By the time that Clarke had pulled herself away from Bellamy the mess hall was mostly empty, with only the tail-end of the group reading their work assignments before also filtering out of the room. She saw that her mom had set up a workspace on one of the dining tables, she was surrounded by a significant pile of files and a small black notebook and pen. Abby Griffin hadn't noticed the two teenagers sitting in the corner so almost jumped up from her seat when Clarke slammed her hands down on the table.
"What the hell mom! Was this you?" Clarke yelled, staring at her mother who was subtly avoiding eye contact.
"Clarke, we can talk about this later but now you need to get to medical, immediately" Abby said, completely dodging the question.
"No, we're gonna talk about this now" Clarke sat down across from her mother, Bellamy went to follow suit but was stopped by Doctor Griffin.
"Fine, we can talk but Mr Blake must go to his job post, you are ahead in medical but Bellamy you haven't been a guard in a while, you'll need to know the new way that things are done. Report to Major Byrne immediately, Clarke can catch you up later"
Bellamy was reluctant to leave, not wanting to walk away whilst Clarke was so upset but Clarke gave him a soft nod which reassured him and he left the room without saying a word.
Abby waited for Bellamy to fully exit before turning to Clarke,
"The chancellor and I have been looking for ways to begin to boost the population for a few weeks but it's hard to make such a drastic change quickly, I mean since we got here we've been recommending that people not have children until we are sure we were safe, but now we are safe the Chancellor is convinced that a casual change in wording won't convince people to start having children." She took Clarke's hands in hers "I tried to convince him to wait or to only ask people who were already married or in relationships to join the project voluntarily but the Genesists make up the majority of the fertile population and any attempt at this project without them involved would have failed completely."
"But they're kids mom, we're kids, we're not ready to be parents, I'm not ready" Clarke said, squeezing her mother's hands trying to make her understand.
"Which is why we moved up the job deployment, we need more trained doctors in medical for when people start to give birth, and we need nurses to help the new parents, the mothers in particular, with things like feeding and generally looking after a newborn. This is not the way I wanted to do things either and was not a decision that was made lightly, but I promise I have done everything I can to make this as safe and comfortable as possible and the meeting tomorrow will make things more clear and with your new position on the council you can help me do that." Abby stood up and moved around the table before sitting down next to Clarke and pulling her into a hug. "You're my baby, you're not ready to be a mom but I promise we will make sure everyone is okay." Abby stopped for a moment struggling to say the next sentence, "Now find someone you trust to couple with, don't leave it to the chance of the compatibility testing, who knows who you'll be paired up with and I'm not ready to be a grandmother but I don't think I'll ever be ready to be the grandmother of Murphy's child." She chuckled but Clarke could see tears filling her mother's eyes as she pulled away. "Now get to medical, Dr Jackson will need you today, you're the closest thing he has to another doctor.
Clarke reluctantly backed away and left her mother to her work, as she left the room she saw Octavia and Lincoln whispering to each other and stood very close, it took Octavia a minute to spot her.
"Clarke!" She exclaimed, pushing Lincoln back, "the chancellor told me that you're mother wanted to talk to Lincoln and I" She rushed to explain herself.
"She's all yours" Clarke didn't stop to chat and continued down the corridor towards medical. On her way she looked out into the yard and saw all of the new guard cadets lined up in a military manner as Major Byrne was delivering a speech that Clarke couldn't make out, amongst them was Murphy, Nathan, Finn and then furthest away from her was Bellamy, she only stopped for a moment before continuing on her journey. As she walked she thought about what her mother had said "find someone you trust". 3 months ago that would've been Finn, they had a history and it would've been easy but her feelings for him had gone completely and now Finn didn't look twice at her when they passed each other in the hallway. There was always Bellamy, she trusted him with her life and since they had lived in Arkadia, they had gone from just allies to best friends. She would protect him and he would protect her, she knew that without question but she was sure there would be loads of girls asking Bellamy to pair up with them, she surely didnt stand a chance.
