NYSM •Moments In Time•

Headcanon #2

Logan didn't know much card tricks when she and the Horsemen first got together.

Sure, she was good at misdirection, illusions, and persuasion, but card tricks? She only knew how to shuffle. So, Danny took the time out of his day to teach her.

First it was some easy slip of the hand or up the sleeve tricks, which Danny found amusing to see her so amazed like a little kid when he pulled a card our of her hair or from underneath her phone case. Sure, it was hard for her to learn at first but as Danny taught her more and more about what he knew, the more it became second nature to Logan. Soon enough, she was a professional. She didn't exactly get as good as her teacher, but then again she had yet to learn how to throw cards like Jack.

Logan eventually taught herself to play a magic trick where she has someone write words on a few cards they pick, then she shuffles the cards and when she places them down, the cards are magically in order and they form sentences. It was mostly just a game for her and Danny to play. Whenever they got into a fight, and would rather not talk to each other about how they feel, they'd take a deck of cards out and form sentences to each other from that, usually it was apologies or declarations of love since they prefer not to say it out loud.

Soon, he realizes some of his cards go missing from his deck and finds out that it's Logan keeping his cards as mementos, not Jack as he originally thought of. Danny, being a control freak, he keeps going to Logan's room to take them back whenever they go absent. He always finds them in a drawer by her bed, but one time he finds one in her wallet by accident, a card that he didn't even recognize. It was the Queen of Hearts, but none of those cards were missing from his many decks. He wondered who else did Logan steal from? The card was old, yellow and beaten, but there was a signature on it formed by a black Sharpie, and it sent chills down Danny's back because he recognized it right away.

"No way..." He mutters, "This is..."

Everyone who was ever a fan of Lionel Shrike like Danny was knew that the long since passed magician used to own an old deck of cards. And it was sort of a legend because everyone knew that there was a card missing from that deck, the Queen of Hearts. It was a little silly, but people wondered what had happened to that card. Did Shrike give it to his wife as a symbol of love? Did his dog eat it? Did he lose it while performing? No one knew. But it had been such a big deal, that people even started forging it, making copies and claiming that they owned Shrike's Famous Missing Card. If found, it'd be worth thousands!

Could J. Daniel Atlas be holding that very card in his hands right now? It looked genuine, but looks could be deceiving. It seemed to be the right age of creases, bends, and water damage. The signature looked legit, the ink didn't look fresh like a forgery would look. The Sharpie's sharp look had started to fade away and was almost hard to read. Danny flips it over gently in his fingers, secretly astonished. How the hell did this famous card get into one of his lover's wallet?!

He ran out of her room and found Logan sipping some hot tea at the dining room table along with the other Horsemen. He runs up to her and almost shoves it in her face.

"Is this real? Where did you get it?!"

The others looked closer to see what it was and it clicked suddenly as to what Danny was making such a big fuss about. Henley gasps, everyone's eyes were wide as all heads turn towards Logan.

But she looks emotionless by the outburst. She gently takes the card from Danny's hand and looks down at it, smiling. "It was given to me."

Merritt tilts his head, "That's it? That's all you gotta say after solving the thirty year mystery behind Lionel Shrike's missing Queen of Hearts?"

Jack looked dumbstruck, "Logan...that's such a big deal!"

"Yeah! Everyone's been looking for it for years! Ever since Shrike died, the missing card has been a priceless artifact that any magic museum would kill to get their hands on!" Henley exclaimed, "How the hell do you have that?!"

Logan wanted to laugh at all of their priceless expressions, but chose not to. She ducks her head back down to look at the card in her hands, smiling mostly to herself.

"I was maybe...six years old? My parents brought me to New York to try and get my mind off my older brother, who went missing the year before. No one spoke of it, but we all thought he was dead and eventually the police gave up searching for him. New York was so busy and life continued so drastically, it was easy to forget a lot of things. I was walking around, exploring one day with my parents when I came across Lionel Shrike, a street magician at the time. He saw me and noticed how sad I was. He gave me his Queen of Hearts, but not before giving me words of encouragement and his signature. He inspired me to do magic as an escape outlet from reality and he died a month later. I never got to tell him how thankful I was. Shrike...he saved my life."

The whole room was silent, eyes darting towards each other then back to Logan. She had never opened up about her past before and it was quite shocking to say the least. They all believed that she didn't come from a broken home like the rest of them, and had always been happy and wise.

"What did he say to you? Shrike." Henley asked.

Logan looked up to see everyone's curious faces, and she sighed, "He told me that even the magical Walt Disney had his bad days, and everything will be alright. He said the world needs more magic nowadays, and the world also needs a little girl like me to smile again."

Danny was overwhelmed with the fact that him and Logan shared the same idol, and she got to meet him!

Later on, the Horsemen will eventually learn the man behind getting the five of them together would be Dylan Rhodes, AKA Dylan Shrike, AKA Lionel Shrike's son. Logan would eventually be close friends with him, while Danny questions his every move. And eventually, Logan will return the Queen of Hearts to her rightful owner.