Wish You Weren't Here

"What's taking them so long?" Flynn muttered, making Clara roll her eyes as she dusted down the bookshelves.

To Clara's relief, the lift doors finally opened, revealing Eve and the others, Flynn stowing away his fob-watch at the sight of them. After delivering Ezekiel into Eve's protection, the thief joining Jacob and Cassandra in the safe house sourced for them by Charlene, Flynn had congratulated himself on a job well done, retreating to Rio to celebrate, leaving Clara to the uncomfortable confines of his couch instead. But now the fun and games were over, Flynn now having to face up to the responsibility of having four lives depending on his one.

As Eve led the other potential Librarians out of the lift, Cassandra nervously raised her hand to Clara, Clara waving back, trying to set the other girl at ease. Ezekiel favoured Clara with a brief nod, one she returned just as briefly, the cowboy beside him appraising Clara like she was a painting, raising his eyebrows in appreciation. Clara just tilted her chin, before smoothing down her skirt and turning on her heel.

"Where do you think you're going?" Flynn said, grabbing her arm, halting her in her tracks.

"I'm going to clean the display cases," Clara said, looking at him as if he was stupid. "I'm done here."

"Exactly," Flynn said abruptly. "You're done here now."

"What do you mean I'm done here?" Clara said in confusion. "I've to dust the display cases. You told me so this morning!"

"No more dusting, no more filing, no more anything," Flynn snapped, letting go of her, "you are officially unemployed as of this moment."

"What?"

"You heard me, Clara."

Clara just stared at him, something in her eyes striking Flynn through his frozen heart.

"You wanted me to work out why your life was being threatened," Flynn said witheringly, covering up his guilt with coldness, "so this is me working it out."

"So you're just getting rid of me now?"

"Not quite," Flynn said, "but your place isn't with me, it's with them. You're all in the same boat now, so go and join the galley." He gestured to the others who were all shamelessly eavesdropping, Eve included, all too distracted by the domestics in front of them to notice the labyrinthine Library forming the backdrop to Flynn and Clara's fight.

Again, Clara just stared at him, dark eyes filled with disbelief. Then her face hardened, and she stalked over to the others, crossing her arms over her chest as she did so, turning to face Flynn with a defiant toss of her head. Flynn's jaw tightened, but other than that, he forced himself to appear unfazed.

"Hi," Cassandra reiterated cheerfully.

"Hi," Clara replied, trying to hide her hurt.

"You have got to be kidding me!?" the cowboy exclaimed, startling them all.

As the others raised their heads, attention finally caught and held by the impossible interior, the cowboy took his chance and held out his slightly grubby hand to Clara. Clara raised her eyebrows, exuding disdain like a duchess at a low-brow dinner party.

"I don't think we've been introduced," the cowboy pressed, dropping his hand to his side, "m'name's Jacob, Jacob Stone."

"How delightful," Clara said sarcastically, her gaze finding Flynn's for a moment. They stared at one another, Clara's face suddenly vulnerable instead of fierce, and then Flynn looked away, pretending to become absorbed in a passing butterfly, both unaware Eve was watching this piece of by-play.

"Some place this," Jacob said, unperturbed.

"It's amazing," Cassandra said, gate-crashing the conversation.

"Is that the Arc of the Covenant?" Jacob called over to Flynn, making him turn around.

"Yes it is," Flynn suddenly beamed, suffused with the pride of a proud father over his offspring being admired.

Jacob clucked his tongue in admiration as he came down the steps, the others following him, Eve trailing behind, suddenly seeming unsure of herself. Clara glanced curiously at her, but Eve just straightened her shoulders, assuming her air of authority again.

"And is that a fairy?" Jacob asked, gesturing to the butterfly now fluttering away.

"Fairies don't exist," Clara snapped.

"What about Big-Foot and Dracula?" Cassandra chirped, skipping alongside Flynn as he led them down the aisle.

"Yes and no," Flynn said, "yes on Big-Foot."

"Is that the Spear of Destiny?" Ezekiel said, his eyes greedily devouring it.

"Yes and you'll keep your Fagin fingers off it please," Flynn intoned, wagging his own finger at Ezekiel.

