Clarke got out of her car, pulling her phone out of her coat pocket as she did so. She sent Raven a quick text letting her know she was in the parking lot as she waited for Bryan to finish parking and get out of his car.

Raven had texted her a few days ago about having another game night, and Clarke had agreed and then quickly asked if Miller would be attending. Raven had laughed, said yes, and then instructed Clarke to bring "Doctor McDreamy" before Clarke could even broach the subject herself.

So, after checking everyone's schedules and going back and forth on whether they wanted sausage on their pizzas or not, here Clarke was, Bryan in tow.

Jasper suddenly flung open the door, standing inside and holding it open. "Come on, party people!"

After giving Bryan a sympathetic look, Clarke brushed past Jasper. "We're not party people. We're game people. Duh."

Jasper just scoffed. "Pfft. Semantics, Clarke."

After an elevator ride that seemed to last forever, in which Jasper kept asking Bryan if a prostate exam was as horrible as he'd imagined, they finally arrived at the fourth floor. Clarke, who'd been trying her damndest not to snicker, stepped out of the elevator but then paused, turning back toward Jasper.

"I think the real question here is…which is worse? A prostate exam or a pap smear? Although, honestly, I'd assume both pale in comparison to…you know…child birth."

Bryan barked out a laugh, following Clarke down the hallway, while Jasper remained glued to the spot in the elevator, eyes wide and shocked into silence for once.

Clarke was fairly sure the elevator door started to close on him, if the resulting yelp and ding were any indication.

Still chuckling, she opened Raven's door and walked inside.

"Griffin!" Raven shouted from where she was standing near the balcony doors.

Monty and Miller gave less ear-splitting, although still enthusiastic, greetings from the living room.

Just then, Bellamy stepped out of the kitchen. A somewhat shy smile crossed his face when he came face to face with her.

"Hey," he said quietly.

"Hey," she responded, returning his smile.

"I see you brought McDreamy back! I guess we didn't scare him off the last time!" Raven quipped, loudly.

Her voice snapped Bellamy and Clarke out of some sort of trance, where they'd been standing about a foot apart, just smiling at each other.

Registering Raven's words, Bellamy's eyes darted up, over Clarke's shoulder to the man standing behind her. Seeing Bryan, he frowned.

Clarke raised an eyebrow, but decided to deal with it later. There were more important things to worry about right now…like making sure Bryan and Miller got properly introduced.

Grabbing Bryan's arm, she pulled him into the living room. "So, you probably remember most of these guys, right? Raven, Monty, Jasper, and Bellamy," she said, quickly pointing everyone out again. "Oh, and this is Nathan Miller. I don't think you got a chance to meet him last time. Miller, this is Bryan Underwood. He's in my internship program at the hospital."

"Nice to meet you," Miller said, stretching a hand over the coffee table.

"You too," Bryan responded, shaking it.

"Okay. Everybody grab a beer and pick a seat. It's game night," Raven said, quickly claiming her favorite spot on the oversized ottoman.

"Please tell me you didn't let Jasper bring another game out of his parents' basement," Clarke asked, genuinely worried, to be honest, as she took a seat in the middle of the couch.

Raven snorted. "As if. Nope, we're going old school tonight," she said, pulling Monopoly out from under the coffee table.

Everyone groaned.

"No. I refuse," Jasper said, sullenly taking a seat on the floor.

"Me too," Monty agreed.

"Oh, come on. Don't be such buzzkills!" Raven admonished.

Miller was glancing at Bellamy, who was still standing away from the group, over near the door to the kitchen. His gaze then flickered to Clarke. "Yeah. It'll be fun." Smirking, he patted the empty spot on the couch closest to where he was sitting on the floor. That spot just happened to be the one next to Clarke. "Come on, Bellamy."

Bellamy reluctantly traipsed across the room to take the seat beside her. "Fine. Let's play," he said.

Clarke turned to Bryan, who was taking the seat on her other side and giving her a look that said, "What the hell?"

She just smiled, shaking her head slightly.

Bryan was the only one present who didn't know how Bellamy and Clarke played Monopoly. Basically…it was balls to the wall, no holds barred, take no prisoners and potentially leave with no friends by the time the night was over.

They could both manage to play any other game with little to no problem. In fact, Raven was usually the most competitive of the group. But something about Monopoly turned Bellamy and Clarke into rabid dogs, both refusing to give up until they'd won.

