Chapter 15

Despite her system being riddled by depressants, Lexa felt her adrenaline levels start to build up again, her breathing starting to get fast and rapid, her heartbeat increasing in pace. Her gaze stayed fixed on the deep emerald ones that looked so much like hers, but so much older, so much wiser. She looked at the contours on the woman's face – even though it had only been four years since Lexa last saw her, it felt like an eternity. She noticed how to worry lines on her mother's face had disappeared, and her skin looked a lot smoother and the constant anxiety that was on her mother's face had gone. She looked completely at ease.

On top of all of Lexa's awe however, she was confused. How was this possible? Why was her mother in the slave market, and not being put up for sale? Was she going to be on sale in the auction soon? What?

"Lexa," Tabitha stepped forward and placed a warm hand on Lexa's cheek. Her fingers were trembling a little bit. "It's really you," she breathed, expression saying nothing but wonder and love. "Look at you, baby, you're so beautiful now, all grown up."

"M-Mum," Lexa let a tear come out of her eye. "I-I don't understand, how is this possible?"

"I'll explain later," Tabitha smiled softly. "You don't know how many times I've been here, just wanting to catch sight of you."

When Tabitha turned her head to look at the stage, Lexa suddenly jolted with the realisation that Echo was still being sold. Jaha was still listing out the prices, and right now it was at four grand, and there were still quite a lot of competitors.

"How do you know Mr Woods?" Lexa asked, turning to her mother again.

"Him?" Tabitha's expression changed slightly to one of ease and love. "He is my husband."

"Y-Your husband?" Lexa choked. "I don't – what?"

"I'll explain later," Tabitha promised. "What about him?"

"Oh," Lexa fidgeted with her fingers a little bit. "Um, don't worry, he seems pretty nice."

"He is," Tabitha said dreamily, and that was when Lexa turned her head back to the stage, seeing Echo still up there on the stage. She didn't know how it was possible to look frustrated, annoyed and scared all at the same time, but Echo was doing just that.

Lexa prayed that Echo was going to go to a good family. Even though she wasn't as close to the fiery brunette as Clarke in more ways than one, she knew that she was still going to miss her. She knew that there would be days where she'll be concerned about her safety, wondering whether or not her new master would treat her well.

Then an idea struck her. Mr Woods just bought her, right? Did that mean that he was rich? Did that mean that he could cash out on one more slave?

But then Lexa shouldn't push her luck. She was lucky enough to be bought by a good master. Mr Woods was a man that she didn't know, so she shouldn't request him to buy Echo as well.

With that in mind, Lexa let her shoulders sag slightly as she continued to watch Echo, helpless on the stage.

"Do you know that girl?" a voice suddenly appeared to her left, and Lexa jumped. When she looked over, she saw that it was only Mr Woods, and she let her guard down slightly, but was still cautious.

"W-Who?" Lexa asked.

Mr Woods nodded to the general direction of the stage. "The one on the stage," he replied. "I don't know, you were just staring at her as if you were worried or in deep thought."

"Well," Lexa drawled, feeling her heart start to accelerate as she started to feel nervous. "Yes, I do. She's the one that lived in the same estate as me the past few months, she's my friend." Her voice trailed off slightly in the end.

"Hmm," Mr Woods frowned slightly. "She looks really young," he said.

"Yeah, she's two years younger than me," Lexa said. "Um," she started to fumble, unsure whether to push her luck or not.

"Do you want me to buy her too?" Mr Woods asked, as if reading her thoughts.

Lexa looked up in surprise. "H-How did you – um, well, if it really isn't any trouble –"

"Your expression kind of said it all," Mr Woods gave a small smile. "It's okay, I can afford another one… hopefully…"

"Thank you so much," Lexa gushed, feeling a rush of extreme gratefulness through her system. Maybe, Echo would be kept safe now. Hopefully, her going price is not that high. "Mr Woods, you don't know how much that means to me."

