Two weeks went by faster than I wanted them to, but time was up and I had to leave. I walked through the house one last time, running my fingers over every surface, crack, hole that I could find. Memorizing the only home I'd ever known. Tears fell softly down my face as I stared at the blank wall that had held so many childhood memories. Jaha had forced Mom to take everything down, every last bit of physical memory of me. As soon as I crossed the town border, I would no longer exist. Erased from every record, every video, everything. It was cruel and vicious, but Jaha didn't care. The law was the law and he saw no need to change them to fit the times.

I sighed and made my way out of the door. Everyone stood waiting for me by the moving truck with my Bronco on a trailer behind. Nate's own truck was piled high with his belongings because he had been allowed to leave with me. I walked down the steps slowly and made my way to my mother and my friends, my family. I hugged my mother in a tight embrace and wanted nothing more than to never let her go, but I had to. We had to.

"Mom," I said, softly through my tears, "don't let yourself get lost in your work, okay? Kane's promised to look after you and I trust that he will. I'll figure out some way to let you know that I'm okay. That everything's alright. I promise you, Mom. I won't forget about you. Never."

She nodded, too upset to speak and let me go reluctantly. I hugged everyone and made sure that they all had the address to our new home. They promised me that they would all be there, except for Jasper and Maya. I understood their reluctance and they promised me that no matter what, they'd keep an eye on my mom for me.

When I'd hugged the last person, Kane came up to me and said, "Clarke, it's time."

I nodded and wiped the tears from my face. Kane would escort me and Nate to the border to make sure that we actually left. He would be forced to watch that border for the rest of the day and into the next, making sure that we didn't try to sneak back. He knew that we weren't coming back, but again laws were laws.

I climbed into the cab of the truck and started the engine. I looked out at everyone one last time, blew a kiss to my mom, and made my way slowly out of Arcadia. I was able to make it a couple of hours down the road before I had to pull over because I couldn't stop the ache that had been building since seeing Mom sobbing in Bellamy's arms. I broke down, sobs wracking my body, as the heartache settled in and knowing that I would never see her again. Nate had climbed up into the cab and I turned to him. His arms wrapped tightly around me and he just held me, comforting me. I could feel his own tears falling silently as we both mourned the loss of our families.

Eventually, I calmed down and determinedly we got back on the road. Four hours later, we entered the town of Eden and it was another half hour before we drove up to our new home. The construction crews were winding down for the day as we pulled up to the garage. Climbing out of the truck, I was greeted by the foreman.

"Ms. Griffin," the man asked, hesitantly.

I smiled at him and raised my hand to shake his, "I am indeed. Are you the foreman?"

He took my hand and shook it and replied, "Yes, ma'am. Name's Cliff Sullivan. We've been able to get the lower level ready for your arrival and the decorator has been down there all day with the furniture movers. Second floor has been decked out as well. The kitchen is usable and you have running water and electricity. The water will have to be turned off day after 'morrow when we run the piping up to the attic for that new bathroom. Oh, and the space behind the garage, the windows have been installed. We're just waiting on the parts to build the racks and sinks."

"Thank you, Mr. Sullivan," I said. "I'm impressed by how fast this all seems to be coming together."

"Honestly, ma'am," he said with a smile, "this is one of the easier jobs we've had. You're not asking for a whole lot of changes to the house and the foundations for the greenhouse, paddock, and stable went in a lot easier than we expected. There is something I want to show you, though."

"Oh," I said curiously.

"Yes, ma'am. If you'll kindly follow me," he said and started walking into the garage. "When we were digging up the back half of the property for the stable, my guys came across something. A fairly large and extremely heavy metal crate. It took a crane and a forklift to get it over here."

He pointed to the corner of the garage where there was indeed a large crate, rusted and covered in dirt. I knelt down in front of it and examined the surface carefully. I noticed that it seemed to have at one time a design going across it, but time had eroded most of it and I couldn't make it out. The lock was clearly rusted and it looked like it would only take a simple blow and it would shatter.

"You haven't opened it," I said, looking up at him.

"No, ma'am," he replied, shaking his head. "Since it's on your property, it's yours. We just moved it in here for safe keeping. It's up to you to decide if you want to open it or not."

I stood up slowly and replied, "Thank you for letting me know about it. Are we able to start unpacking our stuff inside?"

