A/N: So here we are with another update of this. This part is a lot less cute and fluffy than the rest of it, but don't worry, normal service will be resumed with the next part. For those asking about my other Clexa fic that I'm currently working on, you can read it over on AO3, my user name there is dreaming_wide_awake. Check it out, though it's pretty dark compared to this hunk of fluff. Read, review and enjoy!

Chapter Eight

Clarke woke up to hear strange noises and she could feel Lexa moving around in her sleep. Looking over at the other girl she could see that Lexa was having a nightmare.

"Hey…" Clarke said softly, as she tried to wake her, "Lexa…"

She placed her hand on Lexa's shoulder, causing her eyes to snap open.

"It was just a nightmare…" Clarke said, "You're okay."

She could see that Lexa was struggling to steady her breathing, taking gasps of air, which Clarke knew wouldn't help.

"Breathe slowly…" The blonde said, "Slow deep breaths…"

"I'm sorry…" Lexa finally said when her breathing was steady enough for her to talk.

"For what?" Clarke asked with a soft smile, "Having a nightmare? It's not your fault, happens to everyone…"

"Hasn't happened for a while," Lexa replied, "and trust the first time I have a nightmare in months to be when you're here…"

"Do you want to talk about it?" Clarke asked, moving a little closer to where Lexa was laying, "I find it helps me sometimes to talk about it."

Lexa shook her head slightly, her eyes focused on the stars on the ceiling.

"Okay…" Clarke replied, moving so she was lying down again, her head rested on her arm which was folded under her head, "think you can go back to sleep?"

Lexa shook her head again.

"You should though…" she said quietly.

Clarke felt her eyes starting to close again, she was still super tired, and if Lexa didn't want to talk about it she wasn't going to force her.

"It was the same nightmare I have all the time…" Lexa said quietly, "there's a car crash… fire… I'm stood watching and can do nothing about it… the car burns, and I can't move…"

Clarke opened her eyes and looked at the girl next to her. Lexa was still staring at the ceiling, though Clarke could see the tears forming in her eyes.

"And there's screaming…" Lexa continued as she swallowed hard, "always screaming… but this time it wasn't Costia in the car… it was you…"

Lexa turned her head and looked at Clarke.

"And I couldn't get to you…" she said, raising her hand slowly and tracing her finger lightly down Clarke's cheek.

"It was just a nightmare…" Clarke said, reaching across the small distance between them and placing her hand on Lexa's stomach, "I'm right here…"

Lexa nodded a little, moving closer to Clarke.

"And I'm not going anywhere…" Clarke said.

"Don't make promises you can't keep…" Lexa replied as she put her head on Clarke's shoulder and allowed the other girl to hold her as she fell back to sleep.

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

It was a little over a week before the start of the new school term, and a few days after game night. Abby and Jake were going out for a meal, Clarke teased that it was date night, something which the couple tried to do as often as they could. A few times they had actually gone away for the weekend, only after realising that Clarke wouldn't trash the house before they got back. This time they would only be away overnight, checking into a hotel for the night so they could both enjoy the night and not have to worry about cabs home or who was driving. Both Abby and Jake knew that Clarke had invited Lexa over, Abby actually suggesting it. She knew how close the two were, but she also knew from what Clarke had told her, that they had yet to take that next step in their relationship. Though Lexa was working that night at Ark Station she agreed to staying the night at Clarke's, saying she would be there when she finished work.

By 9:30 that night Clarke had run out of things to do to keep herself busy, and she couldn't just sit and watch television because she was getting restless. So she decided that she would catch up on social media, having not been on her Facebook account for close to a week. As she signed in she noticed she had near on 30 messages, and 50 notifications about wall posts. Most of the wall posts were from Finn, stupid little video's and pictures he thought she should see. The messages were all from Finn. She checked the date on the first message, it was from the day after the incident at Ark Station. It was a simple message, saying how sorry he was for acting like a dick. As she read through the rest of the messages she realised that he must have been drunk while writing some of them. By message number 15 she decided that she didn't need to read anymore as Finn laid out in perfect detail why he would be better for her than Lexa. She closed her laptop with a sigh and grabbed her jacket, deciding to walk to Ark Station to meet Lexa.

