AN: This chapter contains one of the scenes that were the starting point for this entire fic, and that I had written in my head even before the season finale. Wonder if you can figure out which one?

The next few chapters will overlap more than the previous ones have so far, since I didn't want to skip back and forth with a bunch of tiny chapters to get both Bellamy and Clarke's perspective on many different aspects, so the time line is a little wonky, but I hope it isn't too confusing!

As always, I don't own anything relating to The 100

-12-

If he were the least bit religious, Bellamy thinks he'd be converted by watching Madi speak to Wonkru.

It's not so much her – he'd take the kid they met when they first landed on Earth, sure of herself, yes, but still just a kid, over this version that sounds too old and wise any day – but the way the crowd listens to her… It's not the first time he's experienced the power of the Flame, of course, he saw it before the final battle on the Ground, and even back when Lexa was the Commander. He doesn't think he'll ever get used to it, though, the way some eyes light up with an almost fanatic glow and they all fall in line without questioning anything, like they're puppets on a string and Madi just has to tug lightly to get her way. It stirs a memory somewhere deep inside him, and it takes a moment before he remembers exactly what – an old documentary about cults, back before the apocalypse, with actual footage from some of them. Those people had had almost exactly the same look in their eyes when they listened to their leaders.

Despite Indra and Echo's input on Madi's speech, the carefully edited version of their current situation, part of him still expects there to be dissent. A big part of Wonkru had been suspicious of going into cryo sleep to begin with, only accepting it since there was literally no other option, and it just makes sense that they'd be even more skeptical of space travel and a new planet they have never heard about before. But it's surprisingly easy, in the end.

He stands to the side and watches as Indra leads the people out the door, the same way the Arkers and Eligius went a little while ago. They'll be boarding the transport ship soon, Raven and Shaw are already on their way to the dock to make sure everything goes smoothly. When the last person disappears down the corridor, Clarke turns to her mom.

"We should get Marcus ready for transport," she says, and Abby nods. "Jordan, do you need to shut anything down here before we leave? We'll be back at least a few times after this, but still."

Jordan shakes his head. "No, the ship's already on autopilot, it'll be fine up here without us, just like it was fine while we were all in cryo."

"OK." Clarke nods. "Then the rest of you should probably get down to the transport ship, help Raven and Shaw get everyone situated, we'll be there with Marcus as soon as we can."

She meets Bellamy's eyes briefly, but hers are shuttered and before he can say anything, she's turned her back on him and is ushering Madi out the door, Abby behind them.

Look at me! he wants to yell after her. Stop pushing me away, I just got you back… But he feels Echo's presence beside him, and stays silent.

"Are you alright?" she asks quietly as he turns from the door.

"Fine," he replies shortly, immediately regretting snapping at her. She hasn't done anything wrong, he shouldn't take his bad mood out on her. He takes a deep breath, working to get his emotions and voice under control before he continues. "Come on, we really should get down to the transport ship." She gives him a long, scrutinizing look but eventually nods and follows him out the door.

Soon after they reach the transport ship, the rest of the people they've just woken up start arriving and Raven and Shaw oversee getting everyone ready for take-off. It's another half hour before Abby, Clarke and Madi arrive with Kane in a wheelchair they must have found somewhere in the med bay. He's pale and looks like he might pass out at any moment, but he's awake and alert, which is better than the last time Bellamy saw him.

"You doing OK?" Bellamy asks as Abby wheels Kane past them and onto the ship.

Kane gives him a tight smile and clasps his hand for a moment. "Better than before," he says, voice shaking slightly. "And hopefully I'll be able to stay in bed and actually heal once we've reached this planet."

"Does it have a name?" Madi asks suddenly, and Bellamy frowns.

"Not as far as I know," he tells her. "We'll have to come up with one when we have a chance, OK?"

She gives him a big smile at that, and in that moment she reminds him so much of Octavia at that age that he can't help but reach out and tug on her braid. He catches movement behind Madi's shoulder as he does, and finds his sister watching the exchange, a wistful smile on her face.

He wishes he could just snap his fingers and fix things between them, but he knows it'll take time. And, for the first time in so long, they might actually have time. He smiles back at her, hoping he can convey some of the surge of hope he feels for their future.

