Sorry it took so long to update, y'all. This weekend before school, I went back to my hometown because it was hosting my my college football first game of the season and then went and spent some time with my little brother before he leaves for his first year of college. Then school AND my new job started so I've literally fallen asleep the moment I get home every single night, maybe staying up an extra hour for hw. Luckily tomorrow I have no school, so I can stay up a little bit later and not accidentally sleep through my classes (which I did today...sigh, dropping the ball only 3 days into the new semester...bad Lexie).
And OMG the number of reviews on that last chapter! Wowza! If I got that good of a response then, I can only imagine how many screaming reviews I'm going to get this chapter... So thanks to all those that exceeded my every expectation of reviews: Guest, Words are my Weapons, jadegurl2, heidi1245401, SquidaQdaloo, Guest, sydcast, JCarabaguiaz, Artimiz, foxcharin, CheriEstella, Leppy99, DracosGirl1999, and Emperor's Sister.
Guest: This one will be beautiful...er. I promise :)
Guest: More than just realizing, I think. I think by this point they pretty much know.
This chapter is the culmination of possibly the two most asked for things since this story began...so very much enjoy ;)
11 Years after Start of Program
And then, to the increasing frustration of both Simon and Octavia, neither Clarke nor Bellamy made any move. Both worried that it was a mistake on their part, and both were adamant not to say or confirm their feelings until the other had first.
And, what Octavia figured out fairly quickly, was apparently Clarke was equally as stubborn and equally an idiot as her brother.
She'd told Simon, of course. Bellamy wasn't exactly planning on telling anyone else about their near kiss, but he didn't mind Simon knowing in the beginning. That is, until he started pestering him to just 'shove her against a wall, fulfill your fantasies, and get it goddamn over with'.
Octavia was even more annoying. She asked every day if he'd stopped being 'a little pussy' and just told Clarke how he felt, and when he answered with an increasingly annoyed 'no' she began responding with aggravated hand gestures and sounds that were just strained grunts and noise without actually being anything of substance. Simon clearly understood this odd language of hers because he would roll his eyes and agree with her.
Finally, after weeks of this going on with both Bellamy and Clarke trying to remain friends and maybe act like that near kiss never happened, Bellamy lost his fuse.
"Why does it matter to you both anyway?" He demanded to Octavia and Simon, "Why is my life suddenly so worth your time? Back off, okay?"
"Look, let me have this. I have little else to interest myself while I'm trapped here, so allow me to have this pleasure." She got right up in his face, "Or displeasure, because you're stupid and too cowardly to do anything."
He glared, his nostrils flaring.
"Fine." He spat out, "Fair. And you?" He spun on Simon.
"Well, to admit your both going to bone each other eventually and stop this sexual tension that's so obviously there is the smart thing to do. Besides, if you do it soon, I win some money. Everyone's betting on it. We can all see it…It's so obvious, except for apparently you two."
Bellamy felt his whole body grow hot with embarrassment, "Everyone…that's an exaggeration, right?" He winced.
"No," Simon held his gaze, "Literally. Everyone."
Bellamy groaned, running his hand over his face.
"When, exactly, did people start deciding we were meant to be together?" Bellamy was almost afraid of the answer.
"Somewhere around when you started dating Gina." Simon shrugged, "Apparently only Clarke ever thought it was going to work out."
"Gina is perfectly nice!" Bellamy blubbered, "What was wrong with her?"
"Nothing. And guess what- she's in on the betting pool too." Simon said, a wicked grin on his face.
As life often goes, soon there were more worrisome things for people to occupy their time with other than the trivial love affairs of two people locked in a stalwart against each other.
Time predicted, as it had time and time again, that it was about due for another Breakout. This one was hardly life threatening, luckily it was something the doctors had a cure for on hand, it wasn't terribly hard to make. It brought a lot of problems though, as patients had to be bed-rested for a week after getting the treatment to avoid a reoccurrence of it. Lots of work schedules and school lessons went haywire, as half of the Ark was continually sick. And, if couldn't just go away in one fell swoop, but Clarke's mom told everyone the last bout of this had taken about a month or so to edge away. Luckily, once someone got the cure and passed the week mark, they couldn't get it again. It was passed through coughing and air particles, which held everyone on high alert. The worst part of it was there was no vaccine, nothing to prevent it until it happened. It was the waiting that made everyone skittish.
