Bellamy didn't think he would ever stop smiling.
As he ran into the dining room that doubled as a kind of common room, he could tell that Raven had already spread the good news – there was a sort of shy curiosity and tentative joy on the faces of his friends before he even started speaking.
"So there's someone on the radio who wants to speak to you all."
He just couldn't stop grinning.
And he knew that he should let the others go first, that he'd just had Clarke's undivided attention for a solid quarter of an hour, that after eighteen months of patience he should be able to manage to wait his turn for a couple of seconds.
But the minute his friends stood up and made to start moving, he bolted for the door and ran back to the radio.
…...
Monty thought he knew what happiness was.
Happiness was floating around in space, safe, far away from a nuclear apocalypse, rejoicing in the love of a good woman. After some tough times on the ground an algae-based diet was a small price to pay for a peaceful existence with Harper, he thought.
But the knowledge that his friend was alive and the corresponding expression of sheer joy on Bellamy's face showed him that he must have been wrong, because really, how could anything else be considered happiness now that he had known this?
With barely restrained eagerness he took Harper by the hand and followed Bellamy down the corridor. Some moments before they arrived at the Earth Monitoring Station, they could already hear him trying to get Clarke's attention.
"Clarke? Are you there? I've got everyone else. And some clean clothes."
Monty wondered what he'd missed at that, but his thoughts were interrupted by Clarke's response.
"I'm back. And Madi's here. Everyone, meet Madi. She's a fierce nightblood I befriended after an incident with a bear trap."
"Hello, friends of Clarke. I'm so pleased she finally got through to you! I've heard so much about you."
Monty had to wonder about the phrase "finally got through to you". He liked to think he was a reasonably intelligent young man – he wasn't an engineer for nothing, after all – and to him that sentence seemed to imply something he hadn't anticipated. It seemed to him that the obvious interpretation of that statement was that Clarke had, in fact, been trying for some time to contact them. That, perhaps, she had put quite a lot of effort into doing so.
Based on the slightly awestruck expression now gracing his face, Bellamy seemed to be following a similar train of thought.
"Got through to us?" He asked, with a certain amount of wonder in his voice.
"Yeah," the child's innocent voice continued, "after all those messages, it's so exciting that you were finally able to reply!"
"Yeah." Bellamy sounded slightly choked. "Of course. Finally."
"Can I speak to Murphy?"
Monty had not been expecting the girl to ask that. Judging by the raised eyebrows in the room, no one else had either. Today was turning out to be a day for the unexpected.
"He's in all my favourite stories. No offense, of course, Bellamy. You seem great too. But you never declared your love for anyone in a crazy scientist lady's lab, so he's still winning."
"What can I say? You're right. Maybe I should have done. Here, I'll hand you over."
"Thank you."
"Erm, hey kiddo."
"Oh my god. Wow. It's really you."
"It is indeed me."
Murphy seemed to be trying very hard to look nonplussed, but there was something of a glow about his ears that rather gave the game away, Monty felt.
"How's space? I've never been to space. Is it really fun? I bet it's really fun."
"You know, I think you could probably have asked Clarke that."
"How's Emori? Are you still saving her from evil scientists? Are you going to have babies? Are you-"
"That will do, Madi." Clarke's voice interrupted the child's flow of increasingly uncomfortable overexcitement. "You will have plenty of opportunities to torture the poor man in due course. You thought surviving everything the Ark and the ground could throw at you was tough, Murphy? You try surviving a seven year old."
"Rather you than me, Clarke. Err... do you want to speak to other people? There are other people here."
Monty held out his hand for the radio.
"Monty's up next, it seems. Bye Clarke. Bye Madi. Be good and I might tell you the story of the time I saved Emori from a shark."
Monty could hear grudging laughter from Echo in the background, as Emori hissed "A shark? Really, John, at least choose something realistic."
There was something Monty had wanted to say to Clarke since the moment they left Earth, but now that he knew that she was alive and he had the opportunity, the words seemed strangely stuck in his throat.
"Thank you, Clarke. For staying. For saving us all."
"You're entirely welcome, Monty. I'd do it again in a heartbeat."
"She's only saying that because she found me." Madi piped up. "She was miserable before that, you know."
"Ignore her," Clarke said, with undisguised affection in her voice, "She has a very high opinion of herself."
Harper appeared at his elbow, took his hand in hers and pressed the call button.
