Within days Heda was back in the Throne room, albeit on lighter duties, Doctor Clarke's orders, Lexa was determined to appear well and healthy before the people of Polis for their wedding ceremony. Clarke used Lexa's determination as leverage, she would allow Heda and Lexa certain privileges if she acceded to Clarke's requests. It was all a bit of a pretence really because Clarke knew she could not or would not prevent Lexa from doing anything she saw fit to do and they both knew Lexa would give Clarke anything and everything she asked for.
Clarke requested that Lexa ask Anya to travel to Mount Weather to pick up Raven for the wedding, and find a job related task for Raven to do in Polis that would require her extending her visit, Lexa only raised her eyebrows and nodded. Clarke also requested that Aden be invited to take a significant and prominent role in the ceremony, she had always liked Aden but his devotion to Heda during her recovery earned him a very special place in her heart.
The whole of Polis was alive to wedding fever. It had been sparked when Heda bit into that peach while eyefucking Wanheda before all of Polis. It had surged when news spread of Wanheda saving Heda's life in a medical emergency of which nature they were not entirely certain, some said it was poisoning, others an injury due to some heroic feat of Heda and still others thought that Heda could never succumb to anything but that Wanheda had caught a passing bullet out of the air saving Heda's life!
Heda's recovery was almost the final chapter in the public saga of the tales of Heda and Wanheda - the actual wedding itself was at once both fantastic and relatively simple. The pair were decked out in their Heda and Wanheda, by now traditional garb, with Heda trimmed in red and Wanheda trimmed in blue. They rode in through the city gates with only Aden leading the way, looking dashing in his Nightblood uniform, they rode the entire length of the causeway so everyone could see them and then turned and went back to the city square where they dismounted.
They went into a tent where they changed into their wedding dresses, Lexa was in red and Clarke in blue. They walked out together to a roar from the crowd, up the steps to the podium where Gaia and Aden waited for them, Gaia presided over the ceremony, Aden wrapped their hands in the traditional ribbon and passed their rings - a blending of the customs of Trikru and Skaikru. Once they were acknowledged as truly wed, they walked down a line of people who placed their hands over the ribbon and verbally confirmed, using both of their names.
Aden began, he touched the skin of both women, whose hands remained clasped and symbolically bound by the ribbon, "I acknowledge your marriage Lexa and Clarke", Gaia followed with the same words, Anya, Indra, the leaders of each clan and finally Clarke saw her mother at the end of the line, "I acknowledge your marriage Lexa and Clarke".
Abby did not look at Lexa out of respect for Lexa's last request of her but she did bow her head in deference to both and stepped back in line taking no more time than any of the others which she hoped communicated her determination to take her rightful place. She could be under no illusion about the inappropriateness of her attitude and behaviour, not just with Clarke, or with Lexa, but indeed in many areas.
She resigned her Chancellorship and returned to her position as a surgeon and doctor when she realised she was on the cusp of losing her relationship with her daughter. She was determined to make things right. Clarke paused only to kiss her mother's cheek before they continued walking around the outside of the dais holding up their hand for all to see and confirm their marriage.
Prior to the wedding Lexa had spoken to Clarke about Titus. She admitted that she should have killed him that day in the throne room and that by not doing so, she had made a mistake, one that could have cost Clarke her life and had she lost hers, she would have deserved the consequence of her error. She confirmed that blood must have blood and Titus must be killed.
In fact, because the attempt was on Clarke's life it was her kill, Lexa asked her if she wanted to claim it. Clarke thought for a moment, "If it pleases you, Heda, I will do it, but I don't care to. What I do care about is this idea about a mistake. Perhaps it was a mistake, that's your call, but you have to make peace with it, Lexa. You have made other mistakes, and learned from them, and this is the same, work out your lesson and move on."
"I don't want to go into this marriage with this hanging over either of us, forgive him, or forgive me or forgive yourself, whatever you have to do. Do you understand?"
"I understand you Clarke, I think I must speak to Anya, she will help me with this."
"Thank you Lexa, I think she will. The marriage day must be a clean start, it is not a Skaikru custom, it's a Clarke custom."
"I understand, thank you Clarke."
Lexa and Anya identified that there were a number of instances where Titus had overstepped, evidence of disrespect, and it would have been appropriate for Lexa to take his head at any of those times. Lexa vowed to respond to such instances with more conviction in the future. She also knew that Clarke didn't care to kill Titus so the night before the ceremony she went down to the dungeons and did it herself.
She explained to him that she was not killing him because he tried to kill Clarke, or because he nearly killed her, but that because he himself had long ago come to disrespect her. That she had failed to see it for what it was, Lexa admitted was her failure, his failure was to assume that he knew better than Heda. He nodded his acceptance of her judgement and his fate, she unsheather her sword, placed it against his heart and leaned on it until he was dead. Lexa felt at peace and able to marry Clarke in good conscience.