a/n Here I am with a chapter full of fluff and a repetition of my usual message about how I'm not abandoning this story - I'm just taking a while between updates. I've written a few (... several) other stories in the meantime and some of them even involve radios during the S4 time jump if you're short of things to read. Happy reading!

Bellamy was enjoying the party. Really, he was. Company and music and moonshine were all good things, and even better when they were part of a celebration to mark one year since getting through to Clarke on the radio.

But he couldn't help but look forward to the moment when all their friends would go to bed and leave him to have some private time with Clarke.

In the meantime, though, he resolved to do his best to enjoy the festivities. He bounced Charlotte in his arms for a few minutes so that Emori and Murphy could dance. He briefly joined in a conversation Monty and Harper were having with Clarke about fertiliser and how they might get agriculture going again, when they returned to the ground. He even found himself at one point settling a good-humoured dispute between Echo and Raven, who had found themselves disagreeing over the rules of the drinking game they were playing.

And then, at last, his extended family started to head home.

He tried not to look too eager to get to the radio. He'd had a year to practise that, now, so he was almost an expert in the art of pretending that he wasn't jogging towards the sound of Clarke's voice. In his defence, he figured anyone else would behave just the same, in his situation. He certainly couldn't imagine Monty and Harper or Murphy and Emori taking this kind of separation well.

"Bellamy? Are you there?" Madi's voice asked, just as he was taking his seat.

"Yeah. I'm here. Shouldn't you be heading to bed, kid?"

"Clarke says I can stay up a couple of minutes to say goodnight to you." Madi explained, and he could practically hear the pout in her voice.

"I did say that." Clarke agreed cheerfully.

Bellamy found himself smiling. That seemed to happen a lot, recently. "In that case it sounds like you have a couple of minutes to tell me everything about your day, Madi."

Madi set off at a rush. "We had stewed apples for breakfast and then we went out hunting because Clarke wants us to dry more meat for winter and then I had a writing lesson and I wrote about the story of Achilles."

"Achilles, huh?"

"Yeah. Clarke said I could write whatever story I wanted and that's one of my favourite of your stories."

"It's a good story. Used to be one of your Aunt Octavia's favourites, too. So you've had a good day?"

"A really good day. The party was great."

"Glad to hear you enjoyed yourself." He wasn't altogether sure what a young child could possibly get out of radioing a bunch of adults she'd never met who were drinking a little more moonshine than strictly sensible, but he supposed Madi didn't exactly have a lot of other company or entertainment in her life.

"Clarke says it's bedtime now. Night, Bellamy."

"Night, Madi."

There was a few seconds pause, as there always was at this point in their bedtime routine. Then Clarke's voice came over the radio.

"So – did you enjoy the party?" She asked brightly.

"Yeah. Sure. It was great." He swallowed. "I guess I missed you though. Does that sound crazy? You were right there all along but it was different from our usual date night."

"I get that. I kind of agree with you there. But we can make up for it now." She suggested, tone teasing.

"You're insatiable." He told her. It wasn't a complaint.

"I know." She agreed, unabashed. "Come on. Ask me your stupid question for the day and then we can get on with taking this to the bedroom."

"It's your turn for a stupid question. I asked two last time."

"OK." She agreed.

And then there was a pause. A good three seconds, in which she could have asked her stupid question, but didn't.

Bellamy couldn't help but wonder why that might be.

"Clarke? You there?"

"Oh. Yeah. You know how there are no stupid questions between us...?" She reminded him, sounding almost tentative.

"Yeah. That's the truth, Clarke. Whatever you're agonising over, just ask it."

He wasn't sure what he was expecting, after that hesitation. Probably something deep and traumatic about his support for Pike or about leaving Clarke behind to die.

Whatever he was expecting, it wasn't this.

"Is it true you slept with Raven?" Clarke asked, sounding rather flustered, he thought. He wasn't sure whether it was a blessing or a curse that he seemed to have a unique gift for making this usually calm and controlled woman lose her cool.

"Yes." He answered, truthfully but hesitantly. "Why do you ask?"

"She told me the other day. I guess I didn't think she would lie about it but I wanted to hear it from you." She said, in a carefully level tone he couldn't quite read. He would give anything, right now, to be able to see her face – and not just for a clue as to what she might be thinking.

"I'm sorry I didn't tell you sooner. I guess it never came up. But it was a long time ago." He hedged, wondering where this was going. Clarke had always known he had slept with other people, so why was she asking about this now? Was it because it was Raven in particular, her close friend?

"No, it's fine. It's not that at all. Really, I'm not annoyed or whatever. We've both slept with other people and that's how it is." She rushed to assure him. "It's just – it's frustrating. And kind of sad, don't you think? It feels like we've both slept with everyone in the world except each other."

