'Trouble' Is An Understatement...

[Madeleine Baudelaire&Russ Ford]

The syringe flew up from its place on the desk and started to zoom over towards Madeleine's bed, but halfway through, it started to slow down, before halting and dropping to the white linoleum floor.
Madeleine frowned, and attempted to pyschokines it back up into the air again, but it failed. She tried to lift it using her air powers, but it only managed to levitate by a couple of inches.
She sat back and sighed. Nurse Gornray had told her that it would take a while for her powers to come back fully, but Madeleine was finding this increasingly frustrating. She was supposed to be 'discharged' tonight, and she could barely even walk, let alone anything else!
Well, she'd managed to make some form of horrible spider thing zoom over to her, but that could have just been a stupid spider.
In any case, she'd screamed quietly and dropped it on the floor again.
Her parents had arrived yesterday evening, and though Madeleine was glad to see them, she had been slightly disturbed by the sight of her hysterical mother. Rhiannon Baudelaire was a very calm, happy person, and usually very good at dealing with her emotions. Madeleine had only ever seen her cry when Shaun died, and to see her mum hysterical like that... well, it was scary and worrying, but she knew that she'd be fine in the end.
But her mum had tried to make her step down as Head, and Madeleine had... well, lost her temper slightly, and mentioned Shaun... something along the lines of that she wouldn't have told Shaun to give up the fight ... which had only just made her cry more.
Thankfully, her dad had stepped in there. A former Warrior himself, he knew how important 'the fight' was to Madeleine, and had talked to Rhiannon about it, making her see sense.
Unfortunately, though, when he had walked into the room, Lee had been sitting beside Madeleine and holding her hand... and they'd been kissing... which meant that Madeleine had been interrogated later...
Oh well. She couldn't say that she wasn't used to it. One of the reasons that her previous relationships hadn't lasted long was because of the threatening presence that Shaun had made...
She'd persuaded them to go into Cardsdale for a while this morning to give all three of them a break, and she was now waiting for Lee to come - along with Kira, Jude and Tameron.
There was no way that Madeleine was going to let them away with sneaking forward into the front line - and if they'd hoped that she would be a bit softer after her coma and near-death-experience, well, boy, were they wrong...
She'd managed to extract the names of who had sneaked through from Lee, confirming what she'd already suspected. Lee wouldn't have done it on his own, and anything he did, Kira would do. But neither of them would have come up with a deliberate plan to defy Madeleine, so Jude must be involved somewhere, which brought Tameron into the equation.
So today, she was going to bully and threaten until she got the truth out, and God help them once she did. At the minute, she was running through several punishments, none of them very nice...
The door to the hospital wing opened, and Madeleine pulled herself up, her face darkening as the guilty parties walked in.

[Kira & Lee Norris]

Kira liked Tameron. The girl was a stubborn brat, and she enjoyed the challenge of her. In contrast to her well-mannered, practical and helpfully cheerful older brother- a real Southern gentleman if she ever saw one- Tameron was quite blunt, romantically-inclined and darkly moody at the best of times. There was nothing really to explain the difference between the two siblings, but the family traits were still there. Both had their more... reckless tendancies, and both also seemed to have a certain taste for trouble...
"Not on purpose, mind!" laughed Jude as Kira pointed this out to them. "Awh, no. No, trouble just likes to follow me around..."
"You ask for it a bit," Tameron decided, pulling her russet locks into a ponytail. "Like with your horses. You won't give over about all them horses."
"Horses?" asked Lee curiously.
Jude winked. "Come down to the stables some time and I'll show you..."
"No thanks!" laughed Lee. "I can't ride- I've never been much of a horse person. What were you doing down there with Will anyway?"
"A good magician never reveals his secrets," Jude tapped his nose.
Tameron rolled her eyes at him. "Oh, look, he's decided to be stupid again."
"It's just a bit of craic."
"Since when did you say craic?" Tameron demanded coolly.
"Since I met my lovely Irish buddy, Lee. I love ya, dude!"
"Aww, I love you too, mate!"
"Okay, getting creepy now," Kira cut in sharply. "Sooner or later, you'll be playing gay chicken without the chickens."
Lee just grinned at her, and Kira found herself smiling back. His newfound cheerfulness was infectious. It drove her mad knowing its source though, but still, it was pretty much a disease. She sighed to herself, and it was not missed by Jude, who exchanged a strange look with her.
She forced a smile, but he didn't look convinced, but luckily, the nosy Texas boy didn't get much of a chance to pursue it.
"Here we are!" Lee said brightly, striding boldly into the hospital wing and leaving the other three in his wake. Madeleine was sitting up in her bed, and the second her bold blue eyes caught Kira's, she found herself gulping.
She hadn't seen Madeleine in so long... not since before the battle, but it felt like longer. Way longer. It felt like weeks and weeks. Only a few days ago, Kira had been certain she would never see her again.
But here she was, awake, awake, awake... and with Lee's lips on her's.
Kira felt a rush of icy anger, but inhaled quickly.
Now's not the time, she told herself, not NOW.
"Hey, Madeleine," Lee said happily, stepping back, then cast an apologetic look at Jude. "Sorry about this..."

