He was going to die, Hadyn thought as his foot sank deeper into the snow and he stumbled. Catching himself against a tree, he winced as snow scattered to the ground around him. Looking down he could see the blood that was slowly oozing out of the wound at his side. A knife wound, not particularly deep...but it was enough to slow him down. It was probably what that damn Rook had had in mind when he caught the Spade with the blade. At first Hadyn had pushed it aside, determined to worry about it after he got home, but he didn't even make it half way to the Deck.

His back tire hit the black ice and spun out from under him fast than he'd really had time to react. In truth, he was probably lucky that he had be flung head first into the pavement of the road, and left as road kill. Instead he'd landed roughly in the snow, skidding and tumble across the ground before coming to a stop. His cracked visor hid the wreckage of his bike from his view, but he could make out the flames as they licked up toward the sky. And then everything had faded to black. He was lucky again, he thought, that when he came back around, the Chess Pieces hadn't found him where he was buried in the snow. Or at least, he didn't think they had as he pushed himself up and looked about.

Hell they hadn't found the wreck yet- but he wasn't going to waste time waiting for them. Looking about the area, he wasn't sure it mattered if they chased him down or not- there wasn't a damn thing out there that he could see. So he'd picked a direction, away from the road, and limped his way into the woodland landscape. What had started as small wound, he thought as he looked away from it, was now just as likely to kill him as the fucking cold. As the Chess Pieces if they caught him. Hell, just as likely as Jordan to kill him for being an idiot if he survived all of this to begin with.

"Well," he muttered to himself as he pushed off the tree and swallowed back the pain. "At least Mother will be happy- I'm finally dead, out of her way. Something, fuck....something good out of this." He didn't have to look down to know he was leaving a trail. Looking up though, he saw the faint outline of a cabin ahead, smoke rising out of the chimney. He almost cried, both for the good fortune and the fact that fate was obviously mocking him at that moment. "Well...freezing to death didn't sound that great, Hadyn." He said to himself as he started forward with renewed vigor. In the distance he could here sounds coming from the road, likely the Chess pieces finally giving chase now that dawn was here.

Moving to the Cabin as quickly as he could, Hadyn started running through all the things he could tell this unsuspecting soul- 'sorry, I don't want to die in the cold, but we're both going to probably die' just didn't seem likely to go over well. Not that he was coming up with anything better as he stepped onto the porch and banged on the front door of the cabin. "O-open up," he shouted as he hit the door, "F-fuck, please.....Open up."

If someone had told him ten years ago that he'd be a Nine of Spades by 22, he would have laughed in their face. He was more, or less, convinced that by 20 someone was going to have put a knife through his back long before he could imagine what being a Nine of Spades felt like. But here he was, he thought as his breathing slowly calmed, his chest heaving less and less as the seconds passed. He looked down at the face of Aylmar Woodward, empty- glassy eyes staring back at him as the blood pooled around the body. Looking up, he could see Jordan given him the standard expression- caught between disapproval and mild relief. Over his brother's shoulder, Hadyn could see Katya looking back at him with even more disapproval, and possibly annoyance. Accidents happened, but he imagined that few people thought it was really an accident that Hadyn's knife had seated itself between the older man's ribs and into his liver. By the time the medics arrived there was nothing left to be done.

If you had also told him that by 22 he would have personally been the cause of four people's deaths in a challenge, he would have been very hard pressed to believe it.

Turning away from the scene on the floor, Hadyn bent down and picked up his knife before he walked slowly toward the bench that marked out his side of the arena, barely glancing at Julien as he cleaned the blade and set it down. His mentor's face was harder to read, like a blank canvas that watched the scene play out without much concern for the outcome. After a moment of silence stretched out between them, there was a slight 'hmph', before the man turned and looked Hadyn over.

"Quite the body count you've started," he said, looking back at the corpse that was being collected. Looking up, Hadyn regarded him carefully, trying to gleen whatever he could from the empty, mild look on Julien's features. Ever a difficult man to read, Hadyn thought, frowning just a little.

