I'm sorry it's been so long since I updated this fic! I've just really been enjoying writing Capes and Capers lately. And I've been blown away by the response to that, which is always encouraging!

I heard the other day that the British magician Paul Daniels cut off one and a bit of his fingers in an accident with a buzz saw on New Year's Day. They have re-attached his index finger, but the tip of his ring finger has been sliced off.

I know he is like Marmite - people either love him or they hate him - but he is a very talented performer, and one of the reasons that I got into magic in the first place. I wish him well, and hope it's not the end of his career. I know that he's incredibly determined, so I don't think it will be.

But enough of that: on with the chapter. It picks up on the same day that the last one ended - the same day that Cook shagged Effy in the cupboard. Ooh, that sounded ruder than it meant to...


Chapter Twenty Six: You Keep It All In

Emily

Naomi and Cook left it late before arriving at the theatre to get ready for the show. Katie and I were beginning to get worried, as we hadn't heard from either of them all day. We weren't even sure if Cook was going to show up at all, after the activities of the morning. So I was a little surprised when the two of them finally strolled in like nothing was wrong, and giggling stupidly at their own in-jokes. I felt a bit peeved at first – I mean, how long does it take to send a quick text letting us know they were okay? But that soon ebbed away as I realised that they really seemed to have settled their differences.

After the show, the four of us collected together backstage.

"So everything's good now is it?" Asked Katie, looking between Naomi and Cook. They both grinned back at her.

"Yep, it certainly is" said Cook.

"And what exactly were you doing with Effy this morning?" Pressed Katie, not being one to let a subject drop. Cook gave her a chagrined smile.

"Er… I was just pumping her for information." Katie rolled her eyes at him.

"So that's how it's done" she answered, dryly. "And is that to be a regular occurrence, you bringing her to our rehearsal room?" Cook smirked at her.

"Why, do you fancy making it a threesome? I'm sure Effy would be up for that! I hear you've got a thing for licking fannies now." Katie shoved him playfully.

"Fuck off. Even if I did, I wouldn't touch Effy – not after seeing you play 'hide the magic wand' with her."

With a frustrated growl, Naomi interrupted their banter.

"Okay, we have a new rule" she said firmly. "Could everyone please stop screwing the rival magicians!" Katie and Cook fell silent instantly, both looking rather subdued. It crossed my mind that Katie should have argued that she hadn't slept with a rival magician, but she was unusually tight-lipped on that point. Not wanting Naomi to notice that – and feeling that the atmosphere had grown suddenly very tense – I spoke up.

"So does this mean I have to stop screwing JJ?" I asked. I was relieved to see everyone dissolve into a fit of giggles.

"That mong?" Asked Katie. "He's got even worse dress sense than Naomi!"

"Hey!"

Katie turned and smiled sweetly at Naomi.

"Sorry, but it's true. You look like you get dressed in the dark, and he looks like his mum buys all his clothes."

"Enough of this shit" said Cook, stepping between the two of them and wrapping an arm around Naomi's shoulders. "Let's go out and get fucking mental!"

I cast a quick look in Naomi's direction, and saw that she was staring at me apologetically. We had planned to have a quiet night in together, but that seemed to have been forgotten.

"I'm sorry" she mumbled to me. "I said I'd go out with Cook tonight. We haven't been out together just the two of us for ages." I knew that Cook and Naomi's friendship was probably still in need of some repair work, but that didn't stop the flash of jealousy that streaked through me at her words. "Come with us if you like?" She added, clearly as an afterthought. I hadn't missed the fact that she had said 'just the two of us', initially. I shrugged, and tried to look casual about it.

"No, I'm feeling tired. I'll just stay in tonight." Naomi continued to stare at me, as though trying to gauge if I was really okay with it.

"Katie, what about you then?" Asked Cook, oblivious to mine and Naomi's silent staring. Katie shook her head.

"Nah, I fancy some twin-time tonight." A huge grin stretched across Cook's face.

"To hell with a night out, I'd rather watch that!" Naomi tore her eyes away from mine, to give Cook a slap across his arm.

"They won't be doing what you're thinking!" She told him forcibly. "Come on, we'd better get going" she added. Cook strolled for the door, as Naomi stepped closer to me.

"I'd rather not watch you lezzers say goodbye" said Katie with a dramatic sigh. "Emily, I'll be in my room, okay?" I nodded at Katie, before she headed for the door.

Once we were alone, Naomi slid her arms around my waist.

"I'll make it up to you" she said.

"You'd better" I answered with a mock pout. Naomi nodded, before leaning closer. She pressed her lips rather hurriedly to mine, before pulling away swiftly.

"I'd better get going. I might call in on you later?"

Great, so I've got a drunk – and knowing how much she tends to drink with Cook, probably incomprehensible - Naomi to look forward to later tonight. But in the plus column, she does get very horny and rather passionate after a few drinks.

"Okay" I answered with a smile. "But if I'm not there, then you know I've just crashed in Katie's room." I didn't want her thinking that I was just pining for her return, now did I?


