"Silent One"
Author's Note: For the most part, this story will revolve around Pace and his interactions with the Family. I don't own the Care Bears, and Soulful Heart Fox is owned by NebulaBelt. I only own Regal and Stellar, and their little family. Cheer Bear might be a little out of character, but she always struck me as the gossiping chatterbox type. This takes place around Pace's first birthday.
"Chapter 1: Happy Birthday"
This was a rather interesting day; though he had seen such days before, there had never been one that was held just for him. The Hall of Hearts was hung with multi-colored streamers, and balloons were tied to any and every object that was heavy enough not to float away. The birthday cake had a blue border, since the guest of honor's favorite color seemed to be blue. He couldn't read his own name on the cake, but he was transfixed by the dark blue curlicues that spelled out 'Patient Heart Liger'. And every Bear and Cousin, with the exception of Soulful Heart Fox and Secret Bear, was singing.
"Happy birthday, dear Patient Heart, happy birthday to you!" sang the Care Bear Family as their youngest family member stared unblinkingly at the single candle that topped his birthday cake. He knew what to do, having attended other peoples' birthday parties before, but it seemed a shame to ruin such a pretty sight by putting out the flame.
"Blow out the candle, sweetie." Regal Heart prompted him gently. Pace smiled up at her, then he drew in a deep breath and blew out the tiny flame. Amid the cheering that followed, Regal heard Connie rub it in Chance's face that at least Pace hadn't tried to eat his candle. Chance responded by blowing his noisemaker in her ear, drawing from her a squall of protest.
"All right, you two." laughed Stellar as he began to cut the cake and pass out slices to the Family. "What kind of ice cream do you want, Pace?"
Pace, who was at the emotional age of six but had been around for exactly one year, tapped his chin for a moment before pointing to the carton of strawberry ice cream. He gave no verbal reply, and while no one commented on this it didn't go unnoticed. Cheer Bear exchanged a look with Harmony, and both of them sadly shook their heads, Cheer 'tsking' in pity.
"Who wants what kind of ice cream?" asked Stellar, who hadn't noticed the head-shaking.
"Chocolate, please." said Hope.
"Black raspberry." said Bright Heart, who then nudged his friend, "Soulful?"
"Vanilla." said Soulful, looking scornfully at Cheer Bear who, thankfully, was oblivious.
Despite all outward appearances, this wasn't a typical birthday party. The guest of honor had never uttered a word in his life, and since his sisters had started talking at three months of age this was rather worrying. Pace had been a strange baby. He hardly ever cried, except when he was in pain, which wasn't very often. He would scream bloody murder whenever No Heart was around, but for the most part he kept his own council. His parents had resorted to setting their alarm to go off every two hours at night so that he got his feedings, and they had even brought him to Take Care to make sure everything was all right. Aside from the fact that Pace was prone to athsma, Take Care could find nothing wrong with him.
It was inevitable that the rest of the Family would talk about it and speculate, but no one did so today; this wasn't the appropriate time for it, if there ever was an appropriate time. Pace's parents and siblings were fiercely protective of him since No Heart had kidnapped him a year ago, and they tolerated no comments that suggested that Pace was of below-average intelligence.
Aside from his immediate family, the only ones who didn't seem worried were True Heart, Noble Heart, Grams Bear, Secret Bear, and Soulful Heart. All of them - with the exception of Secret and Soulful, who said very little - argued that Secret Bear rarely spoke at all, and when he did it was in a whisper or by signing his message with his paws. They asserted that Pace would speak when he was ready, and that was that.
Patient Heart wasn't unintelligent. Quite the opposite, he was in a constant state of observation, and he was able to convey his wishes easily enough. He got his point across when he was annoyed, too. Rather than throwing a tantrum he would take a passive-aggressive approach, leaving peanut shells, cracker crumbs, or candy wrappers around the house. Once he had left a handful of peppermint wrappers on Soulful Heart's pillow when the fox was babysitting and wouldn't let the cub climb on the furniture; Soulful hadn't minded it all that much, and said he preferred the wrappers to biting and hissing. If this was said around Connie, it was usually followed by a playful glare from the fox, and an equally-playful saucy comment from the liger.
When the time came for Pace to open his presents, he did something that brought smiles to several faces. He opened each card before opening each present, in stark contrast to other children who had to be reminded that the cards were even part of the package. And though he couldn't read the letters, he insisted on looking at every one. In truth, he was enjoying the pictures and the pretty cursive script, but for many it brought back memories of a favorite game he used to play when he was a toddler.
