The door to medical slid open and Clarke knew she was in for a busy afternoon. Dr Jackson didn't say anything to her and instead handed her a chart and pushed her towards one of the boys laid on a bed who was screaming in agony. Reading the notes she discovered that 3 of the new building recruits had fallen from some unstable scaffolding, 2 of them had minor sprains, along with some cuts and bruises but Clarke's patient had broken his lower right arm and was holding it tight to his chest whilst writhing in pain. Clarke quickly drew the curtain around him and got to work.

Thankfully the break didn't need surgery but they didn't have the equipment to set the break in a cast like they would on the Ark. Clarke worked all afternoon to find something that would keep the arm from getting any more damaged, by the time she finished, she had worked hours longer than her actual shift and had missed dinner completely but she didn't feel hungry as her exhaustion dominated all of the emotions. She dragged herself through the corridors of Arkadia at a slow pace just focusing on remaining conscious. She eventually passed the mess hall which took on the role of a common room in the evenings, she peered in and saw several groups spread around the space including her mother who was packing up her things and huddled around a table playing some card game was Raven, Finn, Monty and Jasper, normally she would be tempted to join them but was instead looking forwards to the company of her bed.

When she finally reached her dorm, she spotted that the light was on inside and the door that was locked by a code was ajar slightly. She took a deep breath and prepared to defend herself as she silently pushed the door open and stepped inside. She was met with the sight of Bellamy laid on her bed, reading a book.

"Bell, what are you doing ?" She exhaled deeply as the fear that had filled her body quickly left it, "I fought I was going to have to kick your ass"

He looked up from the book and seemed to enjoy her frustration as he chuckled slightly before gesturing to the small kitchenette table in Clarke's box room.

"I came to see you when you didn't come to dinner but I saw how busy you were so I called in some favours and I thought I'd bring you dinner for when you finished your shift."

She saw that the table had a bowl of a dark looking stew on it and a cup of hot chocolate placed next to it. She couldn't help but smile, hot chocolate was a luxury product and had been heavily rationed since arriving back on Earth.

"It should still be warm" Bellamy said, sitting up and placing the book down open on the page he was reading. "I've been thinking about the whole 'thing' and I think it would be a good idea for me to move in here, I mean this dorm was made for two" He gestured with his head to the empty bed that was pushed up against the opposite wall. "And I feel bad, both of us taking up a room each when we could easily just share, if that's alright with you of course?"

She nodded as she sat down on the bed next to him with the stew in her hands. "What's in the bag?" Clarke questioned as she began to eat, gesturing to the duffel bag that was sat on the empty bed.

"I kinda already packed and told Kane I was moving in here." Bellamy said with a nervous twang in his voice "I was talking to Murphy and he said he didn't know how things were gonna work when both him and his roommate would have… you know a …."

"A baby" Clarke finished for him, understanding the disbelief.

"Yeah so I thought the sooner I emptied the unit, the better."

"Well, I had better move some of my stuff then" Clarke said, she was a bit dumbstruck by the situation, she hadn't expected him to essentially ask to move in. Though she knew that what he was saying made perfect sense she had the feeling that Bellamy moving in would make everything a bit too real. "Yeah makes sense, I admit I sometimes feel bad when I end up working the night in medical knowing there's an empty room here, I might not feel as bad if you're in here" Clarke said in between mouthfuls of food, giving up any attachments she had to the hope that things might stay the same.

Clarke finished her meal in silence as Bellamy began to unpack the few items he had and empty them into an empty drawer that he had found. Clarke climbed into bed pulling The Great Gatsby from her table, she had wanted to read it for the longest time whilst on the Ark but it had a queue for reservation that spanned at least a year but now she was on the ground there was less competition to fight over the classics. She was curious as to see what Bellamy had been reading and leaned over to see that he was a third of the way through Nineteen Eighty-Four, she had never taken him for a reader but she could see why this one about a rebel against a corrupt government would appeal to him. Just as she picked up the book to see where he was up to a voice came from the other side of the room,

"DON'T...lose my page" Bellamy spoke with something that resembled real fear in his voice as he moved slowly towards her as if she were a wild animal. "It's good so far and I don't want to have to find where I am"

Clarke laughed and put in back with over overexaggerated movements to mock the book's fragility.

