AN: More family time coming up – there are a lot of family members to meet and get to know! Hope you like it
I don't own anything relating to The 100
Chapter title from "My Father's Eyes" by Eric Clapton
44
And I Hear Those Ancient Lullabies
They end up staying until late into the night. Rosamie tries to teach them to make pancit palabok, a noodle dish with meat and vegetables which they're having for lunch. Bellamy quickly has Clarke demoted to chopping duty, though, telling his grandmother how she almost set a turkey on fire once. She would be annoyed about it if it didn't end with the two of them laughing together over the stove but, well, she's not going to disturb that special moment between them.
After they finish lunch, they move out into the backyard, where there's a small lawn strewn with toys. Marisol is napping in Danilo's arms, but Ella immediately jumps on the lone swing and the boys start playing with some large plastic cars, leaving the adults to talk some more.
By the time Maria – Rosamie and Danilo's daughter who owns the house, as well as Daniel, Nicholas and Marisol's grandmother – and her husband Ben come home, the kids have tired themselves out and are more or less asleep under the shade of a large tree in a corner of the yard. Bellamy has told his grandparents about basically his entire childhood, skimming over some of the more dire details, showing them what photos he has on his phone or that Octavia has on Facebook. They, in turn, have told him about his father and the rest of the family, flipping through album after album of pictures from the last fifty years.
By the lack of surprise, Clarke concludes that someone called Maria to let her know that her long-lost nephew is here. They join the conversation easily, Maria contributing stories about her brother that their parents don't know – how he cut school when he was twelve to take care of an injured dog he found on the way there, how he always looked out for his younger siblings when someone picked on them, how he loved watching thunderstorms and would keep the window in their bedroom open even though Maria and their other sister, Angela, were terrified of them, so he would explain how they worked until they weren't scared anymore.
Every story, every memory, brings to life the man that has been nothing but a ghost, a shadow, to Bellamy for so long, and Clarke can see how he laps it up, eager to hear everything. She is too, because even though they didn't get a chance to really know each other, she can see so much of his father in him.
An hour or so after Maria and Ben get home, their daughter Sophia arrives to pick up the kids. She never met her uncle, of course, since he died before she was born, but it's clear that she must have seen photos, because her eyes widen when she sees Bellamy.
"Wow, you really do look just like him," she says, with less of an accent than both her parents and her grandparents.
She doesn't stay long, but before she leaves, she sends a friend request to Clarke on Facebook, and makes them promise that they'll hang out more before they leave, which, really, isn't a hard promise to make. A few minutes after she leaves, Maria and Ben's youngest, Andrea, who's the only one of the children who hasn't moved out on her own yet, gets home and joins the conversation for a while before making her excuses and retreating to her room to do her homework.
Rosamie insists that they stay for dinner as well – not that they argue much – and when they finally do leave, Ben won't take no for an answer and drives them back to the hotel. He even convinces them to let him pick them up and take them back to his house in the morning, since it apparently would take almost an hour to walk and they're not familiar with the area.
"So…" Clarke starts when they're in bed. "Long day, but good, right?"
Bellamy lets out a long breath. "So much better than I was expecting," he replies. "I just… I always thought they didn't want anything to do with me. I don't know, maybe it was self-preservation or something. And now… it's not like I could have looked them up from home, not with the information I had, and it's only the last few years that I would have been able to afford coming here, but I still… maybe I could have done this earlier, you know?"
She curls into him, breathing in his familiar scent. "Don't do that, please don't guilt trip yourself. Just… try to enjoy this time, like with Octavia. I know it's not much, but it's something, right?"
He wraps an arm around her and hugs her close. "It's everything. And I'm not guilt tripping, I just… I needed to say it out loud, I guess, so I can put it behind me."
"OK, as long as you really do that."
"Promise."
-100-
The next day is Saturday, and Clarke is half-expecting the entire clan to be waiting for them when they get to Maria and Ben's house. But apart from Maria, Rosamie and Danilo, there's only a young couple with a little girl who looks to be about one and a half. Even before the introductions, Clarke knows it must be Maria and Ben's son Christopher, his wife Daniela and their daughter Aira, who was missing from the group of children yesterday.
