A/N: I DO NOT own any part of the Law & Order franchise, or the rights to the song Lions by The Features.
Lions
Jodi watched from behind the curtain as Alexander danced across the stage, each second coming closer and closer to her entrance.
Behind the stage, people were walking back and forth, shouting orders and making sure everything was perfect.
Slowly, she rushed onstage, feeling the fabric of her dress flutter against her calves.
It was a calf-length thin dress, with braided shoulder straps. As Jodi emerged onstage, there was the polite applause announcing her presence, and she moved to the center of the stage before turning around.
Alexander's alternate stood before her, extending a hand. He played the role of the handsome man Von Rothbart continued to transform into.
Jodi grabbed his hand and he swung her around, then the two began to dance with one another.
The wove to and from, never making contact after the first touch. He pulled her into him, and Jodi moved away, before turning around.
Suddenly, there was an explosion of smoke and color, as Philip dropped the small smoke ball onto the ground.
Philip and Alexander transferred spots so quickly that Jodi herself was barely even able to register it, let alone the audience.
Alexander pulled her from the audience as the music grew ominous, twirling her around the stage.
She fought visibly in his arms, trying to pull away and feeling as though she really had just been caught by the evil sorcerer. He grabbed her back, before pulling her back into the scenery of trees.
Almost immediately, a large group costume people and technicians flocked upon her, all but ripping off her first costume to put her into the swan one. Barely aware of anything but the next dance moves, Jodi listened intently as the pit orchestra played a series of fillers for the coda.
Taking a page from the film Black Swan, the costume crew made a last minute decision to equip Jodi and the rest of the swans with real wings. They were fitted with sleeves made from swan feathers. Jodi's were the largest, followed by the big swans', which were medium sized. The rest of the girls had smaller ones.
"GO!" one of the technicians screamed.
As she did so, the music changed, and Alexander grabbed Jodi forcefully before pulling her back onto the stage.
The music rose to forte with her second entrance, and as dramatic as possible, Jodi flapped her arms, feeling herself rise with emotion.
She had forgotten about the audience. She had forgotten about the show. She had forgotten that any part of it was real. All she felt, was that she was doomed. Doomed to live as a swan, by this lake until he true love came, knowing full well he would mistakenly betray her.
Alexander put his arms around her, and Jodi continued to flap her arms before moving off the stage. The smoke continued to dissipate, and as she moved backstage she heard a thunderous applause. Alexander let go of her, before moving to high-five someone behind him.
"Great job Jodi!" one of the girls cried as she brushed past.
She replied with a curt nod, looking back at Alexander.
Christopher ran past both of them, and the entire cast for the next scene at the palace emerged.
Jodi continued to followed Alexander before turning around, looking at everyone.
"That was fucking incredible!" he chuckled, before leaning forward and picking her up.
It was only then that Jodi really came back to reality, and shook her head.
"It was?" she whispered softly.
Alexander looked at her strangely, and opened his mouth to say something before they were jostled by a group of dancers dressed as the townspeople, running to make it on stage.
The song from the castle scene began to play, and Jodi made her way back to her dressing room.
As she did so, she closed her eyes, trailing a hand on the concrete wall and willing her heart to slow down. Her toes throbbed harder than ever from spending nearly all day en pointe, but she didn't care. If Alexander was right, she had just opened the first scene of the season incredibly, and there was nothing to be upset about with that.
"Jesus, she was incredible!" Olivia exclaimed as the second scene began.
"Yeah, she was." John replied faintly.
He felt his phone vibrate in his pocket, and dug down before retrieving it.
There was a text message from an unknown number, and he was lucky that Olivia had looked over his shoulder at that moment.
"It's from Trevor." she said, furrowing her brows.
"Sir, I'm going to have to ask you to turn that off."
John looked up, to find a tall black man bending over him with a white vest on. John turned off his phone and dropped it back in his pocket. The man gave him a quick nod before departing.
"Where the hell did he come from?" John asked.
"Don't know. That quiet, guy could stage a home invasion and no one would even know." Olivia replied, before turning her attention back onstage.
The dancers had on a variety of colored gowns, and it was evident some sort of celebration was going on.
"What's going on now?" John asked, leaning over towards Olivia.
"There's a feast held in honor of the prince, the guy standing on top of those stairs right now. It's in honor of his 21st birthday, and he has to chose a bride."