"Thank you from me as well Clarke. I can't... I can't imagine what it's been like down there, on your own for so long too. I have so much respect and gratitude for you."
"Believe me, it's worth it, knowing that you guys are safe and well and happy. We will meet again, I'm telling you."
"Definitely." Harper agreed.
Echo was stepping forward now, and Monty hesitantly offered up the handset, unsure quite what the somewhat fierce former Azgeda warrior could possibly want to say to Clarke.
"I reckon you're pretty bored of being thanked by now," she began "but I won't forget that I was a traitor and your enemy and you had absolutely no reason to save me, but you did it anyway. You taught me something really important that day, Clarke, and I swear to you that I'll never forget it."
To say Monty was shocked would be an understatement. He'd lived with Echo for a year and a half now, and this was the first time she'd dabbled so extensively in introspection. This really was a day for miracles.
"I can't wait to meet you again when this is over, Echo. I hope we can start again. I think we might have more in common than we first realised."
Echo actually smiled at that. "Yeah," she agreed "I think you're right there."
"I suppose it's my turn now." Emori addressed Echo as she stepped forward.
Monty thought privately that this was becoming strangely reminiscent of the sort-of-funereal-memorial-gathering they'd had for Clarke when they'd first got to the Ring. But this didn't seem to be the right time to remind everyone of that difficult day.
"I'm sorry this hasn't been the most interesting conversation, Clarke. I think we all needed to say all these things we wished we'd been able to say sooner. I need you to know how much it meant to me when you injected yourself with that Nightblood instead of me. It made me feel like I could belong somewhere, one day. That you really saw me as a person."
"I just can't believe we ever considered doing that. I'm sorry." the shame was evident in Clarke's voice. "I've had a lot of time down here, to think about what I've done. All the things I've done. Every awful moment. And that is one of the mistakes that has stayed with me."
"I hope maybe today could be the day we move on from it?"
"I'd like that. Thank you."
Monty took back the radio. "I hope we can all do better, next time around. When we get back to the ground and get the bunker open, I hope we can all live in peace."
"I hope so too, Monty." He could hear the emotion in Clarke's voice. "I hope so too. Is Raven there? I didn't really get chance to talk to her earlier. Someone interrupted." Bellamy chuckled at that.
"You're not fooling anyone, Griffin. I know you'd have left me to die in a ditch if it meant speaking to Bellamy sooner."
"Yes, I missed you too, Raven." They could all hear the laughter in Clarke's voice.
"Can I ask you something, Raven?" Madi piped up.
"Sure you can, Madi."
"What's it like, being an engineer? Can you teach me, one day? I never really had tech, growing up."
"That sounds like a great plan, kid. First day we're back on Earth, I'm teaching you how to wire a plug. Emori's been learning too, we'll be a great team."
"That sounds cool. I think we have to go to bed now because Clarke promised we could go on an adventure to the berry fields tomorrow and that means we have to get up super early and then walk far."
"Fair enough Madi." Monty could already hear the affection in Raven's voice. He could understand how this girl had wormed her way into Clarke's heart so quickly. "Adventures to berry fields sound important. We'll all talk to you and Clarke again soon, OK?"
"Well of course you will." Madi spoke with the unerring confidence of a child. "You love her. You're not just going to disappear on her now."
"You got that right." Bellamy had stepped forward and taken back control of the radio, as he had clearly been itching to do ever since relinquishing it in the first place. "Do you think you can start getting yourself ready for bed, Madi, so I can speak to Clarke for a minute?"
Murphy sniggered openly at that, at least until Emori shot him a glare. Raven and Monty met each other's eyes with knowing grins. It was Harper who took pity on Bellamy and started ushering the others out of the room.
"They've not spoken in eighteen months, you idiots. Let them say goodnight in peace."
…...
Bellamy's need to know exactly what Madi had meant by that "finally" had been eating away at him since the moment she said it. He simply had to ask before Clarke left for the evening.
More than that, however, he knew he wasn't quite ready to let her disappear again yet, even if it was only until the following day this time.
He waited until he thought the others were out of earshot, took a deep breath, and broached the topic.
"Finally got through, huh?"
"Uhuh"
"After how many attempts?"
There was the slightest hesitation, then -
"Five hundred and forty six"
This was, Bellamy thought, more joy and security and peace and hope than any man had the right to feel in the aftermath of a nuclear apocalypse.
a/n Thanks for reading! Now that everyone's finished feeling grateful/guilty I hope things will start to get interesting.