Tied

[Madeleine Baudelaire&Russ Ford]

She was back.
For the past six weeks, Madeleine had been a bit lost when it came to life - and especially in leading her group. Her leadership skills had gone down the drain a bit... a lot. But now, she was back on top - with a vengeance.
Training had gone brilliantly today. Everyone seemed to be in a much better mood - she guessed it was infectious - and were performing much better. Even Josh managed to do far better than usual. And of course, Madeleine had been able to scream herself hoarse, which didn't happen often - but was always fun.
And, thanks to gossip spreading faster than nits, whenever she'd walked into the room, the Warriors all broke out in a seemingly spontaneous cheer, leaving her absolutely scarlet for the first five minutes of the session.
And now, as the Warriors exited, they were all yelling "Congrats!" "Kudos!" and "Mazel tov!!!" at her, bringing her straight back to her high again.
This rocked.

[Jack Trove]

Jack was... well, he was great.
Jack had just been great. He hadn't missed one target- he'd trashed his fencing opponent- Madeleine actually had to yell at him to leave the guy alone! It was always fantastic to have your Head yelling at you to stop kicking butt; 'cause it meant you were doing well. It was great to have Madeleine yelling, full stop.
She was back.
This past month or so- she'd been... she hadn't been Madeleine, he supposed. He defended her fiercely despite it all; he didn't give a d*mn what everyone from the other groups were saying about her. She hadn't lost it- and now, God bless it- she'd proved herself to them all. Shown them all she was still there. She was still Madeleine. And Jack's heart swelled with pride to see her standing there, strong, in control and with a glint in her eye that he'd missed sorely. And then... she'd blush.
"Congratulations, Madeleine!" panted Jack, coming up behind her as the last of the Warriors filed out of the Battle Training arena. "You and Lee- gee," he wiped a mock-tear from his eye- "- I always knew you two kids were gonna end up together."

[Madeleine Baudelaire&Russ Ford]

Madeleine laughed as she took his sword from him and placed it in the store, before locking it.
"Thanks," she said, grinning at him, her cheeks colouring up again.
The constant congratulations were just serving to remind her how perfect everything had become, how it had all been fixed.
And how, as Jude had put it, she'd been fixed.
They'd all smiled so brightly at her, and she felt a guilty pang as she realised how her down period must have affected them.
But it would all be fine now.
She narrowed her eyes playfully at Jack. "Hey, that cheer at the start; didn't have anything to do with you, did it?"

[Jack Trove]

Jack laughed sheepishly. "You caught me."
Cheers and chants; it'd been bred into him, he guessed. And he guessed now that Mal was in the village, he'd needed more reason to cheer than most. His brother was as much of a prick as he'd remembered; which sucked, really, 'cause he guessed he'd sort of hoped he'd made it all up. It'd just been a stupid nightmare- only Orchid was really real.
But... he hadn't believed that.
And this whole thing with Mal... it just got him unbelievably, incredibly angry and confused. So he wouldn't think about it.
Atta' boy, Jack. Smile at Madeleine. Smile like you mean it.
"How did you know?"

[Madeleine Baudelaire&Russ Ford]

Madeleine laughed, and winked. "I have my ways."
Really, it couldn't have been more obvious. If there was a cheer, or chant of any kind - Jack came up with it. At group competitions, he always led the rest of the Warriors in the chant of the classic Queen song.
You got mud on yo face, you big disgrace,
Kicking your can all over the place
We will, we will ROCK YOU...
She moved away from the store cupboard, gathering up her bag and perching on the stage. "It's always you..."

[Jack Trove]

"It's always me," Jack said softly, grinning. "It's my brother's fault, you know. I wasn't always like this."
Yeah! Once he had been sweet, kind, thoughtful; a perfect picture of boyish innocence. As a child, he would stand in silence beside his mother, always smiling, his eyes big and blue. People would ruffle his curls; call him a little darling, a little angel- and comment on just how proud his parents must be-
Pssh. Yeah, right!
Jack the toddler had been a holy terror. And he honestly couldn't say whether or not he'd really changed since then.

[Madeleine Baudelaire&Russ Ford]

Unzipping her bag, Madeleine took out the little box that had been holding her engagement ring and slipped it on.
She didn't wear it in Battle Training - after all, there were a lot of metal and fire benders around. It could get damaged far too easily, and she wasn't letting that happen. She'd already grown very attached to the ring, which sounded weird, but it symbolised the connection that was keeping her up on her high at that minute - and was going to for the rest of her life.
Wow, what a phrase.
She smiled over at Jack as she slipped it on. "The legendary Mal, right?"

