Okay, yes, I know that emeralds are very uncommon to be mined in the US but plot convenience so just bear with me okay? Marcus wants an emerald, Marcus gon get an emerald.
Marcus Kane never thought he would be so happy with someone. Even Cassie, who had died in the Diana Sydney fiasco, had never made him feel like Abby Griffin did.
Abby Griffin made his heart flutter every time she smiled. Her eyes were the earth-colored brown, and when the sun hit them just right they reflected its rays. Her hair flowed in the wind, whether messy or put up, and it always looked beautiful no matter what.
Marcus Kane never knew what true love was, until he met Abby Griffin. Vera hadn't even known what it was when he asked. "You'll find out one day, Marcus, when you meet the right one."
Abby Griffin was true love. Everything she did, from doctoring to sleeping, she was amazing. Every morning, Marcus couldn't wait to get his breakfast and meet her, laugh with her, be with her. Being around Abby Griffin was enough, but there was more to her than he ever imagined. He wanted to know everything about her, everything she hated and everything she loved. He wanted to become part of her, to be one, to learn everything he could.
Marcus Kane needed to be around Abby Griffin, because he didn't know if he could survive without her. He'd known her since he was small, and she had become a piece of his heart, and piece of his mind. There was Abby in everything he did.
And if there was already a friend Abby, who certainly was becoming much more, then there could be a bigger something Abby.
So that's why he was going to ask Lincoln a very important question.
"Hey, Lincoln," Marcus said as the Grounder-turned-Skaikru looked up at him. "Can I, uh, talk to you? In private?"
Lincoln nodded and got up from the fire, and followed Marcus to a secluded spot in camp.
"Okay," Marcus said. "I, uh, I'm... I'm thinking of... well, I'm going to... propose to..."
Lincoln looked at him, stars in his eyes. "Abby?" He almost shouted excitedly.
"Yeah," Marcus said, grinning sheepishly. Lincoln did a little dance in a circle. "Yes, I'm going to propose to Abby."
Marcus watched helplessly as Lincoln ran four full circles around the entirety of Mecha Station.
Octavia came over when he'd finished the third lap and already on his fourth.
"What's his problem?" She asked, and Lincoln came around again and stopped.
"MARCUS IS PROPOSING TO ABBY" Lincoln whisper yelled.
Octavia's eyes widened and her hands went to her mouth. "Oh. My. God-!" She danced in place, squealing. "Oh my god!"
"You know, I'd like to keep this a secret," Marcus said while the two danced with each other happily.
They kept dancing.
"You two are more excited about this than I am!" Marcus protested. They stopped dancing, finally. "Can I ask you my question, now?"
"Yes," Lincoln said. "Sorry, sorry."
"Where can I take her for a good dinner? And proposal spot?"
"Hmm," Lincoln thought.
"Ooh! I know!" Octavia said, with her hand raised in the air. "Does she like butterflies?"
"Yeah," Marcus said. "She used to study them a lot on the Ark. She's always thought they were beautiful."
"Then take her to the Butterfly Field!" Octavia said. "It's full of a bunch of butterflies that glow because of radiation. But go at night, they're prettier."
Lincoln nodded his agreement. "I'll ask my people to stay away from there," he said. "They're all suckers for love."
"Is that why you ran around Mecha Station four times?" Marcus taunted. Lincoln purposely looked away, embarrassed.
"So... when are you gonna propose?" Octavia asked, grinning from ear to ear.
"I was thinking... maybe... three days? That way, I can make sure everything's okay. You know. So nothing gets messed up."
Octavia nodded. "Okay." She turned to Lincoln and whispered something in his ear. He nodded seriously. "Stay here," he said to Marcus, and the two Skai-Grounders ran off.
Marcus sighed and pulled out the ring he'd made for Abby. It was really nothing special. Made out of wires, it was a circular ring with no stone on it. He had chosen certain colored wires and put them in a fashion you could easily see them; he thought they were the certain colors that he and Abby represented. Marcus himself was regular silver wires to represent the moon- strong, watchful, caring. Abby was green, to represent the earth in it nurturing, giving, motherly but stern way. He knew it was probably not what any woman expected in a ring, but he was proud of it.