The first time he did this was when Soulful Heart was babysitting him, and Regal and Stellar had just arrived to take him home. They stayed to talk for a few minutes, and while they were preoccupied with some grown-up chit-chat or other, Pace became bored and toddled over to one of Soulful's many bookshelves. Regal and Stellar suddenly stiffened when they saw Pace holding a large copy of Homer's 'The Iliad' in his tiny paws. Soulful followed their gaze, and his face became a mask of apprehension as visions of torn pages and scribbled-on covers danced through his mind.
But destruction hadn't been Pace's intention. He had often seen Soulful Heart holding one of these strange paper things called 'books', but he simply couldn't see what the big attraction was. True, some of the covers were pretty, but a lot of them were ratty-looking and even a little moldy. Obviously very old, but still shown equal amounts of care as the pretty new ones.. So it couldn't be because of their outer coverings. The secret must be inside...
And so, little Pace had sat himself down on the floor and carefully opened the book, staring fixedly at its pages. He was blissfully unaware of his parents' exclamations of how 'cute' it was, though he looked up when he heard Soulful Heart give a rare chuckle. Though Pace had no way of knowing it, the book was upside-down. Taking the adults' reactions as permission to continue, Pace heaved a satisfied sigh and pretended to pore over the contents of one of Soulful's precious books. He didn't even look up when his mother took a picture...
Of course, there was one little drawback to Pace's sudden deep respect for books; the mistreatment of anything that resembled a book, from a stack of napkins to a newspaper, greatly upset him. Stellar quickly learned that if he wanted to put his paper in their recycling bin, he had to do it when Pace wasn't around or the cub would cry inconsolably until the paper was fished out. This gradually stopped when Pace learned that newspapers, in fact, were not books.
The party eventually dispersed, and those who didn't have anything pressing to do stayed to help clean up. Pace was found sleeping among the pile of discarded wrapping paper. Stellar smiled, and lifted his son in his arms. Pace moved his head sleepily, but kept his eyes closed.
"Poor fella's exhausted." chuckled Stellar, "The others conked out on their first birthdays too, remember, Regs?"
"Yeah," she chuckled as she began gathering up the wrapping paper and stuffing it into a garbage bag, "with cake on their faces and melted ice cream in their fur."
"Not with Pace." said Connie, pointing to the cub's clean face. Patient Heart Liger was very firm on being clean. When he had begun to walk he would take a step, lift his other foot and dust it off, then take a step with that one before repeating the process. He stopped doing this when it proved to be too tedious, but he almost never walked where he was sure to get dirty feet. Regal Heart had taped him doing this, and Pace would point to himself on the TV as if seeing himself on the screen was an amazing trick.
Connie was clearing some dirty paper plates and napkins from the table when she heard Cheer Bear talking to Harmony Bear. She knew better than to eavesdrop, and she was beginning to move off so as to give them their privacy when she heard Cheer mention Pace's name. She paused, then sidled a little bit closer once more, making a show of wiping the table with a damp cloth.
"He's just the sweetest little boy." Cheer was saying, her voice low but not low enough, "It's such a shame..."
"Hush!" Harmony told her, "He's just a late bloomer, that's all. He'll talk. Eventually..."
"I hope so." said Cheer, "Though he was always a little - "
"A little what?" asked Connie, in a would-be nonchalant voice.
Cheer Bear jumped guiltily, and continued, "I was going to say, he was always a little shy." Which was the truth, but unfortunately it was easy to jump to the wrong conclusion.
"Uh-huh..." Connie said dryly.
Cheer blushed, embarrassed at being caught talking about Pace, angry at herself for being so inconsiderate, and annoyed at Connie for overhearing. "I was. Didn't Regal ever teach you that it isn't right to eavesdrop on private conversations?"
Connie's eyebrows lifted in a patently innocent expression. "Oh, that was a private conversation? My bad. Though, I must say, private conversations should be reserved for private settings, not public ones. And my mother also informed me that only a broody hen gossips!" And with that, she spun on her heel and left the Hall of Hearts.
Cheer gaped in shock, and when she finally found her voice, all that came out was an indignant, "Well!"
"She's right, Cheer..." murmured Harmony, not wanting to draw anyone's attention.
"Well, I didn't mean anything by it..." said Cheer, looking remorseful.
Soulful Heart, who took no pains to hide the fact that he himself had been eavesdropping, snorted, "No, no, you never do."
