Uncharacteristically, Lexa let her bag drop the moment she made it into her apartment. Pushing the door shut with a soft click, she stumbled to her couch and collapsed, exhaustion getting the better of her.
It had been a long three months of throwing herself into work, becoming involved at levels that were far beneath her capabilities. Indra had wisely kept her mouth shut about Lexa's sudden push for something to do, but lesser employees had been fired for implying that Lexa was pushing herself too hard (Caris may have been one of these, but Indra had talked her into reassigning the woman elsewhere instead). The only time Lexa had carved for herself outside of work was when she set aside time to train with Anya, who let her physically wear herself out day after day with only a raised eyebrow for comment.
Lexa had even considered moving, her memories of Clarke lingering at the sight of her own bed, at Raven in the corridors (Lexa was becoming particularly adept at dodging the woman), at the art piece that still hung on her wall.
Lexa had never experienced loneliness quite like this before.
She hadn't been prepared for how Clarke's sudden absence in her life made her feel. Lexa recognized that both she and Clarke were guarded people (they had to be, with what they'd both endured), and that was why things had progressed so slowly with them. It had felt like the right pace for them. Until it wasn't.
Lexa didn't think their being intimate was a mistake, not really, but it did magnify the fact that she and Clarke had started something, and they weren't really finished.
She heard her phone buzz from her bag and glared to the empty room, stubbornly sitting an extra moment before she made her way back to the doorway to start rummaging.
Her new assistant, Tris, had added a last-minute appointment for tomorrow. Lexa looked at her schedule, confused. Tris was new this week, but surely even she knew to add a subject line? Lexa decided that it didn't matter, and slumped her way to the shower (where she did not think of Clarke pinned to the cold tile), figuring that it was either a mistake or that it the meeting would cut down her free time.
She was secretly hoping it was the latter.
The following afternoon, Lexa, annoyed, was thinking that Tris needed to be trained more in scheduling as she walked down the hall to her 'meeting'. Lexa was only vaguely aware that they had a conference room in the basement. The door was solid, and as she entered she noted that there weren't any secondary exits, nor any windows. She also noticed the occupants with some confusion.
"Raven? Lincoln?" Lincoln was sitting calmly, but Raven had an energy about her that was disquieting. The third person in the room she didn't know, but she quickly assessed him. He was young, with brown hair that was on the edge of shaggy. He looked nervous - his gaze never stayed in one place too long. He was sitting almost too close to Lincoln, and when the door clicked shut, he jumped.
"Miss Willows," Lincoln started. She hadn't seen him since-
"What is going on?" A feeling of uneasiness began to grow. It was a sense not quite defined, but the naseousness quickly spread from the bile in the back of her throat to her suddenly numb feet.
Raven stood up, at the same time pulling a folder from her lap and slapping in on the table. Lexa sat cautiously and waited for any of them to speak. Lincoln put his hand on Raven's arm and she retook her seat before he started to speak.
"I apologize for the secrecy of this appointment, Miss Willows," Lincoln started.
"Lexa." They'd once had an entire conversation about bird calls - Lincoln knew her well enough to use her name. Lexa felt the hairs on the back of her neck start to rise.
"Lexa, then. We couldn't let word of this get into the wrong hands."
"Putting it on my calendar may not have been the best way to do that," Lexa deadpanned. Raven's face broke into a grin.
"We may have had a hacker friend of ours take care of it already. You should also tell your assistant to change her password to something less obvious." Lexa huffed.
"I'll be sure to do so. What is this all about?" Lincoln took a deep breath, trying to form words, but Raven lost what little patience she possessed first.
"We need your help." Lexa tilted her head, eyeing the folder on the table. Raven pushed it toward her, but before she could open it, the young man she didn't know spoke.
"Clarke didn't return to service voluntarily." Lexa felt the breath leave her lungs as she gaped at them all, suddenly overcome with what could only be called anger. Seeing even Lincoln wince at her expression, she reigned in her emotions until she was again in control.
"Explain," she demanded. They looked at one another, seemingly trying to decide where to start. Eventually, Raven turned to her.
"Right, well this is new to me as of yesterday when Lincoln showed up at my work with Myles here in tow-" (Lexa filed the name Myles: she vaguely recognized it) "- going on about a secret ops team made up of some of Clarke's squad." Raven paused, and Lexa jumped in.
"Secret Ops?"
"Black Ops," Lincoln corrected as Raven made a 'po-tay-to, po-tah-to' gesture. "A few of us took part in a covert operation just before we were deployed. It was domestic, infiltration of a facility."
As Lincoln paused (he was a man of few words, despite now being a motivational speaker), Raven cut in.
"It was a building on the Mount Weather facility." Lexa flinched at the name, and realized that they'd all been closely watching for her reaction (even Myles, who was suddenly studying her intently). Her palms began to sweat and her eyes darted down to the folder in front of her. She cleared her throat in an attempt to control her voice, her whole body now feeling numb.
"And?"
"And we achieved our objective, but saw things we weren't supposed to." Lincoln looked at Myles. "Clarke filed a report, but we were ordered never to discuss anything and we were deployed very soon after. Our deployment was even bumped up suddenly - the rest of the squad was confused, but…" his voice trailed off, shrugging.
"You know about Mount Weather," Myles softly stated. He was still looking at her, eager for validation. Lexa shifted, and knew that they caught that motion, too, so nodded.
