Two hours later and Bellamy had become thoroughly acquainted with the staff running Clarke's charity event. "Ark Memorial's Art Foundation" was the name she gave when Bellamy asked. She had said it with the pride of a mother hen who wasn't allowed to brag about her child nearly enough. Bellamy soon discovered that not only was Clarke the founder, but she had essentially taken it from its infancy three years ago, to a million dollar (and rising) charity that was working to bring back art and music classes to all of the local schools in the city.

Bellamy had heard a lot of things about the younger Miss Griffin, from her relationship status to her fashion choices, but somehow those in-depth exposes had failed to mention what appeared to be the single most important thing in Clarke's life.

As he watched her greet the crew that was setting up the seating for the event, Bellamy could see the passion in her eyes. Even the smallest of details were filled with considerable thought, such as insisting that the children's artwork was not pushed aside and placed front and center, and voicing her desire to place the podium on floor level so that she wouldn't be towering so much over the audience.

Although, Bellamy did feel the need to interject to that last request. "For security purposes, it would be better if you had a raised platform," he explained. "Less accessible to the audience…" He could see in the frown on her face that that was exactly what she was worried about, before adding, "and less accessible to potential threats." Clarke's frown softened slightly at his reasoning, and he could tell that she was mulling over what he said. As soon as another option popped into his head, he voiced it, "Maybe you could invite some children up onto the stage with you. We can clear them beforehand and that way you'll still be connecting to the audience, but in a safer manner."

Clarke's eyes brightened at the idea and her face broke into a huge smile. Within a minute Bellamy was handed a guest list so that he could work on filtering through potential candidates.

There was going to be a few hundred people in attendance, all packed into the larger of two ballrooms located on the first floor of the Griffin house. They were going to be a diverse bunch. Children would be mixed with adults. Public school teachers would be mixed with corporate businessmen. It was definitely not the usual make-up of guests invited to a Griffin affair. At least, that's what Bellamy presumed from the glaring looks Abigail Griffin kept shooting off as the first guests arrived and began to take their seats.

Clarke was off to the side of the podium, chatting with a few people, when Bellamy walked up to go over the final details. He waited for a minute until there was a break in the conversation, and politely interjected. "Clarke-" A dark haired woman's eyebrows shot up at his use of her first name and he quickly corrected himself. "I mean, Miss Griffin, could I borrow you for a moment?"

None the wiser to his correction, Clarke nodded. "Bellamy! Here, let me first introduce you! These are my friends Monty Green and Jasper Jordan," she said, pointing to the two guys. Bellamy reached forward to shake their hands. "They are both high school science teachers." Then she turned to the dark-haired woman. "And this is my best friend Raven Reyes. She teaches Industrial Technology part-time and works for my foundation when she's not teaching."

Bellamy went to shake Raven's hand as well, but she pointedly ignored it. Unlike with Abigail Griffin though, he didn't take any offense. Raven seemed more intrigued than anything as she crossed her arms over chest and squinted up at him. "Bellamy, huh? What exactly is it that you do for our friend Clarke here?" She looked over at Clarke speculatively and in a matter of seconds the two had what appeared to be an uncomfortable conversation using just their eyes. Well, uncomfortable for Clarke at least, who was blushing furiously. Raven just looked smug and clapped Bellamy on the back. "Nice to meet you Bellamy. I'm sure you have a lot to discuss with Clarke," she smirked, leading a confused Monty and Jasper away to take their seats.

An equally confused Bellamy turned back to Clarke, who was avoiding his gaze. "What was that about?"

"Hmm?" Clarke asked distractedly, before focusing on Raven's retreating figure. "Oh, nothing! So what did you talk to me about?"

Bellamy took her distraction in stride and pushed it out of his mind. "Right, I wanted to go over the final plan one more time before we…"

He was interrupted by a loud gun shot that pierced the air. Instinctively Bellamy pushed Clarke down onto the ground, covering her body with his own, just as the sound of a bullet went whooshing past their heads. There was crack as it hit the wall behind them, and then the regular security hired at the Griffin house burst into action, calling everyone to get down.

Whispering at Clarke to stay still, Bellamy risked peaking his head up and scanned the crowd. He instantly saw the shooter who was running across the back of the room, chased by two security guards, one male and one female. The male guard circled around the chairs to cut the shooter off, but the female kept to a straight path, gaining on the shooter and eventually tackling him down in one leap.

"Come on," Bellamy said, once he saw the shooter had been apprehended. He pulled Clarke to her feet and quickly ushered her out of the room into a large coat closet. After digging through the rack to make sure they were alone, Bellamy let go of Clarke's arm only to grasp her face instead. "Are you okay?"

When he saw the tears streaming down her face, Bellamy was positive that she had been shot. He let out a strangled grunt and began looking over her body, only for Clarke to stop him. "I'm fine. No. No. I'm fine Bellamy, really." She hadn't stopped crying though, which didn't really convince her private security guard. She met his eyes though and he could see that she was telling the truth. Her gaze turned desperate then. "Can you just have someone go check on my father?"

If the situation hadn't been so serious, Bellamy would have laughed. Here was someone who had just been shot at, and instead of worrying about her own safety, she was concerned about somebody else's.

"Of course," Bellamy replied, opening the closet door and looking for anybody else from the security team. Thankfully, one had seen him pull Clarke into the coat closet and was waiting just outside with a worried expression. "She's fine," he told the guard. "But can you have someone check on Dr. Griffin?"

When he turned back around, Clarke was right behind him, trying to get out. "Oh no you don't," Bellamy mumbled, pushing her back inside.

Wow. It's been awhile. My bad. School has started up again and things are little hectic. It's not that I don't have time to write exactly, more that when I do start to write, I get so wrapped up in what I'm doing that I ignore my schoolwork. Not good.

I'm going to try and update this story a little more often though. There are only going to be a few more chapters left, so it shouldn't be too time consuming. And then there is that matter of my other fics that I've kind-of-sort-of abandoned. *Sigh*

Anyways, thanks for all of the positive feedback with this story! I hope you enjoyed the latest update. Let me know by following, favoriting and commenting!