A/N: So it's fair to say the world had gone a little crazy. I hope everyone is staying healthy and sane. I feel a little bit insensitive posting a chapter about a dinner party, but this was next, already written and here it is.
As per usual, for all their various forms of aid, special thanks goes to AvengerGirl17, strangeJenny, PenguinofProse and Cherrypinkrose. This is about the time I lost AvengerGirl17 but we'll still need to thank her from time to time for all her early efforts to put up with my brainstorming.
Chapter Seven
When they entered Octavia's home the following evening, music was filtering through the house from the direction of the kitchen - a song he vaguely recognised as something from the nineties - and the smell of roasting meat was mouthwatering.
But Bellamy's jaw dropped when he made it into the kitchen to find his sister and Clarke, not dancing exactly but moving heads, shoulders and sometimes hips and feet in time with the beat. Octavia, looking more cheerful than he had seen her in a while, was chopping veggies at the island bench. And Clarke, looking stunningly casual in torn denim jeans and a pastel blue and white striped sweater, with her sleeves rolled up, looked to be peeling potatoes, causing Bellamy's stomach to drop.
"Parallel universe," Bellamy shook his head. "We've entered an alternate dimension, it's the only explanation for what I'm seeing."
Clarke and Octavia both laughed at him, reached for their wineglasses and saluted to them in near perfect mirror symmetry. "Hello big brother, Echo," Octavia greeted. "You're early."
"We thought we could lend a hand. We also brought drinks," Echo held up a bottle of wine and motioned to the beers Bellamy had stashed under his arm. "But looks like you already have help."
"What are you drinking?" Octavia asked, taking on the roll of hostess.
"Whatever you have open is fine," Echo glanced worriedly at her boyfriend where he was still staring, mouth agape, at Clarke.
"Seriously Bellamy," Clarke huffed as she moved to retrieve another wineglass for Echo. "I'm perfectly capable of peeling some potatoes."
"Last time I saw you do that you sliced off the pad of a finger."
Clarke just rolled her eyes and went back to her task while Octavia took over pouring and handing off the wine.
"Are you sure I can't do anything to help?" Echo took a sip of her wine, glancing between Bellamy and Clarke.
"We're just about done for now, but thanks," Octavia looked in complete control as the last of the veggies went on a tray and into the oven. She went on to cutting the potatoes as Clarke finished up.
Clarke collected all the food scraps and headed for the back door while Octavia was throwing the potatoes into an already boiling pot on the hotplates. Bellamy shot his sister a confused look.
"We're adults with our own home, we compost now," Octavia chuckled at her brother's stunned expression.
"I'm still struggling with Clarke being allowed to help in the kitchen."
"She still needs supervision," Octavia laughed at his expense. "But she has a kid to take care of, she's no longer completely incompetent...so long as it's out of a packet and comes with detailed instructions of exactly how long it needs to cook," she teased with a roll of her eyes.
Clarke reentered at the same moment Murphy and Emori came through the front door, causing Echo to visibly relax and offer up a smile in greeting with the arrival of her friend. Murphy slapped Bellamy on the back in passing greeting before depositing his tea towel wrapped bundle on the kitchen counter.
"Murphy," Clarke and Octavia both moaned euphorically at the same time.
"You baked bread," Octavia moved closer, trying to take a peek. "What kind is it this time?"
"My mouth is watering," Clarke sighed dreamily before breaking into laughter when Murphy slapped and shooed Octavia away, protective as always of his freshly baked bread. She glanced at Bellamy and Echo. "If you haven't tried it before, Murphy bakes the best bread you'll ever eat."
It did smell pretty heavenly, Bellamy would easily admit.
Murphy retrieved another wineglass for Emori and fished two beers out of the fridge for he and Bellamy before moving to Clarke's side. "Okay Clarke," excitement lit his face with almost childlike glee. "I had some new ideas for our matching tattoos."
"It better not be two halves of an avocado again," Octavia pulled a face. "As weirdly cute as that could be, it didn't suit either of you." Murphy was pulling a face at her before the sentence was even finished.
