Clarke climbed into the passenger seat her arms clutching tightly onto the bag in her lap. Bellamy carefully closed her door before turning to Raven standing behind him. She pressed her lips together in an effort to suppress the large smile on her face, her free arm wrapped around Madi's shoulders.

"Shut up, Reyes," Bellamy mumbled as he pulled Madi out from under Raven's arm, kneeling in front of her. "You'll be safe here and I'll take care of Clarke."

Madi wrapped her arms around Bellamy's neck giving him a nice squeeze. "I know." She flashed Bellamy a smile before stepping back beside Raven.

"Clarke be careful with that. There are two bombs and we can't risk losing any of them if we want to get the rest of our family out of the bunker." Raven smiled up at Bellamy once more before he turned back, making his way around to the driver's seat. "And Clarke, make sure Bellamy keeps his eyes on the road this time wouldn't want him to hit anything and leave you stranded."

"Float yourself, Reyes." Bellamy rolled his eyes as he took a seat in the Rover beside Clarke. He glanced over at Clarke, watching her as she waved to Madi once more.

"Are you ready, Princess?" Clarke swung her head back at him, her lips curled into a tight smile as she nodded at him.

Soon they were lost in the forest making their way towards the desert. Bellamy's eyes remained focused on the road in front of him. While Clarke's were focused on holding their backpack in place.

"Madi told me you radioed me... us every day." Bellamy clenched his jaw tightly as he fumbled on his words, the regret instantaneously taking over his body moving him to his core.

Clarke peeked over at Bellamy through the corner of her eye watching him narrow his eyes ahead of him. "2,199 days and you didn't answer once." She let out a light laugh tilting her head to the side to catch the dimple forming at the corner of his mouth as he smiled.

Bellamy knew she was kidding, but his heart still ached for her. She was stuck here because of him.

"I think that the idea of talking to you every day kept me sane. It gave me hope." Bellamy tightened his grip on the steering wheel, his knuckles growing pale.

"Please don't feel bad about leaving me here. You did what you had to do. I'm proud of you." The car slowed down as Bellamy's eyes shot over to Clarke.

The only other person who had ever said that to him was his mother. Clarke wasn't his mother, but she damn well meant just as much to him. She had always brought out the same part of him that his mother did. Over the past 6 years, he'd gotten close to the rest of Space Kru, but they'd never treated him the way Clarke did. She was different.

"If I hadn't hit that Grounder we would have all made it into the bunker. We would have all been together ." The guilt radiated off Bellamy. They'd been apart for over 6 years, but it was clear they'd fallen back into place the way she'd always hoped they would.

Clarke reached across the space between them, placing her hand on his knee immediately sending a twitch up Bellamy's leg. "We're together now."

Bellamy's peered over at her, his jaw clenching tightly as the warmth of her hand sent a wave of heat throughout his body. "Besides if we were all in the bunker I would have never found Madi." Clarke sat back taking her hand off his thigh and placing it carefully on the backpack resting in her lap.

"Do you think this is going to work?" Bellamy let out a deep sigh. He had spent every day thinking of what it'd be like to see his sister again, but now that he was so close he wasn't sure if he was ready to see the woman she had become.

"We can hope, right?" Clarke wasn't even sure if they'd be alive after all this time. They could have died of starvation, thirst, plagues. There were more ways to die than to survive.

A silence lingered between them for a few minutes before Bellamy stopped the car, his hands gripped tightly around the steering wheel.

Clarke turned her head towards Bellamy watching him as he pressed his lips into a hard line. "Bellamy, what-"

"Clarke." He cut her off as he turned to look towards her. The Rover was stopped in the middle of a desert with nothing in sight except for a long endless range of orange clouds.

He let out a deep sigh as he carefully shifted his eyes to meet hers. This was it, this was his chance. He needed more than anything to take it. "I don't know if we're going to find our family or if we're driving ourselves to a tragic end or if we're going to live to see another day or if we're ever even going to be alone like this again, but I need you to hear this."

Clarke felt her heart drop to the floor, her stomach following close behind it. She had thought about what she'd say to Bellamy after all these years. She had thought about staring into those big chocolate brown eyes and telling him everything she'd ever felt. She even thought about the olive freckles that laced the edges of his cheeks running to the tip of his nose every day since he'd left her on this forsaken planet.