It may have something to do with the first time they'd played Monopoly, Clarke's freshman year of college. Bellamy had made a snide comment about Clarke being unable to play because there wasn't a crown playing piece. Clarke had responded by calling him an asshole, which led Bellamy to make another ill-advised comment about how she surely couldn't play as the iron, because he doubted she'd ever seen one before, let alone knew how to use one.

Clarke, of course, had immediately snatched the iron token for herself faster than Bellamy could blink.

What followed was three-and-a-half hours of vicious game play in which Octavia had to become banker part way through because Bellamy accused Clarke of cheating, Clarke had Bellamy in her sights TWICE, but he mortgaged properties and managed to stay afloat, Bellamy "tossed" the dice at Clarke a little too forcefully, leaving her with a small bump on her forehead (he apologized profusely, but Clarke couldn't stop laughing long enough to hear him), and Clarke built an entire corner of hotels that would've made Conrad Hilton proud.

That game had ended with Jasper terrified, Monty asleep, and Octavia slightly worried, with Clarke having won by the narrowest of margins and leaving Bellamy outraged. When he again accused her of cheating, she'd summarily dumped the rest of her beer over his head.

Needless to say, the rest of the gang assumed Monopoly was off the table for good.

To everyone's surprise, it was only a month or so later when Bellamy brought it to game night again.

Everyone else had immediately rejected the idea, but Clarke had only smiled, saying something along the lines of, "Ready to get your ass kicked again? So soon?"

That set the tone for the dozens of games to come.

Clarke would start off by snatching the iron before anyone else could, grinning triumphantly at Bellamy. Bellamy would roll his eyes, trying not to smile as he selected his own playing piece. Then, it was a free for all. They still battled ferociously, they still cursed and accused each other of cheating every ten minutes or so, and they still took inordinate pleasure in each other's downfall…but at least dice and alcohol were no longer used as weapons. Occasionally, a Twizzler would end up thrown across the table…but at least those didn't do much damage.

Clarke started this game as she had every other…by grabbing the iron and smirking at Bellamy as she did so.

Weirdly, he didn't even make eye contact.

Clarke frowned, wondering what was wrong. After the night she'd spent on his couch last weekend, they'd fallen pretty much back to their old habits. She'd text him ridiculous memes she found on her coffee break, he'd text her when he saw something weird on TV, asking if it was medically possible, and they'd even met up for lunch at the diner beside the hospital one day when he'd been repairing some water damage at an apartment nearby. Perhaps her favorite interaction…although she'd never admit it to him…was when they'd both been watching a Twilight Zone episode in the middle of the night.

She'd texted him from her mom's house to see if he was awake and if he was watching. He'd replied with an affirmative to both, but then gone radio silent. Clarke had shrugged, tossing her phone to the side as she became engrossed in the episode. Of course she'd seen it before…she'd seen most of them before…but there was something about this episode that never failed to freak her out.

An old woman kept receiving mysterious telephone calls in the middle of the night. Sometimes, she even heard a man speaking to her through the line. When she informed the switchboard operator of this, she was told that a storm had knocked down the telephone lines, meaning that she couldn't have been receiving calls. When the old lady swore repeatedly that she had, she was told that it was impossible, since the lines were down over a graveyard.

The episode had just finished…ending with the elderly woman going to the cemetery…and seeing the downed lines on the grave of her fiancé, who'd died decades ago. Clarke was still absorbing the ending, aimlessly watching the credits roll.

Her phone rang from beside her, sending her at least a foot off her bed.

Slapping a hand to her pounding heart, she quickly grabbed the phone, breathing a sigh of relief when she saw Bellamy's name pop up.

"Bellamy! You scared the shit out of me!" She'd answered.

He was already laughing. "I know."

Clarke had rolled her eyes, trying not to laugh. "Jackass."

"Sweet dreams, Princess!" He'd said in a sing-song voice before ending the call.

Given all that…Clarke had thought they were okay…but now she wasn't so sure.

"Bell…you okay?" she asked him quietly.

"Mmhmm."

"Oookay," she said, taking her turn with the dice.

Twenty minutes later and Bellamy still hadn't said a word.

