Clarke and Finn's first argument was over Bellamy.

It was about 2 weeks after the Grounder Battle. Clarke had been so relieved to see Finn and Bellamy had survived the blast that she decided to throw caution to the wind. The minute she laid eyes on Finn emerging charred and coughing from the tunnel she threw her arms around him and wouldn't let go until a gruff voice behind him said,

"What, so Spacewalker surviving matters more than me? I'm hurt Princess!"

Bellamy got a hug but nothing like the desperate embrace she gave Finn and as soon as he had drunk enough water to stop the coughing she leant in for a long kiss, ignoring the stares of the surviving 100. Bellamy wasn't surprised, even though he found it hard to understand - he knew that something happened between them before Raven arrived and once Finn was single again, it was only a matter of time. He took himself off to check on Raven, who miraculously was still clinging to life.

It had been a day of sorrow and tears but mixed with the odd moment of joy. For a few awful minutes Clarke and the others were convinced that Bellamy and Finn had died and finding them alive seemed like a miracle. Didn't mean they didn't mourn the 37 of their people who died that day. Many graves were dug, but sadly even more bodies weren't found, instead their charred remains mingled with the Grounders who died next to them.

Nobody wanted to rebuild on top of their fallen friends so they decided to move camp closer to the river, in a clearing they had found during hunting trips. They salvaged all they could from the drop ship, practically dismantling it to reuse the metal as walls for huts.

After reuniting with Finn, Clarke's first priority was Raven. She felt they could rely on having at least a few days of peace without threat of attack and she was going to spend that time refusing to let death take another one of her friends. Raven provided another small miracle. The bullet was not in her spine, although frighteningly close. It took all Clarke's willpower to hold it together during the operation to remove it, and then a couple more days of nail-biting waiting for the swelling to go down enough to be sure the surgery itself had not done further damage. They had carefully moved Raven to the new camp and Clarke and Finn had taken turns to sit with her round the clock. Clarke knew she didn't have the skills to fix any internal injuries and could only hope that the bullet hadn't damaged anything vital. They used small doses of Lincoln's anticoagulant along with seaweed poultices and tea but in the end, all they could do was wait.

For three days, Raven remained unresponsive but her pulse was steady and there were no obvious signs of infection. Clarke refused to be anything other than optimistic and even Bellamy bit back his usual pessimistic predictions. On the fourth morning, Raven opened her eyes and began swearing at the pain and Murphy for daring to shoot her. Once she had figured out her surroundings had changed her memory kicked in and she demanded to know exactly what had happened. Clarke and Finn filled her in before Clarke, with her heart in her mouth, asked how her legs were feeling. Raven immediately started wriggling in an energetic manner, her face beaming,

"Clarke, you are as much of a badass as your Mom - you fixed me."

That night, when it was just her and Finn, Clarke wept with relief. Raven had been a sort of talisman for the future - if she got better then perhaps there was hope and deep down Clarke had been terrified she would die.

From that point on, life began to take on a new rhythm of building and hunting and starting life over. Clarke and Bellamy were still in charge but with the smaller number in camp and the trauma they had all been through, everyone seemed closer, more like a family.

Of course, there was one person in camp who would never be family. Anya had jumped on board the dropship at the last minute and owed her life to luck and Clarke. If she had been outside she would have died in the blast and inside the dropship wasn't much safer with a swarm of teenagers surrounding her and trying to kill her. Clarke stopped them, even though Anya had ordered her own execution just the day before. It would take them both a few days to digest the ramifications of that choice. As soon as they stepped out of the dropship it was obvious that all the grounder warriors and reapers who had been standing anywhere near had been killed in the blast. For the first few days after the battle everyone was on edge and they kept a strict watch on their surroundings but nobody appeared.

When they first opened the dropship door they had dragged Anya off with them, spitting and kicking the whole way. It had taken her a few minutes to realise that the ashes she was walking on were all that was left of her people. She let out one spine tingling scream before collapsing in a heap on the ground. They had to carry her to the new camp, where they shackled her in a small hut and left her to her thoughts. Eventually Clarke had dragged herself away from Raven for long enough to check on Anya and with Bellamy's help holding her down they made her drink. Clarke dressed her wounds and tried to talk to her but with no response. Clarke worried that Anya was trying to starve herself to death. Bellamy told her to let the bitch die if that's what she wanted, but Clarke just couldn't do that and eventually it seemed that Anya had made the decision to live. She started accepting food and water and although she wouldn't talk it was obvious that she was alert and observing the camp. Clarke gave her a few more days then, after a talk with Bellamy, she approached the Grounder Princess and sat cross legged on the ground in front of her.

"Anya, this isn't what we wanted. We have lost over half of those who came down to earth with us. You have lost more. All we want is the chance to build a life here, in peace. We tried before to negotiate with you and it didn't work."

At this, Anya's head shot up and she looked as if she would like to speak but her lips folded and no words came out.

