An hour to midnight

[Golden Spider]

Clara laughed as well "I certainly hope I never have to rescue you again as well, but I would argue I didn't rescue you in the first place, just helped a stranger in need." It was only moments later that Marcus' voice came over the PA speaker "Alright you two, we are ready to launch. We'll have you in sunny California in no time."

Moments later they were taking off of the tarmac and soaring through the air. "How long is this flight going to be again?" Clara asked still resting her head on Kate's shoulder

[Lady Jenn]

"Three hours at most," Marcus replied. "Feel free to make yourselves comfortable, you'll find a tub full of food behind Kate's seat if you want something to tuck into."

Kate raised an eyebrow, looking where he suggested to find a large case which she opened, letting out a laugh. "Well, he definitely wasn't planning for a long haul flight. Look what his idea of an 'in-flight meal' is." She turned the case towards Clara to show that, while there were sandwiches and fruit, the majority of the contents was made up of sweets and chocolate."

[Golden Spider]

Clara giggled as Kate pulled out the boxes of mostly chocolate and fruit, with only a small amount of food with any actual substance. “I like this guy.” She laughed before grabbing a chocolate covered strawberry and biting into it. “Mmm” she moaned slightly in satisfaction “now I know I make a mean plate of eggs, but you really can’t beat chocolate.” She finished off her strawberry and offered one to Kate. “Might as well enjoy ourselves while we can for a couple hours right? As soon as we touch down we’re gonna be running around again.”

[Lady Jenn]

"Oh? And what exactly did you have in mind?" Kate asked, eating the strawberry before kissing Clara's fingers. "I'm not a big fan of joining the Mile High Club, I suppose we could see how long we can make all these sweets last," she said with a laugh. "Sorry, that sounded way less childish in my head I swear."

[Golden Spider]

Clara shoved Kate playfully "I never said anything about Mile high club. you with your mind in the gutter, sounds like you're fantasizing about me huh?" She teased back "I was talking about just relaxing for a bit with the sweets." she reached into the box again "open your mouth" she she asked Kate, then attempted to toss a M&M into her open mouth, when she did so, only for it to bounce off her nose

[Lady Jenn]

Kate laughed as she deftly caught the sweet, eating it before returning the favour...or trying to, although it bounced against the seat instead. "Wow, I hadn't realized my throwing skills were so awful. I need a bit of practice clearly." She sighed. "I have the single most important question for you to answer: what's your favourite sweet?"

[Golden Spider]

Clara thought for a moment as they continued to throw M&Ms at each other. "Honestly? my favorite is jellybeans, not so much regular ones, but those are good too, I love all the special ones that they come out with around Easter, Starburst etc. I know they are pure sugar, but I can never resist getting three or four bags around that time of year. I always say its to stock up and they will last me for a couple months, but they are then gone by May. How about you?"

[Lady Jenn]

She thought about it, tapping a finger against her lips as she considered her answer. "I had a friend who lived in England, who sent lots of sweets every six months because he claimed American sweets were terrible. There was one he sent me...have you heard of Creme Eggs?" she asked. "They get sold around Easter and they taste amazing, though good luck eating more than two at a time without feeling sick."

[Golden Spider]

Clara nodded "I've never had an English one just the American ones which probably don't taste the same, they are good, but not a huge fan of them, I agree that one is usually enough." She thought for a moment "here's another one of those stupid ice breaker questions, but we really don't know much about each other. if you had to eat only one thing for the rest of your life, what would it be? assuming that one thing provide all the nutrition you need magically or something"

[Lady Jenn]

"I'm happy to answer ice breakers," Kate said with a smile. "If I didn't want to answer the question I'd just say." She thought about the food question before answering. "My mum made the most amazing macaroni and cheese. Apparently it had an ingredient so secret she wouldn't even tell me or..." She paused, suddenly thinking of her sister. "Would you like to see a picture of my sister?"

[Golden Spider]

Clara paused, sensing the mood shift heavily. She took Kate’s hand “I’d love to, if you want to show me.” Trying to provide any comfort that the other woman needed. Clara wasn’t sure how Kate would react. It seemed to be something that she needed to do, but on the other hand it was also very soon after the loss in the first place, and especially with the pace that they had been going at lately the only other time that Kate seemed to have any moment to grieve was last night as they laid in the living room.

[Lady Jenn]

She sat next to Clara, putting her head on the other woman's shoulder as she scrolled through her phone. "I can't make a call on this, but I can at least...there it is." She handed the phone to Clara. On the screen was Kate, five years younger and looking slightly like a tomboy, and next to her, looking remarkably similar, was a girl with long blue hair, a warm smile directed at the camera. "Me and Marguerite looked so alike my mum's friends used to joke she'd had identical twins three years apart. She was..." She took a deep breath. "She would've liked you, I think anyway."

