The Greatest Showman: March One-Shots

2. Camera

P.T. stands backstage, watching Jenny perform, but with nothing more than his eyes. He can hear the breakage in her voice, see the muscles in her neck contracting with each shaky, tear-filled breath, but his mind is filled with guilt. Overpowering everything else.

He thinks he feels some regret, too. He regrets thinking that touring the country with someone he just met was a good idea. He regrets abandoning his family, his home. He regrets dropping everything for someone whom he thought would improve his reputation towards the critics.

He knows now that he should have listened. To Lettie. To Phillip. But especially to Charity.

Coming from the upper class, she's known since a young age how wealth can change people. And she's known all along what it would do to him. She tried to warn him, but he wouldn't listen. He was finally living his dream, finally giving his family the life he had promised them. He was dancing on cloud nine, and now he feels like he's been cheated. Robbed. Stripped.

It's almost too exhausting to stand. The pain tears at his heart and he wants nothing more than to be holding Charity in his arms, to be listening of Caroline's ballet rehearsals and Helen's shopping trip with Anne. He feels like a failure, like a bag of rocks has momentarily toppled onto him and he's trapped underneath them all.

He should have known better.

Once Jenny finishes her tour, they'll have enough money to pay back every bank he's ever borrowed from. And then he plans to put the rest away into savings. For better living conditions for the oddities. For Caroline and Helen's future. He's not going to spend anymore on trivial matters, on tours that may improve his reputation, but not his relationships with the people he loves.

Yes, that's what he's decided. He knows he needs to leave—for Jenny's sake. He's become a distraction: off-stage has become less of a singer-and-manager bond, and more of... something else to her. Jenny's attitude and drive has significantly changed, and the shorter standing ovations reflect that.

He knows he needs to get back home, to Caroline and Helen and Charity.

He also knows he needs to get back to the circus. To Tom and Lettie and W.D. and Anne and Phillip. God, he hates to admit it, but he's really missed that guy.

When Jenny concludes her song, the theater erupts into applause and various shouts for encore. She bows, her lips trembling as she straightens and holds out her hand for P.T. to come out and take; she won't even look at him.

Cameras flash as P.T. walks out, nodding towards the audience in solemn acknowledgement. He gently grabs ahold of Jenny's hand, and they bow once together.

"Thank you," P.T. mutters as he turns towards her. Somebody throws a white rose up onto the stage.

As quick as the next flash of a camera, Jenny suddenly reaches up and presses her lips firmly against his, her hand gripping his arm. Cameras go off, blinding P.T.'s vision and filling his ears.

He pulls away. "What was that?" he spits, his lips barely moving. He tries to act as nonchalant as possible, tries to prevent the controversy and bad rep he's always been afraid of. His heart races.

"That was goodbye," Jenny responds, her voice filled with so much anger and sadness that P.T. almost feels regret towards her, too. He watches her walk off stage right, her sparkling white dress trailing behind her. Smoke fills the air as the cameras continue to flash, capturing as many moments as they can.

Click.