Chapter 22

Taylor woke up alone in the tent and the place beside her had already cooled down, indicating that Lexa must have already gotten up a while ago. She rubbed at her eyes tiredly still feeling as if she barely had even closed her eyes and gotten any rest.

The wound in her stomach upon slight inspection thankfully did not appear infected, but it was definitely still tender and painful. Taylor was glad that the edges around the stitches looked only slightly reddish and there was no other sign that anything might be off. She knew that they would continue their journey on horse for a while longer before they reached TonDC.

When she finally got up from the ground, she bit back a groan though. Not just that her stomach pained from the gunshot wound, no, her legs felt as if they were on fire. She was unused to riding and obviously her muscles were already protesting heavily against the unusual strain to them.

Taylor tried to bend her legs a few times, getting into an almost squat like position, hoping to force her muscles to relax again, but she had little luck with her method.

Unbeknown to her, Anya was by now standing in the entrance of the tent, watching the blonde doctor's movement and clearly pained expression. At first, the general had been worried that the pain might be caused by the still relatively fresh wound, but the quirky movements and slightly bit-back pained groans were easy to identify. Anya smirked slightly, watching the doctor in amusement. She outright laughed though at the startled expression taking up Taylor's features, quickly followed by clear embarrassment at being caught like this, once her grey eyes finally connected with her own.

Taylor cleared her throat audibly while her cheeks were dusted with a rosy pink blush "I had not expected riding to be such a strain" she tried to explain after a little silence.

Anya shook her head, clearly still amused "You will get used to it soon enough" she commented in a kind tone "There is an ointment to help with the pain, if you need it" the general added on second-thought.

"Oh no, I will be fine" the blonde doctor immediately shrugged off the offer. Internally, she wondered though if she may need to ask Lexa for such a thing later. Her medical side immediately wondered what such an ointment would be prepared with. She was sure it would contain some form of muscle relaxant and maybe something to numb the pain, definitely something to increase blood flow. She still wanted to know what it was made of exactly.

Taylor had not noticed that she had fallen silent for a while, thinking about the ingredients of the ointment deeply.

Anya watched the doctor's suddenly concentrated features in slight confusion. She had to admit though that Taylor looked rather cute. Her forehead creased a little in concentration and the other woman had tilted her head sideways, gnawing at her lower lip subconsciously.

"What are you thinking about?" the general finally pulled Taylor out of her thoughts with her question. Anya was not sure if she might be debating what would happen in TonDC or if the blonde woman still had left things unsaid about the immediate future.

Taylor shook her head again and her expression cleared, replaced by a little smile "Oh, actually I was just wondering what the ointment you mentioned is made off" she admitted with a slight chuckle to her tone. She had been like this already before she had chosen to study medicine, always interested in the ingredients of things and the mechanism behind them.

Anya was surprised by the rather simple explanation. She found this kind of enthusiasm endearing though and just added it to her own mental list of who the other woman was and what made her special. "I am sure Nyko or any other healer can share their knowledge with you" she said, motioning Taylor to follow her out of the tent. Colleting the doctor had actually been the purpose of why she came to the tent in the first place.

"That would be great!" Taylor exclaimed in clear excitement, smiling at the general brightly. She knew that there would also be a lot of what she could show the healers here. She also wondered if she could speak with Abby or Jackson from Skykru at one point, their medical knowledge was bound to be different as well as they technically were from the future from Taylor's point of view.

For a moment, Taylor remembered how the survivors on earth were dealing with those born with visible mutations. She, as well as Skykru, knew that these mutations were by far no indication for an impurity in the bloodline but in fact just an effect of the enhanced radiation level on earth.

Taylor's thoughts were interrupted again when Anya led her towards the commander. She had no idea how Lexa had gotten up in the morning without waking her. As far as she remembered, they had been in physical contact all night somehow after all.

Food was being distributed around the still burning fire and Taylor gratefully accepted her own portion. She had not eaten very much last night and now felt her stomach gnawing with hunger.

"Your appetite has returned" Lexa observed the doctor eating next to her with clear satisfaction ringing in her tone. She had been worried about Taylor feeling unwell last night and had already wondered if it would have been a better decision to leave the blonde doctor back at their camp to heal.

