Jett jiggled on his balls of his feet, nervously waiting as the audience began to fill the seats just past the curtains. Despite trying to roll with the punches, Jett had been forced to take a long break. Stephanie and Dutch had been very understanding, willing to fill the slots meant for his show and give them to a few other acts. Jett had even gone so far as to request some of the slots be given to some of the people who’d been forced to deal with the ordeal of the investigation. Despite not using animals much in his own act, he had loved watching the various creatures seem to appear, disappear, shift, and change on the stage as Trevor Valentine flourished his way through a show. He’d thought the duo of Frankie Diamond and Albert Gold was a little obvious in their attempts to distract the audience with the loud Gold, and he thought he had better stage presence.

His time away from the stage hadn’t only been spent watching others perform in his stead, however. There were more than a few nights spent with Rico in one of their hotel rooms. Rico had apparently built up plenty of time off in his tenure on the force and cashed it in frequently over the weeks of Jett’s sabbatical.

Jett smiled, fingering the bracelet on his wrist, which had been a gift from Rico only a few days prior. It was a thin band of sliver, interwoven with another strand of gold. On opposite ends of the strands were two small plates, one silver, and one gold. Upon the silver was the SEAL trident, and the gold plate had a top hat etched into it. Jett had teased Rico about being a sap, but he had been eagerly wrapping it around his wrist as he did so. Somehow, he thought the sight of his overly anxious attempts to clasp it about his wrist had ruined any chances of getting a rise out of Rico.

Jett loved it and he refused to take it off, barely caring that it did a good job of distracting from the healing scars on his wrist. The wounds had been another reason he’d needed to take a break. There hadn’t been any permanent damage to the muscles and tendons of his wrists but he’d needed to give them a break. His frenzied attempts to get out of the cuffs while locked in the box had given him some permanent scars. Rico called them Jett’s battle wounds and would motion at his own scars while saying they matched.

He never would have thought he’d needed a break, but he had found he enjoyed it all the same. But after a few months, the itch to be on the stage came back. He had been surprised, happily, when he’d discovered the urge was for the art itself, rather than the applause. Jett attributed it to knowing he had almost been killed before an audience who would have just clapped, ignorant to the death they had truly witnessed. Somehow, the thought of dying to applause had reminded him of how much he enjoyed the art of misdirection and illusion.

Jett took a deep breath as the curtain rose, the lights overhead bearing down on him so he was the focus of the audience. His smile broke out as he heard the crowd before him give a cheer, excited to see Jett Richards back on the stage after the drama of months before. Despite being immune to the applause, Jett gave them a little bow and gestured to his new assistant.

The assistant had been Jett and Rico’s first real disagreement since they had committed to each other. Despite having been severely burned by trusting a double and an assistant, Jett had been willing to hop on the horse all over again. He believed his chances of having another assistant try to kill him were minimal. Rico, however, had stubbornly protested. It was only when Jett had pointed out he couldn’t do his show, do what he loved, without an assistant, that Rico finally relented. The next stage of battles came over choosing said assistant. By the end, Jett had thought he might lose his mind, but he finally settled on someone who looked absolutely nothing like either of them, had the cleanest background, and despite the apparent absurdity, had also submitted himself to a psychological evaluation.

Daniel was so blond his hair was nearly white, and his eyes were a shifting hazel. He stood nearly a head shorter than either Jett or Rico, and he had come highly recommended. To his credit, Daniel had gone through all the hoops with minimal fuss. The evaluation had raised his pale brow, but he’d said nothing. After he had finally passed, Jett had been impressed with the quiet man. Unlike Riley, Daniel didn’t necessarily live for the attention, but had been thrilled by the intricate workings of pulling off a magic trick. Jett had thought it fitting with his newfound appreciation for his art and had taken it as a good sign of things to come.

With the audience welcomed and his new assistant introduced, Jett moved onto his acts. He was sure many in the audience were wondering what death-defying trick he had in store for them after such a long break. He began with simple tricks involving appearing flames, disappearing objects, and multiplying doves. He hadn’t quite lost his love for a bit of attention grabbing, and he gestured to them in appreciation when their cheers and cries reached an awestruck pitch.

Finally, he waited while the stagehands dragged out the final piece of his act. It was a board, with attachments at the top and the bottom for Jett’s ankles and wrists to be bound. Jett showed the audience how it spun from the bottom, spinning the board from left to right, and then from right to left.

From seemingly nowhere, he produced a deck of cards. Stepping off the stage down the side stairs, he approached two random members of the audience. For each of them, he gave a pen and had them choose a card each, signing their names on their chosen card and returning it to the deck. After the second card was placed in the deck and Jett shuffled, he jogged up the stairs once more, making a point to set the entire deck on the table away from where the board stood.

With Daniel’s help, Jett mounted the board, having his wrists and ankles bound. He was glad he had taken days to practice the trick with Daniel. The simple act of having his wrists held in place, as they had been done many times before during a trick, still caused a trickle of fear to flow through him. He kept his eyes riveted on the audience with a grin on his face, telling himself nothing would happen. The days of death-defying tricks were behind him.

Daniel took one edge of the board and gave it a push, spinning Jett from left to right. It took only a couple of seconds for the board to do a full rotation. Yet, when the board faced forward once again, there was no Jett, only the manacles where his hands and feet and had been held. The music in the auditorium shifted from rising tension, down to a curious tingle which spoke of mystery and awe.

Within thirty seconds, Jett stood at the back of the house, gazing down the staggered rows of chairs of the audience. Rico stood beside him, having been watching from the back of the audience the entire time. Jett had grinned across the darkened space when he’d sidled up to Rico, spotting his lover’s surprise.

“No double, so how’d you pull this one off?” Rico asked softly so he wouldn’t be overheard.

Jett wagged his brow. “And how do you know I didn’t get another double and I’m him?”

Rico grabbed Jett, pulling him tight against him. “Because you wouldn’t, and I know it’s you.”

“Prove it,” Jett said, knowing he was pushing his timing.

Rico did just that, pulling Jett a few inches closer and kissing him soundly. Jett pushed into the kiss, moaning softly. It would have been one of their better kisses, and Jett would have happily continued, except for the sudden burst of light which illuminated them. Jett broke the kiss, Rico jerking away from him surprise and flushing bright red.

Jett looked down the row of shocked faces, recovering smoothly by pulling out the two signed cards he had slipped from the deck. “I believe these are the cards you’re looking for.”

The audience hesitated before the surprise wore off and what Jett had done finally sunk in. Jett barely noticed their applause, glancing over at Rico with a wide grin on his face. Rico’s face held a mixture of amusement and exasperation at having been caught making out with Jett in front of an entire room full of people. If Jett was reading Rico’s expression right, he was going to pay for goading his lover, and in the best way possible by night’s end.

Jett gave the cards a flourished toss into the audience, wondering what their night, and their lives together, would hold in store.