Merritt flops down onto the couch next to Henley, while Jack sits on the couch next to the two of them and Daniel sits in a chair next to the door across from Jack.
"Do me a favor, visualize your most adventurous sexual experience." Merritt says in his slow drawl.
"Stay out of my head, you perv." Henley replies definitively.
"Oh, well, no, if I stay out of head, I'm never going to get into your pants."
"Right." She replies as if that answers everything.
While the man who is over a decade older than the escape artist flirts with her, Danny frowns and looks over at Jack who looks up at him knowingly while smiling.
Now, one could debate why they shared this look between them before Thaddeus Bradley interrupted, but the real reason is because of a conversation the two had shared earlier that day.
* D * J * H * M *
When the four horsemen were discussing how they would get the security questions out of Tressler, Merritt was quick to volunteer flirting with Henley to make Danny jealous. Obviously, the mentalist thought he was helping to push the couple along in admitting their feelings for each other, but in reality, Henley's feelings were completely unrequited.
After Danny discovered Snuffles and his apparent inability in mentalism, Jack and Danny were sitting together discussing the show they were putting on that night.
"Oh, really?" Danny smirks with an eyebrow up in Jack's direction.
"Yes, really, " Jack replies laughing, "if you just believe in magic, Danny, maybe you can be as good as me at card throwing someday. Maybe even as good as you are at mentalism and avoiding Henley's advances." He says teasingly, nudging Danny's shoulder with his own.
"Well, Mr. Wilder, I don't know if I'll ever be as good as you, but I sure hope I can be." Danny teases back, choosing to ignore the comment about Henley.
They laugh and smile at each other for a moment before Jack sighs. "Do you think she really has feelings for you?"
"Oh, absolutely." Danny says, while looking out the window.
"Do you think she knows that Merritt likes her?" Jack looks behind his seat. Now that they got the information out of Tressler, there is no need for Merritt to continue flirting with Henley. They've dropped the act, but Henley is laughing genuinely at Merritt's attempts at making her feel special, as he said she deserved when they first met.
"I think she's a bit too blinded by her affections towards me to realize that he's not joking around."
"That sucks for Merritt."
"Indeed it does."
"Especially because he seems to really like her but he's still trying to help her get you to notice her." Danny frowns for a second.
"Do you think so?"
"Yeah."
"Huh, interesting." Jack looks over at Danny, who looks like he's deciding something in his head.
"What are you thinking over there, Danny?"
"I'm thinking that I may owe Merritt a favor."
"Are you going to talk to Henley?"
"Yes, I think so."
"How do you think that's going to go?"
"I think she will be upset, but when she realizes that I will never return the feelings, she may be more willing to move on. I may need to speak to Merritt as well. I don't think that will go over well though given that he is not my biggest fan."
"I mean, I can talk to him, if you want?"
"That would be really nice, thank you, Jack."
Danny looks at Jack gratefully, glad he does not need to have a heart-to-heart talk with the mentalist. Jack laughs, "How quickly do you think he's going to step up his game."
Daniel smiles back, "Immediately."
* D * J * H * M *
"Hey, uh, Henley, can I speak with you for a moment." Danny says, with his hands behind his back standing in the hall outside of their waiting room.
"Sure, Danny, what's up?" He motions to her that they walk into the waiting room and they sit next to each other on the couch.
"Well, I just wanted you to know that I am...aware of your feelings for me and before you get hurt, I want you to know that I have no intentions on returning them."
Henley looks a little shocked. Not necessarily angry, but definitely surprised. Almost more at the fact that Daniel is willingly talking about emotions than anything else.
"Oh, well, I mean if you're sure?"
"Yes, I am." Danny is confident in that, he knows that he will never develop feelings for Henley, but she is his friend and he really does not want to cause any problems between the two of them. He does understand where the misconception that he liked her in such a way came from.
