"Stop staring!" he hissed.

Lexa's chin suddenly dropped from her palm as she was jerked back to reality.

"What? I wasn't staring! Into space maybe. That's all."

Lincoln raised an eyebrow. "Right. Like you weren't watching every step of that blonde as she stormed out."

She rolled her eyes. "Don't make me regret giving you this promotion on your first day."

Lincoln snickered. "You kidding? This is the best damn decision you've made, and you know it."

"And just like that, arrogance has dropped you down yet another rung on the ladder of success, Mr. Abrams."

He held up his hands in surrender. "Okay, I give in, Commander." His expression sobered. "But you aren't really going to give her what she wants, are you?"

A playful smile tugged at Lexa's lips as she glossed over his question. "She was a feisty one, wasn't she? The other small business owners have all pretty much asked, 'How high?' before we could even finished telling them to jump."

"I thought she was ridiculous. Thinking she could come in here and tell the city planner how to, well, plan the city!"

"That was very eloquent, Lincoln. What would I do without your running commentary?"

"Oh, shove off."

"There goes another rung."

"I think I need some air."

"Grab me a coffee while you're at it."

Lincoln just gaped at her and Lexa couldn't help but laugh. "Lincoln, what did you expect? You may be my second cousin-which, honestly, hardly makes us related, in my opinion-but here you are my assistant. Since you seem to enjoy voicing the very literal definitions of titles, that means you are here to assist me. Telling all these people they need to uproot their livelihoods today has made me exhausted, and I need a pick me up."

Lincoln shook his head as he laughed. "You can be really heartless sometimes, you know. Some might even say a bitch."

Lexa expression remained stoic. "But at least I'm smart and know how to get the job done right, after so many before me have flopped."

Lincoln shrugged. "Can't argue with you there, boss. One coffee coming right up."

"Lincoln!" she called after him before he walked through the door. "You know you're my righthand man. Now get out."

He winked. "I know. And I'll let you keep thinking that until the day I get your job."

She laughed in spite of herself. "Get out of here, you ass."

He smirked. "Don't have to tell me twice!"

Lexa shook her head in disbelief once he had left. "I literally did tell you twice, you idiot," she laughed to herself. "That boy is the dumbest genius I have ever met."

Left in her office with only her thoughts, Lexa couldn't keep them away from the blonde woman who had been in her office a few minutes before. She had been fuming with righteous indignation from the moment she stepped in. That girl would benefit from a little more self-control if she wanted to fight for a cause that was so important to her.

Lexa pushed her chair away from the desk and stood to stretch. She walked over to the large map on the wall and studied the plans she had designed herself. "I'm going to turn things around for you, you know," she said, tapping the map with her pencil. "Make you the city you never were for me. These people deserve better."

She winced as a sharp pain shot up her leg. This latest injury was going to make tonight's activities a bit more difficult. Lexa sat back down at her desk and massaged the area around her right knee, willing it to heal as soon as possible.

"Damn, Clarke. What's wrong with you? Did someone else finally tell you those random red streaks in your hair look dumb?"

"Shut up, Raven," she murmured.

Her roommate's expression immediately phased from sarcasm to concern. "Hey, something really is wrong. What's up?"

Clarke sunk into the couch and pinched the bridge of her nose, already feeling the migraine coming on.

Raven plopped down next to her and just waited until her friend was ready to talk.

After a minute Clarke let out a long sigh. "It's actually happening. The city's shutting down my clinic."

"No!" Raven gasped. Clarke-or Saint Griffin, as she liked to tease-had started a health clinic for the homeless in the city just over a year ago, and had vastly improved the quality of life for hundreds in that time.

"But why? You're a licensed doctor and you worked damn hard to make sure you jumped through every hoop to make this dream a reality."

Clarke shook her head. "It's nothing legal. It's all aesthetics."

Raven raised an eyebrow, clearly not following her train of thought.

"It's that new city planner, the visionary one who's supposed to take our Lazarus city and raise it from the dead. Sure, she may have all these delusions of grandeur that our city and, hell, even state leaders are ecstatic about, but what about when it interferes with the lives we already have in place? How is that supposed to improve our standard of living?"

"So, what's going to happen to the clinic?"

"It will be razed to the ground for some kind of free public transportation. A high speed rail system with access points all over the city. They're calling it Polis Trax... short for transit express, or something stupid like that."

