Clarke was now in the passenger side seat of Marcus Kane's black SUV having a virtual chat with her least favourite person. Marcus himself waited outside with Raven, who was continuously texting a person(s) unknown, earning a disapproving stare from the man in black. Raven had previously informed him that if he tried to take it away from her she would mace his ass, figuratively that is.

"You thought I was going to have her killed?" echoed Abby.

"It's what you're good at isn't it?" she insinuated, tone dripping with loathing.

Her mother sighed deeply, putting her head in her hands. "We can't keep doing this, Clarke."

"Nobody forced you to keep the truth from me all these years. You did that all on your own."

Abby looked back up at her with tired, sorrowful eyes. "I was trying to protect you."

"Don't give me that crap again!" she snapped. "The only person you were protecting was yourself!"

"You're wrong, Clarke. I did it for you and you only. I knew confidentiality contracts would mean nothing to you...and given your volatile and stubborn nature, I knew you would simply vlog about the story without regard to your own well being. Clarke, you would have been imprisoned for years. Not even I would have been able to stop that from happening. I didn't want that for you...your father-"

"Stop talking about him."

Abby's jaw set into its former hard lines. "Bringing Raven into this has just amply demonstrated that I was correct in not granting you the classified information about your father's demise."

"You better leave her alone," she warned, expression menacing. "She didn't ask for any of this."

The Secretary of Defence eyed her sternly and then marginally softened. "I can't do that."

She balled her fists. "Mom."

"I can't do that, Clarke, because I believe we will be requiring her expertise to activate the portal."

"You what?" she blinked in stupefaction.

Her mother hazarded a small smile. "I've been trying to recruit her to this program for years, but out of loyalty to you, she has always turned me down."

After overcoming her surprise, she rolled her eyes and said, "So that's why you kicked me off of the base. That's why your lapdog didn't intervene earlier. You wanted me to tell her just enough to peak her interest. Way to be all dramatic about it. You could have just asked me to ask her."

"Could I have?" Clarke humphed, crossing her arms. There was a silence for a bit and then, "Get some rest honey, you look as exhausted as I feel."

Before Clarke could tell her off for using that term of endearment, Abby had ended the call.

Around ten the next morning, she was back on the base with Raven, who had now been debriefed by her mother as well.

"Good to see you, Mrs. G," said Raven, giving The Secretary of Defence a hug.

Everyone in front of the elevator stiffened at the impropriety of this behaviour, none more so than Clarke. She glared at her friend afterwards, to which Raven just shrugged her shoulders and innocently said, "What?"

Raven's latest boy toy, Kyle Wick, was also present. As Raven had explained it, he was a damn good engineer with some brilliant ideas...just never say that to his face, his ego was almost as big as his- and here Abby had cleared her throat. There was still some opposition to the inclusion of both Raven and Kyle in the form of General Jaha. He didn't like the fact that more and more civilians were being brought into their classified world.

Raven had a thing or two to say about that.

Standing her ground against the imposing General she said, "Hey, I'm currently contracted by a subdivision of the military. I've already built over a dozen of those damn mech suits you guys are so fond of using. You know, the ones with the rocket launchers that make shit go boom?" She jerked a thumb in the attractive blond haired man's direction, "And Wick here-"

"I told you, you can call me Kyle now."

"And Wonderboy here has drawn up ship specs for interstellar travel. I mean, it's obviously a dud..."

"Hey!"

"...the suspension system alone is laughable, not to mention the idiotic coupling mechanism..."

"Seriously?"

"...but he also made a prototype for a versatile, full mobility spacesuit. You know, the kind that can withstand the vacuum and intense radiation of space? Might come in handy when we cross over to the other heavily nuked side."

This pronouncement was met with dead silence.

"If anyone crosses over with the invaders, it will most certainly not be you," said Jaha authoritatively.

Abby put a stop to this before it got further out of hand. "That's quite enough. And I would appreciate you not questioning my judgement in future, Theo."

He backed off and she nodded to Corporal Miller who called the elevator up to their level. Clarke was suddenly anxiety ridden over coming face to face with the project that had most likely taken her father from her long before he actually died. As if her mother understood, she took Clarke's hand and squeezed it as they rapidly descended. Clarke pulled away a moment later, hardening herself.

The portal was larger than she was anticipating, and finding Monty Green amongst the other arguing technicians and physicists here also threw her for a loop.

Clarke caught his eye and gave him a little smile which he returned. Raven walked right up to him and loudly said, "So this is what the nerds are up to these days?"

"Uh, you're here too, Raven," he pointed out politely.

"Shut up!" she responded, punching him playfully in the arm, well somewhat playfully. Judging by the floppy haired man's wince, it still hurt. Clarke had been on the receiving end of Raven's sudden manifestations of affection and could attest to the unpleasantness of the experience. She usually tried to keep some space between her and Raven when she got excited. Luckily for Monty's arm, she immediately became captivated by the portal, hopped up on the platform and began running her hands all over it, looking like she had just received a new particle accelerator for Christmas. Jaha did not look pleased but with Abby there, he held his tongue.