It's a relaxed morning, lounging in the shade on the back porch, sipping more of Rosamie's calamansi juice. Aira keeps them entertained, toddling around the backyard and babbling to herself and the different toys. Christopher and Bellamy bond over some book series they both love, while Clarke and Daniela talk about traveling – Daniela spent a year as an exchange student in England and did some traveling in Europe, and she's eager to hear about that part of their trip.
Christopher makes their excuses after they've had lunch, and less than half an hour after the little family leaves, Andrea and Denise, the last of Maria and Ben's kids and the only one they haven't met yet, pop up in the door to the house.
It's around that time that Clarke realizes that they're trying to not overwhelm Bellamy by having him meet everyone at once, which is sweet. He's still completely overwhelmed, of course – the slight dazed expression from yesterday still hasn't completely left his face – but she can see how it would have been worse if everyone had descended on them at once.
Sunday goes by in a similar fashion – Ben picks them up at their hotel in the morning, and when they get to the house, they meet Bellamy's uncle Gabriel, his wife Natalie and their three teenage kids, Julius, Jonathan and Grace. And just like yesterday, the family makes some excuse to leave after lunch, only to be replaced by the youngest of the Balangao children, Cristian, his wife Analyn, Ella, who they've already met, and her older siblings Adrian and Bianca. They even Skype with Angela, the aunt living in Europe – the Netherlands, it turns out – and meet her and her husband Thomas and their two kids Melissa and Lucas remotely.
After everyone has been officially introduced, though, it's like taking the stopper out of a bottle.
Monday means everyone's back at work, so it's just the two of them, Rosamie, Danilo, and the kids during the day, but at four thirty, Maria gets home, and after that, everyone else just start to trickle in. By dinner time, only a couple of the teenagers are missing, and Ben has to go around to the neighbor's house to ask if they can borrow extra chairs so everyone will fit around the folding tables they put up in the garden for dinner. Sixteen adults and seven kids must be somewhere north of what actually fits in the space, but they make do somehow.
They spend the days learning about the family, Bellamy's ancestors, the country and customs. Rosamie teaches him to cook whatever she's making, while Clarke hangs back with Danilo and the kids, letting Ella teach her basic Filipino words and play with her hair. They Skype with Octavia, so Bellamy can introduce her to everyone, and get to know the area during walks in the late evening, when the heat finally gets a little less oppressive, and join Rosamie on her weekly shopping trip to the market by the river.
Neither of them mention the plan to go back to Manila for the last few days of their stay in the country, but on Wednesday morning, Clarke decides she has to bring it up.
Bellamy beats her to it, though, when he emerges from the bathroom after a shower. "So we're supposed to go back to Manila tomorrow, right?" he asks, sitting down at the foot of bed to towel off his hair.
"Yeah," she confirms from where she's leaning against the headboard, reading a long email from Wells. She puts her phone away before continuing. "We don't have to, though. We can stay here until Saturday. Or longer, if you want, we can postpone the trip to Sydney."
He sighs and falls backwards on the bed, tilting his head to look at her. "That would mean we miss the things we have planned there, though, right? Or we push everything back and it screws up the rest of the trip."
"Not necessarily." She reaches out to slide her hand into his damp curls, scratching at his scalp. His eyes slide closed and he lets out a content hum. "The only thing we have on Sunday is dinner at the Sydney Tower in the evening, and the other days aren't that packed, we'd probably have time for everything even if we left a day later."
Bellamy's quiet as he thinks it through, and she opens a web browser on her phone and starts searching for flights on Sunday instead of Saturday.
"It feels like it would be a lot of work for one more day," he finally says, but Clarke can tell from his voice that he's being logical and not saying what he really wants.
"So?" He opens his eyes to look at her and she offers a smile. "It's one more day, I know it's not much but it is a little more time. And we can get the exact same flight on Sunday night instead of Saturday. If we reschedule the Sydney Tower from Sunday to Thursday – we're doing the botanical garden during the day, so we should have plenty of time for that in the evening – that just leaves the boat tour of the harbor on Monday afternoon. You think we'll be up for that when the flight gets in at six in the morning?"
