Hey, so I decided to upload this Friday instead of Thursday because I uploaded the last chapter so late, so I wanted to allow readers a little extra time. The next chapter will continue on time.
Thanks to my reviewers, keeping me going with this story: Anime-a lover, jadegurl2, heidi1245401, Artimiz, SquidaQdaloo, CheriEstella, Darkmaster of the arts, Red656, and MissMaximumWho.
Anime-a lover: If you're asking for smut, I'm not going to be writing that into the story. There will be some scenes where sex is heavily implied or talked about, but nothing explicit
12 Years after Start of Program
"Clarke, can you take this blood and run it to the lab? And then wait until it's done?" Clarke looked up, put on a fake sweet smile and nodded.
"Of course, Neil. What ever else would I be doing right now other than filling out your paperwork requests?" She said, trying not to let her tone be overly sarcastic. Even if he picked up on it, her co-worker gave her thumbs up and went back to what he was doing.
"Clarke, do you have my history for the patient in room 8?" Another doctor paused her as she began to leave.
"You know you can just look it up yourself with like two clicks on the pad, right?" She groaned in frustration.
"Well, sure. But it's more fun and time efficient to have the newbies do it." The doctor replied, blinking blankly at Clarke.
"Time efficient how?" Clarke fired back, and then grumbled, "It's sitting on the table."
"Thanks Clarke." The second doctor patted her back as she went on to treat her patient.
She was nearly out the door with the blood of Neil's patient when- "Clarke are you going out?" She looked up to see Brad getting up from where he sat.
"No."
"Good, because while you're out, I need you to take care of these medications from the Farm station. Also, go check on Mrs. Brooks. She was released yesterday but she was still a little ill. Make sure she's taking her medication and all."
"Brad, these are lackey's jobs." Clarke growled in anger, "Like an assistant. I'm not that! I'm here to become a doctor." She felt safe fighting back with Brad only because she knew him more personally than other doctors here.
"And you will…duh." Brad said, "But this is what every new recruit here does. I had to do it." He pointed out. He punched Keshawn, who was working near him.
"Yeah, me too." Keshawn agreed, going back to his patient he was dealing with.
"See?" Brad raised his eyebrow.
"Then why is Elizabeth over there helping Jackson put an IV in?" Clarke demanded.
"Because she, unlike you, doesn't know how to do it." Keshawn said irritably, "I don't get why this bothers you so much."
"Because I'm above this." Clarke said, "I don't mean to sound bratty, but you both know that I'm at least as good as the doctors who started three years ago, if not better."
"In all confidence, Clarke, everyone knows that. It's why people single you out to do their grunt work. They're jealous. They want to pretend like you're not a medical prodigy and they have some semblance of skill within them." He sniffed, "They're doing it because you're too good." He said.
Clarke frowned, "Wow…that was actually nice of you, Brad."
"I'm not an ass all the time. Geeze…" He rolled his eyes, "But hey, don't forget to do what I asked you while you're out. Any jobs for her Keshawn?"
"No." Keshawn grumped, annoyed to be continually interrupted, "Just let her get on before someone asks her to go get coffee for them…everyone will want something then."
"Coffee?" One of the nurses across the room perked up, "Did I hear coffee?"
Clarke practically ran out of the room before she could be summoned to bring the entire working Doctor's team the pick-me-up beverage.
She'd been working here for three months. She'd been so eager to start diagnosing people, helping them, figuring out the clues to what was the matter with them. She'd been elated at the idea of stitching up wounds, poking her finger in bloody stuff, and helping new mothers deliver their only child. Instead, she was doing chores like an errand boy.
It was humiliating.
Her mother wasn't much help. She'd pretty much said what Keshawn and Brad had told her…it was normal for the new doctors. She obviously knew Clarke was gifted, but she claimed she couldn't show favoritism. In life or death situations, though, Clarke thought that her mother would want the best with her? Apparently, not.
She figured it would ease away soon enough; that the novelty of making the Alpha Princess sort old files would quickly lose the humor it must held. She held her tongue for the first two months. Now on the third she wasn't going to stay so quiet.
She finished her first two things quickly; dropping off blood to be tested never took long (and she was now on a first name basis with the guy that was always working there, and that helped) and Mrs. Brooks had a son that was watching her carefully, so there was little need to worry.
She was on her way to the Farm station, glancing at the list of things written on the pad, when a closet door opened suddenly. An arm reached out and yanked her in and closed the door in a second's time.
She squinted in the darkness, trying to see.
"Bellamy?" She questioned, seeing a tall lanky figure in front of her.
