New Bruises And New Puzzle Pieces
Chapter 55 : New Bruises and New Puzzle Pieces
Song : Earth by Sleeping at Last
Clarke was sporting a smile as she was walking in the hospital’s corridors, wearing her white work clothes with pink short sleeves, the typical nurse outfit of the hospital.
“Hi Clarke” Beth quickly waved at her, arms filled with bandages and stuff, “The team’s waiting for you in the office”.
“Thanks Beth” Clarke smiled at her co-worker.
Beth was the one Clarke worked the most with, and had greatly helped her start the new job. Clarke entered the office, taking a sit around the table.
“So, let’s begin” Olivier started, gesturing for the night shift’s nurses to begin. Clarke was working in the ER.
“Patient in room 34 has a broken arm” Paula said, “We’re waiting for the Xrays to be done but they’re not enough upstairs to be free right now”.
Clarke nodded, writing it down.
“Room 35 is ok, just a burn on the arm, and free to go home once the doctor has prescribed the cream for the burn” Paula continued.
“Oh, room 36 is for you Clarke” Beth said, having come back from wherever she went, dropping the room 36’s patient’s file on the table.
“Why?” Clarke chuckled.
“Lost kid” Olivier shrugged, “She has a couple of bruises all over her body, but won’t talk to anyone. Maybe she’s deaf, or mute I don’t know”.
“So I’m the one to call to deal with weird kids?” Clarke raised a brow, amused at her co-workers.
“Well duh” Paula said, a smile on her lips, “You’re the only one with a kid in this room”.
“Yeah whatever” Clarke playfully rolled her eyes, getting up and taking the files with her to the 36th box to take care of the kid.
Clarke had to suppress a gasp when she opened the box’s door. A girl was sitting here, didn’t look much older than Ayden, and was covered in bruises.
“Hello!” Clarke introduced herself, trying to sound cheerful not to scare the little girl. Clarke frowned when she didn’t answer, nor did the girl seem to acknowledge her presence.
“I’m a nurse; I am going to take a look at you to see what’s wrong, ok?” Clarke asked, getting closer to the girl.
Clarke saw the girl flinch as she was only a few centimetres away.
“I am not going to hurt you, Ok? I just need to look at these bruises” Clarke reassured the little girl, without too much success as the kid was keeping her arms away from Clarke’s reach.
“You know, I have a little boy” Clarke started talking, “And he often trips and falls hard, and he often gets big bruises like yours. It hurts him too, but then he lets me look at it and I can make it better”.
The girl eyed Clarke for a few seconds, probably trying to decide if Clarke was trustable, and then un-crossed her arms for Clarke to look at them.
“Good” Clarke smiled, coming to sit on the hospital bed next to the kid. “So, did you fall?”
The kid said no with her head, still not crossing Clarke’s eyes.
“What then? Did you hit yourself with something? While playing maybe?” Clarke asked again, examining the girl’s body.
The girl said no with her head again. Clarke frowned. “What happened, then?”
“That is none of your business” The little girl finally said, firmly looking in the Blonde’s eyes, surprising Clarke.
“Oh so you can talk!” Clarke gently joked, “Here I thought I would have to check your mouth to see if you still had your tongue”.
The girl lowered her eyes, smiling too.
“So nothing is broken” Clarke said, finishing checking the girl’s legs, also covered in bruises, “Do you have bruises somewhere else?”
Clarke had a weird feeling settling in her stomach; like something wasn’t right, and she girl’s behavior wasn’t helping. She looked at the little girl, who wasn’t moving, but Clarke could tell there was something she wanted to say.
“How old are you?” Clarke gently asked.
“Seven” The girl answered.
“Oh, you’re a big girl then” Clarke smiled, “What’ your name?”
The little girl hesitated for a while, probably wondering if it was safe giving her name to Clarke. It was saddening Clarke, because in her way she could recognise herself in the girl; not being able to trust anyone, doubting everyone who would come too close. Clarke was sure of it; this girl had not just fall or tripped while playing. The bruises she got were there because someone had put them here.
“Tara” The little girl finally murmured.
“Hello then, Tara” Clarke tried to cheer up the girl, “Do you want to tell me what happened?”
Tara lowered her eyes once more, and it was pulling at Clarke’s heart.
“Tara, I will not hurt you. You can talk to me freely, about whatever you want. Do you understand?”
Tara timidly nodded, but without opening her mouth.
“Is someone hurting you?” Clarke lowered her voice.
“No!” Tara answered quickly, maybe too quickly to be sincere; as if it was words she had learned to repeat.
“Alright big girl” Clarke gently said, not wanting to scare the girl and running her hand up and down Tara’s arm, “You know you can tell me anything, alright?”
