Chapter 18
Clarke's POV
Clarke brushed a blonde lock out of her forehead, looking around the forest again. For the fact that Finn was claiming to really know his way around the forest, she was not certain that they were indeed walking in the right direction.
"Ease up, princess" Finn's charming voice penetrated Clarke's thoughts.
A light blush covered her cheeks at his outright flirty tone, before she shook her head at her own stupidity. Although she had enjoyed the time, they had spent in the small bunker Finn had discovered during the sudden appearance of the acid fog, she knew that it was foolish to lose her mind over a mere crush now.
"Whatever fell from the Ark, is not large enough to carry more than one person" Clarke evaded Finn's eyes and looked right ahead. A small part of her somehow hoped that it would be her mother who had came to earth for her. She doubted that she could find it in herself to forgive her mother any time soon for her hand in her father's death, but on the other hand her mother was the only one she had left now.
Thankfully, Finn seemed to have gotten the hint and did not continue to try and flirt with her.
It still took them some more time to reach the crash site and Clarke's presumption was confirmed when they found a lone woman in the escape pod.
She watched the young woman get out of the pod with a slight smile, wondering if they had appeared this taken aback by the new nature around themselves when they had left the dropship as well. Clarke's smile completely froze though and she felt her stomach plummet when the woman recognized Finn and launched herself at him. She did not know where to really look at, when the pair exchanged a kiss.
Trying to do something useful, Clarke stepped closer to the escape pod, looking inside for some useful equipment. She came back empty-handed though and frowned at Raven.
Raven and Finn had separated slightly by now and the young mechanic suddenly appeared furious.
Clarke needed a moment to understand that there had been a radio in the pod together with Raven and that was missing now. She knew that Bellamy had stormed out of their camp as well when they noticed the escape pod on the horizon. Although she could not understand why the young man would wish to sabotage their only opportunity to communicate with the rest of their people, the only explanation for the missing radio was that Bellamy had located Raven before them and stolen the radio.
Her thoughts about Bellamy were stopped though, when Raven seemed to remember something.
"Where is Marie?" the mechanic asked in a concerned tone. Abby had noticed the baby's wrist band going dead a few days ago and whatever little hope the council had had that earth was survivable, was crushed relentlessly at this negative sign. The doctor had risked her life to make it possible for her to get down to earth and hopefully be able to communicate that earth was indeed survivable, but Abby had also wanted to know about the little baby, still not agreeing with the decision to even send her down with the other juvenile criminals.
Clarke's anger at Bellamy evaporated fully at that question and her features filled with worry. It had been a few days ago that Diggs had taken a walk with Marie through the forest around their camp and had not returned. The baby had been inconsolable for some time and had developed a most likely painful rash and Clarke did not have any supplies to help her. They had taken turns between Bellamy, Octavia, Finn, Wells and Diggs to try and sooth the baby. Some of the other delinquents had gotten so annoyed by the little girl crying for hours non-stop that there had even been talk about just smothering her with a pillow if she would not shut up.
On the morning when Diggs had still not returned with Marie, Clarke had insisted on forming small search parties, looking for him and Marie. In the end, they had indeed found Diggs. The boy seemed to have walked into a grounder trap, but there had been no sign of the whereabouts of their youngest member. Clarke had insisted to continue searching for Marie. Although the baby was not able to walk really well yet, she could still have covered some distance by crawling.
The forest was dangerous though and once they had failed to locate the little girl after three more days, Clarke had finally agreed to Bellamy, that it was sadly the most likely outcome that Marie had died, either of starvation or that the baby had been killed by a predator. Her stomach still churned with guilt and sadness when she thought of the little blonde baby.
Raven furrowed her brow "She isn't with you anymore, is she?" she checked. She could understand that the teenagers had taken off the wrist bands in rebellion, but she knew how they worked and she doubted that they would have tried to remove the wrist band from the delicate arm of a baby.
Clarke finally shook her head "We do not know where she is" she admitted in a defeated tone. She remained silent for a long moment, before she sighed and asked "Her wrist band…?" she trailed off uncertainly.
Raven shook her head in the negative and more words were not necessary. She narrowed her eyes almost suspiciously when Clarke's eyes misted over with a sheen of tears and Finn immediately stepped closer to comfort the blonde girl, looking deeply sad himself.