It was a walk that would take her around 30 minutes, meaning she would get there at about 10:30, with Ark Station closing at 11. Then once Lexa had closed up, they could head back to hers together. One thing Clarke hadn't thought about was how cold it would be outside. She hated walking the streets of New York alone at night at the best of times, when it was cold she hated it even more as people tended to stay indoors so the streets were pretty empty. Pulling her jacket around her she continued walking. Not long after she left her neighbourhood she heard a car pull up next to her, glancing at it she saw that it was Finns car.

"Where are you headed to?" he called out of the window to her.

"Ark Station," Clarke replied as she kept walking, "I'm going to meet Lexa…"

She was sure she could see his jaw tense up when she mentioned Lexa.

"Do you want a lift?" he asked, "I'm heading that way anyway, going to meet the boys in the factory district."

"No thanks," Clarke replied, "I actually enjoy the walk."

"Clarke," Finn said, "it's got to be close to freezing out there, seriously, just get in the car."

Considering what Finn had just said, Clarke actually involuntarily shivered, her body obviously feeling the cold.

"Okay…" she said with a sigh, knowing the drive would only take around 10 minutes.

As she got into Finns car she suddenly noticed the slight lingering smell of alcohol, she didn't know if Finn was drunk or if his car had been used for drinking sessions recently, but she just forced that thought to the back of her mind as he started driving.

"You ready for the new school year to start?" he asked, casually making conversation to pass the time.

"Yeah," Clarke replied, "I need to go shopping before the term starts though, which I'm pretty sure Octavia will be happy about."

"That girl seriously loves shopping," Finn said with a laugh, Clarke nodding in agreement, "how's it going with that guy she's with, what's his name…"

"Lincoln." Clarke replied, "and it's…complicated right now."

"In what way?" Finn asked, glancing over at the blonde before turning his eyes back to the road.

"Not my place to say," Clarke said, "you'll have to ask O."

"How's it going with you and Lexa?" he asked.

"It's good." She replied, not wanting to get into that conversation right now.

"Do you ever wonder what might have happened between us?" he asked, "I mean, if I'd met you before I met Raven?"

"I used to," Clarke replied honestly, "but honestly, it doesn't really cross my mind too much anymore because you did meet Raven first."

He nodded a little, as they pulled up at the last set of lights before Ark Station. From where they were sitting in the car Clarke could see Lexa, Raven and Octavia standing outside, talking and laughing about something. A small smile coming to her lips when she saw them all getting along so well. It had been something that worried her about the whole Octavia/Lincoln/Raven thing, because obviously Lexa was always going to side with Lincoln and she was always going to side with the girls.

Finn looked over at Clarke and saw the small smile before following her eyes and see what had her smiling.

"Did you get the chance to read the messages I sent on Facebook?" he asked.

"Some of them…" Clarke replied.

"And what did you think?" he asked in reply, his foot tapping the gas pedal as his mind started running away with itself.

"I think you were probably drunk when you wrote most of them…" Clarke replied, not looking at him.

"You ever consider how this summer break could've been different if she wasn't here?" Finn asked.

"Finn…" Clarke said, "You don't want to get into this, trust me. Just let me out here."

Clarke heard a click as the doors all locked.

"Finn…" Clarke said, "Please, just let me out."

He didn't say a word as the lights turned green.

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

While they were chatting Lexa heard a car screeching away from the lights a little further down the street, it didn't really bother her so much as it made her jump as the streets around Ark Station were usually pretty quiet at that time of night. She had spent most of the day internally freaking out about spending the night at Clarke's, so lost in her thoughts that she had given at least 6 people the wrong orders.

"Isn't that Finns car?" Octavia asked as she looked down the street.

"Yeah," Raven replied as she caught sight of the car, "and he's driving like a dick, as usual…"

They went back to their conversation again before they heard brakes screech again as the car slowed a little. Lexa looked at the car and saw that Clarke was in the passenger seat.

"Oh shit…" she said as the car turned towards them.

Before anyone else could react Lexa pushed the other girls to the side a little as she saw Clarke grab the wheel, pulling it towards her. The car slowed a little before hitting the wall of the building next to where they were standing.

"Clarke…" Lexa said, standing up and rushing over to the car.

As she made her way over she could see that the damage to the car wasn't that bad, not as bad as it would've been if it had kept going at the speed it had been. When she, Raven and Octavia reached the car they saw the driver's side door open and Finn stumble out before he started running.

