Summary: Non-canon, Drama/Romance, hopefully with some Action/Adventure thrown in. Bellarke, Linctavia and probably more once I get going. :D
Rated M – for adult themes.
Disclaimer: Just borrowing The 100, not for profit!
A/N: Apologies for all the angst of last chapter, it's just so them, I can't avoid it. There is more here but some hope too. This is the second last chapter. Please keep commenting/faving/following etc – it really makes my day.
The Homestead
Chapter 19 – Octavia.
It was late in the afternoon on her first day in Polis that Octavia finally got to see Clarke.
After her market duty was complete, she split from the rest of the detail to catch up with Indra. Jasper had heard whisper of her return over the regular broadcasts between Arkadia and the homestead. Octavia knew her former master had been away since the summer solstice but she wasn't fully aware what Indra had been doing or where she had been.
It wasn't unusual, their lives rarely intersected these days, but Octavia was still curious.
She wondered what Indra's reaction would be to her current physical state. Their bond was forged in battle and based on their mutual respect as warriors, but if Indra thought this pregnancy made her vulnerable then Octavia had no qualms cutting her loose.
The baby was her life now. The baby was her strength.
As it was, she need not have been concerned. Indra took one look at her barely there belly, gripped Octavia's forearm firmly and smiled wickedly. "My sister," was all she said, stressing the word sister with a fierce hiss.
They spoke briskly, as always, and Octavia asked her about her trip.
"What do you know of that?" Indra eyed her inquisitively.
"Enough to get me in trouble," she bluffed.
Indra huffed in irritated amusement.
"I hope, for your sake, your child has half your impudence, Octavia."
They shared a knowing smile.
"You should ask The Commander, when you see her, if you really wish to know."
That piqued Octavia's interest.
Indra left her at the small shanty in the outer ghetto of Polis.
She found Clarke reading on her bed.
"Octavia?" she questioned as the younger woman stepped closer, into the light.
Clarke gasped softly, as she took in her friend's lithe frame and the small bump protruding from her abdomen.
"You're pregnant?"
"Nice to see you too," Octavia huffed, holding her arms out as Clarke rushed forward for a hug.
They talked briefly about the union and Clarke prattled on about the constitution and if all went well the signing would be two days after the ceremony and there would be weeks of preparation… etc, etc etc.
"You better be at this damn wedding," Octavia warned her with dark eyes. Then, as an afterthought, she said quietly, "Bellamy's giving me away."
She sounded almost forlorn.
"Is something wrong Octavia?" Clarke took her hand but Octavia remained silent for a while.
"I wish my mum was here," she replied. It seemed like the strangest thing to say, given her past, yet the most natural thing to say given her circumstances. She realised, as the words tumbled out of her mouth, that this was what had been niggling away at her all these weeks. "It's just… I don't know… how to do this." She trailed her palm over the small bump.
"Nobody knows Octavia," Clarke placed a steady hand on her friend's shoulder. "But I can't think of two people who love each other as fiercely as you and Lincoln love each other, who will care for and protect a baby with just as much intensity."
Octavia thought for a minute before looking up at Clarke, her daring eyes filled with subliminal meaning.
"I can."
Clarke blushed and took her hand away.
"I don't know what you're talking about," she muttered, standing and walking to a cart filled with refreshments. She poured them both a drink of water.
"Oh, come on Clarke, I'm not a fool." Octavia narrowed her eyes. "I know you kissed my brother," she bluffed again, but this time she was rewarded.
Clarke blushed for a second time.
"Actually, he kissed me."
"What? Ew! Go Bellamy." Octavia went through a range of responses. "So… what happened? I mean… why aren't you together? I get that you're commander and all, but you could still make it work… right?"
Clarke sighed. They hadn't specifically stated that they wouldn't tell anyone what had happened between them or their plans, and Octavia had come a long way to talk. She'd shared something private with Clarke and it would be nice to be able to do the same. Besides, she was bursting to tell somebody.
She didn't think Bellamy would mind her bonding with his little sister.
"We agreed to wait until after the winter solstice and the signing of the constitution."
Octavia groaned.
"Are you serious? My children will be old and grey before you two get your shit together!"
Clarke laughed.
Octavia joined her momentarily, before becoming quiet again.
"How will you make it work though?" she queried. "You can't take him away from that place Clarke – that place is his heart."
"I know," Clarke smiled. "I'm working on that."
"Does it have anything to do with Indra's trip?" Octavia eyed her curiously.
"Yes," Clarke stated but didn't give anything away.
"Whatever," Octavia shrugged nonchalantly and then in an instant turned back to her friend with fire in her eyes. "Just don't screw it up this time Clarke. It will crush him. And I will crush you."
He came out of the coma with a stern squeeze of her hand.
Octavia was, at first, surprised by the force of his grip, she had expected him to wake slowly and with little strength.
It wasn't until after he relaxed slightly and she stopped wincing that she realised what it meant.
She looked at his face but his eyes were still closed.
Not wanting to let go of his hand, she called out.
"Abby! Jackson! Somebody…get the hell in here!"
Nobody was around.
She jumped off the cot she had been sitting on beside Bellamy, and tried stretching for the buzzer, her hand still clenched in his because she did not want to let him go.
