AN: OK, guys – we're back in the US! San Francisco is one of my favorite places, so I hope I've managed to do it justice…
I haven't actually watched the latest episode yet, so if you could skip any spoilers in comments, that would be great – I think I might have already gotten one in a comment on the last chapter (though I'm really hoping not…)
I don't own anything relating to The 100
Chapter title from "San Francisco (Be Sure to Wear Flowers in Your Hair)" by Scott McKenzie, of course
See the end of the chapter for warnings
51
Be Sure to Wear Some Flowers in Your Hair
They don't get into Oakland airport until ten that night, and by the time they've gotten through customs, collected their bags, picked up their rental car and driven across the bay and through the city to her place on Union Street, it's well after midnight.
"You mind if I put off getting overwhelmed until the morning?" Bellamy mumbles as she unlocks the front door. "I mean, it looks impressive and all, but I think I'd appreciate it much more in daylight. And when I'm actually awake."
Clarke chuckles and ushers him into the house ahead of her. "Sure, no problem."
They leave their suitcases by the door, too tired to haul them up to the fourth floor, and she flips on the light in the sitting room off the entryway before guiding him towards the stairs.
The house is a little stuffy, even though she had her regular cleaning company give the place a thorough run-through yesterday, so she immediately opens the balcony doors in the master bedroom on the top floor, letting in the cool night air. She almost always sleeps with one of the windows cracked open, but she wants to let the room air out properly while they brush their teeth.
"Is that the Golden Gate?" Bellamy asks next to her, pointing at the bridge in question in the distance, lit up in the darkness.
"Yup. We'll probably get a good view of the famous fog around it at some point, it's usually pretty heavy in June."
"Cool." He pauses. "OK, I'm a little overwhelmed."
Clarke just laughs and shoves him lightly in the direction of the en-suite bathroom. "Go be overwhelmed while you brush your teeth."
He obliges without protest and they both get their teeth brushed and their faces washed before returning to the bedroom, which is noticeably cooler and fresher now. She closes the balcony doors again, opening the window next to the bed instead, before pulling the bedspread back.
"Come on, you're practically asleep on your feet," she says, nudging Bellamy with her elbow to get him to move.
He lets out a sigh and manages to get at least his khaki shorts off before sliding under the covers on the side of the bed that has become his over the last seven months. "We don't have anything booked early tomorrow, right?" he murmurs when she gets in next to him after removing her own clothes, reaching out blindly for her. She moves until her back is against his chest and his arm wraps around her tightly.
"No, we don't have anything set in stone tomorrow at all," she replies, pulling the comforter up over both of them. "So we can sleep in as late as we want."
"Good."
Clarke's not sure if it's being back in what is basically her own bed, but it's probably the best night's sleep she's had since they set out on the trip. Not that they haven't slept in some spectacularly comfortable beds in the last five months, but there's something special about being home.
She wakes up to the characteristic weak light San Francisco offers on foggy mornings, the air in the room slightly chilly against her face, but the rest of her nice and warm, wrapped up in the comforter and snuggled against Bellamy.
She doesn't know how exactly he knows she's awake, but apparently he does, because a minute or so after she opens her eyes, his hand slides around her waist and he pulls her tighter against him.
"Morning."
His voice is still rough with sleep, so he can't have been awake too long.
"Morning," she replies, pushing back a little against him, testing the waters.
As she hoped, he groans and grinds his hips against her butt, morning wood evident.
"One of those mornings, huh?" he murmurs, sliding his hand up her stomach to her breasts, and she's glad she got rid of everything but her panties last night.
"I'm sorry, did you suddenly develop a dislike of morning sex?" she shoots back before biting her lip when he tweaks a nipple between his fingers.
He chuckles low in her ear before sucking a bruise into her shoulder. "You know me better than that, Princess."
Well, she certainly hopes she does.
Clarke lets him set the pace for a while, his lips exploring her throat and back, hand alternating between palming her breast and twirling her nipple, dick sliding against her butt. But they're not going to get anywhere if they don't get rid of some clothes, so when she's finally too desperate for something more to be able to think straight, she pushes her panties down, managing to get them off without having to move too much.
