Seven Years Later

"For the love of God." Clarke sighed as she attempted to type in the code to open the gate in front of her.

"Mom, just press the call button." Jamie laughed in the back of the car, she couldn't believe that her six-year-old son had more common sense than she did. She pressed the button and waited to be buzzed in. Clarke moved the car forward as the gates slowly opened, she travelled down the long drive and pulled up outside of the gigantic house her son called his second home.

"Dad!" Clarke heard the car door open behind her and her son leave the car, she glanced out of the window and saw the father of her child stood waiting to catch his son that was barrelling towards him. She took a deep breath and exited the car, making her way round to the trunk to gather Jamie's bags.

"Mom forgot the code again." She heard Bellamy chuckle.

"I noticed. How about you go inside, your Aunt Tavia's in the game room." Jamie had begun running before he'd finished speaking. Clarke walked up the steps and handed Bellamy the bags, the closer she got, the more she noticed the cut on his lip and the bruise on his left eye. His hair was shorter than the last time she had dropped their son off, his curls had been trimmed and his skin was more tanned.

"So I'll pick him up from…"

"It'll be O's on Monday, I've got a fight next Saturday, and I'm doing some press stuff. I mentioned it last week I think?" She watched as Bellamy scratched the back of his neck awkwardly.

"Yeah, I remember. Good luck and everything." They stood in an awkward silence.

"So I'm gonna go, let you have your time with Jamie. Give him a kiss from me, I'll see you next time." She turned and began to walk down the steps.

"Hey, Clarke." She stopped and turned.

"O and Lincoln got engaged last week, I don't know whether Jamie mentioned it…"

"Yeah, he did."

"Well the delinquents are throwing a surprise engagement party for them and wanted me to invite you, so, yeah." Clarke smiled, it had been so long since she had last seen the old group.

"Yeah, erm, I'll get my mom to watch Jamie. Get them to let me know when it is. Thanks, Bell." She saw his eyes go wide at the old nickname, she could feel herself blushing.

"Dad! Dad! Hurry up!" They both heard Jamie shouting from in the house. Clarke smiled and entered her car. As she drove away, she noticed Bellamy watching her leave in her rearview mirror and quickly looked away.

Bellamy walked back inside and searched for his son. He turned the corner and stepped through the doors leading to the games room; he found his son in the middle of the delinquents, laughing gleefully.

"Dad, Uncle Miller said you're fighting again soon, when can I come and watch?" He turned and glared at Miller, who supported an apologetic face.

"When you're legally allowed to drink." His son whined and groaned.

"But that ages away." He walked over to his son and scooped him up, spinning him around as he laughed and laughed.

"How about we fill the time by going swimming. What do you say? You brought your trunks?" Jamie excitedly wriggled out of his dad's hold and ran towards his bag and began charging up the stairs.

"So…" Bellamy turned to face his sister. "Did you ask her?"

"Calm it, she said she'll be there." Octavia squealed and hugged her brother. He held his sister tightly, his gaze fell upon his trophy case; the photo in the middle stood out the most. It was a photo of him celebrating his first big win, with a six month pregnant Clarke, he felt weird all of a sudden.

"Come on, we both just need a weekend away. Stop being such a mom for one minute." Clarke rolled her eyes and tried to ignore her best friend. She tried to balance her cell against her shoulder as she picked up some of Jamie's toys.

"Rae, it's not Bellamy's weekend and I always feel bad asking my parents to look after Jamie. I don't think I can." She heard Raven sigh on the other end of the phone.

"Stop making excuses, we know for a fact that your parents love to watch Jamie and they'd love to give you a break. When was the last time you actually had a vacation without Jamie?"

Clarke glanced over at the photo next to the couch, the first photo of Jamie. It was taken minutes after he was born, her face was still bright red and covered in sweat, Bellamy's cheeks were still stained with tears. Their smiles were so big, even though Jamie was crying so loud, they were so happy. Now, they only spoke about Jamie and only saw each other at pick-ups and drop-offs. Clarke couldn't remember the last time she had gone away without Jamie, Raven was right, she needed a break, and she'd earnt it after all.

"Fine." She heard Raven gasp.

"Wait, did you actually say fine. I think I'm in shock."

"You're sorting out the details, I want a stress free time. I'm going to see Mom and Dad later so I'll ask them to watch the boy." Raven squealed, and even Clarke felt as though she could as well.

Raven spent the rest of the day texting her details, she'd decided on a trip to Vegas, her colleague Gina had a place in Vegas that they could stay in for free. It was shaping up to be a good weekend. Her parents happily agreed to look after Jamie and gave her money to ensure that she had a good time.

When Monday came, Clarke made her way to Octavia's house to pick up Jamie. Octavia lived a much smaller place than Bellamy, no coded gates for her to remember the pin to; Bellamy had offered to buy his sister a place closer to his, but she didn't want to leave their childhood home, she did agree to him paying for an extension though. She pulled into the drive and just sat in her car, looking at the house that was so familiar to her yet so different than it used to be. It still felt like another home to her. Clarke exited her car and walked over to the house, she didn't let herself in like she did when she was a teenager; instead, she knocked on the door and waited for Octavia to answer.

