How are we all feeling after that episode last week?...Still alive? Obviously we knew something was going to happen with Ricky Whittle leaving but that doesn't mean I'm happy about it :( You can cry with me all in the comments. Anyway, on with the chapter;
Clarke was pretty sure that the other night could have gone better, but in all honesty, she had never been the best with words. She had definitely improved over the years, she had forced herself to after her father had passed away, but there might have been a few better things that she could have said differently. As soon as she had mentioned the army men coming back and joining an MC, she could have kicked herself. It sounded as though she was trying to rationalize and play off that she knew how he was feeling, and that was the last thing she had wanted him to think she was doing.
When she had a call from, she had been pissed. She had felt a little clueless at first as to who it could be who was trying to access her juvenile records when Sinclair Juliani had called her. And then after a second, she had realized that there was really only one person that it could be. She had been confused, but not as angry.
After she left, her stomach had been turning, and she got behind the wheel of her car with a frown creasing her pretty face. The way she felt about Bellamy was weird. She was used to guys finding her attractive, and most of the time, she was completely okay with that. It was a good confidence boost and made getting her way a little easier. She was able to handle herself as well, her father and all of his brothers in the Phantoms had taught her that from an early age, and so she had no problem with putting them in their place if they thought they could get a little too friendly without her permission.
And she could tell that Bellamy found her attractive, but he wasn't being a creep about it. But while he wasn't blatantly checking her out at every couple of minutes, she could still tell that he was interested in her. She had thought that something could possibly come of whatever it was between them, even if they had a weirdly complicated history, but then after finding out that his feelings toward the club weren't as cut and dry as she thought, maybe it had just been wishful thinking.
It was a Thursday, and work was pretty slow, so she had closed up after her last appointment had finished just after four and text her mother, telling Abby that she was coming over for dinner. There wasn't any reply by the time she was pulling down the road for Abby and Kane's house, but that wasn't uncommon. Abby lost her phone on an hourly basis, but she would usually be home around five or six to make sure dinner was ready and on the time for Kane and whoever else was coming over for dinner. Clarke was a bit surprised when she parked up outside the house and saw a couple of bikes there, ones that weren't Kane's, because it was only just going on four-thirty, and usually if the boys were all meeting up, they would do it at the club house, not at Abby's home. And she was even more confused when she saw them with scratches and chunks of paint missing.
These men treated their bikes like their babies, spending more money and time on them than what most people would spend on their own homes. There had to be something wrong if their bikes were sitting out here, all banged up and sad looking.
Clarke frowned as she locked her car and headed into the house.
"Mum? You here?" She called out as she kicked off her shoes and walked into the lounge. "Mum—fuck! What the fuck?!"
"Ssh!" Abby hissed as she crossed the lounge and grasped her daughters hand, pulling her through the lounge. Clarke's eyes were wide as she looked at the men on either side of the lounge before she was in the kitchen. "They're on some pretty heavy painkillers, but they've been out for a while, so they'll be starting to wear off, and I don't want them to wake up just yet."
"What happened?" Clarke asked worriedly, ducking her head back around the corner to look back into the adjoining room. It was Finn and Wells, both of them looking beaten up, blood staining their clothes and scratches and scrapes all over their arms and red marks that were clearly going to be ugly bruises tomorrow. "Is—is Kane okay? Where is he?" Abby took in a deep breath and rubbed a hand over her face.
"He's fine, Clarke. Him and Theo brought the boys over here and then took off to the clubhouse for church," Abby said, keeping her voice hushed.
"What happened?" Clarke repeated, her voice more demanding this time.
"There was an attack, early this morning at one of their buys," Abby told her. "Clearly something didn't go as planned, because on their way back with the money, someone jumped them. Slammed into their bikes and sent them swerving off the road. Beat them up and took their money and their guns—"
"Do they know who it is?"
"That's what Kane and Theo are looking into," Abby sighed. "But...It's got to be another MC, right? I mean, no one else is fucking stupid enough to try and go up against them."
"But then if it was another MC..." Clarke frowned, her hand going to her hair, her fingers weaving through a few strands of hair and beginning to twirl it around, a nervous habit that she had picked up years ago. "If it was another MC, then that's declaring war. Surely..." Abby looked as worried as Clarke felt. "Surely that's not the case."
"I honestly don't know, baby," Abby whispered. There was some noise from the lounge and Clarke looked back around the corner. Wells was still passed out on the couch, not looking at all comfortable but clearly still knocked out from the painkillers. But Finn was twisting slightly and letting out a groan. "I'm going to give Kane a call, can you do see to him? He probably just wants some water or something, but no more painkillers. They were some strong shit and they can't have anymore at least another few hours."
"Yeah, yeah, I got this mum," Clarke gave her mother a nod and a small, hopefully reassuring smile before going into the lounge and kneeling next to Finn on the ground, leaning an elbow against the couch. He twisted his head to look up at her, wincing at the change of angle. "Hey, pal," she gave him a half smile as she carded her fingers through his hair. "How you doing?"
