"You and Rose seem to have become friends, that's cool," Clara chuckled at Marshall's awkward comment. The moment they'd gotten inside the car there had been a distinctive air of silence around them. It hadn't been awkward, well Clara hadn't found it to be, but the statement made by the man in the drivers seat made her think that he either found the silence awkward or he didn't like it.

"You don't have to try and make conversation with me," she begun, while Marshall let out and a audible sigh. Clara just rolled her eyes, however, before finishing what she had started, "in answer to your sort of question yes Rose and I have become friends. Any problem with that," she so wanted to tell him that she'd known Rose for over five years, but then she'd have to explain how they met and became friends. That was one lie she hadn't conducted a story for.

"Sorry I just thought it would help get our minds off of what just happened. Because I'm gonna be honest with you, it scared the fuck outta me. Then when you ran off alone and I heard the gunshots all I could think about was if you were ok," throughout Marshall's confession Clara had not noticed that they were already parked outside his house. She only became aware of the fact when she saw him push open his door to get out.

"Really all you could think about was me. I find that really hard to believe," Clara responses closing the door of the car behind her before following him up the remainder of the pathway to the front of the house.

"Well believe it cause it's true," he mumbled as he fumbled around in his pocket for his keys. It took a few moments, but he soon fished them out placing the correct one in the lock. Once the door swung open he gestured for Clara to go in first before him. He followed after and made sure she was far enough away from the door that when he shut it he didn't accidentally get the skirt of her dress caught in it. There was also anther reason he wanted to be the one to shut the door.

"My stuff is still in the room you gave me right? You haven't moved it somewhere else?" Clara asked just before she made her way up the stairs. When he nodded in confirmation she didn't waste a second, gathering up her dress she near enough ran up the stairs and in the direction of her old room.

Upon entering the room in which Marshall had given her to stay in she noticed that everything had been as she'd left it. One of the suitcases was half closed with a plain black sock poking out of it, she remembered it being there because it had fallen out while she had been looking for something else and she'd just stuffed it back in because she couldn't be bothered to undo the rest of the case. Walking into the bathroom Clara found her toothbrush and a bar of soap she'd left by the sink; lucky for her she had had spares of those items so when finding them there in front of her on the rim of the sink, it wasn't a surprise she had forgotten about them.

Clara searched the room for about fifteen minutes making sure she had everything in order. She then spent another five changing out of her dress, taking off the holster on her thigh, so she could wear something a bit more comfortable. So a grand total of twenty minutes later dressed in leggings and a hoodie Clara made her way back downstairs and into the hallway with her luggage. It wasn't much of a surprise to her that Marshall hadn't waited in the hallway for her and that she found him lounging around slumped in the sofa with the TV on watching something that did surprise her, the news. It wasn't him watching the news as a whole that surprised her, but that he was watching a report on the fact that he had been involved in the hostage situation. As far as she was aware Clara didn't see him as the type of person to watch news stories about himself.

"I'm ready you gonna drop me off back at my flat?" Marshall turned his head to look at her a glint in his eyes which she caught for a split second before he turned away from her again. Her brows furrowed, he made no attempt to get up from his spot on the sofa. She was about to ask he again, when his lips moved and words tumbled out of them.

"Yeah about that I was thinking it's late, so you might as well stay here," Marshall spoke not moving an inch from his position. The only movement he made was his finger pressing buttons on the remote in his hand as he flicked though channel after channel,.

"Well if you won't take me home then I'll just call a cab," Clara knew he was just being nice and possibly still worried about her safety, but she needed to get back to her flat so she could call not only Miranda and fill her in on what had happened at the charity event; she also wanted to call Joe and tell him what she had found out because she realised he was out of the loop a little.

"How are you gonna do that without a phone," Clara's jaw dropped and her eyes widened when she realised what she'd done. She'd stupidly left her clutch inside his car.

"I'll just get it out of the car then," she remarked, but when she pulled the handle of the front door she found it to be locked, "Marshall what the fuck is this. Unlock the door and let me out," however, again like he'd done the moment she had come down the stairs, he didn't move a muscle," Marshall," she called out. Eventually, after several more shouts of his name, he finally moved from his position to stomp over to her and move her hand off of the handle to grip it in his own.

"Clara listen to me. I'm not driving you home it's late now and there's no point. Look I'm sorry if I've pissed you off, but please don't fight me on this. Just join me on the couch and we can watch a movie or you can go back upstairs to the guest room and sulk like Hailie used to do and still does. Those are you're options," he stood in front of her a little longer before his hand then let go of her own and he moved away. He sighed when all she did was look at him with a blank expression that eerily mirrored his own. Marshall was about to give up and go and get the keys for the door and his car because he was sure that she was just going to stand there the rest of the night, but then a soft whisper met his ears just as he started to turn around.

"What movie are we watching?" Marshall let a grin fall across his face. Just before he turned to answer her, however, he made it disappear.

Clara knew she wasn't going to win the fight so she decided to give in and do what he wanted to happen. It looked as if Miranda and Joe were going to have to wait till tomorrow for her to call them.'What's the worst that can happen,'she thought to herself moments after she made the decision to stay

"I was thinking Silence of the Lambs unless your not into scary shit."

"Oh I'm into it, but you don't know that Silence of the lambs is a thriller not a horror right?" Clara pointed out following behind him. Marshall only turned around rolling his eyes at her.

"You know what would make this better?" Marshall shrugged at Clara's sudden exclamation after they'd put the disc in and settled down, "if it was three in the morning."

"Because of what I said in the song, yeah funny,"he responded in a flat tone as Clara couldn't help but giggle at what she'd said.

"She puts the lotion in the bucket."

"Don't," unfortunately for Marshall Clara didn't stop.

"Puts the lotion on the skin," Marshall groaned shoving his face into the nearest pillow as Clara continued the song.

Happy New Year🍾🎊🎉
I just want to say thank you for all the love for both my books throughout the last half of this year I appreciate it so much. So on that note, Clara and Ashley (from my other story) will see you in 2019 or tomorrow 💕