"You're a dead man!" Lexa shouted after him.

"Lexa," Raven said, looking between Lexa and the blonde who was slumped over in the passenger seat, "we need to get this door open…"

It didn't take long for them to get the door open, as they did Clarke sat up. Lexa could see a nasty cut to her head, the blood running down the side of her face.

"Hey…" Lexa said, crouching down next to Clarke, "hold still…"

"What the fuck just happened?" Raven asked as Lexa did a quick check for injuries.

"He was aiming for you…" Clarke managed to say as she looked at Lexa.

"I knew he was twisted," Octavia said as she grabbed her phone out of her pocket, "but that's some fucked up shit… I'm going to call an ambulance."

"If we can get her to my car, it'll be quicker…" Lexa said as she unbuckled Clarke's seatbelt.

Having heard the noise a lot of people had come out of Ark Station, Lincoln included, as soon as he saw what was happening he rushed over.

"What happened?" he asked as he saw his sister helping Clarke from the car.

"Finn…" Lexa replied.

"He was drunk…" Clarke said, "I didn't know that when I got in the car… or I wouldn't have…"

"It's okay…" Lexa said to her, "We're going to get you to the hospital, get you checked over…"

Clarke nodded a little. Lexa looked at Lincoln.

"Can you get her to my car?" Lexa asked, "I need to go and get my keys…"

"Sure," he replied, moving over to Clarke, putting his arm around her waist as she put her arm around his shoulders, "tell Anya to close up, I'll come with you."

"We're all going." Raven said.

Lexa nodded as she rushed back inside to get her keys. Lincoln knew that she was on autopilot, what had just happened wouldn't have registered in her head yet, and when it did he was sure there'd be fireworks.

"What the hell is going on?" Anya asked as she saw Lexa rush past her.

"I need my keys…" Lexa said as she headed towards the back office.

"Lexa," Anya replied, "slow down and tell me what's going on."

"Finn just drove his car into a wall…" Lexa said, opening the office door and grabbing her jacket which had her car keys in it, "with Clarke in the passenger seat."

"Shit," Anya said, "is she okay?"

"Cut to her head," Lexa replied, putting her jacket on and walking back out of the office past her sister, "we're taking her to the hospital."

"Call an ambulance." Anya said, grabbing Lexa's arm, "seriously, will you slow down for two minutes and think this through."

"I can't…" Lexa replied honestly, "I can't slow down, I can't think…"

Anya sighed as Lexa pulled her arm free of her hand and went back outside.

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

The journey to the hospital had only taken a matter of minutes, Octavia had called Abby during the drive, letting her know what had happened so one of her colleagues at the hospital didn't call her and freak her out. Now they were sitting in the ER waiting room as the doctors checked Clarke over. Abby had arrived not long after they had, Jake was obviously with her.

Now that she had actually had time to stop and think, Lexa was pacing backwards and forwards.

"She's okay Lexa." Lincoln said from where he was sitting next to Octavia.

He watched as his sister nodded as she continued pacing, he could see her anger building. There were tell-tale signs, signs that the whole family had been aware of in the last 8 months, and right now all those signs were there. The pacing, the lack of talking, her hands were balled into fists.

"Lexa…" he said, standing up and walking over to her, "come and sit down."

"I don't want to sit down," she said, shrugging his arm off from where he'd placed it around her shoulders, "I hate hospitals… I hate cars…"

Lincoln could see what was coming as Lexa walked closer to the wall.

"And I hate drunk fucking idiots who think it's okay to get behind the wheel of a car." She concluded as she punched her fist straight at the wall.

Lincoln was thankful at that moment that Abby had taken them to one of the more private waiting areas, and they were the only ones in there, because when his sister got like this it was better that no one else was around. He didn't say a word as he went and sat back down, Octavia and Raven had obviously never seen Lexa like this and were a little shocked by what had just happened. The door to the waiting area opened and Abby walked in, just as Lexa was standing there looking at her hand as her knuckles started to bleed.

"She's going to be fine," Abby said, looking at everyone, "we're keeping her in overnight as is customary with a head injury, but she's going to be fine."

The others nodded while Lexa just stood there looking down at her hand. Abby walked over to her. As she noticed the movement towards her Lexa looked up at the woman walking towards her.

