A/N: Well this chapter did not go where I planned for it to go. So camping is now pushed back to next chapter. LOL

Sorry as usual life is in the way. And since I work at Walmart, work has been even more insane than usual.

But I hope everyone is well.

Chapter 34

Stepping off the plane, Lexa couldn't even begin to explain how good it felt just to be in California again. How could someplace she'd barely spent two weeks in come to feel like home already? She couldn't wait to move here.

She made her way through the terminal and followed the signs for baggage claim. Clarke told her they would meet her there. Nothing could wipe the smile off her face. It stayed on, even when she couldn't immediately see her girlfriend. She turned on her phone just to make sure she didn't have a message that she was running late.

"Lexa!" she heard an excited squeal and a small body grab onto her. She quickly returned the hug and placed a kiss on the top of Avery's head. She felt at home now. Still, she didn't see Clarke, but Trish was making her way through the crowd of people slowly. "I missed you," she told the little girl.

"Missed you too," Avery answered, not letting her go.

"Welcome back to California," Trish told her when she'd finally caught up to them and gave her a small hug on the side Avery wasn't occupying. "Sorry you get me, Clarke got stuck at the hospital."

"Well, it's good to see you anyway," Lexa smiled. She was going to spend the whole week with Trish, so she might as well start to get to know her better now. Spying her bags, she grabbed them, and Trish quickly took one of them out of her hands and led their way through the airport. With the older woman in the lead they quickly found their way back to short term parking.

"This place is huge. I'd get so lost. But you seem to know your way around," she commented.

"Luke has to go out of town a lot for work. I've spent more time then I cared to admit in this place."

"Ah." Lexa didn't know that. She didn't even know what Luke did. She knew Trish was able to stay home with Tommy though, so he had to make decent money.

"Are you okay coming to my house to wait for Clarke? I know she wanted to check in with me to make plans for tomorrow so we figured this would work best. If not, I can drop you off at the Griffin's."

"I'm fine with going to yours if that was Clarke's plan." She hadn't been to the Bennett's home yet. She was pretty sure that was the last name Clarke had given her. She knew that Trish's maiden name as well as Tom's last name was Morgan because that was Avery's middle name.

After they'd loaded her luggage into the back of the car and Avery had climbed in, Trish put a hand on her shoulder to stop her from doing the same. "Abby has been having a bad couple of days. Derek is with her, helping it through, but Clarke thought maybe it would be better if you didn't enter the house without her."

"Oh," Lexa let out softly. She hated to think what Abby was going through, but she understood what Clarke worried about. At least the older woman had her brother.

"Yeah, it's been rough. But where Abby is at right now, Derek is the best one to help her. It's probably a good thing we were already planning this trip. It might give her a little extra space to work through it."

It was sad that Clarke couldn't help her mom through this, and she knew her girlfriend was probably taking it to heart that she couldn't. Maybe this trip would be good for all of them. That they'd be able to heal.

"If Clarke was already packed, we probably would have just had you guys stay at mine tonight, but she's been procrastinating this one. I think she's really not wanting to sleep outdoors."

"Yeah, I got that feeling too," Lexa agreed. She had to hold back her laughter at Clarke's grumbles. It wasn't that bad. She'd just have to make sure the other girl had fun.

"What's taking so long?" Avery yelled through the window.

"We're coming, sorry," Trish apologized and moved to the driver's seat. Lexa followed and climbed in herself.

The Bennett house wasn't as big as the Griffin's, but it wasn't small either. There was quite a bit of space for the family to spread out. Trish gave her a quick tour around the bottom floor, the kitchen was fairly large, as well as the family room. They also had a full bathroom on the main floor and an office which Luke worked from a lot. The basement was mostly storage but could be finished someday.

Upstairs there was actually five bedrooms which was more than Lexa would have guessed. One of the extra rooms was considered Avery's since she spent so much time there, but another one was being used as a playroom and then the guest room. She wondered if they'd had plans to fill more of these rooms when they bought the house and if they still would.

Trish went back down the stairs, but Avery pulled Lexa into her room. Lexa could see how they had gone all out to make Avery feel like it was her room. She had another bed as well as some clothes and books. But what really got her was the many pictures around the room. She'd seen one of Tom by Avery's bed at home, but this room had several of him from all ages.

"That's my dad," Avery told her when she spotted her looking at one of the pictures.

"I can see that," Lexa smiled. "You pull that same face," she told her. The photo was one of Tom when he was probably just a little older than Avery was now. He had this expression that she'd seen on Avery many times.

"Mom says the same thing." Avery pulled a book off the shelf, but it looked more like a photo album than a novel. She sat down on the bed and signaled for Lexa to join her. "Aunt Trish made this for me," she told her. Lexa could see it was an album that was filled with pictures of Tom. She could see a younger Trish and even a lot of a young Clarke in them. "I leave it here though because these pictures make mom sad."

This little girl was wise beyond her years. She'd have to talk to Clarke though, make sure she knew about the album. She doubted that Clarke would ever want Avery to have to keep something like that out of sight from her.

