Set after S01E08 - Day Trip
Raven has restored communication with the Ark. Finn is healing, Bellamy and Clark have made the trip to the FEMA bunker in Washington DC. The kids on the ground are able to talk briefly with their parents, while news of the bombing on the Ark sends shockwaves through camp (despite Jaha's instructions for Clarke to keep the news quiet). Clarke and Raven are the only two who have spoken to the Ark Council over the radio, supplying them with information on ground conditions. Assessing the situation on the ground and in space, Jaha and the council decide to remain in space until Spring (necessitating the culling of hundreds more people) and order The 100 to pair up and start repopulating the Earth.
Chapter 2
-The 100—
Telling the camp what was happening wasn't easy and for a moment it looked like they would turn on Clarke since she was the closest thing they had to the Ark Council. "That's enough," Bellamy called out in a guttural shout that demanded compliance. "Clarke is not your enemy, the Ark is. We need to focus on what we're going to do now. They think they're still in charge, but we know differently!"
"What can we do?"
"They'll kill us!"
"I can't have a baby here!"
"We've survived on the ground for nearly a month now. We've come together to accomplish things they never thought we would. Things even we doubted. But we're still here. We're still standing, and we will not bow down to the Ark now, or ever again!"
There were roars of approval, and Clarke expected Bellamy to lay out their plan, but he looked to her, and she realized he was letting her step forward. He was the resistance, she was the one with a plan. Together they would lead The 100 clear of the mess the Ark wanted to force on them.
"We're working on how to get the wristbands off," she said, her clear voice carrying easily. "Do not try to take them off yourselves, or you will be killed. Anyone with a background in engineering or mechanics should find Monty or Raven tomorrow. We need everyone here to pull together on this one."
She glanced at Bellamy who was standing a foot behind her, his arms akimbo, looking over the assembled teenagers. "We need to keep focused on preparing for winter, the Ark may kill us, or they may not, but freezing temperatures and starvation will. No one will be forced to have a baby they don't want. Not here, not on our guard. If you have questions you can come find me tomorrow-"
"Save your questions until tomorrow at campfire," Bellamy interrupted. "We'll answer whatever we can. Now, get to bed unless you have guard duty. We've got a lot to do in a short amount of time."
They'd begun building permanent structures, different types, based on available materials and as an experiment to see which lasted and which was warmest. Clarke had sketched the plans as described to her by anyone with any knowledge of building and primitive structures. Since Clarke would sketch between patients, she got plenty of feedback and ideas from kids who never would have approached her otherwise which lead to her taking the sketches to the campfire each night and sharing them.
In her opinion the best idea was to at least partially underground the structures, she had firsthand knowledge that the underground bunkers stayed warmer than the outside temperatures.
-The 100-
The next day, Clarke finished looking after her patients and went looking for Bellamy. Despite their assurances that no one would be forced to have a child they didn't want or pair up for any reason other than personal choice, fighting was already occurring. Clarke had treated three boys with contusions to the face and body, as well as bruised hands and split knuckles, including one of their best builders. After treating a girl with claw marks on her face and arms, and allowing a second girl to hide out in the med bay, Clarke had had enough.
"Miller," she called after not seeing Bellamy after a few minutes of looking. "Where's Bellamy?"
"Outside, he should be done in a bit. I'll tell him you're looking for him."
Clarke frowned. "Is he nearby?"
Miller nodded and approached Clarke, not wanting the whole camp to overhear. "At the graves."
She looked down. It had been her idea to study the wristbands that were on their dead. It was her idea to exhume the bodies, but the reality of it was difficult to accept. She nodded and headed outside. Of course Bellamy had taken the worst task onto himself.
As Clarke neared the graves, she saw that he had taken Wells' wristband off, but cut off the arms of the two kids who had died upon landing. The two who had followed Finn out of his seat.
They all had blood on their hands.
"You don't have to be here for this, Clarke," Bellamy grunted, reburying the two boys that neither of them had ever met.
"Neither do you, you could have gotten someone else to do it."
He cut a look at her and kept working, shoveling dirt over the bodies as she stood silently and watched. She wanted to ask about the others, but she didn't.
Three wristbands were enough to get started. If they needed more, they were there. Atom, Trina, Pascal, Roma, John, and Diggs. She'd barely know them, but Bellamy had. He'd considered Atom a friend, and she knew Roma had been seen on more than one occasion leaving Bellamy's tent.
Bellamy finished and stood upright, flexing his back. It was Fall, the mid afternoon sun still warm enough to be outside in just t-shirts, and Bellamy's was wet with sweat. Picking up a water container and taking a drink before dumping the rest over his head to cool down he turned to Clarke.
