It's about noon and Raven is standing outside of Clarke's tent with a tray of food. Although Clarke and Octavia returned hours ago, they have yet to leave the tent. Abby went in earlier to make sure that they were physically and emotionally okay and Bellamy stopped by to remind O that he missed her beyond belief, but nobody else had seen the girls. As much as she tries to put on a tough-girl face, Raven has a soft spot for her best friends and she can't wait any longer to visit them.
"Hey, it's Raven. Can I come in?"
"Yeah, of course," she hears Octavia respond from inside.
When Raven walks into the tent, she notices Clarke lying on her bedroll staring into space and Octavia sitting backwards in a chair staring at Clarke. However, when Octavia turns and sees the food in Raven's arms, she practically flies out of the chair to get some of it.
Raven shakes her head at the other girl's ferocity. "I figured you two would be hungry."
"You're a saint." Octavia grabs some fruit off of the tray and sits on the ground by Clarke. "Eat something. It'll make you feel better."
"I'll pass." The blonde is melancholic, but sure in her response. Octavia doesn't like her stubbornness, so she persists.
"That wasn't a request, princess."
Clarke huffs, but sits up and takes an apple from Octavia, who smiles in satisfaction. The two girls stare at each other while they eat in silence, temporarily forgetting the presence of Raven, who has taken up residence in the chair that Octavia previously occupied.
"Not to interrupt your secret eye conversation, but I didn't just come here to bring food. I sorta missed you guys. Care to tell me about your time abroad?"
"Abroad? We weren't that far away," laughs Octavia as she breaks eye contact with Clarke and turns her attention to the mechanic.
"You see that's not something I would know. I'm not sure if you recall, but I was left out of the loop." Raven's comment may be filled with sass, but it is easy to sense the hurt behind it.
"I'm really sorry that we didn't say anything to you, but after everything that happened-"
"After Mount Weather…" Clarke interrupts, but then trails off as her mind wanders to the battle.
"You don't need to explain yourselves. I understand, really. If you don't want to tell me about what happened out in the woods, I get it."
Worrying that she'll further isolate her friend, Clarke provides a bit of reasoning. "Nothing happened. I just needed to not be around anybody, so I left. And then Octavia found me and she wouldn't let me be alone."
"You say that as if you didn't love having me around," Octavia quips.
Clarke flashes a complacent smile and then continues. "We basically spent the first two weeks talking and crying and struggling to deal with every emotion imaginable. The last week was quieter—I was trying to gauge if I was willing to come back, while O patiently waited for me to be ready."
"Don't take this the wrong way, but you don't seem like you're really ready. You know, since you've been holed up in this tent all day." Raven offers the observation lightly, hoping not to upset Clarke.
"It's not that I'm not ready, it's just overwhelming. I knew people cared, but I wasn't expecting them to be so…inquisitive."
Octavia nods in agreement while Raven rationalizes. "You can't really blame them, though. Bellamy may have told me the truth about why you ran off, but everybody else was worried that you were kidnapped by grounders or something."
"Bell told you? Funny, he used to be quite the secret-keeper." O is clearly joking around, but Raven decides to explain why Bellamy came clean to her.
"When your brother came back to camp after you two went off on your own, he told everybody that he didn't find Clarke, but he did find you safe with Lincoln." Octavia immediately looks detached, but Clarke takes her hand and brings her back as Raven continues. "When I heard that, I flipped a shit and told him why we had to go and find you. That's when he told me the truth."
"So Bellamy knows about Lincoln?" Octavia asks quietly, focusing her gaze on Clarke's thumb rubbing circles on her hand.
"Yeah, I'm sorry. It seemed necessary to share at the time."
"I get why you told him. He was bound to find out anyway." Octavia looks up and offers a small smile, signaling to Raven that it really isn't a problem.
The conversation grows still for a moment, but Clarke breaks the silence and changes the mood. "So, how's our favorite mechanic?"
"A bit bored honestly. I was on bed rest for 24 hours when we got back from the mountain, so that sucked."
"Oooh a whole day!" Octavia mockingly interjects.
Raven throws her a side-eye and continues. "Anyway, once I was allowed to move again, Wick followed me around like I was a baby learning to walk. I'm lucky I managed to escape him for the few minutes a day that I could. Don't get me wrong, he's great and all, but DAMN sometimes an injured girl just needs to go for a jog."
Dr. Clarke raises an eyebrow. "A jog? I'm pretty sure your spine prevents your leg from being in jogging condition."
"Well add that to the list of things you missed around here, Griffin. Nobody knows why, not even Abby, but my spine is healing."
"Typical. Your body is just as stubbornly determined as you." Clarke's statement forces a laugh out of the mechanic. It's the first time the girls have heard her laugh since before Mount Weather. Things are really starting to normalize.
"Aside from me being a literal walking miracle, everything's been pretty lame around here. Everybody has been really down because of you two disappearing, so I've spent most of my time alone trying to salvage materials from the Ark. It's kept me busy, but I am honestly so fucking happy you guys are back."
With that, Raven jumps out of the chair and tackles her two best friends into a hug on the ground. All three start laughing hysterically, experiencing genuine joy for the first time in a while.
Clarke locks eyes with Octavia, then looks to Raven and speaks for the two of them. "We're so fucking happy to be back."
Author's Note: Here's another short one for you. I wanted to give the three main ladies a chance to reunite.
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