I thought I might finish this before the series ended.
I also did think Bellarke was going to be canon, or at the very least...not fucking that.
I'm done with TV shows ruining themselves ugg.
16 Years After the Start of the Project
"This is where I had my first crush. And my first heartbreak. Yer a heartbreaker, Dibdin," Octavia said, winking to Simon. Simon sputtered, turning bright red, as though this was news to him, "And babe, this is where my mom gave me my 'bird and bees' talk. And Bellamy provided some pictures from his educational textbooks, yuck. This is where I punched Bell after he insulted me and I broke his nose! The blood stains are still sorta there...yeesh, hope they can mop that up. Aww, look! This is where I spent most of my life hiding," Octavia patted the corner of the floor grate before giving it her middle finger. Bellamy shoved her, knocking her over.
"Your son is standing right there!" He said, horrified.
"Aww, he can barely make motions, and if he flipped us off, we'd laugh," Jasper kissed Sebastian's head, "But we get it, babe. You did everything in here."
"And now…" Bellamy turned around in the small space he too had grown up in, "Now we're saying goodbye to it."
"Yech, don't tell me you're getting all misty-eyed. I hope to never set foot in here again," Octavia looked at Bellamy like he was crazy.
"I'm sentimental! Lots of good things happened in here too," He huffed, embarrassed to be called out.
"On to bigger and better things," Octavia said, unfazed, which was the summation of their personalities if one had to explain it in a nutshell.
"Are you excited to move out, Aurora, or are you weepy like Bell?" Raven asked Bellamy and Octavia's mother, who had returned to grab her box of sewing materials.
"Both," She smiled pleasantly, "Bellamy and O are off with their own families and I could not be happier. I never imagined such a life...for either, so I feel so grateful. At the same time, you do grow attached to spaces," She gingerly ran her fingers over the wall, "But my time has come to leave. I am looking forward to my post-child adult life," She admitted with a grin Bellamy had never seen on his mother's face.
"Geddit Ms. Blake!" Murphy hooted and Octavia pinched him.
"Ew, dude."
"What? She deserves to have a good time. Stars know how she survived raising you both." Murphy shrugged, "Do you get a nice bed in the dorms?"
"Nice enough, it's by Marie Porter. I have a sneaking suspicion she only gave me that bed so she might sneak a peek at my sewing materials," Aurora grinned widely, "But it's all up here," She tapped her head, "So at most she'll see some moth-bitten fabrics I'm restoring."
"I bet you'll make all the ladies jealous there within a month," Octavia said proudly, "The whole ARK knows you're the best seamstress."
"I just hope to make more friends," Aurora said, but Bellamy saw her eyes flash. Like daughter, like mother. Some part of her liked the idea of being 'the best', being able to preen and show off her skills.
"Hey, all! Refreshments," Clarke greeted the group that was helping Aurora move out as she came from her last shift at the MedBay before her maternity leave officially began. She threw some sandwiches on the table and everyone dropped what they were doing and dug in, "How can I help?"
"You can go back home and lie down," Bellamy kissed her forehead, "Like you're supposed to be doing."
"Oh, pish," Clarke batted him away, "I can carry a box or two. Won't kill me."
"Absolutely not!" Bellamy argued, "You're not even a week away from your due date! You will go home and I'll be back in no time."
Clarke gave her husband an aggravated look, "Is that an order, Lieutenant?" She said with a hint of frustration, "Or are we going to play the 'Rank-Game' again?"
"Hey!" Raven dropped her son off in Clarke's arms, "You don't need to leave. I mean, there are other things to do than carrying boxes," She pointed out, glaring at Bellamy, "For shame, Bell. Have you forgotten that Clarke's a doctor? She knows probably like fifteen ways to kill a man and make it look like an accident and five ways to dismember one during the night."
"Six," Clarke corrected with a mischievous grin as she kissed Tristan Murphy's chubby cheeks.
"Mom!" Bellamy turned, huffing, "Would you tell your daughter-in-law that you would prefer it if she did not go into early labor with your grandchild?"
"You worry far too much. Leave the worrying to women who have actually gone through labor." Aurora said with a raised eyebrow and an unamused expression.
"Burn, Blake. Going to your mommy?" Murphy sniggered.
"I agree, no carrying boxes. However...well…" Aurora opened the cabinets that had been hers during the years in this room, "I haven't gone through and properly organized since Bell was a toddler. If you could kindly go through and organize these into some piles, it would make it easier to know what I want to keep and what I want to donate."
"Done!" Clarke said, glad to be of some use. The size of the ARK had her feeling very un-useful lately and it was killing her, "I won't let you down!"
"You never have," Aurora kissed her cheek, "Bellamy, please leave your lovely wife be and help me move my sewing machine."
Bellamy gave one last look to Clarke, who had settled on the floor, and carefully cushioned Tristain in his carrier to make funny faces at him before she began to tackle a very disorganized shelving system.
"I'm just worried, that's all," Bellamy sighed, realizing he might have gone a bit too far.
"Women have been giving birth since the start of time," Simon clapped his shoulder on his way out with a stack of frames, "And if anyone's got a handle on pregnancy, it's Clarke Griffin-Blake."
While Bellamy and the rest of the group continued to ferry boxes across the Ark, Clarke settled into her task, which she took very seriously.
It was a mishmash of everything that Aurora needed or wanted to keep out of the hands of Bellamy or Octavia. There were some medicines likely past use, though Clarke would check. There were some food stamps saved away for special occasions. There were also many things that one might consider trash, but waste-not-want-not was the motto on the ARK. As it was, there was a fair amount that Aurora just didn't need with her that could be repurposed elsewhere.
After the original strange feeling of going through Aurora's most coveted and personal items, Clarke found great interest in dissecting her mother-in-law's life. The more she dug into the cabinets, the farther back she went in time. It was like looking into the past as she pulled food stamps that were out of circulation long ago or bits of material that were pretty much obsolete at this point, meaning that some of these scraps could get Aurora a fair bit of credits. Not that she needed it anymore; now that she didn't need to feed two children she could support herself just with her sewing business. And, Bellamy made enough credits that if she ever wanted a break, he could easily support her on his rations. Still, it reminded Clarke how different the Blakes grew up...and to a certain extent, how Bellamy's maternal family must have as well.
As far as Clarke knew, Bell and O's grandparents died when Bellamy was hardly past four, so they never met Octavia. There were no paternal grandparents to speak of since neither knew their fathers and this was the one secret Aurora seemed keen to take with her to the grave. Of course, everyone guessed the topic at some point, whether late-night movie sessions or drunken party games. As the most likely case, their father or fathers weren't around anymore, so taking guesses were a bit pointless.