"John's been unnecessarily jealous of the fact these two got friendship tattoos, " Emori explained to the confused couple, motioning between Clarke and Octavia. "It's been an ongoing thing for a month now. His last idea involved the Mad Hatter from Wonderland. Every day he has a new crazy idea that he would happily have inked onto his skin forever," her tone suggested she was exasperated but the soft set of her features told a different story.
Bellamy finally zeroed in on the counterpart to his sister's colourful sun tattoo. Just below the bend of her right elbow, Clarke had a splash of blues and greens and the black outline of a C-shaped crescent moon. He caught himself running his thumb over the leather cuff that covered his own tattoo.
"PB and J," Murphy's declaration caused Bellamy to tune back in.
"Like two halves of a sandwich? " Clarke looked confused.
"No like two slices of bread, one with jam and the other with peanut butter."
"So one of us is sweet and one is salty? " Clarke raised her eyebrows teasingly and grinned.
"Tin can phones on a string?" Murphy was not discouraged.
"More appropriate if we'd known each other since childhood, don't you think?"
"High school isn't close enough?"
"I hardly think either of us considered ourselves children at that point in our lives."
"True enough," Murphy sighed dramatically. They had originally bonded over the fact that their fathers had both been, and later both died, in jail. "Last option, paper planes."
Clarke paused. Then a look of consideration passed over her face. "You did like throwing those around our classrooms."
"Especially when you had drawn caricatures on them." Murphy grinned widely.
"We were both lucky I was the top student," Clarke retorted dryly.
"You would have been bored without me." Clarke rolled her eyes at his Cheshire grin but Murphy's attention was diverted when he spotted Octavia trying to take a peak at his bread and he practically pounced on her to stop her, spouting something about how it had to stay covered to keep warm.
With a shake of her head at the bickering that ensued, Clarke turned away and caught Bellamy's eye. She smiled tentatively and was relieved when he reciprocated and moved closer to her. "How are you liking living in Polis?" she tested the waters.
Bellamy glanced at his sister and his edges visibly softened. "It's nice to be close to her again."
Clarke sent a fond look Octavia's way. "I'm glad she has you back in her life."
He didn't know how to touch that topic so he settled for something simple and, he had to admit to himself, a small test to see if she was really willing to work things out between them. "Have you been here in Polis for all of the last six years?"
"No." Her expression wilted subtly, he would have missed it if he hadn't been looking. "I was on deployment for nine months, spent a few weeks either side of it at the military base in Azgeda and then settled here in Polis almost five years ago now where I met Madi. Our place is actually only a few blocks away."
"Clarke Griffin living in suburbia." Bellamy couldn't help but tease.
"Who would have thought it, right?" A small smile of disbelief lit her face. "But when you inherit a house and have a kid to look after, you do what must be done, right?"
"Right," Bellamy grinned lopsidedly, secretly elated that their conversation seemed to be flowing easily this time around. "Inherited?" He wondered.
Clarke made a noise of agreement as she took a sip of her wine. "Turns out my father had a well-off aunt who didn't have children of her own. So almost four years ago now her lawyer tracked me down and kindly informed me that I had a great aunt who had been adamant her house go to a Griffin and not any of her gold-digging dead-beat step children."
"What if you'd been a dead-beat?" Bellamy huffed out a laugh.
"My thoughts exactly," Clarke shrugged, brushing a fingertip absently over the bridge of her nose. "Especially since I wasn't far off. The shop was picking up business but all my money was tied up between that and Madi."
Bellamy thought it might be too early on to question that in any kind of depth so he picked a safer subject. "Did you ever meet this great aunt of yours?"
"No!" Clarke gave him a helpless, owl-eyed look that left him fighting off a laugh. "Makes no sense. But it gave me a better shot at adopting Madi so I'm not complaining."
It suddenly occurred to Bellamy that Clarke seemed to be trying to divert focus off herself by mentioning Madi. He was unsure, however, whether she was intentionally doing it or completely unaware.