"I'm on patrol tonight, midnight until breakfast, so enjoy your last night without my snoring. He laughed as he sat on the bed next to her, making sure that he was on top of the blanket as not to make the situation too intimate. He stretched with a half yawn and let his arm lay across the headrest of the bed, behind Clarke's head. Clarke was visibly shocked.

"What?" He asked cluelessly as he picked up the book.

"What?" She replied, trying to play it off.

He laughed, not fully understanding her reaction and the two read in silence for a while. Clarke was shocked at how comfortable she was around him. He was her best friend and the two had spent almost every spare minute they had together but never like this, never in her bed, never in silence but it wasn't awkward it was nice.

She yawned as she reached the end of her chapter and felt her eyes begin to drop and soon her head followed suit, until she had unknowingly placed it on Bellamy's shoulder. She felt Bellamy take the book out of her hand and place it on the table before moving her so she was lying down and turning the lights off. He said nothing as he sat back down, continuing to read through the dim moon light and she began to sleep next to him.

"Bell, are you gonna sleep?" She asked slowly, through bursts of consciousness.

"I'm waiting for you to sleep, if I fall asleep here I won't get up for my shift" He chuckled softly.

"I just wanted to say thank you. I don't give you enough credit, you didn't have to take this seriously and even though it's different now because we're not in charge you'll always be my partner, even if it is a bit more literal now."

"Clarke Griffin there's no one else I would want to be forced into parenthood with than you" He replied, which made her laugh, "I'm not going anywhere, I'm in this for as long as you'll let me be here in whatever role you want me in"

Clarke looked up and saw that Bellamy was already looking down at her, she felt content and safe with Bellamy, no matter what happened with the grounders or Arkadia, she was safe as long as she had Bell.

Clarke woke up and was met with the smooth fabric of her pillow, her heart jumped slightly as her dazed state of mind forgot that Bellamy had left during the night. She picked up her watch and saw that she had time to spare before having to go to the mess hall for her mother's meeting. She sat up slowly engulfed by the smell of Bellamy that surrounded her from her bed. She looked over at the table by her bed and saw that he had almost finished his book, he must have read whilst she was asleep. Reluctantly she pulled herself out of bed and got dressed before moving to exit the room, as she opened the door she was met by Bellamy who was dressed in his guard uniform and forced a smile onto his face to hide his exhaustion.

"Let me take off some of this uniform and we'll go together" He said softly before moving into the room and removing his shoulder and chest pads that acted as armour.

"Have you got training as well today?" Clarke was concerned about his well-being not just from a medical standpoint but as someone who truly cared.

"Nah, don't worry" He replied nonchalantly, "Byrne's set up a router, people who work the night patrols don't have to come to training until after lunch and we swap patrols every day so I shouldn't have to work two in a row" He explained to her, as he walked passed and out of the door as if he was waiting for her.

"It's so weird having more workers in every area, medical is packed, I don't know if they can all handle it" She said as they began to walk side-by-side.

"I worry about some of the new guards, I know most of them can handle it but this is more important than holding a gun at the old camp used to be. We protect everyone in Arkadia now"

She understood his worries, he wasn't technically in charge anymore but Bellamy would always feel that he had to protect everyone, even more so now that he was officially a guard again.

They reached the mess hall earlier than Clarke had yesterday and only about half of the group was there, Bellamy instantly spotted Jasper and Monty who were sitting together at a table close to the front and they went to join them. Jasper and Monty had been amongst the first to volunteer to share a room when it was announced that Arkadia didn't have enough dorms and Clarke wasn't surprised they were here so early, they must have been nervous to see who they were being paired with.

"Hey guys, we heard about you two moving in together" Jasper said in his usually upbeat tone of voice, Clarke could sense the beginning of an interrogation.

"Yeah thanks for the room Bellamy" Monty added, "I'm moving in after the meeting is finished"

"No problem" Bellamy smiled whilst sitting down next to Clarke.