"It wasn't planned," Hadyn said, "but...."

"Had to make Nine, mm? With Brother dearest's promotion...." Yes, that was one way to look at it. Two ranks, that is what he'd had to jump to get there, and that had been no easy feat. Jordan, generally, kept his pace moderate as he moved up the ranks. Slow and steady as he kept his eye on Hadyn's progress almost as much as his own. Their mother had determined Hadyn should never been far behind Jordan- logically because should Jordan become King, he could appoint Hadyn to Ace and it looked more reasonable if Hadyn's rank matched the responsibilities. Illogically, Hadyn wondered if Laureline hoped he would get himself killed trying to keep pace with his brother. "Well, to each their own I suppose."

Hadyn rolled his eyes a little, picking up the towel as he watched Julien move away and blend into the departing gawkers. Ah, well....From 7 to 9. Two ranks. It wasn't the first time it had ever been done, at least.

Carlos had been at work, something he'd apparently volunteered for, so it made slipping into his rooms by mid-afternoon. He'd spent the morning and most of the afternoon with his father and sister, the three of them gathered in Daniel's kitchen and happily watching Leon's favorite Christmas movies in honor of their missing member. They'd opened gifts and ate. At least until Daniel had kissed the heads of both his children and told them to go- see their friends, lovers, which ever they wanted. Gael suspected it had been more for his benefit than Noelle's as his sister seemed content to stay put on the couch.

He took that time to set up a tree with a small gift in the otherwise cheerless living room. He then set about cooking a dinner, which with a little bit of Ty's help, that he was certain would be ready before the other man finally came home. He set the table after dinner was done, and poured the wine before he glanced at the clock and wondered if he should have just waited and done a dinner for Carlos and his siblings tomorrow. His nerves kicked up, and there was an anxious knot in his stomach as he found soft instrumental music to play in the background as he looked over the scene.

He'd changed while the food had cooked, but suddenly felt over dressed as he looked at himself in the hallway mirror. Was he really going to do this? Was he really doing all of this with the express intention of admitting to Carlos something he didn't think he could do more than once. For that matter, what the hell did it say about him that he felt sick to his stomach, nerves firing off as worry and doubt crept into his being as a whole. Who was he to think this was all a good idea?

Not that he mattered, he thought as he heard the door start to open. He really didn't get much chance out of this, did he? He was stuck, he had to go through with it... Lightheaded, dizziness aside, he was without escape and that meant all he could do was.....

Move to the bedroom and close the door to hide just a few moments longer. At least until he felt less like throwing up and more like he could handle this like a grown up.

So, Ollie thought, he was having a meltdown. That's what Sam would have told him if his eldest sister was still alive to. Then she'd tell him to give himself twenty minutes to embrace the meltdown and then go deal with the shit. Lenore would have prescribed a long walk somewhere quiet. Carine....would have poured him a drink.

In a way, he did all three before he came back to Ty's wing - sitting with his head in his hands in a quiet corner of Club Castle, then walking through Town and the gardens at Heart Castle, and finally getting Cailean James to pour him a whiskey at his dad's bar on the edge of the Spade and Diamond districts before he walked back. By then, Elisha and Hadyn had left. He imagined Sarah had been by, and Carlos, too, but the hall was empty now except for a nurse in a chair in the hall, and he checked his watch. Just past six, he thought. Still early, but then, every person who cared about Ty was bent on making the people who'd done this pay - including him.

"I brought apology food," he said, lifting a bag up. "It is, unfortunately, the daily special at Mackinnon's, but Cailean assured me it was one of their cook's better attempts."

Ty's eyes fluttered slowly, and for the first moments he was lost as to what was going on. He had no recollection of where he was, though he could quickly put together that was he in some sort of hospital room. He could also feel his toes, and move his hands- so...that ruled out, well...something. There was a steady beat on a machine to his left, the loud beeping keeping time with his remarkably steady heart as he stared at it before he spotted Ollie sitting in a chair- asleep from everything he could see.