"That's better," Bellamy mumbles behind her, immediately trailing his hand down her chest and stomach to slide a finger inside her.
"Mmm, yeah," she agrees, trying to arch her hips against the movement of his finger while also grinding back against his dick, which isn't easy to coordinate with her already foggy brain.
He solves the problem for her after another moment, shifting back and pushing another finger inside her, and while she does miss the feel of him behind her, she can focus on just the feeling of his fingers teasing her, curling up just right, pushing her closer and closer to the edge…
Over the last few months, he's gotten scarily good at anticipating her orgasm, and this time is no exception – just as Clarke feels the first telltale signs, he bites her neck lightly and circles her clit with his thumb, and she's gone.
Bellamy guides her through it, thumb continuing to rub light circles against her clit, drawing it out, but when she starts to come down again, his hand disappears.
She's about to object when she feels him move closer behind her again, lifting her leg to drape it over his, and then the tip of his dick rubs against her entrance.
She doesn't trust her voice yet, so she just pushes back against him, and he takes the hint, moving forward to push inside her. She lets out a content sigh when he bottoms out and stills, and he slides one hand up her stomach to squeeze her breast lightly.
"Good?" he asks, voice husky, though not from sleep anymore.
"Mmm, awesome," she confirms, reaching back to bury her fingers in his hair.
He chuckles at that and starts moving, keeping his thrusts slow but deep. When he shifts a little, the angle changes just that tiny bit that's needed for him to hit that sweet spot inside her, and she moans at the feeling.
"That's it, right there."
He picks up his pace then, hitting the same spot over and over again, and it's almost too much, the first hints of a second orgasm like flames licking her insides. When he adds a finger against her clit, she's sure her nails must be digging into his scalp in a painful way, but he doesn't seem to even notice, and a few minutes later they're both tumbling over the edge within a few seconds of each other.
They stay still for a moment, both trying to catch their breaths, and then Clarke shifts, letting him slide out, and turns to face him.
"OK, can I request that as a wake-up call from now on?" she asks, still a little breathless. "Because I wouldn't mind waking up like that every morning…"
Bellamy chuckles and reaches out to tuck a strand of hair behind her ear. "I'll do my best."
She moves in for a kiss which he happily returns, slow and lazy. Then his stomach starts to rumble, reminding them both that they can't actually stay in bed all day.
"Breakfast?" she suggests. "I asked a friend to pick up enough stuff we at least wouldn't have to go shopping first thing in the morning."
"Good thinking."
They find some fresh fruit, eggs and bacon as well as bread in the kitchen and half an hour later, they're seated on the balcony off the bedroom with their haul.
As Clarke suspected, the iconic San Francisco fog is hiding most of the Golden Gate from view, even if it has already started clearing a little as the sun rises and the temperature with it.
"Overwhelmed again?" she asks and Bellamy looks up at her, chewing on some bacon.
"I'm good for now," he says once he's swallowed, turning his attention to the view. "I mean, this place is amazing, but it's like you said, it's homier so it doesn't feel as…"
"Daunting?" she interrupts and he rolls his eyes.
"You can stop making fun of me for that any time now."
She laughs. "It's like you don't know me at all."
After they finish their breakfast, they head out for a bit of introductory sightseeing, as Clarke calls it.
"Introductory sightseeing?" he questions when they're in the car.
"Yeah, you know, like one of those hop-on hop-off bus tours," she explains. "Except I know the city as well as I know New York, so it felt unnecessary to pay for something when I can just give you a tour myself. And this way we can stop wherever we want."
Bellamy shakes his head, but the expression in his eyes is fond, and she can tell that he really enjoys the tour.
They start at Twin Peaks, which is a little touristy but still offers an excellent overview of the city, and then they basically just drive around. They're doing deep dives in some areas later in the week, of course, but for now they just get a look at them, driving through Hunter's Point and Mission District, Bernal Heights and Ingleside, stopping for lunch at a café in Sunset before climbing the beautiful tiled steps up to Grandview Park, which offers another amazing view of the city.