[Madeleine Baudelaire&Russ Ford]

Okay, that was really unfair. He had to know that kissing her would put her in a better mood, and so make her less inclined to punish them.
Still, Madeleine stared at them coldly as they lined up at the foot of her bed.
Kira and Tameron looked slightly nervous, as well they should. They'd be lucky to get away with a mere ban from training and a lecture, which Madeleine was about to give now.
"Alright," she said, her tone brisk but menacing. "Which one of you thought it up? I know you sneaked into the front line when I told you not to, and I know that all four of you did it - and I want to know who came up with it. Now. Spit."

[Jude Dorrian]

That son of a...
Jude had to give Lee some credit. He'd been completely oblivious as to why Lee might be bringing them all up to visit Madeleine. Well, not completely. Obviously Jude had asked why. It did seem a little strange. But Jude had been so taken by Lee's earnest, beaming face, he'd seen no reason to doubt that Lee had any ulterior motive other than bringing them up to see Madeleine for a sort of reunion.
But the cold look that greeted him now was chilling. That gal was mad.
Note to self: stop saying/thinking 'gal'.
"Alright," she said briskly, fixing each and every one of them with her iron stare. "Which one of you thought it up? I know you sneaked into the front line when I told you not to, and I know that all four of you did it - and I want to know who came up with it. Now. Spit."
Jude spat. Tameron giggled in disgust.
"Sorry, miss," Jude said apologetically, retrieving his now metal spittle from the ground. It looked a bit like a twisted up bullet. "Please take it as a token of our sincerest apologies..."

[Madeleine Baudelaire&Russ Ford]

Madeleine wrinkled her nose. "That's disgusting, Jude. Please don't do that again."
The words were polite, but her tone definitely wasn't.
"So it was you," she said, slightly disappointed. She'd guessed that it was him, but she couldn't pretend that she wasn't disappointed by it. She'd trusted Jude - she'd thought that he'd be above doing that. And hadn't he said that he would be happy to stay in the defence line?
Had he been plotting even then?
"I'm really disappointed, Jude," she said, letting it show through her voice. "I thought better of you than that."

[Kira & Lee Norris]

Lee stared avidly between Madeleine and Jude. He couldn't deny it- he was strangely impressed by Jude's defiance of Madeleine. A greater man than Lee would've quailed under her look by now. And the guilt trip? She was a cruel, cold-hearted genius.
No wonder he loved her.
Jude however, didn't seem in the least put off by this.
"Miss, you must've realised that none of us were happy with your commands. And so you also must've realised that we were all gonna try and get up to the front line," Jude said earnestly, his metal glob of spit slipping into his pocket.
It was true. Lee himself had had some hare-brained plots floating around his own head at the time.
"And you also know," Jude continued calmly, "that it's suicide to attempt something like that on your own. By getting us all involved, it multiplied our chances of survival. And look, miss- " he spread his arms wide- "we ain't dead."

[Madeleine Baudelaire&Russ Ford]

"That was sheer luck," Madeleine said icily, unappreciative of his logic. "I don't think you realise how bloody lucky you are, do you? Seventeen people died. You four could easily be six feet under too now. I knew you weren't happy, but I d**n well expected you to listen to me. I let you fight when you're not supposed to, which is more than any other Head before me has done."
She glared at them all. "I really did think that you would listen to me - after all, my Warriors do, and they're not in this by grace. They listen by choice. And if this was the real army, you could be put in prison for disobeying my orders. Don't you get it? I'm didn't say that just to annoy you, or because I felt like it - there was a reason I made you stay in defence. You're not as well trained, you may be good fighters - but you are not Warriors. There's more of a chance of you guys dying. But you still wanted to fight, and I still let you do it - though I'm reconsidering that. I obviously can't trust you, not after this."