Clarke had kept her mouth shut when he'd gotten the "Go to jail, go directly to jail, do not pass Go, do not collect $200" card and had moved his playing piece without even a sigh. She'd managed to stay quiet when he clearly had enough money for multiple houses and hotels, but hadn't bothered to buy a single one. But now, she'd landed on one of his properties…Park Place, no less, and he hadn't even asked for the money she owed him.

"Bellamy, what the hell?" she said, almost angrily.

He blinked exaggeratedly, turning to look at her. "What?"

"What the hell is wrong with you? You're not even playing! How is this any fun if you're going to let me win?"

Before he could answer, Raven's phone rang.

After a few seconds on the phone, she hung up, grabbing the money they'd all handed her when they arrived and heading for the door. "Pizza's here. I'll be right back."

Just after she shut the door behind her, Bryan's phone buzzed.

Glancing at the screen, his brow furrowed. "Shit."

"What is it?" Clarke asked.

"Kane needs me at the hospital. Apparently there's a liver available for a patient that's been waiting for one. It just left Boston General, so it should be here in a couple hours." He glanced at his watch. "Kane wants me to prep the patient for surgery so he'll be ready when it gets here."

Clarke nodded. "This is going to be amazing, you know that, right?"

His eyes lit up, in the way that only interns can light up about the promise of major surgery. "I know."

"And you're going to do great. Don't let Kane be an ass to you. You deserve to scrub in."

He smiled ruefully. "Easier said than done." He stood up, offering her a hand up. "Walk me out?"

She took his proffered hand, standing and then walking out into the hallway with him. He called a hurried goodbye to everyone else inside.

"What's up?" she asked, as soon as the door shut behind her.

"I really need to get going, but I just wanted to ask you something really quick first."

"Shoot."

"I could be totally off-base here…but is Miller…?"

Clarke raised an eyebrow. "Gay? You'd think you'd be more comfortable saying it by now. Yeesh," she joked.

"Haha. Very funny. He seems like a nice guy. I didn't want to assume anything and offend him or something."

Clarke smiled. "He wouldn't be offended, either way. But, yes, he is gay."

Bryan nodded slowly. "And is he the reason you keep bringing me to these group nights?"

"Honestly? I was hoping you two would hit it off, yes. But if not, I'm totally fine with that and I still want you to hang out with my friends…as long as you want to."

"I do. And Miller seems cool…just do me a favor?"

"Name it."

"Don't do any setting up. I've been forced into dates before just because someone thinks two gay guys should automatically hit it off. It's awkward and it's not fun."

"Understood," Clarke said, nodding.

"He is cute though…"

Clarke smirked. "I know."

Bryan chuckled. "Okay. I really need to leave now or Kane will have me on bedpan duty instead of liver transplant duty."

"Good luck!" Clarke called as he jogged down the hallway toward the elevator.

Walking back inside, Clarke immediately noticed that Bellamy was missing.

Jasper, Monty, and Miller were watching something on one of their phones, barely giving her a cursory glance when she walked back into the room.

Noticing the balcony door was partially open, Clarke stepped outside and found Bellamy leaning against the railing, staring out into the courtyard that separated Raven's building from his.

"What are you doing out here? Raven should be back with the pizza in a second," Clarke said, stepping up next to him.

There was no response.

She put her hand on his arm tentatively. "Bell…you've been acting weird all night. What's wrong? I thought we were doing okay…"

He finally turned to look at her. "That's when I thought you were serious about getting your life back on track and finally growing up a little."

Clarke's head snapped back, she was so surprised by his anger. "I AM." She frowned. "I'm doing all that. What are you even talking about?"

Bellamy waved his hand vaguely toward the living room. "I know he seems like a nice guy now, but face it Clarke, you've got shit for taste when it comes to romantic partners. And I know he's a doctor, which is a definite step up from drug dealer, but still. Didn't you meet the douchebag in Pre-Med? I assume he's a doctor now too."

Clarke was frowning, thoroughly perplexed by this entire conversation. She did know one thing though; the only person Bellamy referred to as "douchebag" was Finn Collins. "Yeah, he is," she answered absently.

He rolled his eyes. "Oh great. Tell me you keep in touch with him too now?"

"What? No. Not really. We…ran into each other a few months ago."

"You 'ran into' him?"

Clarke's eyes strayed from Bellamy's for the first time. "Yeah. He was a year ahead of me, so he was already an intern over at General West last year. You know…where my mom works," she said, as if that's how she happened to see him.

Raven chose that moment to pop her head out the door. "Pizza's here."