They bypass Golden Gate Park, since they're planning on spending the afternoon there tomorrow, but zip through Castro and Haight-Ashbury before making a pit stop at the Painted Ladies. They skip downtown, since they'll be spending all day Thursday there, exploring Chinatown and Union Square and everything else, and instead circle it, getting a look at the waterfront area before heading back through North Beach and Russian Hill, getting out of the car to walk down the serpentine part of Lombard Street. They wrap the day up at Clarke's favorite Spanish restaurant down in Embarcadero, and don't get home until pretty late.
"Good first day?" she asks when they're in bed.
"It was great," Bellamy assures her. "Best introductory sightseeing I've ever been on."
She tries to elbow him in the side, but he just pulls her closer and, well, soon enough she has better things to focus on than his teasing…
-100-
Clarke had been looking forward to showing Bellamy San Francisco, and it is just as fun as she thought it would be, but it also feels like she's a tourist too, which she hasn't really been here for a long time.
She remembers when she arrived in San Francisco for the first time, just before the turn of the last century. It wasn't her first posting in a large city, she'd been stationed in both New York and Boston by then, but there was still something about it that immediately caught her heart, just like New York had.
Exploring the city with Bellamy is sort of like rediscovering it herself, remembering all the things she's always loved about it and discovering a few new ones too.
If she thought that Bellamy would let her actually having lived here stop him from researching the place himself, she's sorely mistaken. They spend Monday morning strolling around Haight-Ashbury, checking out the different sights in the area, and then have a picnic lunch in Golden Gate Park where they while away the rest of the afternoon lounging in the sunshine, but when they're heading home, he asks if she knows how to get to Marina Drive.
Which is how she gets her first look at the amazing Wave Organ, a huge sculpture where plastic pipes are used to make 'music' using the ocean waves.
"OK, so this isn't quite as awesome as I thought it would be based on what I read about it," he admits.
She straightens up from where she was listening to the 'music' from one of the pipes. "What do you mean? It's really cool, I can't believe I've never been here before."
"Yeah?"
"Yes."
They stay to watch the sun set beyond the Golden Gate, and stop by the grocery store on the way back to the house, so Bellamy can cook a late dinner instead of them going out to eat, and it's just so nice. Sure, the hotels and fancy restaurants they've visited during their trip have been fun, but just sitting at the small dining table in the nook by the windows, watching him putter around her kitchen, makes a pleasant warmth settle in Clarke's stomach.
She just enjoys the view for a while, but when he gives her a second questioning look, she pulls her phone out of her pocket to have something to do.
"Hey, what are your grandparents' names?" she asks, pulling up a browser window and navigating to a directory site.
Bellamy glances at her. "You met them, you don't remember?"
She looks up so he can see her roll her eyes. "I meant your mom's parents. I figured I might as well see if I can find something and, if not, send Raven the info so she can work her magic."
"Oh." He pauses, focusing on the pots on the stove for a moment. "Her dad's name is Richard and her mom is Linda."
"Blake, right? Your mom didn't change her last name when she left home or anything?"
"No."
Clarke plugs the first name into the search bar along with Chicago and waits as the result page loads. "OK, a few hits for Richard Blake in Chicago… how old would they be, your mom was born in… 1969, right?"
He nods. "Yeah. I'm not really sure, but she never said anything about them being particularly old when they had her, and I doubt they were teenagers or anything, so they would probably be in their mid to late seventies by now, maybe older. Born in the thirties or early forties, would be my guess."
She hums, scrolling through the results. "OK, there's one who's in the right age range, but no mention of a relative called Linda." She tries the search for Linda instead, just getting one hit. "And no Linda Blake who matches either. I suppose they might have gotten divorced at some point in the last thirty odd years, in which case that won't really help… I'll try the state too, maybe they moved out of the city or something."
"You know they could have left the state too, right?" Bellamy pipes up from the stove, voice gentle. "Or the country, for all I know. Maybe they're lounging around on a Mexican beach or something."
She ignores him, changing the searches again. "No good hits there either. Maybe Florida? That's where middle class people go when they retire, right?"
But there aren't any promising hits there either.
