfast.
Knowing she had set her coffee to brew for the time her alarm usually went off, she was looking forward to at least drinking coffee during her rushed morning routine, but when she reached the kitchen, there was no coffee. The machine was off and wouldn’t start up even when she plugged it in. Sansa didn’t have the time to work through all the possibilities of why it wasn’t working and gave up to take a quick shower.
Unfortunately, her shower had been ice cold even after she had let it run on the hottest setting for five minutes. Teeth chattering, she toweled off her hair and wrapped her long red locks into a semi professional looking bun, which always made her day end with a headache. She hurried to her bedroom to dress, looking forward to putting on her favorite pair of black underwear and the matching bra, but had been unable to find them. Sansa could have sworn she had put them away with her other laundry only the night before, but apparently she hadn’t and she didn’t have the time to search for them. She swiped mascara on quickly and turned to get her phone from her nightstand, becoming even more frustrated when it wouldn’t do anything other than flash a dead battery symbol at her.
By the time she made it to work, she was frazzled and frustrated and felt like she was drowning. The constant feeling of not being able to catch up to her tasks made the day seem even longer than usual and as she finally reached the understanding that she could accomplish no more if she remained the office later than she already had, she allowed herself to gather her things and go home.
Thank the gods I didn’t have court today, she thought to herself as she pulled into the driveway of her home. A small two bedroom cottage wrapped in ivy with a small porch in the very front, the home had been a reward to herself for completing law school. Sansa had used some of the inheritance left to her after the untimely death of her parents to purchase the modest house and was proud of herself for turning it into her safe haven. I have so much to do tonight, she thought with a sigh. She was tired and hungry and there were five separate cases that she needed to work on. Witness statements needed to be taken, discovery needed to be fleshed out, officers and medical professionals needed to be spoken with. Not to mention the files that would already be sitting on her desk when morning came. She shook the thoughts out of her head, hoping they would dissipate long enough to focus on making something quick to eat.
Pulling out her phone and keys, she got out of her car and made her way inside through the side door. The sight that greeted her made her scream.
Her entire kitchen was covered in blood. It was smeared and splattered on every visible surface, thick and dripping onto the wooden floor from the cabinets. Frozen for a moment, a flicker of movement out of the corner of her eye made Sansa look around to see a man standing in the entrance to her living room off the kitchen. He was dressed all in black, a hood over his face so she could not see it. He made no move to come at her and as soon as she saw him, she turned and bolted for her car, not even bothering to shut the door behind her.
She struggled with the door handle as her hands shook violently, nearly dropping her keys to the ground before finally managing to get the door open and dropped heavily into the driver’s seat. As she started the car and slammed the lock button down, she looked up to see the man watching her from her dining room window. Sansa threw the car in reverse and sped away faster than she had in her entire life.
There was only one place she would be safe.
She prayed he would answer the call as she selected his contact on the dashboard. One ring. Two rings. Please, please please. Three ri-
“Hey San, what’s up?”
The sound of her brother’s voice filled her with relief as she croaked out, “Robb?”
“What’s wrong? What happened?” He demanded.
“There was so much blood. It was everywhere and I couldn’t- there was someone in my house, Robb!” She cried as her heart continued to pound in her chest.
“San, slow down. Take a deep breath. Where are you?” The elder Stark asked.
“I’m in my car. Are you home?” She pleaded to whatever gods existed that he didn’t have duty that night.
“Yeah, come over. I’m home.” Robb answered soothingly. “Do you want me to stay on the line until you pull in?”
“No, I’m almost there. I’ll see you in a minute.” Sansa sighed and ended the call. She dragged a hand across her face and was startled to find she was crying. She took a few more deep breaths and tried to calm herself.
Robb Stark was Sansa’s older brother. Tall, broad and strong, he was the epitome of home for her, especially after their parent’s deaths. They had always been close as children and when he left home to enlist and follow in their father’s footsteps, she promised herself that as soon as it was possible, she would move to wherever he was and make sure they could stick together. Six years ago, he had been stationed in Winterfell and almost as soon as the ink had been dry, Sansa had transferred to a university in the same city.
Robb lived in an apartment complex only ten minutes away from the house Sansa owned. When she had offered to let him live with her, he had respectfully (and pretty crudely, if she was being honest) said he wouldn’t be comfortable bringing girls home to his baby sister’s house. Sansa had wholeheartedly agreed that the last thing she wanted to do in the morning was witness Robb’s flame of the week doing the walk of shame through her cozy little home.
Sansa pulled into a parking spot in front of Robb’s building and made sure to wipe away the tracks of mascara running down her face before getting out on shaky legs. She made her way inside to the third floor and before she could even knock on his door, it swung open to reveal her brother behind it. She let out a sob as he swept her into his arms, whispering words of comfort into her hair. Something wet found its way into her palm. Pulling her face away from her brother’s chest, she looked down and found the red eyes of his roommate’s wolf-like dog, Ghost staring back at her.
“Hi, boy.” She said, leaning down slightly to run her fingers through his white fur.
When she had calmed down enough that her breaths were no longer deep gasping lungfuls of air, he led her to his sofa and sat her down next to him, angling his body so he could look at her fully. The large dog curled into her side, laying his great head in her lap, nudging at her hand as it shook.
“Sans, what happened?” Robb asked.
