Chapter 12
After the shooting days were over, it was time to say goodbye. Clarke took Lexa all the way to the airport, and to avoid the paparazzi, they hugged in the black car that had driven them here and would later take Clarke back home.
Their friendship still suffered a bit from what had happened and trust had to be rebuilt, but it was very hard for both of them to have to say goodbye.
"Write me when you arrive safely."
The brunette smiled at these words.
"I will do that and write me when your term paper is done and also when you have turned it in, yes?"
Clarke nodded. "I'll definitely do that, I'm so hoping everything will come out okay." Momentarily she became nervous.
Lexa smiled at her full of confidence and trust in her.
"You will make it, I am sure of it."
Indra had already gotten out to check everything. They hugged each other tightly once again, but before Lexa was about to get out, Clarke held her back once more.
"Please come visit me again soon. Okay?"
3 months later
Clarke was still writing her term paper, sometimes almost despairing and sometimes finding herself and her ideas really good. Either way, Lexa was her first point of contact. The brunette had gotten a sense of when the blonde needed her. They spoke regularly on the phone and wrote to each other. Lexa would write to her during short breaks in shooting or before she went to bed, sometimes they would talk on the phone until one of them fell asleep. Lexa told about her day, which was sometimes more or less exhausting, depending on how many hours they were shooting, about Indra who was constantly watching over her and about Titus who was watching her with a stern face and who was always teaching her the same lessons. Love is weakness. Trust no one but yourself. Hearing it over and over was tiring, but she knew he was right, even if she wished he was wrong. At such moments, she shook her head at herself.
Clarke, on the other hand, would write to her during sometimes very short lunch breaks or completely overtired when she got home. Sometimes even after she had had barely 3h of sleep before the next emergency was due. In the same breath that their relationship deepened, the relationship with Niylah weakened. They had met a few more times, had had sex several times, but it was clear to both of them that something was missing and so they both decided that it would be more of a friendship, attraction or not. They liked each other and wanted to keep in touch, only there were no feelings involved beyond that. They wrote to each other regularly and kept up with each other. Niylah was dating a certain Ontari, who seemed to be pretty tough and had taken a liking to her. She seemed happy and that was all that mattered, she begrudged her from the bottom of her heart, there was no doubt about that.
Still, Clarke felt a little lonely at times, even though she was aware that she wouldn't have had any real time at all between the clinic and her technical work. She hadn't been anywhere else for almost 2 months except at home writing, in the library doing research, or at the hospital working. She lacked private contacts, but how could she reconcile everything? Her future was more important than anything else and so Octavia had had to force her to get out of the house and finally she had found a good argument.
"Oh my god Bell! I'm so happy to see you!" Clarke beamed all over her face and then wrapped the young man in her arms. O`s brother had been back in town for a while, they hadn`t seen each other in a while and the two siblings had missed each other terribly. Bellamy, or Bell as everyone affectionately called him, was a tall, tanned man with somewhat wispy black hair and a mischievous smile. Octavia had asked Clarke if the 3 of them wanted to do something to celebrate old times, after all, they had all known each other for several years. Bellamy Blake had automatically become a part of their lives when Octavia and she had met while in college. They had all hit it off right away and spent as much time as they could back then. Whenever her big brother had visited, they had gone out to the water together, partied together, had movie nights, or even gone paintballing.
After finishing their studies, the real working world had just begun for the two friends; they had both looked for an apartment in the city because they had started at Arcadia Memorial and they simply felt comfortable here. Bell, on the other hand, stayed in his old hometown of Polis to finish his training as a police officer and then to complete another one as a counterterrorism specialist. They were all happy with their lives, but they still missed the old times and so the joy was huge every time they could see each other. The two of them were simply her best friends, she loved them dearly.
With a big smile, the three finally stood in front of each other and hugged.
"Let's go celebrate!" exclaimed O and the other two laughed.
"What you really meant to say is, let's go get drunk" their brother replied laughing.
O` merely shrugged and laughed, the other two did the same and eventually they ended up at a bar. They ordered round after round, talking about the past, the present and the future. Finally Octavia had to step outside for a moment, she wanted to make a quick phone call to Lincoln because they had forgotten to discuss something for tomorrow. O' had had her first date with him when the incident between Clarke and Lexa had happened on the beach. After a few dates, she had found him to be more than good and had been gushing about him almost non-stop ever since. even though it was slowly coming back out to both the blonde and Raven's ears, they were happy to see Octavia like this.
Bell turned to Clarke, taking advantage of the time where the two were alone.
"Listen. I need to ask you something." He looked deeply into the blond's eyes, which returned the look. He looked nervous and hesitant, normally brimming with confidence no matter what it was about, whether it was during duty or dealing with women, but this time was different.
"If I wasn't already a little buzzed, I would never ask you this, but actually it's been on my mind for a long time. I...wanted to ask you if you would go out with me?"
Clarke was visibly surprised; she had never suspected anything along those lines. If she hadn't been drinking so much herself, she probably would have reconsidered whether it was a good idea to put a long-standing friendship at risk, but so she answered his question in the affirmative, which he accepted with relief and a smile.
The blonde went outside, where Octavia had just finished her phone call and told her everything, the latter didn't seem very surprised.
"Yeah, he's had the hots for you for an incredibly long time."
"He never said anything about that."
"You know him, he's super shy..."
Clarke began to laugh. "O` do you have another brother I don`t know about? Bell and shy?"
"When it comes to you and asking you out, yeah. He's such a nice guy. Sure he gets on my nerves sometimes, but he's always there for me, plus you guys have known each other forever, so you'd know what you were getting into." There was something sly in her grin now. "If nothing else."
Clarke groaned and gave her best friend a pat on the shoulder. Finally, they went back inside, not wanting Bell to be alone for too long.
The mood remained boisterous and the blonde was looking forward to her first date with the young man she had known for as long as she could remember now, but she also knew she would take it slow.
After a night of drinking, she took a cab home, almost falling asleep several times in the car, so tired was she from dancing and drinking. She was just happy and all the worries about her technical work were forgotten for a few hours.
She unlocked her front door and staggered in lightly. She quickly turned off the light she had turned on, it was just too bright and her ears felt numb and she felt herself at least 10 years older. It had been far too long since she had been up all night partying. She undressed and lay naked in bed. She picked up her cell phone from the nightstand, which she had put there earlier, and unlocked the screen. 1 missed call from Lexa. She looked at her messages, the brunette looked worried. Maybe she shouldn't have sent her a drunk voicemail.
>> By now it's pretty late. Did you get home okay? I know you are celebrating and I don't want to disturb you, but could you call me back when you get home? Anytime. In your voicemail you sounded pretty drunk and it's been a few hours now. Just so I know you're back safe and sound, despite the alcohol.<<
She dialed the video function and after the 2nd ring, a sleepy Lexa answered the call. Clarke didn't understand why this one was blushing.
"Um Clarke."
"Hmm?"
"Could it be that you're naked? At least you're sticking your butt out at me."
The brunette couldn't do much, Clarke was lying on her stomach, but if she moved even a few inches, Lexa would see everything.
The blonde just grinned. "I was hot and that's no reason for you to blush or am I the first woman you've seen naked?" With a confident smile she moved her body slightly.
The brunette was rarely at a loss for words, but she couldn't get a sound out. Briefly she averted her gaze to look concentratedly into Clarke's eyes afterwards.
"I'm glad you got home all right."
The addressed woman didn't hear these words anymore, she had already fallen asleep and so she missed the next ones as well.
"You don't know how much I miss you and I'm looking forward to seeing you again soon..."