Thanks everyone for the reviews and follows! I am going to try to keep posting every Monday :)

CHAPTER 4

~Bellamy~

Turned out that Bellamy would be seeing Clarke much earlier than Friday. The next day, Bellamy found himself once again on the phone with the blonde beauty.

"Hello?" Clarke's voice was husky with sleep, a detail Bellamy tried to ignore.

"Hey so we need you at the ranch again. Now." Bellamy said the words calmly but there was no denying the demand in his voice.

"Well excuse me but I'm on my break and I just got off of a 20 HOUR SHIFT. YOU CAN'T JUST EXPECT PEOPLE TO COME AT YOUR BECK AND CALL. HOW DID YOU EVEN GET MY NUMBER? DID WELLS…"

Bellamy interrupted her before she could continue. Clearly Clarke didn't like being woken up. "Clarke. One of my ranch hands fell off of his horse. He's bleeding everywhere. He doesn't have insurance. Please…"

"I'll be there." Clarke's voice immediately changed into that professional serious tone Bellamy had noticed she took on whenever someone was hurt. Her doctor voice.

Within 15 minutes, Clarke showed up at the ranch and was surveying the bloodied Roan who was laying on the kitchen table (a move Bellamy was already regretting… there was no way they were eating on that table ever again).

If Bell was being honest, Roan was one of his best ranch hands-not something Bellamy would ever admit to his face. Like most of the ranchers, Roan was the kind of worker you wouldn't want to perform a background check on but unlike the rest of the ranchers, Bellamy knew a lot about Roan's history. Roan's mother, the Original Ice Queen before Bellamy met Dr. Abby, owned a massive ranch down the road that pulled in massive amounts of money every year.

Although there was no way Bellamy couldn't respect the ranch, Bellamy had very little respect for Nia, the queen of the ranch. She bullied the undocumented workers that did most of the heavy work on the ranch, rarely offering them fair pay and often threatening them if they tried to leave. When Roan showed up at Bellamy's ranch asking for a meager ranch hand job, Bellamy had been instantly suspicious. Why would the prince of a massively successful ranch move to such a humble station? It took awhile but Roan earned Bellamy's trust. From what Bellamy could tell, there was no love lost between the man and his mother.

It was unlike Roan to get injured so easily but one of the barbed wire fences had snapped between the cows and the bulls and Roan had gotten jabbed in the leg by a horn. The fences were falling apart; Bellamy had neither the time nor the money to repair them. Bellamy knew as he looked at his fallen friend that Roan's injuries were his fault.

It did not put him in the best mood. He had shouted orders at everyone from brand new hire Lincoln to ranch-useless Kane as he Bryan and Miller brought the large wounded man into the house. Bellamy eased off a bit when Clarke started investigating the wound, her presence calming him. She would know what to do.

He was a little taken aback by her appearance. In her haste to get to the scene, Clarke was not in her typical doctor uniform. Instead, she was wearing black tank top and workout leggings that greatly accentuated her uh… assets.

Anya hovered over Clarke's shoulder, the normal mask that covered her emotions almost completely removed. Anya had been trying to hide her growing affection for Roan but Anya had become one of Bellamy's greatest friends and he could tell.

He could also tell that Miller and Bryan were totally into each other but he pretended not to notice that either. Sometimes when he found himself working by the two couples he felt like his ranch was becoming a lover's paradise and he was the grouchy hermit ruining the aesthetic.

Not that Bellamy hadn't had his share of romance in the past. He had actually had a fling with Harper back during freshman year in college. Both had gone to the same high school and when they arrived at the enormous University of Texas campus they had known only each other. Both had joined Greek life and with all the joined parties and date functions... Let's just say they had made the most of it. It had been nothing serious for either of them, as it as for Bellamy and most of the girls he had relationships with throughout high school and college, and they had parted amiably.

Now it was completely different. It had been almost a decade since Bellamy was some jock freshman at UT. Bellamy had continued through his partying and player phase but things had gotten a bit serious when he inherited the ranch.

Around that time, he had met Gina, a woman who really expected the best in him. As Bellamy embarked on a new chapter of his life with the ranch, Gina was the one who had mature as a lover.