[Jude Dorrian]

Before Jude could respond, Tameron sighed in exasperation. He winced, looking over at his sister. Her hazel eyes were gleaming as she sized up to Madeleine. His sister was very small- even smaller than Madeleine at her 5ft 2, his sister was only 4ft 9, but like all small gals (goddamit!) she was living proof that size did not matter in the slightest.
"Madeleine, you don't get it," Tameron said heatedly. "If we want to run out there, and risk dying and junk- you can't stop us. You don't have that right. We'll all be fighting, no matter what you say. So we might as well co-operate- because we're sure as hell not gonna sit around like idiots when a fight's going on!"
Jude smiled a little weakly. "I second that- though I would've been a bit politer about saying it."
"That's you," Tameron said icily. "Not me."

[Madeleine Baudelaire&Russ Ford]

Madeleine glared at the small, younger girl. "I don't care. You were as involved in the fight as I couild let you be. I hoped that yous would listen to me, not just because I'm in charge - because I hoped that you would listen to me as a friend. I'm trying to make sure that no one has to sit through your funerals. And look - when you don't do what you're told, bad things happen!" she exclaimed, gesturing at herself. "You can see what happened when I realised that you guys had sneaked on ahead. So if you won't do it to save your own lives, do it to save someone else's."
She leaned back against the headboard slightly, sighing. "I'm going to have to ban you from training for at least the next while, and don't even think about asking me about the next battle. And don't," she added, raising her voice to drown out their outraged complaints, "don't tell me that it's unfair, because it's perfectly fair. How can I have soldiers that don't obey orders?"

[Jude Dorrian]

The rebellious part of Jude's brain had already kicked into highgear. So they couldn't be involved in Battle Training could they? No more battles?
Kira and Tameron looked nothing short of outraged. Lee on the other hand, looked fairly meek, as though he'd already accepted defeat.
Jude frowned at Madeleine, wondering vaguely if he could sway her slightly through his cheek. "Tough law, Maddox. How come you weren't born a guy?"
Oh. Maybe not.

[Madeleine Baudelaire&Russ Ford]

Madeleine's lip curled as Jude called her by a guy's name.
"I don't know," she said, in a cutting tone. "But cheek isn't getting you anywhere, Jude, Judith, whatever. Just count yourselves lucky that I'm not sending you to Professor Hoodham."
If she didn't scare them, then he definitely would.

[Jude Dorrian]

Okay, great. So now she'd taken it the wrong way. That wasn't going to go down well. No doubt she thought he was being a right cheeky bugger. Maybe he was. It was how he'd gotten around. He was sort of tempted to nudge Tameron and ask her conversationally about the time Jude had sweet-talked them out of getting sent 'downtown' by the orphanage. Nasty lot they were. Rosie always had it in for them both.
As did Tommy. Jude's fists curled at the thought of him. Well, he'd taught him a lesson. Hell, Jude had never been madder in his whole goddam life.
Nothing made him madder than when Tameron cried.
Jumping, his fists unfurled as he realised exactly how Maddox- Madeleine- would take it.
Time to be meek. Time to bend down and submit. Tameron and Kira were just about to fire up. He was hardly gonna let them get into anymore trouble than Jude had just danced them into. For now, they'd be smart, and do what Maddox wanted.
Oh, yeah, he liked this 'Maddox' thing.
"Alright then, miss," Jude said softly, shooting a furtive glance at Tameron, whose lip curled. "We'll just have to agree to disagree, and we'll do whatever you want."
They had to. Jude was thinking about the orphanage now, and that always made him quake with anger. Jude never liked to get angry. He felt like he lost all self-control when he did. Getting angry rarely helped.
And Maddox would just take it the wrong way. He wasn't mad at her- he knew exactly what she meant. What really was gonna get under his skin was the hopeless, useless feeling of frustration that none of them could do anything.
Maddox was a good Head- but she'd never, never understand.

[Madeleine Baudelaire&Russ Ford]

Madeleine sighed and softened her glare slightly. "How do I know that you're going to listen to me this time?"

[Jude Dorrian]

Jude raised an eyebrow. "I guess y'all don't."
But his tone was lighter, and warmer again.

[Madeleine Baudelaire&Russ Ford]

Urgh.
She was so annoyed, more than she was going to admit. And she was upset, and disappointed with them - especially Jude.
"I guess y'all don't."
His voice was light and warm, and Madeleine found herself cursing his Texan accent. It was so endearing it was a pain in the ass, and it made her less likely to be mad at him.
But she wasn't stupid. She knew that they wouldn't have gone simply on Jude's authority. Kira was in there somewhere too.
So it was on Kira that she fixed her glare as she said, "Can I trust you, then?"