I'm writing out some of the scenes that were either cut for time, or implied and talked about later, or happened in the past to get my Slopes chops back. The first one is Clarke making a phone call to her friend in Colorado to watch over Lexa's training session. Some spoilers below as to how it fits into the story, so if you haven't read it yet and you'd like to remain in the dark, don't read this one.
At the end of Chapter 5, Lexa calls Clarke from a party at the Vail Ski Resort in Colorado. Lexa has big air training in the morning, and after a recent fall training at home, she's nervous and she's anxious about it. Clarke went to school with and worked with Vail's safety director, knows her, and offers to make a call to try and get Lexa some medical support for her training session since Clarke can't be there to do it herself like she can at home.
I Chapter 10, Lexa sites this moment as when she knew she was in love with Clarke. When she knew it wasn't just causal and it wasn't just fun and sexy anymore, it was big and real and she needed to deal with it. Clarke very casually brushes off making this call when Lexa brings it up, but it was another huge warning for Clarke that she was very much in love, and she needed to deal with it, too.
So here is Clarke calling her old squad friend Echo, who is blunt, intense, knows and understands Clarke well, has lots of respect for Clarke even though they're very different, and Clarke's understanding of just how far the rumors about her and Lexa have traveled, and just how deep in this she is.
Takes place between Chapter 5 and Chapter 6:
The early season snow always seemed extra white. Nothing had touched it yet. It was young and fresh and new and exciting.
Clarke stood at her kitchen sink and stared out the window into the woods in the backyard as the sun came up over her little tiny house, casting an orange glow on every single icy branch and smooth, soft, pristine snowbanks all around the trunks. After a confusing night of sleep full of dreams she didn't want to unpack full of Lexa's skin and Lexa's mouth, she held her morning coffee in one hand and clutched her cellphone in the other with an old friend’s contact pulled up, but she hesitated to make the call.
Last night, she was so swept up in Lexa’s voice and smooth lines and the cadence of that damn flirting. She was cozy in her bed alone with Lexa lulling her to sleep with the charm that knew no boundaries, and knew exactly which of Clarke's buttons to push. The safety of her blankets and solitude allowed Clarke to let out all the lovey grins and smirks she wanted, and caught her off guard and she went and offered to make the call. Now with the perfect morning light welcoming a beautiful day full of reality and facts, Clarke wasn’t sure exactly how to say it.
To ask someone else to watch over Lexa for her suddenly felt outrageously intimate and like a massive confession, and she found every reason to put off making the request.
“Get over yourself, come on,” Clarke muttered and hit the call button. She leaned against the kitchen counter and found herself in a casual stance to make her casual questions about her best pal sound convincingly casual, even though she knew they were anything but.
“Clarke Muthafuckin’ Griffin calling me before six am Mountain time, what the fuck could this be?” the familiar taunt came through the line after one ring.
“Good morning, Echo,” Clarke sighed through a smile. "Figured you'd be getting ready for the day if you weren't in a deep, hungover slumber."
“You know it! What’s up, girl? How the hell are you?” Echo, Clarke’s former work friend and old schoolmate asked. Clarke could hear her cocky smirk and proud shoulders. The sounds of snowmobiles and four wheelers warming up in the background and a patrol and safety crew getting ready for the day shouting over them was unmistakable.
“I’m alright,” Clarke couldn’t help a little laugh from escaping.
They got their physical therapy degrees together and their wilderness EMT certifications together. Echo was briefly on the Avalanche squad with Clarke before moving up to her current role as the Safety Director for all of Vail. While they didn’t always have a lot in common, sometimes disagreed on methods, and often came at the same problem from two very different sides, they saw some shit together, they worked in extreme environments together, and they were forced to always have each other’s backs and developed an interesting type of trust in it all.
“You’ve been back on the east coast for what, five minutes? You already realize it sucks and you wanna come back and you wanna know if I have a spot on my squad?” Echo asked smugly.
“You wish,” Clarke matched her tone and they both chuckled. “It’s actually been pretty nice to be back.”
“How’s the snow?” Echo asked routinely. It was comforting and reassuring to hear her ask.
They used to check conditions with each other all the time. They spent a lot of time on chair lifts and sitting around camp fires and waiting for rescue calls, and the wind, the weather, the forecast, and the snow were all important topics. Long shifts with quiet radios would have Clarke waxing poetic about the trails of her youth.
“Exactly like I remember,” Clarke smiled fondly.
“Good for you,” the succinct head nod Clarke had come to know made itself present over the phone.
“So, listen,” Clarke began as a new wave of embarrassment she hoped to hide rose to the surface. She knew her cheeks were pink and was glad no one could see her. “I'm sure you’ve got your hands full out there with the boarder cross qualifiers.”
“You don’t know the half of it,” Echo said flatly. “You know how it is. How many extra patrollers are they sending you in January for Slopestyle?”
“The number keeps going up,” Clarke replied in kind.
“You get it,” Echo yawned. “So? What’s up? You need something?”
“I was kind of hoping to ask you for a favor,” Clarke set her coffee down and scratched her forehead anxiously. Medic to medic, they should be able to understand each other, but Clarke’s request in the early morning light did seem a little more obvious now that she wasn’t floating on air with Lexa’s little laugh in her ear, Lexa’s smooth voice coaxing joy out of her, and thoughts of Lexa’s hands all over her body.
“What’d’you need, Griff?” Echo asked.
“Is your big air training course closed for view for high level VIPs training today?” Clarke winced. The beat of silence as Echo immediately figured out what the call was about bounced around the room.