It hadn't bothered Bell since he was ten, that was for sure. Whenever Clarke tried to ask him, he'd just shrug and say Jake or Miller were the only fathers he cared about. He didn't need one that wasn't around, one that left his mother to raise him alone. He had figured if his bio dad had been a good person, Aurora wouldn't be so tight-lipped.
Thus, he inferred his father was some nasty deserter and he'd rather never know at all.
Near the back, there were curios that were from the earliest days of Aurora Blake living here. From the records, Clarke knew she inherited it from her parents, so it was mementos from Aurora's childhood. There was a ribbon past guessing the color it once was, there were some pencil stubs and half-drawings on torn paper, there were bits of eraser in rainbow colors, and the very last thing Clarke found was a stack of photographs.
They were tied with a piece of twine, or once had been, but time had chewed away so as soon as Clarke grabbed them, they fell all over the floor, spilling out like water across the metal.
"Oops!" Sebastian piped from his make-shift playpen, giggling. Clarke winced at the mess, glancing at her nephew.
"Yes, Seb, oops is right. Aunt Clarke made a mess, didn't she?" She said, reaching to start to re-stack them.
Pictures, like this, hadn't been around for who knows how long. Certainly longer than Clarke had been alive! Commander Miller had a camera sitting in his home office, but the film that had gone in it was long gone. It was one of those weird knowledge pools...that you shook polaroids to develop the image, but Clarke had only touched an actual picture a few times in her whole life, much less seen so many of them.
As she began to pick them up and then sort them into piles, she realized she was looking back at the entire history of the Blakes. Maybe Bellamy's ancestors had thought to bring one of these disposal cameras along or maybe everyone got some. Maybe the entire first few decades had been captured on film. Clarke would have to ask her parents about this because now she was deeply curious.
There were about thirteen from when Aurora was a teen or a young adult. These were the ones that Clarke felt fixated on, despite the fact part of her knew she should just put them away and not look. This far back, she imagined that Aurora liked to keep these a secret. She doubted Bell knew about them at all.
She looked just like Octavia when they'd been the same age. It was eerie looking at this ghost of an image of Aurora Blake as a young twenty-something-year-old sitting on the couch in the main rec area (in much worse condition now) with a group of friends, laughing. Just like Clarke did with her own friends. It was also interesting to see what features Octavia must have inherited from her father since the resemblance was close, but not spot-on.
Honestly, seeing this, Clarke was shocked more people hadn't wondered if she were Aurora Blake's illegitimate daughter when 'Melody' was revealed to the world. Clarke chalked it up to people believing what you told them. Plus, as discussed in the group before, with so few people some genetics and similarities were bound to cross accidentally somewhere.
There was someone else in the pictures that Clarke knew. Or, someone she thought that she might know. It was a boy that seemed practically glued to Aurora's side, about her age in these young teen pictures. And the reality of what she might be looking at caused her to drop the pictures again.
All she knew is that she was pretty sure Aurora didn't mean for Clarke to see these.
She wondered if she should pretend she never did. Should she shove them in the bottom of the box, erase them from her memory? Should she confront Aurora about it in private? Should she tell Bell? She felt like she should tell her husband, of all people, but she wasn't even sure what to tell him. It was a guess at this point...a very intuitive one...but still a guess at this point.
And to what end? She had this information, but what the hell would he be able to do with it? Nothing!
She didn't realize it, but she had been caught up in her own thoughts for quite a bit, staring at the top photo and breathing hard. So much so that she was not paying attention when John Murphy returned back first and saw her, pale.
"Woah, Princess! Found Aurora's sex pics or something?" He said, and had Clarke had thought about it more, she should have hidden the photos from him or found some way to distract him.
But he picked up the top one and immediately dropped it.
"That's your dad, isn't it?" Clarke said, snapping out of her own worry.
Murphy reached for the picture again as though it would bite him. His fingers trembled as he picked it up, "Fuck, it's him. I didn't know he and Aurora were friends. She never said anything."
"More than friends." Clarke was shit at keeping quiet. Plus, she figured that it wouldn't take long for Murphy to start thinking what she was thinking. She flipped over a picture to show Aurora grinning, kissing John's father with a stupid, lovesick smile on her face. He looked the same.
John stared at it like it was a foreign language, jaw clenched, but eyes sorrowful. How strange must it be to see the image of a ghost in his youth?
John looked back at the first picture, the one which was a group of friends, with Aurora and Murphy's father in the middle, his arm slung around Bellamy's mother. John's finger tapped a blonde near the edge, sitting on the floor.
"My mom. They all knew each other."
"Who did?" Bellamy asked, returning with Raven in tow, "How goes organiz…" His smile died when he saw Murphy's expression and Clarke, standing and hugging a set of pictures to her chest tightly.
"Clarke?" Raven frowned.
"Uhm...your mom had some pictures." Clarke stammered.
"And you looked through them?" Bellamy asked, eyes wide, "Clarke!"
"I didn't mean to! They spilled all over and I accidentally…" She winced, "Yeah, I know. I know! I was curious but now I think I've gone too far and-,"
"Woah, breathe." Bellamy came over and hugged Clarke, "What's going on?"
"My mom, my dad, and your mom were all buddy-buddy as teens," Murphy said, still fixated with the picture, "And my dad and your mom were for sure more than friends."
"Woah," Bellamy said, unsure what else to respond to that with. Clarke set down the photo of Aurora and Alex kissing guiltily.
"Wait. Are you guys seeing what I'm seeing?" Raven asked sharply, eyes wild as she looked at Clarke.
"Alex Murphy?" Simon echoed, "And a really young Aurora?"
Clarke's fingers shook and she rubbed her arms, feeling as though they were on the precipice of the best or worst secret the ARK had been holding for years. They couldn't back away from it now...for better or worse. She felt like her brain was wildly firing, trying to understand what Raven meant, but her pregnancy brain was running a tad bit slower than usual.
"Right. Fuck." Raven pinched the bridge of her nose.
"Fuck!" Sebastian repeated, chewing on his toy.
"He probably already knew that one," Raven dismissed it, but sucked in through her teeth, "If O or Jasper ask...it wasn't me that taught him that."
"Raven, what do you see?" Murphy snapped, looking like he wanted to lock everyone out like usual. He had the appearance of a caged wolf, pacing and close to biting someone.
"Stand here," Raven instructed her husband, "And Bellamy, yeah, like this." She turned Bellamy to his side, "Right, Simon and Clarke. Witness." She instructed, first picking up the picture of Alex at the party, "Babe, smile."
"What?" Murphy snorted.
"Smile. For me?" Raven said, and when it seemed Murphy had somehow forgotten, she turned his head just a bit so he could see Tristain playing with his foot in his carrier, and a smile, whether or not he meant for it to appear, bloomed over Murphy's face.
