A/N: And here we go! Day 3. Another fluffy one :) With maybe a touch of angst… Cos, hello. It's me.
Disclaimer: I do not own The 100 :(
BEHIND CLOSED DOORS
It had not been the best of mornings for Clarke Griffin. Not only had she almost been out the door after the longest night shift of her life before an emergency surgery had her running back to the ER, not only had she lost that patient after a three-hour struggle to save her life, not only had the cafeteria run out of her favourite sandwich, not only had the coffee machine broke, not only had her mother demanded a dinner that night to 'catch up' – they worked at the same hospital, for fuck's sake – not only was the worst storm of the season gearing up to wreak havoc on Seattle.
Nope, if none of that was bad enough, ten seconds after stepping into the elevator that would take her to the ground floor and long-awaited freedom, a sudden shudder and groan in the metal box resulted in no movement at all.
"You have got to be kidding me!" she groaned, dropping her bag on the ground in despair.
"I'm sure it'll get going again," the other woman in the elevator offered.
She'd gotten on one floor after Clarke. It was just them in the elevator, which was generally odd since it was almost noon. It seemed that her hospital never stopped moving.
Except for now. When she was so close to actually going home.
"It's a safety precaution," Clarke replied. "The elevators are the first things to stop working if there's a strain on the grid."
The other woman looked at her in surprise.
"I work here," Clarke stated, holding out her hand. "Clarke Griffin."
"I'm Lexa." The other woman reached over to shake hands, but her palm was sweaty and it kinda grossed Clarke out a bit. It was a pity, really. Such an attractive woman shouldn't have sweaty palms. Unless…
"Nice to meet you, Lexa." Clarke shrugged out of her jacket and folded it next to her bag. "Do you suffer from claustrophobia?"
Lexa blinked rapidly. "How did you…?"
"Your palms are sweaty," Clarke replied, stepping closer to her. "I can see now that your pulse is racing and that your breathing is quicker than normal and increasing with every few seconds."
"S-So you're a doctor, huh?"
Clarke nodded. "Trauma surgeon. I'm good at thinking on my feet. So be glad you're stuck in here with me." She punctuated what she hoped was a comforting statement with a wink.
It seemed to work. Lexa's cheeks tinted pink and she dropped her gaze to the ground.
"We may as well get comfortable, Lexa No-Last-Name. It's going to be at least half an hour before they get someone down here. With the storm, it could be longer."
Clarke immediately saw the panic pick up again, just as had expected it to. She took Lexa's hand, her instincts to protect life and illness taking over.
"Lexa, you are going to be fine. I am here with you and we will get out of here. Why don't we sit down and you can tell me a little more about yourself?"
"U-Um…" Lexa's eyes darted around the elevator before resting on Clarke's calm ones. "O-Okay."
"Good." Clarke smiled and even though fatigue was seeping into her bones, she forced herself to stay awake and alert for Lexa.
They got settled on the floor and Clarke pulled her phone out from her pocket. She quickly called her mom, but there was no answer. She called Raven and Monty, but neither of them were answering their phones. She fired off a text to all three of them before pocketing the device and smiling at Lexa, who couldn't have looked more uncomfortable if she tried.
"What brings you to the hospital today?" Clarke asked after a few moments of silence. She didn't mind carrying the conversation if it meant that Lexa didn't think about the small space they were stuck in.
Lexa's focus had been on her hands, which were clasped tightly in her lap. Once again, their eyes met and Clarke marvelled at the clear green colour reflecting back at her.
"I, uh…" Lexa trailed off, her brow furrowing. "Th-there was an accident and my cousin was rushed in."
"Is she okay?" Clarke asked quietly, all too aware of the sensitive nature of the issue they were diving into.
Lexa just shook her head. "The doctor told me that they did everything they could, b-but the injuries w-w-were too severe."
"I'm really sorry about your cousin, Lexa," Clarke sympathised. "It's shitty when someone is taken from us before we're ready."
Lexa looked at her in surprise. It made the doctor smirk.