“Why, yes it is! And they just so happen to be East Coast VIPs!” Echo spoke in a mock proper accent.
“Look, Lexa called me last night, and-”
“I fucking KNEW it! Kate! Shelly! Megan! Open up those wallets, bitches. All three of you owe me fifty bucks! I’ve got Clarke Griffin on the phone, and I told all y’all bitches she was banging Lexa Woods! I called it!” Echo shouted over the rest of Clarke’s words.
“What?! Echo!” Clarke snapped over the booing in the background. “No I’m not!”
“C’mon, Griff, her instagram is a fucking shrine to those girly blue eyes of yours. You’re in every party photo and you’re hanging out in the background in that Trikru house like you live there. Suddenly she’s taking a million Ski Patrol Appreciation Photos and you’re tagged in all of ‘em? Bullshit! We’ve got a bunch of riders out here that share sponsors with Anya and Lexa and the reps are gossiping so hard. They’re obsessed with you.”
“Oh my god,” Clarke murmured and rubbed her hands over her face. Putting up with it in the lift line the morning after she and Lexa had been very much on display in their local bar was one thing, but to have it be commonplace gossip across the country in Colorado was something else. “Lexa’s just my friend!” Clarke huffed.
She couldn’t believe it was nationally obvious that something was going on. She couldn't remember the last time she talked to Echo past a few quick texts and occasional DMs and story reactions. They used to spend most of their time together and knew each other well, and to hear it from someone that knew Clarke’s body language well enough because they communicated in hand signals and motions because they couldn't talk while decked out in full rescue gear in foul weather and loud environments was jarring.
“Sure, and I’m just a girl scout in ski boots,” Echo scoffed. “I figured you were calling me cause you’re here with her and you wanted to catch up. I saw who was coming for big air training a few days ago and I’ve been expecting your call.”
“I’m home! I’m in Maine!" Clarke snapped.
“No shit?” Echo pressed.
“She’s working! Anya and Lexa are in your big air park today, and I’m just friends with both of them!” Clarke reiterated.
“So…what are you calling me for?” Echo asked carefully.
“Lexa had a fall recently and she’s stressed and messed up from it, and she really needs this training session to go well. I’m at the top of the medical staff here, and we put extra crew on the Trikru park and training sessions so that if something goes wrong, we get to them right away, and it helps her focus,” Clarke spoke as evenly as possible and stripped herself of as many emotions as she could.
“Okay,” Echo replied slowly and encouraged Clarke to continue.
“And she called me last night to catch up, and she told me she was feeling very anxious. I let her know that I know the safety director at Vail personally, that you are even better at this than I am, and that today I would give you a call to see if you could spare someone to be out there while they train to give her peace of mind since I can’t do it myself like I do at home,” Clarke heard it out loud and wanted to fold in on herself.
“Oh, so you’re not banging her, you’re in love with her,” Echo blurted out candidly.
“It’s complicated,” Clarke admitted without denying it before she could stop herself.
“Spectacular,” Echo laughed low in her throat. “This sounds very official and not cute and adorable and dreamy at all.”
“She’s a USA Team athlete that calls my hill home and I said I’d do my best to uphold my oath to keep her safe, and I can’t, so I called you to do it in my place. If you don’t have the people to spare, that’s fine. Forget I asked,” Clarke scowled.
“Yo, I’ve got plenty of people,” Echo spoke up firmly and dropped her teasing, realising quickly that she was right about what was going on and she’d pushed Clarke past her limits, and they both shared a duty and respect on the matter. “Regardless of the exact reasons, it sounds like this is really important to you.”
“It is,” Clarke said quickly.
“Great, then I got you. I’m sorry I gave you a hard time,” Echo added on calmly. “I’ve got extra medics all over this hill, so I’ll take one over there personally and oversee their training myself.”
“Just the medic is plenty,” Clarke’s voice shrank.
“No it’s not,” Echo took on a new seriousness and the respect that always won out between her and Clarke rose to the top.
“Thank you,” Clarke smiled sincerely and felt a familiar warmth in her comradery with her old squad member. “Really. It means a lot to me.”
“Don’t even mention it,” Echo’s audible grin was back. “Don’t stress all day over there. I’ve got eagle eyes on your girl for you, and I'll bring our best sled and fastest snowmobile that just got serviced. No room for error. We've got helicopters and ambulances on stand by for the comps."
Clarke had a flood of responses in the chamber about how Lexa wasn’t hers, it wasn’t like that, they weren’t fucking, she's just a just friend, please don’t perpetuate the rumors, but all of them stalled out.
“Thanks, Echo,” was all that came to the surface as Clarke nervously thumbed the hem of Lexa’s sweatshirt that, like Lexa herself, had officially become hers.
“Why wasn’t friendship as good as a relationship? Why wasn’t it even better? It was two people who remained together, day after day, bound not by sex or physical attraction or money or children or property, but only by the shared agreement to keep going, the mutual dedication to a union that could never be codified.”
Do you think the Coldplay kiss-cam situation could happen to MBFW Clexa? They get caught snuggling on cam, they completely oblivious but everyone assumes they boning. 😂
That is quiteb literally their entire relationship 🥴
I wish I had a better or wittier answer for you but genuinely, that's just them! Everyone who doesn't kmkw them always thinks they're a couple. The only difference between them and the Coldplay fiasco is they would've just,,, smiled excitedly and waved at the camera. While not letting go of each other. Ome would've probably kissed the others cheek. I mean. At Clarke's wedding brunch they were pressed together and holding hands for chrissake, it's disgusting.
Just wait till you read how they behave at the cake tasting 👀
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