Clarke walked into medical and saw around 10 new recruits all sat around listening to an introduction speech,
"So you will all be monitored this week with a final aptitude test to see where you will continue your training. There are 2 pathways: Doctor or Nurse and then within both of those there are additional specialties, now that we have a larger team of staff we can look at building specific areas of knowledge although we aim for you all to have a wider knowledge at least on the surface level of every medical area. Is that clear?" They all nodded enthusiastically, working in medical was highly coveted and due to the rough working hours and difficulty of the work it gained you a large amount of respect. "This morning we're going to a skill's lab to see how you handle basic first aid and beginner stitches. You'll be doing this with our only trained nurse and this afternoon, the most promising of you may be able to see a real patient. So if you'd like to all follow Nurse Sutton you can begin. Clarke, a word?"
Clarke walked over to Eric whilst the rest of the group walked in the opposite direction.
"Clarke, you are not only months ahead of these guys but years so your mom and I decided that you're ready to officially becoming a doctor, there's a written test in 3 months and we'll give you day off a week with your mom as studying time but it's stuff you'll learn with practice anyway, it's not like there's a medical board to appease." Clarke beamed but was also overwhelmed with worry, she knew the certification tests on the Ark had been hard and that was with all of the medical equipment they had up there, she didn't feel ready. "You can do this Clarke".
Clarke resisted the urge to hug him and instead calmly said,
"Thank you, doctor" before picking up a chart and heading to her first patient.
Lunch came quickly as Clarke completed all of her charts that she was behind on whilst laughing at the new interns' attempts at sutures.
She reached the mess hall amongst the first few people and sat on her own at a table where she could watch the door waiting for Bellamy to appear, hoping he hadn't been put on his first patrol over lunch. She waited 10 minutes, not touching her food before he appeared, covered in sweat and mud. He spotted her and walked straight over, not bothering to line up for food.
"Been having fun ?" She asked through her laughter as she wiped some of the sweat off of his forehead with her sleeve.
"We need to talk" He said seriously, stopping her laughter immediately and she felt her heart pick up its pace. He looked around the room, looking for somewhere quieter that they could talk but couldn't find anywhere and settled with the fact that the intense noise-filled room would mask their conversation enough. "I think we should pair up if that's alright with you that is. People are terrified and I think it would help if we showed a united front". She didn't know what to say, this was what she had wanted to ask him but felt completely shocked that he had thought the same as her.
"I agree" She said matter of factly, before beginning to eat. She should've been happy but she couldn't help but think that he hadn't chosen her because she was Clarke but because of who she was, the co-leader of the Genesists.
"Great, we'll talk to your mom after lunch is over" He said coldly before going to get food, as he was gone her table filled up with Monty, Raven, Jaspar and the others so that by the time he returned they didn't have to talk to each other and the noise from the others talking filled what would've been an awkward silence between the 2 of them. As lunch continued Clarke spotted a few pairs going to talk to her mom obviously to ask to be paired up but no one at the table wanted to talk about it, no one wanted to admit it was actually happening until Jaspar ruined the facade,
"Who's going with who then?" The group fell silent and all stopped eating at the same time, no one wanted to speak first.
"Me and Clarke are, hopefully, we'll give people some hope, show them it'll be okay, we don't know how long this is gonna last it might be the new normal for our kids and their kids and who knows, we thought the best way to do that was together" Bellamy said smiling slightly at Clarke at the end before turning away from her abruptly.
"Finn and I" Raven said, shocking Clarke "We talked about it and it just made sense, we're not getting back together but we're already family no need to complicate it further than that" Finn wasn't with them, he and Murphy were on their first patrol of the fence, Clarke longed to have Finn back in her life but she couldn't be in his the way that he had wanted months ago.
"Leaving it to chance, the only people I trust are you guys, and it's not like Jaspar and I can have a baby" Monty spoke casually with no worry behind his voice.
"We could always try" Jaspar said, leaning in for a fake snog. The group erupted in laughter as Monty quickly shoved him back, moving on to a new topic as if the previous conversation hadn't happened.
