Clockwork

Chapter 1: Ingrid

"What are you doing here?" Clive muttered, leaving Dimitri standing on the front step. "I told you to never come here..."

Dimitri straightened up. "Your partner invited me, I could hardly say no, could I?" He lowered his voice. "Besides, wouldn't it make what we're doing seem innocent...Miss Edwards would see me as the scientist you're interviewing instead of suspecting the reality behind our partnership."

"I suppose that makes sense...but don't say anything about the plan to her. Ingrid doesn't need to get involved."

Ingrid appeared beside Clive at the door and the two men quickly plastered natural-looking smiles onto their faces. "I'm glad you could make it, Dr. Stahngun." She smiled and held the door open to let the scientist in.

"Well I must thank you for inviting me, Miss Edwards...here, I figured I should at least bring a gift to show my appreciation..." Dimitri handed Ingrid the small bouquet of flowers he'd been holding.

"You shouldn't have, thank you." Ingrid smiled and rushed back into the kitchen. "Dinner will be ready soon, please make yourself at home."

As soon as Ingrid was out of earshot, Clive pounced on Dimitri. "What was that? Why...why did you..."

"I figured I should be hospitable. Ingrid seems very lovely."

"Yes she is, and she's unavailable."

"Clive, I wasn't implying otherwise. Can you just try to get through the evening without glaring at me every time you take a sip of wine?"

Although Clive nodded at the request, he could help but frown every time Dimitri told a story or a joke, causing Ingrid to smile and laugh and look truly interested in what he had to say; despite time travel being the subject to much of the evening's conversation.

"So Ingrid, what is it that you do?"

"I'm a biomedical scientist. I like to think I'm giving something back by helping people. I want to save as many people's lives as I can." She paused and tilted her head to the side. "Can I ask, who does time travel save?"

Clive felt a bad feeling brewing in the pit of his stomach. "Ingrid..."

"I'm just asking our guest a question." Ingrid insisted, her voice calm. "How does tampering with the fabrics of our world save anyone? All it does is cause pain and people, innocent people, get hurt as a result. But scientists like you don't care about the costs; you're only interested in the money and the fame."

Clive coughed, indicating that his girlfriend bite her tongue before saying something she might regret.

"No, Clive." She turned to Dimitri who felt incredibly out of place and unsure of what to do. "Do you even know what you're doing? Time travel isn't just an innocent little project for a school science fair. It's real, and so are the consequences."

"Miss Edwards, with all due respect...my time machine is safe."

"I bet that's what Bill Hawks said. And we all know what happened when-"

"Ingrid, that's enough." Clive stopped her quickly; worried that she'd let it slip that the two of them were affected by the explosion - the one partially caused by Dimitri himself. If he was to find out about Clive's connection to the incident, the scientist would likely realise that something was amiss and call off their plans. Although Dimitri wasn't essential in Clive's true plans for London, he needed to stay on his good side to at least obtain the helpers that would be handed to him on the day of Alain Stahngun's failure of a time machine demonstration. Clive had worked too hard to come this far and fail.

Ingrid stood up from the table. "Fine. If you want to take advantage of innocent people, go ahead."

Before Dimitri could apologise, Ingrid had left the room and the scientist felt like it was the right time to leave should he and Clive's plan carry on without a hitch - or without any interference from the medicinal scientist in the other room.