Chapter Text
Alma looked at him, amused at his expense and stated, "I think they called it magic Mr. Rhodes." He scowled at her before opening the door to the next suspect. Hardy har har.
The plane soared high above the earth, the tips of it's wings nudging clouds out of its way. Golden rays of sunlight shone on the horizon and glinted off of the window to which Harper had her face pressed against.
Across from her, Jack was doing the same thing.
Merritt chuckled at the two teen's fascination with the view from their seats. "What's up with you two? You'd think you'd never been in a plane before." He smirked at Henley who smiled and shook her head at the pair. Still gazing out the window, they answered, "I haven't."in unison, before turning to each other and exclaiming at the same time, "You too?!"
Harper laughed aloud at that, "I thought it was just me!" Jack shook his head. "Nah, before the Horsemen, I hadn't ever left New York!" Harper looked at him incredulously. "For real?" He shrugged turning to look out the window once more. "I never needed to."
"Huh." She joined him in cloud watching once more. "I thought everybody flew in planes."
Jack turned to her, confused."You haven't either."
"……….Oh yeah."
"Hey, would you two stop birdwatching and get with the program?" Daniel frowned down at them. "We land in New Orleans in two hours and I'd like to go through the show one more time.And, Harper, we need to tal….." He trailed off, his eyes staring past their seats, at Merritt and Henley who looked…….cozy. Harper looked from the dumbstruck Daniel to the two….cozy people….and back to Daniel. "Well, Danny boy." She said. "At least you've still got your hair." Daniel looked at the young techie, an incredulous look on his face. "Or have you lost that as well?" She heard Jack snort into his cup of water and barely managed to maintain her facade of polite disinterest. Daniel scowled and tried to shove past the seat when Jack grabbed his sweater sleeve.
"Hey, can we talk about my part in the show-"
Daniel shrugged him off. "Sure, in a second Jack." He walked away, Harper sticking her tongue out at him hoping to tempt a laugh out of Jack. When that didn't work, she sat in the seat newt to him and watched as he flipped through the deck of cards that he always seemed to have on his person. They sat like this for a while, both lost in a maze of their own thoughts.
Jack peeked at the girl dozing next to him. He had heard a bit about her history while in the interrogation rooms of the FBI. The French lady had read Harper's file to him, trying to find out more about the girl's past. Apparently her birth certificate had been left unfinished, no date of birth, no full name, nothing but her weight, height and the cover page of To Kill a Mockingbird. Hence the name, Harper Lee. Though the lady (Alma, he remembered) wouldn't give him all the details, he could roughly piece together that Harper had been abandoned and placed in foster care. Just like him, he thought, looking back at the girl who was now sound asleep and drooling a bit on the shoulder of his leather jacket. Oh well, he mused, at least she can sleep. As for himself, he was still plagued by nightmares of his experiences in the foster care system. Of dark closeted rooms, and narrow hallways, walls covered in pictures of a family that he did not belong to. But that's over. Now, he has friends.
And maybe, with time, they could be a family.
Harper's thoughts were definitely not as somber as Jack's, though they did border on the strange. She dreamt of her first glimpses of the people she would soon call companions, and later, friends. One late night, they had all traded the stories of how they had each received their individual Taro cards. Harper had choked on her soda when Henley related how she had escaped glass box swarming with piranhas. She had laughed at Merritt's tale of the unfaithful husband and how Jack had stolen that guy's wallet while Daniel frowned in disapproval. Funnily enough, when it was his turn, Daniel had been rather reluctant to share the details. Her own discovery of her card had been magnanimously less interesting then the others. She had nearly bitten a bit of it off when she found it in between the fillings of her tasteless turkey club during lunch break.
Working as a light and sound technician for the local theatre had been just a way to pay for the necessities. Now that she had been offered an escape from the mundane activities of normal existence, her very own golden ticket to a life of excitement and thrills, she had packed up her equipment and hightailed it to New York. There, it had been one scare after another. Being a small town kind of girl, the pomp and flash of the big city had unnerved her, and she had to ask at least twelve people before she found the old building that the address on the card had lead to. She had just set foot in the entryway when a gloved hand grasped her wrist and pulled her through the door as it slammed shut.