AN: Sorry for the late update again, another busy week… But it's Sunday evening and I don't have anything I have to do, for a change, so new chapter!

I don't own anything relating to The 100

Chapter title from "Leaving California" by Maroon 5

52

Even If the Sun Crashes into Us

Thursday, they finally get to actually see San Francisco, which was what Clarke was most looking forward to. They get an early start, getting an Uber as soon as they've had breakfast.

"I thought we were going downtown?" Bellamy says, looking around in confusion after they're dropped off at the corner of Maritime Garden. "Didn't we pass this place on our way back from Pier 39 the other day?"

"We did," she confirms, pulling him along in the right direction. "You can't visit San Francisco and not ride on a cable car, and my personal favorite is the green line, which runs from here to a couple of blocks from Union Square, so here we are."

"Cool!"

As always, there's a lot of people at the stop, but they get their tickets and manage to get on the first cable car that arrives.

"So why is this one your favorite?" he asks when they've started moving.

She shrugs. "It just feels like it sort of… embodies San Francisco, I guess. It starts down by the waterfront, there are a lot of hills, and we pass Lombard Street. I know we've already done that, but it's still nice."

And it is. The weather's nice today too, even if the fog is still heavy over the bay and the chilly morning temperature hasn't started rising quite yet. Clarke plays tour guide, talking about the different buildings and sights they pass along the way, earning a bit of a following when a group of British tourists on the rows ahead of them start listening and asking questions as well. By the time they reach the end of the line, most of the people call a thanks to her before getting off the cable car.

Bellamy's chuckling slightly when they're finally on the street themselves. "You're right, that was fun," he says with a smirk.

She elbows him in the side. "Shut up. Like you haven't done the same thing, and that was when we had actual tour guides too."

"Touché."

They stroll around Union Square for a while, admiring the iconic square and checking out some of the buildings around it. Bellamy's especially interested in the skyscraper at 450 Sutter, which Clarke kind of remembers going up, back in the late twenties, so they take a slight detour past it on their way to the Dragon's Gate.

Chinatown takes longer than the downtown area – they grab lunch at a little place that Clarke used to go to, where the man behind the counter actually remembers her (she sends her gratitude to some higher power that it's only been a year since she left the city and it's not strange that she hasn't aged in that time), and then just wander up and down the streets lined by colorful signs, popping into stores when they feel like it. Bellamy has never tried deep fried ice cream, so they have that as a late dessert when they find a place that looks good, and then continue browsing.

It's mid-afternoon when they finally reach the other edge of Chinatown, and Clarke pauses on the corner of Grant and Broadway. "Did you want to check out Coit Tower?" she asks, turning to Bellamy with a questioning look.

He glances at his clock. "We have time, so might as well. Unless there's something else you'd rather do?"

"Nope," she says, looping her arm through his and pulling him along towards Kearney Street. "So, that's where we're going," she tells him when they reach the corner.

Bellamy's eyebrows shoot up. "I knew San Francisco was hilly, but that's just ridiculous."

She can't help but laugh. "I know. And it's not even the steepest street in the city."

"It's not? Which one is, and can we check that one out too? Though maybe do that one downhill…"

"Yeah, that sounds like a good plan. I know there are a couple of different ones that sort of compete for the title, I'll google it when we're done here."

It's hard to say that the view from Pioneer Park is actually worth the climb, since they could have taken a cab or bus there, but to Clarke, it's part of the San Francisco experience to climb at least one really steep street.

She's still glad that there's an elevator in the actual tower, though, so they at least don't have to climb the stairs. They check out the murals before heading up to take in the view at the top – which is amazing, of course, especially since the fog has finally lifted and they get a clear panoramic view of the city and bay, all the way to the Richmond–San Rafael Bridge in the distance.

She's leaning against the sill of one of the open windows, Bellamy behind her, resting his chin against her shoulder, when she feels him let out a long sigh.

"You OK?" she asks, turning her head to press a kiss to his cheek.

He turns as well, capturing her lips with his instead for a brief kiss before pulling away just slightly, leaning his forehead against hers. "Fine, I just… I kind of don't want to leave."

