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Breakfast was the next time they saw each other and Danny couldn't help but notice how tired she looked even if everyone else seemed not to notice. She sat down with Toby, Ben, Alice and Karlie who had beckoned her over and she seemed happily engaged in a conversation with them. Danny had got to the dining room as soon as the staff meeting had finished to try and find her given she hadn't appeared. Frank questioned him and he was quick to cover for her and say he'd excused her as she'd woken up full of hayfever and needed an hour to sort herself out. Now he just needed to hope he could get to Clara before she did.
Clara had noticed him when she walked in and carefully dodged any looks as she gathered food and went to join the table that was calling her to join them. Sitting down between Alice and Ben she started talking to them about the previous day, each of them talking about their favourite rides at the theme park and all the events of the evening.
"How come you and Danny didn't come back with us?" Alice asked her fairly innocently.
"We stayed to help clear up," she quickly thought up the lie and hoped she'd delivered it innocently enough. "Frankie informed me she'd sort you lot out, which I can only presume she did?" They all nodded and smiled. "Good to hear. So, looking forward to today then?" She asked. She certainly was, they were being split up in to teams within their own teams which meant she wouldn't need to worry about Danny for most of the day. She'd finally got back to her room around 3am and probably got an hour's sleep at most, she didn't even change in to her PJs, just sort of fell on the bed and dropped off.
"Yeah I love the wide games! Capture the flag is the best it's so much fun," Toby replied, "hey can we all be a team?" He asked, getting an enthusiastic response from the other 3 at the table.
"I'll see what I can do," Clara told them, finishing up her breakfast. "I'll see you outside in 10 then?" They all nodded as she stood up and made her way outside. Danny spotted her leaving and quickly jumped up to follow, catching up just outside the hall. Clara quickly pulled out her phone as she noticed him and dialled Adrian, thankful when he answered quickly.
"Oh hello, I was beginning to wonder when I'd hear from you again, wasn't sure if you were angry with me after that last call," he spoke and Clara kept walking quickly, ignoring Danny who had appeared beside her.
"Clara?" he tried to get her attention but she ignored him.
"Hey is that him?" Adrian asked, but Clara just sighed, and finally made it to her room when she could shut the door on him. "Clara what's going on?"
"Sorry I just needed to get rid of my shadow," she sat down on the bed, suddenly feeling awful for how she'd treated him, but knowing it had to be this way or she'd give in to her weakness. "No, I'm not angry with you Ade but please, please don't mention that again."
"Hang on, a minute ago you were best friends I'm really confused right now, have you fallen out again?" he asked as Clara found herself staring at the door she's practically slammed in his face.
"He kissed me, last night, we were on the beach after the kids had gone to bed and we walked along the water edge and sat by the fire and talked and then on the way back it just… happened," she blurted out. Clara took a breath as she finished talking, she wasn't even going to tell him anything, this phone call had purely been a distraction to get rid of Danny.
"What did you do Clara?" Adrian asked in that voice that told her he basically knew the answer.
"I ran away, Ade I can't do it, I can't. It's too soon," she quickly wiped at her eyes, glancing at the clock and knowing she didn't have long.
"It's been 6 months Clara, you can't hide away forever," he told her, "and you can't ignore Danny for the rest of the week either, take this chance Clara."
"Yeah well I can ignore him for most of today so that'll have to do for now, I have to go," she told him and ignored his calls for her to listen to him before she hung up. Clara made her way to the mirror, quickly touching up the makeup that seemed to be covering her tiredness well enough before heading out.
The group met up outside the dining hall as agreed and made their way over to the woods they were playing the game in. Danny took them through the instructions and they split up, Clara taking Alice, Karlie, Toby and Ben as they'd talked about earlier and they eventually found a spot to put the flag. "This is an awesome den," Karlie said as she placed the flag in the tree, sitting on the branch. "So who's going where then?"
Alice looked around at everyone and then back to Karlie. "I reckon you and I should stay here, you can get up there really fast and my height plays advantage for defence. Toby and Ben work really well together so they'll be good to attack and I reckon Clara could be a great decoy too," they all looked over to their leader who shrugged.
"I'll do what I'm told, we ready?" she looked at her watch and waited the few seconds till it hit 10am and then told them to go. She was instructed to head right and whistle if she found anything which she agreed to and walked off. It didn't take long for her to realise walking through the forest alone when she was this tired probably wasn't the best plan and she suddenly realised how little energy she had. None the less the kept searching for clues, looking around as she walked for anything that might tell them where the others had hidden. As she looked to her left she suddenly felt herself bump in to something and automatically swore, thinking she'd walked in to a tree, but looked up to see Danny stood there.
"Oh gosh are you okay?" Danny quickly put his arm around her but she moved away. "Clara I'm sorry I…" she turned away from him, running a hand through her hair and looking back at the trees. There was an incredibly awkward silence to follow, neither of them quite knowing how to respond. Eventually Danny decided to try something. "So, where're your lot hiding then?" he asked, Clara smirked, looking around – she could do competitive whatever the mood.
"Nice try, like I'd tell you that," she replied. Danny raised his eyebrows at her, "not going to happen Danny, I'm not that stupid."
"Never said you were, but I have other tactics," he told her.
"Please, do tell," Clara folded her arms, waiting for a response. He didn't move for a moment and then suddenly, almost from nowhere, pounced on her and started to tickle.
"Danny!" she squealed, fighting him, "get off!"
"Nope, only if you tell," he grinned.
"That's not fair, I'm pretty sure torture is not allowed!" Clara finally managed to get away and ran behind a tree, watching him. He stood the other side, toying with her as they moved from side to side, "I feel personally attacked!"