"It's no biggie," Mr Woods shrugged. "And please, call me Jamie."

Jaha called out the next price, which was five grand. Mr Woods retrieved his paddle which was set down next to him and raised it.

There were still four people who were bidding for Echo, and Lexa feared that the price would get high enough that Mr Woods wouldn't want to cash in so much money on someone that he didn't necessarily need. Lexa wondered what she was going to do now that she had been bought by her mother's family. It had been an incredible stroke of luck, but she wondered if she was still going to do chores. She was still a slave, after all.

Which brought her to this. Her mother was still a slave, right? So how was she able to get married to a non-slave and come here, to buy slaves off the market? How was this even possible?

"Going once, going twice, sold! Congratulations, Mr Woods, again!" More applause resonated across the whole place.

"You got her?" Lexa asked in awe.

Mr Woods nodded. "Yep."

"F-For how much?" Lexa asked, feeling nerves start to bubble in her blood again.

"That doesn't matter," he replied.

Lexa didn't really want to push the matter. "You don't know how much that means to me," Lexa said, feeling a tear collect in her eye. "Thank you so much, Mr Woods."

"Jamie," he reminded.

"Jamie," Lexa corrected herself. "Thank you."

Mr Woods simply smiled again and left for the stage to collect Echo.

When Mr Woods was gone, Lexa turned to her mother, who was seemingly watching the whole exchange between her and Mr Woods. "I still don't understand, how are you allowed to marry a non-slave? I thought that it was forbidden."

Tabitha smiled. "I'm also a non-slave now," she said.

Lexa was taken aback. "What? H-How?"

"You know how I served my master for over twenty years? He decided that he was going to free me instead of killing me. He said that he didn't think that he would be able to live with the guilt, and he didn't want to sell me because he didn't think that he would make much from it. So he said that he was going to free me, allow me to live the rest of my life in peace, away from the torture that comes with being a slave."

"But… how does that work? Echo got freed, yet she got caught and sent back to the market," Lexa said.

"Echo, the girl on the stage?" Tabitha asked, and Lexa nodded. "Well, my old master signed some documents that meant that I was no longer legally bound to be a slave. So I have an ID now, so I am now allowed to buy slaves."

"Wow…" Lexa said, surprised but also impressed. "W-What about Mr Woods?"

"Well," Tabitha's lips rose into a smile just at the thought of him. "I was released two years ago, and since I didn't really have anywhere to go, this man found me and took care of me. We just fell in love along the way, and the rest is history, I guess. He is so amazing."

"So much has changed over the past four years," Lexa breathed.

"That's right," Tabitha smiled. "I still can't believe that I found you. You're so pretty, all grown up, Lex. I hope that the past few years haven't been too hard on you, I prayed every night for your safety, you know."

"Well, your prayers have been answered," Lexa smiled softly. "I managed to find a very special someone too," she said.

Tabitha side-eyed her daughter. "Really? Who is he?"

"It's a she, actually," Lexa chuckled when Tabitha's eyes widened. It wasn't in judgement, but simply in surprise. "Her name's Clarke. She was my master until this morning."

"Don't tell me you fell in love with your master," Tabitha said exasperatedly. "It will never end well."

"It didn't," Lexa sighed when she recalled the memory of Mr Griffin bursting into their room. "She's amazing, though. She doesn't believe in the slave trade, she fights for our rights, she is genuinely the best person I've met. It's a shame that I don't think that I will ever be able to see her again," Lexa mumbled, casting her eyes down.

"Hey," Tabitha put a finger under Lexa's chin, lifting her head up so that their eyes were now meeting. "We'll find her, okay? You know where she lives, right?" Lexa nodded. "We'll go there, and we can look for her, I promise."

The sound of Echo's voice broke them out of their bubble.

"Let go of me, you womanizer!" Echo grunted as she and Mr Woods appeared.

"Echo!" Lexa called, rushing forward to calm the brunette. "You're fine, they're good people! Don't fight them!"