He considers her for a moment. "Show me the old itinerary."
She gets it up on her phone and hands it over.
"Do you really think I'd lie about this stuff?"
He rolls his eyes. "No, but… just wanted to make sure you weren't making it easier than it actually was."
He hands the phone back and she nudges him with her foot. "So?"
"Are you sure?"
"How many times do I have to say that this is about what you want to do? I've been to Sydney before, I might go there again, but this is the one chance you get to spend time with your family. I know it's just one more day but that's still a whole day more."
It comes out a little harsher than she planned, but at least it seems to bring the message home, because Bellamy scoots up the bed so he can lean against the headboard next to her and wrap an arm around her. She leans her head against his shoulder and takes a deep breath.
"OK, then let's stay one more day."
"Good."
Clarke makes all the arrangements – cancelling the hotel in Manila, changing the flight to Sydney and cancelling the first night at the hotel there, moving their dinner reservation.
"Let's just hope this place isn't fully booked over the weekend," Bellamy notes when they're leaving their room.
It's unlikely, since it seems like the hotel's been barely half-full since they got here, but it's still a possibility.
"Worst case, I'm sure Maria and Ben won't mind if we crash with them the last few days," she replies. "They do have a guest room. Actually, do you want to just check with them before we try to get a room here for three more nights?"
She knows that Rosamie suggested to Bellamy that they check out of the hotel the first day, and that he said they didn't want to impose – or not impose more than they already were – which she of course assured him that they wouldn't.
But this is different, they're staying three days longer in Taytay, and even a day longer in the Philippines, just to spend more time with the family. It makes sense, really, to actually stay with the family now.
"Yeah," he agrees. "Let's do that."
Knowing that Rosamie will be thrilled, and will probably convince Maria and Ben even if they don't really want to (not that Clarke thinks they won't, but still), they decide to ask Ben while he drives them to the house. He immediately tells them that they're more than welcome, and when Bellamy tells Rosamie when they get to the house, it's definitely worth it – she stares at him for a moment, then a bright smile appears on her face and she throws her arms around them both.
The rest of the week goes by in a similar fashion, with the difference that they move from the hotel to Maria and Ben's house on Thursday morning, but on Saturday afternoon, Rosamie asks if they would like to go with her to the cemetery.
"I try to go see Isko every month," she explains with a sad smile.
Clarke reaches out, almost automatically, to take Bellamy's hand, and he squeezes back. "We'd love to."
Danilo comes along as well, driving them through the city to the cemetery. It's not a long drive, maybe fifteen minutes, but the atmosphere in the car is heavy, which makes it feel much longer.
Once they've gotten out of the car, Rosamie and Danilo lead the way along the pathways between the graves. Bellamy hangs back a little, and Clarke, of course, joins him.
"You OK?" she asks, quietly.
He offers her a weak smile. "I don't know, honestly."
"We didn't have to come," she points out, squeezing his hand.
"No, I… I want to. It's just…"
"I know."
His grandparents have come to a stop some ways ahead of them, Rosamie brushing some dirt off the railing of a grave next to the path. It's a colorful place, for a cemetery – most graves are white, but there are also red, blue and yellow ones.
They stop next to Danilo, who pats Bellamy on the shoulder.
The grave they're standing in front of seems to be a family grave – apart from the plaque with Francisco's name, there are three more.
"My parents and brother," Rosamie says, as if she can read Clarke's mind. "Emanuel drowned when we were children, I was only four, I do not remember him, not really."
She places the flowers she brought below the plaques and then pulls a handkerchief from her pocket and rubs a stain off one of them.
Bellamy's quiet next to her, and Clarke looks up at him to see that he's biting his lip, eyes glassy. She steps closer, wraps both arms around him and leans her head against his shoulder. He wraps one arm around her as well and she hears him pull in a shaky breath.
