Now You See Me: Daniel Atlas

Chapter Seven: Merritt's Interrogation

Getting back to the apartment, Jaelyn immediately jumps on Carly, hugging her tightly.

"You're back!" She shouts. "How was Paris? Did you meet any Parisian men to mingle with? Tell me everything!"

Jaelyn bombards questions and drags Carly into her own bedroom before the two of them sit on the bed. Carly goes on to explain how beautiful it was and how she wished Jaelyn could have joined them. Carly was unable to divulge anything about the master scheme, but she could tell her about the city and a made up performance.

"One day I'll bring you there myself," Carly tells her. "Everything was so lively but not like New York. And the coffee! Oh, my god the coffee! Just wait until you get there and then you'll understand."

"No Parisian men to keep you company?" Jaelyn asks pouting her lip out. Carly just laughs and shakes her head. "Too bad, if you can't find a man in Paris, you'll never get a man here."

"Oh shut up," Carly says and shoves her slightly. "I'm sure a man from Paris would be peak, which is probably why I couldn't bag one."

Jaelyn just laughs at that before getting off the bed to go and get food for everyone. Once Henley and Jae leave to go pick up something, Daniel barges into her room with questions.

"Does she know what we're doing? Did you tell her what we just did? What about the cards? The plan?"

"Woah, down boy!" Carly says and puts her hands up defensively. "She doesn't know anything and I didn't tell her anything. I made up a fake performance story for why we were over there. And she only knows about my card, not yours. Not like she knows what it means, neither do I."

Cooling him down, he nods before leaving for the living room. After changing into some leggings and a zip up hoodie, Carly goes into the living room, taking a seat on the couch next to Merritt. He doesn't flirt with her like he does with Henley, but it was probably because of the more drastic age difference. Carly was definitely the baby of the group. Merritt leans closer and starts his whole "I know your past" mentalist trick. Daniel and Jack listen in from their place on the ground.

"Let me guess, oldest daughter," Merritt begins and Carly nods confirming. "Oh, oldest child! Always the leader, but nobody ever listened since you're a girl. The only girl in the family, besides your mom. You're mom... you like your mom, but she always kept you by her side, never letting you venture off into the real world. She couldn't let go of her baby girl. You're dad on the other hand, was in law enforcement... military. So he was never home, always in other countries doing whatever the military does. That relationship... is strained to say the least. When he wasn't home, you were the second parent, but when he was you had to act like nothing more than a child. After high school you went to college in another state... farther away somewhere where you could get away, but a place you've already been. Alaska. There you stayed with your friend before both of you got into performing arts and decided to move out the Big Apple. And you've been here ever since."

"How'd he do?" Jack asks intrigued by the whole story.

"He did great," Carly says her voice cracking just a bit, but she quickly clears her throat. "Spot on."

"Did I hit a nerve? I'm sorry," Merritt says genuinely, but she just shakes her head.

"It's fine, just a little weird having my whole past available now to the group," Carly says and runs a hand through her hair.

When Jae and Henley got back everyone sat in the living room, eating their respective Red Robin meals. About halfway through Iron Man 3 is when Henley and Jack retired to their rooms and Jae fell asleep on the floor. Merritt brought her to her room before laying down on the couch, covering his face with his hat. Carly sat on the ground, still picking at her food, not in the mood to eat after hearing her whole life story again. He hit all the big key points, but each of them opened up smaller more precise memories that Carly had done her best to shove to the back of her mind.

"Are you feeling okay?" Daniel whispers, scooting closer to the girl. She looks up at him and nods with a small smile on her face. "It's okay if you're not, that all seemed... pretty heavy."

"Just a little bit," Carly mumbles to herself, but he hears it. Not wanting to pry any more, Daniel gets up and starts to grab the leftover containers, before putting them in the fridge. As he gathers his things to make his bed, Carly puts a blanket over Merritt then looks over at Daniel standing there as he stared at her.

"Goodnight, Carly," He says.

"G'night," Carly responds before going into her own bedroom.

She doesn't change into pajamas and instead climbs into bed, wrapping herself up in blankets and pillows. Silent tears left her eyes, but at least she wasn't sobbing. Just sniffling as she slowly went to sleep.