Bellamy woke to the unfamiliar sensation of hair resting in his hand and sprawled over his chest. Clarke. She was cuddled up on him, head resting just under his chin, one hand on the back of his neck and the other resting under his t-shirt on the bare skin on the side of his stomach. She was so toasty, it was lovely.
Instead of moving away, Bellamy decided the most logical thing to do would to be to enjoy this while it lasted, so he nuzzled the bottom of his lip very slighty on her hair and tried to fall back to sleep. Unfortunately he could feel her stirring on him, so Bellamy figured as nice as it was he should probably end it.
He kissed the top of her head as she started to open her eyes and stroked her hand lightly.
"Morning Princess." He said quietly. His voice was a little deeper than usual as his throat was dry so he hoped he didn't sound funny. If he did Clarke didn't seem to mind. She rolled over onto her stomach so she was facing him.
"Morning Bell." She smiled sleepily and Bellamy thought she looked so beautiful. He lent in to give her a morning kiss, assuming that would confirm if they were doing 'them' and if so, Bellamy would have to talk about her mother. That was gonna be a bad conversation.
Sadly Bellamy never got the chance because they both heard a cough before they got close. They both snapped their heads round to see a very amused and tired looking Wick.
"Morning Princess." He smiled smugly at Clarke. "Morning Bell." He said to Bellamy and then burst out laughing. The both of them moved away from each other quickly.
"Calm down, I think you guys are cute." Wick said, standing up and gesturing towards the door. "They say she's awake, come on." And Clarke almost ran out the door, leaving poor Bellamy to get up as best he could. Clarke may be small but she didn't do a lot of good leaning on healing ribs.
They headed upstairs and a nurse told them where they could find her. Unfortunately she didn't know anything about her condition. Clarke knew the surgery they did, and what it was for, but she hadn't had the guts to admit it to the boys. She hoped to God she was wrong.
In the building adjacent to the hospital, a very tired Murphy was wheeling a highly whiny child away from her nice warm bed. This was a 4th visit to Charlotte now, and the second time meeting her parents. He felt like a disapproved boyfriend, and it wasn't a good feeling. However, he liked little Charlotte and when she'd asked him to be his escort to her first group therapy session he couldn't say no.
These things were hell, Murphy thought. Sitting in a room with a bunch of strangers, talking about your feelings? No thanks. And Charlotte felt more or less the exact same as him, but her parents were insistent.
It was because of this that it was Murphy who got to sit in with her to make sure she was okay and not her parents, because Charlotte knew Murphy would hate it as much as she did and wouldn't try to convince her to smile or be polite, which she had no intention of doing.
The parents that Bellamy still hadn't learnt their names of said goodbye to Charlotte quickly while Murphy whisked her into the room with him.
They both looked around the children and a couple of adults surrounding them. Murphy looked down immediately, but Charlotte just swallowed and carried on behaving how she was before; like this was the last place on earth she'd want to be.
"Murphy, I'll give you my other leg if you get me out of here right now." She half joked quietly as Murphy placed her wheelchair next to the breakfast table so she could grab something.
"Keep with it kid, you never know...you might like it." Murphy couldn't make himself say it in any tone other than sarcastic, although he really tried.
"Yes, you both might." A women's voice came from behind Murphy and he turned with a dull expression on his face, expecting to see one of the elderly mom's. But he didn't.
Instead he was face to face with the strangest, most beautiful looking woman he'd ever seen in his life. Her hair was tied back but it was a beautiful deep chocolate color. Her eyes were large and looked deep hazel in the dim lighting of the small room. She was slender, but looked stronger than Murphy even though she was a few inches shorter than him. Her hand was bandaged up with a beautiful deep green material which matched the green of her long sleeved shirt.
But it was the tattoo. The lady had a faded dark teal tattoo running straight from her the left of her forehead, down around her left eye, trailing down the side of her nose and twisting off onto her cheek. Murphy stared at it as it moved when she spoke.
"I'm Emori. I run this session. Hi there, you must be Charlotte. And you are?" She said to Murphy who couldn't close his mouth that was still slightly open or say anything out of it.
"That's John Murphy. He's my friend." Charlotte explained, giving him a smug look behind his back.
"Hi John, can you pass me one of those?" She asked sweetly, pointing behind him, so Murphy gulped and turned quickly, grabbing her one of the bottles of water on the side and passing it back to her.
"Thanks for the water."
"It's..uh..it was..no problem." Murphy stuttered out, wishing instantly he'd just nodded or something. Emori turned away and began gathering the children up so they could start their session.
"You totally like her." Charlotte pointed out to a red-cheeked Murphy. He frowned immediately, shaking his head, completely giving himself away by over-acting.
"What? Me? No way. Shut up." Murphy said as quickly as he could. "We're gonna go sit, keep your mouth shut." He said to her, joking around. It was the reason Charlotte needed Murphy in these times. He treated her the same as anybody else. Around Murphy she wasn't sick, or disabled. She was just a normal kid.
