The One Who's Fallen

Chapter 98

"Raven!" A male's voice comes from offscreen.

Raven perks up and beams as a grinning man comes into view. "Sinclair! It's so good to see you!"

"It's great to see you too, Reyes. Abby has caught me up on what's happened to you. How are you holding up?"

"I've been better," Raven says. "But I have also been worse. I will be okay, Sinclair. I promise."

Sinclair nods, "I know you will be. You're too damn stubborn to let anything get you down for too long." He winks at Raven, who laughs. "Now lets finally work together again. What's your brilliant brain thinking about?"

"I've been thinking about a lot of things lately. But right now, I'm fixated on how the heck we are to get everyone down safe." Raven frowns at the screen. "What if we just... Say float it all and drop everything, not caring of the Ark gets destroyed?"

Mom looks at Raven approvingly from beside Sinclair. "That... Actually might work. It's not something I had considered in the simulations, this adds a whole new set of possibilities."

"The stations will break apart upon reentry," I muse aloud. "The connections between them are not strong enough to make it."

Raven nods, catching what I'm getting to. "So we will inevitably lose some stations. If we can predict which ones, we might be able to increase how many survive. Sinclair, you and I can work on the calculations." She picks up a small radio and starts twisting the knob. "I have another radio so we can talk without having to interrupt them."

"Alright, what frequency?"

She shows him the pixilated screen of the radio and he nods.

"Now let's get to work." Raven says cheerfully.

She goes over to her other desk and pulls out some blank sheets of paper and a pencil.

Lincoln and Octavia walk in and pass out plates of food. We start eating in silence until Anya speaks up.

"What should we do while they figure that out?"

"Train?" Luna suggests, then turns back to Mom. "Unless you have something you need our assistance with, of course."

"Not that I can think of," Mom says. "Feel free to go. But Clarke, Lexa? I want to talk to you."

"Oooh," Octavia says teasingly as collects our empty plates. "Good luck having the talk, Lexa."

I groan and she moves out of my punching range before I can do anything. Octavia laughs as she follows the others out of the tent. I roll my eyes and take Lexa's hand, sitting down in front of the radio.

I glance over at Raven, who's chatting with Sinclair while her hand works furiously writing out equations. She looks like she is incredibly focused on what she's working on. I doubt she even noticed that anyone left the tent. Aside from Luna and Anya of course, who both gave her a kiss on the cheek before they went. Which I find really cute, how much softer they are with Raven.

"Hey, Mom. What did you want to talk to us about?" I ask.

"I don't know your girlfriend very well at all. I know she is the Commander of her people, but I don't know much more about her." Mom explains and I blink. Okay, when she says it like that it's kind of sweet. "So, Lexa. Have you been with anyone aside from my daughter?"

And there it is. This is a polite interrogation of my girlfriend. At least I'm present to make sure Mom does not overstep. I see Lexa's jaw clench slightly and squeeze her hand.

"You don't have to answer, babe." I murmur.

"I will, but thank you for your concern Clarke." She says back before turning towards the screen. My mom is watching her carefully. "Yes, one woman. Her name was Costia and we first got together before I became Heda."

Lexa tells Mom about Costia and what happened to her. To my surprise, Mom seems to be in near tears.

"I'm sorry you had to go through that. I know how hard it is to lose someone you love and believe that it's your fault." Mom responds. "How did you get over it?"

Lexa gives her a small smile. "By repressing my feelings and telling myself that love is weakness. It was Clarke that made me feel differently and taught me that love is strength, that love gives us something to fight for. For you, I would suggest that you let the people who care about you in. Talk about how you feel. It will be light a weight is lifted off of your chest."

I grin at her, proud at how far she has come. I pull up her hand and kiss it before returning it to my lap.

"I do have a concern because of your story, however." Mom says hesitantly after a moment. "I'm worried about Clarke. What if she ends up like Costia did?"

Lexa nods, her expression serious and grave. "That is one of my concerns as well. But Costia was a blacksmith with minimal training in fighting. Clarke might be able to beat even me someday." Her eyes glitter with pride as I blush at her praise. "Clarke is also smarter than Costia. I do worry about her, of course. But I worry more about those who would dare to take her."

Mom takes what Lexa said in and nods. "Thank you for helping to teach her to fight. And for all you have done for Clarke, she's a lot happier with you than she ever was up here."

"It was my pleasure, Doctor Griffin." Lexa says politely with a smile.

"Please, you're dating my daughter. You can call me Abby." Mom says, making me beam happily at her.

"Thank you, Doc- I mean Abby."

Mom laughs, "And good luck with my daughter. She's more stubborn than I am sometimes."

"I do not think I need luck, I used all of it when Clarke said yes to being my girlfriend." Lexa says.

"You are too sweet." I murmur and kiss her cheek.

Well, that turned out cuter than I expected! Next chapter they will figure out a game plan on what to do to help the Ark people come down safely. Thank you all for reading and for your lovely comments! Stay awesome!