Taylor nodded in mute agreement; still busy chewing some cold roasted meat. She felt slightly weird though, both, Anya and Lexa, seemed to be watching her every move as if they were both afraid she could either faint any moment or be attacked by some sudden danger, ready to protect her obviously.

The last relationship she had been in was several years in the past, still more a sweet teenage romance than anything serious. After she had started her studies at med school, Taylor had not wasted any energy on socialising, too focused on her goal to graduate with top scores in everything, accelerating her career and forgetting her private life altogether.

It was still sort of absurd even to herself how quickly she had come from trying to take her own life, wake up in this reality and now actually wondering about a future she may have with Lexa and Anya. Was she being stupid?

The journey to TonDC continued soon after. Taylor had groaned audibly when Anya helped her back up onto the commander's mount. While Anya had visibly been rather amused by the proclamation of discomfort, Lexa was another matter.

The commander had immediately been worried and her green eyes scanned the doctor's form attentively, alarm shining within their depths. Her tone had also been noticeably tainted with worry when she asked if the wound on the doctor's stomach was the problem.

Before Taylor could have answered for herself, it was Anya who let out another chuckle "She is fine, just unused to riding" and the general brown eyes had taken on a mischievous glint when she added in a suggesting tone "We can surely teach her to "ride"".

Taylor had blushed bright crimson once the ambivalence of the general's words fully registered within her mind, although her throat suddenly felt horribly dry.

Lexa's worry was replaced by sudden confusion for a moment, which only lasted for the blink of an eye before her features blanked over fully.

Anya seemed to sense that her comment had not been really appreciated by the commander. She gave one of Taylor's knees a mute squeeze before she turned away from the dark horse and mounted up on her own brown steed in silence. It may have been rather bold of her to speak to Taylor about the possibility of something happening between all three of them, before consulting her former second on the matter.

Taylor's blush almost drained from her cheeks when she noticed the icy expression on Lexa's face, still feeling the warmth of Anya's touch lingering on her knee like a pleasant tingle.

There had not been much of a conversation between the two of them during the part of the journey yesterday and now that Taylor felt the sudden tension from Lexa, she felt even less likely to try and talk to the brunette. She suddenly mourned the almost carefree version of the commander she had been with in the privacy of the tent last night and Taylor wondered for a long while if she ever would see this side again. She had expected that Anya and Lexa had already spoken with each other about her, but the commander's reaction to Anya's suggestive words clearly showed otherwise.

Taylor was almost glad when she could spot what she identified as the border of TonDC later. Not a single word had been spoken between her and Lexa since their ride had begun anew and she guessed that several hours must have passed already. She recognized the scenery from the show and thus she was not one bit surprised when Lexa and Gustus dismounted the very moment they were close to the sign showing a crossed out gun.

Lexa had turned around to the members of Skykru without waiting for Taylor and the blonde doctor felt her heart sink a little. It seemed that the commander had indeed not received the mere implication of them being together well at all. She did not have time to consider what this would mean though as Anya appeared next to the commander's horse only a second later, offering her help to get down instead.

Taylor thankfully accepted the help. Although she did not feel unwell on a horse back, she was a little unsettled by the unexpected heights and not sure if she should risk jumping down and she knew the impact would definitely be very painful.

Once her feet touched the ground, Taylor was really grateful for the general's help. Her legs were wobbly and barely supported her own weight. She had to lean on the general's arms just for a moment.

"Looks like you will need the ointment tonight" Anya observed in a critical tone, this time void of any of her previous amusement.

Behind them Lexa had explained to Skykru that they were required to lay down all of their weapons before they were allowed to enter the village.

Just like in the show, Lincoln was the first one to readily pull out his hidden blades and hand them over to Gustus for storage. Taylor watched the proceedings, feeling both her heart and her stomach sink when the burly guard finally searched Raven. Now that she knew what to look for, Taylor noticed how the man seemed to linger for a moment at Raven's coat as if he was being extra careful with searching through each of her pockets and the jacket seemed to have a number of them. She knew that this was the moment where the guard was slipping the small bottle of poison into Raven's things. Her instincts were still telling her to interfere with the proceedings.

Anya was looking over at Gustus as well and when the general felt the blonde woman next to her holding onto her arms with slightly more force, she turned back. She tried to connect her gaze with Taylor's. They had decided together after all that what was about to happen should not be changed and she would hold the blonde woman back if she had to.