"Are you going to keep searching all the states?" he asks when she says as much. "You know not everyone's listed on those sites, and like you said, they could be divorced, or one of them could have died…"
Clarke sighs. "No, you're right. They could be anywhere. I'll just send the names to Raven, see what she can do."
He just hums in agreement, focusing back on the cooking.
She switches to her message app, bringing up the conversation with Raven.
If I give you a name,
can you find someone?
It's the middle of the night in New York, but the speech bubble still pops up within moments. Then it disappears, and Clarke almost drops the phone when it actually starts ringing.
"You didn't have to call," she answers the phone. "Isn't it almost one in the morning there? What are you even doing up?"
"Hello to you too, babe," Raven's voice comes over the line. "I had a late transfer, just got home a few minutes ago. How does it feel being back in the States?"
Clarke covers the microphone with her hand. "I'll take it outside, OK?" she says when Bellamy looks up. "Back soon."
He nods and she opens the door to the patio and steps through.
"It's been good so far," she then says. "But it's only been two days, we'll see what happens when we… start getting closer to New York."
Raven hums. "Yeah, I see what you mean. So what's this about finding someone? Who are we looking up?"
Grateful for the subject change, Clarke launches into the story. "Bellamy's grandparents, the American ones. They kicked his mom out of the house when she was sixteen, so he's never met them and his mom never talked much about them, but we talked about it and decided that it would be worth it to at least try to find them, you know? They probably don't even know they have grandkids, and it's been a long time… even if they actually did mean to kick their daughter out, they could still be grateful to get to meet her children."
"Right, and all you have are their names?" Raven asks, kicking into action immediately.
"And his mom's name, obviously, I don't know if that helps. We know they lived in Chicago in the mid-eighties, but I didn't get any promising hits online for just the names, so either they're not listed, or they've moved."
"OK, just send me what you have, and I'll do what I can. Just… how far do you want me to take this?"
She doesn't need to ask what Raven means – she doesn't actually know exactly what Raven does when she 'looks into' something, but she knows that not all of it is what would be strictly classified as legal.
"I don't know," she says with a huff. "I mean, use all the resources you have, obviously, but don't… do anything too out there."
"Got it," Raven says. "Minor hacking, OK, breaking into the Pentagon, big no-no."
"If you want to put it like that, yeah. Though maybe hit the brakes a few steps before trying to get into the Pentagon?"
Raven snorts. "You don't want me to have any fun. But seriously, I'm, like, seventy-five percent sure all I'll have to do is bypass some genealogy website's paywall. No government hacking required."
Clarke lets out a laugh at that. "OK, good to know. I'll send you the names and whatever else Bellamy knows, and just let me know if you find something?"
"Will do, babe. I'll… talk to you soon, love you."
"Love you too, Rae."
She hangs up the phone and sends a quick text message with the names, Bellamy's mom's name plus her year of birth and death, and, just to be thorough, Bellamy and Octavia's full names and birth dates as well. She gets a thumbs up in response a moment later and goes back inside.
"Perfect timing," Bellamy says when the door slides shut behind her. "Dinner's ready."
She smiles and lets him pull her chair out, and neither of them mention Raven or Bellamy's grandparents for the rest of the night.
Tuesday is an intense day, which they spend mainly on Angel Island and Alcatraz. Clarke's been to Alcatraz before, but never Angel Island, and it's interesting, getting a good look at the old buildings and hearing more about the treatment of Asian immigrants in the early twentieth century.
And Alcatraz is… interesting. They get audio guides and follow them around the old prison island, but she watches Bellamy more than the old cells and displays, barely even hearing the voice droning away in her ear. He's completely focused, listening intently, turning this way and that based on the instructions.
They stay for a little longer after returning the audio guides, strolling around the grounds outside the buildings.
"I wonder if anyone ever actually got away from here," Bellamy muses when they're waiting for the next boat.
"Don't they say that even if someone escaped the prison, they would freeze to death or drown trying to swim to shore?" Clarke asks curiously.
"Well, yeah, but come on – isn't that exactly what they'd want us to think if someone did escape? Can't have the public knowing someone actually fooled the system. And there are stories about those prisoners who were involved in the escape back in sixty-two, sightings and stuff…"
"There are still alleged sightings of Elvis," she notes with a smile.