Sadly it was a lot easier to pretend she was fine when she wasn't surrounded by sick kids.
The session focused on trying to fit in in a classroom as every kid in the room was still in school. The children got asked if they'd found it tricky to be sick when they were in school. Charlotte said she missed playing outside. All the kids agreed and Emori said she'd be able too soon.
Charlotte's leg was hidden and still not working so well for her. She was struggling to stand on it, let alone walk, but she hadn't had too long to practice. Murphy was sure she'd improve soon.
At one point Charlotte had been asked to draw a picture of something she was feeling positive about. She'd refused to show Murphy what it was and handed it to Emori without him even getting a glance at it, but Emori had certainly liked it based on the grin on her face when Charlotte had handed it to her.
Murphy spent the entire session basically staring at Emori. He could take his eyes off her, she practically glowed. She was funny, nice to the children and even Charlotte ended up cracking a smile and joining in. Murphy was glad she was feeling better about this thing. And he was glad he came along too.
After it had finished Emori came over and asked Charlotte if she'd enjoyed herself, and was happy with Charlotte's positive response.
"And how did Mr Murphy enjoy the session? You didn't seem to be paying much attention." Emori pointed out, smirking. Murphy realized she'd noticed how much he'd been staring.
"It was very intriguing." He said, proud he hadn't stuttered over his words or said something stupid. Emori smiled but then glanced over at two moms and a dad in the corner, staring at them and talking among themselves. Murphy looked over too and two gave him a filthy look.
"Murder I'm told." one of the mom's who hadn't realized people were staring said quite loudly. Murphy couldn't believe it. She saw Murphy staring. "I know who you are boy, and I don't want him in this class Emori." She strode over to her and spoke quietly, but so Murphy could hear.
"My sister knew his mother. He's a sick twisted boy and I don't want him around my child." Emori looked Murphy up and down, then around at the people staring. The kids weren't paying much attention at all, they were talking in small groups.
"Let's just go John, they don't get it." Charlotte said and Murphy went to push her out the door.
"Wait." Emori said. "John has as much right to be here as anybody else. He's done nothing wrong today and provided he follows the same rules as everybody else in this session does, he is welcomed back."
"But..." the mother began to protest.
"Sharon, I just spoke to the children about being excluded. Perhaps you should have listened." Emori said in the same tone as she spoke to one of the children when they were being naughty. Charlotte grinned at Murphy, putting her thumbs up, but he still continued to push the wheelchair out of the room. He didn't want to embarrass Charlotte anymore than he already had.
Emori followed them out of the room and placed her hand on his arm to make him stop.
"You are welcome back here any time John." Emori said, looking straight at him, despite him trying to avoid her gaze.
"Most people just call me Murphy." He said, purposely not answering her directly.
"Murphy. Of course, if what they are saying is true, I should probably look into it right?" She said nicely and Murphy was confused because she was still smiling slightly.
"Probably. I'm not dangerous." He assured her.
"Well, it might be best for me to talk to you about it. In private sometime." Charlotte grinned from ear to ear, but Murphy wasn't quite getting it.
"Uh..I don't come into the hospital that often, but I can talk to you about it like before the next session?" He suggested and Emori laughed lightly.
"I was thinking we could talk over coffee sometime?" Murphy's eyes opened in shock when he realized what she was asking.
"Oh." He said, not thinking about giving an answer. "Oh. Um..sure. Yeah, no, that would be good." Emori shook her head slightly and called over Murphy's shoulder at a still beaming Charlotte.
"Charlotte, when is he next seeing you?"
"Tomorrow at 1. But I can have him out of here by 1:30?" She said, beaming like crazy.
"Sounds good to me. See you tomorrow, outside the front. 1:30." Murphy nodded, not trusting himself to say anything else. "Bye Charlotte. Bye John Murphy." Murphy started to push Charlotte again who couldn't resist teasing him.
"John's got a date!" She mocked loudly, so much so that Emori stopped returning to the room.
"Shut up Charlotte, or I'll end you." He joked back, then realized he could hear Emori laughing again. "In a non-criminal way!" He added quickly, glancing back over his shoulder at Emori standing with her arms crossed but a smile on her stunning face.
"You're the worst kid." Murphy said, realizing that Charlotte was slowly becoming like the sister he'd never wanted, but liked anyway.
"Yeah, but what would you do without me?" Charlotte retaliated, smiling to herself. She knew somewhere in the room was her drawing she wouldn't let Murphy see, which might of had something to do with what just went down.
On Charlotte's picture she'd drawn Emori and Murphy hand in hand. And in huge letters above it was written 'John likes you. Gross. But he's pretty cool.'
Charlotte knew if Murphy found out he'd be so annoyed at her, but right now, considering he couldn't stop smiling, it was worth it.
Hey, sorry it's been a bit of a slow update. I hoped you liked my final addition to the ships I have going in this story. I promise this is (probably) the last one. New chapter will be up pronto, feedback is both loved and appreciated you lovely people! Thanks to everybody who's read it so far!