A/N: I did not realize it had been so long since I updated. Wow I so didn't mean to leave it that long. I'll try not to again, I just have such a hard time making myself write these days but I do want to finish this story as much for myself as for those that are still reading it.

Chapter 24

Monday morning came much quicker than any of them were ready for. Clarke had set an alarm the night before just to be sure she was awake in time to get Avery ready for school, but of course she was awake almost ten minutes before it was due to go off. She deactivated the alarm before it could go off but didn't get up just yet.

When she decided it was time to get up for real, she made her way across the hall and entered Avery's room. She moved to the bed and sat down on the edge. She ran a soft hand through the girl's blonde locks. "Avery, sweetie, time to get up."

Avery groaned and tried to roll away, which made Clarke laugh. "Come on, you need to get up and get ready for school."

"No, sleep," Avery mumbled as she tried to hold on to sleep.

"Sorry, little one. No more sleep. If you get up right now and jump in the shower, I'll go start on breakfast."

"Pancakes?" Avery asked, trying to force her eyes to stay open.

Clarke smiled and nodded. "If that's what you want." She hadn't made pancakes for her daughter in far to long. Avery always said she preferred Clarke's over anyone else's because they were so thick and fluffy. Clarke tended to believe however it was because her's soaked in the syrup giving Avery even more sugar.

Avery jumped out of bed and ran for the bathroom. Clarke took that as a cue to head down to the kitchen and get started on breakfast. She turned the coffee pot on first though, she was going to need it and she knew her mom would also be up soon.

She placed a pan on the stove and turned it on to let it warm up while she mixed up the batter. She'd learned from her father that letting the pan heat up first was the secret to not burning the first pancake. He'd taught her so much about cooking, it made her sad he wasn't here to teach her any new secrets he'd learned.

Grabbing the stuff out of the cupboard, she started mixing up the batter, before deciding to add a little more in hopes that maybe her mom would decide to eat something if she fixed it. She laid three plates out on the table in an attempt to be optimistic.

Just as she was setting the stack of pancakes on the table, Avery came bouncing into the room with her bookbag in hand. She hooked it over her chair before taking a seat and digging into the stack. "Is grandma going to eat with us?" she asked, noticing the extra plate.

"I hope so," Clarke told her. In fact maybe she'd try even harder. Clarke made her way to her mom's room and knocked on the door. She was pretty sure the other woman was awake, just not ready or willing to get out of bed yet.

"Mom, I cooked breakfast," she called through the door. "Avery was hoping you'd eat with us before I took her to school." Using Avery might have been a little underhanded, but she really hoped they'd get her mom to start coming out more.

If not the house would be awfully quiet with Avery in school. Clarke would have to find some way to occupy her time if she couldn't find a residency just yet.

She made her way back to the kitchen and just as she was taking a seat at the table she heard her mom's door open and the wheels of her wheelchair making their way closer. With barely a nod in their direction, Abby poured herself some coffee and then wheeled over to the table and took her place. She took a single pancake and lightly buttered it and added minimal syrup before taking a bite.

She didn't say anything, but to Clarke it was better than nothing. At least she was here, and she was eating. Clarke would take that small win.

"You all ready for school?" she turned to her daughter instead.

Avery nodded as she took another bite. "I think so. I got all those assignments done they sent home," she answered once she'd finished chewing. "I'll get to see my friends too," she said with a smile. She hadn't really talked to anyone outside her household for weeks.

"Alright, finish eating then. I wanted to get to your school a little early so I can talk to your teacher and see if there's anything else we need to do." She also new some changes needed to be made to Avery's paperwork.

"You going to come with us too, grandma?" Avery asked the other woman.

Abby looked over at Avery like she was considering it, but in the back of her mind she was thinking about having to push her damaged body out of the house and into the car and then to go into a school where everyone would stare. She wasn't ready for that. "Not this time, sweetie."

Avery sighed, but she didn't seem to upset. Clarke hurt for her daughter, but she knew Avery was smart enough to at least in some way know why her grandmother was acting the way she was.

"I'll should be back in plenty of time to take you to your appointment," Clarke told her mother. Hopefully, with some physical therapy it would help her mom in more than just physical. If her mother could start to feel more confident in her abilities, she'd focus less on her limitations. But she also knew that was easier said than done.

The drive to Avery's school was mostly silent. Clarke wasn't used to Avery being so quiet but going back to school after everything that happened couldn't be easy. Avery was curled up in her seat with her head rested on the window. This was further evidence that the young girl was nervous.

"I'm sure Sydney will be happy to see you," Clarke tried, mentioning Avery's best friend, other than Clarke of course, according to her daughter. Sydney had called Avery a few times, but Avery had only answered once and only talked to her for a few minutes. It made Clarke sad to see her daughter so withdrawn. "Did you tell her you were coming back today?"

"I sent her a text this morning, she didn't answer though."

"Maybe she didn't get it."

"Maybe," Avery agreed. "Her parents try to keep her and her sisters off their phone until after school."

On one side of it, Clarke could understand that decision, trying to keep their kids more focused on school until it was over. She knew Sydney had two sisters in middle school, so that probably wasn't easy to enforce. The other side of it, the side that had spent so much time away from her child didn't understand it. Sometimes first thing in the morning was the only chance Clarke had been able to converse with her daughter.

"Well either way she'll be glad to see you."

Clarke parked in the visitors parking lot and walked with Avery towards the front doors. The kids were all still outside waiting to be called inside for the day to begin so she was glad to have a few minutes to talk to her daughter's teacher.

Walking through the halls, Clarke was hit with memories of her own years here. She was glad her child was attending the same school she had since it was one of the best schools in the area. Avery's teacher however was new, she was probably closer to Clarke's age.