"Damn, he really looks like his dad," Simon said, which Clarke thought was obvious. Raven nodded and then picked up the picture of Alex and Aurora kissing. She held it up to Bellamy's side profile, raising an 'oh my stars make this connection too, please' look to the pair. Clarke felt a bit nauseous all of a sudden and Simon inhaled sharply. Murphy came to stand to see and stood frozen.
"Bellamy looks like Alex." And not just the 'everyone looks like someone on the ARK', but there were lines of history and genetics that were now impossible to ignore.
"Right," Raven wasn't done. She pried the pictures from Clarke's hands, picking just one of Aurora, probably a school picture from her youth, "Looks like Octavia, obviously. Bell, enough. But…" She held up Aurora to Murphy and Clarke felt like kicking herself. She called herself an artist but somehow had entirely missed this!
"She looks more like Murphy," Simon spoke out loud and Raven nodded, her eyes serious.
"Holy fu…" Bellamy collapsed against the wall, staring at Murphy with wide eyes, "Holy fuck!"
Murphy was shaking. Raven went to rub his arm but he startled, kicking the metal table, and went down. There were no snarky remarks this time.
Simon and Clarke looked at each other, unsure what to do next.
Jasper, Octavia, and Aurora arrived back into Aurora's house to find Murphy laying on the ground, seeming comatose, and Bellamy swearing under his breath staring right at Murphy.
Aurora saw the photos and in a flash, seemed to understand. She reached for them with frantic urgency, but Raven held them back.
"Little late for that Ms. Blake," She said, but she fumbled a bit over the title.
"What's going on?" Octavia frowned.
"Fuck!" Sebastian happily crooned.
"Hey, Seb, remember we weren't going to say that word in front of others," Jasper said, half-laughing as he patted his son's head.
"Told you he already knew it," Simon whispered as an aside, and when Clarke gave him a wild 'what the heck' sort of luck, he faltered, "Uhm, with Murphy…" He waved a hand in his general direction, "Someone has to be the snarky one. I know I don't quite do it justice, but-,"
"Dude." Clarke shook her head, "Aurora? I think for the sake of both of them...maybe we're owed an explanation."
"I had thought those photos were in a different cabinet," Aurora said quietly, a confirmation Clarke hadn't meant to see them, "It's not quite any of your buis-,"
"Cut the bullshit, mom," Bellamy said from where he was sitting, "I'm tired of all these lies. All these secrets. I just…" Clarke had a feeling there was more that he knew about certain things than he was letting on, but now wasn't the time to jump on the fact he'd pretty much confirmed it, "So get talking. Now."
"About what?" Octavia huffed, still in the dark entirely.
Quietly, Raven began to lay down photos in front of Aurora. After a stern moment where she looked like she was going to kick them all out, she shut the door behind her.
"This doesn't involve you," She said to Octavia.
"It doesn't?" Bellamy echoed.
"No." She admitted, which to those that had made connections, was quite telling in itself, "Murphy...John," Her voice was entirely soft and loving, "Please, come sit."
John stood shakily, eyes red as he regarded Aurora for a few moments, as though unsure what he was going to do next like his brain was going to make a split-second choice. Raven rubbed his back, face pinched.
"As you all might have already figured out, John's father and I were quite good friends as children. Best friends, actually. So, when we started dating right before we got our assignments, hardly anyone was surprised. I thought I was going to marry him." She fingered the broken twine and frowned, then got on the ground. In a moment, she came up with something glittering between her fingers, something Clarke had missed since she was unable to see her own feet these days.
A ring.
"My dad proposed to you?" Murphy said as Aurora handed it off to him, gazing at the ring with such a soft look that Clarke felt the love, even twenty-some years in the future, "Did you say no?"
"On the contrary, I said yes. I was so in love with him, so ready to start our lives. When I found out I was pregnant not long after, I was over the moon. We both were." She said, raising her gaze to meet Bellamy. The unspoken admittance was that she had not gotten rid of that child.
"So he's my dad. Murphy's my half-brother?" Bellamy murmured, looking like he was a thousand miles away. Murphy was equally stunned; though on some level, they'd come to realize this, it was jarring to hear it out loud.
Aurora did not answer him, but instead passed the ring from Murphy to Bellamy for him to see, "He named you. After David Bellamy, a botanist. Alex always had a certain green thumb I didn't. Before you were even born, boy or girl, he liked Bellamy."
"Oh," Bellamy said, looking down at his own hands as though trying to realign himself.
"What happened? Why didn't you get married?" Raven asked quietly, eyes laser-focused on the story at hand, if not for her husbands' sake, but for her own curiosity.
"Alex came from this station. His parents always had lofty ideas and wanted something better for everyone. They couldn't get someone on the premier stations, but the Farm Station was close enough. So they bartered a marriage with your mother," Aurora said, staring at Murphy, "Which is likely where Jaha got the idea for Project Iphegina. This was more common back when I was young but was starting to fall out of fashion. Usually, it was arranged between two families instead of the Chancellor, albeit. Alex never told me the specifics of the trade. By the time the pen had dried, there was no way for Alex to break it. So, we never got to marry." Aurora recited, her voice still as anguished as the day she likely found out.
"Did they want it?" Murphy asked quietly, "Once they knew it was what they had?" It must have been strange, Clarke imagined, for him to imagine his parents had a marriage origin like this. Perhaps that's why they had signed him up…
"Your mother and I were friends once. Not best friends, but we ran in the same group. But she'd held a candle for Alex for years...I wouldn't have been surprised if she was helping her parents pull the strings or had the idea entirely. So, she was thrilled...initially. Alex tried everything to get out of it. He promised me that he didn't love her, only me. And I never doubted that." Her face darkened, "However…"
"That's probably not what you want your new husband to be saying to another woman," Simion guessed with a groan.
"Yes. So, despite getting exactly what she wanted...she was already poisoned in this marriage. But it was far too late. I know Alex was committed, on some level, to making it work, but she became cold not long after."
"Why didn't you tell anyone about me?" Bellamy asked, "That I was...that he was...maybe that coulda…"
"No." Aurora reached across the table for his hand, and kissed it, "I was afraid. I was the lowest of the low, my parents were no one. Murphy's maternal family had connections. I didn't want to risk anything happening to you. They could have forced me to get rid or you, or worse. It was easier to just never say anything. Alex knew…" Aurora pulled out a photo from the bottom that Clarke hadn't seen, one of Murphy's dad holding a newborn Bellamy and grinning widely, "And his wife knew, much to her disdain. But I never made trouble, I put you down as a 'Blake' instead of a 'Murphy', so Karenina Murphy just pretended you simply did not exist. Some people guessed, especially those from our friend group. I simply refused to reply. And that was all fine...for a while."