Taylor sighed under her breath when she noticed the general taxing her. Anya was even shaking her head at her. Thankfully no one else was paying them any attention, obviously also expecting that Raven may cause trouble. The mechanic was certainly not helping with her strongly visible attitude.

Taylor did already feel bad for her though. She knew that Raven would be blamed for the poison at first after all.

Once the guard finally stepped back from Raven, having divested her of several hidden weapons, Lexa motioned Skykru towards TonDC.

Taylor felt the general protectively holding a hand against her back once they turned around as well. A small part of her was rather excited to see a grounder village; the cause of the journey mostly muted that excitement though.

Taylor did feel a tad bit hurt when the commander did not even seem to glance at her before they indeed stepped into TonDC. Her own feelings were overshadowed though by the pure aggression which met them from the villagers. She had almost forgotten how one villager was beaten for speaking up against the commander and not obeying. Taylor could understand how his grief for his loved ones made him act this way though.

The doctor looked slightly behind herself towards Anya, watching how the general reacted to the scene. The other woman's expression had been rather frustrated with the villager. Of course it was highly dangerous to Lexa if her own people would revolt against her reign because of the alliance with Skykru.

The general did not bat an eye once Gustus stepped up and started beating the man on the ground. Taylor had of course known it would happen. Skykru were clearly shocked by what was happening and Clarke quickly stepped closer to Lexa, loudly pleading the young leader to call her guard back, afraid that the dislike against her own people would only enhance because of this.

Taylor was beginning to understand though that the people on earth just thought differently about these matters. The way how Lexa would execute Gustus already proofed that. The survivors on earth had to rebuilt society basically from nothing, thus loyalty to the new form of reign was of very high priority. Punishments were brutal, but obviously lives depended on adherence, so, Taylor could understand the rather harsh punishments. She remembered from her history lessons during school that things had been comparable in earlier time points of history. She could also understand though why Skykru were appalled and taken aback by the stark differences.

Obviously a messenger had already been sent to the village ahead of their journey and a large pyre had already been prepared. So, there was no real preparation time needed now before the ritual could begin.

Taylor remained close to Anya when the general gently led her through the village to stand beside the large pyre. The blonde doctor had a large lump lodged deep within her throat. The wrapped bodies of those Finn had killed here had already been placed in the structure of the pyre and Taylor felt her previous guilt looming to crash down again.

Anya watched the blonde doctor next to her critically. The other woman had suddenly turned pale and her grey eyes had become rather glassy, staring blindly at the pyre in front of them.

Even Lexa, who had held up the image of not observing the blonde doctor, had noticed that something was off and the commander was shooting subtle gazes at the two of them every few moments. She had to concentrate on the beginning ritual though. As expected of her, the commander spoke a few words before she handed a burning torch over to Clarke who was supposed to light up the pyre.

Once the pyre was slowly starting to burn, Anya finally dared to address Taylor who still was staring ahead blindly. "Yssa" she gently placed her hand onto her back firmer, waiting for her to look over. The general was momentarily taken aback by the deep emotion which was palpable within the doctor's grey eyes.

Taylor's eyes cleared a little bit, the hopelessness and the guilt was still threatening to overpower her though "I failed…" she uttered in a spiritless tone, barely above a whisper.

Anya felt her heart bleed for the doctor's pain. Thankfully, no one was standing really close to them. The fire was crackling loudly and a little bit away Lexa and Clarke were speaking to each other under Gustus' watchful gaze.

She slightly pulled the blonde woman into an embrace "If the execution has to happen tomorrow, so, has this, Yssa" she tried to reason with her "You have not failed" she added in a sympathetic tone.

Taylor sank into the embrace for a moment; she was startled by the general's words though and suddenly at least parts of her guilt faded away against this sound logic. She gave the general a grateful smile when she stepped out of the embrace again. She looked over to Lexa next, seeing her speaking with Clarke.

"She tells her about Costia" Taylor commented in a low tone, feeling a little jealous if she was honest.

Anya seemed rather surprised by this information, knowing all too well how little Lexa actually spoke about her dead love. A smirk pulled at her lips though when she recognized the glint of jealousy within the doctor's eyes. She decided not to make a comment on it now. In contrast to Taylor she had seen after all how the commander was still keeping an eye on her every few moments. So, even though Lexa was appearing distanced now, Anya knew her too well to buy this appearance.