Bellamy, more so than anyone else, was extremely careful. To bring it home to his sister would be awful. Everyone was given a facemask and he was practically religious about wearing it, even when other people began getting lax with it.
It also meant, unfortunately, he wasn't spending much time around Clarke. Maybe it was okay, because they'd been so awkward around each other lately…
Clarke, idealistic as ever, realized about six months ago the health care on the Factory Station in particular was severely lacking. It was a long trek to get to the Med Bay near the Alpha Station, and even if they did go, they were often told to wait until the better off citizens were checked over. Only Abby Griffin didn't apply to this rule, but whoever was in line next. Many other doctors were not as considerate.
So Clarke started doing the next best thing. She wasn't allowed to be a 'doctor' yet, and her mother probably knew what she was doing but just turned a blind eye. She would hang around the Factory Station, waiting for someone to find her and say their relative had begun showing the early symptoms, and she'd go into cure them. The people loved her around here. She was absolutely fearless and had done so much good. She spent almost all her free time in the area. In her off times, she'd go searching for the orphans that led a ghost-like existence on the Ark, searching them out and caring for them. They rarely let her, and as one pre-teen orphan boy told her it was merely because she hadn't earned their trust yet. It might be years. She was, after all a daughter of two very important people that could potentially make an orphan's life worse even if they had the best intentions. This annoyed her, only because she knew these children needed help sometimes, but she found she had many other patients in the lower stations to occupy her time.
The only thing that some people had grips about was her strict and unwavering decision to keep her notes of patients, like they did in the Med Bay, with a meticulous thoroughness. A lot of the Factory Station residents were distrustful of government or having their personal information logged onto the database. As much as Clarke was there to help, she insisted upon doing it this way, or else she would turn around and leave. No one wanted to be dead, because this Breakout had been known to be fatal in bad cases or cases went untreated, so they begrudging agreed.
Besides, as she'd defended to Bellamy when he questioned her absoluteness on this caveat; it was always helpful to have someone's histories. The sickness could manifest in different ways depending on a whole slew of things, and she needed to be able to know or check back in case the medication wasn't doing it's job so she could fix it. And, they were obligated to report that they had the sickness, like everyone else.
"If I'm going behind some of the rules of being a doctor, which is to treat in the clinic, I have to uphold others. If we have no rules, everything falls to shit." That was the last she said upon the topic. Bellamy didn't disagree; he obviously liked a good set structure, being in the guard and all.
Overall, though, really no one had many complaints about the near constant presence of Alpha Princess Clarke Griffin down in their dingy quarters.
Simon's visits were temporarily stopped, at least until the sickness passed. His mother attempted to re-route her business to a quieter level and did all of her sewing in a main area, because Octavia might come in contact with a garment someone coughed on, and it could be all over. They were very alert of their own actions.
But apparently, not enough so.
It was probably picked up from someone in the after-school group. Lots of people had it, and some didn't realize they did until it got worse. Plenty of time to transfer it to Bellamy. Some people were naturally immune, but still could be carriers.
Bellamy had worked an extremely long shift (30 hours) the day before he got home to find the worst. Half the guard was sick, seeing as though they were as likely as the doctors to become ill with all the people they encountered- and they were horribly understaffed. He understood in times of crisis he couldn't just mentally check out. Plus, he figured the longer he was away from his sister; the less chances he got to infect her, right? His mother also had hardly been home that day, if at all. Food was an expensive commodity right now, with everyone trying to find extra nutrients. His mom wanted it to keep Octavia healthy, so she even had a smidgen of a chance to keep the sickness away. To do that, she was doing favors in people's rooms more frequently than she often did.
He was so tired when he got home. He could hardly stand. He opened the door, and yawned. Octavia was curled up on the bed, which was strange, since even though he might take a nap, it was almost 3 in the afternoon. Usually she was pacing or doing sit-ups or something.
"O?" He asked, frowning, but there was no answer. The hair rose on the back of his neck and all his sleepiness vanished when he realized something was wrong.
He slammed the door behind him, skidding to the bed where she lay. He turned her over, and his whole body froze. His heart stopped beating, it felt like. Octavia's skin was clammy and cold, and her lips were loosely hanging open, with a small dribble of saliva hanging from her lips. Her eyes were unresponsive when he pushed back the lids, and her limbs gave slight spasms every so often.