But...that still didn't explain why he was there. Or, actually, why Ollie was there. Maybe they'd gotten into some sort of bar fight. He doubted he'd drank too much, he wasn't a particularly heavy drinker even when he could afford to drink as much as he wanted. Reaching up, he ran a hand over his face, before he sat up. He seemed....alright.

Why couldn't he remember what had happened? The last thing he remembered had just been him....going to bed. So why....

"What's....what's going on?" He asked, reaching up to rub his temple as he tried to message the dull buzz out of his head. There was a persistent fog in his mind, he thought. Maybe after he just woke up more he'd manage to work out that the fucking hell was going on.

Hadyn was in his office, nearing lunch and making some vague plans with Jordan to meet for lunch- not that his brother was being particularly helpful in planning. Mostly it was a series of 'yes, lets' and 'sure', 'sounds good'. It was enough to make Hadyn roll his eyes, and if it weren't for the fact that he was probably no better it would have sniped at Jordan for it. He'd even turned his focus to actual work when his phone went off again, and this time he did roll his eyes expecting it to be Jordan- once again. Only, it was not.

Carlos Sanchez might not have legally, or biologically been his child- but Hadyn thought of him as one. He'd been a constant in the house since the boy was 8, and at 18 he had been brought into their home without question or hesitation when his own had tossed him out. Hadyn, in fact, had been there for many of the big moments in Carlos' life. From discussing his sexuality, to his first challenges. Elisha had trained him in krav maga, and taught him to draw. They invited him to celebrate every major holiday with them. Carlos was his child, in so many ways outside of name. And so when Ty mentioned that Carlos had not come to work that day, and someone else had spotted Gael Shaw stumbling through the castle toward Carlos apartments, it was without hesitation that Hadyn was on his feet and out the door.

Moving to the younger man's apartments, he knocked lightly on the door, a look of concern on his features as the other man opened the door. "Well..." He said as Carlos looked at him, "you seem to be in one piece at least. Perhaps you'd care to share lunch with me? Unless, you've a guest you need to worry about?" Jordan, alas, could wait until later for his lunch.

She couldn't blame either of her dads for waiting to call her until the next day. Elisha had, she imagined, had Carlos and Ty and Oliver to deal with, on top of Gaël. Then Daniel Prochazka, then Noëlle almost first thing the next morning. Hadyn had had...well, the theatre. And with all the dramatics, it was natural that no one thought to call the person on the periphery of the situation until she'd been making coffee in the apartment above her store. Patrick Zeitlin hadn't seen her with Gaël, after all.

Though she couldn't help but think - if she hadn't been so distracted with the suite of jewelry she was designing for a new bride in the Diamonds, and had let Gaël drag her away from her blowtorch and welding materials, would they all have been better off? Then, at least, with Ollie calling Ty too, that bastard would have been hopelessly outnumbered, and she might have been the one to make sure he was dead. Sarah wasn't usually one for might have beens, but she couldn't help considering the possibilities as she stood in her kitchen letting her coffee get cold. Was she isolating herself from her family by living away from the Castle? How was it that Gaël's insane ex hadn't even seen her? How did she get to a place where she was so apart from what was happening to her friends - and her family, because Carlos was as much her brother as Ty was. Those increasingly turbulent thoughts were why, in the end, she listened to Daddy, and didn't rush into Carlos' suite at Club Castle. She leaned on her stores of patience instead, and waited.

Waited until Dr. Prochazka and Gaël had gone back to the Victorian style house she'd spent half her teenage years in before she showed up at the door, a ridiculously cheerful bouquet in hand and a smile pasted on her face that didn't reach her worried dark eyes. "If I'm the first person to bring you flowers, love," she said though, "then I'm worried that our friends don't really get you, and I'm just going to have to retrain them. Of course, Ty is hopeless, but I've got hope for Oliver and Carlos."