However, despite all of the respect and goodness between them, there was something missing. Bellamy didn't really believe in love, especially not after what his mother had been put through in its name but Gina did. It didn't seem right to allow her to attach herself to him when he wasn't sure if he could give her all that she wanted and needed in a romantic relationship.

By that time, Harper had dropped out of college due to family financial problems at home and by the time that Bellamy had set up the ranch, they were good friends and Bellamy was happy to help her out with a job.

Currently, Bellamy's love life was a lot less interesting. He was focused on making the ranch better each and every day, his growing family of delinquents only making his cause more important. And living out in the country, he met new people very occasionally.

As he watched the blonde doctor stitch up and bandage Roan who grimaced in pain, Bellamy bet she didn't have any problems dating. Heck, she probably had some high school sweetheart that she was probably going to marry and have perfect children with and live in a perfect house with. There was no way that someone that beautiful was left lonely for too long.

~Clake~

As Clarke washed her hands in the kitchen sink, she watched as Anya, Bryan and Nathan helped Roan out the door and into a waiting truck where he would be transported to the cabins. Roan was massive, just like Lincoln. Bellamy, Anya, Bryan and Nathan were no joke either. Having all of them in the room one time was just… Where did all of these giants even come from?

It had been a bit unnerving working in that environment with all of them watching over her shoulder. Even Anya, who had a more calming presence than the rest, was very tense (and clearly in love with Roan) during the procedure. Clarke wished that Octavia had been present but the girl had apparently fallen asleep earlier upstairs, still on those whacky pain meds for her surgery. It would take about two weeks before Octavia would be able to get by without them, especially when she started physical therapy.

With the four other ranchers now absent, Clarke was left with Bellamy who glaring at his newly blood stained kitchen table.

"Regretting your decision to lay a bleeding man where you eat?" Clarke said, laughing at his expression.

Bellamy looked up at her and smiled sheepishly, "yeah I didn't really think that one through." With that, he lifted the heavy oak table, walked through the door and off the porch. Clarke could see through the big windows as he set the table down outside on the lawn and then crossed over to where an ax was sitting on the stump of a tree.

And then he did the unthinkable.

Bellamy lifted off his shirt, revealing the hard, lean muscles underneath and threw it on the ground. He then lifted the ax, took it over to the table and started hacking away at it, turning the oak table into logs.

Clarke kept telling herself as she stood there frozen at the kitchen counter that she was stunned because of the pure randomness of it all (chopping up tables was certainly never a past time she had been introduced to before) not because of how the sweat began to gleam off of Bellamy's shoulders as he took to his task.

Shaking herself out of her reverie, Clarke dried her hands, grabbed her med kit and headed out the door toward her car, her eyes completely averted to the spectacle (masterpiece) that was taking place on the lawn.

As she unlocked her car, Bellamy called out to her.

"Wait. You're leaving?"

Clarke refused to turn around to face him in all of his glory.

"Yeah. My business here is done and it looks like you're uhhh busy so I think I should probably leave."

"Sorry if my looks make you uncomfortable, Princess."

Clarke turned at that, adamant that he would not affect her. "Please tell me for the love all things holy that you are NOT going to use that as firewood."

"What's wrong with using this as firewood?"

"It's coated in blood! That's disgusting!"

"I'm recycling! It's not like I can use it for anything else anyway."

"What is Octavia going to say when she comes down later and sees that she no longer has a table?"

Bellamy paused at that and looked down at his table-turned-freshly-cut-logs. Clarke focused her eyes on his face and not the rest of his anatomy.

"Oh," Bell said as if it just dawned on him. "I need a new table now."

Clarke rolled her eyes at him. "Octavia is going to kill you."

Bellamy looked hurriedly back at the house where Octavia was sleeping with an expression of fear slowly crossing his face, "Shit."

"Hah. Good luck with that." Clarke opened her car door.

"Clarke! Maybe it would be better if you stayed till she woke up. She would be less, you know, angry. Maybe?" Bellamy looked at her desperately.

Clarke climbed into her car and grinned. "Bellamy nothing is going to save you from Octavia's wrath when she finds out that you stained her solid wood oak table with blood and then chopped it into pieces." And with that, she closed her door and backed out of the driveway, making a clean getaway from Bellamy and his glistening body.

