So This Is Love? {NYSM: J. Daniel Atlas}

Chapter 22

The door to the small outdoor balcony slid shut with a small click. Amber didn't look back even once.

Inside the apartment, Daniel turned away from the glass door towards his compatriots and tried to speak.

But they didn't even give him a chance.

"You idiot!" Merritt snarled in a low voice, "Are you blind? As soon as we saw the picture everything was obvious!"

"I-I-"

"Made a mistake?" Henley barged in angrily, "Oh we noticed, Atlas."

"Dude, I don't know what you're playing at but that was just plain cruel," Jack added with an uncharacteristically cold expression, "It didn't take a mentalist to figure out who that was."

"Who was it then?" Daniel snapped when he finally got a chance to speak.

Jack covered his mouth with his hand and raised his eyebrows at Merritt and Henley.

"Oh like you don't know," Henley said, lacking some of her earlier ferocity.

The brown haired man turned towards her, his blue eyes filled with confusion and resentment.

"Obviously, Henley, I do not know which is why I am asking all of you for the answer!" Daniel said crisply back.

Henley and Jack traded shocked looks. Then the shock slowly morphed into sadness as Merritt spoke.

"It was her brother."

Daniel turned to look at the older man and blinked.

"Brother?" He said uncomprehendingly.

"Yes, Atlas, her brother," Merritt snapped as he stood up and rubbed a hand over his face. His grey eyes peered over his hand as he looked down at the man before him. "The one and only sibling she ever had."

"Yeah that joke you made about her boyfriend dying was in a twisted way true," Jack added, "Her brother is dead."

Daniel's eyes lowered to the ground, a throbbing feeling starting to attack his chest. His blue irises landed on the picture that he had dropped onto the carpet.

The young man smiled up at him, grinning in the sunny October day he was trapped in forever.

"You know those panic attacks that she gets?" Henley questioned.

Daniel nodded curtly.

"Yeah well they're caused by-"

"Memories of her brother's most likely horrific death," Daniel said interrupting Jack.

He glanced up at the other Horsemen and took a deep breath.

"I need to talk to her."

Everyone got up and moved to block him.

"Yeah that's not a good idea," Henley began as she gently pushed the man's shoulder, "If she's anything like me, she'll most likely kill you. Immediately."

"She's not you," Daniel retorted as he shoved Henley's arm off.

She fell off balance sideways and then Jack took her place.

The young man glares defiantly at Daniel, his brown eyes filled with fire.

"You're not hurting her anymore."

"I'm going to apologize you idiot!" Daniel snarled as he tried to push Jack out of the way.

Jack resisted him until Merritt put his hand on his shoulder and nudged him.

With a sinister glower sent Daniel's direction, Jack slowly stepped over beside Henley.

Daniel opened his mouth to thank Merritt but the man cut him off.

"Give me one good reason we should let you near her again," Merritt stated coldly. "Because so far your track record with her is, uh lemme think here, ah that's right. Being yourself in jail aka acting like an arsehole, attacking her in New Orleans-"

"That was you not me!" Daniel interjected defensively.

"That's beside the point, you distracted her, then you nearly let her get blown up with Jack's car which brought back several horrible memories-"

"And you know that, how?" Daniel interrupted.

Merritt glared at the younger man.

"You insult me, Danny. I'm a mentalist."

"Don't call me Danny," Daniel snarled.

"Sorry Danny, where were we? Ah yes my list," Merritt continued, not even bothering to hide his enjoyment of Daniel's anger.

"Look I don't care about your stupid list!" Daniel said in a barely controlled voice, "Just let me through so I can talk to her!"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, there cowboy," Merritt said as he stopped Daniel from walking on yet again. "You're missing the point, as usual. Why would we give you another chance?"

"Because everyone deserves a second chance?" Daniel tried.

Merritt laughed in his face.

"Funny!" Merritt chortled before regaining composure right away, "Except you're on chance number seven thousand nine hundred and eighty five so the answer is uh, no."

Daniel let out a frustrated breath and ran his fingers through his long hair. He contained a scream of frustration and buried the desire to stab Merritt in the eye with a butter knife in his sleep, deep within him. After several deep breaths, he finally opened his eyes and sighed.

"Please, Merritt. Just five minutes," Daniel said quietly.

Merritt looked down at him, his tongue mere seconds from speaking the word when he picked something up with his "psychic abilities".

Remorse was flickering in the young man's face.

Merritt blinked and tilted his head this way and that as he continued to study Daniel.

The emotion was so rare and so novel that he almost couldn't read it in Daniel's eyes.

A faint bubble of sentimentality rose within the older man and he cursed himself.

"Five minutes," he said gruffly as he stood aside.

Both Henley and Jack immediately made noises of disbelief and disagreement but Merritt ignored them.

Daniel nodded his thanks and strode purposely towards the glass door to the balcony.

The argument began as soon as the the door swung shut behind him.