Author's Note: This is the sequel to Reap The Whirlwind. The reading order so far for all of my Flynn/Clara fiction is: And She Was Not An Adventure, Plato's Step-Daughter, A Christmas Clara, Sure As Sin, Once Upon A Dime, Reap The Whirlwind, and Out Of The Darkness. Each new Flynn/Clara story will include an updated reading order. All my Librarians fiction can be found under the 'My Stories' section of my profile. Videos for characters canon and original, can be found on my Youtube channel via the link on my profile.

~*~

On It Like A Car Bonnet

"You okay, Clara?" Eve asked, glancing at her in the rear-view mirror.

"I'm fine," Clara said curtly, feigning interest in a passing tree, wishing she hadn't agreed to this road-trip to Slovakia in order to locate some broken ley-lines.

Eve and Jacob exchanged looks, Eve then returning her attention back to the road, Jacob resuming gnawing his thumbnail, brow furrowing. Ever since the science fair, Clara had become oddly introspective on occasion, easily distracted. To all intents, she was as she ever was; only those close to her sensed the difference in her.

Flynn had also noticed this change, but pretended to pay no heed to it, sheltering his own secrets, not wanting her to know he knew when she didn't. But he kept away from Jenkins, an old friend becoming foe, keeping Guinevere's return a secret from Flynn. Jenkins had decieved him even as he deceived Clara, both lying to protect the ones they loved.

"Fancy a rousing rendition of 'The Wheels On The Bus Go Round And Round?' " Ezekiel suggested to Clara, making her roll her eyes.

"We're in an automobile," she reminded him.

"I wish we were living la vida loca on a locomotive," Cassandra said wistfully.

"I don't," Jacob said from the front seat.

"Why not?" Cassandra said curious.

"I'm frightened of trains," Jacob admitted reluctantly. "They remind me too much of snakes."

"Jeeps versus jalopies," Clara said cryptically.

"High-five me, Hartley," Jacob said suddenly, twisting in his seat.

"Why?" she said, snub nose wrinkling.

"Cos I say so," Jacob grinned at her.

Clara just shook her head, before high-fiving him.

"You're so immature," Ezekiel said, pulling out his Game Boy.

"Says the bloke who still sleeps with a teddy bear," Clara said, elbowing him in the side.

"And wears Action Man pyjamas," Cassandra added, fist-bumping Clara.

"That's the last time I'm ever inviting you two to a sleep-over," Ezekiel snapped, the tips of his ears turning tomato.

"Why wasn't I invited?" Jacob said, brow furrowing further.

Ezekiel shrugged his shoulders.

"Sounds like my kind of sleepover," Jacob said under his breath, glancing at Clara.

"Enough of that," Eve said, clipping him round the head.

"It wasn't that kind of sleepover," Cassandra said coldly. "We stayed up to watch the sunrise, then loafed about eating these absolutely delicious fairycakes Ezekiel had been given by his next door neighbour, the dearest little old lady you ever saw" -

"Stolen, not given," Clara corrected Cassandra as she deflected Ezekiel's deathstare with graceful aplomb.

"Sounds scintillating," Eve interjected, rolling her eyes.

"Very Marie Antoinette," Jacob added, winking at Clara.

"You just don't understand my lifestyle," Ezekiel protested.

"Stealing isn't a lifestyle!" Clara said in disbelief. "Jailhousing though is a whole other question" -

- "C'mon, keep it down, kids," Eve said, putting her foot down, quite literally.

Before Ezekiel could frame an appropriate retort, a bloodstained girl ran out in front of their vehicle, forcing Eve to brake to a sudden stop, throwing them all forwards in their seats.

"Just another typical day in the office, then," Clara gasped, pushing the hair out of her eyes.

~*~

Clara leaned against the Jeep, careful to keep her distance from the bloodstained girl, who'd they now discovered to be called Kate. After calming her down, they'd managed to get some kind of coherant story from Kate; that she and her friends had been hiking, taking shelter in an abandoned house the Jeep was now parked in front of, only to end up being attacked by a mad-man, Kate the only one who'd managed to escape. To Clara, the story sounded strangely suspect, but the others were taking no chances, making preparations to investigate.

"Okay, a bloodstained teenage girl in the forest and a maniac in an abandoned house - who votes we all head back to Prague and find that lovely blonde bird I left in that nightclub?" Ezekiel said, raising his hand.

"Shut up, Zeke," Eve hissed out of the corner of her mouth.