A girl's gotta take care of herself.

TUESDAY

Clarke watched triumphantly as Wick and Bellamy discussed Octavia's recovery through physical therapy. Earlier, she had introduced Bellamy to 6 other PT's but she knew that Wick would be the one that Bellamy would choose and Clarke did like being proven right. Octavia hadn't shown up for the visit. Bellamy said it was because O asked to stay home and rest but Clarke had an inkling that O stayed less for her injury and more for Lincoln. Clarke and Octavia had chatted a bit over the phone the previous weekend and it appeared things were already heating up between Lincoln and Octavia.

And poor big brother Blake had no clue.

The news of O's love life had brightened her weekend especially since her own love life had gotten increasingly more confusing. Despite their conversation, Finn continued to be aloof and strange, leaving randomly during dinner dates and not staying the whole night when he came to visit. Clarke liked Finn but his behavior was setting her on edge. She certainly hoped that everything would be sorted out by the hospital gala this weekend.

As if sensing her mood change, Bellamy looked over from his conversation with Wick and looked at her with raised eyebrows. "Hey you okay over there? You know you can join the conversation instead of standing there gawking."

Before Clarke could form the smart ass reply that his remark was just begging for, she was interrupted as a tall beautiful Hispanic woman walked into the conference room Clarke had set up for the occasion. Head to toe in military uniform, the woman's gait was slightly affected by a limp.

"Hey are you Wick?" The woman said before seeing Bellamy. "Bell! What are you doing here?"

Bellamy turned to the woman with a broad grin and Clarke's stomach clenched with… jealousy?

"Raven!" He walked towards her and gave her a brief hug. "Look at you. It's good to see you back."

"Thanks! I just got back today. I was hoping to surprise The Boyfriend," Raven winked at this, "but since he's already here at the hospital, I thought I'd check in with my new PT."

Raven talked with enthusiasm but her voice wavered when she said the word "PT." It remained unspoken that whatever injury she had sustained, she had gotten while on duty.

"What happened?" Bellamy asked seriously. "I didn't think you would be in any serious line of fire as an Army mechanic."

"Nothing big, I just was shot in the leg. Doc says that if I work really hard at PT that I should get most of my movement back." Raven glanced over at Wick, "But the plan is that I will get all of my movement back."

Wick met her gaze and grinned, "I read over your case files and I definitely think that with a lot of hard work we can make that happen."

"Hey, I'm Clarke," Clarke reached out her hand to the brunette, "I'm a doctor here and I was just setting up Bellamy here with Wick to help Octavia with her hand. I just wanted to say thank you for your service."

Raven nodded at the thank you and hurriedly asked, "What happened to O?"

Before Clarke could explain, the conference room opened and Finn walked in.

"Clarke, I heard you were in…" his voice trailed off as he came into the room, the blood draining from his face.

"FINN!" Raven shouted, racing towards him, wrapping her arms around him. "I am so glad to see you. I wanted to surprise you in a better way but I guess that we can make this more fun later... " She smiled saucily at him before placing a kiss on his lips. "I can't believe I've been away for two years." She said more seriously, "I promise to make it up to you."

"Aw," said Wick, "what a cute homecoming."

"Cute" wasn't exactly the word that came to Clarke's mind as she watched the scene in front of her. She felt a huge not form in the pit of her stomach and a heaviness in her heart before she raced out the door and into the hallway.

~Bellamy~

Bellamy instantly noticed when Clarke's mood changed as Raven's boyfriend walked through the door. She had exited very quietly but in a quick manner, barely offering a quick excuse over her shoulder as she went out the door.

Bellamy followed her out into the hallway, concerned only to find her a few feet away, slumped on a bench with her head in her hands.

Bellamy's initial impulse was to put his arms around her. Living with his mother for years and then with Octavia after she had died had trained Bell in the language of comforting someone in distress. However, despite all of the intense moments that seemed to keep pushing Clarke and him together, Bellamy had only known Clarke for two weeks and wasn't sure if his embrace would be something she would want in this moment.

Feeling his presence, Clarke removed her head from her hands and looked at him. Thankfully, she was not crying but she still looked pretty upset.

