A/N: Happy Valentines Day! Or Singles Awareness Day! LOL Regardless I hope everyone has had a good day!

Did not mean for such a long delay, but between the holidays, then getting sick, then switching departments and subsequently days off at work, it's been an adjustment and sapped my motivation. I'm making a vow to myself to try and update more often.

Chapter 45

Lexa looked at the large building in front of her, taking a minute to take a deep breath. This was it. The start of her life as a detective. She'd wanted this for so long, she had a hard time believing it had actually happened.

After one more deep breath, she made her way up the steps and into the building. The door closed behind her and she was surprised to find a spacious lobby that was decorated nicely. Her old station was always noisy no matter the time of day, so the quiet in the room was jarring. The only inhabitant in the room was the lone desk sergeant.

"Can I help you?"

Gathering herself up, Lexa made her way over to the desk. "I'm Lexa Woods, I'm supposed to be starting today."

The woman behind the desk gave her a smile. "Welcome Detective Woods. Chief Pine told me to expect you today. I'm Sergeant Black. Let's just get you signed in," she said pushed a clipboard towards Lexa. "Once you get all set up, you'll get a keycard you'll just scan as you enter and exit, but for now, just sign and date on the next available line."

Lexa was a little surprised at first but shook it off quickly. Her old station didn't have anything like this. It was probably wise though, to keep track of those coming and going. For a host of reasons. She filled in the lines quickly.

"Alright, if you want to just take the steps behind me," she threw a thumb over her shoulder. "Your team is on the second floor, second door on the right will lead you into their bullpen."

"Thank you," Lexa spoke with a tiny hint of nerves.

Heading for the stairs, she climbed them quickly and found the door she was told about. She could hear the chatter inside as she opened the door, but it was quickly silenced when the group noticed a stranger enter their inner sanctum.

"Um hi," Lexa gave a little wave. She didn't get a chance to say anything more as another woman entered the bullpen from the connected office.

"Woods I presume? Sergeant Black notified me you were on your way up." The woman held a hand out to Lexa. "I'm Chief Anya Pine."

Lexa took her hand and gave it a shake. "Lexa Woods. Thanks for taking a chance on me."

"No need to thank me. As I hinted during our first phone call, I knew who you were before you even called."

Lexa was taken a little aback. She remembered their call and how the Chief knew of her work in D.C. But it sounded like she knew more than just a passing mention.

"Let's head into my office and I'll explain. We'll get your paperwork started. I'll introduce you to all these monkeys later."

Lexa heard an indignant 'hey' from one of the young men in the room. She was pretty sure she'd seen him before, but she couldn't remember where.

The Chief just smirked at her before turning to the man in question. "Not like you don't know I already call you guys that."

"Whatever Chief. Get her all set up, we'll be waiting patiently," came another voice from a woman this time.

Lexa followed the chief and took a seat in front of her desk. She heard the other woman close the door behind them. Once she was behind her desk, she slid a paper across her desk. "Most of the paperwork we need to have you fill out is digital. This page is one we keep a hardcopy of just in case. It's mostly just your personal information and who to contact in case of emergency."

Lexa took the paper and the clipboard that Anya had slid her way and looked the paper over. Pretty simple stuff.

Anya took a seat behind her desk and gave her newbie a few minutes to start on the paper in front of her. "So, as I stated, I knew who you were. I also knew how Gustus had been impressed with your work on that kidnapping case. If I had known you were going to be moving out here, I would have reached out to you first," Anya started.

Lexa looked up from where she had been writing in her new address. It felt good to write Clarke's address as her own. "How?"

Anya gave a soft laugh. "Gustus is my uncle."

Lexa jerked at that, but then gave it some more though. "Pine. You both have the last name Pine. I didn't even put that together."

Anya laughed. "It's alright. I wouldn't expect you too. I lived in D.C. until my teens. Then my family moved out here. Uncle Gus called me after that case was over and told me all about this young woman he had asked to help him and how impressed he was with her how she handled something. When you called, I had a hunch it was you, but I did call him to see if he knew for sure. He did a little sleuthing and discovered it was. He's upset that I get to have you and he doesn't." Anya saw the confused look on Lexa's face. "He was going to take you on after you passed your test."

"Oh, I had no idea." It was a nice thought. Knowing she would have at least had a position out there. But she was where she wanted to be now.