"Of course it's me! Do you have other men dragging you into closets?" He sounded almost offended.
"Do you make a point of lurking in closets?" Clarke replied back, to which he merely chuckled.
"Ah, not always. But they are extremely convenient." He said.
"For what?" Her eyes had adjusted slightly more and she saw he was in his guard's uniform.
"This, of course." He replied, grabbing her waist and pushing her against a wall of the closet, lips greedily on hers and his fingers squeezing her waist. One of his legs slipped between her thighs, pressing up against her.
Clarke went along with it for a second, until she paused, pulling back. Bellamy gave a sound of displeasure.
"What are you doing? Aren't you supposed to be working right now?" She motioned to his guard's office, "And seriously, do you just wait in random closets hoping I'll walk by?"
"No." He scoffed, "Brad uploaded the request to for the drugs to the data base, since we keep that stuff on record too in case the Farm Drug station tries to claim someone stole stuff, and since I know everyone loves to pick on you, it would be you walking by this way soon." He said logically.
"And work?"
"I made the cadets go on a puzzle-scavenger hunt around the Ark today. For ingenuity…or something. Anyway, they're supposed to buzz me when they've finished, and no one has. If they were smart, at least one would have already buzzed me. Since they're not, it won't be any time soon they finish, so I know I have at least two hours."
"Wow, a whole elaborate plot to get with me in a closet. How romantic." Clarke scoffed.
"Awe, c'mon. I hardly see you." He said, pouting. He wasn't wrong. Their schedules were now directly opposite each other, most days at least. When they weren't, they obviously couldn't get any privacy at Bellamy's house (he had told her repeatedly his mother worked from home and she got easily mad, best not to risk it) and it seemed that now her parents were always inexplicably homes at the time she wanted to be alone with her boyfriend. They hadn't had time to make out at all in like two weeks.
"You're sure you have two hours?" She asked.
"I don't plan to keep you that long, sadly." Bellamy gave a long sigh, "Someone will notice you've taken an exceptionally long time to do some simple tasks. But I do plan to keep you here for a bit."
"How do you know no one will come by here for extra cleaning supplies?" She asked.
"Well, first off, this is a guard closet…so, secondly, I know exactly when people should be coming in here. Perks of this." He tapped his holopad.
"I would remind you again about abusing that power…but at the same time I don't really care." She said, grabbing him by his shirt and pulling him back over her.
They were just starting to get somewhere, Bellamy's fingers were pushing up her shirt little by little as he grew the courage to have her take it off all together and Clarke was beginning to consider doing it herself, when the door swung open.
"Aw, fuck. Get a room…a real one."
"Murphy…" Bellamy groaned, sliding away from Clarke as Murphy bent over, making retching sounds.
"What are you doing here?" Clarke snapped, shoving her shirt back down.
"Yeah." Bellamy agreed, "What are you doing here…" He took out his pad, wondering how he could have missed that someone was due to come to the closet…
"Wait, so do you two have sex in closets often?"
"We weren't having sex!" Clarke objected, hissing it under her breath.
"If we were, why'd you care?" Bellamy stood in front of Clarke, slightly protectively. She shoved him to the side, glowering at Murphy.
"I want to know so that I can knock next time…stars!"
"You still didn't answer my question, Cadet Murphy." Bellamy said, lowering his voice and pulling his rank.
"New helmet." Murphy answered, holding up his old one, which had a massive crack on it, "Said it would take days to repair…sent me to that closet to get a new one."
"Oh." Bellamy mumbled, obviously as this was a scenario he couldn't have foreseen.
"Let me just…" Murphy slid between them, grabbing his size of a shelf behind them, "Yep…thanks." He looked back, about to say something, but perhaps thought better of it and merely shook his head, walking away.
"I should continue on." Clarke sighed, "They'll notice if I'm gone any longer. Maybe his interruption wasn't too bad for timing." She said.
"I guess." Bellamy scowled, "I'll see you tonight, maybe?"
"Yeah, hopefully." Clarke leaned up to kiss him, "Do you think Murphy will…tell anyone?" She asked cautiously. She didn't want the rumor that she had sex in closets getting back to her parents, even if that's not what had been happening at all.
"I'll make sure he doesn't. Maybe bring it up to Raven, though. She's always known how to talk logically to him. And, she'll tease you mercilessly, but always in private." He pointed out.
Clarke agreed, waving at him goodbye, and finished her jobs quickly. No one seemed to care if she'd been gone longer than expected, and in fact someone said something to the effect of 'wow, you get things done quickly'. She could have spent more time with Bellamy, she realized angrily.