-100-

They land in the valley below the hill they've picked for their settlement, having agreed it's best to have the base down there during the construction period, so people who aren't involved in it won't get in the way. It's also closer to the woods, where their food is coming from and where they'll start chopping down trees as soon as possible. The lake isn't too far away, so they can get water without too much hassle.

Of course, the damn cat is waiting for them, as usual. Madi squeals when it licks her hand, Clarke's laugh fills the air and for a moment, Bellamy can't tear his eyes away from them. But then Miller calls his name, and he's roped into helping to move some of the cots off the ship and into the tents and sort out the sleeping arrangements, and then Clarke takes a group of people to the lake to get water while he and Shaw lead two groups into the woods to gather as much food as they can. It's one thing after another, and he loses sight of her for long stretches of time, only spotting her now and then, always too far off for him to be able to talk to her, ask her how things are going. When he sees her talking to Madi, a smile on her face, or deep in conversation with her mom about something or other, he thinks that maybe, if he can just see her like this, know that she's alive and happy, that it can be enough. He doesn't need more than that, even if he does want it.

-100-

As darkness falls, Bellamy finds himself on the edge of the woods, some ways away from the fires that have been started around their temporary camp, half-hidden in shadows and watching his people finally have a moment of peace.

A group of them are gathered around a fire some twenty yards away from where he's standing, their laughter floating over to him on the wind now and then. Emori, Jordan, Raven, Shaw, Clarke and Madi. Abby's hovering at the edge of the circle, probably ready to rush off back to the ship and check on Kane, who they decided would be most comfortable in the makeshift med bay on there for now, at a moment's notice. Murphy's also staying in the med bay, at least until Abby gives him a clean bill of health, and he was tired after the journey down here so Bellamy assumes he's called it a night already.

He smiles when he sees Clarke tuck a strand of hair behind Madi's ear, a soft look on her face that he hasn't seen many times since they met but that has been making more regular appearances in the last couple of weeks. Madi says something and Clarke nods, before glancing over at her mom, probably noticing, like he just did, that she's not really a part of the group.

"It's nice to see you happy. I haven't before."

He almost jumps at the voice beside him and turns to find Echo watching him from a few feet away, an unreadable expression on her face. He shouldn't be surprised that he didn't hear her approach – once a spy, always a spy. For a moment, he feels guilty that he didn't even notice that she wasn't around the fire with the rest of their friends.

They haven't really had a chance to talk much since she came out of cryo. Their initial greeting was pretty short, by necessity – if he's being honest, he did try to keep a bit of distance between them, accepting her hug after he helped her from the cryo pod but pulling away before it could turn into something more, all the time extremely aware of Clarke a few feet away, even though she had been focused on Madi, her back to him.

"What do you mean? I've been happy before," he says, almost defiantly.

One side of Echo's mouth lifts up in a smile that can only be described as sad and he wants to ask what's wrong, but she continues before he has a chance.

"Not like this. You were… content, maybe, on the Ring, at least the last couple of years, but you were never really happy. And before that… not that I knew you all that well, but I know from experience that there's no happiness in war."

He's about to protest, but the words catch in his throat as he thinks about it, really thinks about it, possibly for the first time ever.

Was he ever happy on Earth? Sure, there was maybe a day there in the beginning – before Jasper got speared in the chest and they realized that the supposedly deserted planet was actually inhabited by people trying to kill them – where he had been almost happy. He had been free of the Ark and Octavia had been alright – the one thing that had been his goal, his guiding light, his entire life up until that point. But at the same time, he'd been wrecked with guilt over shooting Jaha and constantly worrying about the other delinquents finding out that he was a killer, even half-heartedly planning to take off with Octavia to make their own way before anyone figured it out and turned on him.

After that it had pretty much been a game of survival where he counted himself lucky if he made it through the day without getting either killed or seriously injured, or losing yet another one of the rapidly diminishing original hundred. There just wasn't time for happiness. The closest he'd come would probably be the brief time after Mount Weather when he'd been with Gina, but even then there had been a Clarke shaped cloud constantly hanging over his head – was she alright, was she hurt, did she have enough to eat, somewhere to sleep, would she ever come back, was she even alive? Not to mention his growing body count and the nightmares of dead children with radiation burns that wouldn't let him get a full night's sleep… Then came the whole clusterfuck with Pike, ALIE and the City of Light, and the end of the world – again. So no, he'd never been actually happy on Earth.

