Clexa One Shots

Abby Doesn't Ask

By: onlyasdark
i.

When the dust has settled and all is said and done, Abby is looking forward to having Clarke back home. She's looking forward to watching her learn and grow and heal. She wants nothing more than for Clarke to be able to relax and drop the weight of the world onto the shoulders of someone willing to catch it.

She's still so young. And Abby wants nothing more than for Clarke to enjoy what little of her childhood, what little of her innocence, she has left.

From a distance, she watches the commander as she threads her fingers through the clipped hair of her white stallion before offering it a pouch of what Abby presumes to be seeds. Lexa is different than she remembers her – she's softer, slower, her cheeks hollower – and Abby can't quite put a finger on it.

Maybe death does that to a person.

"Mom, she died. She –"

Clarke never finishes her statement.

Lexa died.

Lexa died and Lexa came back, but Abby figures there are certain things you can never truly come back from and death is one of those things.

Abby is content watching the girl pack up and leave until she sees Clarke walking towards her. She's not wearing the Arker jacket Abby had left for her. Instead, she's wearing a long sleeved blue top, with a hood covering her hair. Lexa's head shoots up as Clarke approaches and a smile spreads across her face.

It's the first smile Abby has ever seen from the larger-than-life Commander.

She stands frozen until her lips part and she murmurs something to Clarke, something too quiet for Abby to catch. And then Clarke is nodding and throwing her bag over her own brown mare.

Abby is on her feet in an instant, rushing to the scene.

"Clarke, where are you going?"

"Home."

She looks tired.

It stings and Abby can't help but visibly flinch.

She doesn't miss the way Clarke's eyes drift to Lexa's. She doesn't miss the way Lexa looks at her like she's the center of the universe, like she's the only thing worth seeing.

Abby wants to ask then, she wants to ask how Clarke could choose a murderer, an oath breaker over her own people.

She wants to ask, but she doesn't.

ii.

As promised, Clarke visits a month later – 29 days to be exact – but who's counting.

It's summer now and Clarke looks lighter than Abby's ever seen her before. She's all tan skin and golden hair. And she's smiling. She's really smiling and Abby feels her eyes wet with tears because she can't remember the last time her baby actually smiled.

Lexa's with her and Abby wonders if she'll ever see her daughter again without the lingering and overbearing presence of the Commander.

They look familiar, more so than ever before and Abby doesn't miss the way Clarke's eyes drift to Lexa's figure every now and again. Just to make sure she's there, to make sure she's breathing, to make sure she's alive.

Abby watches Lexa lean in and whisper something in Clarke's ear and her daughter's smile turns into a full blown laugh. What a glorious sound it is, so much like Jake's.

Abby wonders if Clarke laughs a lot in Polis.

For the first time in a while, Clarke looks genuinely happy to see her. She dismounts her horse and allows herself to be pulled into a hug.