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"I will?" Bellamy stifled the joy that was threatening to overwhelm him at the utter certainty in Raven's tone. "Did you find a solution to the fuel problem?"
"Yeah. Well, we think so. And mostly, if Monty and Emori and I think we've fixed something, we have. So yeah, we'll be there in three and half years." He engulfed Raven in a hug.
"That's brilliant, Raven. Great. I should radio Clarke to tell her the good news!" He was reaching for the handset but Raven beat him to it.
"Bellamy. You should have breakfast. Everyone's waiting for you. And then you should do something useful with your day, like keep fit or do some chores. And then, this evening, you can call Clarke and tell her the good news." He tried to arrange his features into an apologetic sort of a shape, but he thought he probably looked too absurdly joyful for it to be effective.
"OK, OK. Let's get some breakfast."
…...
Emori liked to think that, by now, she knew John Murphy pretty damn well, so she wasn't expecting him to surprise her three times in one day. The accidentally genius revelation about the fuel was one thing. The invitation to what she could only think of as, well, a date, was quite another, and she didn't really expect him to top that.
But then he did.
Raven and Bellamy walked into breakfast, and Bellamy didn't look like his world was ending, but really, with Bellamy, you could never be too sure. And she wondered whether perhaps she should say something cheerful, and she thought that probably if anyone was going to ask whether the argument had been resolved it should be Monty, because it seemed like a Monty-ish thing to do. Of course, by now, she and Raven had informed everyone of the situation – not out of a desire to gossip, of course, but because they had all united in feeling a little protective of Bellamy over the last eighteen months, and it was best that they were all on the same page. She caught Harper's eye and cocked her brow, as if to ask who was going to dive into this can of worms first.
And then John pulled the rug out from under everyone's feet.
"How's things, mate? Clarke OK?" The way he said it, with that upbeat lilt to his voice and a typically John air of carelessness was absolutely perfectly judged. It was, she thought, as if he was just asking his newfound sparring buddy an off-hand question about how his morning was going, with no hidden agenda whatsoever. She didn't think even Raven could have done better in the field of studied nonchalance, had she been sitting here all along pretending not to be desperately waiting for him to return with news.
She found herself falling in love all over again. For the third time that morning.
"Yeah, she's good. She's really good." A smile lit his face and the table breathed a collective and not altogether discreet sigh of relief.
"Cool, cool. Hey, do you want to train together again after breakfast? That was pretty fun." She felt her heart swelling with pride, and spontaneously reached out for his hand under the table. At first, she thought, he twitched away from her as if surprised – it had been a while, she mused, since they had last engaged in a spontaneous display of affection – but he then entwined his fingers in hers.
"You found getting your ass kicked fun?" John narrowed his eyes good-humouredly at the false innocence in Bellamy's tone.
"It's on, Blake. It is so on."
…...
He should have known that Murphy wouldn't be afraid to fight dirty, he mused, from his position on the floor, pinned underneath the smaller man. But he had been winning so decisively that he thought he could afford to engage in a little chat. He didn't see how that could be dangerous. Clearly, he had underestimated his opponent, and now he found himself completely at a loss as to what to do – both in terms of extricating himself from this losing position, and rectifying the immensely awkward conversational corner he was currently backed into.
Really, how on Earth was one to go about answering the question have you two had radio sex yet then?
"What's radio sex?" OK, clearly not like that, Blake, he cursed himself.
"You know, radio sex. Like how couples in old Earth literature and movies have phone sex when they're physically far apart."
"I don't know what kind of old Earth literature you've been reading, but that does not sound like the Odyssey."
"Well, duh. They didn't have phones then."
"But, I mean, how – even – what would you - ?"
"I'll take that as a no, then"
"Not that it's any of your damn business anyway."
"Well of course it's none of my business." Murphy smirked. "But that doesn't mean I'm going to pass up a perfectly good opportunity to take the piss."
"You absolute cockroach." At least this thoroughly mortifying conversation had temporarily distracted him from the fact he was, in fact, still pinned to the floor.
"I wonder if Clarke would be more loquacious on the subject?" He fumed at that, because Clarke did not deserve Murphy being... Murphy at her, but also because he was, he found, profoundly uncomfortable at the idea of Clarke discussing with Murphy the possibility of the two of them having radio sex.
"I swear, Murphy, if you go torment her with this topic I will end you. In a non-criminal way, of course."
Murphy laughed at that, entertained by Bellamy using his own former words against him, and he took advantage of the distraction as an opportunity to get on with winning.
…...
"Madi, put that down! It is a spanner, not a toy." Clarke couldn't help feeling, at times like this, that she was not a natural at this whole parenting thing.
"It's a toy if I'm playing with it." Sometimes, she thought, she saw a little too much of Raven in the girl – both in the sass and in the fact she wanted to play with a spanner. The two of them hadn't even met, yet, not really. She hated to think how they would gang up on her when they were all reunited.
"Madi, honey. Give me the spanner. If you give me the spanner, you can come with me to the stream to catch supper."
"I'm seven, Clarke, not three. I know when you're tricking me. You would let me come with you anyway."
"That I would. Come on, yongon. Let's go fishing."
Fish were caught, as they usually were, since Madi had taught her how to fish with some degree of competence, and she admired the restraint the child showed in not pushing her into the river when her back was turned in revenge for the spanner confiscation. The summer evening was warm, so they baked the fish by the fire and charred some corn from their vegetable garden and made a bit of a feast of it out in the fresh air.
"You all done? Full?" She ruffled the girl's hair affectionately with one hand as she took her plate with the other and led her back into their home.
"Can we go talk to your friends now?"
