Chapter 5
“Hi.” Clarke lets out a sigh at the sight of the one girlfriend whom she’s never broken up with.
“Hello." Lexa looks amused and she doesn't understand why. "You look good.”
“Thank you.” Clarke reaches up to tuck back what she thought was a loose strand of hair from her ponytail.
“You. Not so much.” She manages to sound cool through the odd fluttering in her stomach that’s fallen somewhere between indigestion and a grade school crush.
“Well, I’ve had better days.” Lexa looks down to study her broken finger and doesn’t notice the doctor taking small steps her way.
“We’re going to need an x-ray on that finger, Lexa.” And the gentle delivery of those words surprises the both of them.
Lexa blinks, foolishly hoping that it doesn’t somehow wash away the feeling. “Okay.”
“Lexa.“ Clarke inches a bit closer, now moving past the IV that draws an invisible line between them. “I---“
“Dr. Griffin—“
And whatever spell there is between them is suddenly broken by a nurse trying to alert Clarke about the sobbing patient in Room 5.
“We need an x ray done on her.” She looks back at Lexa once more. “I’ll be back soon.”
---
By the time Clarke’s returned to Lexa’s room, she’s already gone over the X-ray results twice and the question she’s been dying to ask Lexa six times over.
“How bad is it?” Lexa tilts her head slightly to the side, and Clarke finds that her patient is still as pretty as when she left her.
“Uh. Not too bad. We just need to put this splint on you.”
She begins her work, and Lexa watches Clarke intently but it has nothing to do with her curiosity about broken bones.
“Do you have a question?” There’s an odd tension in the air between them and Clarke is afraid to remove her eyes from what she's doing.
“No. Just curious.”
“Right.” She holds her breath. “There’s a record of you being here about twenty years ago. Do you remember?”
A few seconds pass before Lexa confirms what Clarke heard her say earlier. “I don’t think so.”
“You were checked in for having a high grade fever and a sore throat.” She hopes that the details would somehow refreshen Lexa's memory.
“Ah! I do remember my parents telling me about a health scare I had when I was younger that landed me in the ER.”
“Yes.”
“Is there anything particular that I should know about it?”
Me. And then Clarke wonders what good would a memory be if only she remembers it. “No. Nothing.”
She swallows the bittersweet feeling of dismantling a precious memory before looking up to her patient again.
“You’re all good and done.” Something tugs at the center of her chest but she ignores it.” The nurse will come back in with your prescriptions and the discharge papers soon.”
“Will do, Doc.” Lexa smiles at her and Clarke wonders if she smiles at everyone this way.
“Do you have a ride home?”
“Already taken care of. I’ve already called our trusty cabdriver, Mr. Potter.”
Our trusty cabdriver. Something about the idea of a thing belonging solely to them makes Clarke a little crazy, even if that thing is a middle aged wreckless cabdriver. But she doesn’t say anything. She doesn’t say anything before she walks out the door. Or when the nurse passes by with the forms in her hand. Or when Lexa walks by, carrying her scent and a twenty year old memory with her.
But she does run after Lexa with an umbrella when she hears that it’s raining outside.
“Lexa.”
The woman stops in the middle of the ER lobby at the sound of her name and Clarke reminds herself that she should stop seeking the woman out this way.
“It’s raining. I’ll bring you to your cab.”
Lexa looks at the umbrella in Clarke’s hand and remembers the cool way she reacted just minutes ago. “You’re confusing.”
“I---“
Honk. Honk.
They turn their attention to a yellow cab parked at the end of the curb outside the ER.
“Looks like Mr. Potter is here and he’s as impatient as ever.”
Clarke’s grip tightens around the handle of the umbrella as she leads Lexa out to the rain.
“If there’s anything you need, you can call me.”
“Will do, doc.”
“Right.”
And they linger there for a little bit longer than what’s expected of two strangers.
“I should get in.”
She awkwardly reaches for the handle behind Lexa, leaning in close enough to catch that pretty scent of roses in the rain.
“You smell nice.” It comes out as a tiny whisper that could almost be a secret that's shared only between the two of them.
And Lexa reacts to this secret with just the offer of a small smile before disappearing into the back seat of Mr. Potter’s cab once more. And a part of Clarke starts to wonder if what she said was too much or not enough.
“Dammit, Griffin.” She squeezes the handle frustratingly as the rain continues to beat on the fabric of her umbrella. And then it hit her.
“Wait!”
Splashes of water come up to her knees as she gives chase to Lexa’s cab, her umbrella parachuting her back from the gust of wind blowing in the opposite direction.
“Wait!”
It takes a third call and a near death experience avoiding a pothole before she sees the brake lights through the rain.
And Lexa already has the window rolled down halfway to greet her by the time she catches up to the cab.
“Lexa.” It hurts a bit to breathe at this point.
“Clarke. What’s going on?”
Mr. Potter grumbles at the way his torn seats are getting wet from the rain, but Clarke doesn't care.
“You,” she pulls on the metal part and another splash of rain falls on his seats, “forgot the umbrella. It’s raining outside.”
Clarke hands it to Lexa, and Lexa stares at the wet strands of hair that’s turned dark blonde in the rain.
“Yes." Lexa smiles at Clarke and then reaches across the opening. "And you have rain on your nose.” She swipes gently at the spot, and it wets the pad of her forefinger.
“Thank you.” Clarke scrunches her nose cutely, her voice coming out as only a soft murmur in the cold rain.
This prompts Lexa to give her a lopsided grin. And, suddenly, there is shyness between them.