Pushing his wet hair back off his face the studied her. "You come out here for a reason, or did you just want to see me, Princess?" he asked, his expression questioning, but the seriousness of their situation didn't stop the gleam of knowing amusement in his eyes as she jerked her gaze back to his face.
Clarke looked him in the eye, pretending that she hadn't noticed the way his damp shirt stuck to his chest, though that was preferable to the fact that he was standing over two severed hands and a wristband he'd taken off her dead best friend.
"Yeah, did you not hear the shouts from inside the wall?"
"Miller can handle it, and I had other things on my mind."
"OK, granted, but they weren't normal fights, Bellamy," she said. Fights were common in the camp with teenage tempers and hormones running wild. "They were fighting over..." her hands fluttered uncomfortably, not sure what to call it.
"Breeding partners?" he asked, supplying the words as he bent over to wrap the newly reacquired wristbands in a dark piece of fabric.
"Let's just say partners, but yes," she agreed with a frown watching him hand off the neatly tied bundle to Drew as he passed on his foot patrol.
Bellamy scowled, thinking over the situation before announcing, "Time to make some new rules, Princess." He picked up his gun, slinging it over his shoulder and motioning for her to follow him into the forest.
Finding a dappled patch of sun and shade under a massive oak tree far enough from camp not to be overheard, but close enough to hear if anything happened, he sat against the tree. Bracing his back against the massive trunk, he immediately leaned forward and pulled off his damp shirt, spreading it out to dry next to him.
She stared at him. "Really?"
"You're welcome to take off your shirt too, Princess," he said with a smirk. "I have my faults but I fully support equal rights for women."
She shot him a sour look. "Oh, right. So you'd be supportive of Octavia-"
"Not a chance," he said quickly, making her smile.
Finally taking a seat next to him, but making sure there were a few inches separating them, Clarke looked out into the forest and wished she had paper and pencils with her. Time to draw for fun, for herself, had been nonexistent in the past week.
"The rules aren't going to be complicated. No fighting," she said.
"We can't ban fighting," Bellamy said dryly. "They're teenage delinquents, we take away their outlet and we'll end up with worse problems."
"Then what do you suggest, oh wise one?" When he didn't answer she turned her head to look at him, seeing that his eyes were closed, his face lifted to the sun. "Did you have freckles on the Ark?"
"What?"
"Freckles, did you have them on the Ark?"
"Some, why?"
"You have more now," she said, smiling at his look of discomfort. Usually Bellamy appeared to be supremely confident of his physical self. "They're... humanizing."
He arched one eyebrow, but let the subject drop. "Tonight at the campfire, we reiterate that there is no need to actually partner up, unless they want to. No girl will be forced to take a partner that she doesn't want," he said.
"Or guy," Clarke added, earning a dry amused look from Bellamy, which she ignored. "We need a way to make sure nobody is being pressured into anything. The girls get the final say in whatever arrangement they agree to. So there's no reason to fight," she asserted.
Bellamy sighed. "They're going to fight, Princess, the guys will work out who gets to approach the more desirable girls in camp among themselves, either with words or fists. You're not going to change that."
"So hypothetically two guys fight over a girl, she has to go with the winner? I don't think so," Clarke scoffed.
"I didn't say that," Bellamy said. "She's free to reject the winner and anyone else, and free to approach anyone she wants. If that guy is not the hypothetical winner," he parroted her word back at her, "he might get his ass beat, but he could still get the girl."
"No."
They argued for a few more minutes, until Bellamy agreed to stop attacks on anyone who had already partnered up. Deciding that they needed a list of partners, both shied away from the thought that the Ark had kept similar lists. "We can use the list to show the Council that we're taking it seriously," Clarke said, adding a benefit to the idea. "With a small population we'd need to track parentage, to avoid inbreeding."
"OK, then, we're set," Bellamy declared making moves to stand up.
"Not quite."
He groaned but sat back against the tree.
"What about people like Liza?"
"Liza can handle herself, I dare any guy to try to force her to do something she doesn't want."
"She's a lesbian, Bellamy. She won't want any guy. She's not going to comply with the Ark. And the younger girls..."
"This problem is already solved, Clarke. Mutual or simultaneous masturbation," he declared, shoving himself to his feet before reaching a hand down to her to help her up. Clarke hesitated for only a moment before putting her smaller hand in his.
-The 100—
That night at the campfire, Monty and Jasper surprised her with a small cup of flaming liquid. She looked from one grinning boy to the other, feeling a smile curve her own features, their sweet silliness a cure to her tiredness. "You made lamp fuel?" she guessed, causing several surrounding teens to laugh.