This was not good. It was far past the beginning stages of the sickness, it was getting bad. At this point, patients were usually sent to the Medical Bay, regardless of station, and this is the point the sickness tipped and got dangerous. He'd been present as a guard in enough of these situations to know that it could go horribly, horribly wrong.
He got up, running out the door.
"Clarke? Where's Clarke?" He ran into Dax, grabbed his arms and shook him, "Do you know where Clarke is?"
"She's helping Mrs. O'Leary. Dude, you're hurting me." Dax said, squirming. Bellamy threw him off and ran as fast as he could, racing from one end of the station to the other.
"Clarke." He was breathless when he reached her, "Please, come now."
Clarke looked up, surprised to see Bellamy standing in her doorway. She had just finished giving Elaine O'Leary a treatment of the cure, and she was about to tell Bellamy to just give her a moment. Then, she looked up and saw the absolute terror in his eyes, the darkness. She'd never seen him look like this before, so unhinged and broken.
She quickly murmured a couple closing hints to the daughter, not nearly as specific as she usually was.
"Bellamy, sit down. What's wrong?"
"We can't stop. I need you, now." He grabbed her arm, dragging her at a fast pace back through the Factory Station. To her great surprise, he led her to his door. She was about to ask what this was about, wondering if it had to do with him and the almost kiss and maybe her mind switched to the gutter for a second-
-Until he opened the door and she saw a young girl far past the stage of relative safety with the sickness.
"Oh my god." She said, "I don't…"
She hadn't healed anyone with the sickness this progressed before. She'd always sent them to her mother. The sickness would have caused infectious masses in her system that, if left in, would kill her in less than a week. She could feel the bumps near her stomach and determined that there were only five, but five more than she'd ever taken out of anyone.
"Can you save her?" Bellamy demanded. Clarke didn't even have time to question who this girl was or why she was in Bellamy's room, because her entire mind switched to Doctor mode.
She checked her pulse. It was weak. The entire girl's body was convulsing, and very feeble.
"I don't know." Clarke answered honestly and Bellamy's whole face just shattered, "I'll try. She's too dangerous to move right now, I'll have to do it here. My mom's in a surgery…oh my god." She took a deep inhale. She'd seen her mother do the procedure for this Stage Two about fifty times now, even if she hadn't done it personally. Bellamy looked about ready to fall to pieces; she couldn't be in that state as well. She needed to be brave, for him, for this poor girl. She took a deep breath, anchoring herself to the need.
"Okay, Bellamy. Get a washcloth wet to put on her head. You'll do whatever I tell you to do, got it?"
He nodded, scampering off. Clarke did everything out of order; usually she logged the patient number into a database, read over to see if there was usual information, and then took general tests and asked a few questions. She didn't have time for that right now, and started checking the pulse and responsiveness right off the bat.
It wasn't until Bellamy got back that she'd finished. He put the washcloth on her forehead so tenderly, his bottom lip quivering. He almost looked ready to cry.
Clarke pulled her pale left arm up, taking out her scanner. She ran it over the arm, but nothing came up. After three tires of a blank screen, Clarke pushed her finger over the girl's skin…and there was nothing there. No scar for an entry chip, the bump to indicate one, or an ugly one that seemed to say that she tried to take it out. Just unblemished skin.
That's when it hit her…this girl was an illegal child.
She didn't have more time to consider what this meant, or question anything about it at all really, other than the medical note that this girl was probably reacting so violently because she'd never been vaccinated before, and therefore had no fighters in her body to beat back some of the illness.
"Tell me everything you know about her medical history, anything that might be relevant." She said, unsure if Bellamy would know anything about her. Her first thought, and she didn't spend much time on thinking about it either, was that he'd found her and brought her into his room.
He was a mess, and could only mumble out a couple things, nothing much helpful.
She opened her medical bag, took a deep breath and took out her scalpel and the necessary injections and other tools, and begun.
"Stop hovering." She growled to Bellamy when he was practically leaning over her shoulder, "Find something else to do."
"Like what?" He snapped. It was the meanest tone he'd ever used with her. She frowned; an emotional response? Then, she looked up and saw the bags under his eyes and recalled Ana complaining about the long hours everyone who wasn't sick had to work.
"Like sleep. You're obviously exhausted." She said tenderly, and would have touched his cheek, had both her hands not been covered in this girl's blood.
"I can't." He sounded hollowed out, "Not right now."
