Category: Gen
Setting: Pre-heists
Characters/Pairings: Henley, Jack
Rating/Warnings: K+
Summary: When Henley learns that Jack can't swim, she decides to teach him.
Disclaimer: Neither Now You See Me nor its characters belong to me.
Out of His Hands (Part 2)
It had taken them quite a bit of time to track down their bathing suits. Merritt had made the situation that they forget the suits, but he hadn't even finished the suggestion before the other three had all but yelled "No!" at him. Merritt had just shaken his head, muttering good naturedly about "them being no fun," but had found his swim trunks.
All too soon, in Jack's opinion, they were in the four feet of water section of the pool. Well, he and Henley were. Daniel and Merritt had ditched them the second they saw the diving board and were currently fighting over who got to go first, which was solved when Merritt simply pushed Daniel in and went to the board. Henley shook her head and laughed at the two men's antics before turning back to the noticeably nervous Jack.
"There's no reason to be nervous." She said. "Swimming's actually fairly easy."
"I'm not nervous." Jack replied quickly, but the way he was rolling his fingers around showed his lie.
"Of course not." Henley said, raising an eyebrow. "The first thing you have to remember is to kick your feet to keep you above water when it's over your head."
She looked up the pool and pointed at a random hotel guest who was just floating, feet kicking below him and arms moving slowly around him.
"See what he's doing?" She asked, pointing. Jack nodded. "You just have to cup your hands together and move them together and then out while kicking your feet. Like this."
Henley ducked under the water and swam around, keeping her head above the water. Jack watched her, fiddling with his hands nervously. Henley stood up in the water and motioned at him.
"Your turn."
"I don't know about this." Jack said.
"Come on, Jack." Henley said. "Look at it this way. If you don't at least try, then Daniel and Merritt are going to make fun of you for the rest of the year."
"Fine." Jack frowned and did his best to copy Henley's motions, but only really managed to begin sinking under the water and come back up coughing up water.
Henley was right there, helping him to stand as he finished coughing a lung up.
"It's all right." She said, trying her best to encourage him. "I didn't get it the first time either. Try again."
Jack sighed and ducked back, this time managing to move a few feet before his head fell under the water again. Once again, Henley was right there, and this time she had a suggestion.
"Pretend you're trying to throw a card." She suggested. "Only you're trying to throw it backwards."
"What?" Jack asked, just staring at her.
"When you throw a card, you bring your arm back and then forward, right?" She clarified.
"Yeah." Jack said uncertainly.
"Well, start out like you're throwing a card, only keep your hands cupped and instead of flicking your wrist, keep moving your arms and hands out." She continued.
"Ok." Jack looked at her like she was crazy, but did as he was told and, to his surprise, actually managed to get the hang of it.
"You've got it!" Henley exclaimed happily.
Jack just grinned and the swimming practice continued for the next thirty minutes until they began to wander into the deeper sections of the pool where Daniel and Merritt were doing their best to push the other under water. Daniel was quick to stop when he saw Henley and Jack coming their way, but Merritt had to have the last laugh and ducked Daniel under, causing the other three Horsemen to laugh as he came spluttering up to the surface, hair covering his face.
By the time midnight rolled around, Jack was grateful to Henley for taking the choice out of his hands and forcing him to learn to swim. It had turned out to be a really good experience—with his favorite part being the chicken fight which Daniel would deny ever happening—and the next time they stayed at a hotel with a pool, Henley was regretting ever teaching the youngest Horseman how to swim.