And the Ring… those first few months, maybe even years, were a haze of working himself to exhaustion getting everything up and running so they wouldn't die in their sleep and a numbing grief that pressed in on him from all sides, making him feel like he couldn't breathe properly. It eased a little, with time, but he knows he didn't completely let go of it, not until he saw Clarke in that little cell on the Eligius ship six years later. And even apart from that, there had always been the worry for Octavia down in the bunker – had she survived the radiation wave, would she be able to maintain the peace between the clans and keep everyone alive for six years? The guilt that, for the first time in his life, he wasn't there to protect his baby sister and make sure that she was OK had been gnawing at him constantly.

And even before the Ground, on the Ark, he had never actually let himself just be happy. He was always on edge, always cautious, because at any moment, someone could find out about Octavia and float their mom, lock O up and take everything from him. So if he's being honest with himself, he probably hasn't been really happy since he was six years old and his mom explained why he could never ever tell anyone he had a baby sister, why he had to keep her quiet and hide her under the floor when someone knocked on their door…

24 years is a long time to go without real happiness, he thinks. Would he even recognize it now?

Then his eyes are drawn back to the group around the fire, like a magnet, and stop on Clarke and Madi again.

He would, he realizes, because he's been experiencing it for the last couple of weeks. Maybe not as soon as he woke up, but definitely as the days passed and they realized that this planet could be their new opportunity, that there will be obstacles, sure, but nothing they can't overcome.

Working with Clarke again, trying to figure out how to move forward, making plans and contingency plans and contingency plans for their contingency plans. Exploring this new, terrifying but exciting planet. If he's honest, just spending time with her, being close to her, makes him happy, a kind of happy that he's probably never been before.

Echo has stayed still and silent during his internal musings but now she reaches out and squeezes his arm.

"You deserve that happiness," she tells him, and when he looks over at her he sees that she, too, is watching Clarke and Madi at the fire. "And it's alright that it won't be with me."

"Echo…" he starts, but she shakes her head and smiles at him, less sad now.

"It's alright," she repeats genuinely. "You know I was worried about what would happen between us when we got back to the Ground, and I think I knew that we wouldn't last down there, even when we still thought that she was dead. I had accepted that I would always live with her ghost hanging over me, and I was mostly fine with that, but when we found out that she was alive… I knew it was only a matter of time then. I think you did too."

Bellamy tries to think of something to say, to assure her that she's wrong, but… he knows that she isn't. This is what he's been struggling with internally for the last few weeks, after all, trying to figure out how to handle the situation when Echo woke up. He just hasn't gotten around to making an actual plan. And he might be able to convince her that he does want to be with her – though he's not really sure about that, she's scarily perceptive – but would that really be fair, to either of them? She deserves more than someone who's in love with someone else.

"You know I love you, right?" he finally does say, because he needs her to know at least that.

"Of course," she replies immediately, without hesitation, and he lets out a breath. "You and I, we will always be family, never doubt that. Six years in that metal box in the sky made sure of that."

He nods, not quite trusting his own voice, and pulls her in for a hug.

"I'm not cutting you out of my life," she mumbles against his shoulder. "I just… I needed to do this, because I wasn't sure if you ever would, and it had to be done… for all three of us. We all deserve this chance at happiness."

She's right, of course. He's just a little amazed it took her all of nine hours or so to realize it.

"Thank you," he says, voice barely above a whisper.

She pulls away and to his relief she's still smiling.

"Right, you have officially been dumped, now go get the girl," she says, giving him a little shove in the direction of the fire.

"Harper never should have gotten you to watch all those 21st century high school movies in the entertainment archives on the Ring," he grumbles, and she laughs.

"Like I was the only one watching them." She pauses for a moment, sadness creeping into her features again and he squeezes her hand.