"I coulda been Bellamy Murphy...you could have been Clarke Griffin-Murphy!" Bellamy said, startling back, swinging to look at Clarke.
"Doesn't have the right ring," Murphy said, and then gave a small smile afterward, showing that on some level, his mind was making sense of this. Raven kissed his temple.
"Small miracles, then?" Clarke snorted.
"Excuse my bluntness, but they're not half-brothers, are they?" Raven asked pointedly. Aurora sighed.
"You are quite the intelligent one. As he deserves," Aurora sighed heavily, as though realizing she could not just cut the story off there.
"How?" Murphy demanded.
"Your mother could not conceive. And they tried everything. But when your husband was already mentally with another woman...you're desperate, as it was. She feared he'd find a reason to leave her. She saw how fondly he would look at Bellamy if we were out and about. He wanted a child. One he could publicly love. And as I said...we were friends once. She was never quite right, no offense."
"She was awful to me," Murphy spat, "I have no lost love for her."
Aurora paused, so caught off guard by his admission that it seemed she may break down right then and there, but she managed to rein it in, at least temporarily, "So she had this idea she imagined to be perfect. Alex and I get one more night together, they get a child. It was proven I was already fertile, considering we weren't even trying for Bellamy, and they had the money to keep me in baggy clothing and do my work from my house instead of the main seamstress room when I began to show. And I loved Alex, so how could I say no?" Aurora asked, as though wondering it herself now, all these years later, "It was always going to be a tragedy, but we were young and foolish."
"So then you had…" Murphy's breath caught, "Me."
"And I named you. That was my terms. John was your grandfather's name. Common enough that no one would think twice. Handing you over, after I gave birth in here with your father and Kar standing by, was the hardest thing I've ever had to do. You may not believe me, but I have always loved you and I hate hearing how you grew up."
"Funny," Murphy's voice crackled, "I always was jealous of how Bell grew up, even if it was with all that secrecy with another sibling. I would have given anything for that sort of love. I mean, Alex loved me. My dad really, really, really did. So much he died for me."
"You cried for days. I just thought it was about the sick in general," Bellamy realized, murmuring it, "And I didn't even know that he was my dad who…" His lip trembled, "He was a good guy." This realization, despite what he'd made himself believe his whole life, seemed ready to break him. Clarke reached for his hand.
"No, that woman hated my guts. She looked at me and saw you." Murphy looked up, "And she was the one that always had people using my last name. Not John." He grimaced, as though putting together some vital piece of his childhood, "How did she think it was ever going to work?"
"I should have said no." Aurora said, "Knowing how you grew up...I wanted to take you in after they died, but-,"
"But you had me," Octavia said, speaking for the first time since she began, "And you couldn't."
Aurora gave a hard, regretful nod.
"So you two are full brothers." Simon pointed between Bellamy and Murphy, "Which means that Clarke, you have another nephew. Sebastian and Tristain and that kid you're carrying are all cousins and Aurora has another grandson."
"And you're basically my mother-in-law," Raven finished.
"So I'm...he's my...they're my...full brothers?" Octavia spoke quietly with far too much hope. Aurora winced.
"I wish. Sadly, after John was born, I hardly ever saw Alex. Kar made sure of that. We hardly talked more than three more times in the time between John's birth and his death." She said apologetically.
"Woah." Jasper's eyes were as big as saucers, "That means that John and Bell are more related than you and Bellamy, even though he's...ah, right. I'm going to shut up now." Jasper realized his mistake with Octavia's frightening glare set on him.
"Brothers, eh?" Murphy looked to Bellamy, "First Finn, now you and Octavia...I'm just picking up family left and right," He laughed, but it was half-watery.
"Okay, okay! So like, they both know who their fathers are. Yay, fantastic. I think I deserve to know mine now." Octavia crossed her arms angrily, "I've stayed quiet the entire time. Mom, who is it?" She demanded.
"Someone still alive," Aurora said, seemingly that was all she wanted to say on the matter. Meaning, in a sense, that no harm could be done for both Karenina and Alex were dead but whoever was Octavia's father was someone who might not want to know.
"Twenty questions!" Jasper slapped his hands together, "Does he know?"
Aurora seemed ready to ignore Jasper, but Bellamy stood in front of the door, crossing his arms, "Mom, seriously?"
"No. He doesn't." Aurora snapped, starting to pull all the pictures, "It was a one-night-stand. But, I'd already proven I could hide a pregnancy and give birth without anyone's knowledge, so I had no reason to abort you."
"So no pictures for her to see," Murphy said, craning to get one last look at his father. In a moment of kindness, Aurora found a picture that was Alex alone and handed it over to Murphy.
"Keep it. Please."
"Higher station than this?"
"Yes."
"A lot higher?"
Aurora winced, "Yes."
"How'd you two meet?" Jasper continued.
"Party. I mended his suit for an event. He complimented it and offered to buy me a drink. Bellamy was with my parents and Kar had just told me that I was never going to talk to Alex again if she had anything to do with it, and she had quite a lot, so I was...in quite the destructive mood you could say." Aurora sighed, "I wish I could tell you that you were born of love like your brothers, but…"
Clarke blinked. It was so strange to hear 'brothers' used like this.
Octavia winced hard, "Right, yeah, not everything is unicorns and rainbows." She said, but she still seemed hurt.
"I think I imagined, foolishly, we could date, but he was far above my station and I had my head in the clouds." Aurora admitted, "I did have a crush on him if that helps."
"Uhm, a bit," Octavia took Sebastian off the floor, holding him close, as though thinking about how her son at least was born of love. As did his cousins. This was hard for anyone to hear, especially someone who had always felt like a burden. Still, she had wanted the entire, unedited truth.
And there it was.
There was a moment of tense air with the surrounding group. Everyone was affected by this, and even Simon to some extent, as his gaze swiveled between Murphy, to Bell, to Octavia as though contemplating how lucky Aurora was to survive and hide three children into adulthood, despite the fact she'd grown up in a much lower station than he had. For everyone else, the news of their new connection and the family tree was startling, to say the least, and everyone seemed to get up all at once to go home and sit and think about all this for a long while.
Clarke kept looking at Murphy and tried to scrutinize his features and wonder how she missed the ways that he did look similar to Bellamy. She had a brother-in-law now, bizarre as that was. He was actually Uncle John, which she felt like her mind would not stop running. Bellamy's movements were jerky as he started to move toward his mother, but pulled back, face set into a scowl.