He didn't hover the rest of the time, but he didn't sleep either. He just sat on a chair, looking far older than he was in this moment, staring intensely at Clarke at the girl. It was unnerving and heartbreaking at the same time.
After the longest three hours of Clarke's life, she finished the stitches on the girl, and gave her the last injection, she turned to Bellamy.
"All we can do is wait now. I need to go back to get some more injections for her, I don't carry them around with me much. Most of the people I see aren't this far off." She said. Also, she was going to get some vaccines for her when she was down there too. She hoped she got all the pieces. Maybe when the girl was better, Clarke could take her to get a scan? But, then again, if she was getting better it would mean they were gone, and if she got worse Clarke will have failed and missed some and it would be more dangerous to move her. All they could really do was wait and hope.
"I'll come with you." He said, frowning.
The girl was no longer in pain or passed out, but instead sleeping. Clarke had given her some medicine to make her stay asleep through the procedure so the pain wouldn't bother her, if she happened to come around. There was nothing she could do now…she would either get better or start her decay of death. The injections could hopefully break apart any small pieces left, but it couldn't be given until exactly two hours after the surgery or her heart might stop. She hoped the girl would remain in good condition until then.
"Good. We should let her sleep in here. We don't want to wake her…she needs it to recover. Should you leave your mom a note…?"
"No…she'll understand." Bellamy said, incredibly blasé about having a stranger sleeping his room. His mother was incredibly caring though, so perhaps he knew she'd be able to tell what had happened and wouldn't mind.
The walk back to the Alpha Station was silent, and her mind was finally thinking not in medical terms. She wanted to wait until they were safe in her house to muster the courage to say what was on her mind, but somehow it slipped out anyway in the quietest whisper.
"She was an illegal kid." She said. She looked at Bellamy. He hardly responded, except for a clenching of his jaw. As a guard, shouldn't this upset him? What was he going to do? It was after a moment she realized that he wasn't even surprised to know this.
Clarke needed to talk to him about this.
She got the things she needed, and steered him toward her house. Both her parents were tied up with the whole Breakout, so she knew they could talk freely.
She had hardly locked the door when Bellamy was speaking. Well, he was more rambling and his composure was completely gone.
"I know that you're a Griffin, an Alpha, and this comes with certain kinds of responsibilities…expectations. I know that you play by the rules, it's your life, it's what you do… to hide something is asking a lot but please, please Clarke…don't tell them about my sister. Without Octavia, I'm nothing. I can't do anything now because you know, but please, I'm begging you."
Sister…
Her mouth went completely dry. She stared at Bellamy, still rambling on, getting more worried by the second and tears leaking from his face while her mind tried to play catch up with this information thrown at her. He apparently thought she'd already figured it out.
She recalled the way their noses both curved, the line of the jaw, the galaxy of freckles so light upon their cheeks, the shape of the face…and she couldn't believe she hadn't made the connection there. Maybe she didn't want to admit it, acknowledge it as truth.
Now she realized why he was so terrified, so intent on keeping Simon alive…because he saw himself in that boy's predicament, if things went wrong. Why he was always so withdrawn, why no one had been to his house…so many things clicked.
And as much as one side of her meagerly pointed out what she should do is report it-more of a knee jerk reaction than anything else, she realized that the idea of reporting the girl-Octavia- from the moment she knew she was illegal physically disgusted her. And now, standing in front of Bellamy pleading for his life and knowing whom it was? That it was his sister? Now the thought felt like poison in her mind.
And she thought of Simon. She thought of how he nearly killed himself because he lost them all and how Bellamy looked so terrified because he had to wonder if this would be him someday? She thought of all the shit Simon went through and how Charlotte stabbed someone in her fear and how Bellamy felt this experience so personally and she didn't even know it but it was like a warning, and even if a smidgen of her had ever considered saying anything, she knew better now because of Simon. She couldn't.
She thought of Uma and Simon too, how he said that he'd kept a girl that he possibly loved an arm's length away so that his sister could be safe. She thought of how Bellamy hadn't done that and she didn't think it was because he loved his sister any less than Simon…it just meant that she meant so much more to him. The severity of this realization made her whole mouth go dry, for him choosing to be her friend and let her in almost all parts of his life while knowing the risks and not knowing how she'd react was like he was already saying he loved her without ever admitting he liked her. This gave Clarke a warm courage she hadn't ever felt before, one that made words form in her lips.