Clarke turned toward her, giving her the look. "We'll be in in a minute. Save us some."

Raven glanced at Bellamy, then back at Clarke. "Got it," she said, shutting the door after she went back inside.

Clarke turned back toward Bellamy. "Okay. Seriously. I'm going to need you to start over. Something about this conversation isn't making a whole lot of sense. And I really have no idea why you're mad at me."

"I'm not mad, Clarke."

"Could have fooled me."

"I'm not. I'm…disappointed."

"Why?"

"I told you…I…"

Clarke cut him off. "You think my judgement is so off, I can't even pick a decent guy to set one of my friends up with?"

Now it was Bellamy's turn to look perplexed. "You…what?"

"You really don't like Bryan? Cause I admit, I've only known him for a few months, but I've been with him for 16 hour stretches at a time. I've watched him handle some pretty awful shit at that hospital and he's handled it all admirably. Other than some admittedly questionable taste in music, he seems like a great guy. And he and Miller are both good guys that seem to be a little unlucky in love. So, yeah, I thought I'd at least introduce them to each other. I already promised Bryan I'd stay out of it though, so if anything is going to happen, it's up to the two of them."

Bellamy was just staring at her.

She waved a hand in front of his face. "Hello? Going to yell at me some more?"

"No." He shook his head slightly, as if to clear it. "No. I'm…sorry. I didn't mean to…"

Clarke tilted her head, seeing the complete change in his demeanor. "Seriously, what was that about?"

"I…" Bellamy's hand came up to rub the back of his neck, in what Clarke immediately recognized as his nervous gesture. "Like I said, you haven't had the best judgment of people in the past and I thought you were trying to shove this guy at Miller… I don't know. It hasn't been a great day. I'm sorry."

Clarke immediately stepped closer. "What's wrong?"

"I, uh…" he again turned to look out over the railing. "…I broke up with Gina."

"Bellamy," Clarke said sadly. "Why?"

He shrugged.

"I thought it was going well!"

"It was…okay. She was great, she really was. But, honestly, I think I was leading her on a little."

Clarke again joined him at the rail. "What do you mean?"

He ran his hand back and forth on the wrought iron in front of him. "You know me, I've never been a serious relationship kind of guy."

"Yeah, I know. I thought maybe you'd grown out of that."

He smiled, somewhat self-deprecatingly. "You had…disappeared. Octavia had just told me she was moving across the country with Lincoln. And then I do an office remodel for these lawyers over on the West Side. This pretty girl is the secretary, and she's always around, asking if we need anything, making sure we let her know when we're going to be finished so the partners can schedule their meetings around us. And when she suggested we get coffee and handed me her number…I thought 'why not?' And it turns out, she's kind of great. Funny, smart, decent taste in sports and music."

Clarke waited, but he didn't continue. "Okay?"

He sighed. "I think I just wanted…somebody."

"…is that so bad?"

"Not always. But she thought we were going somewhere…and I just wanted somebody."

"Oh."

"It really wasn't fair to her. Like I said, she's great. She deserves to find somebody who wants to go…somewhere."

"But…don't you think you could have gotten there? If she's as great as you said and you have so much in common…"

He finally looked at her. "Nah," he said softly.

Clarke decided not to push. "Are you okay?"

He nodded, smiling slightly. "I'm fine. I just hope she is."

Clarke turned, linking her arm with his and leading him toward the door. "I'm sure you're a difficult man to get over. I can call and tell her what a dick you are, if you think that would help."

He snorted. "Yeah, I'm sure that would be a big help to everyone. What would I ever do without you?"

She squeezed his arm a little tighter. "Luckily, you don't have to find that out ever again."

They sat back down on the couch, grabbing pizza and cold beers.

"Okay, where were we?" Raven asked, picking up the dice.

"Clarke was about to get her ass handed to her," Bellamy said, tearing off a large chunk of pizza with his teeth.

Clarke rolled her eyes as she took a sip of her beer. "Yeah, okay."

"Don't think I didn't notice you tried to cheat me out of my money for Park Place. That'll be $70, Griffin. Pay up." He turned to Monty, who was playing Banker. "And you know what? I think now would be the perfect time to buy some houses."

Clarke tried to hide her smile behind her beer bottle, but didn't really succeed, so she settled for throwing a piece of pepperoni in Bellamy's hair.