Thank you for the review.

Don't worry I am not going to give up on this. I have written over half of it (coming to over 37,500 words). It is just a little disheartening.

And this story is an AU.

CHAPTER 12

JOHN SMITH (EYEBROWS)

LOCATION: KINGS COURT COTTAGE, BAKEWELL, PEAK DISTRICT & DERBYSHIRE DALES, ENGLAND

DATE: 28TH APRIL 2017

TIME: 20:00

JOHN KNEW THAT SOMEONE HAD TO TAKE CHARGE, BUT HE DIDN'T UNDERSTAND WHY IT WAS HIM. He blamed it on the fact that Kate had sent him the information. Although he still didn't understand why the information was handed to him. He left a while a go. Surely there must have been someone after him. Unless they were still there. Unless they were dead. Unless … he just didn't want to think about what could have happened. It could have been him like a few before him. It could have been Chinny or Sandshoes sitting at the dinning room table in a cottage in the Peak District, or wherever they had sent them, working out how people were going to get to one place to another as safely as they could. Wherever they were, they had to run.

Rose had caught him earlier, obviously trying to get some more information out of him, asking if they could have just given themselves over, arguing it was better than the slander. She might have been right. They might not have had to run. But from what he knew about this organisation and almost running into them once before, he thought it was safer for them to run. Kate could sort out everything to do with the news and the slander. They needed to work out why they were being brought together. It still puzzled him even after meeting them all.

John looked down at the map, attempting to work something out at least. Sandshoes, Rose and Donna had, after a while, agreed that they would meet Jack and Martha in Chester before moving onto the Brecon Beacons. The plan was for them to take his car for the journey and look as though they were old friends, meeting up, to remind themselves why they all became friends in the first place. Or was it a team building exercise that they were made to do for work. Whatever they had chosen, they had all agreed to taken on a different name due to the fake IDs that John had got done for everyone. They just had to make sure that they were moving every few days.

Chinny, Amy and Rory had agreed that they would go back South. They were heading towards the South Downs, somewhere that Chinny had said that he had been before. From what John understood, they were going to make their way along the coast, keeping in mind to keep low in more built up areas. John just had to stop himself every time Chinny got really excited. He was the one that got told off for smiling for being on the wrong side of this organisation. At least he wasn't actually happy about being on the run.

It meant that he was left with Clara, which he was definitely not complaining about. He had seen Rose's eye rolls and it just made him feel even more self-conscious about the feelings he had for Clara. He told himself that he only had the feelings for her because she had taken such an interest in his subject, actively debating about the meanings of the novels that he set, not just taking what he said about them and forming her own opinions. Her essays where the best thing ever to mark that sometimes he debated with himself as to whether he should read hers first or last. He always put it last as something to look forward to.

Well that was what he told himself when his affections for the young woman was ever brought up. Her passion for English just overwhelmed him. Not that she wasn't a beautiful woman. There was just something more to it than pure physical attraction.

So Sandshoes was going to go to Wales with his group. Chinny was standing in England with his group. The obvious choice for him and Clara was to head to Scotland.

"How are you getting on?"

The voice, belonging to Clara, scared John and he just about stopped himself from jumping at it. He turned to her, seeing a smile make its way onto her face as she realised that she had scared him.

"Sorry. Just you have been in here for the best part of an hour and I just wanted to know whether you knew where we were going." She as she walked over to him. "Plus I had made you a cup of tea with 26 sugars in it."

He took it off of her and went to take a sip when she said how many sugars she had put in it. He stopped and stared at her. "Please don't say that there is 26 sugars in here."

Clara laughed. "Felt like it. No it has five in it. You still have five, don't you?"

"I shouldn't. I have been told to cut the sugar out."

She took the chair next to him and looked down at the map. "I still remember getting you your tea or coffee from the coffee shop around the corner and having to grab a hand full of sugar just for you."

"So you were my caffeine lifeline. I wondered why it stopped. I always thought it was one of the students doing a masters or the person shadowing me. Well meant to be shadowing me."

She laughed again and John could help but smile along with her. To him, it was such a magical sound.

"How did you never know it was me?"

"I suppose I just didn't take any notice."

John felt awful for saying it when her smile turned into a frown. He wanted to see her smiling again.

"So where are we headed?" She said, turning her attention away from him and back to the map.