"I know what you mean," she agrees. "I always feel that way when I'm at the end of a posting here… though to be fair, it's the same in New York. They're both home, you know."

"Yeah."

He moves back further, turning his attention back to the view, but not before Clarke's eyes catch on his Number, and her breath catches in her throat.

She can't believe she actually forgot that today is the 27th. But it's right there, in the blunt '30' on Bellamy's forehead.

He hears her sharp intake of breath, of course, turning back to her with a slight frown. "What's wrong?"

They're not alone, even if the tower isn't as busy as it could have been, so she can't just tell him. Instead, she reaches out to brush a few curls out of his eyes, thumb pausing just briefly over the numbers.

"I forgot that it's the 27th today," she says quietly, trying to swallow down the lump in her throat without success.

His face is blank for a split second, and then realization dawns, and he pulls her into a tight embrace. "I'm sorry," he murmurs in her ear, and Clarke lets out a watery laugh.

"What are you sorry for? None of this is your fault."

He hums, arms tightening around her. "I can still be sorry you have to see the… reminder all the time."

"I've honestly gotten pretty good at glancing over it," she admits.

"Good."

They're both quiet for a moment, just holding onto each other, before Clarke speaks again. "I should… I need to go in the app so I can…"

"No," he interrupts her, pulling away with a final squeeze. "It won't be assigned for a few weeks, right? So you don't have to do it now."

She wants to say that it's not like it'll get any easier, but she doesn't, taking the out he offers. "OK, I'll wait a while."

"Good." Bellamy reaches out, tucking a few strands of hair behind her ear, and she leans into the touch. "You OK? Ready to head out?"

It's not like she'll feel better if they just take a cab back to the house and she hides under the covers for the rest of the day, so she forces a smile onto her face and nods.

They make their way back down and out, the sun still beaming down on them from a clear blue sky. "I feel like I brought the whole day down up there," Clarke admits when they're out in the open again. "So… Vegas day after tomorrow!" She puts more excitement into the words than she's really feeling at the moment, but it seems to work.

"Oh yeah, I'm definitely looking forward to that," he says, a smile tugging the corners of his mouth up. "And, you know, everything else during our road trip." He claims her hand, squeezing her fingers. "Bad moment over?"

She squeezes back. "Moment over."

They pause at the bottom of the stairs to the park and she pulls her phone from her pocket. "OK, so like I thought, there are a couple of different streets, or parts of streets, claiming to be the steepest in the city," she says when she's pulled up a website with info. "One part of Filbert Street, which is this one, has a gradient of 31.5%, and there's also a part of 22nd Street with the same incline. Then there are really steep pedestrian parts of Broderick Street and Baker Street and finally a small part of Bradford Street that's supposed to have a gradient of 40%. You want to check all of them out?"

She looks up just in time to see Bellamy shrug. "A couple are enough. The Filbert Street one is pretty close, right? We can just do that one."

She opens up Google Maps to check where exactly that is. "Yeah, that's a twenty minute walk from here, according to Maps, and it's on the way back to the house, about halfway. Broderick and Baker are just ten minutes or so from the house, but in the opposite direction, so maybe we can check those out later this evening. 22nd Street is down in Mission, and Bradford in Bernal Heights, so we'd have to take a cab or drive there."

"Nah, that's fine, let's just do Filbert on the way home, and then we can check out those two that were nearby later, like you said, if we feel like it."

"OK," Clarke agrees, closing down the app before putting her phone away and claiming his hand again. "Come on then, Filbert Street is really hilly, I don't know if I trust the time estimate…"

It ends up being more or less right, though, and they're back at the house forty-five minutes later.

"I don't know about you, but I need a shower after that work-out," Bellamy announces as soon as the door closes behind them.

"That does sound good," she agrees. "Want some company?"

By the time they finally get out of the shower, it's after seven, and they call in a pizza order before taking a walk to the two steep streets a few blocks away, getting back in plenty of time before the delivery guy.

-100-

"Right, so we have a couple of options today," Clarke says when they've packed up the car the next morning.

