Lightning Only Strikes Once - Clexa

Chapter 121: A Fate Worse Than Death

"Please, Clarke," Monty says, looking at her pleadingly. "He cut himself earlier when he was helping to skin something, and it looks pretty bad, but he won't go get medical treatment."

"Why not?" Clarke says plaintively, looking across at Lexa. They could be in bed already. Alright, it's probably a little too early for that, but they could at least be spending time together. As much as she loves Jasper, being called out into the cold night air so she can listen to him whine as she bandages up a cut is not her idea of a good time.

"You know Jasper," Monty says, with a heartfelt sigh and eye-roll. "He has a crush on one of the girls from Mount Weather – actually, the one Chancellor Kane put on the Council. She used to work in the medical area there so he wants to get her to patch him up. And he hasn't been able to find her so he's putting it off. But I'm sure he'd listen to you."

Clarke toys with the idea of sending him to ask her mother for help, but right now she'd personally rather bleed to death than ask her mother for help so she can understand why Abby wouldn't be Monty's first port of call. Plus, they are delinquents, part of the 100, just like she was – she's not sure any of them will ever trust authority fully again.

"I will come with you, ai niron," Lexa says calmly. "It would be good to see Jasper kom Skaikru again."

"Yeah! Good!" Monty says, looking unreasonably relieved. Perhaps he realises Jasper's not going to whine nearly as much with Lexa in the room. He's still kind of terrified of her.

They run into Raven in the street, surprisingly. Clarke thought she'd be curled up with Anya by now, since Anya tends to go to bed quite early so she can get up before sunrise and take a guard shift.

"Hey, Lexa, Anya asked me to come -" Raven starts, but then notices Monty. "Oh! Hey, Monty!"

"Hey, Raven!" Monty says with excessive cheerfulness, like they're two bad actors in a poorly-written play. "Just going to see Jasper! About his injury."

"Oh, right!" Raven says, nodding exaggeratedly. "Anya's thing can wait, then." She falls into step beside him, and Clarke can just barely hear her muttered, "I was supposed to be the one to come get -"

"Shhh!"

Lexa gives Clarke a sideways glance. "It is hard to believe any of your friends have ever managed to hide or spy, even though I have seen Raven do both," she comments wryly. "Even harder to believe Monty and Jasper kom Skaikru managed to commit crimes."

"Well," Clarke says, voice dry. "In total fairness, Monty and Jasper and the others didn't successfully commit crimes. There was a reason we were imprisoned." She's gotten so used to her crutches now she doesn't find it at all difficult to keep pace with the others.

The little home Monty and Jasper share – much to the disapproval of Monty's mother, who has apparently spent the last month petitioning Kane to forcibly return her son to her – is strangely asymmetrical. It looks like Jasper and Monty designed it themselves and decided halfway through that they needed more room, and so tried to add an extra room on the side and then one on the top. The room bulging strangely out of the left side of the building has a ceiling only a metre and a half above the ground, and judging by the size of the second floor sitting uncertainly on the first one there's no way there can actually be stairs up to it (in fact, she finds out it actually has a ladder with uneven rungs). It suits them, though, in its quirkiness.

It takes both Monty and Raven yanking at it to successfully open the oversized front door so that warm light floods out.

"Surprise!" a number of voices yell at once.