[Golden Spider]

Clara put her arm around Kate as she leaned up against her. Clara also started gently rubbing her back as Kate scrolled through pictures “I can certainly see the resemblance” she said softly “I’m sure I would’ve liked her too.” They sat there for another ten minutes or so, going through Kates old photos. At some point Clara took her phone out as well and showed some of her own photos, of Ami as a puppy, of her and her own sisters as teenagers at some sort of Halloween party, Clara in the middle dresses as Supergirl with a woman that was clearly recognizable as her older sister dressed as a witch and to her left another woman, who at first didn’t look much like the two with their her blonde hair to Clara and the second woman’s brown. But the facial features proved that she was related as well, dressed as a knight.

[Lady Jenn]

Kate laughed before stopping herself, feeling embarrassed. "Sorry, that probably seemed more rude than I meant it to. I only laughed because you look so cute and happy." She moved closer and kissed Clara on the cheek, lingering for a moment to enjoy the closeness. "I know I can be a bit...clingy sometimes so feel free to tell me to ease off anytime." Just as she was about to kiss Clara again the plane shook slightly, making her sit down hard. "Wow, the turbulence needs to work on its sense of timing," she said with a laugh.

[Golden Spider]

Clara laughed as well "Honestly that's why its one of my favorite pictures of us, its extremely silly, but that makes it unique and special" She was also enjoying the closeness and kissed Kate back "Don't worry, I'm liking it so far, and if you ever do I will let you know. I can actually be bit of an introvert sometimes well most times really. so there will probably be plenty of times where I will just need to zen out by myself for a couple hours" Clara said without really even realizing that she was already thinking of life with Kate after the craziness of this multiversal threat was over.

Clara then giggled slightly as Kate was forced back into her seat by turbulence. "well that proves that we aren't in a hallmark movie at least, because if we were the turbulence would've thrown you onto my lap instead" she joked, then realized a second later "wait does Hallmark mean the same thing in your world? or are they some action movie mega explosion movie studio there?"

[Lady Jenn]

"Oh, Hallmark is definitely a thing...sadly," Kate said with a sigh. "There's also a channel that makes the most cheesy low-budget TV sci-fi movies, which are a bit more up my street. If only because they're so terrible it's hard not to laugh."

Any further discussion was cut off by Marcus calling from the cockpit. "We'll be landing shortly ladies. There should be a shelf on the wall with a list full of taxi numbers, and don't worry, if they were dodgy they wouldn't be on my list. There's also my phone number so I can fly you guys back when you're ready."

Kate sighed. "Just as we were getting comfortable too, I suppose we do have work to be getting on with though."

[Golden Spider]

Clara sighed as well, quickly chowed down on one last chocolate-covered strawberry, and begun perusing the list of Taxis while also noting down Marcus' number "Yeah, but at least this gives us something to look forward to, some more quiet time on the way back." she decided after a moment to just take all the taxi numbers after all, they likely didn't need all of them, and would probably just pick at random, but it was probably a good idea to use a different company for every ride, try to make somebodies life a bit harder if they were trying to track them at all.

Before too much longer they had touched back down to the earth, and with all the red tape of touching down, even on a private plane, they were able to call a taxi and have it arrive while they were waiting and have it get there before they got off the plane. "Good afternoon ladies," the driver said in a surprisingly southern accent for LA, "where are ya heading?"

[Lady Jenn]

Kate was suddenly glad she'd been listening to Nikita before they left. "Do you know the little library near the edge East Los Angeles and Monterey Park? It's owned by a Doctor...Genner?"

"Doctor Gennaro?" the driver asked with a laugh. "Sure I know the place. I'll have you there in no time, get in.

They climbed in, Kate finding herself unintentionally reaching for Clara's hand. For whatever reason she felt safer doing this, especially as she'd never visited LA in her own world so the experience was a little daunting to say the least. They soon found themselves outside a library, flanked by a pair of clothes shops, and once Kate had paid the driver she led Clara inside, where a middle-aged, grey haired man was sat looking at a dusty medical journal.

Kate coughed. "Doctor Gennaro, we have a few questions to ask you."

The man sighed, but didn't look up from the page. "I explained to the last journalist, I have enough loyal customers to give me word of mouth to not need some wannabe celebrity hack writing an internet fluff piece."

Kate put a picture on the table, which was a blown up picture from Jack's phone, clearly showing the Doctor was one of the two figures. "Y'know, multiverse travellers get real good at spotting other hoppers like them, did you know that?"

