A/N: Yay finally got a new chapter written. I think I'm going to switch up my routine a little bit and see if that helps my writing and my writers block at times. Time will tell I guess.

Chapter 16

Clarke was startled awake with a hand on her shoulder. She blinked a few times to wipe away some of the sleep from her eyes to find Avery standing next to the bed. She pushed herself up so that she was supported by her elbow and looked at her daughter carefully. "What's going on, sweetheart?"

"I had a nightmare. Can I sleep in here tonight?"

Clarke nodded her head and lifted the blanket up so that Avery could crawl in beside her. She let Avery get comfortable and wrapped an arm around her. "Want to talk about it?"

Avery shrugged as she thought about it. "Everyone kept disappearing. First Grandpa then Grandma. Then you and aunt Trish and Tommy. Lexa was there but she couldn't hear me or something. I was all alone."

Clarke felt bad for the little girl. So much had changed for her is such a short amount of time. It was no wonder she was having nightmares. She was actually surprised it had taken this long. "I'm sorry, little one. That must have been scary. You're not alone though."

"I know. I'm really glad you're home though."

Clarke smiled and placed a kiss on her daughter's forehead. "Me too."

"Can I sleep in the middle?" Avery asked around a yawn.

Clarke wasn't going to lie, she had a hard time telling Avery no when it came to just about anything. Maybe it was guilt from being away from her so much. Maybe it was a need to spoil Avery because she didn't have her father. Maybe it was none of those things. It was a good thing Avery never asked for things Clarke really should be denying her. "Of course."

As Avery climbed up over her, Clarke scooted over to the edge of the bed and again gave Avery time to settle in. The little girl laid on her side facing Clarke and cuddled in close. Clarke ran her hand through the girl's blonde locks trying to lull her back to sleep.

Once Avery's breathing evened out, Clarke laid back down and got comfortable again. She was just about asleep herself when she heard Avery talking. Avery was whispering and Clarke was pretty sure she was asleep so the girl probably didn't have any idea what she was saying. Still the words themselves hit her hard.

"I love it here between you and mama. Safe."

Was Avery referring to Lexa as Mama? Had she really become so attached to Lexa in such a short amount of time? Should she be worried or was this a good thing? She had no experience with this. After Lacy, she'd never brought anyone around Avery. Not that she'd really even had any serious relationships. She hadn't had a lot of time to date while she was trying to get through med school.

She looked back and forth between both of her girls and wondered what her reaction should be. Should she just ignore what she heard? Maybe she should ask Avery about it. Or Lexa?

She let her mind circle around and around again for the next couple of hours, not able to find sleep again. When it was finally a reasonable enough time to get up, she slowly slithered out of bed, careful not to wake either of her slumbering loves.

She wasn't surprised to find her mother downstairs in the kitchen. Both of them had been early risers for as long as she could remember. Her father was more of a night owl, but he'd get up early just to spend more time with them, even on weekends. She missed him terribly. She wished so badly he was down here helping her mother make breakfast.

Instead she found her mother wheeled up to the kitchen table, she hadn't bothered with food this morning. Instead all she had before her was a large cup of coffee. "Got any more of that," she asked, pointing at Abby's mug.

"Yeah, just made a fresh pot."

Clarke nodded and headed across the kitchen to fill up a mug for herself. She really didn't feel like eating either, but she also knew she if all she had was coffee, her stomach would make her regret it. She grabbed a piece of bread, not bothering to put anything on it and sat down at the table, across from her mother. She took a big bite before taking her first drink.

"Didn't get much sleep?" Abby asked. She had not forgotten how expressive her daughter's eyes had always been. It was easy for her to see the tiredness still residing behind her blue eyes.

"No, Avery woke me up because she had a nightmare and I couldn't go back to sleep afterwards," she hedged. She knew she probably should tell her mother what was on her mind, but with everything going on, she wasn't sure if she could.

"My poor baby. She's probably so confused right now. I probably need to spend some time with her. I haven't helped the situation I know," Abby admitted. She'd apologized to Clarke, but that wasn't enough. Avery was used to her being there and she'd vanished on her.

Clarke was glad to hear her mother finally sounding a little more like herself. Not only that, but that she was willing to start coming back to her family. Maybe they'd get through this together after all, and not by themselves like she'd feared.

Still they had a ways to go to get back to where they'd been before all this happened. Not that it would ever be like it was. But maybe they could find a new normal. "I know she'd like that. She's been worried about you," Clarke told her. She didn't bother to mention that she'd been worried too. Abby had to already know that, even if she never acknowledged it.

"We probably need to figure out when to send her back to school."