[Jack Trove]

Jack forced a grin. "Malcolm. Mal. Whatever you wanna' call him."
The ring caught his attention in particular; the light catching the blue sapphire and making it sparkle. Jack chuckled inwardly. There was no way Lee could've afforded that. It was just one of the many perks of being a conjurer, he supposed. Now... if Jack was buying a ring... he'd buy something with an emerald in it... possibly... because of Olivia's eyes-
Whoa. Steady on there, mate.

[Madeleine Baudelaire&Russ Ford]

Madeleine laughed. "Yeah, he sounds brilliant. I guess you and I both got to live up to the standards set by our older -"
She broke off, staring at Jack.
Malcolm?! Malcolm Trove?
She'd known a Malcolm Trove.
The Malcolm Trove that she had known had been Shaun's best friend. Malcolm had been ... pretty kickass. He'd been kind of like a second son to her parents - when they were near his house, he was never out of the camp. He was a little like her adoptive older cousin. She remembered Shaun and Malcolm being in a game of rugby... and could recall particularly clearly the friendly swearing Shaun had come out with when he'd been beaten. And for
She hadn't seen the guy in over a year. She knew that he and Shaun had had some sort of fight, not too long before he'd been killed. And she remembered sending a funeral invitation to him, but he never showed up...
Could Malcolm be Jack's brother? Sure, from what she remembered, they did look similar, but...
Hang on - that would also mean Jack's dad was Sir Daniel Trove. Which meant...
"Hang on," she said, blinking, and focusing on Jack. "You said Malcolm, right? He was a Warrior, wasn't he?"

[Jack Trove]

"Your powers of deduction are truly incredible," Jack said, a little cheekily. "Come on, Maddie! Of course my brother was in the Warriors!"
Not to mention he had Jack's reputation for rugby, hockey, swimming... well, sports, really. He had Jack's reputation for being that little bit... well, as their father had once phrased it, Mal had enjoyed the 'company of females a little too much'.
He did have one serious girlfriend though, at one point, Jack remembered, and also at another time had had a pretty serious crush, which he got over pretty quickly because the girl- Cecelia- and Mal's best mate had announced their engagement.
That one must've hurt.

[Madeleine Baudelaire&Russ Ford]

Madeleine bit on her lip, ignoring the comment. "I think... I think I know him. Did he ... d'you remember him having a being close to a guy named Shaun?"
Was this... was Jack really Mal's brother? Was Madeleine friends with the boy Shaun had called "a great kid"? And if he was - why hadn't she made the connection?! She knew Jack's brother was called Mal Trove, she knew Mal had a brother... it was something too d**n obvious.
And now that she'd made this connection, she was starting to see the similarites between Jack and Malcolm. Sure, there was the obvious rugby physique, but the hair was the same, the skin exactly the same shade, the facial features practically identical...

[Jack Trove]

Shaun. That was it!
"Yes..." Jack said slowly, a little unnerved. "Yeah... and Shaun was engaged to a girl called Cecelia...?" How did she...? "Um, sorry, do you know him, or something?"
Then... if she knew him... did she know what he'd become?

[Madeleine Baudelaire&Russ Ford]

Madeleine flinched at the mention of Cecelia, remembering her father's words about Shaun and Cecelia.
"Do I know Shaun? Em... I'm pretty sure I do. Very well, in fact. And Cecelia too. Do you... by any chance do you remember what Shaun's surname was, or where he lived?"
It was definitely the same guy. So Jack was...

[Jack Trove]

Jack shook his head slowly, unsure of what to make of all of this.
"Um... no, I only met Shaun a few times..." Jack coughed, looking at Madeleine. "What's this all about?"

[Madeleine Baudelaire&Russ Ford]

Madeleine bit her lip, before responding. "Shaun was my brother. I remember his best friend Malcolm Trove - when we lived near you, he was never out of our... home. They were really close and Malcolm was kind of like a second brother to me... God, I'm pretty sure it's the same guy. They have the same interests, I know this Malcolm had a younger brother, but I never knew his name. Are... okay, this might sound odd, but are your parents called Daniel and Shirley?"