One Heart- The Greatest Showman

Chapter 17

Elizabeth's Pov

Phillip trudged back into Barnum's office after his sister left. He still was quite upset with what had just happened. 

The sound of the door shutting caused everyone to jump. Phillip wasn't like this, he was always so happy and full of joy. 

I told everyone to resume practising as well as to ignore Hannah, she was just another protestor. Thankfully, everyone complied and the sound of the circus quickly echoed around the building. 

I asked Anne and W.D. to look after the girls for a little while, just so I could go check on Phillip. Anne took both girls hands and lead them towards the hoop (which was only currently a few feet off the ground).

I moved as quickly as possible to get to Barnum's office. I knocked on the door once, twice, three times with no response. 

So I just let myself in. 

"Phillip?" I questioned as I pushed the door open. 

He sat, rocking, on the wooden chair. A bottle of whisky sat in his hands.  His eyes following the pattern of the floorboard.

I sat opposite to him, trying to catch his eye.

"Everything is going to be okay." I reassured him, reaching out to settle the bottle back onto the desk/vanity. This wasn't him and I wasn't going to let anyone turn him into this. 

"How do you know?" He asked, probably annoyed at my comment. "There is a SPY here, someone who is feeding information about all of us back to my parents." 

"And they may not be. It could just be a bluff, something to keep from performing." I smiled, trying to be positive during this situation. 

"And what if there is? What if someone is betraying us Elizabeth?" 

My full first name. He hasn't used that directly at me for ages. He had been calling me Lizzy, it was something I had grown accustomed to. 

"Then we deal with it. Like we deal with everything else around here." I stated, standing up to face him. 

I was almost face to face with him, maybe just a foot smaller.

"You don't understand! This isn't just a couple of protestors Elizabeth, this is something so much bigger than that!" He shouted. 

I thanked the noise of practising, nobody would be able to hear our conversation. 

"Well what do you want to do Phillip? Do you want to integrate everyone here to, maybe, find the spy?" I said, my voice matching his. 

"Yes! We need to find them before anything more happens." He seemed to be growing more frustrated by the second, carding a hand through his hair. 

"No." I said, my voice low - no longer shouting. "If we do that we are putting THIS family at risk, people would turn on each other. All trust would lost. Everything that we have fought so hard to make, would be lost." 

He took two steps back, picking up the bottle before having a drink. 

Phillip just looked at me before crumbling to the floor. Rushing over, I crouched down next to him. 

"I would never forgive myself if something was to happen to anyone here." He admitted, his voice in a meek whisper. 

"Phil? Everything is going to be okay. It probably doesn't seem like it now, but it will be. We just have to have courage and be positive." I moved my thumb over the back of his hand, which appeared to calm him down a bit.

He nodded as he sat in a sitting position on the ground, moving the bottle away from him.  Letting my legs fall, I sat next to Phillip. Allowing my head to fall on his shoulder. 

I could smell his cologne on the edges of his shirt. Even though I couldn't pick the scent, I knew I would remember what it smelt like. 

"Thank you, Lizzy." He commented, resting his head on top of my own. 

"Hey, you said it yourself. Your there for me and I'm there for you." 

I guess we each calm each other down in our own ways.

We stayed like that for a little while before I had to go check on the girls.

It was almost like neither one of us knew what we were meant to do. We knew we had to do something, but were unsure what exactly that was. 

To cut the awkwardness, I just said I would see him later before running out of the door. 

Because that would not of made the situation any more awkward. 

Caroline and Helen were both on the hoop and were very disappointed when I said it was time to go. 

As the girls gathered there stuff, and ran up to say goodbye to Phillip and give him his strawberry jam sandwich, Anne pulled me aside. 

I already knew what she was going to ask me and I replied before the words left her lips. 

"Just keep an eye out, we are not going to do anything irrational which could disrupt what we have here." 

She nodded before walking off to continue her trapeze work.

The girls and I left and for the whole carriage ride home, used there secret language in order to communicate - probably about Hannah. 

"Thank you girls, for doing that for me today. It meant a lot and you were both very brave." I told the girls as the beamed with pride over their success today. 

I went back to looking at the window as all of todays event's went over in my head. 

'It is going to be okay' I told myself, just like I had told Phillip today. 

A/N (PLEASE READ)

Three things. 

1. I know this chapter is short and later than I would usually post. I went out with my family and I had already kind of planned for this chapter to be a bit shorter than usual. The next chapter will be longer. 

2. On Tuesday, I start school officially....yay.... I have been going for two week with revision classes daily but only one class a day. So this has allowed me to write every day. Now I am going back for my final year and it is going to be super busy with classes, work as well as school council. I am still going to update though, cause I love doing this!

So my posting schedule will be every Monday, Wednesday and Saturday. ( I will put this in the description of my profile). Note I am on AEST so I don't know how the days correspond around the world, but I will be posting three times a week. 

3. I was watching the 100 today and something came up about Bellamy being the heart while Clarke is the head. And it kind of reminded me of Elizabeth and Phillip. Phillip is the heart ( He is romantic) as he bases his decisions on his emotions. While Elizabeth ( most of the time) uses her head and thinks rationally about situations. Idk it just went through my head when I was writing this. 

Thanks 

Maya