Aurora reached out and touched Murphy's shoulder lightly. He stiffened but didn't jump back. If anything, Clarke could have sworn he almost leaned into her touch. She couldn't imagine the storm that was raging inside of his mind. It was like one of those really shitty 'would you rather' queries that they'd played as children; would you rather have a mother present your whole life that hated your guts but wasn't actually your mom or a mother that loved you but only watched from the shadows. She wondered how Murphy was going to categorize this in his mind. She had no idea what he felt toward Mrs. Collins, at the very least utmost gratitude, but she was unsure if he'd seen her as a replacement mother. She would have joked, before this, one could never have too many mothers but, now? She wondered that was all.
"John, I kept my distance, worrying that something awful would happen if I tried to talk to you. I knew your father loved you so I imagined you had a good life and that's what kept me at an arm's length. I don't know if I can forgive myself, knowing your Kar treated you. It might be far too late, and I will understand if you never want to see me again, but I would genuinely like to get to know you as an adult. You don't have to see me as your mother, I wouldn't ask that much, but perhaps we can build something?" She asked quietly.
John looked up at her, eyes clearing from the mist that had made him seem distant for most of the discussion, and gave a jerky nod.
"We can...try...something…" He whispered hoarsely, shaking. He might try to pretend, but at the end of the day, what John craved and always had was people around him who loved him.
Clarke passed Raven and laughed out loud.
"Guess we really are sisters now," She said if that was one of the positives to come of this. Raven was the only person who had not moved, staring forward with her eyes focused and face pinched in thought. Octavia was nearly at the door; maybe she recognized her mother had told her a great deal more than had ever intended and knew this was all she was getting. Maybe she didn't want to press more. Maybe this was enough for her. Either way, she seemed ready to leave. The house wasn't completely emptied yet, but it seemed that no one really was going to stick around, nor was Aurora going to ask them to.
"It's Kane, isn't it." Raven said abruptly, startling everyone with her firm declaration, "Octavia's father is Marcus Kane."
Bellamy was the first to react. He gave a sound between a guffaw and a snort, apologizing, "Really, Raven? Sure, pick any black-haired dude around and-,"
Aurora smiled, but it wasn't exactly warm, "You are indeed the smartest girl on this ship."
"The fuck?" Octavia pressed the palms of her hands to her eyes, "Him? The dude that's not so secretly fucking Clarke's mom? I mean, it's not a secret really," She added at Clarke's indignant huffs.
"One night. I wouldn't call it a mistake; he was unattached, but nothing more than that."
"Are you going to confront him?" Jasper asked, hoisting Seb onto his hips.
"Walk up to one of the most powerful men and be like 'oh, by the way, I'm not actually Melody, I'm Aurora's secret daughter and your one-night-stand baby'?"
"Right," Jasper's face was bright red, "Well...that's...something. Damn, it's going to be hard not to just...stare at him." He peeked down at Sebastian, "Frick. Seb has Kane's nose."
"Clarke, let's go," Bellamy groaned, "Before my mom reveals any more deep-kept family secrets, like that my grandfather wore drag and believed in the Spaghetti Monster. I think I need some time to decompress."
Clarke looked back at Aurora, who seemed more at ease than she'd ever been before. Clarke understood the weight of secrets. She pressed a kiss to the back of Bellamy's hand. She hoped he would be able to tell her the whole truth soon, lest this weight on him and break him down as it did to so many figures in this tale.
But for now? For now, she'd let the dust settle.
XX
Clarke sighed in frustration, erasing the charcoal on the page for the umpteenth time. Her fingers were sooty black and she was pretty sure it was smeared all over her face too from the times she'd rubbed her eyes or scratched her cheek.
The news of her expanded family tree was really all that the six people at the forefront could think about...or talk about. Of course, the trio of siblings was trying to navigate this new, weird news and their spouses were just trying to pick up the pieces. Clarke had started by drawing Alex Murphy's face. She'd been thinking of him a lot lately, now that she knew he was Bellamy's father. The few memories she had with him were on a constant loop in her brain. He knew...he knew every time he looked at Bellamy that it was his firstborn.
She'd been so young, as had Bell, of course, they hadn't picked up on that sort of thing. Still, it was strange.
After Alex, she'd drawn Murphy and Bellamy. Then Aurora. Then Octavia and part of her thought of drawing Kane but decided to add the spouses. But should she add Finn, who Murphy had considered his brother for years now? Maybe Kane should be in there? But wouldn't that incriminate him if anyone ever saw it?
And they thought the whole 'one child per couple' thing would be easy. This was, likely, the most convoluted and tangled mess of family tree connections in the ARK's entire history.
"Antsy, eh?" Leslie guessed from where she was reading a book in the Group Room's corner, "I was about crawling out of my skin right before Gal was born."
"I've already nested. I've redone the nursery...three times. Bellamy's about to kill me." Clarke put down her work, deciding to come back to it later. Truth be told, she was bored out of her skull, just waiting to give birth. It was so boring being on maternity leave!
"How much longer again?"
"Could be any day now," Clarke patted her taut stomach, "Little one is stubborn though, knowing me and Bellamy are the parents, so they'll probably hold out as long as they want."
"They?"
"Chose to be a surprise," Clarke gave a soft smile, "I don't really care, either way, boy or girl, as long as they're healthy. But, speaking of kids, where's your son?"
"With his dad. Terrible twos are settling in and I need a break. I'm previewing a new book for my History Students. Well, not new. Nothing's new. New content; Stasia's parents are decluttering and she figured it was something I could use. Needed some time for me." Leslie flapped the book aloft.
Before Clarke could answer, Raven strode into the room with a purpose. Clarke thought she was there for her until Raven completely walked past her friend in favor of Leslie.
"I'm told out of everyone in our group you have a knack for languages," Raven said, right to the point, per the usual.
"Some might say." Leslie gave a hedging smile.
"Oh, come on. Six fluent, five semi-learned," Raven nudged her shoulder, "Better than me or Melody, you know," She said, citing those that perhaps came close in language retention. Clarke could learn if she really studied, but often she just was interested in other things. Still, Clarke stood, curious. Raven saw her and tensed, but let her see the holopad.
"Okay, languages are a love of mine," Leslie admitted with a giggle, "Why?"
"Found this in an old book. We're not sure...nothing we've ever seen. Think you can figure out what this means?" Raven said, tapping a page open.
"From Stasia's collection?" Leslie asked, eagerly pulling the tablet toward her.
"Yes."
Raven was a masterful liar, but Clarke knew her best friend well enough. Though Leslie didn't give it a second thought, Clarke knew Raven didn't find this in any of the former Huron book collections. But where... ?
"Woah. I was expecting some Medieval English or something but this...hmm, I don't recognize it," Leslie said, but her eyes were bright with this new task, "It looks like a pidgin. Or maybe creole influenced."