John nodded, watching as a young fellow who looked a bit older than Jodi. He was smiling so hard, it looked as if he were in pain and looking at the way his tights hugged every single part of his lower bod John could see why.
"What straight man in his mind would go out wearing tights?" John asked.
"One trying to pick up chicks." chuckled Elliot, motioning to a group of girls sitting in the row across from them.
They were giggling loudly, bumping one another and looking up at the boy as though he was Jesus himself.
As time went on, John himself began to lose interest until the curtain closed before reopening.
Once again they were in a forest, and the prince was dancing through it, carrying a large rifle. John forced himself not to laugh, watching to boy dance daintily across the stage with the gun before pointing it at a group of female swans in the corner.
Walking behind a bush, he crouched down in front of everyone, holding up his gun and pointing it directly across the stage. As he did so, Jodi emerged once more and John sat up.
There was a crown on top of her red hair, which had been done up on top of her head. Amidst the sparkling jewels and white makeup, she looked more beautiful than John had ever seen before. He did noticed an intense look of pain on her face though, as she moved across the stage on her toes, flapping her arms once more.
This time, the feathered sleeves that had once covered her arms were gone, and it was apparent to the audience she was now supposed to be human again.
The prince lowered his gun, standing up slowly and looking at her as though entranced. Jodi spun around, looking up at the ceiling before turning her attention to the prince hiding in the bushes.
He stepped from them, and Jodi jumped dramatically, taking several steps back.
He continued to move towards Jodi, and she continued to move back, shrinking away as though fearful.
The prince looked down at his gun, setting it on the ground gently before outstretching a hand, walking towards Jodi more slowly and catiously this time.
Jodi hesitated, before stepping towards him, simply looking at him as though she was curious.
As the music played, they stepped to and from one another, coming close, but never touching.
Once he would get close, Jodi would step away, and they continued to do this before he grabbed Jodi, lifting her up towards the sky.
Jodi's frame emerged from the darkness of the theater, and John was stunned. Jodi moved so that it seemed she was almost floating.
As she moved, it literally looked as though she really was the character. In his line of work, John was trained to read emotions and he could see the pain and sorrow on her beautiful face.
The two grabbed one anothers hands, and began to finally really dance together. The prince held Jodi tightly, as though afraid to let her go and she turned around, before spinning around and moving offstage once again.
The other swans emerged, forming lines and dancing past one another.
John grinned. His wife, The Swan Queen.
"Fuck." Jodi swore, putting up one of her feet as she felt something wet in her toe-box.
She untied to silk laces of her shoes, before pulling it off, revealing her big to to be covered in blood.
"Someone get a first aid kit!" one of the technicians yelled, before pushing Jodi back into the make-up chair.
Her artist (who she now knew as Geraldine) returned, dumped some make-up remover on a cloth before moving towards Jodi's face.
They had a limited amount of time before her palace entrance, and she had to have her makeup redone, as well as change costumes to assume to role of Odile.
"Here's your new shoes. I melted them down for you." a soft-spoken boy said, handing her a pair of black pointe shoes.
"Who gave these to you? Their brand new?" Jodi asked, turning her head before having it jerked back in place by Geraldine.
"I know, they just said to give them to you." the boy said, brushing brightly before leaving.
It was that very reason that her toes where bleeding. Everyone here should have known the dangers of dancing in shoes that had not been broken-in, especially onstage.
Someone came back and grabbed her feet, rubbing her toe down with something that stung like hell.
"Hold this." Geraldine said, moving Jodi's hands to her face.
Jodi pressed her fingers down on what felt like a slimy mask, and immediately felt a strange sensation as it stuck to her skin.
It covered the area around her eyes, and almost felt like another skin.
"Does that feel like it's stuck?" Geraldine asked.
Jodi nodded.
Geraldine then grabbed both edges of the material, before pulling it off of her face. As she did so, she turned Jodi towards the mirror.
The area around her eyes was covered in black and silver makeup with such fine detail that she did not even know what it say.
"What was that?" she asked.
"Just a little idea I had my freshman year. Kind of like that nail polish you tear off and put on your nails, only with makeup. I paint the print on a special type of material and use a bonding glue, then it imprints on the skin. You like it?"
"I really do." Jodi smiled, looking up at Geraldine.
