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Chapter 5

Clara felt was if she was about to fall asleep. Even though her body was moving and her feet were taking one step after another while she was trailing after Malcolm, the only thing that really kept her awake was his shouting that occasionally happened when they passed someone else in the hallway. Clara had known that Malcolm Tucker was rude, she had read about it in the newspapers, but they hadn't been able to prepare her for this. The man was actually frightening – not her, but whoever he shouted at. Clara, on the only hand, simply felt annoyed by his manner.

He came to an abrupt halt as soon as they had stepped into the DoSAC offices and turned to face her. "You stay here. I'm gonna have a brief chat with Nicola Murray."

Clara simply nodded. She was too tired to protest and beg Malcolm to take her with him. She didn't even want to be in the same room when he shouted at the poor woman, all she really wanted was to stand here and stare at the wall until she could finally go to sleep.

However she wasn't left in peace for very long and soon enough Clara started to notice a young man with curly hair and glasses slowly inching closer to her. He had his hands in his pockets and was smiling rather oddly at her.

"Helloooo," the man greeted her in a friendly, slightly strange manner.

"Uhm, hi," Clara said back, frowning at the man in front of her.

Clara waited to him to say more, to give a reason as to why he had approached her but it took him a long time and a questioning look from her before he started talking.

"Can I help you?" he asked, "You look a bit lost. Who are you here to see?"

"Oh, I'm not here to see anyone," Clara explained, "Just waiting for my boss. Malcolm Tucker. I'm Clara Oswald, the new intern."

"Clara Oswald," the smile on the man's face grew and he nodded to himself, "I'm Ollie Reeder. Special adviser to Nicola Murray. Your boss is currently shouting at my boss, so we better keep our distance."

Clara chuckled. "That's what I was planning to do."

Even though to Clara the conversation seemed to be over Ollie Reeder didn't make the slightest attempt to move away from her.

"So," Ollie began, shuffling his feet, "What's it like? Working for Malcolm Tucker? Do you get, like, a list of curse words that you have to learn so you know what they mean when he shouts them at you?"

The young man laughed, obviously finding himself very hilarious. Clara forced a smile when she started getting the impression he was only talking to her because she had a pretty face.

"He hasn't shouted at me. Yet. Well, not really," she explained, "I thought he was going to after-"

Clara broke off, not really sure whether she should tell this stranger about the post-it note. But an expression crossed over Ollie's face only seconds later and he started to grin broadly.

"Ohhhhh, it was you!" he realized, "The twat sign. Wasn't it?"

She bit down on her lip, not really knowing what to say. In retrospect she felt sorry for doing it, pinning an insulting note to the back of a highly regarded political figure. It had been an immature and silly thing to do. However, Malcolm's revenge hadn't exactly been first class either, so Clara guessed they were even now.

"Yes, that was me," she admitted.

Ollie smiled at her. "I like you, Clara Oswald, and I have a feeling we're going to get along really well."

Clara nodded, even though she wasn't quite so sure about that.

Malcolm slammed the door shut behind him and was ready to storm out of the building when he suddenly came to a halt as he saw Ollie talking to Clara. What was that fucking git up to now? Whatever it was, it was making Clara laugh and that was unacceptable. They were probably joking about that fucking sign Clara had pinned to his back the day earlier.

"Hey, hey, hey, don't you have work to do, Ollie?" Malcolm approached them, interrupting that idiot mid-sentence.

"Malcolm," Ollie smirked at him. Oh, how he would love to wipe that look off his face. "I was just talking to your new intern. She was telling me about the great policy she came up with last night. You should keep her."

Malcolm grimaced at him before he turned his attention towards Clara. "Would you mind waiting in the car? We're leaving as soon as I've stuffed this one's head into a locker."

Clara frowned at him, but luckily she didn't protest as she turned around and headed out of the office with Ollie still chuckling and staring after her until she was out of sight.

"She looks exhausted, Malcolm, what have you done to the poor girl? Have you kept her up all night?" Ollie laughed and imitated a thrusting movement with his hips.

Malcolm rolled his eyes.

"Oh, come on," he said, still grinning broadly, "It's not that often that you see something pretty in this office. Except for me, of course."

"I wonder what your girlfriend would say if she heard you talking like that. You're still fucking that bitch from the opposition, aren't you?" Malcolm said sharply.

"Still fucking her, yes. Why? Jealous?"

"No," he growled, "You do realize that when the say fuck the shadow cabinet, they usually don't mean that literally, right? Besides, a woman like Clara would probably tear your little cock to pieces before it got anywhere close."

Ollie scoffed. "Not as little as you might think."

Malcolm raised his finger in a threatening manner. "Keep it in your pants!" he warned him, "Clara has actually done a pretty good job with this policy, a better job than you have done in the past few years, so I would keep my fucking mouth very tightly shut if I were you or I'll have Clara replace you once she has graduated."

Ollie sneered at him. "She's got you whipped, hasn't she? Is that all it takes? A childish note and a job well done? Or were there. . . other . . jobs involved?"

"I'm starting to think it's you that's fucking jealous," Malcolm laughed.

"Why would I be?"

He shrugged as he made his way towards the exit. "Because I have the pretty intern and all you have is Glenn."

Malcolm shut the door behind him and felt glad to be out of this fucking madhouse that called itself DoSAC. Nevertheless it had all gone extremely well. He had presented Clara's policy to Nicola and she had liked it, which had come as a surprise because Malcolm hadn't thought she would be able to admit it, limited as her horizon was. He was also determined to give Clara a fair chance in her internship, even though he hadn't wanted her at first. But she was smart and she had a talent and Malcolm would be fucking stupid to let that go to waste. And yes, Clara was also very pretty, so he could show her off in front of Ollie and all the other dimwits. Now all Malcolm needed to do was to be as nice to her as was needed to keep for three months.