"A pigeon? The bird?" Clarke echoed, but when both Raven and Leslie looked at her, she knew that was a stupid comment. Raven's look was much more judgemental. Leslie, like the good teacher she was, just laughed.
"No. Pidgin. It's basically a simplified language between two groups who do not speak the same language so they can communicate. Like creole. If we pronounce this at face value, which it seems we might, it's almost reminiscent of English. Almost, but not quite."
She motioned Clarke forward and pointed to a line, "Ge smak daun, gyon op nodotaim. If you read that out loud, what does it sound like?"
"Get smacked down, the first part," Clarke tapped her chin, "But are you sure it's not just that's what we think we hear, and that it means something entirely different?"
"A false cognate?" Leslie zoomed in the words, "Good point. However, without more context, it's hard to tell. Where's the book?"
"Ah. It's in pretty bad shape. Right now under restoration."
"So why is this so important?" Clarke challenged, "Why can't we wait until the book is cleaned and resorted?"
"It's not important," Raven huffed, but once again, Clarke knew she wasn't being honest, "Just thought Leslie might be interested in a side project. What we can tell you is that this is a conversation. From the book, we know that 'yu' is 'you' and 'gonplei' is fight."
"Fight is a recurring word. Interesting. Tells a lot about whatever culture this was." Leslie blinked a few times, "I mean, it's going to be difficult without translations, but I'm up for the challenge. I'll see what I can figure out. Just for fun, eh?"
"Exactly," Raven smiled, "Just for fun."
Clarke narrowed her eyes in suspicion. She stuffed her art supplies back into her bag, feeling as though she had a new mission. Was she trying to create things for herself to do? Perhaps. Was this important? Debatable. Was she going to follow this thread? Oh, totally.
"Hows Murphy?" Clarke started, trying to seem like she wasn't just bothering Raven for the heck of it. And, well, she was curious.
"He's having dinner with Aurora tomorrow. He's taking it better than I thought. I mean, I guess Mrs. Collins has always seemed like my mom, not really his. You know he's not a talker though." Raven shrugged, "Do you just find it...weird?"
"Totally." Clarke nodded hard, "I think my brain will be reeling for years about this."
"Well, I mean, we already were your Aunt and Uncles but now…" Raven rubbed Clarke's stomach, the only person besides Bellamy who could touch it without the threat of losing said hand, "It will be nice that our kids will grow up with more branches on the tree."
"Yeah, but we can't tell them until they're older. I don't trust the Council not to do something stupid if they found out, even years after the fact," Clarke snorted.
"Right," Raven seemed embarrassed, more so than she should have been about that comment, "No, when they're older, of course."
They passed near the Sky Window, and Clarke was surprised to find Monty and Tom sitting on the ground, a stack of toothpicks between them.
"What's going on here?"
Monty startled, far too jumpy than Clarke thought he should be.
"Just acting like we're six again," Tom smiled, "You know, for being a builder, it really sucks on here. Nothing to build. Learn all these fancy old architecture terms that you'll never get to use," He sighed longingly, stacking some toothpicks in what looked like a little house. In fact, there were quite a collection of little houses around them, all in varying styles of toothpick construction.
"You just decided to sit down and build dollhouses?" Clarke crossed her arms, BS senses tingling.
"It's more like a house for ants," Tom replied, carefully stacking, "And not really out of the blue. Monty said this old book had some housing instructions and Monty was curious which one was the most effective. Just a little thought experiment to pass the time."
"An old book, eh?" Clarke glared at Monty, who unlike Raven, withered a bit under her knowing stare, "You wouldn't happen to have that book with you?"
"Under reconstruction right now," Monty piped up weakly.
"How strange," Clarke turned to Raven, trying to figure out how this all connected and why, "Must be some book, is it?"
"Indeed Clarke," Raven replied back with a loose, friendly smile, "It really is."
XX
"Clarke, you know I love you."
"Yes."
"And I think you're brilliant."
"Of course."
"But you're acting really paranoid and I'm sorta worried."
Clarke snapped her head up from her charting, eyes burning, "Paranoid? Explain this then, Bellamy! The Brain Trust is up to something and I need to figure out if it's related to the Brain Trust or some other big thing! Is it connected to the boomy-boom or not?" She demanded, pressing her fingers to her scalp, "Raven knows I'm onto her. She kicked me out of her house yesterday!"
"Or, you were bothering her and she wanted to have sexy times with Murphy. Your mom did approve her post-baby, you know."
"Oh," Clarke winced and blushed, having forgotten that detail, "But I still think she knows that I know that she's doing weird stuff."
"Babe-,"
"Listen! There were the whole Leslie and Tom thing. I told you about that. Then, in the last five days, every time I stumble across someone from the group, either Raven, Monty, or Jasper are with them doing weird-ass 'just for fun' brain exercises! Roma and Jasper were seeing if you could make a meal out of a strange list of ingredients, something that could keep people alive. Monty and Brad were trying to fix fake wounds without modern medicine. Jasper and Zahira were talking about the best soil for growing and setting the temperatures differently than ARK settings. Marten and Raven were trying to make a device to clean really dirty water, like, we have filters for that. And they keep quoting some mysterious book. I mean, Stasia didn't know anything, not really, she's not into reading. But do you really think that they're just giving our group something 'fun' to do for shits and giggles? Like a weird post-grad After School Group?" Clarke demanded.
"Well, no, but-,"
"Exactly! What is the connection? Why us? Why...why...why…" Clarke went back to her notes, biting on her pencil eraser. When she looked back up, Bellamy was looking at her with something she perceived as pity, "I'm not crazy!"
"Clarke...geez, I-,"
His buzzer binged. He was supposed to basically be on paternity leave, but it seemed the entire ARK was just making trouble of late, and being one of the few Lieutenants, it was hard for him to stay away. His face was dark.
"Stabbing in Agro," He gave a deep groan, "I can find someone else."
"No, no," Clarke set aside her things, "You should go. I will be fine." Clare insisted. Bellamy looked incredibly torn, but in the end, grabbed his work items and kissed Clarke's lips first, then her stomach, and then her forehead.
"Get some rest. You seem tired," He murmured.
"Growing a human is exhausting," Clarke replied. That, and of course chasing down a conspiracy theory. Bellamy laughed, looking over his shoulder five times before he finally left.
Clarke immediately left as soon as she was sure he was gone, eager to figure out who she'd find with the Brain Trust next, doing some weird activity. She just needed enough data to confront Raven. She would figure it out herself, but pregnancy brain was no joke and she felt like she was always five steps behind.
And she found...nothing. She found Jasper playing with Sebastian at the ARK's playground, she found Monty having dinner with Bryan and Harper, and she found Raven doing Zero-G mechanic work.