"How are you doing with all of that?" he asks. He's come to terms with the loss of their friends over the last couple of weeks, lots of talks with Raven and Clarke, and even Jordan, turning the sadness he felt at first whenever he thought about them into a more quiet grief that he knows will stay with him for a long time, one where he can remember them fondly. But this is still new to Echo.

She sighs. "It's hard, especially since it feels like I just saw them yesterday."

"You know I'm here if you need to talk."

"I know." She shakes her head a little. "But it's not your job to take care of us all anymore, alright? You need to focus more on yourself, starting with Clarke. Got it?"

He huffs an almost-laugh. "Got it."

"And like I said, you're not getting rid of me. But I'm going to keep a little distance for a while, until I feel seeing you together won't be too hard."

"Of course," he quickly agrees. It's not like he's much for PDA, but he understands where she's coming from. "Besides, I don't even know if she's interested."

Echo gives him a long, unimpressed look, one he's painfully familiar with after their sparring sessions on the Ring through the years.

"I might be trained to see things most people miss, but trust me, this is not one of those situations – everyone knows. Except the two of you, for some strange reason."

"Really?" He knows everyone on the Ring had known how he felt about Clarke in the beginning, but he thought he was being a little less obvious about it now. And Clarke… "I don't know, she's been… distant, the last few days. Pulling away…" He cuts himself off. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't talk to you about this, it's not OK."

Echo shakes her head. "It's fine. You obviously need help."

"Thanks, I think?"

"Just put yourself in her shoes," she continues. "She knows you and I were… whatever we were. What would you do if the situation were reversed?"

He thinks about it for a moment. If it had been Clarke who'd had a partner in cryo the last few weeks instead of him and he knew they would be waking up, then yeah, he can understand her behavior over the last couple of days. It comes down to basic self-preservation, he thinks – she just pulled away from him before he could push her away when Echo was back in his life.

"I think I see your point," he says.

"She's just scared," Echo continues. "Trust me, you have nothing to worry about."

It doesn't convince him completely, but it is comforting to know that someone else thinks he does have a chance. Even if that someone is his sort of ex…

"Alright," Echo says after another moment. "I have done what I came to do, so now I am going to go find a tent for tonight."

Bellamy immediately feels guilty – he had assumed they would share a tent, and she probably had too.

"Take mine," he offers without hesitation. "I don't mind sleeping out in the open, it'll be refreshing after 125 years in those pods."

"Are you sure? I can probably get Raven to kick Shaw out if I play to her sympathy. Or there might be a spare cot in one of the tents, a lot of people are sleeping on the ship."

"No, take mine, it's already set up," he insists. "I'll find another one, or sleep out here or on the ship."

Echo obviously knows when there's no point in arguing with him, because she accepts with a nod and another squeeze of his arm and goes off in the direction of his tent.

Bellamy watches her go for a moment while he contemplates what to do now. Bed does sound tempting, it's been a long day after all and it might take him a while to find somewhere to sleep, but so does joining his friends by the fire. Talk to Clarke for a while, throw some feelers out, try to gauge her reaction before he jumps in head first.

When he turns back to the fire, though, she and Madi have disappeared from the circle. Figuring Clarke's probably putting Madi to bed, Bellamy still takes the empty seat next to Raven by the fire, deciding to wait for a while and see if she comes back.

But she doesn't and in the end, everyone else is going to bed, so he surrenders as well, taking Emori's offer of her tent while she goes back to the med bay on the transport ship to keep Murphy company.

He can't help but feel a sting of disappointment as he crawls onto the hard cot in the tent, though. The sounds of the night settle around him, and he lets them lull him to sleep eventually, dreaming about chasing Clarke down endless, white hallways and waking up more tired than he was when he fell asleep.

AN: OK, there we go, the main obstacle out of the way! So now it should be smooth sailing… right?

I hope Echo wasn't too OOC? I don't feel like I have a great grasp on her character, to be honest, she could go "back off, he's mine", but I also think that she's a very proud person and wouldn't want to be with a guy who's in love with someone else… and I felt like she had to be the one to take that final step. I'm so not counting on this happening on the show, of course, but wishful thinking! Hope you guys liked the chapter, reviews are always welcome :)