The door open and she was met with a smiling Octavia, she could see the similarities between the Blake siblings and her son, and it was as though Jamie had gotten every part of the Blake gene. Octavia moved out of the way and allowed Clarke to enter the house.

"Jamie, you're mom's here!" Clarke heard her son shouting that he would be down in a minute and Clarke stood awkwardly by the door waiting for him.

"Bell said that you're going to try and come to the engagement party." Clarke cringed at the thought of having to make small talk and hoped that Jamie wouldn't take too long.

"Mom said that she'll watch him for a few hours, so I should be able to make it yeah."

"Jamie said that he was staying with your mom this weekend, doing anything nice?" Clarke knew that her Mom and Dad phoned Jamie every weekend, they had obviously told him how excited they were to be looking after him the following weekend.

"Raven's dragging me away for a 'mom break', it'll be nice for Jamie to spend some time with my mom."

"Bell's fighting this weekend, I'll make sure that he calls Jamie to tell him that he's alright."

"Thanks, I know that Jamie really appreciates it." Octavia smiled softly.

"I know you do too." Before Clarke could question what she meant, her son came barrelling down the stairs.

"Hey little man, you ready to go?" She took his backpack out of his hand and flung it over her shoulder.

"Can we go and get ice-cream, Adam's mom always takes him for ice-cream?" Both Clarke and Octavia chuckled. The youngest Blake told him that she would take him for ice-cream the next time he stayed over. Clarke and Jamie said their goodbyes to Octavia and walked back to the car.

"Mom, can I ask you a question?" Clarke glanced back at her son in the rear-view mirror, she told her son that he could ask her anything.

"Is the reason why I can't watch Dad fight because you won't watch him?" Clarke was shocked, Jamie had never asked her why she wouldn't watch Bellamy fight.

"You know the rule sweetheart, you can watch your Dad fight when you're old enough to drink, you're Dad agrees too. I just don't watch your Dad fight because I don't like sport, you know how I feel about football." It was a lie, a lie that she had convinced Bellamy to go along with.

Bellamy's first fight was different, she was under the assumption that he would fight once, get some money and be done. But it wasn't like that. It was one more fight, and then one more big paycheque, and then one more competition. Every time he came home, the cuts on his face and the bruises on his body got bigger and hurt for longer. Clarke refused to watch him fight are the first time he got knocked out, the fear that she felt as she stared at his unconscious body on the ground was enough to put her off the sport for life. Bellamy didn't notice that she was no longer by his side after a win, he didn't notice that he was missing important milestones in Jamie's life. When he agreed to a fight on Jamie's birthday, she'd given him an ultimatum, their family or his career. Jamie's second birthday, the day that Bellamy won the biggest title of his career. When he came home, Clarke and Jamie were gone; a note was on the kitchen table informing him that he would have Jamie every other weekend (allowing him to still have prime time fights), a day during the week, every other holiday and they could share birthdays. He never argued, their agreement had been working for years. There was always a hope in the back of her mind that Bellamy would retire and come back to them, but he never did, the hope was starting to fade away as the years passed.

"I mean it, Bellamy, you go ahead with this fight and we're done." Bellamy followed Clarke through the lounge to the kitchen of their newly rented apartment.

"You can't be serious, if I don't fight, it will kill my career and I'm only just getting started." He watched as she started putting away the dinner pots, scraping away the food she had saved for Bellamy when he was four hours late home; he knew she was pissed.

"You said it was in a couple of weeks, not that it was in a couple of weeks on your son's birthday." She didn't look at him whilst she spoke.

"I can't back out now, it's two days away. The boy's turning two, he won't even remember this birthday, never mind who was there or not. I'll buy him that toy car that you wanted to get him after I win of course."

"Who cares about what you'll buy him? He cares about if you're there, I care!"

"Of course you don't care about what I can buy him because you can buy him whatever you want with Mommy and Daddy's money can't you, Princess?" Her face turned from anger to sadness. She put down the towel and walked beside him.

"Go to your fight, I'm not going to stop you. Just don't expect us to be here when you get back." Clarke walked into their bedroom and closed the door.

"Blake, you ready dude?" Bellamy snapped out of his thoughts, he looked up and saw the delinquents staring at him. It was fight night, his coach had always told him to think of something that made him mad to get him pumped. He always thought about that night with Clarke, she wasn't the one who made him mad, he was mad at himself for letting her go, for letting his family slip away.

"Time to do the walk." He nodded, he pulled up his hood and started to walk towards the entrance to the arena. Bellamy heard the crowds chanting his name as he made his way toward the ring. He stepped through the ropes and started to get himself more pumped. Bellamy shrugged off his jacket and turned to the crowd behind him putting his arms in the air, making them cheer; he heard his opponent being introduced, but he didn't turn round to face him, because in the front row was the mother of his child, the one that he let go, staring back at him.

Has it really been this long since I last posted anything? I think it's been a mixture of lack of time with work and a severe case of writer's block. I hope you enjoy this chapter. On another note, I've been attempting to write the next chapter of Best Thing I Never Had but I'm lacking ideas, if anyone would like to give me some input, it would be greatly appreciated.