a/n Thank you to those who reviewed the last chapter! I hope you enjoy this chapter - there's a bit of a development that I know some reviewers have already predicted, so I hope it lives up to expectations. Happy reading!

Clarke used to look forward to her daughter's twelfth birthday, but ever since this damn flame plan she finds herself wishing that the day might never arrive. It has been decided that the day she turns twelve will be the day she becomes the Commander, and Clarke is utterly convinced that this is far too young.

She thinks that, probably, forty-three would be too young, too.

But as it is, the appointed day is speeding towards them, quicker and ever quicker – or so it seems to Clarke. The days rush by in a dizzy blur of sending her daughter out to lessons on how to manage her future role, and caring for her son, and rekindling her relationship with Bellamy. After all, they have a whole three days of awkward celibacy to make up for.

And then there are the more mundane tasks of every day to be accomplished, too. The growing of cauliflowers and the snaring of rabbits, and showing the members of Wonkru who are still working out the art of farming how to keep themselves fed.

She has an election to organise as well. She's not sure why it should be her job, to arrange for the vote which will choose the council to advise Madi, but it certainly didn't seem to be anyone else's job and so she has found herself taking it on. And it wouldn't be so bad, really, to collect the names of the half a dozen very eligible candidates who wish to stand for the half a dozen places, but there are a few logistical problems to be overcome. Apart from anything else, half of Wonkru are illiterate, and the list of people they trust enough to help them read their choices and cast their votes is short indeed.

Who is she kidding? There is no list. There is Jackson, and Madi herself. And that's about it.

"What's wrong?" Bellamy's voice in her ear surprises her in the midst of typing out the virtual ballot paper on her tablet.

"There has to be a better way of doing this." She frets. "It's going to take ages for the whole of Wonkru to queue up and vote at the three working tablets we have. Not to mention loads of them can't read, and when I asked around, the only proxies they were willing to nominate were Jackson and Madi. And it's ridiculous, anyway, because there are only as many candidates as places -"

"Clarke." He rests an arm around her shoulders, presses a kiss to her cheek. "Shall we have a go at thinking this through? Is there another way to do this anonymously?"

"Not that I can think of." And she has thought about it, long and hard.

"Great. And why are we having an election when there are the same number of candidates as seats?"

"To set a precedent for the future. And to make the whole thing more official, put the council in strong position, and give our daughter the best possible support."

"Great. So this is the best solution?"

She sighs deeply, then kisses him briskly on the lips. "Yes. I know. I'm not doing too well at using my head at the moment, am I?"

"You're doing alright." He reassures her gently. "I get it, you're worried about Madi. And it's only normal to be emotional while you're pregnant. Remember with Gus -"

"What did you just say?" It takes a moment for her brain to catch up with his words.

"When you were pregnant with Gus -"

"No. The other thing." She can't have heard him right. It is simply not possible.

"You're pregnant."

"But – I –" She trails off into stunned silence.

He gives an indulgent smile, and pulls her in for a slightly more lingering kiss. "Lost for words, huh?"

"How did you -?"

"You haven't had your period for more than two months." He points out, and she finds herself noticing rather suddenly that it's the truth. In her defence, it's been a rather hectic few weeks, and such things have not really made it to the top of her list of priorities. "I thought at first it might have been the stress of everything, but there are too many other things that add up. You might not have noticed your tits changing, but I certainly have. And you were more anxious just like this when you were expecting Gus, and – yeah – I'm pretty sure."

She swallows down her shock and tries to form a coherent sentence. "I can't believe I didn't notice."

"I always did know you too well." He teases with a grin. "Congratulations?"

"Yeah. Erm, you too, I guess?" She swallows once more, and tries to collect her thoughts. "Are you – is this OK? I know we were thinking we should wait before we tried for another baby."

"This is very much OK with me." He assures her, grin growing ever wider. "I know we've got a lot on our plate at the minute. But I know we can make this work."

"Of course we can." She agrees, confidence bolstered by his transparent joy. "You and me, together? We're unstoppable."

…...

Madi is tired, but she's not about to admit it. If she's going to be the leader of her people she will have to rise above such things. So it is that she pastes a careful smile onto her face as she leaves her lesson with Gaia and sets out on the short journey home.

