Been talkin' bout the way things change,
And my family lives in a different state.
If you don't know what to make of this,
Then we will not relate.
- The Head and the Heart
290 days after, The Ring
"-she's beautiful, just like her-" loud static filled the speakers and a swear came from the depths of the tech-filled room. Raven Reyes wiped her brow and resisted the urge to pump her fist in the air. As soon as it happened, the static went silent. It was too soon to tell if what she was hearing was coming from the ground.
She twisted another wire and the voice returned, this time clearer, "-brown eyes and her nose is really small, like a berry. You would love her. And I've only known her for a whole ten minutes," a chuckle emanated from the radio, "but she'd love you too." There was a click as the speaker ended the call and Raven's heart pounded in her ears.
That sounded like...but it couldn't be? Right?
Static returned and Raven made to twist another wire, when the voice whispered, "I wish you were here, Bellamy. I miss you. So much." Another click.
Raven sat and stared at the speaker with wide eyes and an open mouth. She couldn't process it. She had to be hallucinating. Of all the crazy shit that had happened to her, for some reason, this was the topper. There was just no way Clarke - she swallowed thickly. Clarke can't be alive.
But the undeniable proof lay in front of her. She'd heard it - the throaty voice could belong to no other. It was her, the woman they'd left behind on a burning planet. The woman who'd risked - and had been thought to have given - her life to make sure they could access the Ark. The woman they had all mourned for the past eight months, Bellamy most of all.
Bellamy.
God, what was she going to say to him? That the woman they had basically left to die was alive and alone on a radiation-plagued Earth? It was the truth, but what if Clarke died tomorrow, or the next? That would send him into another spiral, one he might not be able to recover from this time.
No, she needed to gather more evidence, get a feel for Clarke's situation on the ground before ripping off the bandage. She wouldn't tell anyone until she was certain things were stable. She also needed to figure out how to get a message back to Clarke - it seemed the Ark was able to receive transmissions but not deliver them. That could be an issue.
For now, though, I'll wait.
It turned out that she didn't have to wait long. Clarke called every day around the same time. The calls varied from mundane information about her day, to reminiscing on memories from their past, to talking about her companions. Raven gathered that Clarke had found the one green patch in the world and was comfortable and well-fed. She'd also learned that Clarke had found two other people that survived as she had. A girl named Madi - she was older, maybe seven or eight - and a baby named Penelope.
Clarke's voice became something of a ritual for Raven, soothing and reassuring of life and love. While grateful for her newfound family upon the Ark, she found herself thinking wistfully of Clarke's description of the sparkling lake she and Madi found, or the red berries they used to dye strands of their hair and ate between applications.
Each call began the same: "Hi Bellamy…" And every time, the weight in Raven's chest grew. She knew she needed to tell them. It was selfish of her to withhold this information. It was clear that Clarke wasn't in any immediate danger and would most likely be alive and well by the time they all returned in four years. She told herself it was complicated.
Raven was running through fuel levels for the four hundredth time when Clarke's voice rattled from the speaker.
"Hey Bellamy. It's been 400 days since you left, so I figured I should do a general summary of what's been happening since day 300." Raven immediately paused in her work and leaned back in her chair.
" Madi and I have claimed a cabin in the village as our own. We have two beds, one for Penelope and me, one for Madi. She's warming up to me more, and she adores Nell. Who couldn't though? Nell's a few months old now and has so much hair. I thought at first that she inherited your and Octavia's dark hair, but I swear it's becoming blonder everyday. My mom told me a long time ago about how my hair did the same when I was younger. Can you picture me as a brunette?" Raven held a hand over her grin, eyes shining.
"She's exhausting. Madi's been helping a bit, but she's just a kid. I'm tired all the time, but I'm happy, I think. It's the first time on the ground where I haven't worried about what I'm going to eat or if someone's gonna cut my head off. It's...peaceful. Good. It'd be better if you all were here though."
The speaker clicked, meaning Clarke released the button. Then clicked again.