"I'm not the type to coddle people. In my line of work, I see horrors on a daily basis. I do my best to make sure that the families sitting and waiting for me to do my job, aren't disappointed." She swallowed, suddenly remembering the patient she'd lost earlier. "I shouldn't talk about this, but I lost a patient this morning. She came in with a multitude of complications and I fixed them. I fixed all of them." She clenched her fist in frustration. "I was about to close her up when a blood vessel burst. I tried…everything. She was this close to being okay and the next minute, she was gone. And it sucks."
"You did your best," Lexa murmured, shuffling a little closer to Clarke.
"That's sweet of you to say, Lexa," Clarke replied quietly. "You don't know me very well, but if you did, you'd know that I hold myself to very high standards. What happened today was unacceptable."
They shared a moment's silence before Lexa reached across and took Clarke's hand. Surprisingly, Clarke let her. She didn't let people touch her very much. Raven always said that it had to do with the high walls she'd built around herself. She was cold-hearted, calculated, brilliant trauma surgeon. During her residency and with events that had happened shortly after, her happy and bubbly disposition had slowly been replaced.
But it didn't stop her from caring about every patient she saw. Few people knew how much she prided herself on being one of the best trauma surgeons in the country. Most just thought she was arrogant and a bit of a bitch. Clarke knew that was how she appeared, and she didn't particularly care if others had that opinion. The people that mattered to her knew what she was like.
"My cousin was quite the same," Lexa said after a while.
"The same as what?"
"You. She wanted to be the best at everything, and not for her own arrogance. She wanted to be the best for the people she worked for and with."
"What did your cousin do?"
Lexa sniffed and Clarke shift closer.
"She was a police officer. She was on her way home from a night shift and was crossing the road. I'm not sure h-how it happened, but a car ran into her."
Clarke's breath caught in her throat. Her patient had come in with that exact story. She had to say something, she needed-
"She would have been happy knowing that you had done everything you could to save her." Lexa sighed and Clarke was stunned into silence. "She would have said that us being stuck together like this was fate because I didn't get to meet the surgeon who had done so much for her."
"I…"
Lexa smiled at Clarke. "You don't have to say anything, Dr. Griffin. Anya and I were the only ones left of our family. We had discussed at length what to do if something like this were to happen, especially with her profession."
Clarke nodded, but couldn't help the raging guilt that surged through her. Her patient had been all the family that Lexa had left and she hadn't been able to preserve that.
"Please don't blame yourself," Lexa requested.
"I don't," came Clarke's knee-jerk response.
Lexa's pursed her lips. "I don't like to be lied to, Dr. Griffin. And I am an exceptionally good judge of character. The same way you were able to read me, I am able to read you."
"Are you a shrink?" Clarke asked, frowning.
Lexa chuckled. "No, I am a forensic criminologist. I am trained to look beyond what I see."
"That's a pretty cool job," Clarke said, feeling sheepish for her rude presumptions.
"It is. I enjoy it. Like you, I am able to determine what happened to loved ones based on the evidence I find at crime scenes. I build histories, both true and false. I cover every angle to give them peace of mind, knowing what happened to their loved one."
"Isn't that a bit morbid?" Clarke asked. "Even I don't go into detail about what I do to my patients."
Lexa lifted a shoulder. "I certainly leave out the more gruesome details, but in my experience, knowing the whole story allows them to put the past to rest. I don't like leaving people with questions because questions turn into doubt, turn into worry and can lead to more bad things."
"Like trying to find things out themselves?" Clarke asked.
Lexa nodded. "It's happened a few times and mostly, ends badly."
"I can understand that."
They remained quiet for a few moments, lost in their own thoughts.
"My last name is Woods, by the way."
Clarke smiled. "It's very nice to meet you, Lexa Woods."
"It is very nice to meet you too, Dr. Clarke Griffin."
They were still holding hands.
"How have you not seen Friends?" Clarke asked in horror.
Lexa chuckled and shrugged. "I didn't have a TV when I was growing up, and by the time I was out on my own, the series had long finished."