Everyone waves at her, of course. That seems to be a thing that happens to her, these days. And she is careful to wave back at all these people whose names she has yet to learn, and based on the way they smile and look kindly at her that must be the right thing to do. She can't help but feel, though, that it might get a little lonely being the Commander. So many strangers want to greet her, but it feels like an age since she last had frivolous fun with a kid her own age.

She will have to put that right, she resolves, as she approaches the house she shares with her parents and brother. She will have to insist on joining the novitiates for training more often.

Everything appears normal, at first glance, when she opens the door. Bellamy shouts out a warm greeting, but doesn't turn his head from the book in his lap which he is reading to Gus. Clarke's voice floats from the direction of the kitchen, welcoming her home and asking her to leave her boots at the door if they're muddy. She kicks them off, too tired to give the task much care, and wanders over to her preferred chair.

She is about to collapse onto it when she freezes instead.

Her father looks absolutely radiant. There is simply no other word for it, for the beaming smile that tugs at his cheeks, the air of barely restrained excitement that animates his face as he reads to her little brother.

What on Earth has happened? Something good, obviously, but what it might be is a mystery to her.

Then Clarke walks back into the living room, and the mystery grows only deeper as she greets Bellamy with a really rather lengthy kiss and cuddles into his side, grinning from ear to ear.

Madi still stands, frozen, hovering like an idiot near that chair.

"Do you mind?" She interrupts, tone teasing, when she's getting a bit fed up of watching her parents' antics. It is at least better by quite some way than the cold awkwardness of their recent falling out, she supposes.

"We have news." Clarke announces. Yes. Madi hopes there is some pretty damn good news, to justify all this joy.

"It's the best news." Bellamy adds, as if she might not have worked that out already.

"Yes?" She asks, trying not to sound too impatient.

There is a heartbeat of silence, in which her besotted parents hold eye contact as if having a wordless conversation, and Madi holds her breath and waits to find out what the hell is going on.

And then Gus shatters the quietness once and for all.

"Baby!" He declares, pointing excitedly at his mother. "Baby in Mummy's tummy!"

"That's right, baby boy." Clarke coos gently. "Mummy's having another baby."

Because of course she is. Madi is kicking herself internally, wondering how she could have missed such an obvious conclusion. In her defence, she's had quite a lot on, recently. Tiredness suddenly forgotten, she strides to the sofa and throws her arms around as much of her family as she can reach. She sort of ends up with one arm around Clarke's waist, and another around Bellamy's neck, and Gus gurgling cheerfully somewhere near her stomach, but it's good enough for her. It does the job.

"Congratulations!" She tells the whole lot of them, and she thinks that really she's telling herself as well. "A new addition to the greatest family on Earth."

Bellamy sniggers a little at that, a rather youthful sound that somehow matches perfectly the joyful mood of the evening. "The greatest family on Earth?"

"Shut up, Dad. It was a compliment."

Clarke snorts, and squeezes Madi ever tighter. "I hope the other two are more polite than you."

"No you don't." She fires back, grinning widely. "You love me just the way I am."

Bellamy chuckles. "It's true. Now get up and stop squishing your brother."

She does as he asks, but she doesn't much see the point. Gus isn't squished at all, and is having a perfectly fine time muttering the word baby to himself over and over and over again.

…...

Miller is happy for Bellamy, obviously. His old friend is about to be a dad for the third time, and it's impossible not to be happy about that. And he's relieved for Octavia, of course, who was so fed up of leading and so ready to take a break. And he's definitely proud of Jackson, for being the one member of Wonkru that everyone from that damn bunker can agree is still fair and just and good.

But he's not very proud of himself, if he's being honest. There's not much to be proud of, between the way he propped up a madwoman's tyranny for five years, and the fact that he now finds himself rather unemployed as she gracefully retires.

He shakes his head, and refocuses on frowning at the ground. He's not sure why he's still quite so devoted to standing guard outside Octavia's house. There hasn't been so much as a whisper of discontent since the former Bloodreina announced her intention to step down. But he supposes that old habits are hard to break, and besides which, he has absolutely nothing else to do with his days.

He will have nothing else to do with his life, once Madi takes over.

He sees Bellamy approaching and forces a smile onto his face. He is happy for his old friend, he is sure of it.

"Hey, man." He greets him with all the good cheer he can muster. "Here to see your sister?"

"I'm here to see you." Bellamy tells him.

"You are?" Do people go out of their way to see him, these days?

"Yeah. There's something I need to ask you about. Have you got a minute?"

"That depends. Can you ask me while I stand here?"

