Daria Winter Is Coming Part One

Winter Is Coming: A Daria/Game Of Thrones Crossover. Suppose that those of King Robert Baratheon's illegitimate children living in King's Landing and the nearby Crownlands were magically transported from the city and the nearby countryside to continental North America, and that later some of their pursuers followed them there? And suppose one of those children took shelter with Benjamin Morgendorffer, Jake Morgendorffer's older brother and Daria Morgendorffer's paternal uncle? This is her story. It is set in the mid-1990's, not after January, 2017.

Disclaimer: I do not own the property rights to either Daria or to the Game of Thrones. Characters, plot, background and details belong to their respective creators. This work is written for recreation and ego gratification, and the author neither expects nor deserves financial compensation for this work, although positive reviews would be nice. Those readers interested in finding out more about Daria and/or A Game of Thrones should seek out the creator's official books and videos.

Winter Is Coming*Winter Is Coming*Winter Is Coming

When she thought about it later, she remembered just how ordinary the day had been until after dinner. It was a mid-March day in Maryland, clear and brisk in the morning but rising to the upper fifties after school let out. She'd had to walk to walk home alone that day; Jane remained behind for track team practice.

Her Dad had come home early and was cooking dinner when she came home. Later she thought that some angel or spirit had been whispering in his ear that day: dinner was actually edible and the frozen dinners stayed in the freezer. Quinn had had a date scheduled that evening, but the young man who was going to take her out called to cancel and she chose to remain home. She went up to her room either to sulk or to peruse her magazine collection.

Daria had done some chores and worked on her homework before dinner. Her father had made a stew. Somehow, he'd resisted the effort to improvise and, miracle of miracles, the stew had turned out to be tasty. He'd also prepared cooked vegetables and had decided to go lightly with the herbs. After the dinner and the cleaning-up, Daria sat down with her parents to watch television on the big screen in the living room.

Helen was sitting down on the other couch reading a couple of briefs she'd brought home from the office. They concerned a couple of claims cases that were as likely to move to litigation if the opposing sides couldn't reach a settlement. Whichever way things went, Helen wanted to be ready. She heard the doorbell ring, looked up, and saw that her husband was already headed for the front door.

Jake remembered that he was relaxing with a drink. He'd done well on a marketing job, had gotten a referral, and the new prospect looked interested in his preliminary proposal. He chose to cook dinner to relax and to celebrate his success. He'd made a resolution to stick with the recipe this time and had avoided cooking a fiasco; in fact, he'd been complimented for his efforts by his wife and his oldest daughter. After dinner, he and Helen sat down in the living room to watch television, although Helen spent much of her time reading a legal brief. His oldest daughter was with them; sometimes she joined them to watch a little television before going upstairs to do her homework or to work on her computer. His youngest daughter was upstairs, hopefully doing her homework but probably talking to her fashion friends. He idly wondered if he should go upstairs and talk to her about school work, but then decided that was Helen's job.

Daria remembered that her dad got up, whether to get another drink or to go to the bathroom, when the front doorbell rang. Her father was already on his feet, so he was the one who walked over to the front door to see who it was.

What was memorable was her father's reaction and his tone of voice towards the visitor.

"Ben?" said Jake.

"Hey, Little Brother!" said the stranger, "it's been a long time." Daria thought that the voice sounded like someone who'd been ill trying to fake being hale and hearty.

"Well, don't stand out in the cold," said Jake, "Come in, come in." He opened the door to let the stranger inside.

Daria turned around to see who it was. It was an older man at the door. He looked a lot like Dad, same chin, same eyes, same coloring, except he looked like he'd been ill.

"Good to see you, Ben!" exclaimed Jake. "It has been a long time!"

"I know," said Ben. "It's been years."

This was out of the ordinary. Daria knew that Dad had a brother and sister but she'd never seen or heard from them either here or back in Texas. She put down the magazine she was reading and started to walk towards the front door.

What the hell happened?" said Jake.

Daria was now close enough to get a better look at her uncle. He did look a lot like Dad, although his hair was grayer, his face had a few wrinkles, and his cheeks had sunken in a bit. He also had a bit of a stoop.

"You look like death warmed over."

Ben wasn't alone. There was a girl with him, a pre-teen kid with dark hair, a round face, and wary blue eyes.

"Helen, this is my older brother Ben," said Jake. "Ben, I'd like to introduce you to my wife Helen."

"How do you do?" said Ben. "So you're the woman my little brother married."

"Yes," said Helen, a light note of reproach in her voice. "I'm Helen Barksdale Morgendorffer. You must be Jake's older brother Benjamin."

Daria sensed that her mom was loading a zinger for Uncle Ben, but for some reason Daria was unable to sense, she stopped. Perhaps it was because her mom's attention was distracted by the child at Uncle Ben's elbow.

"So who is the little girl?" said Helen. "Is that your daughter?"

"That's Myrcia," said Ben. "We call her Rikka."

"She's not really my daughter, at least not my biological daughter." He sighed. "It's complicated."

"Come in, sit down," said Jake.

Ben walked over to one of the couches facing the TV and plopped down. Daria thought that he was either tired or in some sort of pain.

"This is my daughter Daria," said Jake.

"Hello," Daria said warily.

"Pleasure to meet you," said Ben. He turned to the little girl sitting next to him.

"Myrcia, this is your cousin Daria," he said.

"Hi," said Rikka. She sounded as wary as Daria.

"Sorry we didn't call you before we got here," said Ben. "We'd been driving all day and your old phone number didn't work anymore."

