Raven proved herself brilliant once again by getting a second video feed going almost immediately. It totally flustered Madelyn who had that as the least likely scenario and resulted in a flurry of rescheduling and a lot of extra blocks of time scheduled for Clarke with her mom.
The next three days were exhausting. Clarke didn't have to figure out ways to avoid Finn. She had no time to talk to anyone other than her mom, Bellamy and Madelyn. She was running on five hours sleep a night and the only time she remembered to eat was when Bellamy put food in front of her while her mom was trying to cram four years of medical school into her brain. Why was it Bellamy could take care of her but she wasn't allowed to take care of him? Whatever. She didn't push it again. She needed Bellamy as an ally and asking him to share his feelings was apparently the wrong way to go about it.
But Bellamy Blake was the one person who didn't have classes with the Ark and Clarke had a problem with that. He had asked for nothing, gruffly saying he was too busy running things to learn anything new. Then, because he was Bellamy Blake he got a smirk on his face and said he already knew everything.
But she was still Clarke Griffin so even if they weren't going to talk about warm fuzzy stuff like feelings, she couldn't leave things like that. She downloaded The Art of War and How to Win Friends and Influence People from the Ark library to the one tablet that had been sent down with them and left it on Bellamy's bed. He didn't thank her for them but she caught him reading a few times when he thought she wasn't watching.
When Leo was struggling to calculate how much wood he needed for his outhouse, she suggested he talk to Bellamy to help him figure out the math.
"N-n-no, I don't want to bother Bellamy with this."
"It's no bother." Clarke smiled brightly and grabbed Leo's arm to drag him to Bellamy's tent. "Leo has a math problem he needs help with," Clarke said as she entered Bellamy's tent, to witness Bellamy quickly tucking the tablet he'd been reading under his pillow. "I told him you'd be happy to teach him how to do it."
Bellamy narrowed his eyes at her. He knew exactly what she was doing but he didn't call her on it. To call her on it would mean talking about feelings and his hopes for the future and Clarke knew Bellamy wasn't about to do that. It was actually quite brilliant on her part, Clarke thought to herself as she practically skipped out of the tent. Bellamy couldn't argue with any of the ideas for his education that she was throwing at him since arguing meant talking and talking about himself was something Bellamy Blake didn't do. She just hoped she wasn't pushing it too far with her next idea.
After an extended negotiation, Clarke finally had agreement from Jaha. Now she just had to find Bellamy.
Clarke found him just outside the gate, talking to Leo with great animation, hands waving, a string held between the two of them measuring wood. Leo had already built the frame for the outhouse and it was straight, with 90 degree corners. Clarke bit her lip to keep the self satisfied smile off her face. Bellamy had taught Leo well.
"Hey, Bellamy," she called. "Can I see you in the engineering tent?"
Bellamy brushed his hands on his pants and after a few more words of advice for Leo, came to join her for the short walk back.
"What's wrong?" he asked immediately.
Crap. She hadn't prepared for this. "Nothing's wrong. Well, nothing more than the usual of being on a planet where the other people, some of the animals and even the fog wants to kill us."
"Then why do you keep nervously tucking your hair behind your left ear even though it's not falling in your face."
Clarke whipped her head around to stare at Bellamy. When had he learned to read her so well? The dark pools of concern she saw in his eyes and the slightly creased brow made her tremble as her mind played tricks on her, making her feel his look was something more than it was. She quickly looked away. It was too dangerous to go there. Too ridiculous.
"It's um, hard to explain. Just follow me to the tent. But nothing to panic about." Clarke picked up the pace to limit the time Bellamy had for questions. They entered the tent just as she heard a ding that indicated the Ark was trying to reach them. "Phone is for you," she said with mock cheerfulness, hurrying over to hit the button that would accept the two-way communication.
"What's this about?" Bellamy asked slowly.
Clarke went behind him and nudged him forward. Jaha appeared on the monitor and Bellamy froze. Clarke put her hands on his shoulders and gently pushed him down to the bench in front of the computer. She could feel the tension in his shoulders and her fingers itched to sooth his tight muscles.
"Clarke?" he asked warily.
"Hello, Mr. Blake," Jaha started. "Miss Griffin thought, as leader of the 100, it would be useful for me to speak to you about some of the situations I've been in as Chancellor, discuss my decision-making process and the outcomes of those decisions, good and bad."
"So…leadership case studies?"
Jaha smiled. "Exactly."
Clarke felt Bellamy start to rise from the bench but she pushed him down again, this time giving in to the urge to massage his shoulders with her thumbs. She felt the tension dissipate slightly and took pleasure in knowing she was the cause of it. "You're staying, right Clarke?"
His voice sounded so much more like a vulnerable boy than their cocky leader that Clarke hesitated, even though she knew this was something Bellamy needed to do himself. "I'm afraid Madelyn has me scheduled for a lesson on setting bones on the other communications feed in the drop ship."
"But you're my second."
Clarke was ready to say screw it to the potential broken bones in the future but instead she simply said, "I know, so take good notes for me."
Three hours later, Clarke was sitting on her bed going over the notes she'd made on setting bones. Some of it required brute strength. She would probably have to recruit and train a non-squimish guy to assist her on this one. Dax seemed sadistic enough...
Bellamy stormed into her tent. "No more ambushes!" he snapped, towering over her at the edge of the bed.
Clarke lay her notes on the bed and stood up, lifting her chin to try to compensate for their height difference. "Would you have met with Jaha if I'd asked you ahead of time?"
"Hell, no!"
"Did you learn anything?"
"Yes, damn it! More than I wanted to know."
That admission, angry as it was, was a big step for Bellamy. "Sorry, as long as you refuse to help yourself I'll continue ambushing you."
He took a step closer. "Quit interfering, or else."
Clarke felt her heart rate pick up at Bellamy's proximity. She could feel the heat of his anger radiating off him. She wasn't about to back down though. Instead, she took a step closer until their chests were almost touching. "Or else what? You're going to talk about your feelings? Come on, we both know that isn't going to happen."
Bellamy stared down at her, his jaw clenching and his eyes dark pools of whirling emotion.
Clarke felt a sudden cold fear that she'd pushed him too far before Bellamy spun towards the entrance of the tent.
"Gah! You're impossible!" he shouted while shoving the tent flap aside to storm out of the tent.
Clarke exhaled a slow shaky breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding. She and Bellamy had come so far in the last few days. It scared her to realize how desperately she didn't want to screw that up.