When she made it home she was surprised to find the house empty, her parents must have gone out to a dinner party, or one of her father's research events. She hoped it wasn't at the invitation of the Wallace's but knowing how her mother was able to weasel her way into social events, it probably was.
Clarke deposited her coat on the rack in the foyer before making her way up to her room. Hoping to change out of Octavia's dress and find something to clean the blood off of her evening gown before her mother noticed.
She was tip toeing her way to her room before she heard Yolanda, "Miss?"
Clarke froze in the doorway between her parent's room and the hall, she must have looked like a deer in the headlights; Her hair loose around her face, falling from its clips. Her legs bare without her usual stockings, and sporting a dress Clarke wouldn't even have in the back of her closet from her youth.
She could see the questions float across Yolanda's face as her eyes traveled over her and rested on the blood stained dress in her hands, "What happened Miss? Are you alright?"
Clarke was frozen as the maid rushed over, grabbing the dress from her hands, "I…I… See, at the clinic…"
The words just didn't come. Really she should've been able to come up with something, or had in some capacity thought up and excuse just in case anyone had found out about Bellamy. But she hadn't, hadn't even thought about the possibility of being caught up in such a strenuous situation in which she could possibly even lose him. It caught her off guard but she suddenly broke into tears.
"Oh Miss, I'm so sorry!" Yolanda caught Clarke just as she fell to the ground, wrapping her arms around her. Clarke found a comfort in the old woman clinging to her, Yolanda smelt like home, like the only real sense of family she'd ever known. She didn't want to lie to her anymore so she stayed silent. Let the maid help her up, into a warm bath and then to bed.
Clarke caught Yolanda's hand in her own, just as she was leaving her room. "Thank you."
Yolanda smiled down at her, tucking Clarke's hand back under the covers and bringing the sheet right up to her chin, as she had done when Clarke was young, "When you're ready Miss. You'll tell whatever it is that has your heart so heavy."
Planting a kiss on her forehead the woman took her leave. And Clarke lay in her bed wondering, of all the people in her life she truly loved, would anyone ever understand? Not her mother, her father. Not the Wallace's, or her classmates, or the rest of this city. But that did little to stop her heart from warming thinking of them both.
The winter break seemed to fly by as she rushed between the free clinic, and checking up on Bellamy in her spare time. Avoiding her house, her mother, and Cage Wallace wasn't especially difficult to do. Her mother couldn't argue when she informed her of her dedication to the clinic, and Abby didn't have to know that after her morning shifts Clarke would make her way across town to sit by Bellamy's bedside to read, or more recently watch as he made dinner, or even just listen to Octavia and him banter back and forth.
She fell easily into the pattern, the comfort of the Blake's. Their apartment was small, and Bellamy was relatively confined while Clarke monitored his condition but it made for a home that Clarke had never experienced before. One built on continual nagging, and confessing each other's secrets, and swearing that they hate the other. Something so full of laughter, and real love, that seemed so far from the fake smiles and masks that she'd learned to wear in front of her family and all that that came with.
Clarke wasn't quite sure, as weeks came and went, when she started seeing that apartment as more of a home to her than her house had ever been. But the warmth that filled her, watching as Octavia and Bellamy argued as to whether or not he'd caught O cheating at cards, with no real malice in their voices, seemed to thaw within her part of her heart she always so coolly tried to protect.
It was her last day at the clinic before she was to spend New Years at senator Kane's ski lodge with her parents, and of course the Wallace's. But she still hadn't told Bellamy about Cage, and for all intensive purposes there really was no reason to. She'd only seen Cage once more since the dinner with their parents, and it was at a charity ball with hundreds of other people. She probably would've seen him either way, or perhaps she was hoping that was the case.
The ski trip was a bit more intimate though, and Clarke feared Abby had worked her way in once again, and is planning something Clarke would most certainly oppose. In any case she felt guilty, but she figured it was for Bellamy's own good to be in the dark. He was on the mend and she didn't need to worry him any more than she had to.
"Clarke?" Maya interjects her thoughts, running into the storage room Clarke had been organizing "I think they need you in emergency!"
The holidays were a particularly busy time for the free clinic, overflow from the hospital ended up at their door, which meant they often saw a lot more than the typical cold or flu case. In this particular incident Clarke ran into the emergency wing, watching three men carrying a petite woman, blood gushing from her leg.
Severed femoral artery, her first guess would be. Everyone in the room was in shock, Clarke included. It took her a moment to realize none of the doctors were around to take charge. Two of the men were yelling, another one crying so Clarke, listening to that voice in her brain yelling to do anything, to do to everything, rushed over.
"Nurse, get me a tourniquet!" Clarke ordered as she ushered the men toward a private room to put the young woman down on a bed. And when the nurse returned Clarke told her, "We need to cut the flow from the external iliac artery before she bleeds out."
Maya rushed in to take the men out of the way, into the waiting room while the other nurse, Echo, cut away the woman's jumpsuit and Clarke applied the tourniquet quickly.