"So what else do you think they're going to spring on us?" Jasper asked but neither had time to reply as Raven sat down with a loud thump next to Clarke, followed by Finn who sat as far away from her as possible, both looked pissed off and no one wanted to say anything to upset either of them anymore so the group sat in silence until Abby appeared in front of them and the rest of the room which was now full of people.

"Right I want to get started right away so you can all go about your day. First I would like to thank you all for being so understanding and cooperative, this is hard for us all but we understand that this will be actually happening to you whilst the older generation will do everything in our power to help you through this" Abby began but Clarke thought that the way she was speaking made it seem like the children that would be born of the project were like an illness that would one day go away.

"So here I have the list of couples, I would like to thank everyone who came to see me to pair up and I promise to those of you who didn't we have made it as fair as possible. We have paired up 22 couples, excluding those under the age of 18 and those who have been excluded because of sexuality. The list will be posted on the wall by the exit and we ask that you line up in an orderly fashion to read it." Abby passed it to Chancellor Kane who walked through the room and stood by the door ready to put it up on Abby's command. "Now there are some specific things we need to talk about. We will call them guidelines but you know as well as I that these are the rules you have to follow during this project:

The couples will have a year to become comfortable with each other and it is expected that by the end of the year a pregnancy has been established, if it has not we will assume there is a medical reason and we will conduct tests to help those couples.

Each female will have a monthly medical checkup that will include a pregnancy test whether the couple has claimed to have intercourse or not.

It is not compulsory that the couple must live together but it is an option if you choose to and any empty units will be reassigned.

Each couple is expected to produce one child after the child is born they do not have to be a couple and can take new partners if they so wish but to minimise the chance of inbreeding in such a small pool of people, you can only have children with your partner that has been assigned by the project.

To clarify, as of today the council is repealing the law that bans siblings and are instead encouraging you to have multiple children if possible but as previously said only one child is required by law."

Abby looked solemn as she read out the new rules and looked down at her papers reading it word for word with no emotion behind anything she was saying.

"If anyone has any problems, this project is under my command and I will be available to answer any questions but as of today I will be back in medical so I ask that you come to find me during my free time or write to me and leave your letters at my door. We are establishing a new nursing team that will help look after the children once they are born and we are training nurses to help during the births, you have my promise that this will be safe. Chancellor Kane, you can now post the list and you are all dismissed." Everyone stood up, with some rushing to get to the front of the queue, whilst others who had clearly requested partners seemed to join the back of the queue out of curiosity. "Clarke, Bellamy, can I have a word please?"

They looked at each other before walking over to Abby.

"I need you two to be my eyes and ears, and tell me what's happening, the things they won't tell me, you can tell me the initial thoughts at the first council meeting tomorrow, straight after breakfast." She smiled before rushing out of the room, possibly not wanting to see the aftermath of her decisions and instead escape to the safety of medical.

Clarke waited at the back of the line waiting for everybody else to read it before she had a chance to study it. Jasper had been amongst the first to read it and seemed happy with what he saw, he was quickly followed by Monty who seemed to be in a state of shock. Raven and Finn had stormed off without even reading it and Bellamy was sat at the table talking to Murphy about last night's patrol, Murphy had read the list and seemed indifferent to what he had read. Eventually, Clarke reached the front of the queue as everybody else but Bellamy and Murphy left the room, she read down the list making mental notes of people who might struggle to adjust before she reached the bottom of the list and didn't understand what she had read.

"Bree Dollinger - Kyel Deek

Cassana Fox - Wils Jones

Clarke Griffin - Bellamy Blake

Hanna Mair - Jonathan Murphy

Harper McIntyre - Monty Green

Zoe Monroe - Delroy Gorin

Raven Reyes - Finn Collins

Collette Sissons - Jasper Jordan

.

.

.

Octavia Blake - Lincoln*"

"Bell…?"

"Yeah" he said, snapping out of his conversation with Murphy.

"What was the minimum age that my mom said for the project?"

"Eighteen" He replied again quickly, becoming more and more confused.

"Then why is Octavia on this list?"

"WHAT?!".