"Options?" Bellamy asks from the passenger seat.

"Just route wise," she explains. "The sat nav wants me to either take the I-5, which would take about four, four and a half hours depending on traffic, or the CA-99, which is a little longer but still just around five hours. But since Bakersfield isn't really a goal, more like a pit-stop, I think we should take the scenic route."

He's watching her with an expression that's a sort of mix between bemused and fond when she finishes. "And what's the scenic route?"

"Highway 1, along the coast. I'd probably skip the first stretch and get on down in Monterey, that way we'll be passing the viewpoint with seals, which is pretty cool. I checked this morning and there haven't been any landslides lately, so the road should be open. And Hearst Castle's on the way, if you want to check it out?"

He considers the question for a moment and then shrugs. "Not a must for me, we can see what time it is when we get closer."

"OK. Anyway, that route would take around seven hours total, but we're getting an early start, so even if we take three or four hours longer than that, we'll still get there by no later than seven."

"And there's nothing we want to do in Bakersfield? Or do we have time for that tomorrow?"

It's Clarke's turn to shrug. "Nothing that interesting. They have a pretty good art museum, but I was there not too long ago. Unless you found something you want to do? Don't even pretend you didn't look into it. The drive tomorrow's only four and a half hours, not counting stops, so depending on when we want to be in Las Vegas, we have some time."

He seems to consider this for a moment before pulling his phone out of his pocket. "Nothing before or in Bakersfield, no, so we can do the scenic route."

"Great." She starts up the car and waits until they've left the city behind and are on the 101 heading south before she picks the topic up again. "So you said nothing before or in Bakersfield, I assume that means you have something after?"

Bellamy's put his phone away again, but he seems to have memorized at least part of whatever list he has on there. "The world's largest thermometer is supposedly in Baker, which is on the way between Bakersfield and Las Vegas, as far as I could tell."

She honestly can't help the laugh that escapes her. "You seriously looked up world's largest tourist attractions?"

"So?" He sounds more amused than annoyed, so she doesn't worry she's offended him. "They're part of the Great American Road Trip Experience, Princess."

She bites her lip on another laugh. "Obviously. What other largest things do you have on there?"

"Right, so, we're passing a town called Kingman on the way between the Hoover Dam and Grand Canyon," he starts. "There's a motel called El Trovatore, with the world's longest map of Route 66. Seems fitting, since we'll be driving along it for a while. They also have what looks like a pretty cool neon sign, so bonus. Between Grand Canyon and Roswell, there's the Barringer Crater – not a world's largest thing, but it's only, like, three miles from Route 66 and it sounded cool – and in Holbrook, there's the world's largest petrified tree. Or tree stump, it looks like. But that seems to be visible from the road, so we won't have to go off track for that."

It's obvious that he's trying to hide his excitement, so Clarke reaches over to squeeze his thigh without taking her eyes off the road. "I actually had the crater on my list. And I think the longest drives we have planned are around eight hours, we have time for some detours and stops along the way."

That seems to be all the encouragement he needs and he continues listing the things he has on his list with more enthusiasm, from the world's largest fire hydrant in Beaumont, Texas, to the world's largest clothes pin in Philadelphia.

They stay on the 101 until they get to Salinas, where they take the 68 to Monterey and finally get on Highway 1. She starts glancing at Bellamy every few minutes long before they actually reach the coast, wanting to catch his reaction to the first full on view of the ocean. She's always loved this stretch of the road, the little glimpses of water, almost like it's teasing you, through Carmel Meadows, and then the vast expanse of it when the trees give way to Monastery Beach.

"Amazing," he mumbles, eyes fixed on the sand and sea beyond. The sun is already high in the sky, despite it only being a little after ten in the morning, but the beach is basically deserted, the only occupants a couple walking along the water's edge and some seagulls flocking on some driftwood.

"It's beautiful, isn't it?" Clarke agrees, turning her attention fully to the road.

"Absolutely gorgeous." When the road cuts inland again, he turns from the window with a frown. "I thought we'd be driving along the coast?"