"I could never tell them. I couldn't do that, not to you, your mom, your…sister." The word rolled off her tongue like a foreign phrase. She, despite hardly meeting her, already loved her. Because, if Bellamy loved someone so passionately Clarke was sure she would too.
And that's when she realized, truly, the thought of turning them in had never even crossed her mind and never would have. It was only when Bellamy brought it up that the idea could exist to be firmly booted out of her mind.
Bellamy stopped talking mid-sentence, staring at her.
"Really?" She understood his hesitation, his fear. His whole life was in her hands, so precariously, and she wasn't offended that he worried she might drop it. She had zero intention of doing so, in fact she would much rather hug it close to her forever. She took a step toward him, so they were inches apart, so he understood her honesty.
"I swear on my life, I'll never tell a soul. I'm not capable of hurting you like that, ever. I'd only hurt myself in the process." She said sincerely. Bellamy wiped the tears on the back of his hand, although now she wondered if they were not tears of fear and uncertainty but of relief and happiness. He was staring at her like she was a goddess. He seemed to not know what to say, so she just continued.
"Bellamy, I'd take your secret to my grave-,"
Before she knew what was happening next, his lips had collided with hers, cutting off her promise midsentence. One hand weaved itself into her hair; the other pulled her against him. It was fair, she supposed, since maybe she'd been the one to make the first move all those weeks ago that he did this now. She was so glad that he finally had. She could still taste the salty residue of his tears drying on his cheeks, the taste mingled on his lips.
She didn't hesitate for a moment to grab onto both sides of his face to reaffirm her feelings back toward him.
Her legs hit the back of the couch, and she pulled him down on top of her as she sat down, his legs straddled on either side of hers.
"Clarke…I…" He pulled away, everything he wanted to say in her name already. It was gratitude, need, relief, affection, and laughter all in one.
"I know, Bell, stars, I know." She replied, pulling him back in for another kiss.
As much as she wanted to stay like this forever, reality sank back in, and he realized it too. There was much to talk about between them.
"Tell me everything about her." She said after a moment when they'd detangled themselves.
"I'm sorry I didn't tell you. It was killing me not to be able to let you know."
"I understand," Her brows furrowed, "I'm not upset. If you had told me, I'd still understand. I wish the circumstances were better, of course."
"Everything I've ever done is to protect her. It's my responsibility to keep her safe." He sat, staring at the ground, twiddling his thumbs.
"That's why you took the guard job…over the teaching position?" Clarke said, it dawning on her. He gave her a slow nod, "Why you always insisted on boxing up some food at dinner here…"
"I'd do anything for her." He said quietly.
"I will too now." She said. He jerked his head up.
"Clarke, we just kissed…and I know you're my best friend, but I don't expect you to-,"
"You can't say no." She said, grinning, "She's going to be like my sister too, and family sticks together. I'm not just going to passively let her live; I'm going to do whatever I can to make her life awesome. I have a lot of ways to help her, living in Alpha." Bellamy knew this to be true. He gave a laugh of disbelief, wiping the back of his hand across his eyes.
"Here I thought it was all going to end today. Seeing her like that…I've never been so terrified in my life. She was going to die or we were going to get caught…Have you ever had a choice so impossible, Clarke? This was one of those times. And yet…it's like a freaking fairy tale ending. Seems impossible." He said, shaking his head in quiet amazement.
"Everyone deserves a happy ending." Clarke assured him, scooting closer to him.
"Yeah, guess so." He gave a smirk, leaning back in to kiss Clarke again. He pushed her down onto the couch so he was above her, but he held himself quietly to her wishes. He wasn't going to force her into anything she didn't want to do. While she'd told him about her kisses, he wasn't sure if she'd done more 'adult' things. It was something he couldn't blame her for not telling him when they were just 'friends' because he hadn't told Clarke as far as he'd gotten.
"Mhh, as much as I love this, and totally want to continue it at a later date, we need to get back to check on your sister." She said. Bellamy sat up straight away, nodding in agreement. She scribbled a quick note to her parents, and took off back toward the Factory Station with Bellamy.
As she left, she considers the way Bellamy's mind single-handedly switched between her and his sister (which is still the oddest concept to wrap her mind around). She realizes that at the center of everything Bellamy is, it's always been his sister. That she might never be first in his life, even if they've only ever had one kiss and such, that she'll always be second to Octavia and she's okay with that. It makes her heart thump a little faster when she looks at him, knowing in her heart he's so devoted and that he has such a capacity to love…
When they get back to his room, Octavia is still in the same medicinal induced sleep that Clarke left her in.