Mr Woods simply shook his head as he walked by Lexa and made his way to Tabitha, leaving the two girls alone.

Echo shook her head. "You said that there were no good people out there!" she said vehemently.

"Trust me, these people are good," Lexa said. "I got him to buy you."

"Huh?" Echo said, bewildered.

"Look there, that's my mum," Lexa said, pointing to where Tabitha was sat. "These are good people, I promise."

"Y-Your mum?" Echo parroted, sounding confused. "What do you mean?"

"It's a bit of a miracle, really. I'll tell you more later."

"Girls?" Mr Woods' voice called over Jaha's still droning voice, listing prices. "That's it, right? Let's go home now, shall we?"

The car ride home was unlike any other Lexa had experienced. Truth was, she had not been in any car rides except for to and from the market. Actually, she had not been outside her master's house at all in her life, except for of course the car rides to and from the slave market, and the trips that she and Clarke had made to the night market and the shops over the past few months. These fun trips were far and few in between however, as Mr Griffin was rarely out for more than six hours and they did not want to risk him coming home early to find an empty house and that would be quite bad. Echo had actually tagged along once, and Lexa had a feeling that Echo enjoyed it even more than Lexa had the first time round. Probably because Echo had a thing for French food or something. Lexa would watch in disgust as Echo would swallow snail after snail, or the posh way they say it, 'escargots'.

While Lexa was ecstatic that she had been bought by a good master (oh who was she kidding, this was the best possible outcome for her. She found her mother again!), she was still a little sad at the prospect of Clarke. What was Clarke doing right now? How would she react when she found out that Lexa had gone? Would she think that Lexa got thrown out into the wild just like Echo did? How would she react?

And there was of course the possibility that Lexa would never see Clarke again. She was going to see her again, right? Her mother would surely let her go back to the Griffin Estate and find Clarke. Although what she would do when she found her, she had no idea. Because Mr Griffin will most definitely do anything to stop them from interacting, and… it hurt Lexa's head to think of all the possibilities. There was still the problem of her being a slave, but apparently that can be fixed, as her mother was no longer a slave. Would Mr Woods free them? Would he be willing?

This was the first time that Lexa felt anything other than hatred for her biological father. He must have had some heart in him to free his long-serving slave. Yes, he was really abusive, but at least he let Tabitha live to see her daughter again.

The car journey was serene. The side window was open slightly, letting a little bit of wind come inside, which ventilated the insides of the car well so it was quite comfortable. With that, Lexa started to close her eyes and let herself relax.

"Let me see that," Echo said after a while, making Lexa jolt. Echo was sitting next to her at the back of the car, and she wasn't wearing her seatbelt.

"You should probably strap that on," Lexa croaked gesturing to the seatbelt that hung limply on her side.

"Strap that on?" Echo smirked. "Wanky."

"Oh, stop that," Lexa rolled her eyes. "Just put it on."

Echo did as Lexa said, and then she leaned forward slightly. "You're hurt," she said.

"I'm fine," Lexa insisted, covering her left cheek with her hand and away from view.

"No you're not," Echo said, taking Lexa's hand off her cheek. Lexa didn't know how her cheek looked, but judging by the constant dull pain that it was in it probably looked quite bad. "I don't think that I've ever seen you battered and bruised before," she noted.

"Clarke treats me well," Lexa replied. "And, yes you have. When I first turned up."

"Hmm, I guess yeah," Echo shrugged. "If I have to be honest, I really hated you."

"Why?" Lexa said, exaggerating hurt by putting both hands on her heart. "What's wrong with me?"

"I told you before, I was really jealous," Echo shrugged again. "You got the good master. I got the bad one. But it all worked out in the end, didn't it?"

"I guess it did," Lexa said.

"Well, we need to put ice on that when we have some," Echo said. Then she poked Lexa's stomach, which evoked a yelp from the older brunette. "Yep, and we need more ice for your stomach."

