Some People Are Worth The Wait
Okay so chapter 6!! I have to confess I'm in med school, so I updated fast this time, but it depends on the time I have left after my study time! Anyway, I hope you'll enjoy this chapter!!
Song: Faraway Tree - Boatkeeper
Wednesday morning and Lexa was in her conference room, talking about how they were going to make one of their companies grow more. The meeting had been going on for three hours now, and Lexa was beginning to be angry at the different chiefs of the companies. They never agreed with each other, and she always had to cut the meeting by taking decisions by force, without their agreement. They were old, way older than her, and they didn’t see the world as it was now; they were stuck with their ideas from the 80’, and if it was only Lexa’s decision to make, they would have all been fired a long time ago.
Fortunately, Titus was finding the meeting too long now too, and was eager to end this so he could talk with Lexa.
“A decision must be made, and we have no more time. Heda,” he said looking at Lexa, “what will be the final call about this?”
“Well”, she answered, “I think we should give Azgeda more time to correct their attitude and fully enter Coalition Corp. I will have a meeting with Nia White to discuss it further.”
Protestations started in the room; Azgeda, a bank company, was one of the most powerful companies within the twelve Lexa owned, and they always were reticent with the idea of Azgeda being one of them, because they didn’t know what Nia White and her subjects were capable of. Well, they did know actually, and that was the reason she was terrorising them.
Lexa clenched her teeth, thinking about the woman in top of Azgeda. Nia White, the biggest bitch on Earth. Lexa hated her so much, because of the way she was leading Azgeda, spilling fear upon her employees so they would work harder, but that was only one percent of the reason why she hated the woman. Lexa hated her and was dreaming about killing her every night because of what Nia White had done to her, and to the love of her life.
Lexa shook her head and suppressed all those thoughts, because she couldn’t think about it without losing her mind or puking. She built her stone face once again to end the meeting.
“If Azgeda doesn’t want to behave, we will have to take drastic measures”, Lexa said, making everyone understand her decision was not to be discussed.
They all nodded, understanding the message behind her tone, and left the room without saying anything else. They all had to admit Lexa was a great CEO, maybe the best one they have had so far, but because she was younger than them, they had sometimes trouble understand her way of seeing things. But she had proven herself in the very beginning, and they had decided to trust her to make the best choices. So far, she had done exactly that.
Lexa was exhausted, and sat on her chair; she didn’t have slept well the last two nights, thinking about a gorgeous woman and her child sleeping in the streets. She had wished she had the courage to ask Clarke for her phone number, just in case. In case of what, I don’t know, but just to be safe.
“If I may ask Heda, why are you not giving Nia White the privileges she wants? Once she’ll have it, she’ll cooperate more willingly”, Titus suggested.
Lexa clenched her teeth, pissed off by Titus.
“And make her company the first one on the market? Impossible. This is a literally a coalition I made, Titus, I can’t have a company being bigger than another. I must give everyone only what they really need, not more.” Lexa said.
Titus tried to say something, but she didn’t let him.
“And if had to give her what she wants, I would have to give her my seat as Coalition corp.’s CEO, and Nia White to replace me is not what will make everything better.”
Titus just nodded, and left the room, leaving Lexa alone. The girl took her head in her hands. She had so much to do, and sometimes, everything was too overwhelming. But it was her duty, she had the responsibility to lead them well, and make everything in her power to keep Coalition corp. united. Of course that was now complicated, because of Azgeda’s CEO.
Lexa sighed, and went back to her office to take care of things she had to take care of.
Work day was over, and Lexa tightened her scarf around her neck before heading outside. She was careful to stay hidden from Gustus’ eyes while she was holding her hand in the air, not wanting someone to be her private driver. Gustus was really cool, and was Lexa’s bodyguard when she had to go somewhere with a lot of people, but here, she didn’t want to make someone be her slave. A cab stopped near her, and when the driver brought his window down, Lexa let a small smile escaped from her lips. It was Lincoln, the guy from a few days ago, who had gotten her into an accident. Lexa hadn’t noticed back then, but she could now see he still had small cuts on her forehead. Lincoln’s eyes widened when he recognised her.
“I’m sorry Miss Woods, you probably don’t want to ride with me, I’m gonna go and let another cab pick you up”, he said, not wanting the famous Lexa Woods to yell at him.
“No it’s ok, you’ll do the job”, Lexa answered, and got onto the backseats.
