Have No Fear

Introduction

Lara POV

Carol was a wreck after watching Conan leave with Ambrose and Claire, although she hides it well. All I could do was reassure her that he'd be back before she knew it.

Honestly, I had no idea whether that was true or not, but I made Conan a promise and I fully intended on keeping that promise.

She eventually calmed down enough that the lack of sleep she'd had from the past few days inevitably caught up with her, and soon fell asleep on the couch.

Now all I had to do was figure out who this Mr Coulson is and where to find him, something Conan should've obviously told me before he left.

I could hardly wake up Carol to ask her, so at lunchtime I make my way into town alone and started searching. Where do I even begin?

"Hey" a man tries to get my attention while I'm walking by.

When I turn around to see who it was there's a guy in uniform waving at me. He's a total hottie.

"Hey yourself".

"You're Lara, right?"

"Sorry, have we met before?"

"No, but I'm friends with Conan. I take it he hasn't mentioned me?"

"Well you know Conan, he's normally a man of few words".

"You're not wrong. I'm Daniel, by the way. So are we still on for tonight?"

"Tonight?"

"Yeah, we're all supposed to be meeting at the bar later for his girlfriends birthday?"

Oh shit, that's right! With everything else going on recently I'd completely forgotten about that. Looks like it's down to me to come up with an explanation.

"Conan didn't call you? His girlfriend had a family emergency so they've had to go out of town for a little while".

"Really? That's a shame. I was actually looking forward to going out".

He looks so disappointed.

"Sorry about that. Tell you what, I'm new in town, so maybe we could get together sometime and you could show me around?"

His heart beats faster so I can already tell he likes the idea. I wasn't exactly asking him out on a date, but he seems like a nice enough guy so far.

"I'd really like that".

So cute.

"Anyway, I'd better get going".

Just as I'm about to walk away I realise that he might actually be the ideal person to help me with my current problem.

"Can I ask you something?"

"Sure".

"Do you know a Mr Coulson that lives around here by any chance?"

"Yeah, he's a teacher at the local high school I used to go to".

Thank god! At least now I know where to look first.

"Do you need a ride? I was heading in that direction anyway?" he offers.

"Really? That would be great".

He's clearly anxious on the drive to the school, occasionally glancing over and giving me a nervous smile.

"So you've known Conan for a long time then?" I ask curiously.

"Since we were practically still in diapers" he laughs.

That's adorable.

"What about you?"