Abby's POV***
I watched my daughter leave, that boy right behind her. They had been perfectly in sync. No hesitation, and he had her back. I had never seen my daughter that comfortable with a boy that wasn't Wells. I couldn't understand the connection between the 22-year-old failure of a cadet, and my daughter but I didn't like it. He made her wild, uncontrollable. We couldn't have that. Not now, not after finally managing to get to the ground.
I looked to Marcus, thinking of the shock on his face when my daughter had not only stood up to him earlier, but belittled him in front of the entire council a few moments ago. And his face when Bellamy began speaking like he knew what he was talking about. "They are going to be a problem Abby. They are already stirring up trouble. We aren't stable enough to sustain ourselves and our people are already moving toward open revolt. They are causing rebellion Abby. I know she's your daughter, but we have to stop this."
I sighed, "You think I don't know that Kane? Those kids have been trouble for us since we sent them down. The people are angry with us, and they are following Clarke and Bellamy because of what WE did Kane. We have to find a way to fix this doesn't make the situation worse." He huffed and walked away, following the same path Clarke and the other council members had already taken out of the room. I followed after him, deciding to try and catch my daughter alone, or get her alone so that we could talk.
It took me fifteen minutes to find Clarke, and when I did it was to find her with the remaining one hundred except Raven, who I suspect is still trying to succeed at an impossible task. I froze when I realized what I was seeing. Before I got close enough for them to see, I stopped, shocked. My Clarke had never been a touchy feely person She was aloof at the best of times except with her father. Even with Wells she hadn't shown a lot of affection.
But my daughter was now sitting between the two Blake siblings and laughing at something the elder had just whispered in her ear. She was leaning into him. Arms brushing, smiling at whatever he told her. She looked happy, and carefree. It hurt. These strangers could get my baby to laugh, to smile, and what does her mother get? Glares, and mistrust and no affection from the girl she had raised.
A sudden burst of laughter brought me out of my thoughts, and my eyes lifted back to the group by the fire. I watched my daughter stand, hoping she would be leaving the group, but instead she turned to the group and raised the cup in her hand. "I promise that as soon as we can, the rest of our friends, our family, they will be back with us, around this fire. Monty and Jasper will make us some moonshine, and we will celebrate our family!" There was cheers from the remaining kids and then Bellamy stood, and situated himself right next to my daughter. "We will bring our people home. We will prove to these people that they need us to survive. We will survive. We didn't survive two months on earth alone by fluke, we will win. We will survive."
Clarke chipped in, "No Bell, we will thrive." The cheers had continued through the little display and I was only side tracked from that because of the way my daughter was looking at the boy, no man, next to her.
She was watching him intently, and the she leaned up and whispered something, and I was brought back to a few days ago when I watched from afar as my daughter flung herself at this rebel man. The look of sheer relief on the boy's face hadn't been missed. I wonder what he did to get my daughters whole attention? What did this boy have that pulled her away from the good little girl Abby had raised?
Yes, Bellamy Blake was handsome. Abby wasn't blind, but she knew her daughter, that wasn't the root of this relationship. Clarke was far to realistic and rational for that. And that nickname. Bell. Clarke had never had a nickname for anyone. And she had never before been okay with a nickname for herself. Princess. This boy got to call her daughter princess, see her smile, and Abby got the cold shoulder. This boy, this rebel, this man that shouldn't have been allowed to live after what he did on the ark; her daughter was looking at him like he hung the moon and the stars. Like he had the answers to the worlds or something. She wondered what this was to Clarke, he had to be more than a partner, Clarke had never looked at Wells that way, and he had been her partner in everything since they were children. I was transfixed, frozen, watching the person my daughter had become because my choice to send these kids to the ground.
I watched frozen for a minutes, as Octavia and the girl with the braids she had patched up a few days take their leave, along with most of the remaining 100, until Clarke and Bellamy were the only ones left. Abby took a step closer, about to call out to her daughter, when Clarke began to speak.
"Bell?" He turned to face her, "promise you won't do something stupid? When you go to plant the bomb?" A soft smile overtook the rebellious man's face, "Of course princess." He looked at her as if she helped to make the sun rise and set every day.
