AN: Good news! Inspiration suddenly struck and now I have the next two chapters pre-written. I'm really excited to share them with you all! The next few chapters will cover season 2. Bad news! This chapter is rather short.
The Abigail was big, but with so many extra passengers, there weren't enough rooms for everyone. Madison is about to make Nick and Chris bunk together, which is about as awful of an idea as Elyza has ever heard. A druggie and a grieving, angsty teenager in one room? Oh, and don't forget about the corpse that he's grieving over.
Alicia rolls her eyes, "Mom. That's just stupid. I'll bunk with Elyza." Good lord, if Strand wasn't busy driving the boat right now he'd be rolling his eyes out of his skull.
Madison tries to hide her horror at the idea of it, but Elyza can see it clear as day. "But honey, she could bunk with Of-"
Daniel is already opening his mouth with a scowl. Of course there's no way he'd give his dear daughter any less than the best. Plus, Elyza didn't wish to intrude on Ofelia's space, it made her uncomfortable to do so especially after so much time she'd spent alone with the time after the Praimfaya and the last year added together.
Alicia beats both Elyza and Daniel to the punch. "There's no way I'm letting anybody sleep out here on the windy deck and Ofelia needs to heal." Then, before Elyza can really understand what's going on, Elyza's wrist feels like it's on fire because Alicia has grabbed it and is dragging her until they are in the cabin, and closes the door behind them. Alicia storms over to the bed and flops face first on one of the twin beds.
Elyza shifts on her feet. She can't feel awkward about this. Bashedness was never her thing with Lexa as Clarke, and Elyza certainly wasn't about to start. "Babe, if you were words on a page, they'd call you fine print."
Alicia slowly sits up until she is kneeling on the bed. She is silent for so long Elyza starts to wonder if perhaps she is just going to ignore Elyza's words. "Will you ever stop using those stupid pickup lines, Elyza?" The room is dark and the shadows make it hard to see with just moonlight filtering through the porthole to light Alicia's face, but Elyza can swear Alicia is suppressing a smile.
"No way. I know you love 'em", Elyza answers confidently. I mean, who could really hate words that were so sweet even if they were cliche and sappy? The type of words that she never got to say to Lexa. This time there really is no response. Alicia was probably just speechless. Elyza smirked at her victory. Trudging over to the bed and unlacing her boots, Elyza climbs into bed.
It is as Elyza is drifting off and barely awake under her covers when the words sound out in the room. "...And you."
When Elyza awakes the next morning she is sure she was in a half dreaming state and must've imagined it out of fatigue or perhaps had dreamed it up entirely.
-0-
Elyza really doesn't care where the boat is going to be honest, even if it's Mexico. She should care more, but she has her weapons and the only reason why she was here was that some part of her didn't want to leave it up to chance whether Alicia survives or not. That is exactly the reason why Elyza practically paces a hole in the floor the entire time that Alicia is gone with Chris, Nick, and Daniel. What if Alicia dies out there without her? She's not Lexa, but that girl made her worried in a way that was not entirely different from the hours preceding Lexa's fight with Roan.
Her heart leaps into her throat when Alicia finally climbs off the boat covered in blood. Elyza wants to rush forward, check if she's okay, but Elyza Lex doesn't present her vulnerability, and everyone is on deck at that exact moment. Plus, Alicia is already picking a fight with Strand. "They're a liability, the boy is sick."
Inwardly, Elyza agrees with Strand. The more people, the more liability. It's obvious Alicia isn't having it though. "Fine, fine they won't come to Mexico, they just need some medicine, a place to stay for the night." It is as if something has snapped inside Alicia, something that didn't before and Elyza knows she has experienced something that she cannot go back on.
When Madison steps forward to calm her down, Alicia all but explodes in fury and rage that reminds Elyza too much of Lexa. "LOOK AT HIM! HE'S DYING!" Elyza is half proud, half scared of how much Alicia is growing to become more like Lexa. So much so that her head starts to fill with images of Lexa until she can't take it and climbs up the stairs away from the rest of the group to the common area inside. There is nothing she can do there to help anyway.