The teasing about Bellamy and Clarke's rendezvous on Saturday had lessened through the week, especially after the way a thundercloud would descend on his face everytime her name was simply mentioned after their late night discussion. Monty got the hint pretty quickly, then Jasper and finally Murphy, a little longer on the uptake than everyone else, due to his general lack of sensativity, caught on as well. Lincoln had never really participated, more the strong, silent type, just kept his thoughts on the matter to himself.
Which kind of sucked, because Lincoln was the one person that Bellamy would actually be okay with talking about Clarke with.
Friday came around, and Murphy left early again, another meeting up with his girl. Bellamy was okay with it, because even if Murphy was kind of a dick, he could always rely on him to come in and help out in the weekend if they needed extra work. Afterall, it was named Blakes Motors, but they had helped to build the place up. It had originally been Bellamy's idea, and he was the one who had invested most of the start up capital, but once the boys had joined up, it had become all of theirs. They had talked about changing the name of the business, but had decided against it in the end, mainly because he had already started building up a reputation.
"You guys coming out for a drink tonight?" Jasper asked as he was washing down his hands, soap foaming up to his elbows as he tried to get rid of the grease and oil staining his arms.
"Nah, I'm still helping Octavia move all of her stuff in," Lincoln replied.
"What about you?" Jasper sent a hopeful look over to Bellamy, who just shrugged.
"I'm not sure. You guys going to the usual bar?" Monty and Jasper nodded in response. "Well, if I do decide to come out, I'll meet you there, yeah?"
"Sweet as," Monty grinned as he snatched up his keys.
"See you bitches later!" Jasper cooed out with a grin, wiggling his fingers at Bellamy and Lincoln as the best friends practically skipped out of the garage, clearly excited for their weekend. Lincoln was just finishing up the paper work for a car that was getting picked up on Monday and Bellamy was waiting for him to finish so that they could close up and walk out together.
"So," Lincoln glanced up from where he was scribbling on paper that was resting on a clipboard. "You and Clarke, huh?" Bellamy stared at him for a moment before pursing his lips and nodding. "She's a pretty awesome chick," he stated, looking back down at his form.
"Yeah," Bellamy nodded again. "Yeah, she is." Obviously Lincoln heard something in his voice because he frowned and looked up again.
"What did you do?" He asked simply.
"What makes you think I did something?!" Bellamy protested weakly, but Lincoln just gave him a look and Bellamy relented, sighing. "It wasn't exactly on purpose. She came over the other night to talk about—about something," he really didn't want to get into the hacking side of things right now and although Lincoln gave him a bit of a funny look, he didn't ask. One of the things Bellamy loved about Lincoln. "Anyway, it kind of got heated because she realized I'm not exactly...Not exactly supportive of her lifestyle."
"You mean of the club?" Lincoln clarified.
"Yeah," Bellamy nodded.
"And by not exactly supportive you mean...?"
"It wasn't bad or anything, just..." Bellamy scrunched up his nose and sighed. "Oh, fuck, I don't know! She was just trying to explain that they weren't all bad, and that they're more like a family—she called it a brotherhood—and she said that it was something that I should understand because of, well, because of being in the army, ya know? And I kind of snapped at her for that. Just saying that she didn't know what she was talking about, and we're from different backgrounds that neither of us can understand, and all that bullshit." Lincoln's face was impassive and Bellamy huffed. "You can offer up advice at this point, ya know."
"Do you want advice?" Lincoln asked, raising an eyebrow. Bellamy thought for a second and then jutted his chin forward in an affirmative. "First of all, Jake was army." Bellamy blinked in surprise. "Yeah, he did two tours. He met Abby just before he went on the first one, and they got married when he was on leave about halfway through. I don't know the full story, just what O has told me, and she probably hasn't told me everything." He put down the clipboard and crossed his bulky arms over his chest. "Things were pretty bad when he was discharged, and from what I understand, he wouldn't have been able to make it work with Abby, or be a good father to Clarke if he hadn't found the Phantoms." Bellamy instantly wanted to kick himself. "He found a home with them, and he never looked back—or at least, that's what I've heard." Lincoln pursed his lips and scrunched up his nose. "The whole dying thing might have changed his opinion, though."
"Maybe keep that last comment to yourself in future," Bellamy muttered with a roll of his eyes.
"Hey, last time I checked, I wasn't the one suffering from foot in mouth disease," Lincoln shot back with a raise of his eyebrows. Bellamy grumbled under his breath but shrugged and took in a deep breath.
"So you think that I should, uh, maybe—"
"Apologize?" Lincoln suggested pointedly.
"Ye-ah," Bellamy drew out the word with a click of his teeth. "Yeah, probably a good idea."
What you guys think?
Let me know, and I'll send you a preview of the next chapter :) You know how happy reviews make me.
You know what also makes me happy? Sound of Music. Haha. I'm watching it as I edit. Seriously, Julie Andrews is bloody flawless.
Oh, and another side note, I've been joined on this site for ten years this month! Makes me feel incredibly old. LOL.
Oh, aaaaaand—I know I've raved about her a bit, but this song has recently become my favourite. Everyone needs to check out Roman Holiday by Halsey. I mean, check out everything she does, and my favourite by her is Colours and Gasoline and Strange Love, but Roman Holiday is my new obsession.
Okay, I'm done now. I promise. Review!