Raven tried to smother her grin. "Okay, believe me, I know this is a huge blow for you, Clarke, but you have to admit that idea is pretty cool. Like, if it weren't going through your clinic, of course."

Clarke shot her a look of betrayal. "How could you even-"

"Look, pretend for one second that you and the clinic had nothing to do with this. Imagine being able to get around the city on something other than your bike or the godawful busses we have that smell like weed and take three times longer than necessary to get anywhere. And it's free? That will be huge for the city, Clarke."

"Sometimes I wonder if you're even on my side!" She noticed her friend wince at her words. "Leave it to Raven Reyes to be seduced by an upgrade in technology."

"Shut up, Griffin. And c'mon, won't the city compensate you for the loss? Won't that help you start up a new place?"

Clarke rolled her eyes. "Yes, but you're missing the point, Raven. That's my place. The place I started with my mom. It feels like the most tangible piece of her I still have."

Raven nodded. "I get that, Clarke. I really do. I don't mean to sound insensitive. I'm sorry."

Clarke waved off the apology. "Don't be. I know I'm being overly sentimental about this. And I'm sure it will be a great benefit to the city." Her expression quickly turned sour. "Ugh, but you should have seen that woman, Raven! The new city planner. She was so high and mighty in her tall tower of superiority overlooking us mere peasants."

"I think you may be exaggerating..."

"Hardly!" Clarke scoffed. "She didn't even care that she was shattering my life dream, and I'm quite certain she had just delivered the same news to several other people. She was completely stoic and unfeeling. She just laid out the facts, told me her canned speech of how I'd be playing a great part in the rebirth of our city... blah, blah, blah. Like she cares. She's probably from some big city and thinks she can pattern us after whatever bustling metropolis she comes from."

Raven refrained from answering and instead pointed to the newspaper Clarke was using as a buffer between her feet and the coffee table.

"What?" Clarke asked, clearly annoyed. "Suddenly have a problem with my feet on-"

"No, idiot," Raven interjected. She swiped the newspaper and shoved it in her face.

"Does Jasper have some great new article again? Why are you changing the sub-"

"Look, Griffin."

Clarke read the front page headline: "Polis Native Revitalizes City."

Raven smirked as understanding dawned on Clarke. "Looks like you don't know everything, Griffin. You should read this. She's actually from the slums, believe it or not. Came from one of the worst backgrounds you could imagine and fought her way out so that she could come back and make things better. Sounds like a pretty good person to rub shoulders with, if you ask me."

"I didn't." Clarke was obviously still bitter and moody, but less so than when she first burst in. That was a win in Raven's book.

Raven glanced back at the table and picked up yesterday's paper. "And check this out. Have you heard about the masked guy who's been taking out gangsters? Apparently he's called Nightblood. Pretty freaking cool."

"Yeah, I've heard about him," Clarke mumbled. "As if Polis needs another reason to be the laughingstock of the county. Now we have our own superhero."

"I'd consider him more of a vigilante, actually."

"What, no super powers? What a shame."

"Whatever, Dr. Griffin. You know you're the real superhero here. You save lives every day!"

Clarke rolled her eyes. "You can stop trying to make me feel better." She studied the blurry photo of the anonymous vigilante. "That's a woman, by the way."

"What?" Raven was incredulous. "No way. That's totally a guy."

"Nope. Obviously feminine contour."

Raven snickered. "Yeah, you would know."

"I'm a doctor. Of course I would know."

"Haha, right. That's exactly what I meant." Raven glanced back at the paper. "This photo's too distant to see anything anyway. It's the best one they've gotten so far, though. Monty really needs to step up his game."

Clarke laughed for the first time in hours. "You know, it's hilarious that those two are still tag teaming it after all these years. First in high school, as editor and photographer for the school yearbook, and now they're working together at the Polis Sentinel. Pretty damn impressive."

Raven laughed too. "It really is! Especially since they nearly got kicked out senior year right before graduation."

"I can't believe they managed to hide all that moonshine in time."

"What they had was a gift."

"Indeed it was." Clarke smiled at her friend, grateful that she somehow always knew how make her laugh after a crappy day. She leaned her head back on the couch and closed her eyes, replaying her conversation with that awful woman, and wondering where she should start looking for the new clinic.

Author's note: This new story suddenly came to me today, and I've been going over ideas for hours. I'm excited to see how it unravels, and hope you enjoy it too! I'd love to hear what you think so far. Thanks!