Unrewarded

《7》The Man For The Job

Standing on the stage, Cam took in the large room around her. It was completely out of her realm. Never before had she even dreamed of performing on a stage like this. It was incredible, but she had a lot of work ahead of her as well. Now seeing it in person, she knew that some of her measurements, or at least most of them were going to be off.

"So what do you think?" Atlas stood behind her with his hands in his pockets. In the background, the others were admiring everything about the stage. To them, it was going to be the most incredible show of their lives. They were excited, she was the one that was nervous.

With a long breath, she turned to face him and put a smile on her face. "I think it's perfect. Set up might take a few days."

"But you can get it done?"

Nodding, she bit her lip and looked back towards the stadium. "I can get it done."

"Perfect. Then let's get to the hotel, get ready for-"

"I think I'm going to stay here." She cut him off looking back in his direction. Atlas was a little surprised by this, she could tell by the look that he was giving her. It was something that a disappointed mother would wear when scolding her child.

"Are you sure?" He asked while raising his eyebrow.

Biting her lip, Cam nodded. "Yeah. The measurements and dimensions that the eye gave us, they aren't right." Together, they observed the stadium as she guided around it with her hands staking out just where their problems were going to be. "If we want to get this show done right with the schedule that we have- I gotta get this done tonight."

There wasn't an aspect of it that the control freak wanted to argue about. She was light on her travelling anyway, so her unpacking would take maybe less than an hour.

"Okay." He sighed looking at her. "You call us if you need anything okay?"

Nodding, she took off her backpack and set it at her feet. Then, she had pulled out her laptop and started going to work immediately, her feet dangling off the stage as she logged in to her computer.

Atlas observed her one more time, then turned his back walking across the stage to towards the others. "What's she doing?" Henley asked nodding towards her. The rest of them observed her as her back was to them, fingers already moving rapidly on her lap top.

Picking up his bag, Atlas  motioned towards the door. "She's staying behind, says she's gotta fix some stuff on the plans, measurements, I don't know. I'm not her dad. Now come on, today's the last day of relaxation we are going to get for a while. Let's get back to the hotel."

Together, they all started to move. Jack however, stayed right where he was. His eyes fluctuated between them and her- almost like he was looking for an answer to a test.

Then, the words left his mouth on pure instinct. "I'll stay with her."

They all looked back to him. "What?"  Atlas paced towards him.

"She can't do it by herself, I'll stay back and help her."

Atlas looked to others searching for their input. In the end though, they didn't matter. He just shrugged his shoulders and continued walking towards the door. "I'm not your dad either. Just don't be late when we pick you up tomorrow. 7 am sharp."

Henley and Merritt sent the boy smiles before they turned and followed Atlas out.

It was cute, how badly Jack wanted to stay behind with her. In Henley's head, she couldn't even process the love that the boy had for her, even if neither of them realized it yet.

As the others left, jack let out a breath that puffed his cheeks before turning to face Cam. She had her back to him, headphones in, and devices laid all around her.

What was he going to say to her. Jack knew that she didn't need his help, Cam was perfectly capable of taking care of herself and what she needed to do by herself. He just didn't want her to be alone, and he had way more fun around her than the three of them put together.

This was honestly his own doing. It had nothing to do with her.

Approaching her he was slow, awkward, but nothing compared to when he reached her.

He placed his hand on her shoulder, and in response she spun around quickly pulling her headphone out. "Jesus Christ Jack." She hissed. "What the hell are you doing here?"

"Come on." He shrugged sitting on the stage next to her. "We don't know this place, figured you could use some company- or some help."

Smiling, Cam shook her head and looked back to her screen. "Actually, if you want to, I could use you."

"Yeah." He perked up. "Absolutely. What do you need?"

Turning to her right, Cam grabbed ahold of a small device and flipped it on. "I need you to take this and go to the back wall-" She motioned with her pen. "When I tell you to, stop, then keep going. I have to get the full diameter of the lower seating area for the visual effects. After, I'm going to need you up top too."

"Alright." Jack nodded before jumping off the front of the stage and trotting up the stairs. Cam watched him go, watched how he took in his surroundings. Of course she tried to hide it between peaks from her computer screen, but t was no use.

It interested her as to why he stayed behind to help her. She could have done this by herself, she would have done this by herself. He wanted to stay though.

Nobody ever wanted to stay.

**************************************************

Arriving at the theater in the morning, Atlas, Henley, and Merritt looked around them. It looked the same as the night before, only this time, lights and strings connected themselves from both her devices and the front of the stage. "What is all this?" Henley asked.

Atlas let out a breath and looked around him as well. "Their lines of sight... for the visual effects. She's smart."

All of a sudden, she appeared from behind them. "One of us has to be." All three spun to face her, Henley and Merritt wearing a big smile.

Seeing that she was alone, Henley cocked her head to the side. "Where jack?"

In response, Cam chuckled. "He fell asleep around two. Third row back, fourth seat in."

They looked where she was directing them to, and all smiled seeing his unconscious form slumped into the seats. "I see he was a lot of help."

She shrugged. "He had his work cut out for him."

They all smiled now. "So, you get everything ready?"

Cat nodded. "Yeah. We're good."

"Who gets to wake him up?"

Merritt smiled and rubbed his hands together. "I got this one boys and girls."

Rolling her eyes, Cam let out a laugh and started packing up her things.

Yeah, Merritt was the man for the job.