The doctors on mostly out of mindless jobs to give her, plus the fact her mother had just strolled in, gave her the job of checking up on a few of the longer-term patients in here, such as those recovering from surgeries or having treatment for long-term illnesses. She ran her arm under the scanner to the closed off room, and spent the rest of her shift writing messages to give to family members, fetching glasses of water or extra pillows, or enjoying herself by catching up with a few patients she found pleasant.
As she was removing a holopad from a patient's limp hands to set next to them on the nightstand so they could sleep more comfortably, a name caught her eye.
She paused, glancing back down at the pad and realized it was a page for the obituaries. Marv Bannon.
She frowned, unable to recall why it was familiar. It wasn't a name that was familiar in the sense that she'd read it while flipping through patient files, but that it had once held a more significant meaning to her. Maybe not all that significant because she was drawing a blank on whom this was, and his obituary was fairly short, described his station and his parents and that had died last night at the age of 18. Not much else was said.
She didn't know why this was bothering her so much. She packed up and went home, and as much as she tried to convince herself the guy was someone insignificant, her subconscious won't let it go, constantly running through different faces, trying desperately to connect it. Perhaps it was a lot of things, like the fact that his death was so quietly announced. It didn't' say how he died, and barely had anything about what sort of kid he was.
Bellamy did manage to make it back over to her house for a quiet interlude between teaching, and Clarke was still running thoughts around Marv.
"Marv Bannon." Bellamy's face darkened instantly when he heard the name, "He was in lock-up. Talked to him most days. I thought for sure he'd be let out..but…" He looked down, unable to finish.
"Why was he in there?" Clarke asked quietly.
"I'm not sure. His label said 'stealing'. He swore up and down he never did, though. Most kids…they eventually come to terms with their imprisonment, get honest about what they did. He always told me it was something bigger, but he couldn't say. And kids usually are let free at 18, or earlier, if it was just stealing. I guess that concretes it. Whatever it was…it must have been bad." Bellamy said, considering it.
"Jovana!" Clarke said suddenly, her mind making the connection it had been working at all night, "That's why…wasn't she upset because a friend of hers named Marv got put there like forever ago?" She asked.
"Stars…you're right." Bellamy said, eyes widening, "I'd forgotten by the time I took that job. I wonder how she's holding up." He added a second later, looking deflated.
"Probably shitty."
Bellamy gave a grave nod. He licked his lips, thinking.
"You know, Marv was in there 7 years. He had some personal belongings. Usually, it takes three or four days to process someone's stuff after they're floated. I can't go, I'm too busy, but you could go today and collect it. Give to Jo and his parents. I'm sure they'd like that."
"And the other guards won't care if I just steal what they'd probably sell back?" She questioned, "Wouldn't they notice me walking out with a mountain of stuff?"
"They'll turn a blind eye. I used to, and I learned from seeing other guards do it. He was there 7 years. I'd say probably every guard knows him personally. They won't say a thing. I'll tell them you're coming over…when?"
"Now. I can go now." Clarke said decisively, glad to be put on a mission to avert her thoughts of his awful death. She was tired after her shift but she couldn't imagine not going there. No wonder they hadn't said how he'd died, they'd floated him. And of course there wasn't much about his childhood; he'd spent it entirely in lock up.
Bellamy gave her the thumbs up before he left, and Clarke wrote a swift note to her parents.
The guard on duty recognized her from last year, and gave her a quiet smile.
Bellamy had written Marv's cell number on her hand, and she found it quickly. The door was thrown open, his name and number hastily smeared away, but some remnants of the chalk still remained on the board.
His cell was…lived in.
She collected everything she could that wasn't standard prison issue. She had brought along her own pillowcase for the task. It felt so odd going through his things, like she didn't belong her. She kept having to remind herself firmly that Marv wasn't coming back, and that very thought made her want to vomit.
He was only a year older than her. Thoughts like that really sobered and grounded a person.
There was a stuffed animal, worn away, and handmade. Perhaps he'd brought it in with him at the young age of 11? There were notes from his parents; he'd kept every single one of them. He had a blanket with his named stitched on it, and she recognized Aurora Blake's handiwork. There was a holopicture leaned against the wall of him with Jovana, hardly older than 7 with a heart necklace curled around it. Inside was a little note in her handwriting, but Clarke didn't take the time to read it. There were some things to leave to the dead and this was one of them.
She finished clearing it all out, and left, looking back one last time, trying to imagine that just two days ago Marv sat against that bed, reading a book or looking at the locket. Did he know he was going to be floated? Did he think there was a possibility he'd get out? Which one was more heartbreaking to imagine?
At the door, the guard stopped her.