"Ain't she a beaut!" she said to no one in particular.

"She sure is!" answered Kyle, who was more or less copying her movements on the other side.

Clarke felt like she was watching the beginnings of a sci-fi porno, and fervently wished they would stop touching it like that. Then they launched into what Octavia affectionately referred to as 'geek speak' and she completely tuned out. She jumped when she felt a hand on her shoulder.

"Clarke, I think it's time I finally show you something." Her mother led her back towards the elevator, and within minutes they found themselves in Jaha's office, if the picture of his late wife and Wells were any indication. Abby accessed a preloaded video and began playing it on the wall screen across the room. The camera did a 360 around a large mostly vacant space. Clarke understood it to be the same place they had just come from. Jake Griffin's face entered the frame and Clarke got emotional at the mere sight of him, her throat constricting almost painfully. He looked so much younger than she ever recalled him being. The time stamp at the bottom right told her this was from fifteen years ago.

"I know it doesn't look like much, but rest assured dear viewers, this will be the site of one of the world's most important inventions." Clarke melted when he smiled in that sweet way she missed so much. "We're going to change the course of humanity here. We're going to help shape the future for the better. But most importantly, and I can't stress this enough, we're going to show that Hawking guy what's what." Clarke laughed but it came out more like a sob. She did her best not to break down completely when Jake winked at the camera. "Should be fun."

The next video clip began automatically playing soon after this one. Even without checking the time stamp, she knew some time had passed. The portal was already fully constructed and her father was much more worn out and scruffy and the way she always pictured him in her head when he would come home late at night and kiss her forehead while she pretended to be asleep.

"As you can see, we've completed the bones of the project. Now on to the meat, that is to say, the creation of the plasma membrane that will allow us to move back and forth through different points in time. The theory is there, and now we're hoping for some reality to go along with it."

Another couple of years later showed an up close view of the portal, its insides shimmering slightly like it was alive. Her father stood in front of it with a plastic broom in hand. He looked towards the camera and said, "All right, this is test number one with inorganic matter. Let's see what we get."

He seemed to be holding his breath as he stuck the broom in half way for a few seconds and then pulled it back out. Nothing was left except for the part he had been holding. "Damn it," he cursed before the screen went black.

Test number fifty-seven had the broom coming out fully intact. The pure joy on his face had her smiling like an idiot.

Test number one with organic matter involved a rat tied to a string. "Good luck, little guy," her father said face to face with the furry rodent. Jake placed the animal on the ground and prodded it towards the portal with his foot. As soon as the rat touched the shimmering substance, it squeaked terribly, and blood could clearly be seen pouring out of what was left of its face. Clarke grimaced at the sight, not liking where this was headed.

It was another day and Jake was hunched over at a desk with his face inches from the camera. He was bleary eyed and possibly the most exhausted she had ever seen him, the myriad of lines and wrinkles making him seem ancient. "So, a quick update...it's been nearly one hundred attempts and still no luck with the organic matter passing through intact. I'm afraid we'll have to up the energy output yet again. We're almost exceeding the containment level as it is, so it's a little worrisome to be attempting this." Jake got an uncharacteristically hard glint in his eye. "But we've come too far to turn back now. And like my father always used to say, anything worth doing has risk. Fingers crossed that tomorrow goes as planned."

And that was where the video montage ended. Clarke sat at Jaha's desk with tears streaming down her face. For once she was thankful to her mom, cutting it off where she did. Clarke didn't think she could have stomached seeing him blown up. Still, the clips had her craving for her father's last voice mail to her. She had listened to it countless times and knew it by heart, but still had it saved on her phone, easily accessible at all times.

"Hey kiddo, it's me. I've tried to reach you a few times but no such luck. I guess you're off having crazy adventures now that you're a freshman at college. Either that or you consider yourself too cool to spare a minute for your old man." He laughed, God, how she missed that laugh. "I'm kidding of course. I know you're very busy with your studies. Anyway, I just wanted to say that I'm so proud of you, Clarke, and that I love you. I hope to see you soon. Goodnight, sweetie."

It hadn't been any of his guesses. She had fallen asleep early and simply forgotten to charge her phone. She spent the better part of the next day trying to reach him, only to have her mother land the crushing blow that left a scar to this day. While logically she knew you weren't supposed to kill the messenger, she had really wanted to. Clarke knew her mother had given the go ahead for whatever top secret project her father was working on. If she had just said no, none of this would have ever happened, and her dad would still be here to kiss her on the forehead and tell her dumb physics jokes. Instead she was left with an aching emptiness that grew a little more every day and an eternal rage that was always simmering just beneath the surface, ready to ignite at the slightest provocation.

"May we meet again," she whispered to the void in her heart.

Dammit Jake, why you always gotta die in everything? He's like Sean Bean.