He was cursing himself and his big mouth. He always said the wrong thing at the wrong time. And it was usually to Clara. Like when she topped his class when she was in her second year. He informed her of her mark and then added the remark that he didn't expect anything less from her. Then he made it even worse by giving her a thumbs up before walking off. He spent the rest of the day in his office, telling everyone that he wasn't to be disturbed in the nastiest way possible. All because he is an idiot.

"Well we have Sandshoes going west back to Wales. We have Chinny going South, staying in England. We can't very well going any further East if we want to stay in National Parks so," He pointing to the Cairngoms. "We will be heading to Scotland and the Cairngorms."

"You're taking me home. Should I be worried?" She joked.

He stared at her for a bit, just blinking at her before realising that she had meant it as a joke. "No, nothing to worry about. I am sure that they will love you."

"Scots hate the English don't they?"

"We just don't like it when we are being told to do something that we don't want to do." John paused. "On second thoughts, they might not. You are a control freak."

"I am not a control freak."

"Yes ma'am." He smiled again as she did. "The only problem we have is the fact that I have given my car away to Sandshoes."

She stood back up and walked behind him, looking at the map from his point of view. He tensed as she rested her hands on his shoulders. He tried not to but it was just an impulse thing. He just didn't like being touched. Not that Clara knew that. But she didn't say or react to it.

"It is far." She commented.

"All 393 miles."

"That is far."

John tries to relax as Clara started to massage his shoulders. He wondered if she had done it because he felt tense. He was only tense because she was touching him. Maybe he should have said something. Asked her not to put her hands on his shoulders.

"I would also like to stop off in Glasgow." He said, trying to distract himself.

"Why?"

"They were raiding my office when I left. I had hoped to get something from there before I left."

"What did you want to get?"

He hesitated. What he wanted from his office would surely worry her. He cleared his throat. "A gun."

The movement on his shoulders stopped and it worried him.

"A gun?"

"I know how to shoot it. Probably won't shoot it. Just a bit of added protection."

"Is this organisation really that dangerous?" She asked.

He could her the fear in her voice and he hoped that it wasn't aimed at him. He really hadn't meant to scare her. He wished that she was facing him, so he could read her face.

"More than you could imagine."

Her hands dropped off his shoulders as she moved to take the seat next to him again.

"John … can we out run them? Can we hide? Or are we just running because you don't know what else to do?"

He looked back at the map to have something else to look at expect for her. He didn't want to give her the answer that she was expecting. He didn't want to tell her that he hoped that they could but doubted it. He didn't want to tell her that there was a likelihood that none of them would get out of this alive and that was why he wanted the gun in his office.

"John?"

"No. There is not one second that I think that we can out run them. Nor do I think we could ever be one step ahead of them. They are the ones totally and utterly in control. They will always been ten steps ahead of us."

He looked up at her.

"At least you can tell me the truth. I think everyone is trying to sugar coat everything now."

"Clara, this organisation … I don't know how to put into words … what they have done. What they have caused. I would love to tell you that this is just the beginning of all this but it isn't. They have been planning this for a very long time and it is all my fault. They are after us and it is my fault because I wouldn't ..." He stopped himself before he said too much.

"I am sure it isn't your fault."

John knew that she was just saying that because she thought it was the right thing to say but she didn't know what he had done or could have done. It was a secret that they were meant to take to the grave, but he felt like it was all going to come to light. Especially now.

"How about you work out how we are going to get to the Carnigorms and I will work out how we are going to get there?"

John was glad that she had disturbed her thoughts. He was about to go down a rather dark path that he had taken years to get off. He couldn't be thinking like that again. Not now. Not when he was over it.

"That might be an idea."

Clara gave him another smile before standing up. He wanted to ask her not to leave. He didn't want to be alone with his thoughts at the moment. There was no telling what dark place he could go to.

"Clara." He blurted out, turning to her.

"Yes." She said as she stopped at the door.

He knew what he wanted to say. He wanted to tell her to stay so that they could catch up more. He wanted to her to tell her all about her classes and what she enjoyed most and whether she had a boyfriend or a girlfriend or whatever. He wanted her to tell him about her life since university. He wanted something to fill the silence, save for his darkening thoughts.

"It is good to see you again. The circumstances might not be the best but I am glad to see you again."

She flashed him another smile. "It is good to see you again as well."

He watched her close the door before he dropped his head on the table, a little harder than he had intended. He was an idiot. A first class idiot.