The text message almost didn't wake him up; it was only because, by some coincidence, he gone to Mooseknuckle tonight and ended up upstairs with Eric that he even picked up the phone after the bartender elbowed him in the side. And even then he just stared, uncomprehending, before he made his fingers move in reply to Hadyn Novak. "I've got to go," he whispered as he tossed the covers back and pulled on clothes. "I'll explain later today," he added as Eric leaned up on his elbows. He'd come up with something, at least, when he could think past the feeling in the pit of his stomach as he nearly ran down the steps outside the bar and turned towards Club Castle.

None of the guards tried to stop him - one, in fact, laid a hand on his arm and said he could take him - and it was less than ten minutes between Hadyn's text message and Daniel's arrival at Carlos Sánchez's apartment door. He raised his brow just a bit as the door was opened by a handsome Latino man with Elisha Kagan at his back, but then he was inside, and the King of Clubs led him to the bedroom door before leaving with the man who couldn't be much older than Gael. Leaving before Daniel could demand to know what the fuck had happened.

And then there was Gael, and what happened paled in comparison. "Gael," he murmured as he sank down into the chair that had been pulled close to the bed. His hand lifted and smoothed over his hair. Somehow he had a suspicion he knew what - who had happened. Someone he'd asked to be sent away years before in return for a favor he'd done for Jordan Novak. Someone who damn well better be dead now.

He smiled, though, as Gael blinked up at him, and pushed his glasses up on his nose. "Rough night, mm?" he said, switching to French. It wasn't his native language the way it had been Léon's, but it had always been the private language between them and their children.

Ty had run off to fight dinosaurs at the edge of the Deck - or check on odd reports at the Outposts, one or the other - and Carlos was, as usual, half-convinced it was all a ploy to avoid paperwork. He didn't understand that, really; paperwork was just a matter of reading, signing and foisting it off on Krista, the Four who was trying to be a guard but right now was mostly an assistant in a uniform. The real challenge when sitting in for Ty Kagan, he always thought, was dealing with the other Suits. The Hearts were fine; the Diamonds just required patience, but the Spades?

Maybe it was because Esteban was old enough to be his father, really, he thought as he propped his boots up on Ty's desk and aimed a bland stare at the wall in front of him as the the Spade captain muttered a stream of Spanish in his ear.

"You know, I can speak that too," Carlos said it the same language, affecting a bore tone even as he aimed darts at the board in front of him with what was probably unwarranted force. "It doesn't really change that I need you to send me the report. I'm not asking for blood, here." Might be easier to get, though, he thought as flung a dart towards the target and the door opened to the right. He glanced up, expecting Krista, and blinked when it was...not.

"Hasta Luego, Esteban," he said before he hung up the phone and smirked a bit at Gael. "What, are you here to report a crime?"

He rather hated fittings. They were usually uncomfortable, and consumed with needles and standing still and just....annoyance. And then, currently, he was also uncomfortable with the questioning look Phillip Durand was giving him as to the bruises that littered his torso. Luckily the man didn't actually comment on it, and the fitting went on without much worry. Even if it was utterly boring, and Phillip kept sniping at him to stand still. Christ, it was a body suit with fur on it, just why did it take so long?

"Darling, might I change back into my clothing now?" He asked leaning down to peek at Phillip. "Pretty please, darling? I don't want to embarrass myself with, well..you know. And you are right there, and just imagine how uncomfortable we'll both be."

He smiled gleefully as Phillip grumbled at him and waved him off. Skipping away from the man, he moved to find his clothing before he started trying untangle the costume and slip his own clothing back on, all the while singing softly to himself. If he was quick, he thought, he might catch up to Carlos before the man disappeared in the company of Tyler Kagan for the night- and five beers in.

A couple of Threes had told him he looked smug today, which had earned them nothing more than laps. Carlos wasn't a harsh captain, he didn't mind being friendly with the other guards, but he knew well enough that if he didn't draw line somewhere, he was going to lose all authority. Besides that, he thought, tilting his head as he watched them round the track again, it was fun.

"Are you going to tell me I look smug too?" He asked blandly as Ty paused next to him. "Because, you know, I can probably convince Lady Eileen that you need to run laps too." He very much doubted he could pull it off, actually, but it was his favorite card to pull, if only because of the immediate eyeroll.