"We'll have the rest of our lives to make up for that when we get back to Earth." He told her with conviction.

"Yeah. I'm looking forward to it."

"And there are other things we can do until then to take the edge off it." He reminded her, with all the subtlety of – well, of a guy very much in love.

She laughed, bright and true. "Now who's insatiable? Go on, take that radio to your bedroom."

Now that was a demand he wasn't going to leave her to make twice.

…...

Raven didn't like to take all the credit for the joy that had come into their lives since learning Clarke was alive. Baby Charlotte wasn't anything to do with her, after all.

But she was Raven Reyes, so she did like to take most of the credit. She was the one who fixed the radio and got through to Clarke, and she wasn't above reminding her friends of that every so often, when it served her purpose. Tonight, for example, she wanted a girls' night, and she was perfectly prepared to tell everyone it was to be a celebration of her getting through to Clarke if she had to.

There was nothing wrong with having two parties for the same event, right?

Anyway, as it turned out, she didn't have to employ such devious tactics at all. Echo was always keen to have company, since she decided to practise the art of having friends. Harper was a sociable sort, Clarke was lonely for obvious reasons, and Emori was more than happy to give Murphy a turn taking care of Charlotte for the evening.

"I love her, of course." She rushed to assure them, as if worrying that she might have sounded somehow unmaternal in her exhaustion. "But I could use a break."

"You're doing great, Emori, and you should definitely take a break." Harper reassured her, with a quick friendly hug.

So it was that, later that evening, they found themselves crowded around the radio and chatting about everything and nothing.

Raven was there to have fun, first and foremost. But she thought there was a little business to get out of the way before they got started on socialising in earnest.

"Clarke. I meant to ask – how's it going with clearing the rubble?"

"Pretty good. You were right – blowing it up a little bit at a time does work. But we haven't been to Polis for a couple of weeks now. Too busy stocking the larder for winter."

"Yeah. That makes sense. There's no rush." Raven assured her. "It looks like it'll be about another eighteen months until it's safe for them to open the door."

"How's the fuel situation going?" Clarke asked.

"We're nearly done." Emori jumped in to answer that question. "The rocket's ready to take the biofuel, we're just waiting on Monty for the last few batches of algae."

"That's great news."

"You'll be the first to know when we're finished."

Clarke laughed. "I should hope so. I can't see who else you're going to tell. Are you radioing other people behind my back?"

That had them all laughing, and had Echo and Harper leaning closer to the radio. Raven wondered if that was Clarke's intention – for a leader and reluctant mass-murderer, Clarke was also damn good with people. Raven wouldn't put it past her to have deliberately made that comment to open the conversation up and move them away from engineering.

Raven decided to rise to that implicit challenge.

"Tell us more about how things are going on the ground, Clarke. Are you ready for winter?"

"Is anyone ever really ready for winter?" She replied with spirit.

"In Azgeda we were always ready for winter." Echo offered. "I think that was the only good thing about Nia's reign."

There was an awkward silence – of course there was. Raven for one had no idea how to follow up a comment of that emotional impact from a woman she had only recently started to consider a friend.

"I'm sorry." Echo rushed to apologise. "I didn't mean – I shouldn't have."

It was Harper who jumped in, then. "Don't you apologise. You're always welcome to talk about your past with us. I guess we just need to practise saying the right thing back to you, it looks like." She frowned. "I'm sorry that Nia was that bad."

"Yeah." Raven found her voice. "Sorry, Echo."

Clarke piped up over the radio. "I only met her once, but that was enough to tell she was a manipulative monster."

Of all things, Echo laughed at that, a cold and slightly hysterical sound. "You got that right, Clarke. Come on, let's leave that behind. Tell us more about your winter preparations."

"We've got plenty of meat. Venison, mostly."

"I'm jealous." Emori spoke up. "Sounds better than algae."

"Anything's better than algae." Raven groaned.

"Being ready for winter isn't just about meat." Echo offered, quiet but firm.

"No, you're right. We've got some carrots and potatoes in the root cellar, and I've dried all the medicinal herbs I could think of. We've got plenty of firewood. I've checked the roof for holes. Pretty much the only thing that's left is to make Madi some new winter clothes. She grows too fast, that kid."

"Just wait until you have a baby. They grow so quickly." Emori said, more than a little wistful, Raven thought.

"You can always have another one if you miss her being all small and pathetic and sicking up." Raven offered. Charlotte was quite a robust infant, these days, and already appeared to be well on the way to becoming a toddler.

Emori laughed. "No, I think we're good with one for now. Maybe when we get back to the ground."