Her eyes skimmed over his face, noticing the sudden change in his attitude and then skittered away. She took another sip of her wine and caught Echo's attention. "So Roan mentioned the annual squad paint balling event next weekend, will the two of you be attending?"
"I will be," Echo smiled at Clarke's attempt to draw her into the conversation. "But I've been having trouble convincing Bellamy to come along."
"Paint ball?" Murphy perked up.
"Paint ball with a bunch of cops and some of their significant others," Clarke grinned at him. "Scrappy as you may be Murphy, they would slaughter you."
"Especially when Clarke and Roan are together," Echo lamented while Murphy shuddered violently at the idea. "Last year their team won by a landslide because they go all competitive soldier mode. Can I ask to be on your team from now?"
"I remember you and Ontari holding your own pretty well last year," Clarke's eyebrows rose.
"Ontari isn't very good at team bonding," Echo commented blandly. "She's even worse at losing to Roan."
"Yeah I had a nice tender bruise for a week after she accidentally shot me when we won," Clarke's unimpressed expression said it all.
"She does seem to aim anywhere but the vest so you'll remember losing for days afterwards," Echo's lips twisted at the unpleasantness of it.
"The year before was the worst," Clarke reminisced with a barely suppressed shudder. "I don't think you were there that year. She got me twice in the ass. Roan was not happy."
"Is that what that grudge was about?" Echo's eyebrows shot up in surprise. "Nobody would tell me what happened."
Clarke was nodding but was given no chance to respond when Madi came bouncing excitedly into the room, Lincoln lumbering behind her sporting two extra chairs he immediately positioned at the dinning table. Bellamy watched his student give quick, affectionate greetings to the people she was familiar with, shooting through the room like some kind of bouncing missile, and then attaching herself to Clarke for a long, tight hug. The way their bodies were angled, Bellamy couldn't see Clarke's face, but Madi's expression told him how much she adored her mother.
Lincoln momentarily distracted him with his greeting, but he was aware enough to hear Madi ticking off some kind of verbal checklist about remembering to lock everything up and activate the alarm, so Bellamy could only surmise that the additional chairs had come from the Griffin household.
Seconds later Madi was turning and grinning at he and Echo. "I'm Madi," the teenager stuck her hand out to his girlfriend. "You must be Echo."
"Yes." A smile unwittingly stole across Echo's lips while her hand was being enthusiastically shaken.
"I heard you work with Roan. He said you were one of his best," Madi went on. "That's pretty cool."
"Thanks," Echo phrased it almost as a question, appearing somewhat steamrollered by the teen.
Madi's vivid eyes, almost as piercingly blue as her mother's, swung back to him. "Do I still have to call you Mr Blake when we socialize as family?" she queried.
His heart gave a little extra thump that she had so easily referred to him as family, and he shook his head, warm affection threatening to make him visibly emotional.
"Awesome," Madi grinned and spun away, moving off to speak to Murphy.
Bellamy turned back to Clarke, who was watching him with an amused quirk to her lips.
"She's something special," she reminded him, tenderness giving her a warm glow he had never seen on her skin before. It looked wonderful on her.
"Motherhood looks good on you," he stated, almost reverently, before he could stop himself.
Clarke looked surprised for a second before melting into a smile. Then she seemed to catch herself, cleared her throat and reached to take a sip of wine, her eyes traveling the room. She was putting distance between them, he could almost visibly see it and a frown came to his face. They had been doing so well, it had been as natural as ever, and when Echo called for his attention, he almost snapped at her before he caught himself.
Lincoln had started to collect necessities to set the table and Murphy and Clarke moved off to help. This sight caused something in Bellamy to die a little as he finally noticed that Clarke and Murphy were so comfortable in his sister's home they didn't require any prompting or aid to find things, they seemed to just know where everything was, something he himself couldn't do.
It left him feeling like something of an outsider.