“When I got home from work and let myself in, the whole kitchen was just covered in blood. Like someone had taken fucking buckets of it and just poured it all over everything.” She heaved a deep stuttering sigh. “I looked up and the was a man standing in the doorway. He was just watching me, Robb. I have no idea how long he was there. He was just standing there, staring at me.”
“Who was it?” Robb’s hands had balled into tight fists and his breath was coming fast as he clenched his teeth, barely concealing the rage that had been simmering under his skin since the moment he had heard Sansa’s panicked voice over the phone.
“I couldn’t see.” Sansa shook her head. “He had a hood over his face.”
Suddenly, the door to Robb’s apartment swung open and she jumped. Her brother took her hand, saying, “It’s only Jon, Sansa. It’s okay.”
Jon Snow was Robb’s roommate and best friend. The two had been quick friends when they met four years ago as Jon was stationed in Winterfell. Jon was lean where Robb was broad, but just as tall and no less muscular. Sansa was surprised to see the scruff of a beard on his jaw and his unruly curly black black hair hanging slightly into his gray eyes as every time she had seen him before, he had been clean shaven with short hair as required by the army. The sight of him was like a cool drink of water on a hot day. Dressed in dark skinny jeans and a black shirt, Sansa’s heart skipped a beat. He was carrying a pizza as he walked in, his soulful dark eyes taking in the sight of his best friend and his fiery haired sister who was sitting on their couch with a lap full of his dog.
“Someone broke into Sansa’s house.” Robb stated angrily, his blue eyes flashing. “They covered the place in blood and they were still there when she came home.”
“What?” Jon asked. “Are you okay?”
“I’m just shaken up. I’ll be okay, I think. I just don’t want to go home right now.” Sansa replied as she unwound the bun from the top of her head and shook out her still damp hair, rubbing the sides of her temples to fight off the headache creeping in.
“Did you call the police?” Jon placed the pizza down on the coffee table and stood across from her. The furrow of his brow deepened as he took note of her tear stained face and shaking hands.
“No, I came straight here.” Sansa said with a sigh. She wiped at her eyes to make sure her mascara had not run further. Even in her state of terror, the last thing she wanted to do was make a bad impression on Jon. Although he had never been anything but respectful and kind to Robb’s Stark’s little sister, there was a part of her that wished she could just push him against a wall and have her way with him.
Her crush on Jon had remained throughout the few years she had known him. When Robb had introduced the two, she knew she would be falling deeply for the man. Between the way his gray eyes seemed to stare straight into your core and the rough feeling of his calloused hands against hers, she was done for. To add to the attraction, he had a wicked sense of humor and a grin that could make her shiver even on the hottest summer day.
“We’ll have to let them know.” Robb said with a nod, smoothing his hand over his head of auburn hair in frustration. “But first, you should eat.” He got up to get plates and some drinks for the three of them while Jon took the seat next to Sansa.
“Seriously, are you okay?” Jon asked her quietly.
“I’m not going to lie, I’m scared shitless.” She said, running a hand through her hair in an echo of her brother while she leaned as far back into the sofa as possible with Ghost’s body slightly behind her. “But, I can’t just break down, it’s not going to fix anything or catch this asshole. I’ll be okay eventually.”
“We’ll catch him.” Jon promised. He squeezed her shoulder before pulling her into a hug.
As Robb came back in with the plates and three waters, Jon let Sansa go unhurriedly. She smiled at him and took her plate from her brother.
“Honestly, this is just the worst day. Literally nothing has gone right since I woke up this morning. This is just the icing on the cake.” She plopped a slice of pizza on her plate and took a bite.
Thinking that it might get her mind off of the bloody kitchen, Robb asked what happened to make it a horrible day before she had even found the intruder in her home.
“Well, first, my alarm clock went off an hour later than normal.” She said around her pizza before swallowing. “Couldn’t find something I wanted to wear today, even though I swear I just put it away last night. My coffee maker didn’t work, my phone didn’t charge and I had no hot water! It’s like the gods are against me.”
Robb and Jon immediately stilled, sharing a look across the coffee table.
“San, you have never set your alarm for the wrong time. You’re the most organized person we know and you’ve never been late a day in your life. And we just put that water heater in last year. There’s no way it broke already, it would have had to have been off for hours for it to be ice cold.” He said seriously.
“Was anything off yesterday when you got home?” Jon asked.
“What do you mean?” Sansa questioned, looking between the two of them like they were conspiring.
“Was anything out of place or did anything feel different?” Robb clarified. “What was missing that you wanted to wear today?”
Sansa thought back to the night before, going through her routine slowly.
“My dining room curtains were open last night. He was staring at me when I drove away today, too, standing in that window. I remember thinking it was odd because I don’t usually ever have them open. I hate the idea of someone watching me from the outside.” She said slowly. “And my favorite underthings were gone.”
Robb grimaced while she could feel Jon stiffen beside her. Ghost pushed his nose further into her belly.
“What? I could have just forgotten to shut them and forgotten to get the laundry last night.” Her voice as slightly higher pitched than normal, the explanation falling flat to even her own ears. She didn’t like what they were implying and wouldn’t believe it until someone said it.
“You said it yourself, Sansa.” Jon said quietly. “You never open them. Your underwear going missing on top of everything else...” He trailed off.
She could feel herself starting to panic. Her breaths were coming in short gasps, her toes and hands were beginning to tingle. “Wha-what are you saying?”
“I think whoever was in your house when you got home today has been in your house since you were at work yesterday.” Robb said grimly.