"Hey, sorry. Can you write down where you were? Won't get in trouble, we don't care if you take that stuff, but just so the cameras match up in case anyone ever looks."
"Oh, yeah, of course. Sorry."
Clarke nodded, flipping in the little book to the page for Marv. Over the years he'd had many visits from both his parents and Jovana, but it was the name right before her own that made her pause.
Wells had visited Marv's cell a day before he'd been floated.
She was sure they didn't know each other, and he'd never visited before ever.
She finished and signed her name, and nodded absentmindedly to the guard.
Her feet knew where she was going before her mind caught up to her, outside of Wells' door.
"Wells! Open up! You have some answering to do." She said, buzzing the ringer incessantly. Half-way through her eight ring, Wells opened the door.
"Stars, Clarke! It's like 2 am."
She glared at him, arms across her chest, "Why did you visit Marv's cell?" She demanded, in no mood to beat around the bush.
Wells feigned innocence.
"What? Who?"
"Marv Bannon. You know him; he was that boy Jovana was crying about getting thrown years ago. I saw your name on the visit list and he was floated yesterday. What is going on, Wells?"
The inside of Wells' cheek twitched. He yanked her inside and began to pace. She only now took the time to see if anyone was home and was glad there wasn't.
"I went to see what his crime really was. I thought if he told me, I could present a better case to my father and the council. They had decided on his verdict seemingly long before his trial case ever came up." He said angrily, "I've been watching him for years." He admitted.
"Because of Jo?"
"Partly. I just remember what she was saying when he got thrown in there…that he'd found something about the Ark or about us or something." He said.
"So you didn't buy the 'stealing' either." Clarke said dryly.
"No, of course not. It went against every pre-existing idea about how they deal with children that stole at such a young age. I began to get suspicious when he didn't even have meetings at sixteen or seventeen."
"Did you ever find out?"
Wells paused for a long moment, looking pained. "No." He finally answered, but it seemed to come to slow, "Really, Clarke." He added, seeing her disbelief.
"Fine." She sighed, "I guess you have no reason to lie…and Bellamy could never get the truth out of him either." She added, "Guess it didn't do much for the council meeting then." She added quietly.
"Yeah." Wells looked like the death of Marv was his responsibility, as though he'd been the one to push the button even though he hadn't.
"You tried, at least. Jo will be happy that you tried." She pointed out.
"Or she'll be mad I failed." He countered.
They were quiet for a moment.
"Sorry I barged over here like this. I saw you visited him and I didn't know what to think." She admitted.
"Did you think I went and teased him about dying?" Wells sent her an offended look.
"No." She punched his arm, "Like I said, I didn't know what to think. I'll let you get back to sleep now." She said sheepishly, noticing he was in his night robes.
"Thanks." He replied sarcastically.
At the door, Clarke paused, frowning, "What do you think it was?" She questioned.
"Huh?" He replied, turning back around.
"Why he was in there?" She said.
"Oh, I couldn't even guess." He dismissed her question rather simply, "There could be a thousand stupid reasons."
"Do you think it was because he knew something he shouldn't? And the thought he might…tell someone?" Clarke asked.
Wells expression hardened, and he sighed. "Not everything is a conspiracy, Clarke. Maybe he was just a really bad prisoner?" He said, but she could tell he didn't even really believe his own words, any of it.
She scowled, as he wasn't in the habit of lying to her.
"Fine. Whatever." She muttered, leaving sharply, "Don't tell me then!"
"Clarke! Clarke, wait." She heard Wells calling her, but she ignored him. She wasn't sure what frightened her more…that the council had killed someone over knowing something or that Wells knew and straight up lied to her. Both situations unsettled her.
She recalled a situation that was similar to this, faintly, years ago…it was like a forgotten whisper coming back to her. She'd been so ready to believe him then, so eager to let her suspicions go because they were young and there had to be infinitely more things that perhaps he did know in comparison to her. But that was a long time ago, and they'd ceased to be children for a while now…and maybe Clarke finally knew a little better.
So, there are certain instances I feel are just bound to happen whatever life, in different ways, and this mirrors when Clarke had her falling out with Wells. Obviously in the show she believes it's for something much worse, but Clarke here hates lies as much as anything else so it's still a pretty big blow for her.
I hope you liked that little bit of Bellarke fluff. They're just trying to make it work the best they can right now XD
If you can't also tell, everything is starting to roll toward the marriages and finding out so rest assured that WILL be happening soon! If our characters had hindsight, this is the moment they'd look back and go 'yeah, that's when it began to start'.
Remember to review! Happy Halloween Month!