Daniel sat himself next to her at the dining table. "You can fight." It wasn't a question, or an accusation. A simple fact, a statement.
"You can shoot", she replies. It is equally as passive, a simple statement.
He turns his head and eyes her. "You might survive this. Out of all of us."
Elyza snorts at that idea. There is no guessing who will survive. Some of the strongest fighters, the people who had been hardened inside and out were the people who hadn't survived in her world. In a world where everything was going to shit, anybody could die. "It doesn't matter. It could be anyone with enough luck."
Daniel raised an eyebrow, but didn't reply and opted to excuse himself to check on his wife. Elyza got up as well, wandering the house, admiring the family pictures, the carefree world that these photos and this house conveyed. She wondered as she passed by a picture of two toddlers, probably Nick and Alicia if this world had been kinder to the person that shared Lexa's face than it had to Lexa. Then the wall ends and turns into a doorway. Alicia's doorway. Alicia is turned towards the door, as if to exit with her bags.
The ramshackle family that was the Clarks were leaving and there was no stopping that.
"Nice to see your pretty face, cutie", Elyza drawled out, tilting one corner of her lip into a smirk.
Alicia recoiled and scowled. "Don't call me that."
Elyza's reply slipped out easily, "Alright, cupcake." She leaned against the doorway.
Alicia studied her, in a way that made her skin crawl. Suddenly Elyza was afraid that maybe Alicia could see the rest of her, the part of Clarke Griffin that was in her that she struggled so hard to hide in the deepest depths of her.
So in defense she raised her eyebrow. "Ya like what ya see?"
To Elyza's delight, Alicia's cheeks flushed pink. However, she didn't give Elyza the satisfaction of a verbal answer. "How'd you end up here?"
Oh this was too easy of an opening. She pushed herself off the doorway she was leaning on, so that she was standing face to face with Alicia. "I saw a pretty girl and I followed her."
Alicia's eyes widened in reaction. Elyza's eyes trailed to her throat and watched how it moved as she gulped. "You?" Elyza asked in a barely audible breath.
"I live- I lived here, obviously", Alicia scoffed, attempting to move around Elyza.
Elyza didn't know what got into her, but she really didn't want to see Alicia leave. Part of her still thought of Alicia as Lexa, despite knowing that the chances were infinitesimal. That perhaps, just maybe, she was in there somewhere. In that moment that this thought overwhelmed her heart, Elyza grabbed Alicia's wrist to stop her. Blue eyes looked straight into green. "I don't mean that. You know I don't. How'd you end up going from that toddler in the picture in the hallway to where you are now?"
Defensiveness gave way to vulnerability. Alicia looked down at the floor and didn't look back up as she spoke, "My Dad. He struggled, just like Nick. All my Mom's energy was on them, so I grew up independent."
"Independent isn't the word I would use", Elyza murmured.
"Then what word would you use?" Elyza looks up to see Alycia staring straight back at her, green eyes that were so familiar searching her. Her mouth went dry and she had to lick her lips.
What was a good answer? Elyza had really just let her mouth fly without thinking on instinct. After a while it became clear, clearer than day what it was. "Loneliness. They were around but they didn't see you."
Alicia's wrist slips from hers. "Maybe. Maybe not," Alicia answered, and she was walking away. Elyza would never see her again and she knew she would have to let her go like Lexa had been willing to let her go like that day in Polis. She couldn't help as her eyes got misty and she watched out the large window overlooking the front. Alicia climbed into the car with her family and both cars drove off.
Clarke screamed within her, crying, sobbing, asking why she was letting Lexa go again, but Elyza stayed rooted in place. It was safer for Alicia to go, and she had no way of explaining why Alicia should stay just because she wanted her to. Just like that, she let her walk away once again.
-0-
When Elyza had wished Alicia would come back and stay, this was not what she meant. Everyone being stuck in one decent sized house isn't boding well. Elyza opts to sleep in her van instead most nights to avoid the awkwardness, and Alicia comes by with rations at mealtime. Sometimes Ofelia comes with, but more often than not, Alicia is alone. She eyes the inside of Elyza's van curiously each time, but keeps her distance. Elyza can't blame her. To Alicia, Elyza is just a random stranger that appeared in the neighborhood and didn't even live there.
Elyza almost convinces herself that Alicia hates her. Curse her perception from all her years as a mother to Madi. A normal person may not notice, but to Elyza, it is painfully obvious that Alicia is at her wit's end with Madison and Travis' bickering. The way she dawdles after handing over the food confirms it.
Elyza is petty sure it is an awful idea, but she can't stand the sour look on Alicia's face. Elyza slides onto the bench in the back and slides open the door. She pats the spot next to her and says, "Sit."
Alicia shakes her head and starts taking steps backward. "I'm not you friend, and I don't want to talk."
"I ain't gonna ask you to talk, babe. Just sit. Even I get a headache hearing all their screaming from out here", Elyza replied breezily. She shoves another spoonful of potatoes in her mouth from the tray of dinner.
Alicia looks back at the house and bites her lip in hesitation. Elyza's heart does a flip flop and she looks back down at the tray, forcing her cheeks not to go red. Then the bench dips and Elyza is aware of Alicia next to her. Elyza is aware of Alicia's smell in this space that she has been so familiar with. It is different from Lexa, making it beautiful and awful at the same time. It is more flowery, less earthy.
There is a tension in the air and Elyza's mind runs a thousand miles per hour. Is it possible that Alicia remembers? They look so alike, there had to be a reason. Even coincidences couldn't be so spot on. She looks up at Alicia. Elyza has to try, she has to know. "Jus drein jus daun." (Blood must have blood).
Alicia turns to her with a snort, "Don't know where you're gonna find juice to drain in this situation and how the heck you're gonna put juice down like a pet, but you can certainly try." It gets a small smile out of Alicia and Elyza's emotions are a war. Seeing Lexa's face smiling at her makes her want to smile too, but the confirmation that she doesn't know burns.
"You're really crazy. I thought you were, at first when you ran up to old Susan like that. Badass but crazy. Crazy enough to live in a van and always wear a leather jacket", Alicia continues.
Elyza forces a smile back. "Hey! It's practical, warm and a good fashion statement."
"Yeah right", Alicia answers. They fall into a comfortable silence afterward until Madison comes out looking for Alicia long after the sun has set.
-0-
Madison doesn't like Elyza. She certainly doesn't blame her. If a shady woman nine years older than Madi suddenly got all buddy buddy with her, Clarke wouldn't have been happy either. It comes to benefit her this time though. She may not like Chris, but at least she can look after Alicia.
When the soldiers come in, Elyza stands against the hood of the car like the two of them, but lazily. They overestimate themselves a shit ton like all soldiers. She's seen what a real threat looks like. She doesn't actually care, not until they put a hand on Alicia. Elyza has no idea where this protectiveness came from, because it was never there with Lexa. Lexa would've argued with her about it for hours on end. This is not Lexa, this is Alicia.
Knowing that, Elyza steps forward and grabs the one that touched Alicia by the wrist, twisting his arm behind him until it pops out of place, and then shoves him at one of his comrades that rush forward to aid him and they go toppling. She turns to the third with a jab to the jaw and a kick in the balls for the fourth. When the last body hits the ground Elyza stands over them, steadying her breathing and she only hears one thing from Alicia's voice. "Damn."
Whatever Chris says after that doesn't really matter. Not to Elyza anyway.