The man's eyes went wide as he caught sight of the picture and attempted to get up and escape, only for Kate to pull a gun. "I really don't want to believe you've got anything to hide, so let's have a good talk shall we?" She turned to Clara. "Take his keyring, lock the front door, I don't want us being disturbed."

[Golden Spider]

Clara was a bit startled when Kate pulled a gun on the man, having expected them just to talk. She bit her lower lip but realized it was probably not the time to say anything or make it seem like they weren't a united front. Clara took the key ring, and locked the front door, before standing in front of it as well, out of Kate's way but still a presence in case she needed any help. "We don't want to have to hurt you, we just need some answers" she said forcing her voice to not show her nerves and instead come out collected and steely. It was a voice she had used before, but only ever in cases where someone had not wanted to pay late return fees or had been causing a ruckus in her library. this was an entirely new situation for her, but new situations had been pretty common lately.

[Lady Jenn]

"How could you possibly know I'm a traveller?" Gennaro asked, narrowing his eyes at Kate. "They told me no-one on my Earth would be able to detect it."

"One, I'm a traveller too," Kate replied. "And two, what do you...shit," Kate said under her breath. "They bribed you into helping didn't they? Do you have the slightest damn idea what you've done?"

Genaro put his hands up defensively. "I don't know what you mean, the Order promised me they would ask nothing in return for me gaining certain technological advances over the rest of my peers. Are you telling me lied to me?"

Kate laughed bitterly. "Either they lied to you or you're the stupidest damn criminal I've ever met." She pinched the bridge of her nose. "Doctor, those portals you're using...that's how they've been getting a foothold on this Earth. You're literally accelerating an emergency we haven't begun to understand."

As she turned away, trying to calm herself Gennaro tried to reach out. "I swear, I didn't...maybe I know something that can help?"

[Golden Spider]

Clara stepped forward as Kate turned away to compose herself "Then spill it, everything, everything you know and everything you can think of, your fuck-up has already caused lives to be lost, and more will be if you don't help us." she said slamming her hands on the desk, staring him right in the eye. "this is your chance to make it right and maybe even be a hero that helped save the world, its your choice"

[Lady Jenn]

Gennaro mopped his brow. "I...I swear, he promised me they only had the best intentions."

"Who?" Kate asked. "The Midnight Order? What could they possibly promise you?"

"Not the Order," the Doctor replied. "Their masters...their true masters. When they explained it to me I joked that it sounded like something out of Lovecraft but they said..." He closed his eyes. "They said they are some ancient, dark and powerful. That only a handful of those in the multiverse have any concept of what they are, and even then their name is spoken as a joke."

"That's not possible," Kate said. "If The Timeless were real, we'd...Oh god," she said, sitting hard in one of the chairs. "Those things I saw...Fucking hell, Marguerite made them sound like a nightmare. But why would they want the Order?"

"From what I understand," the Doctor said, removing his glasses to clean them, "due to the...nature of their existence they cannot cross into our plane of existence without host bodies. Preferably willing, but if all else fails-"

"The hospital..." Kate trailed off, going white as a sheet.

[Golden Spider]

Clara looked back and forth between the two growing nor anxious with Kates growing grave reaction “ok someone want to fill me in on what the hell you two are implying and so worried about. What’s going on at the hospital?”

Clara desperately wanted to comfort Kate seeing her reaction, but didn’t know if that was the best move at the moment or if they should still try to keep up the strong front. “Seriously how much more fucked did we just get?”

[Lady Jenn]

"No-one's sure what the Timeless are," Kate said, visibly shaking. "My sister said she'd heard at least three different stories, variously describing them as gods, demons...something leftover from the beginnings of the universe. As for the hospital..." she gulped. "Clara, they weren't trying to kill me, they were trying to sedate me to the point where I couldn't resist being possessed. If you and Jake hadn't intervened..." She let out a quiet sob."

"Ladies, there's..." The Doctor gulped. "I'm supposed to be meeting my contact today. I'm not sure I can stomach going now I've heard this but...maybe you should go in my place?"

[Golden Spider]

On hearing what Kate had deduced, Clara could no longer resist taking her in her arms. She rubbed her back gently and she held her for a moment. "It's ok, we got you out of there, I won't let anything like that happen to you."

She broke the hug off though, whirling around with a fire in her eyes as the doctor spoke up again "Where was your stomach when you got into bed with these things?" she slammed her hands on the desk again "What part of Extra-Dimensional Boogeymen beings that need to possess people made you think they were the good guys? You were in it for the money and power don't delude yourself, you disgust me. No you're not out of this, you're going to that meeting, and I'm going with you, if only to make sure you don't stab us in the back."

She turned back to Kate, "if that is really what they intended to do to you then they know you, its more dangerous if you were to come to the meeting."