Lexa adjusted her waterproof gear, the dark material feeling tight and uncomfortable around her shoulders. She was exhausted, and if it weren't for the rain and hail, her eyes would have closed and she would have slipped into a mini coma. The Washington had just completed a diplomatic mission on Vulcan and had just docked at the space station hovering above Earth when they received a new directive.
It was a humanitarian mission on the planet of Veridian IV. Those were often the worst ones. After a series of flooding, the humanoid species inhabiting the planet had sent an emergency transmission to Starfleet, who responded quickly and efficiently. The Washington had been the only starship available at the time of the distress signal, and thus it was them who had their boots on the wet, damp ground of Veridian IV.
Lexa, due to her philosophy of leading by example, was first to beam down from the ship and onto flooding farmland. After a rapid assessment of the conditions, she took the divide and conquer approach, and so she and Lincoln led two separate response teams to assist the farmers and citizens of the pre-industrial planet.
Her team coincidentally had set off to what would become the worst of the flooding. As they made their way through villages, helping people escape from the torrential downpour and the overflowing rivers, Lexa had to hide the fear in her eyes. What used to be a dirt road and a village square had now become a raging body of water. Gustus rowed through the village, while Lexa, standing at the stern, called out to villagers.
"We're here to help!" She shouted as loudly as she could over the rain and the raging water. Faces began to appear at the windows of huts and houses, and at Lexa's signal, Gustus rowed them to the closest house. Behind them, Anya and Ryder were similarly making their way towards a hut.
It was a powerful, frightening thing, nature. Lexa helped a young boy leap from the second floor of the village and onto the waiting boat, catching him as he jumped. His skinny frame collided into her body, and without acknowledging the slight twinge of pain, Lexa plopped him down into the boat. Gustus, manning the oars, gestured with a giant, calloused hand for the boy to join him at the middle of the boat, where it was safest.
Lexa aided next a man and his wife, and in short time the boat was filled to the brim. There were still a few houses that required assistance. She looked around to the rest of her team. Indra and Echo were helping a woman board their boat, the villager's arms wrapped tightly around her infant daughter. Everyone was soaked to the bone, and Lexa swore she felt a fish swimming around in her boot as she raised a hand to shield her eyes from the punishing rain to scan the village once more.
"I think that's everyone!" Anya shouted from her boat. Lexa waved her hand in the air to signal that she had heard her.
"Alright, let's move." She shouted back, and with great haste, her crew members were rowing away from the village and towards higher ground. Lexa sat down, squished between two farmhands, who looked at her dully. Their world, their livelihood had just been destroyed in a matter of seconds, and Lexa was hardly surprised by their depressed state.
She gripped tightly to the wooden side of the boat as Gustus rowed with efficient, powerful strokes. Suddenly, she saw something heading towards them in the water. A head was seen first, then the rest of the body, hidden under the powerful current, was raging towards them.
Heavily pregnant and with a broken leg, the woman had been swept away from her perch at the deck that she was reclining on, leading to the predicament that Lexa saw her in. The river surged with a fury, the water splashing against the rocks with a fervor, taking the woman down with it. The woman's unconscious form floated past the group of boats, just out of reach from any of the Starfleet officers.
"That's my wife!" One of the farmers shouted, his scrawny outline seen standing abruptly from Anya's boat. He looked like he was preparing to jump in after her, but Anya's hand snatching the back of his shirt managed to stop him.
"Sir, you have to stay onboard!" Anya told him, and just as the lieutenant was about to jump in herself, she heard a splash.
Lexa dove, hands leading first into the water. The instant her body was consumed by the liquid, she felt it being dragged downstream. With powerful strokes, Lexa swam after the woman, aided by the river's gargantuan fury. Within seconds, she was already 200 meters away from her team.
She heard her officers shouting, but she largely ignored them as she put one arm in front of the other to propel her closer and closer. Lexa and the woman had been swept down the river, and she no longer could hear the cries of her crew. She inhaled through her flared nostrils as she tried to keep her head above water, swimming as quickly as she could to the unconscious form before her.
When she finally was near enough, she reached out and just barely caught the woman by her limp arm. With a great heave, Lexa managed to pull her so that she was gripping her tightly with her left arm as they now both were progressing down the river at a frightening pace.
Up ahead was the gorge, and Lexa knew that if they continued being swept down there, death would be certain, and extremely painful judging by the sharp rocks poking up from the water's surface. She swung her head around desperately, trying to find something to anchor them on. Her sharp eyes caught something in her peripherals; a long, thick tree branch hung low over the river's edge.
Lexa's feet touched the riverbed, and she used that momentum to push herself and the woman closer to the edge. She scrabbled urgently with her hand, her fingers just managing to grip the branch. The current pulled at her, and Lexa tried valiantly to pull the woman up from the water with one arm. The woman weighed at least a hundred and forty pounds, and Lexa was straining hard to push her up onto the bank.