"I'm serious Bell. I can't do this without you. I can't lose you to." Bellamy looked at her in wonder for a moment, "I promise Clarke, no funny business, but I can't promise I won't do what it takes to get our people back." She smiled, setting her head on his shoulder, "I know that Bell, but just keep that in mind okay? I need you. We need you. Octavia needs you. I can't do this without you. I can't stand up to her, face Lexa, keep our people safe and together without you okay?"
It was quiet for a moment then, "Okay Princess. Now your exhausted, why don't get some rest?" Clarke huffed, "Can I stay with you? I don't have anywhere else yet besides with my mom, and I don't want to deal with that tonight." He smiled, "Sure Princess, let's go to bed."
I growled, that was it. Tomorrow I am doing something. I want my daughter back.
Bellamy POV***
I woke up to the sun shining in through the tent liner and the sound of the birds chirping as usual. It was still fairly early, but I was distracted from the normal by the sounds of someone else breathing next to me. I then processed that the warmth over my heart was a hand. I rolled over slowly to come face to face with a sleeping Clarke. Her hair was all over the place, streaming like its own little sunshine along the pillow, and she was wearing an expression of pure contentment, something I hadn't seen on her before. Waking up to Clarke curled around me was something I could get used to. Her steady breathing next to me was calming, and I don't think I have slept this well since O was caught on the Ark.
I laid in silence, listening to Clarke's breathing and the sounds of quite nature, and wishing that I could have this, this bliss every day. Clarke brought me a sense of peace I haven't felt since I was six years old and my mother put a brand new human in my arms to care for. I realized the irony, the Ark's princess and the cadet turned janitor, I know a lot of the Arkers didn't understand us, but Clarke isn't a princess, I don't think she ever was, and not for the first time I regret my asshole tendencies. I'm glad we got to where we are now.
"I can hear you thinking."
I was brought out of my head by a sleepy Clarke. "What could you possibly be thinking about this intently this early?" God her voice, she sounded sleepy and content, her husky voice even huskier. "Sorry Princess, did I wake you?"
Clarke came closer, laying her head on my shoulder, "No, but I still want to know what you were thinking about so intently." She wound her arm over my torso and put almost no space between us. "I was thinking about O, and me being an asshole when we first got here. I haven't felt safe, relaxed, since O was put in my arms at six years old. I was raised to hate privilege, I hated you. I hated Wells. When we got here, I was an ass." Clarke sighed and sat up to meet my eyes.
"You were raised to care about your sister. Your sister was your world Bell. She still is. I knew that a lot of people didn't like me. But I had six months in solitary to come to terms with a lot of things Bell. I don't blame you for being an ass, you were protecting yourself and your sister. You were played. I wasn't the best person when we came here either. Everything you do, you do to protect your sister. But now you do it to protect the 100, protect all of us. I trust you Bellamy, 100%. I trust you to keep us alive. I trust you to do what is best for our people, and that you will help me to do what they need." I smiled. Clarke always knew what to say.
"Princess, tell me what you were like on the Ark. I want to know. Were you always so pragmatic? Were you always such a force of nature?" She looked surprise. "No. I was a rule follower for the most part. Especially in terms of my mother. I did what she wanted so that my dad didn't have to constantly keep the peace. Wells and I were alone. None of the other kids wanted to be around us. We were the definition of privileged to them. It was me and Wells against the world. He was his father in miniature. Until I heard my dad tell my mom about the oxygen problem, I was a good girl I think. I did rebel a little with my father, but nothing major until my dad died. I became a force of nature because I watched my parent get sucked into space, just like you. Before that, I spent my time playing Chess with Wells, drawing, and once I was of age, in medical with my mom."
She was wrong, I think she was always a force of nature. "You Bell, have been a force of nature since you were little. That amazes me." Me? "All I did was lie every day for sixteen years. I had no friends because I couldn't afford people getting curious about why I was so protective of my home life, and I watched my mom do things to keep us safe that no person should ever have to do, let alone witness." She just gave me a soft smile.
"And through it all you protected your sister. You shouldered a burden at six that you never should have had to, and besides, I saw your file Bell. You were the best cadet they had. You're a force to be reckoned with and I am going to need you to use that force to get our friends to safety and help me figure out how to deal with my mom and Lexa and everything we will inevitably need to figure out after we get the 48 home."