Clarke looked down at the table, feeling a little guilty. "I told her she could stay home this week, but next week, she would need to go back."

"Oh," was all Abby replied.

Clarke realized then it was going to take some getting used to, having her home again. Her mother was used to being Avery's primary caregiver and now that Clarke was home she'd stepped right into making those decisions without consulting her mother. It had probably been the wrong thing to do, but she had been the one there this week doing it alone.

"I'm sorry," Clarke said quietly.

"Don't be," Abby waved it off. "I haven't been around. And you are her mother. It's in your right to make those decisions. We'll just have to get used to a new dynamic now that you're home. I still want to be involved."

"Of course. I wouldn't take that away from you or from Avery." That thought would never even enter Clarke's mind. She'd left Avery with her parents for eight, almost nine years now. She had no right to just come back in and take over completely. "We'll figure it out over time."

"Good."

Even with the current conversation, Clarke's mind wouldn't stop thinking. When the kitchen fell silent, it only brought those thoughts back to the front. She knew she needed to figure some things out and she couldn't do it in this house.

"Look, I need to get some air. Will you tell Lexa and Avery I'll be back in a little bit if they get up?"

Abby studied her daughter, trying to figure out the sudden change, but she was giving nothing away. Which was unusual for her child. Being an only child, she hadn't had siblings to talk to, so she'd always come to her parents to share her thoughts. It made it easy for her parents to read her, but not today. "Ah, yeah. Sure."

Clarke rinsed her cup out quickly and slid it into the dishwasher before grabbing her father's keys and heading for the garage. She didn't know where she was going, but she knew she just needed to get away. She drove the streets for a while with no real destination in mind, or so she thought.

When she found herself sitting outside a specific house, she knew that just maybe there was someone who was more removed from the situation that could help her out. Still it was pretty early so she didn't want to just knock, incase anyone was still sleeping. She grabbed her phone and shot off a quick text. "You home?"

The response came in quick. "Yeah, why."

"Cause I'm outside your door."

"Come in then, goof."

Clarke smiled to herself and locked her phone back up. She turned the truck off and made her way up the front door. She didn't even need to knock when the door flew open.

A little fireball collided with her leg and hung on. "Auntie Clarke! I haven't seen you forever," a dramatic voice squealed.

Clarke reached down and picked the five-year-old up and wrapped him in a hug. "Hey, Tommy. I missed you, too."

"Did you bring Avery?"

"Sorry, munchkin, she was still sleeping."

Tommy looked past Clarke and she thought he was making sure she wasn't lying, but realized that wasn't his intent. "But the sun is up."

Clarke laughed. "We have another early riser in the family I see," but she directed this at Tommy's mother who had been watching their exchange.

"Unfortunately, for me, yes," Trish smiled. She wasn't really upset about. Her brother had been the same way when he was growing up, so she'd been up with him and was used to it even years later when her son was the same way. "Also, he's been watching Frozen obsessively."

Clarke laughed at that. She loved that line of Anna's too. "Yeah, the only thing I can think of is Avery got the night owl trait straight from my father," Clarke admitted. She, too, remembered Tom had been up with the sun. "So, little man, what's going on? Don't you have school today?"

Tommy shrugged his shoulders and looked towards his mother for an answer.

"He's in afternoon kindergarten."

"Ah." Clarke felt like she should have known that and felt a little guilty that she didn't. She didn't just feel like he was her nephew, she had the title to go with it. Trish had told her when she was pregnant with Tommy that she was going to be his aunt. They were good friends and it would be confusing to the kids if Trish was Avery's aunt, but Clarke wasn't Tommy's. Clarke had felt honored. She never thought she'd have nephews and nieces.

"I'm sure you're not here this early to talk about this though," Trish started. She led the way into the living room and took a seat, signally for Clarke to do the same.

She put Tommy down and took a seat next to her friend. "No, something happened, and I needed to figure it out. I thought maybe since you weren't so close to the situation, maybe you could help me figure it out."

"What is it?" Trish asked curiously.

"Avery had a nightmare last night and wanted to sleep in my bed. She asked to sleep between me and Lexa and I let her. She fell asleep, but then she was talking in her sleep. What she said, I just I don't know."

Trish studied Clarke, trying to figure out where she was going with this, because so far it wasn't making a whole lot of sense.

"She said that she liked it between me and 'Mama.' That it was safe. I think she was referring to Lexa as Mama."

Now Trish understood. Well kind of. She could tell that Clarke was freaking out over this, but she wasn't entirely sure why. The only other time she'd ever really seen Clarke freak out over something though was early in her pregnancy when she was terrified that she would be a horrible mother.