"I need some air…" she said and attempted to walk past Abby.

"Let me clean your hand up." Abby replied.

"It's fine," Lexa said, "I need some air…"

"You need to let me clean your hand up," Abby said a little more sternly, in her best doctor voice, "now."

Lexa nodded a little as Abby put her arm around Lexa's shoulder before she looked back at the others.

"We won't be long." She said to Lincoln, who just nodded in reply.

Abby took them into a small room, closing the door behind her she motioned for Lexa to sit in the chair.

"She's going to be fine, Lexa." Abby said, as she sat opposite the girl, gently taking her hand, using a saline solution to clean her knuckles.

"She should've waited at home…" Lexa replied, "I told her I would meet her there after I finished work… she should've waited…"

"This isn't your fault." Abby said, holding a small padded material over Lexa's knuckles to slow the bleeding.

Lexa didn't say anything, she just looked down at her hand.

"Clarke didn't tell me what happened," Abby continued, "I was hoping you could…"

"I have no idea how she ended up in his car…" Lexa replied, "he was driving her towards Ark Station… screeching away from the lights… he slowed the car before turning towards where Raven, Octavia and I were standing… Clarke pulled the wheel…"

"Who was driving the car Lexa?" Abby asked.

"Finn…" the girl replied, "and he was drunk…"

"Was he hurt?" Abby asked, her doctors instinct taking over from the mothers instinct at that moment.

"No," Lexa said, "at least I don't think he was… he got out of the car, and ran… so no, I don't think he was hurt. But if I see him again…"

"You can't think like that." Abby replied as she checked to see if the bleeding had slowed down, it had, and she could see that Lexa didn't need sutures.

"Are you telling me you wouldn't do it?" Lexa asked, her eyes narrowing as she looked at Abby.

"As a doctor it's my job to heal people," Abby said, "not hurt them…"

"I'm not asking you as a doctor…" Lexa replied, "as her mother are you saying you wouldn't do it…"

Abby didn't reply, she didn't think it would do Lexa any good if she did.

"Thought as much…" Lexa said, "I hope I didn't damage the wall…"

"As it's solid concrete I doubt you did much damage," Abby replied with a small smile as she wrapped a bandage around Lexa's knuckles, "do you want to see Clarke?"

"Would that be okay…?" Lexa asked, in that one moment, with that one question, reminding Abby that she was just a child.

"She was asleep when I came to see you," Abby said, standing up and holding the door open for Lexa, "and visiting hours are over, but a few minutes won't hurt."

Abby took Lexa to a private room, not far from the small room they had just been in, she opened the door letting Lexa in. The main light was off, the only light in the room coming from the small side light on the wall. Lexa could see that Clarke was still sleeping.

"I'll be right out here…" Abby said quietly as Lexa walked into the room, and she closed the door.

Lexa moved the chair which was near the wall over to the side of the bed. There was a dressing over the cut on Clarke's head, which Lexa assumed had sutures under it, other than that it looked like Clarke was pretty much injury free. Lexa sat in the chair and softly took Clarke's hand in hers, watching the other girl sleep. As she carefully lifted Clarke's hand to her lips, softly kissing her fingers, the blonde girl woke up.

"Hey…" Lexa said, "I didn't mean to wake you…"

"You okay?" Clarke asked her.

"You're the one in a hospital bed, and you're asking me if I'm okay…" Lexa said with a small laugh, "yeah, I'm okay."

"What happened to your hand…?" Clarke asked as she looked down at where Lexa's hands were holding hers.

"I may have had a small disagreement with a wall…" Lexa replied as she looked down at her own hand.

"How's the wall?" Clarke asked with a small smile.

"It's doing pretty good." Lexa replied with a nod and a little smile of her own.

"Can you do something for me?" Clarke asked her.

"Anything…" Lexa replied honestly.

"Promise me you're not going to go after him…" Clarke said, noticing how Lexa's clenched her jaw, "Lexa please… promise me you're not going to go after him. He isn't worth it."

"Okay…" Lexa replied with a nod.

"Promise…" the blonde girl said.

"I promise." Lexa said with a sigh.

"Good…" Clarke replied with a smile, "well, this certainly isn't how I had imagined spending the night…"

"Why didn't you just wait at home?" Lexa asked, never taking her eyes off the girl who was laying on the bed in front of her.