Actually, she was quite surprised when she realized who Avery's teacher was. She knew of course that Mrs. Green was the name of Avery's teacher, but she'd never realized that was the married name of someone she'd went to school with.

"Harper, you're a teacher?" Clarke laughed as she walked over to the woman's desk. "More to the point, you're my kid's teacher?"

"Clarke, wow, it's been a long time," Harper laughed, standing up to give the girl a quick hug. "Yeah, I've been teaching here for a few years now. I didn't realize at first Avery was your daughter until I had to send out her first report card and saw your name on her file."

"Yeah she's been living with my parents while I was going to med school."

"You always did want to be a doctor," Harper remembered. She'd never asked why her student lived with her grandparents but now she understood. "I'm sorry about your dad."

"Thanks. We're still trying to digest it. It's been hard."

"I'm sure," she placed a comforting hand on the other woman's shoulder. "If there's anything you or Avery need, don't hesitate to ask."

"Thanks. Actually, I came to see if there was anything else we need to do to make sure Avery is all caught up."

Harper turned to Avery, "Did you finish those assignments we sent home?"

Avery opened her backpack and pulled them all out. "All of them," Avery said.

"Good, then you should be good."

"Alright, well you alright if I leave you then little one?" Clarke asks. She doesn't want to leave if Avery is still nervous. She knows she can't stay here all day, but she could maybe wait a little longer if she needed too.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Avery told her mother. In truth she's still trying to digest that her mother knows her teacher. That was a little weird, even for her.

"Give me a hug then," Clarke told her. Avery did as she was told, and Clarke was just glad she hadn't reached an age where she would refuse. "I'll pick you up after school." She knew Avery could get home on her own, but she wanted too, she'd missed this part of her life. She got down so she was more on Avery's level, "if you need anything, or you want me to come get you sooner, just let me know." Avery nodded.

Clarke got up and turned to Harper. "It was good to see you again, even if I was surprised. Wasn't expecting you, Mrs. Green," she stressed the name.

Harper held out her hand to show her ring. "I got married a couple years ago. Maybe you know him, he's a doctor."

Green was a common last name, but in the back of her mind Clarke tried to connect her to anyone she knew. "Monty, you married Monty."

"You do know him."

"A lot better than you would think. Ask him about it some time," Clarke told her.

"You two didn't…" Harper said hesitantly.

Clarke laughed. "Nothing like that, but we did go to med school together and then he was my mom's fellow."

"Oh, that is kind of funny. The world is small."

"It sure is," Clarke agreed. "Anyway, I'll let you get back to doing whatever you were doing. See you later, Avery."

Clarke made her way back towards the front of the school and opened the door to the office. "I'm Clarke Griffin, Avery Griffin's mom. I need to make some changes to her file."

"Oh of course," the secretary jumped up. "The principal actually wanted to see you if you stopped in, let me go tell him you're here." She took off through the door behind her.

Clarke stood there awkwardly for a moment until the door opened again and the secretary motioned her inside. "He's ready for you."

"Hello Miss Griffin, I'm Marcus Kane," he introduced himself and held out a hand. Clarke took it and gave it a firm shake. "Why don't you take a seat," he motioned to the chair in front of his desk. While she sat, he went over to a large file cabinet and started looking for something.

"There it is," he said to himself and pulled a manila folder out of the drawer. He placed it in front of her. "I'm assuming you're here to make some changes."

"That's correct," Clarke told him. "Obviously, my father needs to be taken off as a contact and I'm not even sure if I'm in her file."

Principle Kane smiled sadly at her and opened it to the information page. "Actually, you are. Your parents made us make a special contact notation in there."

"Special notation?" Clarke asked curiously.

"When they enrolled her, they explained the situation to me about your schooling. They said they understood you couldn't be place in the file as an emergency contact for things like illness or injury that needed her to be picked up as you were to far away. But if it came down to something where you wouldn't need to be physically present to handle, we could call you if we couldn't get a hold of either of them."

Clarke had no idea they had done that. They'd never told her. She was glad they had included her though.

Kane pulled out a new contact sheet for Clarke to fill out. "Here's a new sheet so you can change what needs to be changed," he told her as he slid it across the desk.

"I've moved back home and with my mom in the condition she's in, I'm now going to be her primary contact," She told him as she picked up a pen and started in on the page. She copied over all the information that would be the same, including leaving Abby's work number just in case. "She won't be working for a while, but I don't know what the future holds," she told him.

"I understand, you can always make changes later if you need too."

Clarke finished the page and was about to hand it back to the principle when she had a thought. "Can I add a new special contact?"

"Well, um…"

Clarke could see the indecision on Kane's face. She realized when her parents had done it, there had been a special reason, but now maybe not so much. Still she had to try. "It's just my girlfriend had to go come to D.C. but hopefully she'll eventually be living with us and be a regular contact," she explained.

"I guess that will be fine," he conceded.

"Thanks," she smiled. She quickly added Lexa's name and number, then handed the page back. "That should do it then."

"Well it is good to finally meet you Clarke. I don't know if you knew I was a friend of your father's?"

Clarke was stunned because she didn't know. "No, I didn't."

"Yeah, we've known each other since we were kids. We only reconnected the last couple years though. He talked about how proud he was of you all the time."

Clarke could feel her eyes fill with tears. "Thanks. That means a lot to me. I should let you get back to work."

"Of course. Hope you have a good rest of your day."

Clarke could only nod as she made quick work out the door. She managed to make it all the way to the car before the tears began to pour. She wiped the tears and made herself presentable again before turning on the car and heading home.

A/N 2: Sorry no Lexa in this one, hopefully she'll be in the next one but man these chapters end up going longer than I planned. Also I never planned on using to many of the other The 100 characters so their placement is never thought out, just happens in the moment but I like Harper and Kane in their roles now.