It's ok, You're safe:
It takes Clarke a few days to walk to the statue of Lincoln, the grounder a use this place to resolve conflicts. She sees Lexa, not in her Commander gear, just her regular lovely face in a tunic and jacket. Her heart sinks, for a moment, before Lexa notices she's there Clarke just watches her. Someone in the woods whistles and Lexa looks up from her dagger to find Clarke emerging from the thick woods. She is doing her best to look unaffected. Lexa knows this posture. Clarke has new gear, she must have found a useful stash on her walk. She's wearing a backpack, a new jacket and her pistol sits neatly in a holster, not in her hands as had been her style; making her look much less menacing. But Lexa knows better, she knows Clarke's mightiest weapon... her words.
Lexa slowly gets up from where she had been sitting, "I was hoping Lincoln would have told you about this place." Starts walking towards Clarke, "I heard about your defeat of the Mountain Men and hoped you would come here to find me."
Clarke stops walking and stands defiantly, hands resting in her backpack strap. "Sorry to keep you waiting it's been over a week since you abandoned me. " Snark is seething from her mouth. Her anger is starting to build up.
Lexa continues to walks closer to Clarke, they are standing only a few feet away from each other. Their faces riddled with emotion: pain, guilt, fear, anger. Clarke starts to feel her resolve fading, she shifts her weight and looks away from Lexa's face. Looking into those eyes was just too powerful.
Clarke finally breaks the silence, "I should have known better than to trust you. Now I know why it's so hard for you, you can't trust because you aren't trustworthy." She watches Lexa put her dagger away, as she starts to look up at her she looks away again. "All of those lives we sacrificed: Finn, the people of TonDC, my people, your warriors. It was for nothing."
Lexa's face is wrecked with frustration, she is not used to being spoken to this way. She must keep her temper in check, she is here to apologize to make things right. She struggles with her words "Clarke please let me explain. Did you see how many people I was loosing? I'm responsible for everyone of those deaths. How many more would you have me sacrifice for your cause?"
"I didn't come here to absolve you Lexa." Clarke rips back. "You broke our truce, not to mention my trust, and left us there to die!" Her anger is getting the best of her, she came here with the hope that Lexa would take her to Polis, so she could start fresh, be in a place where no one knew her. But now her vision is blurry and she is shaking with rage, her fists are clenched arms straight at her sides.
Lexa swallows hard, she deserves all of this, her betrayal was unforgivable "Clarke, you know what it's like to be responsible for other's lives. My objective was to free my people from the tyranny of Mount Weather and to get you and your people inside. When I had done both my job as Commander was over, I had to get my people out of these. Clarke please understand, I couldn't losing people there to satisfy your vendetta." Lexa steps forward inches from Clarke , starts to reach out for her.
"Don't you touch me!" Clarke yells and pushes Lexa hard, maybe a little too hard, Lexa winces, doubles over and let's out a howl in pain. Clarke's anger quickly dissolves into concern, thinking back to their encounter with the gorilla and how she masked her pain then, this must be serious.
Clarke rushes to help, but Lexa puts out her arm, looks up, "I'm alright"
"You are clearly not." It suddenly dawns on Clarke that Lexa isn't wearing her Commander's stole. She looks suddenly so vulnerable, the sight of Lexa so vulnerable is like a cooling glass of water on her rage. "Please, let me see." Her voice full of compassion, Lexa lifts her shirt with a wince and Clarke can see a bruise on the side of her rib cage from her armpit to the bottom of her ribs, quite a little bit of swelling too. Clarke gets very close to examine her, "How did this happen? How long has it been like this?"
"It happened as we were flanking the shooters, it's been getting bigger." Her breathing is clearly laboured. "I can handle it, I just can't ride, or get punched, apparently." Clarke smiles a bit, Lexa sees this and feels a rush of hope.
"I think you are bleeding internaly, Lexa, we have to do something you could die." Clarke is inches away from her, with her right hand holding up the shirt now, she examines with her left. Lexa's skin is hot, maybe running a fever, the skin is tight, she pushes on it gently to feel for broken ribs and Lexa faints from the pain. Clarke manages to catch her before she hits the ground, she looks around for the commander's guard, before she can yell for help the tall trees produce two large men.
One of them is the guard Clarke saved Octavia from. "What did you do to her?!"
"Nothing!" says Clarke as the Lexa is pulled out of her arms.
