And Maybe That's Alright

Smart

"The gang's back baybee!" Ophelia cheered once everyone had joined the call. Clark and Zak responded with loud whoops, Darryl next to Zak covering his ears and Keres, Mrs B, Clay and George all sporting amused grimaces near Clark.

"Look at us! Being all cute and planning to ruin someone's life together." Clark cooed, causing a ripple of soft laughter.

"So, let's run through what we all know and get on the same page." Mrs Bosko began. "I've been doing my homework as well so I've got to check if I've found anything new."

Most everyone turned their gazes to Clark, each not having their own news to share - not anything that Keres had likely already updated Mrs B on. Clark cleared his throat dramatically, clicking his fingers and spine before leaning forward, elbows on his knees and hands clasped in front of his smile.

"Damien was reported to have left our place of residence at approximately twenty-one hundred hours yesterday, meaning he will likely arrive any time after twenty-one hundred hours today, considering the two hour journey to the airport and the hour boarding." Clark began before being rudely interrupted.

"English, dude." Zak piped up, others humming or nodding their agreement. Clark rolled his eyes, slumping back against Keres' couch with a huff and crossing his arms.

"Big man gets off his plane any time after nine, if he took regular flights. Since he's loaded, he might be a bit earlier than that, but around nine pee emm is when we should expect him in this country. He probably won't visit until sometime tomorrow afternoon, mans gotta have his beauty sleep." He reworded grumpily, pairing it with a childish glare at Zak. Zak just stuck his tongue out. Clark copied.

"So we have today free?" Mrs B asked, eager to get them back on track.

"Yes ma'am." Clark confirmed, nodding at the Mrs B on the screen before realising and turning to her in person, nodding again.

"Alright. Anything else?"

"Mhm. He doesn't know I'm here, thinks I'm staying with Meg. I can buy you guys some time with threats, scaremongering, manipulation, whatever you fancy. I can't do it forever though, maybe a few weeks - months at most - before he will find some kind of leverage and get back on top." The others nodded their understanding. "And Lena darling - Damien's wife - has said she's happy to do anything we might need of her as long as Auri isn't involved. It's the conditions we're both on - anything goes as long as Auri is safe."

"Okay, thank you Clark." Clark shrugged the thanks off easily, leaning to grab either his or Jethro's - he wasn't all that sure by this point, half of his wardrobe is stolen from Jethro and the other half isn't commonly acceptable in public - and pulling it on. He reached into the pocket to find a lollipop and more than happily unwrapped it.

"I'm assuming no one else has anything to share?" Mrs B prompted, receiving a resounding silence. This is why she didn't go into teaching. "One good thing that has come out of such heavy media coverage with you lot is that a quick google search is more than enough to get me started down a rabbit hole of wrongdoings."

"The internet, twitter especially, love to tear people down. If you've done something bad, they'll find out. I've used this to our advantage." She opened her laptop, beginning to pull up saved posts, videos and documents that had even the remotest potential to help them. "I've gathered together every negative encounter, every time he was turned away, sacked, whatever, every public contract he's signed, any old posts or leaked emails, messages- just anything that could frame him."