"But…but…"
Lexa full on laughed and it warmed Clarke's heart. It was a lovely laugh and she suspected it wasn't something that happened too often.
They'd been sitting next to each other for over half an hour, trading stories about where they'd grown up, what high school they'd gone to, embarrassing dates and obnoxious family.
"Well, you have not fully lived until you've seen at least one season of Friends," Clarke stated, feeling bold and bopping Lexa's adorable nose.
Lexa looked at her for a long moment. "Are you offering, Dr. Griffin?"
Clarke found herself slightly short of breath at the way Lexa was looking at her. "Uh, yeah. I guess I am."
"Well, I suppose I should get your phone number to arrange this epic viewing."
"Yeah." Shaking herself internally, Clark pulled out her phone and saw a text from Raven to let her know that they were working on the elevators. "Looks like we're not the only ones stuck," she mused, opening her contacts and handing the phone over Lexa to put her details in.
The fact that Lexa typed in her details with one hand while the other remained in Clarke's lap made the doctor's heart flutter a bit. She hadn't been with anyone romantically for years, so focused on being the best at her job, that she wasn't sure if Lexa was flirting with her or just being cordial.
If she was flirting, was Clarke meant to make the next move? Lexa had asked for her number, but Clarke had made the initial offer. What did a viewing of Friends entail? Was it a Netflix and chill kind of thing?
Oh God. What is it was?
Clarke squeezed her eyes shut briefly, trying to will away the image of Lexa in her bed.
Where the hell had that come from?
"You okay?"
Lexa's voice brought her back to the present. Clarke nodded and controlled her breathing. She would not overthink things. She would let them happen as they were meant to. After all, Lexa's cousin seemed like she believed in things happening for a reason. And there had to be a reason that Clarke had been the one to operate on her, even though she'd been halfway out the door. There was a reason that it had just been the two of them in the elevator when it had stopped working.
"Am I allowed to ask what's got you thinking so hard?" Lexa asked quietly.
Clarke took a deep breath and met the green eyes that she was quickly finding totally captivating. "I'm not someone who usually does things spontaneously. Well," she amended, "not anymore. I used to be like that, but then…stuff happened. Anyway, being with you in this elevator, telling you embarrassing stories about my childhood and inviting you over for a Friends marathon… It's just…so unlike me. But in a good way!" she added quickly, seeing Lexa's brow furrow. Clarke groaned. "I'm so bad at this."
"Hey." Lexa's fingers tipped her chin up so that they were face-to-face once more. And really close. "I've always hated small spaces. You saw how panicky I was in the beginning. It didn't help that I'd just been told that Anya had died, but you made me feel okay. You distracted me with funny anecdotes and things about you that I didn't even realise I wanted to know." She paused and took a few breaths. "I'm not very…sociable myself. Anya would drag me to places just to get me out of my apartment. But now, I find myself very much looking forward to this Friends marathon, and that is most likely because it'll be with you."
"Oh."
Lexa smiled a very small smile, one that was hardly there, but to Clarke, it felt like a huge grin. She matched it and they spent the remainder of their time in the elevator talking about their jobs and their families.
A little over an hour later, the doors were forced open and two firefighters helped the women out of the elevator.
"So, same time next week?" Clarke joked.
Lexa raised an eyebrow, but couldn't maintain the stoic façade as both of them broke into laughter.
"I'll see you soon, Dr. Griffin," Lexa said quietly, taking the blonde's hand once more.
"Great," Clarke breathed. "Is it lame to say that I can't wait?"
"Not if the feeling is reciprocated," Lexa replied diplomatically.
Clarke bit her lip and took a chance, stepping closer. She was feeling confident – nothing new there – but it was a different kind of confidence, one she thought she'd lost.
"And is it reciprocated, Miss Woods?" she whispered.
Lexa stepped into her personal space. "It is. Very much so."
"I'm glad."
"Me too."
A/N: Have a good one, Clexakru! :)
-H