She was not going to admit that they weren't actually doing anything weird and that she'd happened to catch them at random down-times. Or, gasp! What if they had planned Clarke to see them like this so she would stop chasing their tails? As if!
She felt a pain in her stomach. She ignored it. Somewhere, her brain told her it was the pain of justice, seeking down leads, getting the truth! There hadn't been any news reporters on the ARK since it began, but Clarke was beginning to think that if there was a job position of a journalist, she would have been rather good at it.
She was so focused on her exploration and trips around the ARK, hoping to catch one of the Brain Trust in the act of something whimsical and silly with a fellow friend that she pretty much ignored any and all pains in her stomach at all.
That is, until-
"Yuck, this seat is totally soaked Clarke," Murphy said. Clarke was at his house, chasing down Raven, who was nowhere to be found. Her feet were sore and Murphy had offered the couch and gotten some water for them and attempted to sit down next to her, "Holy shit! Clarke, you're a doctor!"
"Where is your wife?" Clarke demanded, ignoring him.
"Clarke, look at me." Murphy grabbed her shoulders, shaking her focus for a second. When she was in-between states of mind, she registered that the pain in her stomach wasn't bothersome, it was near excruciating, "Your water broke. You're in active labor. We need to go to the Med-Bay...freaking now."
This snapped Clarke out of it. Oh...yeah, those pains were bad. She was having contractions and they were pretty close together.
"Oh fuck." Clarke groaned, standing and grasping Murphy's fingers as another wave hit. He yelped a bit as she used his fingers to transfer her pain, but she doubted she broke them.
"Why haven't you gone in yet?" Murphy demanded, helping Clarke hobble.
"Uhm…" Clarke wined. She wasn't about to unload her theories on him, now that now she realized that yes, she sounded a bit insane, "I've just been...busy?"
"Doing what? You're on maternity leave!" Murphy cursed under his breath, "Where's my brother?" It was the first time she'd heard him refer to Bellamy like this, and for some strange reason, it warmed her chest. That is, until another contraction hit.
"On. Duty. Stabbing." She panted one-word answers, pausing to brace herself against the wall until she could walk.
"Ah, yes. The thirteen-year-olds and their imaginary spooky god."
"What?" Clarke choked, not sure she heard that one right.
"Nevermind that! You're having a baby and I do not know first aid so it will not be delivered on the floor of the ARK here," Murphy snapped at her, "We're nearly there, c'mon, one more step."
Somehow, they made it to the med-bay, though the trip itself was fuzzy in Clarke's mind. She had heard labor hurt, but she thought a lot of it was just exaggerating.
It wasn't.
Her mother grabbed her out of Murphy's arms, tensing in fear for one second before she began barking orders.
"She's not far now," She commented, half in frustration, half in relief.
"Right. Which is why I need to go find Bellamy. Now," Murphy said, attempting to untangle Clarke's iron-firm grip on his fingers, "You owe me a couch Blake."
Clarke only had the strength to stick her tongue out at him.
"Be quick. Seriously," Abby advised him and Clarke blinked and he was gone and she was in a medical room.
"It hurts," She Clarke moaned, sweat beading on her head, "Mom…"
"I know, I know," Her mother said, pushing back her hair and gently kissing her forehead, "We're going to give you something for the pain so I can meet my grandchild. Okay, let's put the IV in…"
Clarke hardly registered the needle slipping in. What she did feel, though, was a sort of floaty feeling afterward. Mhhm, she was going to have a baby. It was all going to be okay. The world was a pillow and rainbows. The world was good.
XX
Bellamy's heart weighed heavily as he stared at the two girls in cuffs against the wall, and then his gaze slid to the blood drying on the floor. Their former friend had been taken away hours ago, though no news yet...good nor bad.
One of the girls looked confused and forlorn, her cheeks stained with tears and her eyes powered down. One looked entirely bored, as though this whole thing was just a bothersome evening.
"Bellamy."
Bellamy snapped. There was only one person on the scene who would call him by his name and not the title. He turned to see Raven exiting the taped-off area, pulling the gas mask from her face and fluffing her hair. She pulled him aside, face grim.
"As I thought. Their housing units hadn't been getting proper oxygen for a bit now. Oxygen loss can cause hallucinations and insanity, under the right circumstances...one ringleader, one follower, one victim." Raven said with a grimace, "I mean, you have to be a special kind of fucked up to think and follow through on trying to really kill one of your best friends, but the circumstances weren't stacked in their favor."
"Great stars, how was this happening?" Bellamy asked, but somewhere, he already knew and wanted to vomit. Here in the lower stations, if someone's choosing who's getting oxygen and who isn't in times of need…
Raven looked equally as somber.
"I can see," She said, sighing hard, "If there are areas we can cut people off from in the next few months and then cut the oxygen there. Like caf dining...or trade rooms...or…" She swallowed hard, and when Bellamy looked at her, he saw tears behind her eyes, "This shouldn't be happening."
"Raven," Bellamy's eyes couldn't help but stray back to the young girls again, "They said it was some tall...spidery figure. He was promising them they'd be spared death. I mean, we've established, literally crazy but…" He hedged his answer carefully, picking his words carefully, "If your unconscious mind realizes you're not getting oxygen and thinks you're dying, and there's a finite amount, how do you get more?"
"Fewer people in the room. Their mind gave those two girls a reason to follow. Folie a deux, I'm sure, but survival is one hell of a trip." Raven agreed.
"Stars," Bellamy repeated, hating everything about this, "Two years. Please tell me, two years." He thought that what Swan would have done would have given them time. He hoped they could ride it out until then. If Raven told him something went weird, some calculation was off...
Bellamy wasn't sure what he would do.
"No," Raven said, and for one second Bellamy wanted to vomit, "One year, seven months, ten days."
"You nearly gave me a heart attack."
"You want a heart attack?" Murphy appeared from nowhere, running around the corner and nearly sliding into a wall. He was panting hard and sweating profusely.
"Babe?" Raven reached for him.
"Clarke is in labor, dude."
"Son of a-," Bellamy nearly dropped his pad. Of course today. Of freaking course!
"I got this, it's just keeping curious noses out, right?" Murphy asked, quickly surveying the area and taking Bellamy's pad, "What are you waiting for? Get your little Blake ass in gear!" Murphy shooed him.
"Yes! Right! Okay!" Bellamy fumbled over his words, shakily unclipping his radios and throwing them at Murphy, who nearly dropped them.
"Sir?" A guardsman questioned as he came out of the room, confused to see one of his most senior officers looking equally frightened and jazzed.
"I'm gonna be a dad Guardsmen Reed! Whoo!" Bellamy said, patting the kid's cheeks and running as fast as he could to the Med Bay.