"It's your birthday, Princess," Bellamy said in amusement, "You're supposed to blow it out."
Clarke's eyebrows narrowed, looking around at Raven, Finn, Octavia and several of the others who were watching in anticipation. She hadn't told anyone when her birthday was, so she had no idea how they knew, she'd barely remembered herself that morning. "OK," she said slowly taking a deep breath.
Before she could blow out the flame (already knowing it wouldn't work, but willing to make a fool of herself if it gave the others some uncomplicated amusement), Octavia rushed at her. "No, you have to make a wish first."
Clarke hesitated, her eyes going to Finn briefly then to Bellamy. She was sure that wishing on a flaming candle (or alcoholic beverage) was about as foolproof as wishing on a shooting star (really an asteroid entering the Earth's atmosphere) or wishing on the flares they'd sent into the sky in a futile atempt to stop the Ark from killing 300 souls.
She smiled sadly and closed her eyes, making a wish for all of them to survive winter and outsmart the Ark. Opening them she took another deep breath and blew, rearing back as flames shot forward from the cup.
She laughed and the camp laughed with her until after three attempts they simply put the fire out by putting another cup over it then handing the now extinguished beverage to Clarke who looked unsure but gamely took a drink. A cheer went up and she sat back to watch as drinks were passed around.
Bellamy stepped up beside her and made the necessary announcements, declaring that the fighting was stupid and needed to stop, then stating the new rules in a no nonsense tone of voice. "No one has to pick a partner, we have a plan. But, if I have to intervene because someone can't handle rejection, you will wish the Ark had floated your ass in space."
-The 100-
A week later, Bellamy was listening in as Clarke reported on their 'progress.' He stayed out of sight from the camera that projected Clarke's image to the Ark, while Octavia sewed together some small rags into a long wrap for sprains and other injuries, and Raven worked on pulling some of the wiring in the drop ship walls.
Clarke gave her report matter-of-factly, relaying information about the weather, available food, and new dangers they'd discovered. She was about to sign off when Jaha dismissed the rest of the council except for Abby.
"Clarke, we need to talk."
"I have nothing more to say," the blonde girl declared.
"You haven't obeyed our orders."
Bellamy frowned, seeing Clarke's angry glare directed at the monitor.
"Honey," Abby said, her dark eyes full of worry and stress. "I know this is difficult-"
Clarke ignored her mother, keeping her eyes on the Chancellor. "No, I haven't. I've been busy, calming children's fears about the dangers of having children on a hostile planet without adequate medical care and promising them that we'll keep them safe , knowing that I'm lying through my teeth the whole time."
"Clarke," Abby tried again. "I know the circumstances aren't ideal, but a child is a blessing. Your father would have loved to -"
"Don't talk to me about him!" Clarke shouted, springing up from her seat, drawing attention from the other two girls present. "Don't you dare try to tell me that Dad would have loved his grandchild. You two killed him! You killed him, and you sentenced me to death and now you think you can make me believe that this isn't another form of servitude? A punishment?"
"I'm 17! I'm not in any way ready or willing to have a family yet," she yelled. "We're just kids, and every day here is a struggle! Everything is dangerous! We're barely getting enough to eat and you don't even care that pregnancies mean we will need more food but will have less people to gather it! You have no idea. None. And I'm done talking to you."
She slammed her hand against the comms unit, cutting the feed.
Bellamy regarded Clarke's angry face carefully, waiting until she'd managed to unclench her fists and calm her breathing. "Clarke, you have to comply with their orders."
"No, we need to know-"
"Know what? If they'll push the button and kill one of us for not doing as commanded?" Octavia scoffed.
"Yes, it could just be an empty threat," Clarke said weakly, clearly not believing her own words.
"It could, though I doubt it. And you are not the person to test that theory," Bellamy shot down her plan.
"Why not?"
"One, because we need you. If they did kill you for not obeying, then we could end up with a lot of pregnant girls here and no doctor. And two, if they didn't kill you, it wouldn't mean that they wouldn't kill anyone else who also refused to obey."
"Because I'm the princess," Clarke said caustically.
"Yes. Exactly. Clarke, look at it this way. If they think you're on board with their bullshit, if they trust you, they might slip up and reveal something important. Something we can use," Bellamy argued.
Clarke saw the logic in his reasoning, but shook her head, her eyes filled with dread. "No, I can't, I can't just…"
Bellamy took in her panic with some surprise. Clarke was usually so cool headed. "What's wrong, Princess? Don't tell me you've never…"
Raven looked down, flashes of Finn and Clarke together easily conjured up by her imagination.