Bellamy clenched his jaw tightly, trying to find the right words to say this. He'd spent years on the Ark trying to decide what he would have said to her, had she given him the chance, but being here right now was different. Seeing her stare right back at him with the same look he'd cried over so many times was tearing him apart.

"I lived a life without you for 6 years and it was the worst thing to ever happen to me. I don't want to live like that again. I don't want to be the head and the heart because the truth is, you will always be the head to my heart." The words came out of his mouth so fast he couldn't catch his breath.

Clarke just stared back in silence, her jaw incapable of holding itself up. Her eyes skimmed his face, running back and forth from his eyes to his lips to his freckles and back again. It felt like the world had stopped.

"I spent every day trying to make sure you didn't die in vain. I wanted to be the leader you always believed I was capable of being." There was a shift in the atmosphere around them as they moved closer to each other. "I realized in those 6 years that I can't even live without even the thought of you. The idea of you is what gave me hope, it's what kept me going. You keep me centered. You always have."

Clarke was frozen incapable of moving or saying anything else. She always knew she needed Bellamy, but she never considered that maybe he needed her too. A tear slipped down her cheek as she sat in silence staring into his eyes completely captivated.

Bellamy leaned forwards cupping her cheek in the palm of his hand, wiping away the stray tear with his thumb. "Clarke."

She placed her hand on top of his, leaning her face into his palm. She couldn't contain the tears as they ran down her cheek and down his hand. "Bellamy."

Clarke could barely breathe. She'd been waiting for this for longer than she'd ever known him. "You got it backwards." Her lips curled into a smile as she swung her legs over the side of the seat carefully setting the backpack on the floor beside her.

"You said I keep you centered, but that's not true. You keep me centered. You always have, haven't you noticed?" Bellamy tilted his head to the side admiring the way her lips as she spoke. "From the day we landed, I've needed you. All the ideas may have been mine, but it was always you everyone wanted to follow. You've always inspired people in a way I never could."

Bellamy lifted his free hand to the other side of her face, cupping her face in the palms of her hands. "Then you can't leave me again." He leaned forward pressing his forehead against hers.

"Last time I checked you left me," she laughed, tears rolling down her cheeks and into the palms of his hands.

"Clarke." His breath grew heavier as his lips grazed hers. Clarke closed her eyes embracing the electricity between them. "Fuck it," Bellamy mumbled before pressing his lips against hers.

A part of her told her to stop, but her heart told her to never let go. Clarke felt like she was melting into his arms, losing herself in the kiss. He tasted like joy, and joy tasted better on Earth.

When they finally broke apart they were both winded, desperately trying to catch their breath as they avoided each other's gaze. They both lost themselves in their thoughts, wondering if this was the start of something they'd always wanted.

"Clarke-"

"I love you." The words were out of her mouth before she even had the chance to process anything. But a part of her didn't regret it at all. "I love you. I don't know when it happened, but I can't hide it anymore. I won't hide it anymore."

Bellamy was taken back, but a wave of relief flooded his body as the realization hit him. Clarke Griffin loved him, it wasn't something he had to convince himself of or wonder about anymore. She loved him like he loved her. "Clarke-"

Clarke felt all the blood rush to her face, completely overwhelmed by his shocked face. "No. I know we just found each other, we haven't even gotten to our family, we don't even know if we'll make it-"

Bellamy took her face in his hands again, pulling her attention away from her thoughts long enough to focus on his soft chestnut eyes. "Breathe." She let out a deep breath she hadn't realized she was holding. "You have no idea how long I've waited to hear those words come out of your mouth."

He ran his thumb along her bottom lip, a large grin growing on his face as he gazed down at her. Bellamy leaned forward pressing soft kisses to her lips. These kisses were chaste and precious.

Between each kiss Bellamy mumbled against her lips, the vibration from the back of his throat shooting through Clarke's body. "I...love...you."

If there was anything Bellamy was ever sure of in life it was that he loved Clarke Griffin more than he'd ever loved any other woman. She was his family even when he felt like he'd lost it. She was his home and he wouldn't want it any other way.

"Now I could sit here and kiss you forever, but we have a family to get to." Before he turned away Clarke grabbed him by the back of the neck pressing one last kiss to his lips before taking her seat and placing the backpack in her lap.

There was no guarantee they'd break through to the bunker or that they'd see their family again, but whatever happened next they'd get through together.