"You got it Princess." She smiled that soft smile at me again and I felt the warmth of it spread from her to me. "We should probably get moving soon. The grounders will be here soon, we need to ride to TonDC and figure out how to maintain peace here while we are there."
"Okay Princess, and don't forget we also need to make sure that Raven is good as well." She nodded and we decided in sync, without words, that it was time to get up. I pulled my worn blue t-shirt over my shoulders and then began strapping my hand-held to my thigh, and slipped a few other weapons on my person. I looked up in time to catch Clarke Griffin slip her gun into its spot at her back, and slip a knife into her sleeve. As I watched the Princess arm herself I found myself unable to look away. She looked beautiful, preparing for war.
She was important to me, but I was carefully avoiding the thought of why, I couldn't be that distracted right now. The sight of her getting ready to face her daemons and rescue our people, after having spent the night curled around me was making that plan a little difficult though. She brought me out of my head with a soft, "Bell?" and as my eyes found hers I silently let her know that I was ready, and then grabbed my jacket and slung it on as I followed her out of my room.
"You should go talk to some of the guard, Miller Sr., or something so that we can ensure that the grounders don't fight their war against us, and maybe we need O to paly peace keeper?" I sighed, but she was right. Octavia was the person who toed the line between Grounder and Arker the most right now so that made her the best for keeping the peace. "And you?" My silent agreement that my sister was the best course of action in keeping some semblance of peace.
"She is coming with me." I groaned, not even five minutes and Abby was already ready to give the princess more problems. Clarke snorted, "No I am going to go chat with Raven, and then Bellamy and I are riding out to TonDC after the warriors get here." Abby glared at me before dropping yet another problem into our laps.
"The council voted last night and they voted to keep the warriors out. We don't need their training. And we also decided that we can only spare 20 guards and all non-essential to your little suicide mission." I growled, "How can you just sit by and condemn innocent children to death." The elder Griffin turned to me, "The thing about being a leader is that you focus on the best for the many, not the few. The personnel in this camp outweigh the priority of 48 children that…" she was cut off by her daughter's fist. I watched in a bit of shock and a lot of amusement as Clarke Griffin decked her mother. That drew a crowd, and Clarke got louder, I realized what she was doing. She was going to use the unrest we had been generating, and use it to gain the upper hand. She leaned over her mother speaking in a clear, strong voice that carried over the growing number of people surrounding them.
"The thing you don't seem to understand Chancellor, is that the "few" in that mountain can save all of your life, and are also a part of the still fragile treaty keeping an army of thousands away from your weak defenses. Oh and those kids that you are so easily willing to condemn are some of the smartest and brightest minds of our generation. You are condemning the "Many" to death by ignoring the plight of the "few" and being petty." She took a deep breath. "The Abby Griffin I knew wouldn't have done that. Dad would be so ashamed of you, and everything you are doing. He DIED so that what? We could all get to the ground and be petty and childish and stuck in the past? I don't think so. I won't let that be the product of his sacrifice." She turned form her mother, who was standing but staring at the person in front of her with utter shock on her face. Clarke faced the crowd and I stepped up to her left side, her silent support.
***Clarke's POV**
I took a steadying breath and turned away from my mom to the people surrounding us. I saw Jaha, Kane and a few of the guard trying to get to Abby, but I ignored them. "People of the Ark it is time you know the truth about the council. They are doing everything they can to stop a rescue mission to rescue the remaining 48 people of the 100 because they are scared and afraid that a few kids will push them out. We know how to survive, how to thrive on this earth. We learned it the hard way, through bloodshed, sweat, tears and a whole lot of destruction and loss. We don't want that to be the case for you. We watched as our friends were ripped from us by grounder spears, and then kidnapped and forced into a mountain where they are being fooled into complacency and then will be drained for their blood. I am asking right now, how many of you would be willing to step up, to save them. Because that is an option, but in order to succeed we need to work together, not fight like common place animals. The chancellor and her council voted against sending a bigger force, against training that could save lives last night. Yes, that training would come from grounders, but considering that they have survived for 100 years here I can assume that we need their help. We control the peace treaty; the Commander does not trust the council that is so willing to leave its own to death. What say all of you? Would you rather sit back and let 48 brilliant people who could save your lives die? Or do you want to save them? Don't worry about the council, think for yourselves for a moment." To my utter surprise before I even finished talking Miller Sr. was stepping forward.
