Author's Note: This is the sequel to A Christmas Clara. 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, and Sure As Sin. 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.
Return Of The Mac
"Why is the clippings book clipping my ear!?" Ezekiel yelled, making everybody whirl around, just in time to see the clippings book dive-bomb Ezekiel, rather like a seagull.
"Where are your manners!?" Jenkins bellowed, snatching up a butterfly net.
"Somewhere under my bed," Ezekiel gasped, diving behind Flynn's desk for cover, only for it to materialize on the other side of the room instead, leaving him open and exposed.
"I'm talking to the book!" Jenkins retorted, swiping the butterfly net in its direction, trying and failing to catch it.
Clara hummed the opening bars of Habanera, making the clippings book fly to her hand, where it landed gently on her outstretched palm, aptly more butterfly than bird now. Jenkins set the butterfly net down, looking put out, Ezekiel lowering his arms, looking relieved. "And that's how you do it," Clara said smartly, making Jacob repress a smirk.
"Why is it so agitated?" Cassandra asked, frowning.
As she spoke, the clippings book started flapping its pages, scattering scraps of paper to the wind, Eve and the others hastily snatching them up.
"Water-spirits, weather anomalies, five score and nine years," Eve said, brow furrowing.
"Earthquakes and geysers," Clara said, reading from a tattered list, "Yellowstone, Mongolia, Taiwan, China, Japan" -
- "Massive geo-thermal phenomenon dating back as far as 1643," Jacob said, scrunching up his eyes, struggling to decipher the paper's contents.
"Your handwriting is terrible!" Jenkins said, rounding on the clippings book, making it fly at his face. "Argh!" he screamed, ducking, the clippings book soaring over his silver head.
"Now you know how I feel!" Ezekiel snapped, diving behind Jacob.
"Don't use me as a human shield!" Jacob bellowed, grabbing Cassandra and Clara's hands, dragging them behind an obliging pillar.
"Don't use me as one either!" the pillar squeaked.
Unperturbed, Eve reached up and snatched the clippings book out of the air, clamping its covers shut. "And that's how you really do it," she said, parodying Clara's earlier speech.
"Thank you," Jenkins said stiffly, smoothing back his hair before taking it from her. "Now stop panicking," he said to the clippings book, albeit more respectfully, "it is most unseemly."
"Why is it panicking" - Cassandra began, emerging from behind the pillar, only for her words to be cut off by Ezekiel's Crazy Frog ring-tone.
"Hey, I changed that to Barber's Adagio for Strings," Clara said, narrowing her eyes at Ezekiel.
"And I changed it back," Ezekiel said smartly, before answering the call. "Hellooooo," he sing-songed, only for his face to darken. "It was double-cheese and pepperoni, not roast pumpkin and chorizo!" he snapped, stamping his foot.
"And as I was saying," Cassandra said, rolling her eyes, "why is the clippings book panicking" -
The Annex doors suddenly started rattling, the sound of a sea-storm filling the room, the wind howling, rain roaring down, making Clara almost feel the spray of the waves striking her skin. She and Cassandra just looked at each other, before snatching up the thickest books they could find, brandishing them like swords. Eve grabbed her gun, Jacob a medieval mace, Jenkins standing his ground as Ezekiel discreetly hid behind him, phone still clamped to his ear. The doors flew open, only to reveal Flynn, resplendent in a bright yellow raincoat and matching hat.
"It's the dragons!" he bellowed, only to glance behind him. "Oh, you got the back door working," he noticed, before bestowing a crooked smile upon them all.
And that's why he's spinnin' 'round in my head
Comes back to me, burning red…