Clarke couldn't imagine not knowing who was going to have to be the parent of your children but maybe not knowing made it less real. She looked at Bellamy who was laughing slightly at something that Raven had said, when it hit her that he was the father of her child, not yet but one day. Would they co-parent? Their child living between 2 dorms spending half the week with her and the other with Bellamy and his new wife or would they live together but in an awkward state of the ultimate friend zone?, would having a child ruin their relationship or enhance it?, would they wake up together in bed savouring the morning light before getting up and feeding their child that looked like a clone of Clarke with Bellamy's dark hair, as Bellamy went to work would she send him off with a kiss on the cheek? But the worst part was she didn't know which version of events she wanted let alone what Bellamy wanted. When she broke from her daydream lunch was over and a queue had formed to speak to her mother, obviously a lot of people had the same idea. Bellamy stood up behind her waiting as the rest of the group went back to their respective work areas, he offered her a hand which she took and they walked to the back of the queue in silence. The queue was only 5 couples long but seem to be moving at a snail's pace, Clarke stared straight ahead but could see Bellamy looking at her every few seconds,
"What?" She exclaimed finally, frustrated with him.
"Are you pissed that I asked you to pair with me? Did you have someone else in mind?" He asked in one quick burst of passion.
"No, I was actually going to ask you as well, that's why I was waiting for you at lunch" She replied quickly, not wanting to draw attention from the people around them.
"Then what? Because I asked and you've been angry with me since" He said, getting more and more irate.
"Maybe it's the fact that I was going to ask you because you are my best friend and the person I trust the most in the whole world, not because you're Councillor Blake leader of the Genesists, I understand it's good for people to see us doing this together but you could've been a bit more human about asking." She exploded but managed to keep her voice down as she spoke bitterly through her teeth.
"Clarke, I - "
He was cut off as the people in front of them moved and left them at the front of the queue and at Abby's desk.
"Clarke, Bellamy, how can I help?" Abby said with a sigh, she had obviously had a difficult day dealing with the Genesists.
"We'd like to be paired together" Clarke said shortly, cutting Bellamy off before he could even begin to speak.
"Oh of course" She said selecting 2 files from her pile, which opened to reveal pictures of Bellamy and Clarke, she wrote down the opposites' name in each file "I know this is hard but you're making the right decision, and I think people seeing you together will really help the -" Abby explained whilst still writing.
"Mom, is that it? That's all we need to do?" Clarke snapped, not wanting to hear it from anyone else. Bellamy wanted to talk to her about it but knew better than to bring it up in front of her mother.
"Well, yes. But I can answer any questions you have -" Clarke once again cut her mother off by swiftly exiting the room. Bellamy mouthed 'sorry' at Dr Griffin before chasing Clarke, she had reached the other end of the corridor and Bellamy had to run to catch her. He reached her just as she was turning the corner, grabbing her wrist and pulling her back to him, she spun quickly and slammed into his chest.
"I wanted you because you are Clarke, the bravest person I know, the only person that stands up to me and tells me when I'm being a dick and you are the only person that I can trust to raise children right because god knows if it was left to me they'd all probably been running around with guns by 4 so I need you to tell me when I'm being stupid. And no matter how we choose to do this I will be so proud to say those are our kids, not just mine."
She was shocked, it hadn't been the declaration of love that most girls would have wanted but it did it's job and squashed her worries. She wrapped her arms around her waist and pressed her head to his chest.
"Thank you" She smiled up at him "But I thought they only said we need to have one kid?" She said joking.
"Yeah but our kid will be so epic, they'll beg us for at least another one."
She decided to walk him back to the yard before heading back to medical, their hands brushing past each other as they spoke about Bellamy's new role as a guard. Once they reached the door they spoke for a moment longer and then just as Bellamy was about to leave, the doors opened and revealed an exhausted-looking Finn who was coming in from his patrol.
"Blake" He said politely, nodding his head as a greeting before barging between the two of them, Clarke watched him as he walked down the corridor, never acknowledging Clarke's existence.