After the prisoners had captured Clarke and Madi by knocking them out with some sort of gas, they deposited them in an old crate makeshift prison. When they woke up they were surprised to find out they weren't the only prisoners in the jail.
Stirring awake, Clarke blinked and looked around the the crate, noticing seven other dark figures were being kept with her. The smallest was obviously Madi; Clarke could easily tell what her adoptive daughter looked like even with just her outline. The others.. Clarke glancing around, slowly recognition dawned on her face… no, it can't be.
"Bellamy?" Clarke asked uncertainly. Bellamy started stirring awake, his hair was clearly longer than his usual short mop of curls, Clarke noticed. Not that it mattered to her at the moment. Blinking awake, Bellamy looked blearily around the dark crate that only had a few rays of light shining through its weathered holes.
"Clarke?" Bellamy asked uncertainly.
"Bellamy!" Clarke yelped, jumping to her feet. It was then that she realized her hands were tied behind her back. Her momentum from jumping without the balance of her arms caused her to keel over knocking into Bellamy.
"Ouch," she mumbled, her face pressed into the ground. Bellamy laughed.
"Still as graceful as ever, Princess," he mused, before growing serious. "Clarke… I… I… you're alive."
"Yes, I'm alive Bellamy," she replied, wiggling closer to him and leaning her head on his shoulder, breathing him in. Bellamy looked down at her.
"I thought… I thought… you were dead," he said, tears starting to form and running down his face.
"As it turns out, even if the air is toxic it doesn't always mean we're already dead," she smiled, tears coming from her own eyes as she wiggled toward him again, trying to comfort him. "Damn these wrist restraints."
Bellamy laughed. God, was he glad to see her, his Princess—alive.
"So the girl who survived Praimfaya can't handle some bondage, huh?" he asked, struggling against the crate wall as he tried to get into a sitting position. Clarke realized what he was doing and did the same, still placing her head on his shoulder. Bellamy leaned down to kiss the top of her head. Clarke started shaking.
"I thought… I thought I was never going to see you again," Clarke wept into his shoulder.
"Sh.. Sh.. It's ok, Clarke. I'm here and I'm definitely not going anywhere now that we're back together," Bellamy said, comforting her.
Clarke stilled. Contemplating his words, she shook her tears away and lifted her head up. Staring at the opposite wall through the darkness.
"What's wrong?" he asked, worried about her sudden change in demeanor. "I promise you Clarke, I will never leave you again. I could never leave you."
"Don't say that," Clarke admonished.
"C'mon Clarke, you know I mean it," he replied.
"I do, and that's what worries me," Clarke said. He gave her a questioning look and she continued.
"I cared about Finn. I gave him my heart and when he thought he lost me, he turned into a monster and I could never have that happen to you."
"Hey.." Bellamy started, shaking his head. Of course that would never happen, he thought.
"Stop," Clarke said, shaking her own head. "You need to hear this. When we were attacked after going to the bunker long ago, when you saved my life— you thought you were a monster and you were so broken when you thought you had disappointed your mother."
"Yeah, but you convinced me otherwise," Bellamy said, rolling his eyes.
"I know," Clarke said, looking down. "But if I continued to care about you and if I gave you my heart like I did to Finn, I didn't want that to happen to you because of me. I wouldn't have been able to live with myself if that had happened." Clarke started to cry, silently.
Realization dawned on Bellamy. Oh, we're having that conversation, Bellamy thought. He shifted in his seat, wishing he could hug Clarke if only it weren't for those damn wrist restraints.
"Clarke.." he said hesitantly.
"That's why I let you go to Mount Weather," Clarke said, starting up her big speech again. "I had to put our people first. When you were around I didn't think with my head, I didn't put them first. I put you first, I thought with my heart and we already had you for that. Our people didn't need me thinking with my heart, they needed me to think with my head. I needed to be who they needed me to be." She finished, tears streaming down her face.
"Is that why you had a relationship with Lexa?" Bellamy asked, after a few minutes of silence.
"I was with Lexa, initially, as a distraction from you and the fact I couldn't be there for our people like I should have been," she replied, her tears starting to dry up. "But I ended up loving her, not as much as with you, but…"
"Oh," Bellamy said.
"Yeah," Clarke mumbled, feeling a bit rejected. She started to wiggle away from him.
"No!" Bellamy shouted, nearly waking everyone up. "No!" he said again, shout-whispering.
"I just got you back, you aren't going anywhere," he said, looking into her crystal blue eyes unwavering.
