"The thing is that it could never again feel natural to talk to her"
― John Green

Clarke didn't let go. She didn't want to break this wonderful moment, finally Hera was in her arms again. This time there was no one who could take her away. Would she call her mum? Did she need a mother in her life? It all began to dawn on Clarke that the motherhood she had longed for all these years was to be put into play. What if she wasn't any good?

She could see the other two that had escaped with her, probably as clueless as Hera as to what was going on. "These are your friends?" Clarke pointed to the awkward teenagers standing at the back of the crowd. 403 smiled and took her hand to meet them. As the crowd parted, Octavia took a large gasp-

"Oh my God," she let out. Clarke saw Finn on the floor as she saw her old friend Miller repeatedly kicking him. She had forgotten she had brought Finn into camp for those few minutes, she had to explain to everyone why she was with him. They still knew and saw him as the man who betrayed the rest of camp, something that had taken years for Clarke to get over, and she still wasn't completely. But Finn had been the only person she could talk to all these years, and she understood that he did what he had to do to stay alive. Jaha had blackmailed him into telling him, he wanted to humiliate Bellamy for leaving Skaikru, for breaking the system.

"No!" Clarke screamed out, running over to the scene.

"Wait! Clarke don't, you'll get hurt!" Cried Octavia pulling her back, only to realise Bellamy was standing in the dark next to Miller kicking Finn, his back resting against the wall. He looked as if he had given up, his head slumped to look at the floor. "Bellamy!" Octavia and Clarke ran to him, Clarke didn't even think about the time they had spent apart, the conversations they needed to have.

"Bellamy!" Clarke clasped her hands around his face, but he seemed out of it. "Bellamy!" she said louder to his face.

"You're just a dream, Clarke, stop torturing me like this," he whispered, Octavia stood next to him.

"Bellamy snap out of it!" she said. But Clarke knew that he wouldn't be able to grasp what was happening in front of him. He couldn't believe she was real, nor she could believe he was. She stayed silent as Octavia tried to reason him into sobriety and Clarke attempted to realise, he was still living and breathing. She too had spent the last 17 years imagining he was just around the corner, that he was standing by her side with her fights with Jaha, telling her how to fight back, being there for her.

"Bellamy," Clarke whispered, still holding his face in her hands. He finally cocked his head to meet her eyes, his icy eyes looked at her, for the first time in 17 years, he looked at her. He realised she was there. She was back, she was alive, she was still real.

He took her forearms and placed them close to his chest, he couldn't contain his tears for a moment as their silence spoke volumes. "I thought you were dead," he whispered back, Octavia still shouting at him to come back to reality, but Clarke realised he had, he was just taking in the moment, making sure this wasn't still a dream.

"Clarke!" screamed Finn and suddenly Clarke realised that Finn was still being beaten on the floor. She jumped to move to him, having to let herself go of Bellamy's grasp, although it was tight.

"Miller, Miller! Stop!" cried Clarke, kneeling down in front of Finn to take his next blow. "Agh!" She screamed in agony as Miller's strong blow from his leg hit her abdomen. She didn't know how Finn had already taken so many, because that one was enough for her to fall to the floor.

"Miller!" shouted Bellamy

"Oh my God, I'm sorry, dude she got in the way!" Miller spat apologetically; Clarke knew this was not how they wanted to reconcile after all these years. Bellamy knelt next to her,

"Clarke, what the fuck are you doing!" he picked her up letting her stand next to him, resting her hand on his shoulder, her other to support her wound. Finn attempted to get Clarke's hand, but Bellamy then had the chance to kick him too. "Get the fuck away from her!" he shouted, "You will never again have the chance to ruin her life Spacewalker, Don't even look at her!"

"No, Bellamy." She sputtered, he looked at her confused, she understood- he didn't know what Finn had been through with her over the years, "He's here with me."

"What!" Octavia had joined the circle against the wall, her burning stare at Finn was much the same as Bellamy's.

"What?" Bellamy was so close to Clarke's face; she could hear the feel of betrayal in his voice.

"I can explain."

"I knew something was up!" Octavia added, Clarke then gave her a death stare for not helping the situation.

"How can you explain that?" Bellamy raged. Finn attempted to move, Miller only pulled him down harder, "you know what, tie him up Miller,"

"Bellamy, no, he's in pain!" She cried

"You can be too if you think about trying to save him!" Bellamy added. Clarke was shocked, who was this man now? He was not the Bellamy she remembered. The two were dragged, Finn a little more viciously to what she remembered as the main square and tied up on chairs with their backs together.

"This doesn't remind you of anything Bellamy?" Clarke tried to reason, "Is this not the very position you were put in all those years ago, the workings of a monster! Is that what you've become?"

Bellamy paced in front of her, many of the original 100 had been called to help Bellamy, as if this was a trial. Most others had been spared, although Clarke could see from the corners of her eye campmates peering out of their houses or tents to see what was happening. She felt the fiery heat from left over from the dying fire and rub of the rope on her abdomen of where Miller had kicked her.

"Need's must in these 17 years Clarke!"

"Oh yeah? Well if you listen to me, you'll understand that I have also done what I can to stay alive Bellamy!"

"What possible explanation can you have for allowing this traitor to talk to you? To even bring him back into our camp?"

"He has helped me! I've been through unimaginable torture Bellamy-"

"Of which he put you in!" he interrupted in an angry fluster, he continued to pace- Clarke could see Octavia again trying to reason with him. If she could just tell him about Hera, he may understand, Octavia could see that. This is not how Clarke had imagined telling Bellamy about their daughter, if anything she had imagined that their daughter would have been raised in the big house with them. However, needs must.