Anya looked through a few papers on her desk, before finding what she was looking for. "Here's your login for our system. It'll prompt you to put in your own password after the initial log in. Then here's where you'll want to go to fill out your digital packet," she pointed at the line below the user information. "Let's go introduce you to everyone and get you set up at your desk. I mostly just pulled you in here to explain how I knew you. My team only knew they were getting a new colleague, not any of the specifics."

"Is it like a secret?"

"Not necessarily. But I didn't want you to feel like they thought less of you because of your connection to my family. If you want to explain, that's up to you."

Lexa nodded, that made sense. "Thanks, Chief."

"Inside these rooms, it's just Anya. We shy away from titles in here. We're a team in here."

"Understood."

Anya stood up and waited for Lexa do the same. "Alright monkeys," Anya smirked again. "Time to meet your new teammate. This is Detective Lexa Woods." Anya pointed at an unoccupied desk. "That will be your space there."

Lexa smiled just a little at the idea that she was actually here. She looked around the room and saw most of the desks had been decorated, making the spaces their own. She looked forward to doing the same.

"The desk across from your is your new partner, Octavia." The brunette in question gave a wave. "But as I said, we do teamwork, so sometimes we might partner you with someone else here if the need arises."

"You can just call me O, everyone else does," Octavia added.

Going around the room, Anya began to point the rest of the crew out. She gave them a chance to introduce themselves.

"Indra Redwood, just call me Indra," the older woman said.

"Ash Winters, but everyone here just calls me Echo," the second woman said. Lexa looked around the room and realized women outnumbered men in the room, but none of the men looked like they minded.

"Zoe Monroe, just call me Monroe." She looked familiar too, but still it escaped Lexa.

"Roan King, Roan is fine."

"Nate Miller, we've actually met. Under less fortunate circumstances." It was then Lexa remembered. Miller and Monroe had been there when Clarke had to identify her father's body. "Hopefully, we'll give you a better memory of us."

Lexa gave a soft smile. "I'm sure you will."

"We have one other member, Murphy, but he's currently out. He's a bit of a chameleon so we use him for a lot of our undercover assignments," Anya finished. "Now get back to work everyone," Anya sounded serious, but the smile on her face told another story.

Everyone sat down at their desks, but the chatter Lexa had heard earlier continued. Octavia came around to Lexa's side to make sure she could get into their system and helped her navigate it to find what she needed. She set up her password, to anyone else it would just look like a string of numbers, but it was actually the date she met Clarke and then Avery's birthday.

"So, Anya said you came to us from D.C. Why the move?" Octavia asked. Lexa noticed this has peaked the interest of everyone else in the room.

"My fiancé's family lives here. She decided it was time to come home, so I came with her." It was a basic truth. But she didn't know these people well enough to share the whole story yet. Still as the conversation began to flow, Lexa knew she's probably come to like this rowdy group.

~CL~

Clarke spent most of her morning bouncing between the ER and the OR. It was beginning to feel like every accident that could happen was happening. It was well into the afternoon before Clarke had the opportunity to walk away. Calling to the a few of the nurses, she let them know she was going for a walk and to page her if they needed her.

She made her way quickly out of the hospital and towards the clinic next door. She just hoped Margie was available. Of course, luck wasn't on her side, and she was informed that the other woman was currently with a patient. "You can wait if you'd like. She doesn't have another appointment for a little while."

Clarke took that for what it was and sat down in the waiting room. It was a good fifteen minutes before she saw the other woman walking out with her patient. "Remember, rest that foot," Margie called as the patient headed out. "Clarke, what a surprise."

"Hey, Margie. Do you have a few minutes to talk?" The older woman nodded and led Clarke towards her office. The two sat down and got comfortable. "So, if that offer is still open, I'd like to take it," Clarke started.

"Of course, it's still available," Margie smiled. "I was holding off looking for anyone else until I had your answer," she admitted.

"Good, I mean that it's available. I've had a lot of time to think about it and time to talk it over with my fiancé. I really want it."

"We'll be excited to take you on," Margie smiled. "We need some more young blood around here." Clarke knew what the older woman was getting at. While she was pretty open to new methods, some of the others didn't adapt to change as well. "And fiancé?"

Clarke smiled and pulled the chain out from under her scrub top and showed Margie her ring. "Lexa proposed this weekend, after surprising me by showing up to my house." Between Clarke and Abby, Marge was well informed of her relationship with Lexa.

"Congratulations. Is Avery excited?"