He rolls his eyes. "I know, I'm not saying any of it is true, I was just speculating."
When they get back to the city, they grab a late lunch and spend the rest of the afternoon at Fisherman's Wharf – they check out Pier 39 and its sea lions, peruse the collection of old arcade games at Musée Mécanique, and decide to walk back to the house by way of Ghirardelli Square, where they indulge in the ice cream shop's famous hot fudge Sunday.
"I can see why you love San Francisco," Bellamy says when they're strolling along Van Ness on their way home.
"It is a wonderful city," Clarke agrees. "And we haven't even been downtown yet, I bet you're going to love Chinatown and Union Square."
"Looking forward to it."
But before they get to that, they spend a day out of the city. They wait until rush hour is over on Wednesday and then cross Golden Gate Bridge to Marin County.
Clarke's initial plan was to head straight to Muir Woods and spend the day strolling among the huge redwood trees, but Bellamy plugged a different address into the GPS back at the house, which brings them to Fort Baker, on the shore of the bay.
"How did you find this place?" she asks when they've parked and are walking along the water, San Francisco in the distance across the bay, the Golden Gate rising tall to their right. "I've never heard of it."
He shrugs, raising Raven's camera to snap a few more photos of the bridge – the fog hasn't cleared all the way yet, but the sun is still shining down on them, creating fascinating effects on the water and in the fog. "I googled 'best view of Golden Gate' or something like that, this was one of the spots listed, and since we were practically passing it, I figured it wouldn't hurt to make a pit stop."
"Excellent plan," she agrees, tugging him with her along the rocky beach towards the far end of the small bay, where there are wooden stairs leading up onto the hill.
The higher ground gives them an amazing, 180 degree view of the bay, with the bridge to their right, San Francisco across the water and Belvedere Island to their left.
"Is that Alcatraz out there?" Bellamy asks, pointing ahead.
She looks where he's indicating and nods. "Yup, that's it. And Angel Island over there."
They snap some more photos before slowly making their way back to the car. The fog has lifted a little more by now, the sun glinting off the surface of the water and the bridge.
It's only another half hour to Muir Woods, where they park in the main parking lot before setting off along the paved trail. They talked about doing an actual hike, but as far as Clarke remembers from the time she did with Raven, Monty and Harper, it wasn't actually more impressive than the trees they see along the path.
"Whoa," Bellamy mumbles when they've gotten some ways into the woods, tilting his head back and turning in a circle. "I definitely see why they're called giants…"
"Yeah, they're definitely impressive," she agrees, following his example and turning her eyes to the tree-tops.
They follow the trail for a while, making detours along some of the dirt tracks when something catches their eyes, not really in any hurry. They brought water and some protein bars, just so they wouldn't have to worry about food, and eat them on a bench deep in the woods when they get hungry.
The hour-and-a-half route takes them about double that time, with all the detours they take, but it's still only mid-afternoon when they're back at the car.
"Do you mind making a stop on the way back?" Bellamy asks, sliding in behind the wheel.
"Where?" she asks, putting on her seat belt.
He just shoots her a quick smile. "You'll see when we get there."
Clarke rolls her eyes. "What's with all the secrecy?"
"I just like surprising you now and then."
They head back the way they came, but before they reach the Golden Gate, they're instructed to leave the 101 and start weaving their way through the hilly landscape on this side of the bay before following the coast for a while, the bridge an impressive backdrop.
After fifteen minutes or so, Bellamy pulls into a small parking lot overlooking the water and city beyond.
"Where are we?" Clarke asks, but he just turns the engine off and opens the door.
"Come on."
She doesn't really have much choice but to follow him, not that she actually minds. She's just not fond of surprises.
He seems to know where he's going, taking a dirt path that seems to lead in the general direction of the ocean, and she catches up with him quickly, claiming his hand for the walk.
"You're seriously not going to tell me?" she tries again after a moment.
Bellamy just laughs. "You're going to find out in, like, two minutes," he points out, not unreasonably. "You can't wait?"
"I can," she agrees. "I just don't want to."
"What are you going to do, open Google Maps?"