If Lincoln was very surprised, he didn’t say anything, and simply asked her where she wanted to go. Lexa was about to give him her address, but she suddenly decided otherwise. Instead, she told him to drive her to the little park where she had first seen Clarke and Ayden. Maybe they would be there today.
Lincoln nodded, and started to drive. Lexa noticed he had a picture on his dashboard; a thin but athletic woman with braided hairs, wearing a kind of war paint mask on her face. Lexa frowned, because she was recognising the design; it was what she had chosen for the people being in her secret unit inside the police station, led by Indra from Trikru Company, the same place Anya was working in. How could this slim girl be on that team? Indra didn’t talk to her about it. Well she had to admit she hadn’t seen Indra for a long time now, because the woman was always on secret missions, hiding herself with her team. Maybe this skinny girl was rookie, a new recruit.
What was weird was the fact that Lincoln had a picture of her probably lover dressed in her units’ uniform, and people in this secret unit weren’t supposed to tell what they were really doing; their official job was police officer in an intervention team. Maybe Lincoln didn’t know why the girl was dressed like this, with a sword on her back.
Lexa couldn’t hold her curiosity much longer.
“Lincoln, who’s the girl on the picture?” she asked.
“That’s my girlfriend, Octavia”, he tenderly smiled, not taking his eyes off the road. He didn’t want to have a second accident with the Lexa Woods on board, did he. “She is the most stubborn person I know”.
“She looked like it”, confirmed Lexa. “Why is she wearing this war paint mask?”
She saw Lincoln bit his lip. She understood he knew.
Lincoln didn’t know what to say. He was aware people weren’t supposed to know about Octavia’s job. But Octavia entered the team at the age of almost seventeen, and when they had noticed the bruises and cuts on her she had had from training, she had had to tell everyone close to her what she was doing, because she was too young to be a real police officer and her friends wouldn’t have believe her if she had said so. Furthermore, Bellamy was working at the police station, so she could definitely not have lied about it.
“Lincoln”, Lexa said when she saw Lincoln was hesitating to answer her, “if you know the reason why she is dressed like this, you probably also know I created that unit, right?”
“I do”, he answered, and sighted slightly. “Octavia was recruited very young. Her mentor saw her fight in the streets once, trying to prove she wasn’t weak, and decided to teach her. That’s why I know what she is doing. She couldn’t be a cop because she was under eighteen, so she couldn’t lie to us and pretend she was a police officer. She had to tell us the truth”.
Lexa nodded, accepting Lincoln’s explanation.
“Being on that unit saved her life”, Lincoln continued. “She was lost, and had the feeling she didn’t fit in anywhere, and she had a lot to prove. Now she’s right at her place”.
Lexa gently smiled, happy to hear her work had done some good to at least one person.
“You seem to have a great esteem of her”, Lexa stated.
“I do”, he nodded. “She wasn’t the happiest person on earth, when I first met her. Her and her friends had really rough times, but there was something about her, something I could not explain, and something which was dragging me to her since day one.” Lincoln paused for a second. “I saw she was special, right from the start. She was different from others, and I wanted to help her, in any way possible. And first, she didn’t trust me at all, but then, with time and patience, she opened herself to me. And I’m glad I stayed by her side, waiting for her to be ready. I did well. Some people are worth the wait, you know?”
Lexa had been carefully listening to Lincoln, believing every word he said. “Yeah, maybe”, she whispered, lost in her thoughts.
Lincoln nodded to her with a tiny smile, and they didn’t talk more. Five minutes later, Lincoln was parking the taxi near the little park.
“Here you go!” he said, smiling to Lexa.
“Thank you Lincoln”, Lexa said, giving him too much money than needed.
Lincoln took the money and counted it to give the rest back to Lexa, but a glare from her made him understand to keep it all.
“Thank you, Miss Woods. This is very generous”, he thanked her.
“You’re welcome. Thank for the discussion. And my name is Lexa”, she said, closing the door and smiling at the driver. “May we meet again”. He smiled back at her, and drove away.
Lexa stayed a little longer on the sidewalk, watching Lincoln’s car vanishing, thinking about what Lincoln had said. She was different from others, and I wanted to help her. That was exactly what Lexa was thinking when she was thinking about Clarke.
Lexa entered the park, and began to walk, discretely looking around in search of two very specific people. Lexa’s heart jumped in her chest when she saw them. They were on the grass, lying on a blanket. Lexa didn’t know what to do; she didn’t want to impose her presence. But once again Ayden came to the rescue, and held in tiny hand in the air at the second he recognised Lexa.