"I was bored," Clarke said with a laugh, "I tried watching television but I just ended up channel hopping, which sucks. I figured I'd meet you from work, then we could go back together…"

"We need to get you a car…" Lexa said.

"Tell that to my parents." Clarke replied.

Lexa laughed a little as there was a soft knock on the door.

"Looks like I've got to go…" Lexa said with a little smile, "but I'll come and see you when you get home tomorrow, okay?"

"Can you come and take me home tomorrow?" Clarke asked.

"Sure…" Lexa replied with a little nod as she stood up, "sweet dreams Princess…"

Lexa placed a soft kiss on Clarke's forehead before she turned and left the room.

"Rules are rules." Abby said with a smile as Lexa closed the door behind her.

"Rules suck." Lexa replied, "she wants me to drive her home tomorrow… is that okay with you?"

"I don't see why not." Abby replied, "I think your brother is getting worried about you. Octavia and Raven already went home."

Lexa nodded a little and started the walk back towards the waiting area, she stopped and turned back.

"Oh, Abby," she said, as Abby turned back to look at her, "we are going to have to get her a car you know…"

"Goodnight Lexa." Abby replied, as Lexa laughed a little and went to find Lincoln.

Lexa walked into the waiting area, Lincoln stood up as he saw her. She just walked straight over to him, he wrapped his arms around her and she buried her head in his chest.

"I'm sorry…" she said quietly.

"I'm just happy it wasn't me that you decided to punch." He said, resting his chin on her head, "and I'm happy that Clarke's going to be okay."

"I need the day off tomorrow…" she said looking up at him, "can you cover me?"

He laughed a little as he nodded.

"Oh, you know that Buick we saw the other day…" She said as she wrapped her arm around his waist, leaning into him as they walked from the hospital, "do you think it's still there?"

"The 1969 Skylark?" he asked, to which she nodded in reply, "probably, I can check tomorrow if you want. I thought you loved your Mustang."

"I do," Lexa replied, "it's not for me, it's for Clarke…"

"You've been with the girl two weeks and you're already wanting to buy her a car?" he asked with a laugh as Lexa moved to unlock her car.

Lincoln noticed Lexa stop what she was doing, he followed her eye line and saw what she was looking at.

"Get in the car." She said handing him the keys before she walked off in the direction of Finn.

"Lexa…" Lincoln said, following after her.

Lexa walked over to Finn, who hadn't seen her, grabbed him by his jacket and threw him into the parking lot wall.

"What the fuck!" Finn said as Lexa put her arm across his upper chest holding him against the wall.

"What are you doing here?" she asked.

"I wanted to see if she was okay." Finn replied, "I'm really sorry about what happened, I wasn't thinking straight… I was…"

"Drunk," Lexa interrupted, "yes, I know…"

"If you're going to hit me just get on with it already," Finn said, "its no less than I deserve for what I've done. I never meant to hurt her, you have to believe me."

"You're pathetic," she said, "you know that… and I'm not going to hit you…"

"Why not?" he asked.

"Because I made a promise that I wouldn't," she replied, "but I will say this, if you ever go near her again I will make you wish that you'd never been born, understand?"

He nodded a little and Lexa stepped back.

"Get the fuck out of here before I change my mind…" she said, taking a deep breath to calm herself down.

"Look at you managing your anger…" Lincoln said with a laugh as he walked up next to Lexa as she watched Finn leave.

"My shrink would be so proud…" Lexa replied.

Lincoln laughed a little as he once again wrapped his arm around Lexa's shoulder, as they walked back to her car.

"Well I'm proud of you," he said, "and I know Clarke would be too."

"A promise is a promise…" Lexa replied as they got in the car and drove home.

Since Costia had died Lexa had always struggled with her emotions. Always trying to keep everything she had felt bottled up. Costia's death itself had left her feeling angry, it seemed like such a total waste of a promising life, and Lexa had also felt that when Costia died, a part of her died along with her. Indra had talked her into talking to someone about it, as she didn't want to burden her family with it, though they would never see it that way. It's also why she had taken up kickboxing, a way to get all her anger out in a safe and controlled manner, which had been Lincoln's idea. She had always been very protective of the people she cared about, Clarke had quickly become a very important person in her life, and Lexa would do anything and everything that she could to make sure she was safe.