"We've been talking about that, too." Harper volunteered.

Echo sighed a sarcastically loud sigh. "Great. Everyone's having babies when we land."

"Hey. I said nothing." Clarke argued, voice warm with laughter.

"No. I know you didn't say anything." Echo agreed. "But it's all Bellamy will talk about since Murphy and Emori had theirs."

Raven had never known Clarke to be lost for words, but it seemed that it had happened now. She briefly considered the idea that perhaps the radio had cut out, but then she managed to make out what sounded like loud giggles.

"What's that, Clarke?" She asked.

"That's Madi." Clarke said, somewhere between affectionate and exasperated. "She's spent too much time on the radio to you guys and Bellamy. She's learnt how to tease."

"I'm sorry." Raven said, completely unapologetic.

"No you're not." Clarke argued. "You're glad I'm laughing more."

"We're all glad you're laughing more." Harper corrected her.

Yes. Raven could certainly agree with that.

…...

There was a reason Clarke had left making Madi's new winter clothes until last. Tailoring wasn't exactly her greatest talent.

Who was she kidding? She was completely incompetent at it.

That rankled. Clarke wasn't used to being completely incompetent at anything. She'd taken down ALIE and held the human race together in the face of the end of the world, so she damn well thought she ought to be able to handle a needle. And it wasn't as if she was lacking in artistic or creative talents – she'd been drawing since she was old enough to hold a stick of charcoal.

The fact of the matter was, that she hadn't quite got the hang of the structural side of sewing. Whenever she tried to make a garment, the fit was all wrong, too tight across the shoulders, too loose around the waist. There was a reason that she and Madi had spent last winter in shapeless fur capes.

She had a bit of a plan, this year. She was going for capes again – they were warm, and Madi didn't outgrow them so quickly since they didn't really have a fit in the first place. She'd scavenged some leggings from a chest in one of the houses in the village that she thought would probably fit Madi well enough. The only thing left to worry about was shirts, or tops, or vests of some kind. Clarke had a heap of furs, a needle and thread, and a grudgingly positive attitude.

OK, determined might have been more accurate than strictly positive.

At this point, of course, Madi wandered into the living room to start asking questions.

"What are you making, Clarke?" An excellent question.

"I thought you had some reading to do?" Clarke decided that offence was the best form of defence.

"I've done my reading. I want to help."

Clarke had the utmost faith in her daughter's many talents, but she wasn't about to let an eight year old loose with a needle or a pair of sharp sheers. She hesitated for a moment, wondering how to make the girl feel useful.

"Is there anything you particularly want for winter clothes, Madi? I've got you some leggings and a cape. I'm just making you some tops now."

Madi's eyes lit up. "Can I have a tunic?"

"A tunic?" That sounded like a promising idea. Tunics didn't need to be closely fitted, right?

"A tunic." Madi repeated. "I always wanted a tunic. We had an ambassador from Azgeda come to the village once and she had this long fur tunic that came half way to her knees and it looked super cool. And I asked my nomon for one but she said that it took too much fur to make them that long. And that they were more for big girls." Madi recalled, frowning at the memory.

Clarke knew she had to tread carefully, here. She didn't want to be seen to be usurping or criticising Madi's birth mother. But the fact of the matter was that they had plenty of furs and tunics sounded like something she could actually sew.

"I think your nomon was right, Madi. They do take a lot of fur. But we have plenty now, so let's make you a long fur tunic for this winter."

Madi grinned, excited. "Can I help?"

"You can sit and keep me company while I work." Clarke tried a bit of lighthearted honesty. "Sewing isn't my favourite thing, so I'd love to have you here to chat with."

"Octavia and Bellamy are better at sewing." Madi provided, because of course she had heard the stories.

"Yeah, that's true. Can you remember the story I told you about how they learnt to sew?"

"Their mum did sewing for her job." Madi declared with an air of victory.

"Well remembered, Madi. Maybe you can tell Bellamy all about me trying to sew when we call him later."

Madi made an agreeing noise. "Do you think they'll teach me how to sew when it's safe for them to come back?"

Clarke considered the question for a moment. Based on what she'd seen of Earth so far, she very much suspected that there would be other priorities besides sewing. She'd expect an emphasis on hunting and growing food at the very least, and quite possibly another war, knowing their luck.

But maybe it didn't have to be that way. Maybe they could build a lasting peace, and perhaps teaching the next generation some treasured family skills could become a priority alongside the daily struggle to survive.

"I'm sure they'd love to if they get the chance." Clarke said, in the end, balancing optimism with honesty.

Apparently well satisfied with that answer, Madi smiled happily and set to the important task of watching her mother work with rapt fascination.

a/n Thanks for reading!