He composed himself to walk through the entrance, though his heart was still running a thousand miles a minute.
"I'm Bellamy Blake. You probably know that. My wife is in labor. You probably know that too," Bellamy said in one big rush to the receptionist, "Uhm, room?"
"Blake!"
He spun to see Trina waving him over. He happily trotted over to her.
"How is she? How long has it been? Is the baby here? What-,"
"Woah, dude. There's only really one thing you should know." Trina said, guiding him to the back rooms.
"Oh no."
"No! Not bad, sorta," She waved a hand, "So...Clarke came in very close to fully dilated, and as you can imagine, in a ton of pain. No time for an epidural. However, the medical research room has been developing a new pain medication and well, erm, Clarke had a...reaction to it."
"I repeat. Oh no."
"Not like a bad one," Trina rolled her eyes, "She's just a bit...er, loopy?"
Bellamy paused outside of the door that had been updated to show his wife's name.
"Loopy?"
"She's incredibly high right now, basically. Usually, people get calmer on it, she's the first we've seen that's just totally off the charts. She's not in pain, that's for sure. Abby thinks it will wear off in about three hours. I'd expect your kid will be delivered way before them. You got here just in time," Trina patted his shoulder, "We're all really excited, Bell. I'll be called soon to assist with the birth. If you wanted to give any well-wishes to Clarke, don't expect logical responses."
"Right, er. Thanks?" Bellamy imagined it couldn't be that bad.
He pushed the door open to see Abby and one other doctor checking Clarke's vitals. As soon as she saw Bellamy, her whole face lit up.
"Bell-a-belly!" She crooned, a nickname she'd never used before. Suddenly, she sniffled, and her eyes grew teary, "Babe?" Her voice warbled.
"Clarke, hey, what's the matter?" Bellamy grabbed her hand, kissing her cheek.
"I have to tell you a secret," She admitted and fear gripped Bellamy's chest. He was not ready for another earth-shattering revelation any time soon. At the same time, he wondered if she had uncovered Raven's not so subtle planning. He knew he'd have to tell her soon, though it was treason because her sanity was an easy choice.
"I think I'm pregnant," Clarke whispered. She looked at her stomach, very large, and sniffled again, "No, definitely pregnant."
All Bellamy could do was laugh. Yes, Clarke was really out of it.
"I know babe. We're actually here to give birth right now," He assured quietly, knowing Clarke would be horrified at herself later.
"We are!" Clarke gasped, "This is all happening so fast."
"No kidding," On that point, Bellamy couldn't disagree. He looked at Clarke, sighing.
"What's wrong Bellamy?" She pronounced each letter of his name.
"You were right," He said quietly, so Abby didn't hear, "About all of it. You're always right."
"Of course I am," Clarke preened, "Wait...about what?" She asked with confusion. She had no idea what he was talking about.
"Nevermind, babe," He'd tell her later, "Let's just focus on meeting our kid."
Clarke gasped, looking down, "Bellamy! I'm pregnant!"
Bellamy looked over at Abby, who clearly was trying to keep from bursting out in giggles. Bellamy, at least for the moment, was all smiles.
"I think the dose wasn't quite right. But stars, I wish I was recording this."
XX
After another hour of reminding Clarke she was pregnant, in between the most bizarre conversation Bellamy had had with his wife in the entirety of the time he'd known her, their daughter came into the world absolutely perfect, already with a head of dark curly hair and bright, curious eyes.
"What's the name?" Abby asked, running her finger down her granddaughter's cheek in sheer reverence.
"I think I'm going to wait until the loopy juice runs her system. I'm not sure I want to hear her name suggestions currently," Bellamy replied, shuddering. Abby nodded.
"For the best."
As predicted, Clarke seemed to wean off her medication around the three-hour mark. When she did, she blinked and groaned.
"I feel like I just partied with Jasper, ugh," She said, reaching for water. She looked at her stomach, and then to Bellamy, who was holding their newborn, "Oh my god, I gave birth?"
"Don't remember it?" Bellamy asked, mildly concerned.
"Hmm. Probably for the best. I hear it's quite traumatic," Clarke shrugged, "Though, to be honest, the entire few days leading up to it are really fuzzy."
"Fuzzy?"
"I don't remember today at all. The days leading up to it are, well, fragments at best. The last thing I remember very vividly is Raven bringing Leslie...something to do, but I'm not sure what." She hummed, thinking hard, "Strange. What the heck did they give me?"
"Apparently, a new pain med that needs some re-trails," Bellamy said bitterly. Now he was faced with quite the conundrum. Clarke remembered nothing of her insistent digging into the whole Brain Trust weirdness. He had been ready to tell her. But now…?
Well, if she remembered, he'd readily agree. Until then, if she didn't recall anything…
"Why do you look like you're doing long-division in your mind?" Clarke asked, reaching for their daughter. Bellamy watched as his wife kissed their daughter all over, her expression one of such glee and contentment that he wished he could remember this forever.
"Names," He said, which was a different tab open in his mind, "We need to name her."
"I guess we do, huh?" Clarke clicked her tongue, "I mean, I feel like we have to go with the tradition."
"Tradition?"
"Strange and very old Roman names," She teased, "Set our daughter apart from all those Jacobs and Emilys around." She teased.
"Oh, like either of us have normal names."
"Exactly! Why should she be different?" Clarke was unruffled, "Who's Octavia named after again?"
"Gaius Octavius, later Augustus." Bellamy stroked his chin, "Gaia? Augusta?" He threw out.
"Naw, I don't like those. His daughter I think was Julia…" She said slowly, and Bellamy gleamed, never so proud of her as he is right now, "But I don't love that either. Plus, I know two Julias."
There was a moment of silence as they contemplated. Finally, Bellamy hummed.
"His mother was named Atia. I sorta like that." He said, running his fingers through the baby-soft hair on his daughter's head.
"Atia," Clarke rolled it around, "Wow, I really like that. It's pretty."
"Hey there, Atia," Bellamy tried it out, and he saw his daughter squirm, as though confirming 'yes, this is my name', "Welcome to the world."
SOOOO like, I've been waiting for this chapter, this REVEAL for so long. I started this story way back around season 2. Somewhere, someone posted a few pics being like 'Wow, Aurora and Murphy actually look a lot alike' and my little brain just JUMPED on it. It's only in my own little world, and lord knows I can't find the post anymore, and I even considered if it's worth it to add it in and Imma just like YES I have been planning this from DAY ONE.
Glad to get to it!
The show also, at one point, did actually consider making Kane Octavia's father. I've always thought he was, so yep *shrug*
We are drawing to a close, so as you can see, some preparations are being made. But what do you think they mean?