That hadn't actually occurred to her, but it's a good idea, so she pulls her phone out of her pocket.
"No, seriously, come on," he says, snapping the phone out of her hand and stuffing it into his own pocket before tugging on her hand and speeding up a little. "It's literally right up here."
The path twists and turns, then starts sloping, now and then replaced by wooden stairs that don't look particularly sturdy. Clarke figures out fairly quickly that they must be on the way to some sort of beach, but doesn't realize just what type of beach until the final, steep decline that takes them the last few hundred yards down to the sand.
The black sand.
"You found a black sand beach?" she asks, almost a little overwhelmed by the fact that he remembers.
Bellamy shrugs, some color rising on his neck. "We forgot about it back in New Zealand, and then it popped up on one of my Google searches for… I don't even remember, things to do in San Francisco I guess. And we were heading almost this way anyway, so I figured…"
"I'm glad you did. Come on!"
They're not alone on the beach, but it's close, the only other people around are a man with a dog that's at one end of the beach, not much more than a couple of dots on the horizon, and a couple of teenagers who are splashing each other in the shallow water some ways away, their laughter carrying over now and then.
Bellamy's brought the backpack he stuffed in the trunk when they left the house this morning and now puts it down and opens it, producing a blanket.
"I was wondering why you didn't take that with you up in the woods," Clarke says, her voice only a little accusatory.
"I thought we'd probably like a snack right about now," he replies, continuing to dig around the bag and coming up with two Ziploc bags of dried fruit she remembers wondering about when they were at the store the other day, another bag with what looks like assorted nuts, a jar of peanut butter, a packet of crackers and two sodas.
"Quite a spread," she notes when they've sat down, accepting the bottle he hands her and twisting the cap open before taking a drink.
"Nothing but the best for my Princess," he replies with a smile, opening the different bags and finding a knife in the outer pocket of the bag.
It's not, objectively, the best meal she's ever had, but something about the setting, the almost deserted beach around them, the sun reflecting in the water, and Bellamy's obvious excitement that he not only managed to surprise her, but that she loves the surprise, all work together to make it an amazing experience that she just knows she'll cherish for years to come.
They sit watching the water for a while after they've finished the food.
"I know we talked about actually swimming at a black sand beach," Bellamy then says, "and the weather is nice but I doubt the water is, I've heard it's always cold in the bay, and I honestly don't really feel like getting in."
"Oh, yeah, I wouldn't recommend it. Plus, we didn't bring swimwear."
He actually smirks at that. "True. However, this is technically a nudist beach, so…"
As if on cue, they hear footsteps on the stairs about fifteen feet to their left, and then a middle-aged man comes into view. He's wearing clothes, but stops a few feet from the water's edge to pull the shirt over his head and drop the shorts, revealing nothing underneath. To Clarke's enormous relief, he then walks straight into the ocean and dives into the waves.
Bellamy clears his throat next to her. "Like I said…"
She lets out an incredulous laugh. "Time to head out?"
"Good idea, preferably before he gets up…"
So they quickly pack up and start climbing the stairs again, and it's not until they're back in the car that they both break down laughing for a good five minutes.
"I can't believe he just…" Clarke says when she's finally gotten her laughter under control. "Like we weren't even there!"
Bellamy shakes his head as he turns the key in the ignition. "I've never really gotten the nudist thing, but good for him, I guess. I just don't want to see it."
"It being…" she teases, and he presses his lips together.
"Don't make me laugh again, this road is way too narrow and serpentine for that."
They have some food left over from last night, so they just warm that up for dinner once they're back at the house, and then bring coffee to the balcony off the bedroom, watching the sunset wrapped in a blanket to keep from freezing in the cool evening air.
"I like this," Clarke says when the sun has finally disappeared from view. "Watching the sunset."
Bellamy presses a brief kiss to her temple. "Me too. Maybe we can make it a tradition."
Her immediate reaction is that you can't make a tradition in a month, but she tamps down on it and just snuggles closer.
"Sounds good, let's do that."
Chapter warnings: explicit sexual content
AN: I used to figure out if it was even possible to search for people anywhere in the US, if you're curious