He just hoped Abby liked it, too.
Octavia and Linclon returned and he pocketed the ring. Clarke, Bellamy, Raven, Wick, Jasper and Monty followed behind them, as well as Sinclair and Jackson.
"What's this all about? Some sort of secret council meeting?" Sinclair asked.
Marcus opened his mouth but before he could say anything, Octavia stepped up.
"Kane has some very important news I'm going to share with you all, but you have to keep it a secret for three days."
Everyone nodded.
"Do I have your word?" She asked. Everyone murmured their promise not to tell.
"Okay, so in three days, Marcus Kane is going to-"
"Can I tell?" He interrupted. "It's my news. And nobody was actually supposed to know but THANKS."
Octavia grinned at him, too happy to pick up on his discomfort. "Sure," she said and got out of the way.
"I... uh..." he looked at all of them, especially Clarke. Oh, God, what if she doesn't want me to marry her mother?
"You know what? Octavia, go for it."
Octavia grinned and stepped up again.
"Marcus is going to propose to Abby!" She whispered in the same way Lincoln had.
Looking back on it, Marcus supposed their reactions were quite hilarious. Clarke gasped, hands to her mouth. Raven grabbed her excitedly, mouth open in a silent scream. They jumped up a nd down together. Bellamy smiled at Marcus approvingly. Sinclair laughed and clapped him on the shoulder, congratulating him. Jackson looked happy, but Marcus suspected that he was only happy for Abby. They'd been friends since forever, Abby being his mentor and closest mother figure. He too congratulated Marcus. Jasper, Monty and Wick looked smug and Marcus wasn't sure if he saw ration papers being slipped between them, but they were all happy for him.
Once Clarke got over her initial reaction, she marched up to him.
"When."
"Uh, I was planning in three days. At the Butterfly Field. Dinner and proposal." Please don't kill me for not asking your permission.
She nodded. "Do you have the ring?"
Sheepishly, Marcus pulled it out of his pocket and presented it her. Clarke looked at it.
"Good work, but you need a diamond. Or some sort of jewel. Women like jewels, especially my mother."
"I know a few places you can get those," Lincoln supplied helpfully. "We usually don't use the caves for anything, so you don't have to worry."
"Alright, then Kane will go with Lincoln and I and we'll pick out the gems. Raven, Wick, you're going to figure out a way to splice them and attach them to each other. Bellamy, Sinclair, you're in charge of the food, and Jackson and Octavia, you keep my mother distracted from Kane and any suspicions she might have."
Everyone nodded and began collaborating with their respective partners.
"Uh..." Marcus said. "This is... this is my proposal, right? Shouldn't I be the one to organize this stuff?"
"No," Clarke said. "Not all of it. Just tell Bell and Sinclair what food you want and they'll get it. I'm helping pick out the gems because she's my mother, and Lincoln is taking us because he knows where the caves are. Raven and Wick are going to make them look cool on the ring and Jackson and Octavia are our inside people. Now, you're going to do the actual work, but we're here to make it flawless."
Clarke turned to Lincoln, who had a pack mysteriously already ready. "Let's go."
"Can you take me to the Butterfly Field too?" Marcus asked Lincoln on the way to the gem caves. "I've never been there."
Lincoln grunted in response. "We're almost to the caves."
When they finally reached the entrance, Lincoln took out a flashlight and headed in.
Marcus had never seen anything like it. There were no pictures or mentions of this sort of beauty in any book and the Ark, ever.
"It's almost as beautiful as Abby," he said without thinking. Clarke and Lincoln laughed.
After searching for a good while, Marcus found a good sized crystal of which they could break off for two rings. He gently smashed it with a hammer, and four large pieces came tumbling off. Marcus took the prettiest ones and pocketed them.
"Do you think there's any green gems around here?" He asked curiously. He'd once read in a book about something called emeralds, and they were the greenest green anyone had seen. He wanted one for Abby.
"I don't know," Clarke said, and Lincoln echoed her sentiment.
