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( 12 一 REUNIONS. )
Looking at him again, after all those years, Clara didn't know what to think. She could be mad at him, for deserting her, as if she had not done the same thing. All these years and everything had changed, but she still recognised his face the second she walked through that door.
"Clarissa, long time no see," he said with a broad smile, that president's son grin. Clara could see the others looking at her in surprise but she ignored them, marching forward, past the desk and the chair and crashing into his arms. He wrapped Clara in a hug as she gripped him tighter. The last time she saw him he was weak, barely able to stand, and now he was better, he was safe.
It warmed her heart to know that he was okay.
"I missed you," she mumbled. Clancy was surprised to hear her say that. He'd been keeping track of Clara for a long time, one of the last remaining Oranges. When she showed up on the skip tracer network so close to East River he could only assume that was her destination.
To say he hadn't been expecting a warm welcome would have been an understatement. Clancy was expecting screaming, yelling, crying, quite honestly anything other than the hug she wrapped him in. He'd naturally assumed she would be angry with him, furious that he'd left her at Leda Corp but once again, Clarissa Thornton had surprised him. Maybe getting her on his side wouldn't be as hard as he'd imagined.
Clancy with two other Oranges. He could practically hold victory in his hands already.
So he hugged her back just as tightly, whispered in her ear that he'd missed her too, which wasn't a lie.
Eventually, they separated and turned back to face Clara's friends, all of which looked to some varying degree completely bewildered.
"So I take it you two know each other," Liam said with raised eyebrows. Clara chuckled slightly. "Clance was at, um," Clara cleared her throat. "He was at Thurmond with me, the Leda Program."
A look of realisation passed over the group's eyes. Clancy looked down at Clara, surprised she'd revealed her involvement in the program. Perhaps they were closer than he initially thought. He was more than slightly annoyed that she'd revealed one of his deepest secrets to everyone in the room but he hid it well.
Clancy cleared his throat, "Liam Stewart, Charles Meriwether, Suzume Kimura and Ruby Daly, the last remaining Orange other than myself and Clara. I've been looking forward to meeting you all. Lee Stewart, your breakout is the stuff of legions around here."
Everyone looked more than a little surprised that he knew their names.
"There are a lot of people looking for you two," Clancy said, looking at Clara and Ruby. "Clara, you would have been in the clear but after you got scanned into the system again they knew you weren't deceased. It's a pain, I know, but I'm sure you took care of them," Clancy said with a wink in Clara's direction. She shifted uncomfortably when she felt everyone's eyes on her. They all knew what Clancy meant when he said, "took care of them".