Cheer nearly jumped out of her skin; she hadn't seen him standing there. "I beg your pardon?"
The fox did not deign to explain himself. He went to join Bright Heart and Gentle Heart by the punch bowl, flicking his tail dismissively at the bears.
Stellar didn't see or hear what happened, he only saw his daughter stalking out of the building. He heard Cheer whispering to Harmony, something about 'rude foxes', but when he gave the pink bear a questioning look she merely bit her lip and went back to cleaning up the refreshment tables. The tiger turned to his wife, nodded for her to take Pace, then handed his son over. Pace immediately opened his eyes and pointed to the floor, indicating that he wanted to be put down. Regal did so, and Pace giggled as his father ruffled his mane. Then, drawing in a deep breath as if preparing himself for an unpleasant undertaking, Stellar Heart went out to find his eldest daughter.
And find her he did, but he didn't approach. Connie was speaking with Tugs, who was making placating gestures with his paws. Stellar watched them for several minutes before Noble Heart tapped him on the shoulder, making him yelp. "Ah! Yes?"
Noble Heart chuckled. "You're still so jumpy!"
Stellar blushed, rubbing the back of his neck as he watched his daughter being calmed by the boy-cub he had watched grow up into a fine example of a Care Bear. He sighed, folding his arms and leaning against the doorjamb.
"This is a very familiar scene." Noble Heart smiled.
"How so?" asked Stellar, who was feeling decidedly left out.
The purple horse looked on as Tugs finally coaxed a smile to Connie's face, and said, "The day you joined the Family, Brave Heart was just as leery of you being near his sister as you are of any male your daughters happen to show an interest in."
Stellar snickered wryly, and replied, "I figured that out for myself when he stared at me like I was a pond-critter under a microscope. But...this isn't quite the same. I mean..."
"What?" asked Noble Heart.
Stellar sighed, and mumbled, "She...won't always need me. She hardly needs me as it is. I know it's stupid, but it just seems unfair that Tugs can fix something and I can't..."
Noble Heart nodded sympathetically. "I know. It was the same with all my little cubs. None of them are mine by blood, but I helped to raise them. It's hard to watch them grow up and leave...But in the end, you have to let them go."
The tiger smiled sadly, and if Noble Heart didn't know any better, he could swear he even got a little misty-eyed. "Yes...but not yet. Not today."
"No..." Noble Heart said softly, "Not today. Now, let's go inside before she sees us and tries to dispute that!"
Stellar heartily agreed to that, and the two of them turned to go back inside. Stellar nearly tripped over Pace, who was standing right behind him. "Patient Heart!" Stellar glowered playfully, "Are you trying to give your poor dad a heart attack?"
The cub giggled and hugged his father tightly around the waist. The tiger lifted him easily, settling his son's slight weight on his hip as they headed inside.
"Besides," said Noble Heart, sounding uncharacteristically serious, "I have a few things to say to Cheer Bear."
"Oh?" the tiger raised an eyebrow.
"Oh, nothing for you to worry about." said Noble Heart, chucking Pace lightly under the chin as he addressed the tiger, "I just need to remind her of something..."
"I still don't see why I should apologize, Tugs..." Connie groused, though she was in a better mood now. "I'm not sorry. Wouldn't that be lying?"
Tugs tapped her lightly on the nose. "You're missing the point, Con. Yes, she was a little out of line, but she wasn't trying to be cruel. She does care about Pace. She's worried about him."
"I know..." she sighed.
The light blue bear smiled playfully, winking at her. "Besides, would it be that big a blow to your considerable pride if you were to simply smooth over a 'broody hen's' ruffled feathers?"
She smirked. "How long have you known me?"
"Since we were both in diapers, that's how long. Come on..." he wheedled, "I'll stop bugging you if you do."
Her smirk turned into a grin. "Who said you were bugging me?"
Tugs quirked an eyebrow, and before she could stop him he had her in a headlock and was tickling her. Ignoring her shrieks of protest, he said, "Promise you will, and I'll let you go!"
"No!" she cried petulantly, laughing hard.
"Promise me..." he tickled her neck.
"Aah! Okay, okay! Uncle! Uncle!" she broke free and shoved him to the clouds, where he merely sat and laughed at her. "All right, smarty...but don't think I'll forget this."
"Of course not." he giggled, getting to his feet and steering her pointedly in the direction of the Hall of Hearts.
More to come...