"We are, more or less," she replies. "But we won't actually get close to the water for a while, it's pretty hilly for the first few hours. But the views… they're absolutely breathtaking. You'll see soon, trust me."

She catches his sharp intake of breath at the spot where she knows he must get the first proper look at the ocean and cliffs tumbling into it, and she pulls over in a small parking spot to let him get a closer look.

"I get why you wanted to take this route," he says after they've admired the view for a long, silent moment. "This is… I don't even know how to describe it."

"I know what you mean."

They stay for a few minutes longer before getting back in the car and continuing on their way. Now and then, she catches Bellamy's eyes widening or a quiet 'wow' escaping him, and she's infinitely glad that she insisted on driving so he wouldn't have to focus on the road.

He should get to experience this.

Since Clarke knows there's not a lot of options for getting something to eat along Highway 1, they packed a cooler with sandwiches and drinks before leaving San Francisco, and they don't stop – apart from a few more brief breaks at viewing points – until they get to the elephant seal vista point a little before noon.

There isn't really anywhere good to sit, so they eat their lunch in the car before getting out to check the place out.

The beach below the parking area is full of seals sunning themselves, big fins flopping now and then. They follow the wooden path to the end, where they're even closer to the large animals, and lean against the railing.

"So is this more what you were imagining?" Clarke asks after a while. "The road running right along the ocean."

Bellamy nods slowly next to her, eyes fixed somewhere on the horizon. "Yeah, this is pretty much what I had in mind. It sort of looks like one big wave can wash the whole road away."

"I don't know about waves, but parts of it do get washed away now and then," she replies. "Mud slides and stuff."

"Right." There's some scuffle below and they look down to see two of the large seals squaring off in some sort of turf war. "They're really huge, huh? I didn't think seals were…" He's interrupted when one of the animals opens its mouth and roars, and they turn to each other, just staring for a moment, before they both crack up and start laughing.

"Should we take that as our cue to leave?" Clarke asks when she's finally pulled herself together again, wiping away a lone tear that escaped during her laughing fit.

"Might be best, yeah."

So they make their way back towards the parking lot and continue on their way, leaving the coast behind soon after and cutting through the rolling hills on the 46.

"So why Bakersfield?" Bellamy asks some time later. "I know it's just a pit stop, but any reason in particular you picked that city and not somewhere else?"

She shrugs, checking the mirrors before changing lanes to pass an RV. "I wanted to get, like, two thirds of the drive out of the way today, since we have a few stops tomorrow. Bakersfield was just in the right place, honestly."

He nods. "So what are our stops tomorrow?"

"Calico," she starts. "An old silver mining town that's been abandoned since the turn of the last century or so. I was actually there, once, just before it was deserted completely. It's a county park or something now, but I've heard it's still pretty cool. And then we're passing just ten minutes from… my home town, I guess. Arcadia, where I spent my first six years as a Keeper. I usually at least make a brief stop there whenever I'm in the area, even if there isn't much left." She pauses, glances at him and smiles when she finds him already watching her. "And I wanted to show you where I'm from, sort of. The house me and Raven and Finn lived in is long gone, of course, but it's still a little like going home, I guess. And then I thought we'd take a look at Seven Magic Mountains, I haven't had a chance to go there since they went up."

"OK, sounds good," he says, turning his attention back to the view out the windscreen. "And we have, what, four hours left or something?"

"Four, four and a half maybe, depending on traffic," she confirms.

"Great, so even if we don't rush, we should still be in Vegas by… four or five in the afternoon, with the stops?"

Clarke wants to say that she knows him pretty well by now, and there's something in his voice – something she can't quite pinpoint – that makes her sure he's not just asking out of general curiosity. It's the same kind of feeling she had in Clovelly, which turned out to be right. "Why?" she asks, wishing that she wasn't driving so she could watch his face for a reaction.

"Just trying to get an idea of what the day will look like," he replies, voice light, and maybe she's just imagining things.

"Oh. Well, we should be there by late afternoon, unless traffic is absolutely horrible."

"Great."