"My son is in that mountain. I am a loyal man, but I will not stand by while my boy faces death at the hands of psychopaths. I will fight for his freedom as I know he would fight for mine." A few other parents nodded and stepped forward, and then the damn broke. We had people stepping forward left and right. I was floored. I wasn't sure it would work but it had.
"Okay then." Bellamy spoke up. "The grounders will be here shortly. Train with them. Learn what you can. I know that won't be easy, but is necessary. Octavia?" O stepped forward, and I could see her pride seeping out of her. "Maintain the peace. Clarke and I have to go. If they give you any problems, radio in."
"Wait just one moment." The crowd faced away from me and Bell, and faced Kane, who chose now to open his mouth. "What makes you think this matters. The council voted. The grounders are not welcome." Before Clarke and I could react, Captain Miller faced him down. "You should be ashamed. The Marcus I grew up would not stand by and let children die. That Marcus would also know when he was beat." The crowd cheered, and Marcus stepped to my mother's side, and shut up. Just then, there was a flurry of activity at the gate. Bellamy and I pushed our way there and found Indra and about thirty grounder fighters standing or riding behind her.
"Open the gate." The guard in the tower was looking at Kane, but Bellamy spoke louder. "Open it, or I will come open it for you." Kane gave a slight nod, and the gates swung open. Bellamy and I turned in sync and looked at my mother and Kane. "Cause problems for us and we will let the grounders do as they please with Camp Jaha." I grinned up at Bellamy before I chimed in. "Take a look around. The people have spoken, and once again they are choosing to come together in a time of need and do what is best. Even though their council, their leaders had done nothing but lie. Dad was right mom. People will always do the right thing, but they have to be presented with the opportunity. Now they have spoken, and they want to save those kids, so unless you want more ill will towards you and your council, I suggest that you accept this." Cheers went up around us, and even as the grounders made their way into camp, I knew we would be okay.
Indra dismounted and the people quieted. "Clarke com Skaikru, the Commander awaits you and your partner. The warriors will stay and train, while you meet the Commander. I will be her eyes in this camp, and when the time comes I will be ready for our plan to begin." I nodded.
"Alright then. Train hard. Learn. Listen. What they have to offer could save your lives. We will get the 48 back. We will bring them home, and then we will thrive." Bellamy fell silent and I stood at his side, this time I was his silent support. "Octavia radio if you need anything. We will be back soon." Octavia nodded, and then Bellamy and I were lead to two horses. "Clarke!" I tensed at that voice. Finn had pushed his way to the front of the crowd. "Where are you going?"
"To the Commander Finn." He looked at me, "Let me come, I can help." Bellamy snorted. "I don't think so. You are benched Finn. We haven't forgotten what almost occurred. I doubt they have either. So no go. Stay here." Finn soured and I sighed. "Bell is right Finn. We need this to go smoothly, you would not help that. Just stay here and train, and do me a favor." He lit up, but I shut him down. Hard. "Leave Raven alone. Leave me alone. We don't need you Finn. I don't know how you could do what you did to Raven, but I am telling you what I told her. I would choose her first, every time. So move on." His face was a thundercloud as he stepped closer to me.
"What the hell Clarke! After everything we have been through your just going to throw it away! For what? Him. He's a lowlife Clarke. A power hungry jackass." I growled and then I snapped. "Let me make one thing very clear to you." He paled at the deadly tone of my voice. "What we had was nothing Finn. It died before it even started. He is a better man you could ever hope to be, and you are very lucky that I didn't punch you to. He saved your life, twice. Or are you forgetting that. He is my equal. Bellamy is a good man, and someone I trust and care about very much, so the next time you decide to open your mouth, I suggest you think long hard. I only have so much restraint, and you aren't popular right now, with me, or with any one." I turned away from him. "Ready to go Bell?" I met the shocked eyes of my co-leader, my partner, my friend and watched the slightly hilarious play of emotions on his face that only I could read and he nodded. We swung up onto our horses, and the two grounders sent to guide us started off.