"Of course not," Clarke flushed, looking down, not wanting to catch even a glimpse of Raven, given the topic. "I mean, of course I have, just… it's not… I just…"
"It's OK, Clarke," Bellamy said softly, his voice unusually compassionate.
Octavia looked from Clarke to Raven to her brother. She still wasn't happy with Clarke's involvement in Lincoln's torture, but since the Ark had issued their outlandish edict, Clarke had stepped up to try to figure out a way out of it. She'd also acted early on to protect the younger girls in camp from any unwanted male attention, gathering them to sleep in one tent together, and convincing one of Bellamy's guards to keep an eye out for them when Clarke wasn't around. Clarke had pushed herself to the edge of exhaustion, treating the myriad of injuries that The 100 seemed to collect while exploring the forest for edible and medicinal plants.
"So we need to find Clarke a fake lover in camp, shouldn't be too hard," Octavia cut in, shrugging, disregarding the much of the camp had paired up already in real or fake pairs, and no one had made a move on Clarke (or Octavia) because everyone was afraid of Bellamy's reaction. Their two leaders were close and no one understood when or how it had happened, but the fact that they'd returned from an overnight trip outside of camp with a united front that had held since then had set tongues wagging.
"You're hot," she said to the blonde girl receiving a nonplussed look in return. "Too bad the only guys here you've really gotten to know are Finn, Bellamy, Jasper and Monty," Octavia continued, offering her blunt opinion easily. "And I think Jasper and Monty would be horrified with the whole idea of 'faking' it with you, and Finn's with Raven, so that leaves Bellamy."
Octavia's conclusion drew incredulous looks from both her brother and Clarke, but Raven seemed to consider the idea. "He doesn't have a wristband, so they wouldn't be able to monitor him, so you could just... ya' know," Raven said, her eyes on Clarke.
"We know," Octavia said dryly.
Clarke finally met Bellamy's eyes, hers full of embarrassment, his not expressing any emotion.
As the silence stretched, Octavia's gaze sharpened on her brother. She'd seen him watching Clarke with a curiously tender expression when the other girl wasn't paying attention, and she knew he'd stopped sleeping around since Clark had explained that the birth control included in the women's rations on the Ark would have started to lose effectiveness after a few weeks, so he couldn't be worried about a fake hookup with Clarke effecting his actual booty calls.
"Or not. OK, who are some likely candidates?" Octavia said happily, smiling mockingly at her brother.
"For what?" Raven asked.
"Candidates to be Clarke's fake, or not so fake, lover," Octavia said with a taunting edge to her words. The blush on Clarke's cheeks grew as Octavia continued. "Jones is nice enough. Miller can be sweet when he's not being a jackass. There aren't many blondes around, so she and Drew could hook up, make some adorable blonde babies. Stewart Lennox could serve in that capacity too."
"The whole point of this is that there won't be babies," Bellamy said severely.
"No unwanted babies," Clarke said, thinking of the medicinal plants she and Monty were giving to the girls in camp who were having sex but didn't want to get pregnant, and the few girls who had decided to roll the dice.
"Fine," Bellamy agreed, ignoring Clarke's stunned expression. "I'll play the role. Next problem. Clarke just basically told them to go screw themselves-"
"Yeah, she did," Octavia said proudly.
"How do we convince them that she suddenly changed her mind?" Bellamy asked.
"Monty and I are getting closer to figuring out how to get one of those wristbands off," Raven said. "Someone 'dies," she said, motioning air quotes. "Clarke mourns, then embraces life," she finished sarcastically.
"Will they buy it?" Bellamy inquired doubtfully.
"Not likely," Clarke said.
"A love story," Monty said coming down the ladder from the higher levels of the drop ship, obviously having overheard the conversation.
Octavia clapped her hands excitedly. "Clarke didn't want to pick a random baby daddy, because she's got the hots for Bells."
"Add in a sad death and some mourning," Raven said.
"Maybe some of my moonshine," Monty offered.
"And Clarke is suddenly getting busy and in compliance with the baby Nazis," Octavia finished the tall tale gleefully.
Clarke licked her suddenly dry lips nervously, shooting Bellamy a look of trepidation. "That… might do it."
"They already know that you two are co-leaders," Octavia said. "Your partnership just… deepened."
"I would have loved to see Jaha's face when he realized Bellamy Blake was in charge down here," Raven muttered.
Clarke's eyes met Bellamy's. Jaha hadn't seemed too surprised when she'd told him, but the rest of the council had been in and uproar. Clarke had expected them to demand that Bellamy be stripped of his position, but Jaha had said he had confidence in Bellamy's abilities to protect The 100 as long as Clarke was involved in any and all decisions.
Clarke studied Bellamy's face for some clue as to why he was helping her, but couldn't find any clues there.
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