Library Love

"No running in the library," snapped the elderly librarian at the welcome desk of Lilly's without looking up from her computer. It was the most common haunt for the creatively inclined students at Duke University, hosting an impressive collection of art and history study resources.

"Sara, calm down," Jessica Parker urged, gripping the hassled blonde's shoulders firmly when her roommate skidded to a halt in front of the crabby Mrs. Turner's desk. "We'll get the book back, don't worry." She tucked a loose strand of her long brown hair behind her ear and glanced at the old woman glaring at them through beady eyes from behind wire-rimmed glasses. "Hi, Mrs. Turner," she chirped. "How are you on this fine day?"

"It's Monday, and I have the entire art history shelf to catalog before the section is renovated, how do you think I am?" the woman snapped irritably. "The area is already closed to students, Miss Kay," she warned Sara, who had pulled away from Jessica's soothing grip and was walking hastily towards the shelf where she knew the book she needed was located.

"I know, ma'am," the blonde nodded shakily. "When Jessica returned our books this morning, one of the ones I was using had a very personal bookmark in it. I don't want to borrow anything…I just need to get that back, please," she begged desperately.

"What bookmark?" Jessica asked curiously, now ignoring the scowl on the librarian's face. "You never mentioned that. You just kind of freaked out on me back at the dorm."

"I know, I'm sorry," Sara told her, still staring pleadingly at the stern Mrs. Turner. "It was one of the last pictures I took with Izzie before she started looking really ill. It's as special to her as it is to me, I can't lose that picture!"

"Can't you do something, Mrs. Turner?" Jessica appealed to the librarian on her friend's behalf. "Her older sister has cancer, you know," she explained, lowering her voice before adding. "Who knows how many more pictures they'll have together?"

"I really can't afford to go making a mess back there, Miss Parker," the librarian told her, but her stern gaze did finally soften when Sara turned her back on them, shaking and none too subtly wiping stray tears from her eyes. "I'm sorry, but it's a lot more trouble to locate the book she needs than it's worth."

"Please, Mrs. Turner, I'm begging you to help me find that bookmark," Sara tried again, unable to stop her voice trembling with desperation now.

Before the older woman could respond to the pleas, the sound of footsteps tapping down the stairs from the quiet study area above made both girls turn around. Before long, Sara's long-time boyfriend Clay Evans emerged from behind a towering mahogany shelf. "Hey girls," he said, shooting the pair of them a tired smile. "Thought I heard your voices, how's it going?"

"Not bad," Jessica shrugged casually. "You look like hell, mate. No offense," she giggled, eyeing his messy sandy hair.

"Too wiped out to be offended, it's your lucky day," Clay told her with a half-hearted eye roll. "Uh…Sara, are you okay?"

The blonde nodded quickly and pointed at the thick book he was clutching to his chest. "Is that the new Picasso biography?" she asked faintly.

"Yeah," Clay grimaced; "This dude is kicking my ass, art history is what we call a necessary evil."

"Speak for yourself, Evans," Jessica smirked at him, flinching when Sara suddenly gripped her arm hard. "Ouch! Sara, what the hell?"

"That's the book I just had…the one with the picture in it," Sara explained hastily, her words tripping over each other in the intense relief of the moment.

"What are you talking about?" Clay asked with a perplexed frown.

"Do you mind if I take a quick look at that?" Sara asked urgently, reaching for the book with shaking hands. "It's really important."

"Go ahead," he shrugged and handed the book to her. Mrs. Turner had returned to her computer during the entire exchange and now spared Sara a scandalized glance when the blonde began to rifle manically through the pages of the book. "What are you looking for?" Clay asked when she was done, and the brief flicker of hope in her hazel eyes had dimmed once more.

"Did you happen to find a picture of me somewhere in this book?" she asked hopefully.

"Picasso was a bit before your time, don't you think?" he laughed, but quickly stopped at the grim look on her face. "Okay…sorry, bad joke. Um…what kind of picture is it?"

"It was of my sister and me," Sara explained wearily. "You remember me telling you about Izzie, right? So this is one of the last really nice pictures of us. It's of the two of us in our garden back home in Raleigh, we were wearing daisy chains. Have you seen it?"

"Sara, I don't think that's...," Jessica began gently, feeling guilty that her returning all their books at once had inadvertently caused her friend so much distress. But then Clay smiled sheepishly, and the comprehension dawning on his face cut her off mid-sentence. "Okay…dude, am I missing something here?"

"My brains must be more fried than I thought," Clay murmured vaguely, dropping his backpack on the floor with a thud and tugging open an outer zip. "I totally found that. I was going to come and find you later to give it back…I guess this is a lucky meeting."

"How is that possible?" Jessica mused, glancing up at the watchful librarian's perpetually disapproving expression. "You said we couldn't check the book out. How come he got to use it if the section was off-limits?"

"He didn't check it out," the older woman explained irritably. "And also didn't whine I might add," she said with a pointed glance at Sara. "I have no problem with people actually studying upstairs." The rest of the grouchy old woman's justifications faded into a sudden gasp of horror. "I do have a problem with that, Miss Kay!"

Jessica whipped around at the librarian's outraged expression and grinned. Overwhelmed by relief to have her treasured photograph back, Sara had tackled Clay, so suddenly she almost knocked him flat. Her curtain of blonde hair partially obscured their faces so that only the tips of his ears were visible, glowing a tell-tale red. The British brunette stepped up next to Sara and snapped her fingers; "Oi! Break it up, Romeo and Juliet. You guys are going to give poor Mrs. T a heart attack here," she laughed when her friends parted, both blushing.

"I'll take that as a thank you, huh?" Clay teased, slipping an arm around Sara's shoulders affectionately. "Sorry Mrs. Turner, we'll get out of your hair now."

"Oh, you have no idea," Sara said fervently. "That doesn't even begin to cover how much I need to thank you for this, really."

"Don't mind me, guys," Jessica called after the pair, very familiar with the deep connection Clay and Sara shared that made them oblivious to anything else. "Cheer up, Mrs. T, young love is pretty, eh?" she smirked at the librarian and skipped out of the library on her own.

"How about some ice cream to un-fry those brains of yours?" Sara suggested, her hazel eyes sparkling with pure adoration. "My treat, I owe you for finding my picture."

"You need to lose things more often if this is the thanks I get," Clay joked as they stepped out onto the sunny campus grounds. "Ice cream sounds great."

"As long as you're not on my list of things I could lose, I'm okay with that," Sara said softly, tugging him towards the shade of a sheltered corner of the grounds.

"That can be arranged, I'm definitely not going anywhere," Clay moaned, the words muffled against her lips when she pinned him to the boundary wall of the campus grounds. And the fact that ice cream would just have to wait became an unspoken agreement in the whirlwind of their love.

A / N So a prompt on my online creative writing course about difficulties getting a library book led to this Clara drabble, I ship them so hard! Enjoy all xx