"Should she be up?" Bellamy is nervous.
"This is okay. I don't think she's in any pain, but still, she can stay like this." Clarke checks to make sure she's out of the woods, and sighs with relief. She gets up, checking the time, and looking around.
"So…when is your mom going to get back?" She asks, looking around the small room, really taking in that this is the first time she's ever seen her best friend's house. It's homey. She can see stitched blankets all over the chairs and beds, little pieces from every scrap his mother has ever had. Her work things strewn across one half of the table, and things for Octavia across the other. Bellamy's things are nicely packed in the back shelves. The bathroom is tiny, but functional. She spots the painkillers her parents gave him a while back sitting on the shelf, alone. There are just a couple of emptied out bottles of female products next to it, but it's been long used up.
"Is it Tuesday?" Bellamy asks, "So…she won't be home until tomorrow." He answers. There's a darker tone beneath his quiet answer, something that she can tell bothers him but he doesn't want to tell her. He's shared enough for one day; she won't badger him about it now.
"Well," She says, refocusing herself to him, biting her lip, "It would be unprofessional of me to leave a patient in the middle of the night, unable to monitor them…especially after what she went through." She says.
"What…what about your parents?" He frowns.
"I told them I'd be staying the night at Raven's." She shrugs, "It's not like that, I'm serious, Bell." She says, "I should stay with her."
"I know, I know. I'm not asking anything of you. We only just kissed, of course." His voice is quiet, throaty.
"So…" She looks at the two beds. Octavia is sprawled out on the bigger one, and she figures Bellamy must sleep there with her. It leaves the smaller bed- usually for the child in a family- and Bellamy is already climbing up there. He makes a motion and she throws off her outer layer until she's just in her leggings and tank top.
It's small, meant for one person, so she has to scoot close to Bellamy so no one falls off. She can't imagine how this night could have gone so horribly on one hand, but perfectly on the other…how she could end up pressed up against him like this, his breath hot on her neck. He reaches over and switches off the light, and it's dark sans a tiny nightlight in the corner of the room.
"I've wanted to kiss you for ages." He whispers into her hair.
"Really?"
"Yeah. I'd sound creepy if I told you how long it's been since I began liking you." He chuckles, and Clarke sucks in.
"It would be creepy if I told you the sort of dreams I've been having about you," She fires back, feeling brave.
"Good ones, I hope." He says, his voice sleepy.
"The best." She agrees, but her cheeks still stain red as she thinks of them.
It's not long until they're both asleep.
Clarke wakes up to an unfamiliar voice.
"Bell? Bell? I feel weird…Bell, can you get me some water?"
Clarke frowns, looking around, wondering where she is. It isn't until she feels someone shifting beside her, and she turns to see Bellamy blearily getting up, that everything rushes back to her.
Bellamy shimmies down to his sister, grabbing a cup and filling it in the sink.
"Hey?" He says, "How do you feel?"
"Shitty." She replies, "What the hell happened to me?"
"You got sick. Really bad." He says, and Clarke figures now is a good as time as any to treat her patient. Octavia is up and talking. This is great. It means that she got all the masses out. It's still a long journey until she's better, but she's basically out of trouble of getting worse now, if she is able to continue to get medicine (Clarke will make sure of that, even if she has to lie on some medical forms). She steps down, and finds herself at the foot of the bed of the girl. Now that Octavia is feeling a bit better, Clarke is stunned by how much she resembles Bellamy, but how much more feminine she is. She looks great, even though she just woke up from a heavy sleep. It's simply not fair. She also seems to be Clarke's age. She thinks that in another life, one where she was always in Clarke's grade, they would have been awesome friends from the start. She just knows.
Octavia is silent for a moment, and the water cup slips from her fingers. Her eyes widen, and her mouth sags.
"Er…Hi? I'm-,"
"Clarke!" Octavia finishes in a near shout, her whole face lighting up "Shit, Bell, she is beautiful."
Clarke quirks an eyebrow at Bellamy, who groans loudly and runs his fingers over his face.
"Octavia, please…" He mutters.