"What happened?" Bellamy asked gently as if approaching a tiger. Because that's what Clarke was- a fierce and beautiful work of nature.

Before Clarke could respond, Bellamy heard a door slam and turned to see Finn hurrying down the hall towards them with a confused Raven tagging along behind him.

"Clarke, look I'm sorry."

"Finn, let's not do this here."

Raven looked back and forth between the pair as Clarke stood to look at Finn.

"Clarke, Raven." Finn looked at both of them and the look of panic on his face made Bellamy start to realize what was going on. He too stood, next to Clarke.

"Who is this?" Raven asked her voice was quiet and her face in disbelief.

"Look Raven. I'm only telling you this because Finn is forcing this situation right now and I believe you have the right to know. I thought that I was Finn's girlfriend. But apparently instead I've been his… his… other woman" Clarke spat. Bellamy could feel the rage start to boil up inside his chest.

"Clarke, listen it's not that simple," Finn began but Raven interrupted.

"What do you mean?! Is this true? Finn. What the hell is going on?!"

When Finn hesitated, Clarke drew in a long breath and turned to Raven again, "I didn't know." She said simply and she turned to walk away.

Finn reached out to touch her shoulder but Bellamy blocked him. "Back off."

"This is none of your business."

"You hurt two of my friends at the same time? Like HELL that isn't my business." Bellamy took a step forward and Finn immediately took a step back, recoiling. Bellamy smirked and turned to Raven but she was already shaking her head at him, "I'm going to stay and figure this out," she said quietly, looking down.

Bellamy felt the urge to stay or force her to go but clearly Raven wanted to talk to Finn. Finn was a jerk but Raven could handle herself. Bellamy respected her wishes and turned to follow Clarke out of the hospital.

Her pace was hard to keep up with as she stormed towards her car in the parking lot and Bellamy jogged up to her.

They ended up escaping to a nearby dive bar, and Clarke's friend Wells was on his way. Sitting across from Clarke as she gazed into a half filled mug of beer, Bellamy felt his anger rise again. Even though Bellamy had gone through a player phase, he never messed around with people's feelings. He had always been direct and honest about his intentions in the relationship. And he definitely never played around with other girls when he was committed.

"He's an asshole."

Clarke smiled at his bluntness and then sighed, "This is just the way of the world, I guess."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, I face it every day at the hospital. Abusive relationships and their scars. People who cheat on spouses who have terminal cancer for release… Maybe there is no such thing as good or bad or an honest relationship anymore."

Bellamy frowned, "I don't believe that."

"You don't?"

"No. I think at the end of the day, you just have to find someone who has the same values as you do. Some people go from person to person in order to fulfill their desires. And that's okay. But other people prefer loyalty, trust and respect over going with what feels good. You just need to find someone you match with."

"You mean like compatible?"

"No. I don't really buy into that e-Harmony stuff. I mean, I guess it works for some people. But I've seen couples who are completely different from each other, like night and day, but their relationships hold up because at their hearts long for the same things."

It was so strange to be talking to someone about these things, much less someone he was just now getting to know. Bellamy never opened up to anyone except for O and even then he never felt as in tune with someone as he did with Clarke. It was an instant connection like some kind of symbiosis, an electric current that ran between them.

He couldn't help but wonder how it would feel if they touched...

"Hey, I came as fast as I could," a voice behind him interrupted Bellamy's reverie. To be honest, he was a little grateful.

Bellamy looked over his shoulder to see Wells walking up to the table looking mildly surprised to see Bell there with Clarke. Clarke's eyes brightened as her friend joined them and Bellamy felt his jaw clench.

"Wells!" Clarke got up and hugged him before they both sat down.

"From 1 to Lexa how destroyed do you feel by this break up?"

Clarke laughed and then quickly looked at Bellamy as if to see his response at the hinting of her bisexuality. Bellamy shrugged. He couldn't care less; love was love.

"Hah maybe like a six? Or a five? It's more all the lying that bothers me"

"I get that," Wells smiled comfortingly. He looked at her drink, "a beer? That's not what's going to make you feel better and you know it. Hey, uh Tom?" Wells looked over at a nearby waiter's name tag. "Would you mind grabbing this lady right here a margarita."

"Wells! I have a 2 am shift tomorrow!"

