Take Me Home (A 100 And FTWD Crossover)

Chapter Twenty-one

"Ouch! Clarke! You said it wasn't going to hurt." Alicia rubbed her arm slowly once the needle was removed, and Clarke placed her blood on the glass slide before putting it under the microscope and turning on the light. Clarke gestured for Alicia to look through the lense, which she does after a small, doting glare. "I just see blood?"

"Exactly! Now keep watching." Clarke dropped a dark solution onto the blood. Alicia's eyes grew wide as the blood went from a healthy red to a dark red, almost black.

"What was that?" Alicia pulled her confused face away from the microscope and watched Clarke.

"A solution made from my blood, it almost replicated what my mom did to me." Clarke explained. "I don't know as much as my mom did, but I learnt a lot from her. But Nova and the others, they have degree's in medicine and science that even my mother didn't have access to."

"Almost?" Alicia asked.

"It isn't ready yet. When my mom did it, it only worked in a zero gravity environment, which we can't do here. But we are close to figuring out how it could work on earth." Clarke explained, her eyes were bright, and her words were quick.

"That's all great, but why do you need a replica of your blood." Alicia asked.

"That's where the bite comes in. I survived. Yes, I got sick, but it passed like the flu. It wouldn't be able to bring anyone back, but it would be able to stop the infection from killing anyone else and from reanimating the people who die, and theoretically, it would kill a walker. If we could find a way to mass release it, eventually, the world would be free from the walkers."

"That's really possible?" Alicia asked. It all sounded too good to be true.

"Theoretically." Nova spoke from the doorway, making both of the girls jump. "Clarke, I'm sorry, but we need you for a few more tests."

Clarke glanced at Alicia, a silent question in her gaze.

"I'll be fine, I wanted to look around anyway." Clarke nodded with a small smile on her face. She brought her hand to Alicia's cheek and pulled her in for a short kiss. Alicia had only arrived a couple of days ago, but they hadn't had much time alone since.

Alicia found herself back in the room she shared with Clarke later that day, after an hour or so of wandering around aimlessly. She sat on the bed, tired and grouchy. She knew the feeling well by now, she knew that tiredness came first, then a sickening feeling and then the head pain that was accompanied by strange dreams. Yet, her dreams that had once only visited her in her sleep, now hounded her in almost every waking moment.

"Alicia?" Her eyes snapped to the door and the pain in her head faded. She expected to see Clarke, but instead Nova stood at the door, her face pinched in worry. "Are you okay? I was calling your name for a while."

"I'm fine!" Alicia snapped. "I'm sorry. Is something wrong? Is Clarke okay?"

"Clarke's fine. She just wanted me to let you know that the tests are going to take a bit longer." Nova explained. "I know you don't trust us, Clarke didn't for a while either, but we are just trying to stop the last few people left from dying out as well."

"Clarke explained. I just, it takes time to trust people." Alicia said, lowering her eyes to her hands, which were placed over her legs. Alicia hesitated, but continued. "Do you have a way to, I don't know, test someone's brain. To see if they're.. just to see."

"We have a few things, some that were invented in this very place. We use them to test our vacancies on the walkers. After all, this disease is always incubating in our heads." Nova explained, her eyes narrowing as she spoke. "Why?"

"I've just been having headaches and weird dreams, but now they happen when I'm awake, and I thought that when I thought Clarke had died, that maybe something in me went wrong?" She stumbled over her words and could hardly recognize herself speaking. She sounded so foreign from her usual self as she said the words.

"If this is something you're really worried about, then I suppose we could do an EEG. But Alicia, what have you told Clarke about this?"

"Some. But, I don't want to say anything. Not until I know for sure what's going on. She's been through too much already."

"Okay. Well, Clarke is in the lab with the equipment we need at the moment. So, tomorrow, I'll send her on the team to get walkers, and we can try it then." With a nod from Alicia, Nova left the room. Alicia hated keeping anything from Clarke, but how could she explain to her the things she was seeing when they didn't make any sense. The night passed quickly, and Alicia had hardly seen Clarke, most due to the fact that she had passed out long before Clarke had returned to the room.

"Are you going to be okay today?" Clarke asked after they had washed and dressed. "Nova wants me out with the others today. It'll just be the two of you left here."

"Yeah, she said she was going to show me some of the equipment they use. Just stay safe out there." Alicia replied, taking Clarke's hand softly in her own.

"I'll be fine. See you tonight." A short kiss later Clarke was gone and Alicia left alone. She walked to the room Nova had told her about and waited for the other girl to arrive.

"You ready?" Nova asked without greeting, already pulling out the machine and a mask to pull over Alicia's head.

"Let's get started." Alicia replied, sitting on a stool by the machine. Nova set up the machine and placed the head mask on Alicia.

"Okay, you're all set up. Talk me over your dreams, and I'll be able to see the activity in your brain with this." Nova tapped the computer lightly. Alicia took a break and recounted her latest and recurring dream. She talks about dying, a wound from her stomach leaking dark blood, and the last thing she sees in the dream is Clarke's broken face. Then she would wake up sweating and feeling her stomach for blood, which was never there, yet an aching pain always lingered. She left out the part about lying naked next to Clarke. She assumed that part of her dream was just her own desires slipping thought. However, she certainly had no desire to be shot.

"I don't see anything too abnormal." Nova mentioned once Alicia had stopped speaking.

"Too abnormal?"

"Well, the part of your brain that holds your long-term memories fires up a little more than I'd expect from a dream, but that doesn't really point to an issue." Nova explained, unhooking Alicia from the machine.

"Look, you've been through a lot. We all have in this new world, try not to overthink these dreams. And speak to Clarke, she's an incredible women." Nova explained, a small smile on her lips. The unpleasant feeling in her gut returned at Nova's words. The shook her head, banishing the jealous thoughts from her mind and nodded, of course she agreed that Clarke was incredible. She also knew she would have to speak to her, Clarke was after all in most of her dreams.