"That is the point," he replied, eventually going for it, managing to grab her but losing balance so they both ended up on the floor, Clara falling on top of him. She quickly rolled off, lying on her back on the grass and breathing deeply. After a couple of minutes Danny stood up, holding out his hand to help her up. "We should get back to our teams." Clara didn't take his hand, sighing gently and continuing to look up at the sky. "Clara, I really am sorry," he told her.
"What for?" she asked, even though she knew the answer.
"Last night, I should never have…" he started, but that was a lie, "I didn't want to upset you, that was never my aim. I guess I should have talked more before I tried that, I don't want us to end up back where we started, please can we just forget that ever happened?" Danny asked, but Clara shook her head.
"No," she told him, standing up herself.
"What do you mean…?" he asked, confused.
"No, I won't forget it happened," Clara told him and he looked a little scared for it, "I should never have run away, it was nice," she told him, taking his hand which was still slightly stretched out even though she was up. Adrian's words were racing round her mind, telling her to take the chance, what was the worst that could happen? She leaned up and returned the kiss from the previous night, this time neither one arguing and holding it for a good 20 seconds. Eventually they broke away for air and Clara had to smile at how shocked he looked. Neither spoke again before they went in for more, but very quickly they both jumped back as they heard movement from behind them. Clara heard her team's whistle and looked up, "I should go…" she told him, their hands still slightly linked. "We'll talk later, I promise, I'll explain," she told him and quickly ran off to join her group.
The game continued, Clara's team eventually winning as Toby and Ben tracked down their base and managed to trick them in to getting the flag. More games happened over the morning, but both Clara and Danny were incredibly distracted and thankful for the afternoon when swimming arrived and they had very little to focus on. Clara sat on the side, watching them in the pool and grinning as Danny was showing off to her. Her phone had vibrated a couple of times in her pocket but she ignored it, focussing on watching the pool action.
Once dinner and the evening games were over, Clara and Danny retreated to the night room. Technically their job didn't start till lights out, but they were both getting impatient to talk and so they were soon sat with mugs of tea.
"You can sleep if you need to, I can always wake you," Danny told her as they settled in to the sofa. "I can see how tired you are, how much sleep did you actually get last night?" he asked.
Clara shrugged, sipping at her tea, "not sure really, but anyway – I'm not here to sleep. I need to explain before I change my mind. I need to explain, be open and honest; you have to know why I did what I did last night." She looked down at her tea, trying to hold it together and taking deep breaths.
"You don't have to tell me anything if it's that difficult, I don't expect an explanation," he told her, but she shook her head.
"No Danny, no you need to understand," she told him. "I felt guilty, not that I knew that straight away it took 3 hours sat by a lake to work that out." Clara stood up, walking to the window and looking out as she talked to him.
"Guilty? Why?" he'd worry about the 3 hours by the lake later, "you have no reason to feel guilty Clara."
"But I do, at least, I thought I did, maybe I still do, I've not really decided yet." Her vagueness was worrying him. Clara put her mug down on the windowsill, leaning on it and looking out the window. "I was in a relationship, a really serious one. He's the reason I settled down and stopped travelling 2 years ago. It was the best decision I ever made, I never regretted it. We were happy, I'd moved in, he proposed," only now did she pull out the long chain hidden behind her top and hold the ring in her hand, turning around to face Danny. "Nobody saw it coming, there were no signs, no symptoms, he just dropped down one day in the middle of a classroom. There was nobody there, it was after hours, I found him but it was too late. Massive brain haemorrhage, an aneurysm or something they said, and he was gone. Overnight he just vanished," she couldn't help the tears falling now as she relived the moment. Danny jumped up and ran over, immediately hugging her and she fell in to him, breaking down. He didn't know what to say, so he just held her until she spoke again. "Last night, it was the first time I've even thought about being with anyone else, and I just felt like I was betraying him, like I was cheating on him," she explained.
"I'm so sorry, I'm so so sorry," Danny gently kissed her head, rubbing her back.
"Why?" Clara asked, finally stepping back. "You shouldn't be, and nor should I. It's been 6 months, I need to move on, it's just hard."
"He'll always be a part of you, with or without me and that's okay," Danny moved them together to sit her down and Clara curled her feet up, leaning her head on his shoulder as he rested an arm around her. "You should tell me about him, I want to know. Tell me everything."
Clara took a moment to get her breathing under control before adjusting herself a little ready to talk; she didn't know quite where to start, it was impossible to know. "We met in the weirdest place, it's complicated, I should never have been there, but I was. He practically saved my life, I nearly fell off a balcony I was… well, that doesn't matter. Anyway I never thought I'd see him again, I had to go and we were miles from home. Then the next week he turned up as the new history teacher at work. We hit it off straight away, started meeting at lunchtimes to chat, sometimes taking walks. He asked me out about a month later and we just got closer and closer. I fell hard, really hard, he was everything. Everyone would tell us how great we were together. He looked after me, I looked after him, we just worked." The memories came flooding back, the times he'd taken her out, surprised her with flowers at work when she was feeling rough. Clara stopped, sitting up and leaning forward.
"He sounds lovely, I'm so sorry you lost him," he told her, but Clara shook her head, wiping at her eyes.
"I can't think like that anymore. He… Tom, he's in my past. It was a wonderful chapter, but it's closed now. I can't take it back, it'll always be there, but I can't focus on it forever. There's so much more of the story to come, who knows how that will read, but I know where I'd like it to start." Clara finally sat up and looked him straight in the eyes, leaning in and kissing him softly, but Danny quickly shook his head, pulling back but not too far.
"Not when you're like this. Tonight we talk, I'll listen, let's do this right." He took her hand, gently kissing the top of it, "that and the fact anyone could walk in through that door at any time," Danny smiled and Clara eventually chuckled slightly, sniffling. They had a lot to talk about.