Since they're just passing through Bakersfield, Clarke booked a hotel on their route, on the eastern edge of the city. They reach it just as the sun is approaching the horizon, and don't bother to do much more than check in and drop their bags off before finding the on-site restaurant for some food. After, they while away a couple of hours watching TV and then having sex, but they're both more or less asleep by eleven, and decide to just give in.

It won't hurt to get an early start in the morning, after all.

-100-

They're back on the road even earlier than Clarke was hoping, merging onto the 58 a little after eight thirty. Bellamy's behind the wheel this time, after arguing that he doesn't want her to be completely exhausted when they finally reach Las Vegas. After a brief discussion, they compromised, and he agreed to switch when they get to Seven Magic Mountains, so he doesn't have to focus on the road when they actually get to Sin City.

They soon leave Bakersfield behind, the urban landscape giving way first to rolling hills and then the vast emptiness of the Mojave, chollas and the occasional Joshua tree lining their way.

"You know, this isn't really how I pictured California," Bellamy notes.

"It's the Mojave desert," she points out, voice amused. "And we're pretty close to the Nevada border, is that better?"

He chuckles next to her. "Much better. Are we getting closer to Calico?"

"Obviously, we've been getting closer to it all day," she replies innocently, ignoring the look he throws her way. They pass a sign for Barstow City Limits then. "We're getting off the highway a little after Barstow, so maybe five minutes? Exit towards Ghost Town Road."

"That's easy to remember," he says with a snort.

They reach the exit a few minutes later, and then they're on one of those roads that pop up in every single road trip movie ever – running straight ahead, seemingly infinitely, without a single twist or turn. Clarke can tell from the sat nav that it will turn in a mile or so, but right now it feels like it's leading them straight into the wilderness.

"Is that it?" Bellamy asks a few minutes later, pulling her attention to the road ahead, and she squints at the hills where large letters spell out the city name.

"That's it," she confirms.

The parking lot is already almost full – it is only a little after ten in the morning, but it's also a Saturday in late June – but they manage to find a spot.

"OK, so I haven't actually been here since it opened as an official tourist attraction," Clarke says when they start on the paved road that runs through the actual town. "I've read both good and bad reviews, so maybe just… don't expect an actual replica of what an old silver mining town would have looked like back in the nineteenth century?"

He glances at her with an amused smile. "Are you worried I'll be disappointed it doesn't live up to my expectations? I did look into it myself, you know. I know it's not going to be like stepping back in time or anything."

"See, you say that, but I'm still expecting a lot of 'this wouldn't have looked like that' and 'they never would have done this'."

He pinches her side a little. "I thought you liked it when I went off on historical rants?"

She does, of course, but she's not going to tell him that, so she just rolls her eyes and pulls him along into the first building they get to, which is a leatherworks store.

Of course, try as he might, Bellamy can't actually stay completely quiet about the historical inaccuracies, but on the whole, he seems to enjoy the experience. He poses with the skeleton in the fake prison cell with a wry smile, is genuinely fascinated by all the odds and ends in the old general store, and is actually the one to suggest they try gold panning, which is kind of fun.

They take a brief tour of the old mine and stop at the cemetery before heading off again.

"Fun?" Clarke asks when she's plugged their next destination into the sat nav and leaned back in her seat.

He rolls his eyes. "Yes, I had fun. I don't need everything to be completely historically accurate, you know?"

"And yet you complain…"

He ignores her, turning the radio up, but she can see the smile still playing on his lips.

It's another hour to Arcadia, or what's left of it. Unlike some cities and towns in the area, it hasn't completely died out, but it's probably just a matter of time. About half the houses look abandoned, some boarded up and others with smashed windows. The house Clarke lived in is long gone, of course, and the house that's standing in its place looks a little worse for wear, but it has lace curtains in the windows, one of which is open to let in a non-existent breeze.

Bellamy pulls onto the side of the road and kills the engine.

"So this is basically your childhood home, huh?"

She rolls her window down and sucks in a lungful of warm, dry air. "It's not the actual house, but as close as I can get, yeah."

"I'm guessing the town was a little more… lively back then?"