"Oh! One more thing! Nell said her first word today! I'm a little pissed off that it wasn't 'mama' since I'm the one who is fucking raising her, but, here," Raven had to strain to hear Clarke's muffled voice urging Penelope to speak. "Okay here she is. Nell can you say da-da? Dad? Da-da? Just like before."
There was a high pitched squeal of laughter and then, clear as day, "Da-da, da-da!"
"Did you hear that? She's never even met you, but somehow that's the first word she learns. You're a rebel, aren't you?" Some more giggles. "Anyway, that's really all that's been happening for the last hundred days. How are you? How's Monty's algae? Has anyone tried to kill Murphy yet? Anyway...I hope you're doing okay. We're still breathing and all that. I miss you. Griffin out."
Raven let out a breath of air she didn't know she'd been holding, and laughed incredulously.
"Well, shit."
...
"Bellamy, can we talk?" He looked up from his book and studied her, eyes as empty as they were on day 1. Purple crecents hung beneath them. When was the last time he slept? Raven wrinkled her nose: his room smelled distinctly of body odor and dust.
He nodded mutely. She approached his bed and sat down at his feet, looking anywhere but at his face. "Um, what are you reading?"
He held it up so she could see the cover - The Odyssey. She shrugged - she'd never read it. "What did you want to talk about?" He sounded resigned, uninterested. She swallowed.
"It's about Clarke," she began, slowly. He froze. "Recently, I've been working at getting communications functioning again and a couple months ago, well, I think you should come with me."
It was an unspoken rule among the others to never bring up her around him. It never ended well for either party, if the dent in the kitchen wall was any evidence.
"What about her?" He managed.
"Just...trust me okay?"
"No. I-I just can't. Not with this. What's this got to do with her?"
"Bellamy," she said, tugging the book from his hands and setting it on the small table by his bed. "It is her. She's been messaging from the ground.
"Clarke's alive."
…
Raven rubbed her arms, staring hard at the speaker as if willing Clarke to pick up the radio. "She usually calls around this time, I don't know what's taking her so long."
Bellamy merely grunted, head in his palms as he sat on the only chair in the room. It was just them - Bellamy had refused to waste any time in telling the others before he heard the truth for himself.
"I'm sure she's-" Static emitted from the radio and Raven's heart leapt. But it wasn't Clarke's voice that came out this time.
"Hello? Belomi? Can you hear? Ai laik Madi-" The radio clicked and there was silence. Bellamy's head was out of his hands and his eyes were set intensely on the radio.
"Hey, Bellamy, sorry about that. Madi found my radio and I guess decided it was a good time to practice her English on someone other than me and Nell!" Bellamy gave a sharp intake of breath. Raven felt her eyes mist up. She grinned.
"Anyway, I don't have a lot of time to talk today. Madi and I need to fish before it gets dark so we have dinner. Plus I told her the story of Octavia and the water snake last night so I think she secretly wants to find one and fight it like her. She says Octavia's her favorite. I think it's because they both grew up hiding from the world. I'll keep you updated on whether any giant snakes survived the apocalypse. I miss you. Griffin out." Click.
Bellamy sat there, numb. Raven resisted the urge to figit and waited.
"She does this every day?" Raven nodded. "And you've known for how long?"
"A couple of months, but-"
"Months? You've known for MONTHS ?" There he was. And although she'd braced herself for this, Raven still hated when he became the dropship, complete dick version of Bellamy. " Why didn't you tell me? MONTHS, Raven! Months of nightmares and, and nothing , and thinking she was fucking dead. I thought she was dead... " he choked out.
"What's going on?" Monty and Harper stood at the door. Raven ignored them.
"Exactly, Bellamy. You're a fucking mess. If I told you four months ago that she's alive when I didn't know her situation, didn't know if she was safe, that she'd even live to the next day - who in their right mind would tell you?"
"Who's alive?" said Emori, peering over Harper's shoulder from the hallway.
"What gives you the goddamn right? I deserved to-"
"Of course you deserved to know! You think I don't feel guilty about this? Keeping this from you?"
"Who's fighting? I brought algae," said Murphy, who'd just appeared out of nowhere, a smirk plastered on his face.
