Chapter 14:

The blissful feeling faded once Clarke was tightly packed in her tent with both of the Blake siblings, no sign of Charlotte anywhere. There was an awkward silence crashing around them until Octavia finally released a huff and begrudgingly said, "I heard from the entire camp about your relationship, save it." With that, she tightly crossed her arms to indicate that she was clearly annoyed with the situation—not so much the relationship, but because she wasn't the first to know. Clarke wondered if it was Wells' angry sputtering or one of the former harem spurting off half-baked facts with a bitter twist. Somehow, it bothered her that word was spreading so rapidly.

The insecure part of her tried to the rational, claiming the simplest explanation for their relationship was the fact that she was pregnant with his child and they wanted to try the family thing. If Clarke hadn't become pregnant, they would have been dealing with this for years, maybe. The building sexual tension, the half-hearted actions….it all would have taken time to evolve without her accidental impregnation. There wasn't a doubt it her mind that harvested the ignorant thought that people would overlook the fact that she was pregnant with his child and suddenly, he was the face of commitment.

It struck her pointedly when she thought about Bellamy's initial reaction. She was more than aware that he would soon realize he could be a father and a successful bachelor at the same time. Almost instantly, she regretted the thought. Bellamy cared for her, didn't he? It was not the time to get cold feet about their brand new relationship.

Sex—maybe that was a little too far but they lived on Earth. If someone likes someone, they better fucking do something about it before another disaster strikes. Still, she could have waited longer than a few hours to jump his bones. The thought caused her cheeks to turn a pinkish color before she released a heavy sigh and directed all her attention to the younger Blake, "Octavia…it happened so fast that there wasn't any time to…I think I speak for both of us when I say—" She side-glanced to observe Bellamy's reaction to her words, "—we're sorry we didn't tell you ourselves." He nodded along, agreeing with her apology before he cleared his throat and began to speak.

"We're actually here to tell you something else." Suddenly, the orange of the tent fabric seemed entirely interesting to Clarke as Bellamy's voice succumbed to the oblique awkwardness filling the tent. "You see, a month back Clarke and I—" He was cut off by his highly aggravated sister as she let out the worst sound he ever heard.

"Oh, hell no!" She shrieked with a fire behind her eyes that Clarke never wanted to be the reason for again, "You've been engaged for a month! What the hell? What the actual hell? You didn't even like her…I barely even liked her. No offense, Clarke. We're total besties now but…what the hell?" Bellamy's face was unreadable whereas Clarke's shock was evident in every line in her brow and the way her lips parted.

Clarke started to choke on her own saliva as she processed Octavia's accusation—engaged? They were absolutely not engaged. They weren't even in love, they were just together. They were in a relationship formed out of a mutual desire to be a good parent and their mutual compassion towards one another. Love wasn't even involved nor a possible wedding. At this point, they were dipping their toes into the waters called 'commitment' and trying desperately to swim when neither of them knew how. Sucking in a deep breath after Bellamy patted her back nervously, she squeaked, "Engaged?" Who the hell could have come up with that idea?

"Wait…so Harper was lying? You're not going to get married next week?" If Clarke didn't know any better, she would say her friend appeared to be deflated. Briefly, Clarke wondered about the grounder Octavia released. Had she seen him since? What did he mean to her? What was the status of their relationship? She would have to talk to Bellamy eventually but that was another topic she wanted to avoid. She was sort of starting a list of avoidance when it came to her baby daddy and it may or may not blow up in her face.

Bellamy's jaw fell open, snapped shut and then fell open again before he moved his hand to the back of his neck. He was clearly having a hard time expressing himself but the girls did not push him to complete an intelligible response. He settled on, "We've been together for less than 24 hours, O. Marriage isn't even on the table." I wouldn't say that exactly, Clarke thought, hoping she wasn't as offended as her mind tried to tell her she was. She decided not to voice the nagging concern about her relationship at the moment. It was like unspoken weight that she didn't want to carry, but he was unintentionally making her take it into her arms. "Uh, I'm going to take the Griffin approach and just come out with it. Clarke and I are having a baby."

No response.

Feeling obligated to speak due to Octavia's wide eyes, Clarke exhaled before clapping her hands together. "Almost five weeks ago, we hooked up. Now, we're expecting a little—"

"Baby Blake?" Octavia was teary-eyed with a wide grin across her face. Clarke couldn't remember a time where she looked so happy. It was as if they'd just given her four hundred glowing butterflies and her own little piece of paradise. It was one of the first times that Clarke felt truly thrilled that she was pregnant. There was also a glimmer of crazy that frightened Clarke a little bit because she recognized it. It was the overprotective crazy she would have to grow accustom to over the course of her pregnancy, "Yay! I can't wait to tell Jasper and Monty!"

She had all intentions of letting Octavia believe Jasper and Monty didn't know but Bellamy ruined it, "They already know." Just like that, a miniature thunderstorm rained down on them in the confines of the tent. The previous moment ending just as quickly as it began. Octavia was once more annoyed with the couple. "We didn't tell them, Octavia. They just found out on their own accord."

"What number am I?"

"What?" Bellamy raised his eyebrows until he comprehended what she was asking, "Jasper, Monty, Wells…you're four, I guess." He sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. Clarke almost instinctively squeezed his hand before his sister could respond.

Octavia frowned, "Four?"

-x-

Short Chapter!

I just wanted to say thank you for all the suggestions! I valued a lot of them and I'm most definitely going to consider a good bit of them (especially the comical Jasper and Monty ones.) I just wanted to clarify that I wasn't talking about updating when I was discussing the month-by-month basis but rather how I should space out Clarke's pregnancy. I know a lot of people want to read about the baby bump, the first kicks, and the other mushy pregnancy stuff that I eat up in every Bellarke pregnancy fanfic ever. (I'm a little obsessed and I've set out to read all of them. Recommendations? *read all the top rated ones already*)

When I started this story, I really didn't think I would have this many reviews (ALMOST 200) and I am so grateful that this story is getting that type of attention. I'm not going to lie, it's sort of been a struggle for me to keep the ball rolling because I'm constantly thinking of other plots that I want to explore (*cough, cough new story "Vows"*) and I'm also a student so my schedule sometimes conflicts with what I'm doing. And then, I have this bad habit (if anyone hasn't noticed) of posting a chapter and then reading it a few days later to fix it. I'll add sentences and better the word usage and fix my grammatical errors and all that jazz…so, if it's not the same I'm sorry.

But overall, I just wanted to say thank you and I hope you all continue to enjoy this story as much as I enjoy writing it.

-Brooke.