Echo quietly asked him if he was doing alright, but all he could manage was a shake of his head. He had been managing just fine while his attention had been focused on Clarke, but it was really unfair to the woman standing at his side that he had let himself sink into the comfort of the past. The ease with which Clarke had pulled away was a stark reminder that those six years were lying between them.
He leaned closer to Echo to drop a quick kiss on her hairline, and she smiled, seeming to be satisfied by the small gesture. Blonde hair caught on the edge of his vision and he shifted to watch Clarke while she helped with the table setting, talking quietly to Lincoln and Murphy.
"Bell," Octavia moved to his side.
A noise of acknowledgement left his throat but his sister refused to speak until he turned to her, her gaze a steady brand. When his eyes finally met hers she jerked her head to the side and led him to a corner away from everybody else.
"That wasn't her pulling away," Octavia stated once they were out of earshot, as though she had suddenly become able to read his mind.
"What was it then?" he muttered testily.
"I'd say she's just protecting herself," Octavia's voice was uncharacteristically gentle. "It's one of the things she does best these days."
"From me?" Bellamy's eyes narrowed harshly.
"From everyone Bell," his sister sighed resignedly. "You haven't given her a reason to think you want to be friends again, so she's going to keep distance between you," her voice dropped so only he could hear her. "After the group fallout Clarke didn't really trust me, not like she did Lincoln. She had convinced herself I was only there for her because of Lincoln, and maybe a little bit because she was worried about me being a link to you. Can you imagine how that must have been for her?"
The bottom of Bellamy's stomach dropped out and he shot a glance over his shoulder at Clarke, silently laying out cutlery.
"You can either not try to force a sense of the old normal on her, or you can take a chance," Octavia went on, still watching him carefully. "But don't take a chance because you're curious. Bell, it may feel like a blind leap of faith, but I honestly believe that with a little trust, the two of you can be friends again. Even up to this point, six years on, I've never seen Clarke trust anyone the way she trusted you. If you're sincere, there's still hope."
Just like that hope was blossoming like a flower within him. Could it be as simple as him needing any part of her she was willing to give? Six years of proof that he could get by without her existed - he had lived through them after all - but he had missed her, and it would be so easy to let that hope take root.
A knock sounded, indicating Miller and Jackson's arrival, the pair not familiar enough with Octavia's home to know about her casual open door concept. "I got it," Bellamy moved off, not able to stop himself from glancing at Clarke from the corner of his eye as he passed by her on the way to the door and observing that she appeared to be studiously avoiding looking up from her task. When he glanced back while opening the door, she had disappeared back into the kitchen despite most of the group now congregating primarily in the dining room.
Miller slapped him on the shoulder in greeting and announced they had brought a dessert that needed to stay cold. He made quick work of saying hello and Bellamy directed him to the kitchen when Jackson was immediately pulled into conversation with Echo, Emori and Murphy.
"Hello stranger," Miller grinned when they interrupted Octavia and Clarke leaning back against the bench sipping wine and chatting quietly. Unbidden, jealousy filtered into Bellamy's gut. How many times in the past had that been his place at Clarke's side sharing private conversations for their ears only? Now it seemed to be his sister's.
"Miller," Clarke smiled hesitantly and then with warm relief when Miller put his contribution down and pulled her into a tight hug. "It's good to see you."
Anger wasn't the right word for the emotion that threatened to consume Bellamy with the easy greetings passing between the man that was his oldest friend and the woman who had been his closest friend.
"Octavia mentioned you moved out here for work?" Clarke went on, her voice light. "You started working with your dad after you retired from soccer?"
"Yeah, our Polis branch suddenly lost its manager about a year ago and they sent me out here to find a replacement," Miller rolled his eyes and his grin widened. "Then of course, I met a guy and ended up deciding to take over the position instead."
"And the rest is history?" Bellamy was glad to know that Clarke could still smile like that, as though the world was a miraculous place.
"Something like that," Miller nodded along, beaming. "Turns out the phrase isn't wrong when they say 'when you know, you know'."
"Must be nice," Clarke murmured, a distinct lack of emotion in her voice as she brought her wineglass back to her lips.
