(After looking at the blueprints)
Henley's Pov:
I'm curious about everyone here so I call for a team meeting. "Everyone come to the study I wanna talk to you guys."
Merritt and Danny come in first followed by the 'Twins' with their arms locked together and in a heated discussion.
"No Jack, you've got it all wrong. The Wolverine is not the best in the X-Men."
"Yes it is Liv. Don't argue with me, I'm right."
Daniel gets aggravated. "Will you two shut up? You have been having this conversation for 34 minutes. We are all sick of it. Quit acting like five years olds before I lock you in a closet."
Jack visibly flinches at that. Everyone notices how pale he gets especially Olivia. She takes his arms, backs him up against the wall and makes him sit before crouching in front of him and whispering things none of us can hear. That doesn't work so she stands up. "You've pushed my hand Jack. I didn't want to do this."
She grabs the bag of gummy bears off the table and shoves three in her mouth. "Countdown. Three. Two. One."
Jack jumps up so fast we flinch. "Liv stop hogging the gummy bears, they're mine too!" He goes to grab one but stops. "What time is it?" He grumbles. Danny spouts off, "Like 6:30, why?"
Jack falls to the floor and pouts. "Dang I'm not allowed to have gummy bears after 5 o'clock or I'll be up all night." He jumps up again with an evil grin. "Idea. You wanna play games Liv? Let's play." He runs into the kitchen and comes out with their Spicy Doritos.
Olivia lunges but Jack blocks the attack. "Jack! Don't you dare eat the Spicy Doritos, those are mine!" By the end of the sentence she is speaking so high pitch and he is smirking so back I am scared. "Just because I can't eat those after 5 doesn't mean you can!" She counters.
"Yes it does Olivia! Those are the rules we set!" Jack crosses his arms and his smirk grows even more. "BOOM!" He yells.
I have to interrupt or else this will go on forever. "Guys sit down! I want to get to know everyone better."
Daniel decides to make a snarky comment, "Why in the world Henley would you want to get to know those to freaks…?" He jesters to Liv and Jack, "Anymore that you would have to," at the same time Jack and Olivia squeal and say "story time!" before liv sits on Jack's lap on the floor.
Merritt laughs. "I love those guys. They are my new best friends." He then calls over to the 'Twins'. "Can I be friends with you two? You are hilarious." They just nod really big like toddlers after being offered candy, which I guess they are.
"Okay, so I'll ask everyone some questions so we can get to know each other better." I am so excited to get to know my new teammates. "I have my gloves that no one is allowed to touch. What is everyone else's?"
We go around in a circle to answer. Merritt say's "My Fedora's". Danny goes with "My socks" which I never really understood. We get to the 'twins' and of course in true fashion they answer together. "Our jackets." But Olivia continues and even Jack looks confused as to where she is going with this. "Or Jack's playing cards. They have super special magic powers."
Olivia has a tear run down her face and Jack wraps his arms around her. She turns and hides her face in his neck. I look toward Daniel and Merritt. Danny looks as confused as I do but Merritt seems to understand.
Jack interrupts our staring contest. "You can tell them Merritt. She doesn't mind." Merritt nods before leading us into another room.
He sighs before beginning. "Their heads are like a horror story. Let's just start with that. It'll be easier if you just ask questions."
I start. "Why can't they have certain things after 5 o'clock?" He just laughs. "Starting off easy are we, Okay. It causes Jack to become like super hyper and won't allow him to sleep and he already has trouble with that so, and she feels bad so she made a sacrifice too." He finishes with a small smile.
"Aww. That's so sweet." Daniel decides to ruin my perfect moment. "Are you sure they aren't together? They don't seem like just friends."
"Yes Danny-Boy just friends. They have never even kissed on the lips. Next question?"
"Why did Jack full on shut down?" The mentalist runs a hand down his face. "Getting to the more sensitive questions I see. Jack was the younger brother that no one wanted. His father's own personal punching bag. His druggie mother collector boy. He lived in the closet for eight years when he wasn't being beaten to death by his drunk dad, being sold to rapists for drugs by his mom, or being held under water for screwing up. That was when he didn't meet his quota of stolen money each month."
I was in tears by that part of the story. These poor kids. I turned around to see how Olivia was and it was the cutest thing. Jack was laying on his back with his knees up acting as a backrest, while Olivia was sitting on his chest leaning back on his knees. One of his hands were clasped with hers, the other was feeding her gummy bears. She had one had in his and was feeding him Spicy Doritos. They were giggling and laughing as if nothing mattered.
I turned back around to Merritt and Daniel. "Are you okay Henley?" I nodded and pointed over to where the 'twins' were. The boys followed my head and saw the scene before us. It was so sweet. In between bites they would make silly faces and Jack would kiss the back of the hand that was still clasped tightly in his.
"Merritt?" I asked. Daniel and he turned to face me. It was time to get back to the conversation at hand. "Will you keep going? I need to know Jack's story." He nodded and continued.
"At nine he was sent to a foster home where it wasn't much better. They did the same things they did to him at home but they added starving to the list. He ran away a month later and went to Central Park. He saw Mr. Atlas here perform and decided that this was what he wanted to do so he walked past you and stole a deck of cards."
Daniel jumped. "That's were those went. Everyone thought I was crazy." "Shh, I want to hear how he met Olivia."
"At 11 he could pick pocket anyone, fight better than any 11 year old should, could mimic voices perfectly, and could throw cards."
I was confused. "Throw cards? Like playing cards?" He nodded and called over to Jack. "Yo Jackie boy, throw a card at the poster behind our heads without standing up."
"Okay. Liv hand me and card." She grabbed his pack out of his back pocket and handed them to him. He took and whipped it so fast I though I imagined it. We turned around and it was perfectly lodged right behind in the middle.
"Thanks Jack."
"No problem Merritt. How's our story coming? Have I met Olivia yet?"
"Almost, you're 11." The 'Twins' went back to feeding each other and laughing. "That's why I love them. They are so carefree." Merritt continued explaining. "Jack knows I'm telling you how horrible his life was, but his only question was 'Have I met Olivia yet?' They are each other's only reason for surviving. If it wasn't for Olivia, Jack would be dead and Vice versa. They need each other."
"Ok so at 12 he was walking the streets when he heard someone scream. It sounded like someone his age and he knew he needed to help them so he climbed 7 stories of fire escapes and broke into their house to stop her dad from hitting her again. He yanked out his playing cards started throwing them at her dad while she climbed out the window. When he ran out of cards he punched him one time in the jaw and said 'If you ever come near your daughter again, I won't think twice to kill you.' He climbed back down the fire escape where the little girl was crying. It was who is now known as Olivia today." Merritt jesters back to the 'Twins' who were now playing ninja in the giant room. Olivia went for a strike, but Jack twisted out just in time. "Boom!" Merritt continues, "I guess they're our own little weirdo's."
Daniel interrupts again. "Guys, we need to get to work let's go."