"I saw you touch her! What did you do?!"
"She is very seriously hurt. We need to get her back to TonDC." One of the two men scoops up Lexa and carries her off. "Be careful with her!" Clarke demands. When they arrive in TonDC Indira is there to greet Clarke with a scowl.
"What happened here? What did you do? " Lexa is still unconscious.
"She has internal bleeding, I need some tools to heal her or she will die." Indira looks at Lexa and at Clarke in disbelief , "My healer will help her, we don't need you. "
"Indira no! Please! I've seen this before!" Emotions flood her face, as she thinks back at to the time when Finn had Lincoln's knife in his chest. She looks past Indira, to the healer standing behind her, she knows this man, they have worked together before. "I need a small clean knife, a small plastic tube flexible and smaller than my finger, and something to clean my hands with!" He goes off, tells the guard where to take Lexa.
Clarke follows the guard down to a large room, Clarke recognizes this place from the banquet. It is mid-day, the sun is beating in, if she work's fast she won't need candles. It's mostly clean, there is a table, and some of what Clarke asked for. As Lexa is set down on the table, the healer walks in with the rest of the supplies. Lexa starts to wake up. Clarke has her back to the table cleaning her hands when she notices the healer, his expression could only mean one thing, Lexa is awake, "I need you to lie still, I have to cut you." This last bit of information brings deep concern to Lexa's face, she struggles to sit up. "Someone is going to have to hold her down." The room is silent, no one moves not without an express order from the commander. Clarke, softens her approach, touches Lexa's arm and explains, "You have at least one broken rib, you may have a ruptured spleen, your chest is filling up with your own blood, it's why you can't breath well and your heart is racing. I need to let that blood out so you can start to heal."
"Death is not the end Clarke," Lexa looks at her healer, "he will care for me in our own way." Clarke turns to look at him, he steps forward to take a look at the swelling.
With deep concern he implores in trigedasleng, "Hedda, please, let her heal you."
"Please. Trust me." These words sink into Lexa's chest like a stone. She looks at the faces in the room, all riddled with concern. Clarke is standing in front of her, still touching her arm, she looks down at her hand and back up to her blue eyes. "I do trust you Clarke." She shifts her weight to lay back down, Clarke helps her with a hand behind her head.
The healer still speaking to his commander in trigedasleng in an effort to calm her, "This will help you sleep." The healer hands her a small vial, she quickly drinks it, takes a deep breath, winces in pain and closes her eyes.
It's much darker now, Clarke has been sitting next to Lexa, periodically taking her pulse, checking for signs of infection. Lexa begins to wake up, reaching to investigate and touch the pain in her side. Clarke catches her hand, and stops this dangerous exploration. "You are starting to heal already. Can you breath a little better?" Lexa nods. Clarke reaches back for a cup with water, helps Lexa lift her head and gives her a drink. "You have been out for two days. It's good sign, you are healing so fast."
"Thank you Clarke."
Clarke smiles, " Are you hungry? there is some soup here." Lexa nods and struggles to sit up. "Don't, you'll make it worse. Please lie still." Clarke starts to feed Lexa some soup, for a while they say nothing. Lexa starts to feel her emotions welling up, she is ashamed of how kind Clarke is, it only serves as a reminder of how deeply her deception wounded Clarke.
"Clarke, when I got hurt up on the ridge, I had a moment to asses how many people I had lost. In that moment Emmerson approached me with a truce. " She begins to tear up, "I'm sorry Clarke, for pain I caused you, for my betrayal and for losing your trust."
Clarke is nodding, she understands, the loss of life from that day haunts almost her every thought.
"I understand." Clarke who is sitting on the table next to Lexa leans in for a kisses, deep and full of sorrow. Lexa torso naked except for the bandages and gauze keeping her wound clean. Lexa's hair lays on her naked back, Clarke's left hand sneaks down from Lexa's neck, the length of her back under that thick next of braids, and rest on her hip. Lexa's hands reach up to cradle Clarke's face. Clarke loses herself in the moment, kissing Lexa, feeling her breath on her face, her warm hands reaching up, touching her skin. As the girls kiss and embrace a sliver of moonlight shimmers through the clouds and illuminates them like a couple of iridescent nymphs. Lexa's hands are warm on Clark's face and neck.
Outside there is a prolonged howl. Clarke pulls away startled and looks all around landing her eyes back on Lexa, "What was that?"
"It's ok, you're safe"