Chapter Text
Serena and Edric weren’t in a hurry to marry, even though Catelyn had started to make subtle hints every time the family gathered for holy days or birthdays over the last two years. His daughter wouldn’t have any of it though. The two lovebirds weren’t in a rush to tie the knot for good.
Sandor was glad for it because that meant they focused on their education first, instead of other things. Besides, they wanted to wait for the pandemic to end to be able to celebrate a nice wedding and go on a honeymoon afterward.
The pandemic had gone longer than most people had hoped for, due to many people ignoring the quarantine rules, which led to a second and ultimate third wave after a mutation had spread all over Westeros from the Iron Islands.
The Stark family had come through the pandemic so far without any deaths luckily, even though Arya and Gendry had been tested positive a few months ago, but they didn’t have to be treated in the hospital.
Sansa had gotten further research funds in the last two years because she and her lab became part of larger government-funded research by several universities of Westeros and Essos and her group had been able to publish a handful of papers in high impact journals. For his wife, the pandemic had helped her quite a bit, due to the newly gained love of the public for research and therefore more government money going into research.
For Sandor, the last two years had been good as well, even if his company had lost several large contracts due to the economic situation and the decreasing demand for new ships. His boss had told him and his colleagues that company had enough financial reserves to prevent any large layoffs. Still, they all had to stick together and make sure that the few projects they still had would be finished at the highest possible level of quality. Sandor was glad that his company had come through this pandemic with a blue eye. Many of his former friends from university he had still contact with every now and then told him that many engineering companies had gone through with massive layoff campaigns to lower the costs and since he and others reached an age where it became hard to find new jobs on the market, he was glad that his job was safe.
Serena had started her master's program at the same university Sansa was working, while Edric had continued his program in White Harbor. His daughter had considered staying at WHU, but then Sansa had told her about a new program the Winterfell University offered for molecular life sciences and biomedicine and Serena had immediately applied to it. Of course, with her perfect grades from her Bachelor, she had gotten in right after her application, without further tests.
Edric just had about a year of his bachelor left back then and so far he had no interest in pursuing his master. He already had several offers from different companies back then and then decided to work for a small startup that developed solutions for the smart city of tomorrow. He mostly worked from home office in Winterfell and so he and Serena could spend most of the time together at the Stark house. The money was okay according to Edric, but he saw his work more like an investment to gain experience and make some bank for the wedding, honeymoon, and maybe a place on his own with Serena.
Luckily, soon several different vaccines had been developed and successfully tested and so there had finally been the light at the end of the tunnel.
The sudden development had of course brought all the critiques back out, who were against the vaccine, calling it poison and dangerous, blaming big pharma for only developing it to get money, and asking questions why all of sudden it was possible to get a vaccine for this disease, but not for others.
Sansa and Serena always became incredibly angry at the interviews they showed in the daily news with this kind of people. Sansa always said, that these vaccines can be seen as an example of what is possible if nearly endless amounts of money are invested into research, while his daughter said these kinds of people are the same assholes that always slow down research usually, by asking what this research is good for at all.
Sandor didn’t care about these idiots and it seemed most people didn’t care as well. When the vaccine had finally been available it hadn’t taken long for his family to get their dose. The vaccination soon showed the first effect as the numbers of people needed to be treated in hospital and dying were decreasing steadily.
Now half a year after the first vaccination had taken place, shops and stores had started to open again, and soon after traveling had been allowed freely again. Then Serena and Edric had begun to plan their actual wedding.
Catelyn of course had been more than excited that the wedding she had waited so long for was finally being planned and had suggested that it was possible to book the Winterfell castle's godswood for the wedding.
Serena and Edric had liked the idea and asked Cat to request how much it would cost and what dates it was available.
Sandor and Sansa were glad that Cat got so happily involved with all of this because this allowed Serena to focus on her master's research and the thesis she had to write. With a good thesis, she wouldn’t have any trouble getting a PhD. position afterward.
Sandor was happy to see his daughter being completely absorbed by her master's program and become a better scientist every day. Still, Serena found time for their daughter-father days now and then if she didn’t have any lab rotations. Sandor dearly enjoyed these rare moments.
The last time they had to spend time together Serena had tried to explain to him what was the topic of her thesis and Sandor had only understood parts of it. Due to the university rules, she hadn’t been allowed to do her master thesis at Sansa’s lab and so she had to do it in the lab of a colleague of Sansa. According to Serena, all her experiments had worked and she had very interesting results.
Like before with her bachelor thesis, she had locked herself in her room for most of the day to write and create figures, while Sandor brought her snacks for her nerves.
Nevertheless, today Serena wasn’t writing. Her mother and grandmother had taken her to the city to shop for a wedding dress. Serena had been slightly annoyed to be kept from writing since according to her she was now at the most difficult part of her results, yet both her mother and grandmother had insisted that she went with them. Sandor had told her it wouldn’t be that bad and Serena had promised him she would send him a photo if he promised not to show it to Edric.
Sandor was checking his emails when his phone screen lit up. He was so excited as he unlocked the screen and clicked on the photo.
“What do you think?“
„You look incredibly beautiful, tiny bird.”
“You think Edric will like it?”
“He would be a fool if he wouldn’t be lost for words seeing you in it.”
“😊”
Sandor was stunned by how much Serena resembled Sansa in her wedding dress all the years ago. She really was her mother’s daughter. He spent the rest of the day smiling, just thinking of the picture his daughter had sent.
When Sansa and Serena returned, his daughter was smiling brightly and told him excited she was for her wedding.
After that, she returned to her room and Sandor laughed how his tiny bird could just switch from pleasure to work.
“And what do you think of the dress?” Sansa asked.
“She will be the prettiest bride the castle walls of Winterfell have ever seen,” Sandor said.
Sansa kissed his cheek.
“It seems that you slowly cannot wait any longer for them to marry.”
“Aye, it really seems so. I can’t wait to see our daughter in her dress for real.”