The woman was surprisingly quite for the amount of pain she must've been in, nonetheless she was sobbing and gripping the bed sheets. Clarke couldn't help but admire her strength as she ordered Maya to find Roan, and Echo to bring sterilizer to clean and asses the wound.
There wasn't much she could do then except wait, so Clarke brings her hand to smooth down the woman's hair, soaked now in sweat. "Hey, you're safe. You're in good hands, Dr. Roan is going to take good care of you."
When the woman doesn't respond Clarke continues, antsy on her feet, she wants to help her, but she knows she's already done too much without a doctor's permission. The only thing she can do now is to try to distract her from the pain.
"Hey, what's your name?"
The young woman let out a few short breaths before turning her head to look at Clarke, "Raven. Raven Reyes."
Clarke nodded, "I'm going to help you Raven, okay? You're doing great."
"All I've done so far is not die." She huffed out between breaths.
Clarke smirked, "Well keep doing that."
Roan rushes in with Echo behind him rolling a cart and then grabbing the tools as he calls from them. He seems shocked at the scene, but recovers quickly and takes to the task ignoring as Clarke stands next to the bed, holding onto Raven's hand that she hadn't noticed she'd grabbed onto.
When Raven is knocked out on anesthetic, and Roan is scheduling an operating room for the amputation Clarke makes her way back to the waiting room to see the men who'd rushed Raven in.
A thin, lean man stumbles over to her as soon as she rounds the corner; a hat wrung in his hands, biting at his top lip, "God tell me she's okay?"
Clarke nods and watches the relief wash over his face and then the other two as the young man reaches out to grab Clarke in a quick hug.
She's caught off guard, but she takes a moment to appreciate the gratitude. This joy, relief, that's why she works so hard in school. But it isn't all happy news so she only takes that moment before reaching out her hand to the other two men, "I'm Clarke, a medical intern here."
The blonde man speaks first, shaking her hand, "Wick. And that's Jasper, and Monty. So she's going to be okay?"
Clarke gives him a sad smile, she can see the red circles around his eyes, he's the one who had been crying, and it seems he hasn't stopped since, "Ms. Reyes is going to survive her injuries, yes."
"But?" The man, introduced as Monty, interjects.
"But," Clarke nods solemnly, "But we are going to have to amputate. Which comes with its own risks and challenges."
"Oh god," Wick brings his head into his hands.
"We'll be transferring her over to the hospital for the procedure, so feel free to wait here and I can bring you the details of her move once its all signed off on." Clarke waits in silence for a moment while they all appear to be processing the information, and resigns to simply nodding again, giving Wick a squeeze on the shoulder and heading back to check on Raven.
Roan is back in his office when Clarke asks for the details of the surgery. He hands her the file before calling her back into the office when she quickly rushes out, a thank you running off her lips.
"Clarke, wait."
She peaks her head back into the office, the momentum of her skirt slighting throwing off her balance, "Yes doctor?"
"Good work today," Roan says, not looking up at her while filling out paperwork at his desk, but she knows he means well. Roan isn't one for compliments but is a great doctor and a good mentor, really the only one she's had.
"Thank you sir," She doesn't smile, she knows it would only bring about mocking from Roan, so she gives him a curt nod and goes to take her leave again.
"Clarke," He calls out again, exasperated.
This time she steps into his office, "Mmhm?"
"I called in to the hospital," He looks up from his desk, "I told them I want you to sit in on the surgery."
Clarke's heart nearly beat out of her chest, "Sir, are you sure?"
She watches his smirk come and go from his face, she's sure if she had blinked she would have missed it completely. "Yes I'm sure. I don't just say things I don't mean. Now go before I change my mind."
Clarke lingers in the doorway for a moment, debating whether to say thank you a million times over. Instead she takes her leave without another word. She's sure Roan would appreciate it over the former anyway.
She's off the clock when she takes a seat in the gallery of the surgery room. A note pad in her lap as she watches the procedure. It takes all of half an hour, but she ponders over just how much that thirty minutes has altered Raven Reyes' life. Clarke knows she has friends waiting for her in her room. She knows the hospital has great resources, counseling, and physical therapy. She knows, from that brief time she'd spoken with Raven, that she is strong, emotionally and physically. But even then, Clarke notes her room number down anyway, making sure she comes back to check up on her when she's back from her short vacation.
As she leaves the hospital, some doctors giving Clarke a nod of recognition, and a couple of nurses applauding her quick thinking, she rushes out to catch the bus to Bellamy's. She could've gone home to share the exciting news with her father, or rub it in her mother's face just how rewarding her career path could be, but instead she heads to the one place she feels like actually being. She doesn't want to waste this happiness suffocating in that big, fancy house. The Blake's may have less in the eyes of her family and their friends. Less material wealth, less power, less prestige. But lacking in such things didn't make the Blake's less in any regard, if anything they rose above all the stupid games everyone else in her life played.