Bellamy chuckles a little at that, but Miller cannot see much grounds for laughter. "You're loyal, I'll give you that."

Well of course he is. There's not much else he's any good at.

He frowns slightly, and Bellamy seems to take that as his cue to continue. "I wanted to ask you if you'd help me run Madi's security team when she ascends. I'll be busy with council business some of the time and – well – you're you."

"What's that supposed to mean?" He is beyond confused by this conversation. Bellamy cannot be serious, surely?

"You're Nathan Miller. You've been my right hand man for as long as I can remember, and you've managed to protect my sister for the last five years. I can't think of anyone else I'd trust more to look out for my daughter now." Bellamy shrugs as if this is the most obvious conclusion in the world.

"You mean that?"

"Of course."

"But – I -" He grinds to a halt, takes a deep breath and tries again. "You remember that first morning, after we opened the bunker?"

"Yes?" It is Bellamy's turn to sound confused, now.

"You wanted to see your sister, to call her out on killing all those people, I guess and I – I tried to stand in your way. I took her side, and supported her when she did unspeakable things, Bellamy. Why would you want me to protect your child now?"

"Because you hate yourself for doing all those things in the bunker. Because that's not really who you are. And because you deserve a chance to put it right. And I know that you're still the guy I worked with when we first landed on this planet, and no mistake you could make is ever going to convince me otherwise."

Miller rubs a hasty hand across his eyes, just in case there are any tears gathering there. Just on the off chance. And then he takes a deep breath, and squares his shoulders, and reaches out to shake his old friend's hand.

"Thanks, Bellamy. I won't let you down."

…...

John isn't quite sure how to go about processing the thoughts that come with the news of Clarke's pregnancy. He's surprised enough to find that he is unashamedly happy for them, and feels no temptation at all to take the piss out of the lovestruck expression gracing Bellamy's face. But the next development is even more of a surprise.

He finds himself wondering what it might be like, to be in that situation himself, one day.

OK, if he's being honest, he doesn't only wonder what it might be like. He finds himself thinking with increasing seriousness that he might quite like to find out, sooner or later. That maybe a little girl with Emori's sweet smile and inner strength might be rather a lovely addition to their lives. That it might be quite special, to look out for a little boy the same way his dad watched over him.

And so it is that he finds himself, now, trying to decide quite what to do with all these new feelings. He knows he ought to tell Emori what he's thinking, but he's not quite sure how to go about doing that without making her suspect he's lost his mind. Or without making her decide that he's no longer the fearless survivor she fell in love with.

Of course, the obvious antidote to all this is to have a deep and meaningful conversation about their future family while they're both up to their armpits in boar's blood. So it is that, while they are skinning the day's catch together, he steels himself and makes a start.

"Good news about Bellamy and Clarke, huh?"

"What's going on, John?" She's frowning at him in a considering sort of a way. "You've said that three times a day at least since they told us."

"Yeah, yeah. I just – I'm happy for them, you know?" He swallows carefully and tugs manfully at a bit of boar skin.

"Me too." She does that sweet smile, and his stomach flips over.

"You know, Jackson was telling me that there's a lot of people looking to have kids at the moment besides them." He says with studied nonchalance, slashing determinedly at the ankles of his next victim. "Elayna's expecting too, did you know? And they've had loads of requests for contraceptive implant removals since we settled here."

Emori gives up on the skinning at that, dropping her knife with a clatter and sitting back on her heels. "What are you saying?"

He abandons the pretence, then. It's clearly not going to work for him, not if she keeps looking at him like that. He sets aside his own knife, and risks a little honesty.

"Do you ever wonder about having children one day?"

"Do you?" She counters, gaze narrowed with what looks like suspicion.

"That depends on whether you do." He tells her truthfully. "It's all I can think about, recently, but since you're looking at me like that I guess you don't like the idea. And that's OK, really, because I wouldn't want kids with anyone who wasn't you so I guess if you don't want to then -"

She cuts him off with a kiss, firm and heated, and with her bloodstained hands in his hair and her legs sprawled awkwardly across his lap.

"Yes." She tells him fervently, when she pulls away for air. "Of course I'd have kids with you, John. I know you'll make a great dad, even if you don't always seem to believe it yourself. But next time you want to ask me something important, can we maybe skip the hour of boar skinning?"

He laughs in relief at that, and kisses her again for good measure. "Whatever the hell you want, Emori."

a/n Thanks for reading!