Tara only nodded. Clarke was going to ask another question, but a woman busted into the room.
“Tara, you’re here” The woman said with an ice cold voice which sent shivers all the way down Clarke’s spine.
Clarke immediately sensed a shift in Tara; the girl stopped smiling immediately.
“Excuse-me, who are you?” Clarke asked the woman.
“Ontari Ice” The woman said with the same cold tone, “I am Tara’s guardian. I suppose her teacher has overreacted about the extent of the girl’s bruises, and Tara has taken the occasion to bring pity over herself” Ontari said with a disdain look at the little girl.
Tara was looking at the floor, and Clarke was starting to get angry.
“Tara has a last exam to pass” Clarke lied, “So if you’ll please excuse-me, you can go in the waiting room while she’s taken upstairs for the scan”.
Ontari locked her eyes with Clarke for a few seconds, as if he was testing the truth behind Clarke’s words.
“Alright” Ontari said, turning around and getting out of the room.
Clarke waited a bit to be sure she was gone, and then turned towards Tara.
“Tara, listen to me” Clarke said, checking that Tara was concentrated on what she was telling her, “Is this woman the one who gave you those bruises all over your body?”
Tara didn’t answer.
“Tara, I can help you” Clarke insisted, “But you have to tell me what is going on”.
“I can bare it” Tara said, looking directly in Clarke’s eyes, “I am not the one she is angry at”.
Clarke was stunned by the girl’s answer, but before she could ask anything else, Tara was speaking again.
“Do I really have another exam to pass, or am I free to go?”
Clarke had to take a few seconds of processing before answering.”You are free to go if you want to” Clarke said, a bit defeated; she knew all too well that you couldn’t help someone who didn’t want help.
“Okay” Tara said, getting off of the hospital bed and putting her shoes back on.
“But take this” Clarke said, giving Tara a ointment against bruises, “Put this on your skin every time something like this happen, and remember Tara, if you ever want to talk, you can come and find me here, at the hospital. Say your name, and ask for Clarke, and I’ll come immediately, alright?”
“Thank you” Tara said, quickly getting out of the room and joining a rather looking pissed Ontari in the waiting room.
Clarke painfully watched as Ontari took a firm grasp on the girl’s shoulder to lead her out of the building.
She really wanted to help, but with no proof, and with Tara not cooperating, she couldn’t do anything; and maybe she was just overreacting, plastering her own story on the girl.
Clarke sighed, and resumed her work.
Monty, Jasper, Maya and Harper were all sitting in Monty’s apartment, girls chatting and boys doing whatever they were doing on their computers. Well, Monty was the one typing on the keyboard, Jasper was pretty much looking at her friend, eyes squinted together, as if they were trying to figure out something.
“I don’t understand” Monty said, “I’ve been working on this Skaikru Company they told us about, and things don’t add up”.
“How so?” Harper asked, having heard the boys’ discussion.
“Look” Monty explained, showing the computer screen, “Officially, they don’t exist. You can’t find anything on them on the web, nothing, not one document that could prove it exists” Monty said, showing them his researches without results, “So I went onto the dark web...”
“The dark web? Isn’t that illegal?” Maya asked, raising a brow.
“Since when do we care about doing things legally?” Monty argued back.
“Fair point” Maya shrugged.
“So, I went onto the dark web, and surprisingly, there was nothing here either” Monty told them, “Which is unusual because you can find pretty much anything on the internet”.
“So what does that mean?” Harper frowned, not really following.
“It means, dear” Jasper said, “That either it’s totally fake or it’s a secret really well protected.”
“And I can hear your next question” Monty continued, “What could be protected enough not to appear on the dark web?”
“Just tell us already” Harper rolled her eyes at her dork boyfriend.
“it has to be a secret company with military purposes!” Monty said.
“But we knew this already” Maya protested, “Skaikru used to build high tech”.
“Yeah we know” Jasper rolled his eyes as if it was the dumbest comment he had ever heard, “But they also told us Skaikru was part of Coalition Corp, as the rest of the twelve other companies”.
“Yes, and?” Harper asked, still not understanding.
“Except it is not” Monty answered, “It is the Coalition.”
“What does that mean?” Maya asked, confused.
“Before Skaikru Company was burnt to the ground, the leaders created a virus or something like that; they infested all the Companies’ servers, taking control of everything, in a legal way” Monty explained, “And before being evicted, the leaders named a successor, the only one who would be able to put everything on again.” He said, trying to clear everything for his friends. “It means that whoever was named for Skaikru’s leadership, whoever has inherited Skaikru Company, actually owns Coalition Corp.”