Lexa was walking down the desolate street. It didn't take her as long as before to realise that this was the street that had the night market when all the stalls were set up. It was a little windy, and the sky was a dark purple colour.

That's a weird colour for a sky, Lexa thought as she started to walk down the pavement, allowing the bitter wind to whip her face.

She had been walking for a short period of time before she realised that there was a person lying face down on the other side of the street. This person had long blonde hair, and a body shape that Lexa had come to know so well.

"Clarke," Lexa whispered, letting her legs break out into a full fast run towards the blonde. Within no time, she was by her side. She shook Clarke's shoulders vigorously. "Clarke, what's wrong? Wake up!"

When Clarke showed no signs of waking up, Lexa decided to flip the blonde over, because it must be uncomfortable to have your face glued to the dirty ground. But when her hands started to make a rotating action, trying to flip her body over, it suddenly started to move of its own accord.

Clarke sat up, back facing Lexa.

"Clarke?" Lexa said tentatively, poking the blonde's shoulder with a finger.

Her head turned around, but it was not her face on the other side.

"Surprise," Jake smirked.

Lexa jumped so hard that her head hit the top of the car. She rubbed the slightly painful area, and then started to wipe at her eyes to get rid of the residue of sleep. What the hell was that dream? Was it trying to say some kind of message to her? She kind of missed the days when she didn't have dreams. She didn't think that she has ever had a good dream before, and if she did it was so long ago it would've been already forgotten. A good dream would probably be like… a date with Clarke in a fancy restaurant with candles. They had never done that before, because they never had the chance to. Maybe in the future they would be able to, provided that Lexa found Clarke again, and if not, perhaps in an alternate universe. Lexa believed in them, because if the only world in the universe was one that was led under a dictatorship with the slave trade being legal, then God was more messed up that she thought.

"You good there?" Echo said worriedly. "Bad dream?"

"Yeah, you can say that," Lexa sighed, blinking a few times to clear the haze around her vision.

"Well, you woke up just in time," Echo smiled. "I think that we're here."

Echo was right. As the car turned into a smaller road, Lexa could see a nice neighbourhood filled with semi-detached brick houses. She assumed that her mother lived in one of them. It obviously wasn't anything like the places that she stayed in before, because all her previous masters were pretty wealthy and could afford much bigger property, but this place looked quite nice, nonetheless. It was peaceful and cosy, as well as modest.

If Lexa was going to be honest, she no longer knew how to act around her mother anymore. She had matured so much over the past 4 years. Before she became a slave for other masters she found herself to be quite needy and clingy, but now she couldn't see herself being like that.

This may be a good thing, however. This meant that she was now an adult, both mentally and physically.

When the car finally stopped, Tabitha looked back from the passenger seat and smiled at the girls in the back seat. "We're here."

The house looked just like the others, and when Lexa set foot into it for the first time, she wasn't disappointed. Even though the place wasn't really large, the organisation and the sheer tidiness of the place made it seem really big and comfortable.

"Is this where we're staying?" Lexa turned and asked her mother.

Tabitha nodded.

"Look, I know that I shouldn't be asking this when I just got bought, but we really need to find Clarke. She's going to be so worried about me," Lexa said.

"We will," Tabitha reassured. "But first, we need to get you and Echo freed. And before that, we need to put ice on your face," her face scrunched up slightly in worry. "That looks really painful, Lex."

"It's fine," Lexa insisted. "Wait… did you just say freed?"

"Yes," Tabitha said. "You two are no longer going to be slaves. Now let me patch you up."

"Okay," Lexa sighed.

"I'll go get some ice," Tabitha informed. "Just sit down and I'll be back soon, okay?"

Lexa nodded and Tabitha started to make her way out, but before she could get far, Lexa spoke up again.

"Mum?" she called.

Tabitha turned around. "Yes?" she said.

"Just… thank you," Lexa said quietly.

Her mother simply smiled, giving a small nod and left the room.