Three

It was done. The Four Horseman had become a household name. They had won their battle. But the Eye, believed by most to be a legend and known by few to be the truth, was not yet finished with them. This battle was won, but the war would never be over. It was time for the Four to fade into obscurity, to prepare once more.

The benches outside the carousel were hard and unforgiving. Henley lay across one, her arm dangling off the edge. Daniel and Jack shared the bench next to her as Merritt paced in front of them. The excitement of the night had taken its toll on each of them: Henley drifted in and out of consciousness and Jack had just collapsed on Daniel's shoulder, asleep. Only Daniel and Merritt maintained any kind of lucidity.

Daniel watched Merritt trudge back and forth in front of him. He figured Merritt's constant movement was the only thing keeping him awake. Fingering the remaining caffeine shot in his pocket, Daniel wondered what would happen to him if he were to drink his fourth shot in an hour. "Probably nothing good," he mumbled.

Merritt jumped and spun around. "What was that?" he growled.

Daniel put up the arm that Jack wasn't sleeping on in a gesture of peace. "Nothing, just talking to myself. It's almost four in the morning, Merritt, and the kids are asleep." Daniel nodded toward Henley and Jack, both of whom were unresponsive. "What are we still doing here?" Daniel couldn't believe he was deferring to the older man, but he was tired, and he hardly cared anymore.

Merritt stopped his pacing. Daniel considered making a comment about his apparent inability to both walk and think, but decided against it. The man seemed to be under enough stress as it was.

Merritt touched his hand to his forehead and squeezed his eyes shut. Daniel sighed inwardly; the serious psychic look was Merritt for "I have no idea." Before the other man could make anything up, Daniel took charge. "I say it's time we got out of here." He turned his body to face Jack and patted his cheek. "Time to get up, Jack," he muttered.

Jack's eyes remained closed as he put back together the events of the night. Not dead, not locked… not alone. His eyes opened slowly to see a hazy face before him. He blinked a few times and rubbed his eyes, but to his surprise Daniel's face remained, bearing an expression that, was it not Daniel, would be considered caring. Jack attempted to form a greeting, but managed only an incoherent slur of sounds. The corner of Daniel's mouth twitched upward. "Good morning to you too, sunshine."

Next to them, Merritt was having far less success rousing Henley. When a verbal awakening failed, Merritt resorted to poking and prodding Henley like a child to a strange insect. The oblivious woman's breathing remained even and Merritt became more and more frustrated.

Tearing his eyes from Jack's gaze, Daniel turned around. "Pull off her glove," he called over. Merritt shot Daniel a questioning look, but tried to remove her glove anyway. As soon as his hand touched the fabric, Henley sat bolt upright and jerked her arm away. She glanced over the trio and took in the situation before fixing an icy glare on Daniel. Daniel quickly cleared his throat and added, "And don't ask her about it. And Merritt, just don't." Henley gave a curt nod of thanks and swung her legs over the side of the bench. Merritt put his hands over his heart in a gesture of mock offense, but Jack cut him off before he could get started.

"So, where to?"

a/n: Hey Horsemen! Thank you for reading the first chapter of my NYSM fic, Three. Hopefully we'll have many exciting things ahead of us! Comments and advice are always adored; I know my writing can certainly be improved!

See you next time –

Julia