Hadyn was back, after nearly two weeks away. He honestly didn't know if going had helped him determine anything at all aside from the fact that when he was gone he missed being here. Or maybe it was that he missed certain people. Either way, what started out as a head cold in Paris that waned and seemed to go away had since evolved into something ( Read more... )

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Since the show where he'd broken down and talked about his mother, Shuffle had been fairly quiet overall. And you really can't blame him--it was all too easy for people to discover who had brought their mother into the hospital and moved into Heart Castle. So, there had been no great controversy from the DJ. Oh, he'd reported on the new additions ( Read more... )

He'd surrendered all of his duties in the Hearts, and his boxes had been packed - some of them already moved to the apartment his grandfather had ordered vacated in Spade Castle, near the other Novaks. For all that he had another week and some days before he and Maddox Hobbs met at the appointed place, he was pretty much not a Heart anymore. Of ( Read more... )

He hadn't done cartwheels when the news spread that the outposts had opened again, but that was only because someone would probably ask why he was imitating Evan McCartney. He did change into his visiting-the-publisher clothes and popped out for what was meant to be a thirty minute meeting with his editor. Release forms, refusals to do book tours, ( Read more... )

And so, young Teodoro Chambers had had his mother seen to by the Deck's hospital, freeing him of the heavy duty of being sole caretaker. Perhaps a few members of the hospital staff had given him knowing gazes, having heard his show, but no one directly confronted him with their suspicions ( Read more... )

Hadyn didn't want to apologize, but the truth was that Bond made a poor substitute for Elisha. He was cuddly, yes, but the puppy was...well a dog. And he was rather silent about a lot of things, which was an advantage when angry- not with anything else. So after rehearsals and doing his duty as the Ambassador to the Spades ( Read more... )

All day long, there's been rather depressing music playing on Shuffle's secret station. Songs admitting defeat, songs about regret. Occasionally, there'll be the crackle of a microphone being turned on...and then silence.

He doesn't know how to say it.

He needs to, though.

( He can't handle it alone. )

Jack of Hearts ( Read more... )

Hadyn's dislocated shoulder they day before hadn't been the first time something like that had happened - one memorable occasion when Hadyn had been thirteen and was getting back at Jordan for probably being horrible, Jordan had ended up with a cracked rib - but it had been a while since their sparring had gotten that rough. And while Jordan hadn't ( Read more... )