Lightning Only Strikes Once - Clexa

Chapter 51: Lock and Unload

"How the hell are you doing that so quickly?" Octavia wonders out loud.

Open gun. Remove bullet clips. It's not that hard, when you have prior experience with the guns. Of course, Octavia doesn't.

"Look on the bright side," Finn says from where he's slumped in the corner. "You're getting through them faster than me." He raises his cup mockingly and drinks from it. From the smell, Clarke suspects it contains vodka. She wonders where he got it, and if he should really be mixing it with whatever pain medication he's on.

It's a bad joke. But then, considering how much pain he's in and that he can't see, it's pretty impressive he's joking at all right now.

"Clarke has always had very clever hands," Wells says calmly, working through the guns methodically and carefully.

Octavia snorts. "Oh, I bet she does." She winks suggestively at Clarke. Lincoln, standing guard by the door, smiles slightly at his girlfriend.

"To draw so well, I meant!" Wells says hastily, face reddening slightly. "I meant to draw well. Not... whatever you were talking about."

"I'm sure someday you'll understand what I was talking about," Octavia says in mock sympathy, still struggling to get the clip out of the gun she's on.

"Maybe you should stop making fun of me and just concentrate on your own weapon," Wells says, giving her an annoyed look.

"That's what she said," Finn says, taking another large gulp out of his cup of liquor, and letting out a sour laugh. It's an even worse joke.

There are fifteen people working to get the bullets out of most of the guns right now. There were twenty earlier, but some had to go do other jobs. There's no way anyone could take a gun – they're not exactly small and Lincoln's at the door – but occasionally when there's a noise Clarke's head snaps up anyway, and for just a second she thinks someone's about to shoot up the room. She wonders if that reaction will ever stop happening.

"Maybe the reason I'm so bad at this is because I'm actually Trikru and shouldn't be touching a gun," Octavia says thoughtfully.

"Maybe you'd be better at it if you stopped squirming in your seat and deliberately annoying everyone else," Clarke suggests dryly. Octavia's not too thrilled she's missing practice for something so boring, but Indra had told her it would be a good opportunity to practice her meditation – which Clarke thinks is code for 'stop bothering me'.

Octavia sticks her tongue out at Clarke.

"So do you know who's coming back to Arkadia and who's staying in Polis?" Wells asks, diplomatically changing the subject. He picks up another gun and opens it to remove the bullets, adding the clip to his pile – the biggest pile out of all of theirs, even Clarke's, because he's been sitting here the longest. Then he puts the gun in an empty barrel – well, empty except of grease, anyway.

"We have thirty-one people returning permanently to Arkadia, including Monty and Jasper," Clarke says. "According to Bellamy, anyway. Eleven more who would like to come back briefly to visit their families but want to continue living in Polis after that – we haven't worked out yet what we'll do if their families want to go with them, that's something I'll have to discuss with Lexa if it happens. Everyone else is apparently pretty settled by now."

"No more thefts?" Wells asks.

"Two minor crimes," Clarke says. "Bellamy ensured they got the necessary punishment, from the sound of it he's actually doing pretty well at this. Monty told me his students and their families adore him."

"All of the Skaikru Sekens are going to be so jealous when we get back," Octavia says cheerfully. "While they've been stuck protecting Polis from nothing at all, I've been in actual battle -" She breaks off, apparently remembering what that battle was and what happened in it, and casts an apologetic look at Finn that he can't see. "I mean, unless we stay in TonDC. That is Indra's home I guess. But I overheard her the other day talking to Anya and we might end up going to Polis to manage some things after the Mountain's dealt with, since that Titus guy might not be coming back. She and Anya are arguing over who should go do his job."