Cold Water

The Act

We return to angst! (as if I ever really left :p )

I don't know how many chapters this will be (I've got carried away so it will be quite a few!) but we will see where the story takes us, I guess!

Featuring everyone's favourites: your classic 'Stephen gets roped into a BGT audition'; protective Ant and Dec; and a lot of highly inaccurate medical stuff going on.

I hope you enjoy!

(*~*)

The hours were dragging on interminably. Sometimes it happened; when the acts weren't as interesting, when the judges didn't manage to have an argument, when nothing went spectacularly right or spectacularly wrong; and all of that combined made a day feel endless.

Ant stretched tiredly, arching his back with a soft groan, rocking his head from side to side and wincing when he felt his spine click slightly.

"Having fun?" Dec asked, just about managing to sound amused.

"The best time," Ant retorted sarcastically, focusing back on the stage at the rather forgettable dance group who were clearly on a direct path towards getting three yeses and a no. The latter from Simon, of course. They'd been presenting this show for far too long.

"We've found someone for you to interview," Ellie, their producer, announced. Ant smiled slightly at the triumph in her tone, knowing that she'd been just as fed up of letting act after act pass through with little more than a 'good luck' from the pair of them.

"What are they doing?" Dec perked up, looking grateful for the distraction from what felt like the third identical dance routine of the day.

Ellie consulted her clipboard and then shrugged in a fairly encouraging manner. "Some sort of magic, escape thing."

Not completely new but Ant would take what he could get. He mustered some enthusiasm, noticing the unassuming man being led in their direction. "Sounds promising."

"Hello!" Dec greeted their next act, instantly back to his usual, on-camera energy levels. Ant had to stop himself from smirking every time, well aware of how lethargic and bored he would be the second the camera turned off if the contestant in front of them didn't build his act up convincingly enough. "What's your name?"

"Hello," the man replied, a little too old to fit the usual demographic of the typical 'daredevil' contestants. It piqued Ant's interest though, which was more than anyone else had managed in the last two hours. "I'm Mark."

"And what have you got in store for us today?" Ant asked.

"I want to do something that's never been seen before. It's part magic, part escapology," Mark replied. Even his voice, soft enough not to carry particularly well over the backstage hustle and bustle, didn't fit his act. "Only I won't be the one escaping."

Ant knew exactly what that usually meant, narrowing his eyes for the camera and playing up his reaction. "Now, hold on a minute."

"I know what that normally means," Dec caught on instantly, folding his arms. Mark smiled slightly enigmatically. "Should we panic if you start looking in our direction?"

"Well, I want to do something new," Mark repeated, not quite explaining himself, "So you might both be safe."

Ant pondered his response for a moment, happy to let Dec exaggerate a sigh of relief and then instantly start throwing various judges under the bus, trying to persuade Mark to trap Simon in some sort of compromising position.

Maybe it was Simon. After all, the older man kept asking for more and more danger. What was more dangerous than risking your audition chances trying to get the head judge involved in a stunt?