Later, Katie and I were lounging on the bed in my room, sharing a bottle of Vodka. We had ended up in my room, because I was the only one of the two of us to have any alcohol other than the exorbitantly priced mini-bar. We would have rather spent the evening at a bar, but spending time together in public just wasn't a possibility.

"So how are things going with you and Campbell?" Asked Katie, eyeing me closely.

"Great" I answered with a shrug, studiously avoiding her gaze. There was no fooling my sister.

"Really?" She pressed. I sighed.

"I don't know. She's opened up so much to me, but sometimes she still just seems so distant." I had noticed that Naomi hadn't been as ready to spend time with me over the past few days, and it pained me. Her decision to go out with Cook tonight particularly rankled, because we hadn't spent that many nights alone together recently.

"Maybe she still has some stuff to sort out with her husband" said Katie, gently. Well that's an understatement. Naomi has more baggage to deal with than Carrie Bradshaw's personal shopper. I couldn't stop a frown from crossing my face at the mention of Justin. "What's the deal with him anyway?" Asked Katie. "He talks to her like she's an idiot, and she just lets him!"

"They got married when she was really young" I explained, not sure how much of Naomi's history she would be comfortable with me sharing. "He treated her like shit for years, and made her feel worthless."

"Well, I can see why she left him. We bumped into him this morning. He called me a slut, can you believe that?" She asked, indignantly. "He'd seen those pictures, so he thought we were a couple. I went along with it, just to wipe the smug smile off his face."

A memory of something Cook had said earlier stirred in my brain.

"Is that why Cook said you like licking fannies now?" Katie rolled her eyes at the mention of Cook.

"I was only pretending to be a dyke!" She insisted. "Naomi said I wasn't very convincing, anyway. Which I take to be a compliment, actually." As Katie realised what she had said, her expression fell. "Not that there's anything wrong with being a dyke" she added hastily. I chuckled at her sudden about-turn, and reassured her that I wasn't offended. "What do lesbians do, anyway?" She asked suddenly. "I mean in bed." She wrinkled her nose as she considered her own question. "Is it all brogues and strap-ons?" The temptation to tease Katie a little bit was far too strong to resist.

"Have you been looking through my stuff?" I asked, in a demanding tone, pretending to be annoyed. Katie fell for it instantly, her eyes going wide with alarm.

"No! No, I haven't Em I promise!" She stuttered, defensively. "Honestly, I just thought…" Her sentence ground to a halt as I was unable to hold in my giggles.

"Katie relax!" I told her with a grin. "I don't have any brogues or strap-ons, okay?" Katie gave a sigh of relief.

"God, thank fuck for that! That's one mental picture that I really didn't need!" Katie's interest in lesbian sex seemed to vanish once that was established, and she made no further requests for information.

We spent the rest of the evening chatting and laughing together. It felt wonderful to reconnect with Katie, knowing that I finally had no secrets to keep from her. It also took me away from my concerns about Naomi, at least for a time.


Sometime around one in the morning, there was a soft knock at the door. Katie got up to answer it.

"Okay, keep your hair on" she muttered, as the knocking continued steadily. She swung the door open to reveal a grinning Naomi, leaning against the doorframe.

"My beautiful Em-leeee!" She slurred, wrapping her arms around my sister before she could stop her. "I want to do lots of naughty things to your naked body." Naomi's drunken brain seemed to process that there was something wrong. She frowned at Katie, who had stiffened in her embrace. "Not my beautiful Em-lee?" she asked in confusion, letting go of her grasp and taking a step backwards.

"No, that would be her" answered Katie, pointing in my direction. Naomi's eyes followed along her arm, until they came to rest on me.

"I think I might be drunk, because I'm seeing double!" She giggled stupidly at her own joke, before staring back at Katie. "Good job I realised you were the wrong twin. I nearly got confused and fucked you with my great big strap-on by mistake." Katie's eyebrows rose skywards, and she glanced hastily at me.

"I thought you said…"

"No Katie, she doesn't have one" I answered with a chuckle. I watched my adorable girlfriend as she moved unsteadily into the room. Katie and I had been drinking and were pretty tipsy, but Naomi was very drunk. She flopped ungainly down on the bed beside me.

"Urgh. Forgive my frunkedness?" She asked, with a cute pout on her lips. I nodded and smiled at her. Her eyes raked across my body. "I want to do lots of naked things to your naughty body" she told me, not at all bothered that she had made a similar offer to my twin, first of all. She shuffled closer and took hold of my t-shirt. I had to stop her from stripping it off there and then. Katie cleared her throat loudly.

"Well, I guess that's my cue to go. I'll leave you two alone to…" She shrugged, as the end of her sentence failed her. I stood up, walked over to Katie and gave her a hug.

As I closed the door behind my twin, Naomi looked up in confusion.

"Was it something I said?" She asked.

"No, but trying to strip me in front of my sister is a sure way to get rid of her." Naomi grinned at me.

"That's good to know" she said with a nod. I walked slowly back towards her, keeping my eyes trained firmly on hers.

"Now, what exactly did you want to do to my naked body?"


We were a little late arriving in the rehearsal room the next morning. Naomi was quite hungover, which made her grumpy. As ever, Cook showed no signs of his own late night.