None of them moved, too shocked, while they were trying to make sure they had understood well.
“Lexa created Coalition Corp” Maya said, trying to connect the pieces.
“Yes” Jasper nodded, “but she didn’t create the companies within it. Therefore she doesn’t own them.”
“That means... That means Skaikru’s potential leader owns every company by right?” Harper asked.
“Yeah. This is exactly what it means.” Jasper somberly nodded.
In Indra’s office, Raven, Octavia and Indra were having the same reaction as their friends in Arcadia’s building after Lexa explained to them what where in the files.
“What do you mean, Skaikru’s potential leader owns the companies?” Octavia asked.
“You heard well Octavia, I can’t simplify this more than that” Lexa answered. “And I know why Nia wants to put her hands on Skaikru, why she seems in such a hurry to bring down Clarke or pull her into her ranks, I don’t know” Lexa truthfully answered, “But putting her hand on Skaikru’s leader could benefit her company; every company actually. She probably wants to take control of everything.”
“What can we do about it?” Raven asked. Unlike the others, she had enough knowledge about technology and servers to understand how such a thing could have happened.
“We need the name of the successor the leaders nominated back then” Lexa said. “We can’t do anything until then.”
“Or maybe there is something we can do” Indra suddenly said, turning towards Raven. “Raven, I’ve been told you have infiltrated Azgeda’s servers once in the past few months, haven’t you?”
“Hum, I may have done that...?” Raven answered, trying to figure out why Indra would ask such a thing.
“Would it be possible for you to put their servers on monitoring or something, a way for us to know what they are looking into, the researches they’re doing, where they are putting their noses into?” Indra suggested.
“I could definitely do that” Raven nodded, “But if there is only one mind half-brilliant as mine in Azgeda, I can’t guaranty they won’t find out about it”.
“Then make it undetectable even for someone as smart as you” Indra said, “Make everything you need to, and report to me.”
Raven nodded, understanding she had been given her mission, and left the room.
Still in the room, Lexa sighed, passing her hand through her hair.
“Are you going to tell Clarke?” Octavia genuinely asked. It was not asked as a reproach; only to know if it was preferable to keep this information to themselves for now; and as much as Octavia hated it, there were some things her job imposed her to hide from her friends.
“I have to” Lexa sighed again, “You are all implicated in this mess, and you’re all smart enough to figure things out on your own anyways. If I don’t tell her, someone else will.”
Octavia chuckled, because it was true. Hell, she was convinced that even without telling to the whole crew what they had learned today, Monty and Jasper would eventually figure it sooner or later ; little did she know they had already did.
Lexa checked her watch. “I have to go. Indra, I’ll be here first thing in the morning” She said, putting her jacket on, “Octavia, I’ll see you tonight”.
Both women nodded at her when she left the room.
Bellamy was waiting for Echo, leaning on his police car. Echo was a few steps away, talking actively into her phone, and from Bell’s point of view, it didn’t look great. So Bellamy waited patiently by his car, trying to get a few words from the conversation. It wasn’t really right to eardrop, but he was a cop, wasn’t he?
“Yes, is she ok?” Echo was mumbling into the phone, looking distressed, “I swear to god if you did anything to her I’ll... Yeah, ok. Fine. Ok, bye”.
Echo hung up the phone and made her way towards Bellamy, who quickly pretended he had been on his phone the whole time.
“You’re ok?” Bellamy asked, showing his concern but also showing Echo she didn’t need to answer that or to explain further if she didn’t want to. Bellamy knew the weight someone could carry on its shoulders, and it wasn’t his place to push Echo to talk about something going on in her life.
“Yeah, I’m ok” Echo sighed, putting her jacket back on, “Just some family issues”.
Bellamy nodded; family issues, he could understand.
They got into the car, ready for another patrol around the neighbourhood. They were doing a lot of that lately, because they suspected drugs dealers to live in the area, but so far, they had found nothing to prove it. They weren’t ready to give up though; it was their job to make sure the population was safe, and without knowing it, they both had personal reasons to put an end to whatever was happening around here.
“So, how did you know you wanted to enter the police?” Bellamy asked Echo to kill time.
Echo was surprised by the question, but quickly regained control of herself to not let it show. She didn’t really know what to say, as she hadn’t really “chose” to enter the police’s forces.
“I wanted to do what was right. It was a way to do it” Echo answered, staying as vague as she could while giving Bellamy an answer he would take.
It seemed to work as Bellamy nodded to her.
“What about you?” Echo asked, keeping her eyes on the streets.
“I have a family to protect. This was the right way to do it” Bellamy answered, copying Echo’s words.