Her strength was starting to fail, her arms feeling weak, when suddenly the weight of the unconscious woman was lifted from her rapidly loosening hold. Lexa looked up at the bank, and her eyes widened.
"Clarke?" She rasped. The woman looked down at her with frenzied blue eyes, and she gave her a tight smile. A rope was tied around Clarke's waist, and a few meters away Bellamy and Octavia held the rope tightly, the line connected to a nearby tree.
"Pass her up!" Clarke shouted, and Lexa jolted from her clouded senses. With a great heave, Lexa pushed the woman closer to the bank. The other captain's hands reached down and quickly pulled the unconscious, heavily pregnant villager from the water, and once she had dragged her a safe distance away from the water, Clarke returned to the river's edge, where Lexa was still holding the branch, with two hands now.
"Lexa, come on!" The blonde reached out her hand, and with great effort, Lexa's free arm swung out to her. Clarke's hand gripped Lexa's forearm tightly and she began to pull the brunette up from the water.
There was an ear-splitting crack, and then suddenly the branch broke away from the main body of the tree. The crack and the pulling of the river snapped Lexa's arm out, and she let out a hoarse shout of pain as she felt the shoulder of her left arm dislocate. The water surged against Lexa's body, and she felt herself being taken down, despite Clarke's grasp on her other arm.
"Hold on!" Clarke shouted, and her feet scrabbled at the edge of the bank as she strained to pull Lexa's waterlogged body up from the river. The brunette could feel the current pulling at her strongly, and she struggled desperately against it.
There was a snapping sound, and Lexa's eyes widened when she saw the rope flair out, and then the only thing connecting Clarke to the rest of her crew was a thread. Clarke noticed, but that only seemed to make her more determined and resolute in her attempts to pull Lexa out from the water.
"Clarke-" Lexa rasped, those crucial words on her lips, but Clarke was not going to let her say it.
"Lexa, don't you dare!" She shouted back warningly. "Come on!" She encouraged her, and Lexa's feet touched the bottom of the river momentarily, and with one final attempt, she kicked off. Clarke tugged her bodily out of the water, and the momentum had them both falling onto the bank, Lexa landing on her stomach right next to the blonde.
The brunette groaned in pain as her injured shoulder collided with the ground, and Clarke was instantly at her side, examining her arm. Lexa coughed out some of the murky water that she had swallowed, feeling leaden and spent, her eyelids closing at their own accord.
She felt light hands at her shoulder, and then there was intense pain, a popping noise that made Lexa's eyes shoot open.
"Sorry." Clarke apologized as she finished resetting Lexa's arm. Clarke looked down at her with concern and relief peppering her gaze. The brunette only sighed bodily, looking half-drowned. She opened her mouth to say something, but then another figure appeared at her side.
"We've got to move, the river's overflowing fast." Bellamy shouted over the sound of the hail and rain, and then Lexa was lifted up by two sets of hands.
Lexa's legs were still shaky, but she managed to stand, albeit with Clarke's assistance. She was leaning heavily against the blonde's side as they made their way up a hill to higher ground. Bellamy and Octavia were right behind, them carrying the unconscious villager along.
When they had finally made it to the ridge, Lexa saw one of Clarke's other crew members – Miller – waiting for them atop a tarp-covered cart pulled by two draft horses. He waved them over with a nervous hand.
"Get on!" He shouted, and with Clarke's aid, Lexa swung up onto the back of the cart. Bellamy and Octavia jumped up after them, and instantly Miller snapped the reins, and they started moving.
Lexa sat shivering next to Clarke, and the blonde wrapped a thermal blanket over her shoulders, rubbing her arms bracingly in an attempt to warm her up. Clarke looked frantic and worried, and in an attempt to calm her, Lexa poked a hand out and captured one of Clarke's hands, gripping it tightly. "Hey, I'm fine." Lexa said hoarsely, her throat still aching from swallowing all that river water.
"You are not fine at all." Clarke said quietly, and she squeezed Lexa's fingers. "I'm going to have to put that arm in a sling." She tilted her head to indicate Lexa's injured left shoulder.
"Okay doc." Lexa joked to cut the tension, and the corner of Clarke's mouth turned upwards begrudgingly. Clarke draped an arm around Lexa's waist, pulling her close to keep her warm, and the brunette felt herself drifting off before the cart went over a series of bumps, jolting her out of her doze. "What are you doing here?" She said suddenly, posing the question to Clarke.
"We got called in by HQ." Clarke said. "Admiral Jaha told us that the Washington's crew was already on site, so we were doing a sweep of the more remote parts of the countryside." She rubbed Lexa's side gently.
"We totally didn't expect to see you in the river." Octavia piped up from across the cart, where she and Bellamy sat. Lexa grinned weakly, and her eyes drifted towards the front of the cart, where the villager had been placed.