"I mean they only met a week ago. Isn't it to soon for Avery to form an attachment so quickly? Sure, they have done a lot of bonding, but 'Mama.' That's huge." Clarke started in again. This time she was rambling. "Like should I be worried about this. I know she was asleep when she said it, but doesn't that make it even more true. Like that's how she really feels when she's not awake to sensor herself?"

Trish needed to calm her down, before she had a full on panic attack or something. "How long have you and Lexa been dating?"

"Five, almost six months," Clarke smiled as she thought back over their relationship.

"How long has Avery known about her?"

"Since the second date." Clarke wasn't sure where she was going with these questions, but it was helping her get a feel for things.

"I assume you've talked about her a lot to Avery." Clarke nodded her head. "So, she knows Lexa is important to you. She probably also feels like she's known her longer than a week. And I can tell she's special just by the fact that she's here with you. She dropped everything to be here for you, and I saw her with Avery. They love each other."

"They do," Clarke agreed.

"I'd say it's safe to say that Avery probably sees what you do. That this girl is special to you. Which in turn makes her special to Avery. Hell, I could see how serious you two were about each other. Kids pick these things up."

"Isn't it to fast for her think that way though?"

"I'd say it's slow. Don't you lesbians get married on like the second date?"

Clarke smiled at that, knowing she was being teased. Which was really what she needed right now. "I wish I had something to throw at you." Trish stuck her tongue out. "That's such a stereotype. And I'm not a lesbian. I'm bisexual."

"Point still holds," Trish smirked.

Clarke wrapped her arm around her friend's shoulder and pulled her in for a hug. "I've sure missed you."

"Back at you, lil sis."

Clarke grinned at the title. It had been too long since Trish had called her that, mostly because they hadn't talked much the past few years. The first time Trish had used it was when she'd come to the hospital the day Avery was born. Trish had the baby in her arms and she had smiled down at Clarke and told her, "you did good, lil sis." Clarke had known then she was honoring Clarke and Avery on Tom's behalf, connecting them all as family. It had hit her hard, but she had loved it.

"But seriously, isn't it to soon?"

"Can you honestly tell me you don't plan to marry that girl? That you haven't given it any thought?"

Clarke shook her head. "It's all I think about sometimes."

"So, if that's the end goal. I'd say that Avery's attachment is probably perfectly normal."

"What happens if we break up though?"

Trish paused for a moment to consider her answer. She really could understand Clarke's freak out, but she felt in her gut that Lexa was the one for her friend. She'd barely met the girl and yet she knew it without a shadow of a doubt. However, she wasn't the one that had to worry about a crushed little girl if things ended badly. She couldn't imagine being a single parent and going through that.

"Do you see that happening?"

"Well, no. But the long-distance thing will be hard on both of us."

Now Trish was confused again. "What long-distance thing?"

"Oh yeah. Haven't had a chance to tell you. I'm moving back home, for good. Mom needs me and so does Avery."

Trish grinned from ear to ear and gave Clarke a hug. "That's wonderful. I'm so happy to hear that."

"Still need to look for a new residency program, but there's enough hospitals around that should be easy."

"Well, good luck. But, back to our conversation. The distance will be hard, but I'm sure you will make it work. If you don't, you'll have three very crushed hearts. However, I don't think Lexa is the type to just walk away. If you were to break up, I could see her still being there for Avery."

Clarke had to agree. There were some many qualities in Lexa to love, but her compassion and her loyalty were major ones. Also growing up Lexa didn't really have anyone around her, so she held tight to the people she loved now. "You're right. She would."

"Just as your relationship with Lexa needs to go at its own pace. Avery and Lexa's relationship needs to go at its own pace. And they might not be the same pace. It's probably something you three should talk about though. Get on the same page about it. Make sure you are all comfortable with Avery giving Lexa that title when she's ready."

Clarke had to agree. What Trish said made a lot of sense. Avery was a very smart kid, and probably a little more mature than most, but she was still just a kid. She reacted to the world around taking queues from what was presented. As long as Avery and Lexa were both comfortable with it, she supposed she would be just fine with Lexa taking that title and that role in her daughter's life.

"Are you okay with it?" Clarke asked Trish.

Trish knew why she was asking, and it made her feel good that Clarke was considering her in this too. "I'm fine with it. I'm sure Tom would be too, if he was alive. Avery having another mom, or dad," she added, "would never diminish his role in her life."

"No, I'd never let her forget she has a father. One that would have loved her dearly."

"He really would have," Trish agreed. "Now for a much lighter conversation. How's the se…"

"Don't finish that sentence," Clarke warned with a smile. Man, did it feel good to be home.

A/N 2: Had a few comments that people liked Trish so I figured maybe I'd make her role just a little larger than planned.