"It was, though not by that much," she replies with a laugh. "There were some mines in the area, and a couple of farms, but we were covering a pretty large area. They like starting you off in smaller places, easing you into it, I guess. Or they used to, it's been a while since I was in charge of a new Keeper so I don't actually know how it works these days."

He hums, taking the keys out of the ignition. "Well, come on, show me around."

So they stroll around a little, Clarke showing him where the general store, the post office and the stop for the stagecoach used to be. When they get back to the car, there's an old woman leaning against the fence next to it, watching them with open curiosity.

"Hi there," Bellamy greets her when they're close enough.

"Hello," she replies, voice like paper. "It's not often we get strangers in this part of the world."

Clarke offers her a smile. "My family is from here originally. Or at least part of it – my great great great grandmother was born here back in the nineteenth century."

The old woman's eyes light up at that. "Here in Arcadia? My family has lived here for generations, what was her last name?"

For a moment, Clarke panics, wondering if this woman could possibly know who she was. Then she remembers that even if she's in her nineties, she wasn't born until at least fifty years after Clarke left Arcadia.

"Griffin, but I doubt you'll have heard much about them. She moved away when she got married and her parents left a few years later."

The woman's face clouds over again. "I can't say I recognize that name, no…"

"That doesn't surprise me, but she did live in the house that used to be right here. The Collins' farm? I think it was torn down and replaced at some point in the twenties or thirties."

"Oh, yes, I remember the Collins' farm, though I don't think any Collinses lived there when I knew it… we used to filch apples and pears from the trees in the back until they were cut down when the house was demolished, so… thirty-eight, maybe? I know it was just before the war, anyway. But where are my manners – would you like to come in for something cold to drink? It is awfully hot today."

Maybe they should say no. It's not like it's Clarke's actual old home, it's just a house standing in the same spot. But still… she glances at Bellamy, who just shrugs to indicate it's her decision, and turns back to the woman with a smile. "That would be wonderful, thank you."

The old woman opens the gate and waves them through, and they follow her into the house. She introduces herself as Gladys Trenton, a name Clarke doesn't remember from her time in the town, but maybe her husband's family moved in later.

When she, Raven and Finn lived here, they only had the one main room and two small bedrooms, plus the outhouse in the back – the new house is larger, a big sitting room opening up right inside the door, with a hallway leading off to the right to bedrooms, presumably, and a kitchen through an archway across from the entrance.

Gladys tells them to look around while she takes care of the refreshments, so they're free to explore on their own.

"I think our whole house would fit in just this room," Clarke says quietly, glancing around the sitting room. She doubts Gladys can hear her from the other side of the house, but still.

"It must be strange being here, with this new house in its place," Bellamy notes, squeezing her hand which he hasn't let go of since they entered the house.

"Yeah, but it's good, you know?" she replies with a shrug. "I know our place wasn't made for the twenty-first century, probably not even the twentieth… Finn built it the year before I joined them, and we had a couple of cows and some chicken, a bunch of fruit trees… I think he'd like knowing it's still someone's home, in a way."

They check out the hallway and three bedrooms just so Gladys won't wonder why they're just staying in the sitting room, returning just as she emerges from the kitchen with a tray, and spend another half-hour listening to her stories about the town.

They do stay longer than Clarke had planned, but they're still back on the road by a little before one in the afternoon. They stop for lunch in Baker before getting back on the I-15, and reach Seven Magic Mountains around two thirty.

The installation is just as impressive as she thought it would be, and they stroll around the huge pieces for a while, Bellamy using Raven's camera to play with angles and perspective before they get the mandatory selfie and Clarke posts it to her Facebook.

They manage to find rush hour when they get closer to the city, but Clarke's actually glad, since it means they're barely moving and she doesn't have to feel bad for watching Bellamy take in the place for the first time. Still, when they've been stuck just before the exit to Tropicana for ten minutes, and have had plenty of time to admire Mandalay Bay, Luxor and Excalibur up close, as well as the skyline ahead, she decides to get off the highway – which is looking more like a parking lot, seriously – and makes it to the hotel in ten minutes on back roads.