Jackson stuck his head into the kitchen. "Here, this is him," Miller's smile turned adoring as he spotted his boyfriend. "Clarke meet Eric."
Clarke's eyes met Jackson's and she choked on the sip of wine she'd just taken. "Jackson?" she managed to get out between coughs, Octavia pounding her on the back.
"Clarke?" Jackson's expression shifted from surprised to delighted and he was pulling her into a quick, tight hug in moments, before holding her at arms length. "Look how good you're looking!" he flicked at the tips of her hair with one finger. "This is a much better look on you," he chuckled. "Last time I saw you-"
"Yeah," Clarke cut him off, a look that was somewhere between horrified and ashamed taking hold of her features. "I don't know what I was thinking."
There was such a thing as a bad look on Clarke? Bellamy wasn't sure he could believe it.
"You two know each other?" Miller drew their attention.
"Oh I've known Clarke for almost twenty years," Jackson chuckled. "Remember when I told you about volunteering at a hospital when I was in high school? Clarke's mum was one of the chief surgeons there. She later became my mentor during my internship and residency."
"Abby is Clarke's mum?" Miller's eyebrows shot up.
"Clarke used to visit sometimes. She was so cute, bringing along drawings to cheer up Abby's patients," Jackson teased. "Jeez you must have been only eight or nine when I met you?"
"Something like that," Clarke laughed. "Pretty sure I saw more of you than my mother when I was a teenager."
Jackson's expression turned empathetic. "Jake was always the glue and the sanity in the Griffin household. Abby just wasn't the same after."
"None of us were," Clarke nodded along, visibly fighting back her emotions.
A heavy silence fell around them, and Bellamy looked on feeling strangely unaccustomed to the fact that there was now someone among them who had known Jake Griffin. Someone who had known the Clarke who had existed before Jake's death. Even Murphy and Raven, who had known Clarke since high school, couldn't attest to that.
"So how come I never knew about this connection?" Miller had always detested long silences. "You've both been living in Polis for how long now?"
"Well, five years ago someone swore up and down that if she never saw me again it would be too soon," Jackson pouted lightheartedly, but shot Clarke a pointed stare.
"Who told you to be my surgeon?" Clarke retorted, sulkily.
Surgeon? Jackson had been her surgeon? Bellamy had to take a deep breath to stave off the rising panic at what that could possibly mean.
"Who told you to be such a horrible patient?" Jackson retorically returned, affection heavy in his voice.
"Something happened that required surgery?" Miller pried and Clarke and Octavia exchanged a look.
"I had an issue and your man fixed it," Clarke finally replied, not meeting anyone's eyes. "I'd rather not get into it tonight."
Jackson was qualified as both an orthopedic and trauma surgeon. Clarke's response and Octavia's warnings only had the panic threatening to spill over as Bellamy imagined the multitude of possible issues she could have had that required surgery.
A hand slipped into his and Bellamy glanced down to find Echo had joined him at some point. "Whatever it was, she's fine now," Echo whispered reassuringly into his ear.
His girlfriend really was amazing, Bellamy thought, taking deep calming breaths and nodding at her. He pressed a lingering kiss to her hair and shifted them out of the room to rejoin the others, even as a large part of him screamed to turn back in case there were any other great Clarke revelations he shouldn't miss.
Dinner was served not long after and for the first time in longer than he cared to remember, it felt like they had a healthy family again. And it was nice really, sitting around his sister's table with so many people, enjoying good food and good company. So nice, he could almost forget the separation. Even sitting at the opposite end of the table to Clarke rather than beside her as he always had in the past.
There was the part of him that wished he could stop himself from glancing in Clarke's direction so often, the part that seemed to be scared he'd look up and she wouldn't really be there. And there was another part of him that wanted to be involved in the conversations she was having with the people sitting closer to her, but he could barely keep track of the conversations happening right beside him.