Marcus, too busy looking up at the glittering ceiling, failed to notice a rather long and wide bump going through the floor. He tripped over it, busting the rocky covering, and landed on his face. He looked over at the lump in the ground and realized that these were emeralds!
"C'mere you guys," he said excitedly. "This. This is the one I want."
They successfully gathered two emeralds and Marcus couldn't stop grinning. They headed to the original camp the 100 delinquents had made when they first got to Earth and then to the Butterfly Field near it.
Marcus chalked this up on his mental list of "Prettiest Things On Earth" and put it third, the cave being the second and Abby being the first. Butterflies landed on his arms and one on his nose. He laughed and looked over at Clarke, who seemed to be having fun.
They enjoyed the field for a few minutes until Lincoln told them the sun would set soon.
"Alright, Raven, Wick," Clarke commanded. "What can you do with these?" She laid the gems they'd gotten out on the mechanic's table.
"Laser cutting," Wick said. "But we'd need to get Abby out of medical."
"I can seriously injure Kane and leave him out in the woods!" Raven volunteered enthusiastically. Marcus glared at her.
"He's the one getting married, Raven," Clarke said. "Find someone else to seriously maim."
"Murphy," Raven suggested. "He pisses everyone off."
"Murphy's not in camp," Clarke said. "He went with Jaha to somewhere."
"I can injure Bellamy," Raven suggested. Clarke considered it.
"Alright. Stab Bellamy somewhere non-life threatening, you hear me, Raven?"
"Woah, no one is getting stabbed," Marcus said. "My cause is not that important."
"Yes it is. Wick, get Bellamy in here."
Marcus's protests fell on deaf ears as a stunned Bellamy was told it was 'for the greater good.'
"Hell no," Bellamy said. "If I'm getting stabbed by anyone, it's not gonna be Raven."
"What, you doubt my stabbing skills? Here, I'll show you right now." She picked up a knife.
"No," Wick said. "He doesn't doubt your abilities, Raven. He fears them."
Bellamy nodded. Marcus put his head in his hands.
"Have Clarke stab me," he said. "I'll be up for that."
"I'm not stabbing you."
"Jesus Christ, I'll stab you!" Marcus shouted. "Just someone decide!"
"Alright, Kane will stab you," Clarke said. "After that, he will run back to camp and get my mom. She will then be out of medical and Raven and Wick have ten minutes."
"Woah, how do we already know the time?" Wick asked.
"Because that's how long I'm giving you," Clarke said.
"But cutting gems isn't going to be easy," he protested. "We need at least twenty minutes for two gems."
"Fine. We'll make sure the place Bellamy is stabbed is at least twenty minutes away. As soon as you guys see her running out of camp, go to medical. Start the process soon and you should be able to get the first two done. Mom will treat Bellamy and the walk back will probably take twice as long because Kane is going to stab Bellamy in the leg."
"Woah," Bellamy said. "I'm not waiting with no one watching me in the woods for twenty minutes waiting for help to arrive," he said.
"Don't worry, I'll be hiding in a nearby tree with a walkie talkie to tell Raven and Wick when you're coming back," Clarke said. "I'll be there if you die. Which you won't."
Bellamy crossed his arms, huffing. "Fine."
Marcus was slightly shocked but at the same time not. "How... Why are you okay with this? Why? What mental state are you in?"
The teenagers all grinned at him.
"The state of Kabby," they said.
The next day, they set off twenty minutes away from camp to stab Bellamy.
They'd borrowed one of Lincoln's poisoned covered knives to stab Bellamy with.
"I'm going to feel terrible," Marcus said. "I can't stab you, Bellamy. It's going to weigh on my conscience."
"It's fine. I already forgive you," he said.
"But I just... I already feel bad," Marcus said.
"I'll stab him," Clarke said. "Besides, I know which arteries not to slice open so he won't bleed out. And which muscles to cut so the walk back will take longer."
"Okay," Marcus agreed. Five minutes later they'd reached the point of a twenty minute walk, so they went off the path a little into a secluded area. Bellamy lay on the ground, already covered in a previously killed animal's blood to make it look real.