"So what are we going to do about Freddie?" He asked. Naomi and I had filled the others in on the trick that Freddie had stolen from our show, and we were debating what to do about it.

"We'll have to find something else to fill that slot in the show" said Katie sadly.

"Why the fuck should we have to change?" Asked Naomi angrily. "They stole it, not us!"

"But the audience doesn't know that" answered Cook. "We've got the taxi drivers telling whoever will listen that they've stolen our show, but people will make their own minds up." He rose from his chair. "But there's one thing we can do that will really piss Freddie off." He looked steadily at Naomi as he spoke, carefully watching for her reaction. "We could perform the Mystic Cauldron like we do now, then follow it by exposing the method. Freddie can't perform it when everyone in his audience knows how it's done." Naomi gave a disparaging snort, but otherwise stayed silent.

"Isn't giving secrets away frowned on?" Asked Katie. Cook shrugged.

"Well, it's kind of a grey area."

"Exactly" added Naomi, firmly. "One that I'd rather not wade into."

"Naomi, people are exposing magic secrets all the time" argued Cook. "A bit of exposure doesn't hurt. There are shops up and down The Strip, selling tricks to complete amateurs." Naomi sighed, exasperated.

"So does that make it okay then? Everyone else does it, so fuck it!"

"That's not what I meant…" Naomi seemed to be working up quite a head of steam. She didn't let Cook finish.

"A bit of exposure is okay, because that helps to get people interested in magic in the first place. But you're not talking about a bit of exposure, you're talking about exposing a really old trick. Not to mention the principle behind it! You give that information to people, and they'll think they know how every show on The Strip is done!" Naomi took a breath, and seemed to calm herself down a little. When she spoke again, her voice sounded less agitated. "Besides, we don't want to get into a war like that with Freddie, do we? Not when our whole show hangs on one big secret. Let's not give him another reason to try and figure that out!" Cook nodded dumbly, and sank defeated into his chair.

"So he gets away with it. Again." Naomi grimaced at his words.

"I don't like it any more than you do, but that's not the way to beat them" she insisted. "We'll just have to think of another trick."

Our meeting rolled on into the afternoon without any notable progress. We all became increasingly frustrated as we tried and failed to think of a suitable trick to replace The Mystic Cauldron. Eventually we resolved to keep the show as it was, and hopefully come up with a replacement later on.


Things seemed to get pretty much back to normal over the next few days. As far as we could tell, Cook didn't see any more of Effy, and we saw no sign at all of Freddie. He seemed to be keeping a low profile, and I wasn't surprised at that. I felt sure that Cook would end up punching him if he had come swanning into The Garda Resort.

Things carried on much as they had done between Naomi and I too. We still spent plenty of time together, but at times I had the feeling that she was keeping me at arms length. It was frustrating, but when she closed herself off, her outer walls became impossible to penetrate.

As the week dragged on, I found my thoughts dwelling more and more on what had happened when my family were in town. Mum's reaction was particularly on my mind. I kept replaying her rejection over and over in my head, getting angry and upset at her all over again as I did so. Things came to a head one evening after the show. Katie sidled up to me, with an expression that told me I wouldn't like what she was about to tell me.

"I spoke to mum today. She says they're extending their stay in America to come back to Vegas in a few days time." My first, rather naïve thought was that they were coming back so that mum could make peace with me. But another glance at Katie's expression told me how wrong I was. "Mum says she wants to talk sense into you, once and for all" said Katie gently.

"For fuck's sake! What is wrong with her!" I huffed. Why the hell couldn't mum just accept this about me? I felt my anger at her rising up again, but then it was overtaken by an extreme sadness. My own mother was trying to convince me that who I am is wrong. Isn't she supposed to just love me the way I am?

I excused myself from the others as soon as I could, telling them that I wanted an early night. But I hadn't been long in my room when there was a knock on the door. I opened it to find Naomi on the other side.

"Katie told me about your mum" she said, as she moved swiftly inside the room. She wrapped her arms around me, and in that instant I seemed to fall apart.

"Why can't she just accept me?" I asked, as tears threatened to overwhelm me. Naomi seemed to have been expecting this. She stroked my hair, and made soothing noises as she moved us back towards the bed. We sat down, and Naomi continued to do whatever she could in an effort to comfort me.

"I know, Em" she whispered, consolingly. "I'm here, its okay."


The next morning, I woke up alone. Somehow, I wasn't even that surprised when I saw nothing but the crumpled sheets next to me when I woke up. I knew that it must have been a pretty intense night for Naomi. She had spent the better part of the night reassuring me that she was there for me, and that she loves me. I knew that it was all true, I just wished that the thought of it didn't still scare her so much. I sat up and called her name, in the vain hope that she was still somewhere in the room. Only silence greeted me.

I felt tears rising up again, but I pushed them away. I had let too many things slip through my grasp because I was too scared to take action. Well that wasn't going to happen again. Naomi and I have something really special. I was determined to find her, and make her understand that what we have is so much better than anything she has known before.


Don't worry, Naomi hasn't run very far.

So is anyone out there still reading this fic? I got really stuck with this chapter, but the story is going somewhere, I promise. I still have every intention of finishing it.