Rosamie has finished sprucing up the grave and straightens up, spotting the two of them. A knowing look appears on her face and then she's wrapped around them both.
"I am sorry, mahal, I am so sorry," she murmurs, and Clarke feels Bellamy's body start to shake with sobs.
She's not sure how long they stay like that, in a sort of group hug with her and Rosamie supporting Bellamy as he lets out all the grief that he must have been keeping somewhere inside his entire life, for the father he never knew. It's Bellamy that breaks the spell, pulling out of the embrace and rubbing at his wet cheeks.
"Sorry," he says, voice raspy.
"Stop," Clarke tells him immediately.
"Yes, stop," Rosamie agrees, taking his face in her hands and giving him a stern look. "It is not fair that you could not know him, but he loved you so much. And he would have been proud of the man you are today."
He blinks away a few more tears but does manage a small smile. "Thank you."
Clarke's a little worried that the melancholy mood will linger, maybe even make their last evening in Taytay sad and gloomy, but when they get back to the house, they're met by the whole extended family, plus a bunch of people they haven't seen before.
Bellamy's been quiet during the drive, but now a smile tugs at his mouth. "What's this?" he asks.
Rosamie ushers them through the back door and out into the yard, where everyone's gathered. "It is your last night here, we wanted to celebrate."
The newcomers are Rosamie's two sisters, Patricia and Camille, Danilo's nephew Joshua and his two kids, Nicole and Angelo, and Francisco's closest friend, Joseph, and his family. Once everyone's been introduced, they really do celebrate. There's enough food to feed a small army, a bunch of different Filipino dishes that they've either already tried during the week and loved, or new ones that are just as delicious.
Someone's brought a large speaker that's set up in an open window, and soon enough, a bunch of the kids start dancing on the lawn. Fairy lights have been strung up in the tree and along the porch roof, and once the sun has set, they cast an almost eerie light over the garden.
Rosamie and Danilo are sitting on the porch, a little apart from the actual party, along with Rosamie's sisters and the neighbors who show up at some point, but Bellamy makes sure to check in with them now and then, sitting down for a few minutes to talk a little or just take a break.
At some point after the smaller kids are put to bed, the large table set up on the porch gets an addition of different bottles.
"What's this?" Bellamy asks when Sophia holds out a glass for him and one for Clarke.
"Basi," she tells them, taking a sip of her own drink. "It's wine made from sugarcanes, not really that common here but it's really popular in the Ilocos region, where Marc's from, so I've gotten pretty much addicted to it. Try it, it's really good."
It is really good, and then there's beer – the local San Miguel, which Clarke had no idea was Filipino – strawberry wine from another region, the coconut vodka lambanog, and of course cocktails made from the delicious calamansi juice. She does try to not drink too much, but somehow a new glass always appears in her hand when she's finished her drink, and by the time the last of the guests leave, she can admit that she is pretty drunk.
Which seems to be the case for Bellamy too, judging by the way he's leaning against her when they make their way to their bedroom. Rosamie and Danilo said goodnight earlier, and Maria and Ben disappeared around the same time, so they're trying to be quiet so they don't wake anyone up.
"This was… a really… good night," Bellamy says as he kicks off his shoes, almost falling over in the process.
"It was," she agrees, tugging him towards the bed. There's a water bottle on each bedside table, and she drains hers before opening Bellamy's. "Drink this."
He does without protest and then pulls his shirt off before collapsing on the bed.
"Pants too," she tells him, pulling her own dress over her head.
He sighs but manages to wriggle out of his khaki shorts without having to get up.
"I wish we could stay longer," he mumbles when she slides under the sheets and snuggles closer.
"I know. Do you want to skip Sydney? We can."
"No." He sighs. "I just wish we had more time."
It's not something he's said before, not really, and even though he probably refers to this specific part of their trip and not on their time together in general, it still makes Clarke's throat close up a little. "I know, me too."
-100-
They're both a little hungover in the morning, though honestly less than Clarke feared. Her own headache basically disappears after Rosamie's take on an American breakfast – pancakes and waffles, scrambled eggs, bacon, toast and French toast – and Bellamy looks pretty awake too.