Clarke laughed at that. "That girl has been wishing for this since the moment she met Lexa. Excited is an understatement. And Lexa wanting to adopt Avery is the icing on the cake."

Margie gave her a huge smile. "I'm happy for you, and Avery." Margie has always been a close friend of the family. She'd watched Clarke grown up and now Avery. So, her congratulations meant a lot to Clarke.

"So, when did you want to start then?"

Clarke gave it some thought. "I should probably give two weeks' notice. I don't want to burn any bridges since this clinic works closely with the hospital." Margie nodded, knowing that was the truth. "I will need time off in a month or two though to get married."

Margie waved a hand. "That's fine. We're pretty flexible around here."

The two women chatted for a while longer as Margie began filling Clarke in on what to expect. After which Margie showed her around the building. She met a couple of the nurses, but she'd have to wait to meet the other doctors another day. Still, she knew she'd like working here.

The Chief of Surgery on the other hand wasn't happy about her leaving, but he understood. He knew her mother pretty well and could empathize when Clarke explained why working there was so hard for her. She left his office feeling like things were going to be okay.

~CL~

Clarke made a mad dash into the house. Here she'd been worried Lexa might not make it home in time and instead it was her that barely had enough time to change close before they had to leave for Avery's school.

"Hey, babe," she greeted as she planted a quick kiss to Lexa's lips before running up the stairs.

Lexa turned to Avery and they both burst out laughing. Just minutes before Clarke had come running through the door, they had been discussing if she'd make it.

Seven minutes later, Clarke came running back down the stairs. "Alright, let's go, let's go." She swung the keys on her finger and headed for the door. Avery and Lexa just laughed and followed her out to the SUV and climbed in.

By the time they'd made it to the school, they had a few minutes to spare, so they took a seat in the chairs outside the room that would be Avery's classroom this year. Each family had a set time to meet the teacher, but then there were also activities around the school to get kids excited about starting school again.

They saw a couple with a little boy walk out the door, before a woman popped out behind them. "Avery Griffin?"

"That's us," Clarke exclaims as she stands up and holds a hand out to Lexa. The trio follow the teacher into the room and take a seat to the chairs pointed out to them.

"Hello, I'm Mrs. Addison," the teacher introduced herself. "This is my first year in this school, but I did teach at another school for five years."

"Nice to meet you." Clarke held out a hand to shake. "I'm Clarke Griffin, and this is my fiancé Lexa Woods," she introduces them. "And of course, Avery." Clarke put a hand on Avery's head and ruffled her hair just a bit.

Avery smacked her hand away and glared at her, but her eyes were smiling.

"It's good to meet you all. Now down to business," Mrs. Addison looks down to her checklist, so she doesn't forget anything with any of the parents. "As you are a returning student your paperwork should be all filled out, but I must ask if you need to update anything?"

"Actually, yes, we do. I need to change her emergence contacts," Clarke started. The teacher handed over a blank sheet she had prepared. Clarke took it and began filling it out. She listed herself and then on the second line, she began filling in Lexa's information.

"You're putting me as second contact?" Lexa asked when she noticed what Clarke was writing. "Instead of your mom?"

Clarke gave her a grin and touched her shoulder quickly. "Of course, you're second. You're Mama now." Clarke turned back to the teacher. "We were doing long distance for a while but Lexa is finally home. We'll be doing a formal adoption soon," she explained.

"I see. Well, congrats to your family then."

"Thank you. We're very happy," Lexa answered for them. She'd have to get used to speaking up for their family unit.

Once everything was filled out, Mrs. Addison began telling them some of the things that would be on the lesson plan for the year and the few field trips that had been planned if they would like the volunteer as a chaperone. They left the room feeling like Avery was going to have a good school year.

They headed for the gym where some games had been set up. As soon as they were through the doors, Clarke heard a shout she'd recognize anywhere.

"Avery, come help me," Tommy yelled as he grabbed Avery's hand and pulled her over to where they were throwing balls to knock down a stack of blocks. There were even small prizes set up for the winners.

Clarke and Lexa followed behind the duo and discovered Trish not far away in the bleachers. Making a mad dash for her, she reached out and took the baby from her mother without even asking. "Layla, I missed you," she smiled down at the baby who was staring at this person now holding her.

Trish laughed. "You just saw her yesterday."

Clarke gave her a look as if to say 'so,' before giving the baby some snuggles. Lexa just smiled at her and took a seat next to Trish and turned to watch the kids. She could get used to family nights like this. That was for sure.