"Yes, ma'am," he replied. "The stairs to the lower level are cleared and the men are nearly out of the house for the night. We'll be coming back in the morning around 8 to start back up again. That won't be a problem for you, will it?"

"That's fine," I said. "We're usually up at the crack of dawn, anyway. Now if you could show us the way to the stairs, I'd be much obliged to you."

He blushed and said, "If you'll follow me, I'll show you and then I'll make sure my guys are out of the house for the night."

"Thank you."

We followed him through a small hallway and passed the kitchen, living room, and came to the stairs. I looked up and saw that there was railing on the second floor, allowing anyone up there to gaze down easily onto the this floor. Smiling to myself, we parted ways and headed down the stairs.

I left Nate to wander the bedrooms as I sat on a very comfortable suede couch. I felt myself relax after driving for most of the day and I very much wanted nothing more to do than crash for the night, but I couldn't. We still needed to offload Nate's truck and get our bags into our rooms.

"This place is awesome, Clarke," he said as he joined me on the couch. "Each room has it's own flat screen, decent size, too. Full size beds, dressers, and walk-in closets. There's also WiFi set up in the rooms."

I grinned and said, "I'm glad you're liking it so far. Now, it's time to check out the upper level and my bedroom."

He laughed and helping me up, we skipped up the stairs. The bedrooms were bigger up here, but it was the master suite, my room, that took my breath away. The room was set up exactly like I wanted. The king sized sleigh bed was on a small raised dais. The bed frame was made out of a beautiful cherry wood. The headboard had a built in bookshelf and small reading lamps. Night tables and dresser matched. The make up table and desk were done in beech. The floor was the original hardwood floor, polished until it shone. Over the floor was a southwest style plush rug. The bathroom was simple, yet elegant. There was a separate bath and shower and neither one was small. The bathtub had jets installed and the shower had multiple shower heads. There were two sinks with a mirror that ran the length of the counter with two mirrors on the side for the up close and personal touch. Besides the toilet, there was also a linen closet for towels.

Stepping back out into the bedroom, I saw a huge flat screen directly across from the bed with an entertainment center underneath it. It already held a WiFi receiver, Blu-ray player, small Bluetooth speakers, and a small handheld tablet that could control everything.

Nate whistled and said, "Your room is awesome, Clarke. You've even got a gorgeous view of the forest with a fucking balcony."

I looked over to the side and smiled at seeing the forest. I was sure that this place would give me new inspiration and I couldn't wait to explore it a bit. When Nate had finally decided on a room, we started unloading his truck and stacking his things in there. We opened up the moving truck and started taking some of my things out as well, but we kept it to only taking out the clothing. Everything else could wait. When we were done, my shoulder was killing me and I rubbed it as I tried to figure out what to do.

"Well," Nate said as he leaned against the island, "It's too late to go grocery shopping. What do you say that we head back into town and grab something to eat. I noticed a couple of restaurants down there, including a pizza joint."

"Oh, pizza sounds great," I replied, grinning. "You think we should grab and go or sit down?"

"We might want to grab and go," he said. "It would look really weird to order multiple pizzas for only the two of us. And we'll stop at a store and pick up some essentials for breakfast in the morning. We did bring a coffee machine, didn't we?"

"We did," I said chuckling. "It's in one of the boxes labeled kitchen. We'll bring that stuff in after we're done eating. We are getting beer, right?"

"Oh, most definitely," he replied. "Are you sure you're good to go? You should probably take something for your shoulder."

"I'm good. I still have meds and we can pick up some ice when we're at the store."

"Alright then, let's see how good they make their 'za," he said and held the door open for me.

We stopped at a late night grocery store and stocked up on some essentials, plus the beer, coffee, and ice. Next was the pizza place and while we were waiting for our order, I couldn't help but feel the hairs on the back of my neck crawl. I looked around slowly, but couldn't find anyone looking our way. I couldn't shake the feeling that we were being watched and I was really hoping that the reason why was because we were strangers and not for any other reason.

When we got home, we practically inhaled the pizza and downed the twelve pack within minutes of putting everything away. It filled us up, but we were both wishing that there had been more. We pulled out the boxes labeled kitchen and put things away as we looked for the coffee machine. Nate let out a cry of triumph from his box when he pulled the beautiful machine out. It was only beautiful in the sense that it gave us what we wanted, coffee. We left the rest of the boxes alone and locked the house up tight before we headed off to bed. I was asleep nearly as soon as my head touched the pillow.