J. Daniel Atlas had a reputation of sleeping around with his assistant's and any female, as well as the occasional male, who was blown away by his magic abilities and charisma. Unfortunately for him, Henley was both devastatingly attractive and playing hard to get during her time as his assistant. At that point in time, the challenge was appealing and he was definitely chasing her. He had mistaken this challenge as being real feelings and pushed her a bit too hard, in hopes that she would leave and he wouldn't have to face his feelings. But after she left and started her own shows, he realized that while he missed her as a very skilled assistant, he did not miss her romantically.
Henley stared at Danny, practically sizing him up, trying to understand his motivations for telling him this.
"I can see that you are confused. I felt the need to make this known to you for several reasons. The most important being, as I stated, that I do not wish for you to be upset or for there to be tension in our friendship."
"Well, Danny, I guess I can't fault you for that. Thank you for telling me."
"Thank you for understanding." Danny looks relieved, and honestly, Henley does too. She gives him a friendly hug and smiles at him. Danny stands and goes to sit in the chair by the door as Jack and Merritt walk into the room. Merritt immediately goes to sit next to Henley while Jack claps Danny on the shoulder and gives him a quick grin before taking a seat on the couch next to the new lovebirds of the horsemen.
* D * J * H * M *
Jack and Merritt are walking a ways behind Danny and Henley as they make their way to the waiting room. Jack sees Danny stop and ask Henley something and then they make their way into the waiting room. He knows that Danny is about to tell Henley he doesn't like her the same way she likes him and Jack knows that now is the time to tell Merritt.
"Hey, uh, Merritt."
"Yeah, kid?"
"Listen, I just, okay, I'm no mentalist or anything, but I've noticed that you seem to like Henley."
Merritt sighs, he and Jack are friends, he's practically a father figure to him, there's really no use, that he sees, in lying. "Yeah, I guess I do, but there's no need to talk about it when she and Danny are going to end up together."
"I don't think they are, man. You weren't wrong about her feelings being unrequited."
Merritt looks at Jack in interest, "Oh? Is that so? Is there a reason you happen to know that?"
Jack looks right back at him, "Yeah, Danny and I were talking about it."
"And this doesn't have anything to do with the feelings that you have for our little Danny, does it?"
Jack knows better than to give away anything. He knows that Merritt is only guessing and waiting for his face to give away his true feelings. So he schools his expression and hopes that he isn't so obvious.
"Oh, that's so cute, Jackie-poo, I'm so proud of you putting on your big boy pants." Merritt says while pinching his cheek. Dammit, Jack thinks.
"Okay fine, that's not the point, " he laughs while swatting away Merritt's hand while he coos at Jack, " I just wanted you to know that Henley knows now that Danny won't return her feelings and if you want to do something about, you should."
"Well, thank you for you and your boyfriend's blessing, I do so appreciate it." Merritt responds and then walks into the room with Jack behind him. With a new sense of purpose, Merritt plops down next to Henley. Jack makes his way onto the couch across from Danny after he silently lets him know that he's spoken to Merritt.
As Merritt immediately starts flirting with Henley and she responds in kind, Jack and Danny share a look across the room. Danny frowning, wondering how asking about sexual endeavors is honestly Merritt's go to on wooing Henley, and Jack silently laughing because of course that would be the first thing Merritt says.
Maybe now that he doesn't have to worry about Henley, Jack should let Danny know how he feels? But at the same instant, Thaddeus Bradley walks into the room and takes the thought with him. Jack vows to himself, that when the timing is right, he would talk to Danny. Little does he know, Danny is having the same exact thought across the room.
*End*
A/N: So I realized after I published my first story that I didn't leave an author's note, so my bad on that one. Anyways, just wanted to thank anyone who reads my stories, I really appreciate it. Clearly, I'm not the best of writers at the moment, so if you have any constructive critism at all, please feel free to share it with me. Also, if you have any ideas for stories that you think I may be able to do justice, let me know that as well. Thank you!