"That may have been our fault," continued Clarke, "I know we shot first but you broke the agreement to come without weapons and our people thought they were protecting me."

But things are different now. I don't think any more of our people are coming down, so I can make promises as the leader of our group. We will not attack you, unless you attack us first. We will agree territorial borders and abide by them. You should consider that you are without warriors and no good has come to you through forcing war on us. Let us try and make a future without conflict, for the good of our people and your people. Can you agree to peace?"

Anya finally spoke,

"But peace is weakness unless you kill us all."

Her words suggested aggression but her tone implied a question.

"Not for us" said Clarke, "we believe that showing mercy demonstrates our strength. If we killed the rest of your people we would be killing the innocent. Our history is of a war so terrible we had to leave our home for 100 years. We believe we can do better. If we have to keep fighting then so be it and we will kill every last one of your people if that is the only way we can protect our own. But we think we have demonstrated our strength and now it is time to move on in peace. Your people and our people, separate but in harmony."

Anya was looking completely shell-shocked.

"You do not understand. We are warriors, since we are children we are bought up that we must fight to stay alive."

"And if we agree to peace then no more children need to die."

Anya eyes darted from side to side as she considered this,

"The reapers from this area are dead. Tristan commanded all forces from the ocean to the mountain and they also are dead. The mountain men may come but they have not so far. I cannot answer for the Commander."

"Who is the Commander?"

"He leads all of us - me, Tristan and all peoples north of the mountain."

"If you and I call a truce, will he listen to you?"

" I... do not know" said Anya slowly.

"If we release you, can you take him our terms?"

Anya was silent for a long time. Clarke tried not to look as if her answer mattered as much as it did. Her threats of continued violence were completely hollow. If Anya was set on continued fighting they didn't have a plan B. Finally Anya took a deep breath and said,

"A new life with no fighting. I do not know how to do this but we have buried too many. It may be time to find another way."

"We will send one of our own with you to speak for us. He will treat you as a hostage until terms are agreed but we will end that as soon as possible. Is this agreeable to you?"

"Not agreeable", ground out Anya, her eyes spitting fire at Clarke "but I would do the same."

"You leave at first light." said Clarke before walking away to share her success with Bellamy.

After much discussion it was decided that Bellamy would accompany Anya. Clarke felt that as the more level-headed leader she would be better at negotiating with the Commander but she couldn't deny Bellamy had brute force on his side. Anya seemed to be cooperating but she was dangerous and strong and, although she hated to admit it, Clarke wasn't sure she could control her if it became necessary.

So, 10 days after the battle, as dawn broke, Bellamy set off with Anya to try and secure their future. Bellamy and Clarke both knew the stakes were high and there was a good chance that Bellamy might not even make it back. Clarke put on a brave face as she saw them leave but allowed herself a brief hard hug and a muttered "Don't forget, I need you."

Bellamy gave in to a moment of weakness and dropped a quick kiss on the top of her head when she hugged him before muttering back, "Stay safe, Princess."

Clarke and Finn's first argument started about 5 minutes later. Clarke gave the camp instructions for the day and walked off to the hut that was her new clinic. Finn was waiting for her with lips pursed and arms tightly folded

"You know this is a bad idea, right? It should be me going, not him. He'll probably kill her before they've gone half a day."

"Finn, it had to be him, you know that. Anya is well aware that Bellamy and I are co-leaders and she insisted it had to be one of us, or the Commander would not listen. And I would have gone but she has several more years' battle training and psycho mental conditioning than I do." Finn missed the sarcasm of her last sentence and continued to brood.

"He can't hold his temper and you know it. You can't trust him to negotiate with them."

"But I do, Finn. He knows our lives are at stake and what he needs to do to settle with the grounders. I don't know how you can see what he's done for us over the last few weeks and still think he's not worth trusting!"

"Because you would trust him, before me!" shouted Finn. Clarke was momentarily taken aback. Was Finn jealous? The thought actually annoyed her even more; she might never see Bellamy again and Finn was wasting time on such pettiness.

"He is risking his life for ours!" she yelled back at him. They both glared at each other. Clarke found herself surprised at how angry she was that Finn couldn't understand Bellamy's courage. But she remembered the many occasions Finn and Bellamy had argued. Winding up Spacewalker was one of Bellamy's favourite methods of stress relief so perhaps she was asking too much. She took a deep breath and put one hand on Finn's shoulder.

"It's done now, Finn. Please, I really need you to help me keep things calm and under control here, until we hear from him or..."

She didn't finish the sentence, the words "until we know he's dead" remained unsaid because they were too painful for Clarke to speak out loud. Finn was smart enough to be aware of what she was thinking, although he didn't view Bellamy's untimely demise in quite such a tragic light. He unwrapped his arms and pulled Clarke into a hug, then a gentle kiss. He would never understood what she saw in Bellamy that inspired such trust but with the possibility that Bellamy might never come back there seemed no point arguing further.