She's never actually stayed in Caesar's Palace before, but the sat nav brings them to the main entrance where she hands the keys over to a valet.

"Whoa…" Bellamy breathes when they've entered the hotel.

"Yeah," she agrees, trying to find a word for it. "It's…"

"A little much," he finishes for her and she lets out a relieved laugh.

"Right?"

The floor is marble, of course, and there's a huge fountain in front of them, with columns here and there, frescoes on all the walls and the ceiling. It's tastefully done, of course, but yeah – a little much.

"Come on," he says. "Let's get checked in."

Bellamy's face when the receptionist tells them they're in the Augustus tower is definitely worth the effort of keeping that secret until now, and the room is amazing, of course. He's immediately drawn to the window, where the Bellagio fountain is glittering far below.

"What time is the fountain show?" he asks after a moment, glancing at her over his shoulder.

Clarke did actually take a screen shot of the fountain schedule, so she flops down in an armchair and pulls her phone out. "Today, it's every thirty minutes from noon to seven and then every fifteen minutes until midnight," she reads. "Tomorrow, it's every thirty minutes between eleven and seven and then every fifteen minutes until midnight, and the rest of the week it's every thirty minutes from three to eight and then every fifteen minutes until midnight again."

"So we'll have plenty of opportunities to catch it," he concludes, crossing the room back to where she's sitting and claiming a seat on the sofa. "I don't know about you, but I wouldn't mind enjoying the AC for a while. It's bound to get a little cooler after sunset, right? Or do you want to check out the Strip right away?"

"AC is good," she agrees. "We can just relax for a bit and then check out the rest of the hotel, maybe grab something to eat, and then the Strip?"

"Good plan."

So they lounge around for a while, both on their phones. They catch the fountain show at five, and then decide to start getting ready, and by six, they're back down in the grand lobby.

"So what is there to do in the actual hotel?" Bellamy asks. "I mean, apart from the casino, of course."

Clarke can't help the smile on her face. "Oh, you are in for a treat…"

They check out the casino, trying out the slot machines and craps table, but don't stay long, instead wandering into The Forum Shops, where Bellamy's jaw drops.

"This is… it's like being outside."

"I know, it's… it kind of messes with your head, honestly, if you're here long enough."

They stroll around for an hour or so, exploring the streets and buildings and fountains, before grabbing dinner at The Cheesecake Factory.

"So you want to risk going outside now?" Bellamy asks when they're done. "The sun should have set by now, I think."

"Yeah, sounds good."

The sun has set when they finally make their way outside – seriously, the hotel is like a maze or something – and they catch the fountain show again at eight fifteen before crossing the street at the Miracle Mile Shops.

"We'll have to check that out some day," Clarke says with a nod to the mall. "It's laid out the same way the hotel is, making it feel like you're outside. And the Venetian, of course, they actually have a canal inside the hotel, and a replica of St. Mark's Square, we'll have to compare it to the real deal."

"Like you said, we have all week," he replies with a smile. "Come on, I want to check out the Eiffel Tower."

All the lights along the Strip have come on by now, giving the place an even more surreal look than in daylight, and the new light show on the replica of the Parisian tower starts up as they approach it.

Which almost – just almost – distracts Clarke from noticing a person in the crowd that really shouldn't be here.

"Raven?"

The woman in question smirks at her from a few feet away. "Surprise!"

That's the understatement of the century, and it's only magnified when she takes in the rest of the group – Zeke, of course, she could have figured out, but there's also Miller and Jackson and Octavia and Lincoln.

"What are you guys doing here?" she asks, confused. "Bellamy, what's…"

She doesn't finish the question, because when she turns to ask him what's happening, he's down on one knee in front of her, an open velvet box in one hand and a nervous expression on his face.

AN: Mwa ha ha, cliffhanger, I know… No, there's no town called Arcadia on the California-Nevada border, at least not where I put it. There is an Arcadia in Los Angeles, but that didn't get its name until the early 20th century, so I figured if I couldn't use an existing town correctly, I might as well make up my own!