Avery started flipping through the pages, telling her what she knew about each picture. They'd just reached the end when she heard Clarke from down the stairs. Avery ran down to greet her, but Lexa stayed there for a minute looking at the picture before her. It was one of Clarke and Tom sitting on a couch, clearly laughing. They had to have been in high school, and she was half wondering if Clarke was already pregnant then. She knew it was useless to look for signs though.

Clarke found her a minute later and Trish wasn't far behind her. "Avery told me she'd shown you the album."

Well now she didn't have to wonder if Clarke knew about it. But did she know Avery was worried about her? She didn't have time to ask because Clarke took the book, and Trish leaned over her shoulder so they could both look at that picture. "I remember this," Clarke said sadly.

Trish nodded that she to remembered that day. "I do too. You came over that day because you were worried about him."

"He always had a hard time on the anniversary," Clarke remembered. "The day his mom died," she explained to Lexa.

Trish studied Clarke, and Lexa could see there was something on her mind. Clarke was oblivious to it though. She was staring down at the picture lost in thought. When she did look up, Trish apparently saw something that gave her the courage to say something she'd clearly never told Clarke.

"That was the day he told me he was in love with you, not that he needed to, I had known it for years."

Clarke jerked her head quickly to look at the picture then back at Trish. "What are you talking about? He was not."

Trish pulled Clarke into a hug and once she released it, she pulled her to sit beside her on the bed. "Sweetheart, he was. It was why he pulled away from you when you were younger, you didn't seem interested in him, well in anyone really, I know. He thought it meant he never had a chance, so he let you go."

"I didn't… I didn't know," Clarke whispered. "He never said anything."

"I know he didn't. He was just grateful to have whatever he could, whatever you gave him."

Clarke was crushed and Lexa knew it, so she moved from her place to sit on Clarke's other side and hold her as well. She couldn't even imagine what was going on in Clarke's mind right now.

"I never told you because I knew how much it could hurt you. But now, you have someone really great," she smiled at Lexa. "Someone who can comfort you if you need it, more than I can."

Clarke couldn't really say what she was feeling right then. She didn't really see Tom like that, even by the time he died. But if he had told her, would it have changed anything? She couldn't say. Maybe she would have given them a chance, maybe she wouldn't have. At the time, she thought they were just having fun though. She wished she had known it had meant more to him. She hated to think she may have hurt him with her ignorance.

She flipped back a page in the book so she could take a better look at that face she remembered so well, but also felt like it was fading. She saw Avery in her mind more now when she thought of him.

He would have seen Avery as an even bigger gift than even she knew at the time. He would have loved their little girl no matter what happened between them. He would have looked at Avery and been reminded of her, just like she was of him. She knew that without a shadow of a doubt.

She didn't even see Trish get up and leave. She just fell more into Lexa and let the tears fall. As much as she hated that she never knew and never had a choice in the matter. She was so grateful to have Lexa there with her. She couldn't imagine her life without the other woman in it.

After a while the tears stopped, and she'd started to calm down. She wiped her eyes and then looked at Lexa with a bit of a sad smile. "This was so not the welcome home I'd imagined."

Lexa shared a smile because it did feel like she was home now. "It's okay. I don't think Trish planned to tell you either, but it's probably been eating at her."

Clarke nodded. Lexa was probably right. It was probably hard for Trish to keep that from her. She understood though why she had. Clarke hadn't been ready to hear it. She might never have been but having Lexa with her helped. She'd been her strength for so much already.

"Well I'm glad to have you here, just so you know."

Lexa smiled. She already knew that, but it was nice to hear none the less. "I'm really happy to be back with you and Avery. I've missed you."

Clarke gave her a quick kiss, and then a little bit of a longer one. "I love you."

"I love you, too."

Clarke got up and closed the book. She put it back on the shelf right where Avery kept it. Then she turned back to Lexa and held her hand. "Let's go see what everyone else is up to, shall we?"

Lexa allowed herself to be pulled up and the two headed downstairs with their arms wrapped around each other. The found Avery helping Tommy through one of his video games. "Hey munchkins. Where's the other grownups?"

"Outside," was the only answer she got.

Clarke pulled Lexa to the backyard to find Trish and Luke going through their shed. They could see some gear they'd need for their trip already laid out on the lawn. "Guess I'm not the only one not ready."

"Yeah, yeah," Trish waved Clarke off. "It's not like we could load the truck up when Luke still needed to take it to work.

"True."

"So, you already picked up the tent trailer?"

"Yeah it's parked in our driveway. Derek helped me out. You sure you're okay pulling it?" she asked Luke. Avery still didn't want to ride in her grandpa's truck, so they'd decided Luke would take his truck and pull the trailer and Clarke would drive her own SUV. She wasn't so confident she could pull that thing long distances anyway.

"Yeah, I've done it loads of times," Luke answered. He had more experience than the rest of them. He'd grown up camping with his parents and brothers.

"Ok, good."

"So, we'll come to your house early and get it hitched to the truck before we take off," Trish told them.

"Sounds good," Clarke agreed. "We'll grab Avery and get out of your hair. I'm sure we both have some more packing to do."

"See you guys tomorrow. Bright and early," Trish half groaned, half smiled.

Pulling Avery away from Tommy, the three of them loaded Lexa's stuff into Clarke's car and headed off. Tomorrow would be big day for them.