"Clarke. That's 12 hours away."

Clarke groaned.

Before Bellamy could ask, Wells turned to him, "Tequila is Clarke's ultimate weakness."

"Oh really, I'll keep that in mind," Bellamy grinned at Clarke. Her face turned red with a deep blush that ran down her neck and past her the v of her shirt…

Bellamy shook his head before his thoughts could get away from him and shouted after the waiter.

"Tom! I need a shot."

~Clarke~

A few hours and shots later, Clarke was groaning into her hands as Wells relayed the events of their senior prom when Clarke's date had gotten way too drunk and had insisted on square dancing to the beat of a Pussycat Dolls song, dragging mortified Clarke across the dance floor.

Jasper and his girlfriend Maya, a new nurse on the natal floor, had joined them an hour earlier and both were howling in laughter as Wells brought up every embarrassing Clarke story he could remember-which was a lot, considering the two had been best friends since infancy.

Clarke felt Bellamy, who had scooted closer to her when the couple arrived, chuckle beside her, "And I thought I was the only one relieved to not have to do prom again," he said grinning at her, his dark eyes looking into hers, making her heart pound. The electricity buzzed between them but her tipsy state made her lean into the feeling instead of pull away.

"Some of us still have to deal with prom," Jasper groaned.

"Hey! I'm excited," Maya elbowed Jasper playfully.

"And that's the only reason I'm willfully going," Jasper replied, planting a quick kiss on her forehead.

Wells groaned. "Please keep the PDA to a minimum."

"Who even uses the word PDA anymore?" Jasper teased, "What are we? Middle schoolers?"

"What do you mean?" Bellamy asked, confused.

"Every year, the hospital has a gala to help raise funds so that we can improve-SHIT."

The older lady at the next table over looked over at Clarke and glared. She quickly put her hand to her mouth and grimaced, "Sorry!"

"O my gosh," Clarke continued at a much quieter decibel. "I completely forgot about the gala. I officially don't have a date thanks to Finn."

"Asshole." Wells and Jasper grinned as they said it at the same time and then clinked their mugs together.

"You know I would go with you," Wells began.

"But neither of us want to deal with our parents' reactions," finished Clarke. Wells and Clarke, despite a small crush Wells had on her when they were teenagers, were completely platonic-a fact that Jaha and Abby just couldn't seem to grasp.

Clarke sighed, "If I go alone, you just know everyone is going to ask about Finn." It was tough dating in the same place that you worked.

"Will Finn still go you think?" Maya asked, clearly like Clarke imagining what kind of disaster that would be.

"Ugh the thought makes me want to break something. The idea of going alone and having to fight off Finn all night… ick."

"I'll go with you." Bellamy's deep voice beside her shook her from her imaginings of the terrible evening ahead. Clarke turned to him.

"You will? You sure you're not just saying that?"

"Trust me, I wouldn't offer if I didn't mean it," Bellamy said, his eyes seeming to bare into her soul. "Plus," he added, "we wouldn't want our princess to go to her ball alone."

"Bellamy, what did I say about…"

Wells interrupted her before Bellamy and her could get into their 25th squabble of the evening.

"Now that that's settled, we should probably get going so that you can sober up for your shift later tonight," Wells reminded Clarke.

Her stomach sunk in her belly. The idea of working a 12 hour shift now seemed impossible. She would definitely need a nap beforehand.

They all began to stand up.

"Are you okay to drive?" Clarke asked Bellamy as he stretched, trying to ignore how his muscles moved underneath his shirt. He was her ride back to the hospital parking lot and her car and ever since her dad's accident, Clarke had always taken drinking and driving very seriously.

"Yeah, I only had two drinks, unlike some people," Bellamy teased.

Clarke huffed and crossed her arms. Bellamy looked at her face and outright laughed.

"Are you seriously pouting right now? You're just as bad as O." They waved the others goodbye as they walked towards his car. Bellamy surprised her by walking over to her car side. He opened her car door and as she sat inside, he leaned over it to look at her.

"You're a piece of work, you know that Princess?"

Clarke gave up on trying to correct him. "You're one to talk," she replied.

He smirked. "Guess I've met my match," he said and closed the door before Clarke could assert otherwise.