Of course Clarke had noticed. But she did not freak out, she knew her girlfriend and how emotional she could be sometimes, so she had just pulled Lexa into the staff room and patched her up. She would mention it later.
The guests slowly began to leave, and Clarke's friends, who had taken good care of the champagne stock, had been insisting on helping Clarke clean up but the blonde had sent them home, too, knowing they would probably break something and mess the place up more than being of actual help.
It took them almost an hour to clean up, but then her boss had told them to go home, too, after a last glass of champagne, since Clarke had done more than enough already.
"I'm so tired, babe." Clarke whined, dropping her head on her girlfriend's shoulder while the brunette fumbled for her keys and opened the door.
"I know. Let's get you to bed." Lexa replied softly, half carrying the blonde upstairs and gently laid her down on the bed. She quickly undressed her girlfriend, carefully lifted her up into a somewhat sitting position and pulled a wide shirt over her head.
"I'll just get some water, I'll be right back. Stay where you are and feel free to fall asleep." She said, leaving a soft kiss on the blonde's forehead, who mumbled something that sounded like "I love you", before she let herself fall onto the pillow and was close to dozing off already.
Lexa pulled her hair into a loose ponytail, put on some sweatpants and a top and padded downstairs to quickly check her phone and grab a water bottle. She was just on her way back when she heard Clarke scream. She dropped her phone and the bottle and almost tripped up the stairs.
"Clarke what's wrong?" The blonde was kneeling on the bed, one hand on the mattress to keep her balance and the other one on her forehead. "Shit!... Clarke!"
"Lexa, I–" she grimaced, and closed her eyes again. Lexa ran to the bathroom to get a cold wet washcloth which she handed Clarke but the blonde didn't react. Her stomach turned, she just did not know what to do.
"Do you want some water?" She asked helplessly but Clarke shook her head, letting out another pained groan.
"Clarke I'll be right back, okay? Can you stay here for just a minute? Is that okay?"
When Clarke didn't reply, Lexa hesitated for a moment but ran downstairs to get her phone. She quickly sent a text, grabbed some pain killers and a water bottle and hurried upstairs again.
"Clarke, I need you to take these painkillers!" She begged but Clarke didn't move. She didn't even make any sound anymore. "Clarke, please!" Lexa sighed. Nothing. Suddenly, Clarke's head shot up, her face still twisted with pain and she quickly crawled towards the edge of the bed to get up.
"Whooww okay easy!" Lexa jumped forward to catch the blonde who was just about to collapse onto the floor. "Bathroom?" Clarke nodded.
Clarke gagged and threw up until nothing but bile was left to come out. Lexa was holding her the entire time, occasionally wiping some sweat off the blonde's neck and forehead. When Clarke hadn't moved for several moments, she started caressing her back. "Are you feeling a little better?" It took a while but Clarke nodded. "Do you want to try to get up?" Clarke nodded again. "... okay, I got you. Come on." Lexa promised as she put Clarke's arm around her shoulder and gently lifted her up, then carefully led her back to the bed again and helped her sit down.
"Does your head still hurt?"
"It always hurts."
"Okay... do you feel like you have to throw up again? Or can you lay down and try to sleep?"
Clarke closed her eyes, trying to form a useful sentence. "No I think I'm okay. Sleeping would be nice though. Could you–", her voice cracked and she was too weak to point towards the water bottle but Lexa understood and helped Clarke take a small sip.
Clarke was lying on her back, trying to stay as still as possible to not overtax her head. Lexa was sitting on the edge of the bed beside her, gently brushing her thumb over her girlfriend's hand.
"I'm sorry..."
"It's okay, Clarke. Please, none of this is your fault. Don't be sorry."
"Can you stay here until I fall asleep?"
Lexa sighed and tucked her lips into a small smile. "I'm not going anywhere. I'm right here. I promise." She wanted to lean down and kiss the blonde's forehead but was scared that it would hurt her.
"Thanks for coming, Abby." Lexa said when she opened the door.
"Where is she?"
"She's upstairs, she's sleeping."
"Okay, good. That's good. Would it be okay if I..."
"Of course, as long as you need." Lexa reassured her, holding out her hand for Abby to hand her her jacket and then led the way to the living room.
"There, upstairs, is the bedroom. There's also an armchair, if you want to be there when she wakes up."
"The couch is perfectly fine. You should stay upstairs and be there when she wakes up. I'm sure I'm not the first person she wants to see tomorrow, I'd just like to be around in case something... happens, again."
Lexa nodded slightly. "Can I get you anything? A water maybe?"
"God, I could use a shot of some hard stuff actually. If that's okay."
"Sure." The brunette replied and prepared a vodka shot for Abby. They sat in silence for a while, not really sure what to say, not really wanting to say anything anyway.
"And it just came out of nowhere? Clarke was never the migraine type. Then again, I haven't really seen or spoken to her a lot in the past few years. Did she mention anything? Migraine can be a bitch, I really hope it's not that bad."
Lexa lowered her eyes and focused on the bottle, then decided to pour Abby another shot and get one as well.
"It's not a migraine."
Abby narrowed her eyes, "How can you be so sure? Did she see a doctor already? Because if not, then she–"
"She saw a doctor. It's not a migraine, Abby." Lexa explained as calmly as possible but she was well aware of her slightly shaking voice.
"Okay if it's not that, then what is it? Is it– is it something... worse? Don't tell me she's pregnant! Lexa? Oh my God. Is she– wait, how?"
Lexa couldn't help but let out a small laugh at this, but she still looked anywhere else but at Abby.
"She's not pregnant. It's... she should tell you herself."
"How bad can it be? Why can't you just tell me? Is it embarrassing? I mean unless it's cancer but that's really– ... Lexa?... Lexa would you just look at me for a second?" Lexa hesitated but reluctantly raised her head a little and met Abby's eyes.
"She found out a week ago. It's a tumor and they cannot remove it."
Abby stayed silent for a long time and Lexa let her be, knowing that there was nothing she could or should say. "Brain cancer..." Abby put the pieces together, "well that... spreads fast. What's the chances, 60/40?"
"70/30"
"And they said it's too big already to be removed?" Lexa nodded.
"So that means she has, what... four months left?"
"At most. Maybe less."
They heard a noise from upstairs and Lexa jumped up, looking at Abby who reassuringly nodded. The brunette quickly made her way to her girlfriend, whose eyes were slightly open.
"Hey..." Lexa said quietly, softly stroking the blonde's cheek, "how are you feeling?"
"Like shit. Who were you talking to?"
"No one. Go back to sleep."
"Babe..." Clarke started, but paused and breathed in to gather some strength to continue, "can you hold me?"
Lexa's lips formed a small smile and she carefully climbed behind the blonde, tucked them both in and gently laid her arm around Clarke.