"Neither did I." Lexa responded, and she leaned against Clarke, relishing in the warmth and comfort she offered. She nodded towards the villager. "Is she going to be alright?"
"A few bruises and a broken leg." Octavia reported. "As for the baby, we'll have to wait and see." Lexa sagged into the blonde in relief, and Clarke's hold tensed around her waist.
"Did you get pulled into the river while you were helping her?" Clarke asked, and Lexa refused to meet her eyes, uncomfortable.
"Um, no." She swallowed. "I jumped in after her." Clarke's jaw clenched, but before she could say anything, Octavia beat her to it.
"Hard core!" She crowed. The young woman raised a hand up in the space between them. "Up top!" Lexa grinned, and their hands met loudly.
Bellamy nodded approvingly, and he offered Lexa a small smile, which she returned. Clarke inhaled breathily through her nose, but she bit her tongue. Lexa had a feeling that she would be getting an earful later. And she was right.
Once the cart had pulled to a stop at the temporary emergency shelters that had been erected at higher ground, Bellamy and Octavia lifted the unconscious woman out to get medical attention. Lexa and Clarke were a bit slower though, and by the time they had walked into the first aid shelter, the villager was already being attended to.
Costia, who had just finished bandaging a gash on Anya's bicep, looked up when Clarke led Lexa to the cot next to them. The science officer had a good two years of experience as a medical officer until her current position at the Washington had been open, explaining her presence here as she worked on taping the ends of the gauze around Anya's arm. Costia's brown eyes examined the two captains with a practiced eye.
"What happened to you?" Costia asked as she took in Lexa's bedraggled appearance. Anya, from her cot, chuckled.
"She went total badass and jumped in after a villager." Anya brought Costia up to speed as the other woman ambled up to her captain's side. Lexa attempted to stand, but Clarke's hand on her shoulder kept her rear firmly seated on the cot.
"She was being a dick, again, is a better way to put it." Clarke said, but when Lexa met her gaze, the blonde only looked back at her with pride. Costia and Anya exchanged amused looks, and Costia patted Lexa's knee.
"I'm going to need you to take off all this." She gestured to Lexa's waterproof top, and Clarke instantly moved to reach the zipper on Lexa's back, knowing the brunette wouldn't be able to reach it.
She managed to peel the wet suit off Lexa's right side rather efficiently, but was much more careful with her left. Lexa grimaced slightly as the sleeve was slowly pulled off her arm, and exhaled through her lips when it was finally removed, planting her right hand to grip the metal railing of the cot.
Costia moved to examine her shoulder, gentle fingers pinching and feeling the joint and the surrounding muscle and nerves that had been aggravated. "How does this feel?" Costia asked as she lightly applied pressure to the side of Lexa's shoulder.
"Fine." Lexa said offhandedly, and Costia nodded and continued her examination. Her fingers brushed a particularly painful and swollen muscle, and Lexa winced. She closed her eyes briefly in pain, then she felt slender fingers gently pry her hand away from the railing. Lexa smiled and opened her eyes, and Clarke returned the smile, squeezing her hand reassuringly.
"Who knew Lexa was such a baby?" Anya commented from her cot, and Lexa shot her a glare. Clarke and Costia chuckled, and Lexa raised an eyebrow at both women. Clarke gave her a lopsided grin.
"It's okay babe, we all know you're not really." Clarke reassured Lexa, a hand on the other woman's thigh.
"I'm going to kill her." Lexa huffed under her breath, and Clarke laughed before moving closer and placing a chaste kiss on Lexa's lips. The kiss, while quick, conveyed the fear that Clarke had felt, all the words that had not been said, and Lexa's entire frame loosened significantly.
"Kill her later." Clarke whispered into the brunette's ear, and Lexa quietly chuckled. Costia smirked and winked at Anya as they both watched the exchange.
"Alright, you're all good." Costia said finally, adjusting the sling comfortably. She patted Lexa on the knee gently. "Just don't push yourself, and I don't want to see you without that sling until next week." She added sternly.
"Got it. Thanks for this." Lexa said as she stood on wobbly legs. Clarke immediately was at her right side, a sturdy arm anchoring her securely. "Once you finish patching up, get ready to head back up." She nodded to both Costia and Anya.
"Yes Cap." Anya saluted Lexa, with a smirk playing on her lips.
Lexa rolled her eyes at Anya's antics, but let it go when she felt Clarke squeeze her waist. "Let's go check on the others." Clarke suggested, and Lexa did not even attempt to fight the suggestion. Instead, she allowed Clarke to lead her out of the shelter with a firm hand.
Once the two captains had disappeared from sight, Costia turned to Anya with an open hand. "Pay up, told you Lexa's the whipped one." Anya groaned.
"I was hoping you missed that." She grumbled, but reached into her pockets regardless.