Clarke laughed humorlessly. "Since I don't take orders from you, I'm going to need a better reason," she replied, quoting him.
Bellamy swore. "Because I love you, Clarke. Not that you make it easy," he said, laughing, although it wasn't very funny.
"What?!" Clarke asked, hope returning to her eyes.
"I… love…. you…" Bellamy said, slowly and deliberately, looking into Clarke's eyes.
Clarke turned away from him and laughed, happy tears streaming from her eyes. Leaning her head on his shoulder. "I love you, too Bellamy," she replied, just above a whisper.
Bellamy could barely believe it. He had thought of course, that that was what Clarke had been hinting to, but his hope didn't compare to the happiness and warmth seeping through his chest. He nudged her head with his, trying to get her to turn to face him. She lifted her head, their eyes met briefly, before Bellamy duked his head slowly and deliberately to kiss Clarke.
Love. Love was the only way Clarke could think to describe this kiss. Bellamy was very tender and soft, his lips moving against hers in a sweet passion. They poured everything into this kiss. All the longing, all the anger, frustration and sorrow—all the love. Bellamy moved to deepen the kiss, but fumbled. Breaking the kiss, Bellamy pulled back and swore again.
"What?" Clarke asked, laughing nervously. She hoped the kiss had been alright.
"These damn wrist restraints," Bellamy complained, clearly frustrated that he couldn't hold her while they kissed.
Clarke laughed again, and Bellamy swore that her laugh was his favorite song.
"Your hair is shorter," Bellamy mentioned, trying to get a better look at her in the darkness. He couldn't see her much, but he had felt her short hair tickle his chin when they had kissed.
"Yeah, it made more sense and it's easy to keep up when you're trying to survive and all," she laughed again, rolling her eyes.
"Yeah, that's probably true," Bellamy replied, grimacing. "I'm going to need a hair cut soon, maybe you can help once we get the hell out of here."
"Yeah," Clarke said thoughtfully, wondering about these new people who had seemed to capture all of them with no problem.
"What else has changed?"Bellamy asked.
"Well," Clarke started nervously, glancing at Madi's form.
"What?" Bellamy chuckled, rubbing his shoulder against her in comfort.
"Well, I thought I was alone, you know? Being the only surviver and all, but shortly after Praimfaya I discovered Madi while out hunting for food. She's a 13-year-old nightblood who's sleeping over there," she jerked her head towards Madi. "I kind of took her under my wing. I've been keeping her safe and teaching her lessons about the Earth and its history."
Bellamy was shocked. Well, not that shocked, he knew how Clarke had cared about Charlotte similarly. Shaking his head, he marveled at her shyness over this matter. He always knew his Princess would be a good mother.
"That's great Clarke," Bellamy replied. "The more the merrier, honestly. Besides, Murphy and Emori had a kid while we were on the ark."
"What?!" Clarke yelled, again, almost waking everyone up.
"Shhh.. yeah. That's why it took us longer to get down here. Emori found out she was pregnant a little over a year ago, we were waiting until the baby was a bit older to travel down here, but that was before we got captured by these new prisoners heading to Earth."
"Speaking of," Clarke said. "Where are Emori and Murphy and their kid? I don't see them in here."
"Me neither," Bellamy replied. "But I assume they are safe, hopefully. I'm hoping the prisoners didn't want to keep a tiny baby in a crate so they took him and his parents elsewhere to be kept."
"That makes sense," Clarke said. "I hope you're right. Also, when did you become so smart?" she asked, turning to look at him with a smile.
"Well, without you, I had to use my brain a bit more," Bellamy replied sheepishly, although his eyes were filled with sorrow. "Echo helped me with that. Although she's no you, not even close."
"Hey," Clarke said, getting his attention to snap him out of his grief. "I'm here now. Plus, being with Madi, she's changed me. She's taught me so much about how to make decisions with my head and with my heart. You and I— we're both whole and we're together. We can get through this." She nudged his shoulder with her head in a comforting gesture.
"Yes," Bellamy agreed. "Together."
"Together," Clarke repeated, resting his head on his shoulder.
A couple feet away from them, Raven was trying to steady her breathes. When they were in space, she and Bellamy had sought comfort—over losing Clarke, ironically—in each other. She had heard their entire conversation.
Although Raven didn't love Bellamy like Clarke did—and she knew that—but, she had realized recently that she was pregnant with his child. Now what was going to happen? She didn't want to complicate things for her friends. She was happy for them, a bit jealous of course, because she wished she still had Finn or Wick. But she didn't know what she was going to do.