The party last night was obviously the big send-off, but family members still stop by throughout the day to say a proper goodbye. She was a little worried it would turn into a sad day with drawn out, teary farewells, but of course, everyone knows that Bellamy now has a pretty well-off girlfriend (they've given them Clarke's basic background of wealthy parents leaving her money when they died), so they're probably expecting the visit to turn into at least a yearly tradition. Rosamie has even hinted that she and Danilo might be able to afford a visit to New York, if they can find really cheap flights. Both Clarke and Bellamy know that none of this will happen, of course, but they still manage to maintain the overall happy feeling everyone else exudes.
Ben offered to drive them to the airport, since Danilo doesn't like driving too much, but he insists that he'll be fine. So they set off a little after four thirty – they've already checked in online, but they don't know what security will be like, so they reluctantly agree that it's better to arrive a little too early. Ben still helps them get their bags all loaded in the trunk of the car, and then he and Maria say their goodbyes as well, with hugs all around.
Rosamie keeps the conversation going the entire drive, telling them about places they're passing or asking what they have planned in Sydney and for the rest of the trip. Bellamy's still a little subdued, so Clarke takes charge of their side, with the occasional input from him.
When they get to the airport, Danilo pulls into a parking spot and turns off the car before they have a chance to tell him he doesn't have to. Both he and Rosamie get out of the car, Danilo going to the trunk to get their bags out while Rosamie grabs Bellamy by both hands and tugs him closer for what feels like a private conversation. Clarke goes to help Danilo instead, trying her best to not listen in.
A few minutes later, she sees them hug out of the corner of her eye, and decides it must be safe. She gives Danilo a hug, thanking him for everything and promising to stay in touch, and then turns to Rosamie.
The older woman is smiling, even though Clarke can see that there must have been some tears shed during her talk with Bellamy.
"Thank you for helping our boy find his way home," she says, wrapping her arms around Clarke.
She returns the hug tightly, trying to ignore the thought that, in a few months, she'll have to deliver the horrible news that the grandson Rosamie only just got back is gone.
"I'm so glad I could," she says. "Thank you for giving him this week, I know it means the world to him."
"And to us."
With a final squeeze and a kiss to Clarke's cheek, Rosamie lets her go, accepting the arm Danilo offers her. Bellamy appears at Clarke's side, handing her a bag and squeezing her hand.
"Ready to go?" she asks, looking up at him.
He shakes his head. "Not really, but… yeah."
"Remember – Ben set up that… scope thing on the computer," Rosamie reminds them. "And you promised that we would talk often, I will not let you forget that."
"Of course not," Bellamy promises. "Saturday at eight in the evening, I've already set an alarm on my phone."
They're driving from Auckland to Matamata on Saturday, but it won't be a problem to fit that two hour drive in at some point before that.
"And I'll text Maria when… OK, not when we land in Sydney, because that's at four in the morning here, but I'll text her a little later tomorrow to let her know we got there OK," Clarke promises. "And seriously, we post a ton of photos on Facebook, just ask someone to show you, you'll be able to follow our whole trip."
Rosamie just nods, looking like she's tearing up again.
"We will," Danilo says, putting an arm around his wife, apparently having noticed it too. "Now you need to go or you will miss the flight."
It's not strictly true, they can probably linger for a little longer, but it's time.
"Yeah, we should," Bellamy agrees. He reaches out to squeeze Rosamie's hand one last time. "Thank you for… just thank you."
She squeezes back. "Thank you. We love you, mahal."
"I love you."
Clarke realizes that he might not be physically able to walk away, so she tugs him along in the direction of the airport, offering Rosamie and Danilo a final wave before they disappear from view.
Bellamy's quiet as they drop their bags off, go through security and find their gate. Once they're there, he basically deflates, slumping down in one of the uncomfortable airport chairs. Clarke takes a seat next to him and wraps herself around him as best as she can.
"You OK?"
"No."
He doesn't say anything else, and she doesn't push, just stays where she is, offering what little comfort she can.