"Here, drink this," Jacob said hastily, handing Kate a bottle of water, glaring at Ezekiel as he did.

"At least we found the broken ley-lines we were looking for," Cassandra said, waving her hand over the map spread across the Jeep bonnet, making it come to life. "Don't look at it," she warned them, "multi-dimensional maps are a nightmare to navigate, not to mention the nose-bleeds," she finished, delicately dabbing at her bleeding nostrils with one of Clara's lace-trimmed hankies.

"I want to look though," Ezekiel whined.

"Not unless you can do the math to sort out the magic layers," Cassandra said, rolling her eyes.

"Are you okay?" Eve asked, concerned. "Is it the tumour?"

"It's always the tumour," Cassandra said smartly.

"You okay, Hartley?" Eve then fired at Clara for the umpteenth time.

"Fine and dandy," Clara forced smiled.

"The vertices used to be static," Cassandra continued, "now they're... wavy."

"Math-Girl is doing one of her loopy-loops," Ezekiel muttered mutinously.

"Hey," Jacob admonished him. "Can it, kid."

"Can what?" Ezekiel retorted. "Beans? Canaries?"

"Are we casing this joint or what?" Jacob said impatiently, glaring at Ezekiel again.

"We are indeed," Eve said sarcastically.

"It's just an unfortunate co-incidence that our abandoned house and broken ley-lines all exist in the same place," Clara said, straightening up.

"What, you think it's a trap?" Eve said in an undertone, glancing at Kate.

Clara just shrugged her shoulders.

"Well, let's hit the Screaming Shack then," Ezekiel said, setting forth.

~*~

"I hate that kind of co-incidence," Jenkins commiserated over the phone to Clara, "and broken ley-lines are never good. With the return of magic to the world, they're even more dangerous - if you don't anchor them, they can build up enough charge and explode all over Slovakia."

"Well, we're on it like a car bonnet," Clara said, watching as Eve paced the living room floor, head bowed, crowbar held behind her back, "just like they say in Essex."

"Has anybody died in this house?" Jenkins asked, making Clara wince.

"I don't know," she said uneasily, glancing at Kate, who looked ready to run at the slightest provocation. "Why?"

"Broken ley-lines means wild magic," he said, admiring his profile in a passing mirror, "so you may be looking at a haunting, with angry spirits mixing with wild magic from the broken ley-lines and not good," he said, coming to an abrupt end, realising he was repeating himself.

"Not good," Clara echoed, confused.

Eve mimed cutting the call, making Clara pull a face.

"I have to go," she said, smoothing down the front of her duffel coat.

"Well, be careful," Jenkins said dourly, "and keep safe. Get... get Carsen to give me a call, okay? He hasn't checked in for a while."

"Alright," Clara agreed, before ending the call. "Happy?" she said to Eve, who was now brandishing a second crowbar, deliberating over whom to give it to, Clara or Cassandra.

"Okay, you take this," Eve said, thrusting the crowbar into Clara's hand, "and you take Kate," she then said to Cassandra, who did a double-take.

"Excuse me?" Cassandra squeaked. "You're putting me on baby-sitting duties?"

"You're in charge of the map as well," Eve said weakly.

"You can't keep leaving me behind," Cassandra argued, becoming angry. "That's the thirteenth time you've done this."

"Unlucky thirteen," Ezekiel interrupted.

"Somebody has to hold the fort," Eve pointed out, doing a Jacob and glaring at Ezekiel.

"But why does it always have to be me?" Cassandra retorted. "Why can't Clara cat-sit?"

"What, do you want me to toss a coin?" Eve snapped. After the STEM science fair, Clara hadn't been the only one to change, the dynamics of the group changing as well, Cassandra's health beginning to impact on their activities. Whenever possible, Eve would leave Cassandra behind, always torn between doing the same to Clara, her vagueness worrying Eve as much as Cassandra's tumour. But Clara was fit and healthy, when Cassandra wasn't, forcing Eve to make the obvious choice, much to Cassandra's vocal annoyance.

"Why don't I just stay behind instead?" Ezekiel chirped. "That'd be a nice middle ground to reach."

"Can it, kid," Jacob repeated.

"What's the plan?" Clara interjected hastily, glancing at Kate, who kept glancing at the door.

Before Eve could reply, the sound of heavy footsteps overhead made them all start violently, Clara grabbing Kate's arm, stopping her from doing a runner.

"Well, there's our answer," Ezekiel said, his heart sinking in his chest.

Right now, nothing's clear
And I just know I don't want to be here...