Echo smiled. “There is more to the story” She stated. She wasn’t saying it to know more; it was a simple statement.
“Yes, there is more indeed” Bellamy smiled, not saying more and focusing on looking through the car’s window.
They stayed silent for a while; it wasn’t an uncomfortable one, they were just focused, letting their thoughts wander in their minds.
“Bellamy?” Echo asked after a while.
“Yes?” He hummed.
“How do you know if something is the right thing to do?”
Bellamy turned himself towards his partner, understanding the depth of the question.
“You don’t” he shrugged, “You just believe in what you’re doing. You believe it is the right thing to do for someone, for something. But it won’t ever be right for everything and everyone.”
“What are you saying?” Echo asked, a bit confused.
“I’m saying you can’t satisfy everyone. You do something to benefit the greater good, or for people you care about. You can’t save everyone.” Bellamy explained, and Echo could hear the gravity which was hiding in his words; like he had lived it before, like he was talking from experience.
And it made Echo think; who was she doing all of this for? Nia? She wasn’t sure of that. Was Nia the greater good? Would her plans benefit the greater good, or people she cared about? Echo wasn’t even sure Nia cared about someone at all. Was it worth it, risking everything, getting around laws, fooling people around, making them trust you to hit them in their backs afterwards? Oh, Echo knew well who she was doing this for, who she was trying to save. But was this the right way? Was this the only way?
Lexa was waiting –impatiently – in front of Ayden’s school, waiting for the bell to ring and for the children to get out of their classes and meet their parents.
Their parents. Lexa was a parent. Maybe she wasn’t one officially, maybe she didn’t have any papers to prove it, but deep down she knew. She was a parent, Ayden’s parent. He knew, Clarke knew, and they were the only ones who mattered. And right now, standing in front of the school, she wanted to cry a river of happy tears; because she never thought she would have this one day, and here she was, waiting for her kid to run to her after class.
The bell rang and it wasn’t long before a blond haired rocket was throwing itself at her legs.
“Yexa! You came to pick me up!” Ayden shouted, super excited to see her.
Lexa looked down at him, and kneeled at his level. Ayden was grinning so hard it was like his smile was going to reach his ears, and from the way Lexa’s mouth was hurting, she probably was grinning as much as him.
“Hey bud” Lexa murmured, voice filled with emotion as the kid was burying his nose into her neck, hugging her tightly.
Lexa immediately hugged him back; she was still not strong enough to say it, but Ayden was her rock, as much as Clarke’s was; they had built her up again, fixed her, patched her up with their smiles and their minds so full of life. They were her whole life, and god be damned if she wasted a single minute of her time by their sides.
Their hug was interrupted by someone clearing its throat. Lexa let go of Ayden, who immediately took her hand, not wanting to let go.
A woman was facing Lexa, and she recognised her as Ayden’s teacher.
“Hi, you are Ayden’s other parent, if I recall correctly?” The woman said with a sincere smile on her face.
Lexa’s heart warmed up at being called “Ayden’s other parent”, but tried not to let it show as she answered the woman.
“Yes indeed, we met when we visited the school of couple of months earlier” Lexa said, shaking the woman’s hand.
“Yes, I remember.” The teacher smiled back. “I just wanted to talk to you about the concerns we had about Ayden when we first met; about him not being able to integrate scholarship in the middle of the school year.”
“Yes?” Lexa nodded, a bit afraid of what the teacher was going to tell her. Was Ayden not good at school, or not good enough? Had he caused trouble?
“Well, no need to worry about that” The teacher chuckled, “He is a little genius”.
Lexa released a sigh she didn’t she had held. “That’s good news” Lexa chuckled back.
“Yes indeed” The teacher said. “I’m letting you two go now” She said, giving Ayden a wink.
Lexa was amused by the teacher’s behaviour, playing with her kid.
“Thank you, hum...?” Lexa asked, trying hard to remember the teacher’s name.
“My name is Miss Rivers. But you can call me Luna” The teacher said, giving her hand for Lexa to shake.
“Thank you, Luna” Lexa smiled back, shaking her hand before watching the teacher walk away and pick some leftovers toys on the playground.
“Yexa, can we go now? I’m hungry!” Ayden playfully whined, well knowing he didn’t need to actually whine for Lexa to give him what she wanted.
“You’re hungry huh?” Lexa playfully answered, getting close to him, “How about.... I eat you instead!” She said, picking him up in her arms and pretending to nip at his arms and legs.
“Yexa stop!” Ayden busted in laughter, “Don’t eat me!”
Lexa laughed too, put him on her shoulders, and they went home half-walking half-running, laughing about everything and nothing at the same time.