"Vampires aren't real?" Eve asked sceptically, speaking up for the first time.

"Vampires are real," Flynn reproved, "but Dracula is not because I killed him, so ha!"

"Never mind that," Jacob said, brow furrowing slightly as Clara barged past him, clipping his elbow, "why are we here? Why are there ninjas trying to kill us?"

"Ten years ago, each of you received an envelope inviting you to apply for a position here at this Library," Eve said loftily, leading them past the bookshelves. "But none of you turned up."

"I was a school-girl ten years ago," Clara said, confused.

"Only seventeen, she is the dancing queen," Flynn sang off-key, sashaying round Clara, clicking imaginary castanets.

"You have an IQ of 290," Eve said, "so I guess that makes you about seventy in the Library's eyes."

"I was a child prodigy actually," Clara said with some pride, sidestepping Flynn.

"I have an IQ of 190," Jacob said, sounding hurt. "Does that make me less of a man?"

"It doesn't explain why she didn't get the letter though," Ezekiel said, frowning.

"My dad died that year," Clara said softly, "and we moved house. We moved a lot actually..." Her voice trailed off and she looked down at the ground instead, unable to bear the sight of their sympathetic faces.

"You can't outrun the past, Clara," Flynn said quietly, startling her. For a moment, they just stared at one another, and then Cassandra spoke up, looking as despondent as Clara felt.

"Ten years ago I was in a hospital," she said, running her fingers forlornly along the book spines.

"Tumour," Flynn said before he could stop himself. They all watched as he winced, a strange hissing noise emanating from his throat.

"Excuse me?" Cassandra squeaked.

Flynn slowed to a halt. "Synesthetes rarely have all five senses involved," he explained uneasily, "and you've got full blown hallucinations and seizures indicative of a frontal lobe anomaly."

Cassandra started to shrink into herself under his scrutiny, a situation not helped by the others' shocked stares.

"How... big is it? The tumour I mean, that silly satsuma that's not in your medulla oblongata," Flynn asked awkwardly, Clara suddenly snapping and slapping him across the face.

"Why do you keep doing that!?" Flynn bellowed, clutching his cheek.

"Because you have the emotional range of a tea-spoon, that's why," Clara exploded, "and yes, I am quoting from Harry Potter!"

"Can I be your Ron, then?" Jacob interjected, Clara glaring at him, looking rather like Hermione for a moment.

"We're talking about her tumour here," Flynn said, put out.

"No. We. Are. Not," Clara said from between gritted teeth.

"It's okay," Cassandra said, shifting nervously from one foot to the next. "It's less satsuma and more grape-fruit, which I wish they hadn't told me because I used to really like grapes."

"Are you..." Ezekiel asked uneasily.

"Not yet," Cassandra almost but not quite snapped. "Someday though, sooner than I'd like. But not yet." She smiled hopefully at Jacob who tried and failed to smile encouragingly back. "But I've lived long enough to learn that magic exists," she chirped, "so that's pretty cool."

"Yes indeed, but mince pies hold the upper hand over magic anytime," Flynn boomed over the echoes of 'pretty cool', anxious to drop the subject and escape Clara's death stares.

"Why didn't you show up, Stone?" Eve demanded, earning a look of praise from Flynn.

"I already had a job, family business," Jacob replied.

"I threw my letter out," Ezekiel added.

At this, they all stopped to turn and look at Ezekiel.

"It was obviously a mistake," Ezekiel said, shrugging his shoulders. "I steal stuff; I've been stealing stuff since I was a kid. I'm not going to get invited to work in a library."

"It's a magic library," Cassandra reproved.

"Yeah, great," Ezekiel said disparagingly, "but it doesn't fill my pocket. I only came here to find out who's trying to kill me."

"That makes two of us," Clara said dourly.

"Better make it three," Jacob interjected, "Cassie's only here for the magic."

"Hot damn, I am!" Cassandra sang, earning a rare smile from Flynn. But as his eye caught Clara's, his smile faltered before fading.

Caught in the riptide
I was searching for the truth
There was a reason
I collided into you...