It is after they have gotten the woman and boy settled that Alicia comes and silently sits next to her, looking outside at the darkening sky without a word. Her hands are shaking and blood cakes her skin and clothes. She tries to mask it by clasping her hands together but Alicia is so physically alike Lexa that it is easy for Elyza to tell, because Clarke had memorized all of Lexa's small subtle tells.
"You wanna talk about it?" Elyza says after a while. She isn't quite sure what to do. Alicia wouldn't want to be comforted and coddled like a child, and she certainly didn't need it.
She shifts in her seat until she's facing me. The blood caked on her face is hauntingly familiar. "They're not really alive are they?"
Elyza finally understood her hesitance. The walkers were once people too. She wouldn't like Elyza's answer and she's not going to lie to her. "It gets easier. It either becomes a thrill or you get used to combat."
She nods, swallowing hard. I can tell it's not the answer she wanted, but she accepts it all the same.
"You should shower, it'll help", Elyza suggests. It always helped Elyza anyway. That is whenever she could get one.
Alicia raised a brow, "Are you suggesting to a girl that she stinks?"
Elyza laughs because there she is, the Alicia that she has come to know these last few weeks. "Or maybe I just want to see you in a towel", Elyza retorts. It's not even a bluff because no matter if this is Alicia or Lexa, she is hot and anybody who can't see that is probably blind.
Alicia wrinkles her nose. "Ew you perv, get away from me." She gives me a playful shove before she walks off to the showers. Elyza looks out at the dimming sky again before retreating to their cabin to clean her guns again. There's no harm in being a little more thorough and cleaning them again. It's also a good way to get her mind off of things. Elyza finds it is better not to give herself downtime to think at all, given the past that comes to haunt her every time she does.
Elyza learns quickly that this is a mistake because she doesn't notice the footsteps approaching until Alicia actually opens the door and steps in. She closes the door behind her as Elyza looks up and does a double take. She is actually in a towel. Elyza was 100% not expecting her to actually do it when she had said that. Both of them knew Alicia could've easily gotten dressed in the actual bathroom.
"Now who's tongue-tied?"she says with a small smirk as she grabs a spare change of clothes. Elyza just gaped at her exposed collarbones and arms. Her skin is different. Less scarred, less muscled, the tattoo on her arm is gone and instead has a pattern of ink on her wrist. Her legs seem to go for miles and miles.
"You mind turning around so I can get dressed?"she asks, amusement evident in her voice.
Elyza obliged and turned around. "You know if you wanted to show me more skin you could've just asked me to come with you into the shower."
"I bet you would've loved that wouldn't you?"Alicia answers. "I'm done." Elyza turns around to Alicia in a comfortable t-shirt and flannel pants. It is somehow almost even more attractive the casual way that her hair drapes over her shoulder.
"Yes, in fact I would, if you're offering." Elyza gives her a sly, lopsided grin that radiates confidence.
Alicia flushed at that. "Somebody getting shy? Are my pickup lines getting to you?" Elyza continues, a new wave of confidence brought on by how her line affects the girl.
-0-
Elyza noticed Alicia talking on the radio. Of course she noticed. They were on a cramped ship and the only one that she really cared about was Alicia. Not to mention the fact that they shared a room. It just hadn't been any of Elyza's business. It wasn't like she was really anybody to Alicia other than a friend. It wasn't her place.
Which was why when Connor's lackeys hold them hostage on their own boat and that one dude, Jack (that makes Elyza's blood boil) puts his hands on Alicia, Elyza is ready to kick herself in the shin for not realizing earlier what was going to happen.
As Alicia binds my hands, she leans in and murmurs into my ear, "I'll be okay." It is the strangest thing to ever hear from her. She's not reassuring me that I will be okay and instead telling me not to worry? Why?
It is a small consolation that Alicia seems confident in her actions as Jack takes her away. Elyza pushes away the small voice in the back of her head that wonders if this confidence will bring her to something dangerous just like Lexa's confidence did. Elyza just wishes she could do more for Alicia.
Elyza is too worried to be embarrassed at being saved by Nick's return.