Clarke took the knife in hand and keeled down to Bellamy. His breathing was faster now.
"It's okay," he said. "For the greater good."
"On three," Clarke said, and Marcus turned away.
"One."
"Two."
She stabbed Bellamy just below the hip. His screams were the only thing that made Marcus look. It didn't look too bad, but apparently it really hurt.
Clarke stood as Bellamy's scream turned into curses.
"Thanks," she said. "I needed that."
"You needed to stab me?!" He yelled. "Ah, f- Kane, go, please! It hurts!"
Clarke nodded to him, waving her walkie and Marcus made sure Bellamy had his. He raced back to camp to get Abby, because no matter how much he loved her, he was not willing to let other people get hurt because if that love.
He raced into medical and almost slammed into Jackson.
"Jackson," he said, out of breath. "Where... Abby?"
Jackson's brow furrowed. "Abby's sleeping," he said. "I told her to go to bed about an hour ago. Raven and Wick are already almost done with the gems. Why?"
Marcus hit his head on the side of the table.
"We stabbed Bellamy!" He said. "We stabbed him so she would get out if medical so Raven and Wick could use the laser!"
Jackson looked at him incredulously. "What is wrong with you?!"
"It was Raven's idea," Marcus supplied helpfully. He got out his walkie talkie.
"Clarke? Your mom isn't here. We didn't need to stab Bellamy."
All he heard as a reply was "Shit" and Bellamy shouting in the background.
"We screwed up."
Half an hour later, Bellamy had been treated and given the antidote for the poison. His leg was wrapped up and he was now settled in a wheelchair, very unhappy.
The whole of Team Proposal (as Raven had started calling them and now it had caught on) was standing in Marcus's tent, sans Bellamy, who was sitting in the wheelchair.
Raven and Wick presented the rings, New and improved. Abby's ring was still Marcus's design but it now had the gems on top and a finish that he hadn't given it before. Marcus's own ring was simply wire on the bottom, but it secured the two gems that created the final loop together. (Imagine a half and half ring with wires on one side and the gems on the other.)
"They're perfect, you guys, thanks," Marcus said sincerely, and now he knew that without his team he wouldn't have done half as good. The sun was setting and Abby was going to expect Marcus for dinner soon.
"I have to go now, guys," he said to them. "Abby's expecting me."
They all stared at him as if he were crazy.
"Uhm," Clarke said. "No, you're not going anywhere."
"What?" Marcus asked, bewildered. "She's expecting me for dinner."
"That's funny," Raven laughed sarcastically. "He thinks he can just go see her! Haha!"
Clarke laughed at Raven. "Hold on, I'll go tell her she's not seeing him tonight."
"Wait, no, Clarke-" he protested, trying to follow her out of the tent. The others physically restrained him and he was left helpless to watch as Clarke sauntered over to a lonely Abby and told her that Marcus was not coming tonight.
Clarke walked off after her mother agreed to not trying to find Marcus. She took a detour to his tent.
"Okay, we're good," she said. "Don't bother going out there, Marcus."
"What the hell?" He asked when she got back. "Why can't I join her for dinner?"
She smiled devilishly. "Because if you're going to propose to my mother, I have to hear it. We're going over the plan again, Team Proposal."
Marcus groaned.
"Clarke... It's eleven at night. Please can we go to bed?" Bellamy pleaded after three hours.
Clarke closed the book she had open. "Yeah," she said. "Sleep now." She herself yawned and Marcus expected her to get up out of his tent along with the rest of them, but when he looked over at the team, they were all asleep on his floor. Monty and Jasper were taking up the edge of his bed, Bellamy asleep already in his wheelchair, and Raven and Wick curled up next to each other at the edge of the tent. Sinclair was blocking the entrance, and Jackson fell asleep on the chest Marcus kept at the edge of his bed. Octavia and Lincoln were sleeping next to each other on the floor beside his bed, Octavia using an old shirt for a pillow. Clarke fell asleep on Bellamy's shoulder in her chair.
"I hate all of you," Marcus grumbled as he fell asleep in the not taken up part of his bed.