Sorry for any misspellings of names or anything... I didn't do my research on this, I just got an idea and began typing! Enjoy!
Henley stands backstage, nervous, as they clip tiny, transparent strings to a harness under her clothes. These strings are meant to keep her suspended in the air for almost a minute until she will be dropped and fall freely through the air into trusted arms. Well, almost trusted.
She's practiced the trick before, and the not-so-trustworthy-looking wiry strings held her up well enough, but Atlas wasn't there for that rehearsal. No, he had to go "run errands" whatever that meant. So she was strung up, seemingly floating through the air while encased in a glossy bubble, and when the bubble popped, somewhere backstage a button was hit, the clamps on her harness unlatched, and she shot towards the ground like a penny from atop the Empire State Building. Merit had been there when she'd neared the ground, and his strong arms had caught her easily. She trusted him.
That's not to say she didn't trust Atlas, but he was going to be doing this trick for the first time. In front of an audience. And he was nowhere near as strong as Merit, or even Jack.
When she had been his assistant, years ago, he'd made comments about her weight. She hadn't even been overweight, yet he'd still made snippy little comments here and there because she wasn't all skin-and-bones like Rebecca. It was obvious he hadn't seen what his comments did to her self-esteem. While she worked for him, she'd developed an eating disorder. She'd starve herself to the point of constant exhaustion, and then when she did convince herself to eat, it was in small quantities. Nibbles of a granola bar or a spoonful of yogurt. Nothing substantial. Unhealthy amounts. When she'd lost so much weight that her doctor told her she needed to gain some back, she'd quit working for him and hired a counselor to get her to a safe weight. Ever since then, she'd never felt quite right. Never felt comfortable in her own body.
Reflecting on all of this, she nearly chuckles at the irony as the assistants finish harnessing her. Her weight isn't her own problem now, but his. She wants to trust him, but suddenly she feels like a whale in her size four pants. She fidgets uncomfortably and her heart stops when Jack tells her she needs to be on stage. He notices her anxiety and tries to comfort her, though he's never been good with words. "You'll be fine," he says, and the sincerity in his eyes brings an almost-smile to her lips. "You've done this before," he tugs lightly on one of the wires. "They'll hold," but he knows that's not what this is about. He knows her story. "He'll catch you."
And he understands.