As soon as the friendly moment arrived though, is disappeared. Geraldine's face was replaced with her usual scowl and she moved to Jodi's hair.
"I'm leaving your hair down. It will be in your face. Deal with it."
Jodi nodded, standing up when Geraldine told her to so that she could move to costume. And it was back on stage.
"Oh my God, Anthony that's your sister?"
Anthony had his arm around some buxom blonde, who's name he had actually forgotten. Her voice was so annoying that he felt like scratching out his eyes every single time she talked.
"Yeah, my little sis." he replied, watching onstage as Jodi spun around in her black outfit.
"She's so pretty. I remember when I used to want to be a ballerina, expect I didn't want to have to walk around with turned-out feet like a duck, which is just weird, and I dunno it looked like it-"
Anthony tuned her out, turning to Olivia. She was with some guy, leaning over and whispering in his ear. The two of them chuckled, and Anthony felt his heart skip a beat as she grasped the guys hand. Beside her was John, staring intently onstage and staring at his wife, and Elliot was with his own wife, who happened to be a real babe.
"-and everyone said it hurt really bad, and I mean I cry just went I get a papercut. I dunno. I mean, I dunno, I guess I would try it. Just try it though."
Anthony fought the urge to tell her to shut the fuck up, and looked over at Olivia again.
She was hotter in that dress then he ever would have imagined. For a chick her age, she had an incredible body. Even better than Madonna's, who was all muscle.
Anthony broke his attention when everyone began to clap loudly, and looked onstage where his sister was positioned in some sort of contorted bow.
He joined in clapping, still tuning out Ms. December beside him and joining in with the applause.
As it died down, the music began again and Anthony turned his head once more to Olivia. She looked up, giving him a quick smile which he returned before looking down quickly, feeling his heart speed up.
Olivia.
Jodi and Christopher grasped one anothers hand tightly, running up the ramp on the middle of the stage. It was masked by several large scenic rocks, and the top was fashioned to look like a cliff over top the lake.
Both of them held each other during the final notes of the song, looking up to the audience before throwing themselves backwards off of the top of the cliff.
Jodi gasped as they landed on the trampoline below, grasping its sides and looking up at the ceiling. Christopher laughed loudly, sitting up as some of the crew came back to help them.
"That was sick!" he grinned, getting up and wiping his sweaty palms on his tights.
With help, Jodi pulled herself up as well, fighting back tears as her feet screamed in pain. Whoever had elected to have her wear new shoes before the performance must have lost their mind.
Jodi stood up with some of the crew, and peeked out of the curtain. Alexander was struggling around onstage, dragging out his death longer than needed. Jodi sighed, making her way to the dressing rooms.
"Where are you going? We have to go back out after we're done." Christopher said.
As he did so, the woman who had played his mother walked over, still wearing her crown and gown before putting her arms around him.
"He handsome." she said in a husky voice, flicking out her tongue and brushing it against his ear.
Christopher immediately turned his attention to her, and Jodi left the too, walking to the other side of the stage.
Closing her eyes, she leaned against the wall, breathing deeply.
"Great job Swan Queen." one of the light coordinators said, tapping her with his clipboard.
"Thankyou." she replied softly, bowing her head.
She had been so focused on her performance she had not even seen John or anyone else for that matter. She hoped he had liked it. Even if he didn't, she knew he would be brutally honest which would hurt, but make things better.
The music stopped, and the theater erupted into magnificent applause. Jodi watched as several guys pulled the curtains closed with a lever. The swans and Alexander rushed backstage, and Alexander grinned, giving her a thumbs up.
When she looked down, she raised an eyebrow at his costume. Or, lack thereof.
Going along with the American 2005 performance at the Kennedy Center, the costume department apparently wanted to have Alexander wearing as less as they possibly could without it being distasteful.
"Yeah." he muttered sheepishly.
He wore a great cape but then nothing else except a set of leaves covering his groin and backside. Other than that, was for the most part naked.
"Come on." he said, grabbing her hand.
They ran back onstage as the curtains opened, and both of them bowed. Seconds later, Christopher appeared, and the three received a quick standing ovation.
Jodi stepped forward, moving into a ballerina curtsy, bowing her head. When she looked up, she saw John sitting in the front row on the end.
He grinned, and she gave him the smallest of smiles before standing up, and leaving the stage.
Finally, she was perfect.