"I'm so sorry we have to meet like this, with me feeling like death warmed over." Octavia hardly heard her brother, "I promise, I don't always look so awful…but, you know I guess I almost died?" She frowns, thinking, "That's probably how we met, really. Bell got you to save me from whatever happened. It must have been bad." She realized, looking at her brother.
"It was." He pressed his lips together, "I always wanted to tell you…I would have, eventually." Clarke realized he was speaking to her now.
"It's fine." She can to stand beside Bellamy, "So, Octavia…what are you feeling right now?" She asked, lapsing into doctor mode.
Although Octavia was still weak and needed to be on bed rest for a couple days, her exuberance to meet the 'famed Clarke' was a little amusing. Bellamy just got redder and redder the more Octavia talked, and Clarke truly understood for the first time just how much Bellamy might actually like her. She also got a bunch of embarrassing Bellamy stories all at once, and she threw in her own that he might have not wanted to share with his sister (apparently, he hadn't, and he soon left to get breakfast, fed up with the two females in his house).
"God, I just…wow." Octavia finally murmured, as Clarke began to give her the vaccines that she'd never had the chance to have.
"I know." Clarke agreed, "Think of it from me. I only figured out like 12 hours ago you existed." She said.
"So, you kissed him first, right?" Octavia questioned.
"How…how did you know we kissed?" Clarke frowned at her.
"I've had a literal lifetime of studying the subtle art of Bellamy Blake. He's ecstatic right now. Unless you accidently flashed him, the only other logical explanation is you two kissed." She said.
"Well, actually he kissed me." Clarke said.
"What?" Octavia coughed, "Didn't expect that one." She commented dryly, "There were times I literally thought you'd go on and get married and he'd just stand, watching you, pathetically."
"That's not very nice." Clarke couldn't help but laugh a little though. Octavia flashed her a cheesy grin.
"We're siblings."
Clarke was momentarily taken aback, as her find perhaps finally caught up with the events of the day, as she realized that she only knew what that phrase meant by her cheeky smile. The word sibling was like knowledge, not a feeling. She had no idea what being a sibling was, not really. Raven claimed to have siblings in all their friends, but to truly be related to someone around your age? It was such a novel idea to Clarke, one that she contemplated deeply.
There was noise outside the door.
"Ah, Bellamy! How nice of you to get all three of us dinner."
It was their mother. Clarke and Octavia shared quiet looks. She would find out that Clarke knew, eventually.
"Where do you usually hide?" Clarke asked with a hint of humor.
"Floorboards." Octavia nodded to a place where now that there'd been attention drawn to it, she could see a place where one floorboard was not as crafted as the other, had a couple more dents, looked worn.
"Don't think I'll have enough time." Clarke said regretfully. Octavia chuckled. "I hardly fit, I'm just used to it. You'd be really uncomfortable." She said, "Might as well stay here. I want mom to know…I want you coming around more often, you know?"
"Ah, hey mom…before you open the door, actually I'd like to talk to you about something…" Bellamy tried to keep her outside for a moment, but the door was already opening.
"I'm sure anything we have to talk about we can inside…" She trailed off, looking between the two girls sitting there. Bellamy looked pale and terrified, which was a reasonable reaction, balancing three meals as he shut the door behind him quickly.
"Clarke…Octavia…" Aurora commented, looking at them, trying to understand what was going on. Bellamy and Clarke both tried to think of a good way to begin this, and then Octavia said possibly one of the worst openings she could have.
"Guess what mom, I almost died!"
OCTAVIA MEETS CLARKE AND BELLARKE GET TOGETHER?! It's Christmas in September!
So, because this week was so busy and I only foresee it getting worse, this story will be updated every week (or every 7 days) now instead of 4/5. It's sad I have to switch for that, but I don't wan't yall waiting around for a chapter that's probably always going to be pushed to this sort of thursday update.
In other news, I have become OBSESSED with the Tv show Stranger Things on Netflix. I watched it in one day. I haven't felt so empty when it ended since, well the 100 which I discovered almost two years ago. That's a big deal for me...probably means Stranger Things fanfictions are coming...I am IN LOVE with Jonathan/Nancy, although I'm not upset they didn't get together. I don't actually hate Steve...because, well, he isn't a jerk. He's a regular teen. I think the Duffer bros made the teens in the show very rounded and not flat at all, which only adds to it. If I have any other Stranger Things fans in my readers, holla at me!
So, remember to review with how happy you are that they FINALLY got over themselves and got together ;) I'm so excited to see y'alls reactions!