Raven's appearance at the camp of the 100 was somewhat overshadowed by the confirmation that Marie was indeed most likely dead. Clarke had asked when the wrist band had shown the baby's death and it fit roughly to the night when Diggs had not returned with her.
Raven seemed to consider that some of them grieved for Marie's death and she even waited with confronting Bellamy.
To Clarke it was not surprising that the young man was affected by the news, he had been one of those taking the most care of the baby together with his sister Octavia.
Anya was not really surprised that Lexa wanted to leave TonDC for some time after questioning the captured invader. The commander had been gone from her tent for at least two hours and the knuckles of her hands were visibly scraped.
Lexa did not seem too satisfied with what information the boy had been able to offer. Their scouts had already figured out roughly how many invaders had come into their lands. The boy confirmed though that the invaders did not have real weapons beside one sole gun. Lexa had feared that they had more but just had kept them hidden this far.
The boy had reacted almost pathetically. She had not been sure though if his seemingly easy offer of information was just a ruse. It seemed though that the boy indeed had not much valuable information at all.
Anya had stayed with Marie while the baby had finally drifted off to take her nap an undefined time later, sort of falling asleep while she had still been playing.
The baby woke up some time later when Lexa was still relaying to Anya what the captured boy had said during his questioning, which went unnoticed by Lexa and Anya.
Marie needed a few moments to climb down from the bed without assistance, but the baby had of course heard Lexa's voice behind the thin curtain, where the commander was cleaning her fingers. She wobbled over towards the curtain, holding onto the material for support.
Anya looked over to the bed when she heard a slight ripping noise. The material of the curtain was frail and even though Marie barely weighed anything, the pressure the baby was exerting on the material was enough to cause a rip.
The general quickly walked over to the little girl and scooped her back up into her arms, giving her a gentle smile.
Lexa's features had immediately softened as well losing their hard edges and the worry faded from her green eyes.
Marie let out a gurgling noise stretching her short chubby arms towards the commander in a clear demanding gesture.
Lexa took the little girl over from Anya "Hello there, little one" she greeted the child in a kind tone "Did you have a good nap?" she questioned the child, not expecting an answer.
The girl's light giggle was answer enough and Lexa took a deep breath "I want to take a walk" she proclaimed. Marie did not need a diaper change yet, so, they could go after gathering a few things for the baby.
The scouting team which included Tris had not returned to TonDC yet, so, Anya was free to accompany Lexa and Marie into the forest.
Lexa enjoyed the silence of the forest.
Anya knew her former second's moods well enough to know that the younger woman did not wish to talk momentarily.
Marie was of course not doing the same and the baby continued to stretch out her little hands trying to catch a few leaves falling from the trees and obviously having great fun at it.
Lexa finally came to a halt in a clearing which was covered by highly grown grass and flowers.
They sat down together and Marie began to crawl around. Although she plucked a few more grass blades from the ground, she suddenly halted, tilting her head to the side and inspecting a few flowers with a weird expression which made both Anya and Lexa pause.
Both of them watched in a mixture of astonishment and surprise how the baby stretched out her small fingers and right before her fingers touched the wilted flower the child was inspecting, her little fingers seemed to get a weird golden glow.
Once the girl's fingers had some distance to the flower again, the flower bloomed stronger than any other flower on the clearing. The girl sat right in front of the flower and clapped her hands together in joy.
It took Lexa and Anya a few seconds to grasp what they had just observed, both of them immediately got up, casting worried glances around that someone else could have just observed the same thing.
Lexa almost instinctively rushed over to the baby, scooping her up into her arms.
Marie blinked a few times and shook her head, before she gave a protesting squeal, pointing at the ground again with a frown, wanting to be put down again.
Lexa did ignore the child though, only tightening her hold around the small body in her arms instead, to Marie's clear displeasure.
The child did not understand what was happening and she began to cry in reaction, trying to push away from Lexa.
Lexa had no intention of letting the child go though, as she hurried back towards TonDC. Anya had not spotted anyone close to them, but neither of them spoke a word about what had just happened on their way until they reached the commander's tent again.
Lexa felt guilty at finding the baby asleep in her arms, sucking firmly on her thumb and having clear tear tracks on her round cheeks. She placed the bay on the bed, tucking her under a fur.
"How did she do that?" she asked in an incredulous tone towards her former mentor.
Anya looked deep in thought, she faintly remembered to have heard an old myth about powers like this and she told what she could remember to Lexa.
Both of them had troubled minds now. How could such a power be hidden?