"Sorry, Ben," said Jake. "I changed carriers after I moved to Maryland and they made me change my phone number."

"So what brings you back to this part of the world?" asked Jake.

"I decided that it was time to go east, come back home," said Ben.

"Home?" said Jake. "The last time Mom said anything about where you were, you were living out west."

"That's over and done," said Ben. "That's part of the reason I'm here."

"You're not driving back to Coalton, Big Brother?" said Jake. "Coalton's still at least three hours away."

"Yeah," said Ben.

"You look beat. Do you have any place to stay tonight?" asked Jake.

"No," said Ben.

"Don't bother with a hotel tonight, you can stay with us," said Jake. "Is that OK, Helen?"

"Yes," said Helen.

"Have you guys had anything to eat?" said Jake. "We've got some leftover stew."

"I'd like some," said Rikka. "I'm still hungry."

"We had some chicken nuggets at a fast food place a couple of hours ago," said Ben.

"Well, let me get you some," said Helen. She then turned her attention to her oldest daughter. "Daria, why don't you go to Quinn's room and ask her to come downstairs?"

Daria went up to Quinn's room, knocked on the door and entered. Quinn was reading a fashion magazine and talking on the phone with someone; it sounded like Stacy. That was the last time her younger sister got to enjoy life as she'd known it.

Daria took it on herself to interrupt Quinn's phone call. "Quinn, Mom and Dad want you to come downstairs and meet Uncle Ben," she said. "He's here with his daughter Rikka."

"Who?" said Quinn.

"Uncle Ben, Dad's older brother," said Daria. "He'd downstairs with Cousin Rikka."

"Cousin Rikka?" asked Quinn. "Who's she?"

"A kid about eight years old; you'll recognize her when you see her," said Daria.

Quinn returned to her phone call. "Sorry, Stacy, something's come up. Catch you later."

-(((O-O)))—

Quinn followed Daria downstairs. Since her back was to her younger sister, Daria missed her little sister's irritated expression, which changed to surprise when she reached the breakfast room. She saw the unfamiliar man and a little girl sitting down and eating Dad's leftover stew.

"Hi," she said.

"Hi," said the little girl, her portion of stew half-eaten.

Quinn watched the older man painfully rise from his chair. "How do you do?" he said. "I'm your Uncle Ben. And the young lady eating dinner is Rikka."

-(((O-O)))—

The next morning was much like the previous morning. Daria and Quinn were in and out of the bathroom, dressed, and went down to join their parents for breakfast before starting to school.

"How are Ben and Rikka?" asked Quinn.

"I guess they're sleeping in," said Jake. "They're probably tired from driving cross-country and I'll let them rest until after we drop you off at school."

Daria opened the back door to see what the temperature was outside. It was sunny like the day before, but chilly.

"Close the door!" said Quinn. "It's freezing!"

"Can Jane ride with us?" said Daria.

"If she wants," said Jake. "You'd better call her first."

Daria called Jane and said that she could ride to school with her and Quinn, but she needed to get ready. They'd be leaving Schloss Morgendorffer in a little bit and that if Jane wanted a ride, she'd have to hurry.

Jane Lane was waiting at the door when she got to the Lanes' house.

"Hey, Daria, Quinn," said Jane. "Hey, Mr. Morgendorffer."

"Hey, Jane-o," said Jake

"So what's the big news?" said Jane.

"My Uncle Ben came over with his stepdaughter and I think he's going to be in town for a while," said Daria. "He showed up late last night and went to bed shortly after he got there."

"He's brought Cousin Rikka with him," said Quinn. "She's cute."

"Who is Uncle Ben?" asked Jane. "One of your Aunt Rita's ex-husbands?"

Daria smirked.

"My older brother," said Jake. "I haven't seen him for a long time. He showed up yesterday evening after driving cross-country and we put them to bed."

"Sounds like my family," said Jane. "We Lanes just show up without calling ahead."

It does sound a bit like the wandering Lanes, thought Daria.

-(((O-O)))-

Jane brought up the topic again at lunch. Jane had a recent falling-out with Ethan and snubbed the track team tables rather than deal with Ethan while she was eating. "So tell me about this mysterious Uncle Ben," she said.

"Uncle Ben is my dad's older brother," said Daria. "We haven't seen him for years. As a matter of fact, I don't think Mom or Quinn or I ever saw him before."

"Is there a family resemblance?" asked Jane.

"Yep, he definitely looks a lot like Dad, but he doesn't look good," said Daria. She frowned. "He went to bed shortly after Dad made introductions. I think he's sick or something."

"Do you know why your uncle decided to grace you with his presence?" asked Jane.

"I don't know. He just showed up at the door with his step-daughter and asked if he could spend the night. He and his daughter were still sleeping when I got up and got ready for school."

"Sounds a lot like something Wind or Summer would do," said Jane.

"So how old is the kid?" asked Jane.

"She's eight or nine, I think," said Daria.

"Do you know anything about her, other than she's with your uncle?" asked Jane.

Daria fell silent. She didn't know much of anything about Rikka except that she'd been with her uncle, that they knew each other, and that they cared for each other. "Not really," she said. "I get the impression that she wasn't one of his second ex-wife's kids, but neither Uncle Ben nor my parents have filled me in yet."

"Sounds like your uncle is traveling with a mystery girl," said Jane. "Watch out, Morgendorffer, she might be a secret pocket-sized assassin."

"I doubt it," said Daria. "She's too tall."