"We knew that, kid," Raven cut in, and Myles scowled at being called 'kid'. From what Clarke had told her (because the name Myles had clicked suddenly), Myles was far from a kid, despite his youthful looks. Raven ignored him, apparently ignorant of his history, going on, "Monty was able to hack that far, at least." Lexa was slightly alarmed that someone had hacked at least as far as to learn about investigations that were ongoing, and made a mental note to beef up electronic security. Again.
"I can't go into our investigation with those not directly involved."
"Do you have anyone on your team that has ever been in?" Lincoln asked. Lexa shook her head, her pulse beginning to race. Not with fear, but with excitement. If she had direct accounts...her mind spun with possibilities. She reeled herself in, needing more information.
"How...what does this have to do with Clarke?"
"Who do you think got us out of there alive?" Lincoln looked serious, but Lexa was confused.
"She led the team?" Myles was shaking his head.
"Our CO for the op was higher up, but ran things remotely. When everything went FUBAR, after we accomplished our primary objective, Clarke stopped listening to the idiot and took control." Lexa wasn't totally surprised about Clarke (though she had a passing thought on how she'd then gone on to keep her leadership position after apparently disobeying direct orders), but she wondered about the young man sitting in front of her.
"Pardon me, but aren't you a little young for Black Ops mission?" Myles grinned and looked down and away. Lincoln answered for him.
"Myles was one of the most valued coders in the Marines, believe it or not."
"So I was a little delinquent in my youth, so what?" Lexa saw the bravado as a front, but didn't say anything. Raven gave him a high five as Lincoln went on.
"While we were in the building, someone triggered something and our primary escape was blocked, so we had to find an alternative egress. A few turns later and we came to a room full of cages." Lexa sat forward suddenly, having so many questions but not wanting to interrupt. Lincoln shuddered. "It was...a deplorable example of human cruelty." He took a deep breath that Lexa assumed was to center himself again. "We were tight on time, we couldn't save everyone. In the end, we only were able to evacuate one."
"You…" Lexa couldn't believe what she was hearing. Her words, which were normally so well articulated, failed her. "What?"
"The woman we brought out with us was initially questioned but ultimately released. Just before we took off on our deployment, Murphy- he was on the Op with us- heard rumor that they were going to bring her back in. He told Emori to hide, even gave her his … more questionable … contacts to help her do it."
"Also a delinquent. Fucking Murphy." Raven muttered under her breath, and Lincoln looked to her.
"Yeah, well, he probably saved her life, doing that. When we got back from…being captives … I'm pretty sure he looked her back up and they've been together since."
"They have," Myles confirmed. Lincoln nodded.
"After Clarke told us she was going back, she requested that I be the one to drive her to the airport, remember?" Lexa nodded, and saw Raven doing the the same, looking annoyed. "She told me to get a clean vehicle, which was weird until she asked me to tell Murphy to go to ground and to get everything I could find on Mount Weather." The silence in the room was deafening until he went on. "From what I can tell, when she got that call, she agreed to go back in, not as part of an Ops, but to train to infiltrate." Lexa felt her heart skip a beat with anxiety.
"She...what?" Raven interrupted again.
"This is where I come in. With Murphy dark, no one else had sketchy contacts to figure this out. You're welcome," she looked at Lincoln, Lexa, and Myles in turn. "And, agreed isn't probably the right word."
"She was blackmailed." Myles deadpanned. He stood up, leaning against the back wall, rubbing his hands down his thighs. "The CO for our ops was a commissioned officer, Roan Frost." At the familiar name, Lexa spoke up.
"I know Roan, I've worked with him on cases before." Lincoln tilted his head.
"Have you ever met his mother?" Lexa shook her head, but she had heard of the woman. Her rise up the ranks was...non-traditional, to say the least. Similarly to the Mount Weather project, she had skeletons in her closets, but no one had ever proven anything. Lexa's mind spun with new possibilities.
"What are you saying, Lincoln?" It was Raven that answered, however.
"I've been able to determine that Nia Frost was the one to call Clarke. I think Roan was remiss in certain details of his initial report on the op, but somehow his mother found out and threatened to go public if Clarke didn't cooperate."
"This is still not confirmed," Lincoln pointed out.
"But you know it's true," Myles spoke. Neither Raven nor Lincoln disputed this. Lexa agreed as well, but knew it was a rabbit hole when there were more important things, and she needed more information.
"Clarke." She prompted. Lincoln met her eye before speaking.
"She did fly to Pendleton initially a few months ago. I had a buddy of mine sending me updates - over forums, mostly, so it was pretty safe. Between Nyko's information and Clarke's check-ins with Myles, we've gathered that she was in some sort of intensive training, but she wasn't part of any official unit that we can tell. I've been gathering all the intel I can about Mount Weather since she's left, but I've hit a wall. Clarke told me to trust you when I dropped her off, and now we need your help." Lexa swallowed as the three other people in the room looked at her.
"What do you need?"
"Lexa," Lincoln said, "Myles was able to ascertain that The Coalition has been investigating, but we need to work together to jumpstart the case as soon as possible."
"Why now?" Lexa asked, not wanting to hear the answer.
"Because no one has seen or heard from Clarke in almost two weeks, and we think she's in trouble."