"Shut up, Murphy," Raven and Bellamy snapped at the same time.
"Why'd you tell me today?" asked Bellamy, turning back to her, suddenly completely drained. "Why today of all days? What changed?"
"Did something have to change?" said Raven weakly, avoiding his gaze.
"What changed, Raven."
"What are they fighting about?" Murphy mock whispered to Monty.
"You know who," muttered Harper in awe. "I think she's alive."
"It's…" Raven hesitated, biting her lip. "The little girl-"
"Madi?"
"No the other one, Nell. She's a baby."
"But what does that have to do with you telling me…" Bellamy looked like someone had just swung a blunt object into his head. She could practically hear him doing the math. Raven nodded in confirmation and hugged her arms tighter, tears welling up. "No," Bellamy moaned.
"She's yours. I just found out yesterday, I swear.
" Fuck."
"It didn't even cross my mind that- I mean, I didn't even know you two-"
"The night before she took the nightblood," Bellamy said, numb. "That's when...you know." The past few months refocused in her mind. Everything he'd done since leaving the ground made complete sense. Raven knew then that she was looking at a broken man. He'd lost everything.
"She has brown eyes," her voice broke, "and a little nose like a berry. And hair that's getting blonder every day. That's what Clarke said. And she said her first word yesterday - your name - which is how I found out."
"Nell?"
"Short for Penelope, after some Greek story, I think she said." Bellamy groaned and dropped his head to his palms once more. She didn't think she'd ever heard a more pitiful sound.
"Can someone please enlighten us on the plot of this soap opera?" drawled Murphy, ignoring their prior command to be quiet. Raven turned to the doorway, where now all members of Spacekru had gathered.
"Clarke's alive because of the nightblood. She's been calling in every day. And she's found another nightblood girl and had a baby," she swallowed, "who is Bellamy's." Bellamy groaned again from his hands.
"Holy shit," whispered Monty.
"That's what I said," Raven shrugged helplessly.
"Can't we call her back?" said Emori, appalled. Raven was already shaking her head.
"The Ark can receive messages but can't send them back. We can hear her, but that's it. I've tried everything."
Murphy let out a long whistle. "Should've known a fucking death wave couldn't kill off Clarke Griffin. And they call me the cockroach." There was a pause as everyone, even Bellamy, stared at him. "What? It's true."
Bellamy let out a huff, which turned into another, and suddenly he was full on laughing, clutching his stomach. Which made Harper laugh, and Monty, who turned out had a wheezing sort of laugh, and it was just a domino effect from there.
They laughed and laughed at the fact that not even the end of the world could kill Clarke Griffin.
…
"Any time now…" said Bellamy. Today they had all crammed into Raven's workspace to hear Clarke's call.
"Hello? It's Clarke." Murphy let out a cheer, only to be aggressively shushed by everyone in the room. "-beautiful day. The sun is shining, the water is a perfect temperature, and Madi and I caught enough fish to last us five days last night. I decided that today would be a vacation, so I'm currently sunbathing on a rock with Penelope and drawing you guys. Can you say hi to dad?"
"Da-da!" Penelope squealed loudly into the receiver and a few of them clapped their hands over their ears. Bellamy's eyes widened and a goofy smile split his across his features.
"Sorry. I forgot how excited she gets when I ask her to say that. Madi's swimming, still acting out the Octavia story. I think - yep, she was just dragged underwater by the snake. Aaaaand she's back. Now she has a stick?" Clarke sighed. "Do you know what today is?"
"Unity day," said Bellamy absentmindedly, still grinning.
"Unity day," confirmed Clarke. "Tonight I'll tell Madi the story of Becca Pramheda and the clans. I think she'll like it. She usually likes my stories. I figure that's the best I can do for Unity day. Can't exactly drink moonshine and play drinking games like the dropship days. I hope you're celebrating too, Bellamy. Live for me, okay? We will meet again. Griffin and Griffin-Blake out."
Everyone looked at each other, beaming. Even Echo's eyes twinkled with happiness. Bellamy raised an eyebrow at her.
"What?" she said, defensive. "Penelope Griffin-Blake. It's cute."