"Just a minute, we have to clean up first, remember?" She threw a worn tea towel in the child's general direction and set about washing the dishes, but was immediately and completely undermined by Bellamy's voice issuing from the radio in the corner of the room.
"This is the Ring, calling Clarkadia, does anyone read me?"
Madi didn't even pretend to wait for permission before abandoning her tea towel and running for the handset.
"Bellamy! It's me! Madi, that is. It's Madi."
"Thanks Madi. I pretty much worked out it was you seeing as it wasn't Clarke." She stifled a laugh and got on with folding the tea towel the child had jettisoned.
"Oh."
"How was your day, Madi?"
"It was so good! Clarke was teaching me about plants that are good for healing so we went on a walk in the woods and she showed me some really cool things. You know there's this red seaweed that can kill germs? It's so cool." Clarke felt something of a warm glow at the knowledge that Madi actually enjoyed her lessons and the time they spent together.
"Yeah, me and that seaweed? We go way back."
"How was your day, Bellamy? What's it like in space? How's Murphy?"
"He's OK, I think, but I did beat him when we were training together this morning so I think he's feeling a bit sorry for himself. I'm sure he'd have liked to speak to you," Clarke privately suspected that was stretching the truth somewhat, "but he's taken Emori out for the evening."
"How do you take someone out in space? Have they gone on a spacewalk like Raven does?"
"Not quite, I'm afraid. I think they've just gone to watch a film together in one of the spare rooms."
"That sounds so romantic." Clarke could hear the sigh in the seven-year-old's voice and realised that this new tidbit of information had only enhanced the legend that was John Murphy in the child's mind. Dishes now washed, she leaned against the sink and watched, entranced, as Madi practically glowed with the excitement of talking to one of her heroes about another.
"Yeah, he's a master of romance, that man. Definitely." Clarke giggled at the sarcasm in Bellamy's voice. "Is Clarke there?"
"Yeah, she's pretending to do chores but I'm pretty sure she's just listening to your voice. I'll go play now, your conversations are normally boring." With that, Madi hopped off her chair and gave Clarke a cheerful wave as she ran towards the bedroom.
"Listening to my voice?" His tone was playful, and sort of made her want to swat him in the ribs, but of course, he wasn't really there.
"Whatever. I have objections."
"Yes?"
"Many objections."
"I look forward to them all. Enormously."
"Objection one: Clarkadia is stupid. I refuse to allow you to call this Clarkadia."
"Overruled. I shall call your home whatever I want. Carry on."
"Objection two: you undermined my attempts at parenting. I was literally in the process of telling her that she had to do chores before she could call you when you called us. Undermining in the extreme."
"I just really wanted to talk to you. You can't hate me for that." Damn, it was difficult to be annoyed – or even mock-annoyed – with him when he was sweet.
"Objection number three is sort of a compound objection. The whole Murphy, master of romance thing. The first part of the objection is that I believe it's cruel to use sarcasm on a child too young to understand it, and therefore the second part of the objection is that it's misleading to let her believe that this man she idolises for some strange reason is actually capable of romance."
"I think I might actually win on this one – he has actually taken Emori out on a date. It's adorable. She looked so smitten."
"Who knew? Maybe he is actually capable of personal growth and maturity and things."
"I wouldn't go that far, Princess. I mean, he did ask me... No, actually. Forget I started that sentence." If she didn't know better, she would have said that he sounded embarrassed. But Bellamy Blake was difficult to embarrass, so that couldn't be right.
"Ask you what?"
"Nothing."
"It didn't sound like nothing."
"It was definitely nothing."
"Well, if you're not going to be honest with me, maybe I'll just go play at bear hunting with Madi."
"That's a game? You let your seven-year-old foster daughter play at bear hunting?"
"I don't think I'm cut out for this parenting thing, Bellamy. Honestly. Not just because of stupid stuff like bear hunting and chores before radio time. I mean, I actually don't have a clue how to do this."
"You're Clarke Griffin. I'm pretty sure you can do anything."
"Thanks for the vote of confidence."
"On a more serious note, I seem to remember being involved in the raising of a child is absolutely terrifying, and you find yourself permanently believing you must be doing something terribly wrong, and fearing that you will screw the child up for life if you do. I'm pretty sure those feelings are all normal, and that actually, as long as you, you know, feed them and love them, they'll probably turn out fine."
"You seemed to do a pretty good job."
"You are too, I promise you. She adores you, and I'm guessing you're not about to let her starve to death, so I'd say you're doing pretty great."
"Thanks, Bellamy."
"Any time. It's what I'm here for."
"I miss you. So much." She cringed the moment the words left her lips, but there was no stopping them now.
"I miss you too." The sincerity in his voice brought bittersweet tears to her eyes. "I actually have really good news on that front, that I wanted to tell you almost as soon as we said goodbye this morning, but Raven got all decisive and told me I had to have breakfast and get on with my life rather than sitting here talking to you all day. Anyway, so she thinks she's solved the fuel problem. Or, rather, some strange team of her and Emori and Monty and Murphy have solved the fuel problem. So we really are going to be able to come back down to you as soon as it's safe radiation-wise."
"That's great news, Bellamy. Oh my goodness, you'd better congratulate them from me. Better yet, bring them to the radio so I can congratulate them. We can have a long-distance party of some kind."
"Maybe you and I can finally get that drink?"
"We do need to do that as soon as we're in the same actual place."
"Definitely. I'll suggest to the others that maybe we can hang out tomorrow? Tonight seems to be date night."
"Yeah." She agreed, leaning back in her chair, relishing the opportunity to have Bellamy to herself for the evening. "That it does."
a/n Thanks for reading!