“Yexa! Youhouhou! Do you see us? Come!” Ayden yelled, making people around laugh a little.
A smile printed itself on Lexa’s face as she was making her way towards them, unsure first, but more convinced after Clarke had smiled back, slowly nodding her head to show her it was ok to come.
“Hello Lexa”, Clarke said, “how are you?”
“Yeah Yexa, are you ok?” Ayden echoed her mother. Both the women laughed, making him frown.
“Yeah, I’m fine”, Lexa answered quickly, not wanting to see Ayden upset, “What about you?”
Ayden jumped on the occasion, and began to tell Lexa stories about how he and her mommy had played for so long today, what he had eaten for lunch and a lot of other things too.
But Lexa wasn’t focusing on what Ayden was saying at all; her eyes were glued on Clarke, who was paler than ever. Her eyes were glossy, and Lexa suspected she had fever. During Ayden’s monologue, she noticed how Clarke was trying not to cough too loudly, and how she was shivering.
Now, Ayden had finished his monologue, and was looking expectantly at Lexa. Shit. I didn’t listen to a single word the kid said.
“That is really cool Ayden”, she tried while biting her lip, hoping it would be the right answer.
It apparently was, because the boy offered her the biggest smile she had even seen on his face. Clarke gently laughed at his facial expression, and gave him a ball to play with.
“Go play football now honey, you have to practice!” Clarke said, smiling at his son.
Ayden willingly took the ball, and went a few meters away to play with another kid who was there. Clarke and Lexa followed the kid with their eyes, watching him for a few minutes before concentrate on one another.
“Clarke, are you ok?” Lexa asked, worried about the girl.
“Yeah”, Clarke shrugged, “I’m fine. It’s just a cold”. Of course Clarke knew it wasn’t just a cold, and she was feeling herself becoming weaker every day, but she was still hoping it would go away on its own.
“You don’t really seem fine to me”, Lexa said again. She knew she shouldn’t push, but she had to try everything she could to make the other girl see reason.
“Lexa I’m good. I’ll be healed tomorrow”.
“I could...” Lexa started, wanting to offer her help another time, but didn’t have time to finish her sentence.
“I can handle myself, ok?” Clarke cut her off.
Lexa only nodded. She didn’t agree with the girl, but she knew she wouldn’t go further and didn’t want to make Clarke run away from her. She knew she was a stranger to Clarke, and she really wanted to gain the girl’s trust. For that, she had to take things slow with her. Some people are worth the wait, she remembered Lincoln’s words.. I’ll wait for you to trust me Clarke, I have time, she told herself.
It was getting late, and Lexa thought it would probably be better to leave them and head back home now.
“I am going to go now”, Lexa said.
A flash of fear passed into Clarke’s eyes at the thought of Lexa leaving.
“I’m sorry Lexa, I didn’t want to be rude or anything, I...” Clarke began.
“It’s ok”, the brunette smiled to reassure her, “you weren’t rude”.
Clarke smiled back and nodded. Lexa walked away after telling her goodbye, and Clarke was left alone with her thoughts.
She wanted to accept the girl’s help, really she did, but something was still blocking her from doing it. Remember Clarke. She just pities Ayden and you. She doesn’t like you. She just feels bad because you’re living in the streets, Clarke tried to persuade herself. She’s a stranger, you don’t know her. What if she wants you harm? Of course Clarke didn’t believe a single thing she was thinking. She could see Lexa had good intentions, she could feel it. But that was too soon, and she couldn’t trust her yet.
But they were things she couldn’t deny. As Lexa waved goodbye at Ayden, still playing, Clarke saw the smile her son gave the brunette, and it made her heart ache.
Those past few days, Ayden was only talking about Lexa, and he was really happy when she was around, even if it was only for an hour or so. Clarke could already see what impact Lexa was beginning to have upon them. Usually, Clarke wouldn’t have stayed in the same park two nights in a row. But she was secretly hoping to cross path with Lexa, which they had, every day since they first met her.
Ayden was tired now and came back to her mother, burying himself into Clarke’s arms. She shivered, feeling the sickness spreading itself into her whole body. She knew she would have to do something about it soon if she didn’t want to be very ill and pass it to Ayden. But Clarke wasn’t ready to go home, not yet, it was too soon. She had to be sure the storm had passed and that it was safe for them to come back home. Actually, she didn’t even know if the house she was supposed to live in could be called home.
She wasn’t sure about anything, these days.