"He was blackmailed Bellamy! Jaha blackmailed him to tell him our location so that he could make a pact with Prince Roan to protect Skairkru from other grounders! He wanted to humiliate you!"

"The way you have now, by bringing the traitor into my camp, as if I would welcome him with open arms,"

"I knew you wouldn't, but I thought you'd have least let me reason with you, especially without having to be tied up!"

"This better not be one of your two's way of getting kinky," muttered Finn under his breath, of course this further infuriated Bellamy, allowing yet again the already fired up Miller to hit him.

"Shut up Finn," Clarke muttered to her side, " You're not doing yourself any favours." "Look, you don't have to let him stay, you don't have to let me stay, but listen to what I have to say."

"He's not staying." Bellamy declared. Clarke let out a large exhale, she knew there would be no negotiation for Finn being in the 100 again. She had dreamt at Skairkru about how she would escape with Hera and him, it was the nightmare that started after they escaped.

"After Prince Roan took me," Clarke began, she could already see the flare of Bellamy's nostrils in anger, "they took me to Ice nation and I was prisoner a month, there was no explanation for my capture and I never saw Prince Roan again-"

"because I killed him." Bellamy added. Clarke looked up to him for interrupting her,

"I never saw Prince Roan again and I guess that meant they gave me up to Skaikru, because whatever use Prince Roan had for me, it would never be explained, and never has to me. Jaha didn't want me at the start. I was put in the children's quarter at Skairkru, "

"You were a fucking adult!" exclaimed Raven in disgust,

"I was an outcast, they had to hide me." Clarke replied.

"You are Abby Griffin's daughter, why would they want to hide you?" Miller added.

Clarke bit her lip, aware of the news she was about to tell Bellamy. She gulped as she made eye contact with him. "I was pregnant." The few that weren't there when she had already found 403 gasped and mumbled and those who already knew, realised that this was the first time Bellamy would realise he was a father.

He finally stopped pacing. He crossed his arms and remained silent, his glare never leaving Clarke. She didn't know what to do in his silent, so instead continued.

"I was -alone- in the quarter and they said my mother didn't know that I was back yet. They said that because I had gone through the shock of Prince Roan's capture, the pregnancy may see some complications. She was born 11 weeks early." Silence prevailed.

"She survived?" said someone who Clarke didn't recognise in the crowd. Bellamy's eyes still hadn't left hers.

"Yes. But they took her away from me after 20 minutes."

"20 minutes!" cried Octavia, already the hysterical aunt. Clarke felt a tear stream down her face but couldn't move her arms enough to wipe it away.

"She was fragile and vulnerable and small and weak, but she was also beautiful and didn't cry too much and held what she could of my finger. They took her away and I only ever saw her once again when they accidently let her into the medical bay. They told me if I tried to escape, they would kill her, and that Prince Roan knew everything that left the walls so there was no chance in me doing so. They put me straight into work after labour and I've spent every year since trying to get through the day by putting bandages around people's legs and giving them whatever medicine I had for their cough. The day that she came into to the bay reminded me what it was all for. She was still beautiful but now she was strong and healthy and confident. Finn was the only other person I spoke to all these years; I couldn't even look at him for the first 10 Bellamy. But time heals. Finn came down with us Bellamy, you've got to sympathise with him. He did what he had to do to survive and I have done the same. Albeit, I have done what I can for her. Finn found out that she had escaped, so I could finally go. It turned out too that my mother had known about them keeping me away from my daughter all this time so there was no reason for me to stay. There was a far greater reason running about these woods. "

Silence prevailed. Bellamy still stood in front of Clarke, Her arms still digging into her sides as the rope that bound her to the chair furthered her agonising stomach.

"They gave her a number?" he finally said. She nodded. "But you gave her a name?"

"Hera.- "Daughter of earth." They both said in unison.

Raven rolled her eyes, "Fuck's sake I forgot about your love for mythology"

"Untie them Miller," ordered Bellamy, "Finn you can stay til morning, but then you can fuck off. I don't care what you two have been through, you nearly killed my daughter." Clarke stared at Finn; he had done so much for her. "And you can think again if you go near Clarke." He further ordered. She nodded at Finn, he smiled back, but his face was covered with blood and was already turning purple. He had followed her wherever she had gone and whatever she had done on earth. She would never forgive herself for not loving him back the way he loved her.

"You can at least let us say goodbye." Clarke said. Bellamy paused until Octavia slightly lightened the mood to interrupt-

"Bellamy! She is the mother of your child! Do as she says!"

Bellamy grunted, "In the morning." Clarke held onto her stomach and felt the indent on her torso of where the rope had digged in. She fell to her knees but luckily Bellamy was there to catch her.

"I'm so sorry," he whispered in her ear, holding the back of her head in his hands in embrace, "I'm so sorry for everything." She surrendered to his embrace and allowed her body to fall heavy on his,

"I know, I am too," she sobbed into his shoulder.

The two finally got up when they realised, they still had an audience and Bellamy led Clarke to the warmth of the big house and the great hall followed by Raven and Miller, whilst Octavia pleasingly shooed everyone else away, glad to be part of the exclusivity.

"Do you know where Hera went?" asked Bellamy as Octavia closed the doors behind her,

The three women smiled at each other and in unison said triumphantly, "She's here!"

AN: Thank you thank you thank you! For reading this far, this chapter had been coming for so long! Thank you to all of you who have favourited, followed and reviewed. Please do review, I'd love to hear your thoughts! Here's to Hera!