Then, halfway through dessert, when he had finally managed to convince himself to stop checking on her, he glanced up after just a few minutes and alarm shot through him when he saw Clarke had disappeared from the table without a word, conversation continuing as if nothing was amiss. Something was being silently exchanged between his sister and Murphy, their eyebrows moving pointedly at each other, before Lincoln shook his head at them both and followed quietly in the direction Clarke must have gone.
Bellamy couldn't quite make out if this was a usual occurrence or not, but then his sister seemed to be studiously avoiding meeting his questioning gaze, so he could only surmise that Clarke's behaviour must somehow be related to him. It turned out to be a moot point really, because they were only gone for a few minutes before they returned carrying another pot of tea for the table and he couldn't figure out if this was a cover for something larger or the reason Clarke had gotten up.
After dessert was finished and everything was packed away and put to rights, with full bellies and a lot of cheer, everyone seemed to make to leave at the same time.
Clarke and Madi were bidding their goodbyes, Clarke offering Bellamy a tentative smile and small wave, but before Bellamy had a chance to reciprocate Murphy was inviting himself to stay the night in the Griffin household.
"Do I get a say in that decision?" Emori wondered dryly.
"Took the words right out of my mouth," Clarke agreed.
"Nope," Murphy grinned cheerily at them. "We've both had a lot to drink tonight and I'm not driving home, we'll just pick up the car in the morning." There was something in the glance he shot at Emori that looked like some sort of hint to Bellamy before the woman agreed and the four of them waved their farewells and headed off in the direction Bellamy presumed the Griffin house was located, chatting animatedly.
Bellamy walked Miller to his car when his former teammate motioned for him to follow.
"Did Clarke tell you much about her parents back before everything?" Miller wondered when they were out of earshot.
"A little, why?" Bellamy frowned, confused by the topic.
"You might want to consider looking into it," Miller told him. "Abigail Griffin is one of the most highly respected, highly sought after and most over-educated doctors in the country. She's dabbled in almost every field of medicine at some point and is currently making headway in some kind of genetics research I understand nothing about. Over the last decade there have been several incidents that may have impacted Clarke. It might give you some clues about potential issues Clarke has had to deal with over the last few years?"
"Last I heard Clarke didn't have anything to do with her mum," Bellamy wondered if he could have missed another big event. But the idea of her having reconciled with her mother actually made the little bit of hope grow larger within him. If she had forgiven her mother after everything, perhaps it wouldn't be such a stretch for them to make up.
Miller just shrugged. "Just a suggestion mate. And a head's up because remember those overlaps we were talking about last night? I didn't originally meet Abby through Jackson, I met her through Marcus Kane."
"As in the owner of your dad's company?" Bellamy's eyebrows shot up in surprise.
"As in the biggest name in security this side of the equator," Miller corrected him with a smirk. "He has his hands in multiple businesses, all highly successful, and I'm pretty sure he's part owner in the company Raven works for, just to prove how big a deal he is. Because half his money is tied up in charities and he's actually a decent human being they've been trying to get him to go into politics ever since Jaha was ousted. He is also now Clarke's stepfather."
That gave Bellamy pause. He knew Clarke had come from money but if her family was that big and she hadn't told him...had he just failed to understand or had she avoided the topic because she knew he had come from nothing? He shook that thought from his head. He didn't fully know or understand the Clarke of the present, but if his anger couldn't tarnish his memories with her over so many years, he wouldn't let it do so now just because he found out something about the family she hadn't even been on speaking terms with in the past.
Suddenly shocked by the thought, Bellamy took a moment. No matter how angry he had been with her, the act of pushing thoughts and emotions aside meant he really hadn't let himself stain the memories of what had been some of the best times of his life. It meant he wasn't glorifying the past her now, as a tiny part of him had feared. It meant he was more angry over the silence and division of the last six years. It meant there was hope if he just made an effort to get to know the person she had become.
A resolution formed and a smile came to his lips. He looked in the direction Clarke had disappeared. There was still hope. And he was pretty sure he could work with that.
A/N: Hope you enjoyed this enough to review ;)