The buzzer was out of her reach.
In the end she used the tip of her sword to smack the alarm and waited tensely for the medical crew to arrive. One hand ploughed over his matted curls, the other squeezed his, just to make sure he was still squeezing back.
"Stay with me big brother…" she whispered shrilly to his still unopened eyes. "Stay with me."
A rush of people entered the room and she was bombarded with questions. They tried to pry her away, but she remained clinging to his hand.
When he finally blinked open his sleep soaked eyes, he didn't find the piercing blue that he'd blacked out to, but his sister's keen greens gazing down at him.
His dry lips parted and his throat bobbed as he tried to say her name, but all he could manage was to mouth a simple, silent "O."
It was sweet enough.
After a magnitude of tests, and endless prodding and poking, Bellamy drifted off to sleep, only to jump back out again, his face emblazoned with fear.
"It's okay, Bell." Octavia said beside him, taking his hand once more. "Abby said you need your rest. I'm not going anywhere." She squeezed gently for emphasis.
"Thank-you," he mouthed weakly and succumbed to sleep.
Two days later he was sitting up in bed and talking, albeit with more rough huskiness than usual.
They spoke about Lexa and the current situation, skirting around Clarke and Lincoln's departure.
"I'm sorry I hurt you O." he said with care one morning as he took his first steps outside. "I don't deserve your forgiveness."
"You heard me say that?" Octavia asked, leaning next to him on the Ark wall.
He nodded and looked away, his eyes trailing Abby, Kane and one of the guard members as they moved towards the Ark from the main gate, where the guard member had just returned from outside the wall.
"There has to be a better way!" Abby declared. "I can't let he go through with this… it's, it's ridiculous. Marcus… she's too young."
Bellamy's face contorted into alarm at the reference to Clarke. Octavia stepped forward and interrupted the group on his behalf.
"What's going on?" she asked hooking her hand around Kane's arm to get his attention and stop him moving forward.
He glanced at her and then to Bellamy standing back, no longer leaning on the Ark for support.
"The clans have reached a consensus for joint leadership of the coalition."
"That's good right?"
"It involves a deal between us and Azgeda."
"What kind of deal?" Octavia wasn't confident about the answer.
Marcus lowered his voice, his eyes still on Bellamy.
"Clarke has agreed to pledge her loyalty to Roan, in exchange for…"
"Pledge her loyalty?" Octavia almost yelped.
She knew what that meant. Most of them knew what that meant. It was only a few months ago they'd been invited to a grounder village to witness exactly what that meant. Octavia spun around to seek out her brother, realising within a flurry of seconds that he had heard everything she'd said to him while he was in the coma - which meant that he had probably heard everything Clarke had said to him while he was in the coma.
Bellamy was gone.
Octavia found him in the clinic gathering his jacket and weapons from the locker.
"I'm coming with you," she said, not bothering to try and stop him.
"No, O, I need to do this alone."
"Like hell. You can barely even walk."
They left immediately, without informing the council.
At the capital, almost two days later, Indra led them to a place in the forest just outside the city.
"She comes here sometimes, to escape." Indra explained.
They dismounted, tied up the horses and began to follow her through a gap in two giant boulders.
"Just Octavia," Indra advised, gesturing for Bellamy to stay where he was.
She led Octavia into a small area surrounded by smaller boulders and trees twisted with lush vines.
Clarke was bathing in a small pool of steaming water, with moss covered rocks around it. She reached for a knife on the water's edge when she heard footsteps approach, and then sighed with relief and clanged it back onto the rock when she saw them.
"Octavia? What are you doing here?"
"I came for Bellamy."
"Bellamy?" Clarke grabbed a cloth beside her and rose from the opaque water, covering her naked body. "He's awake?"
"You didn't know?"
"I hadn't heard. Is he here?" She looked around, clenching the towel closer to her body.
"Of course he's here!" Octavia snorted. "He came to stop you doing something stupid."
"I had no choice," she muttered, pulling on her clothes.
On the way to the hot springs, Indra had told Octavia about Lincoln's return and their failure to find Luna.
In the clearing, Bellamy stood up when he heard the crunch of foliage underfoot.
Clarke stepped between the boulders in bare feet; the ends of her hair held droplets of water and left damp patches that soaked into her shirt just above her breasts. One sleeve had slipped off her shoulder exposing her creamy, wet flesh. She looked as though she had just gotten dressed.
He licked his lips and swallowed, taken aback by the vision standing before him and his own unwanted physical response.
"I'm glad you're okay," she said after a painful silence.
"I'm not okay," he snapped, harsher than he'd intended.
She straightened up and lifted her chin. He recognised the look – he'd seen her use it on her mother several times.
"Why did you come?" she questioned, in her 'ambassador voice'. She was trying to distance herself from him. It was useless. He knew her every move.
"You know why." He was tired of the charade. It was exhausting. Wouldn't it be easier just to admit everything? "You can't go through with this – this deal is a mistake," he finally said.
"It's the only way," she sounded tired too.
He stepped closer to her, conscious of Octavia and Indra lurking not too far away.
"You can't just say what you said, leave and then… agree to something like this Clarke."
At the revelation, she froze. Her eyes and mouth opened wide with shock.
"You were in a coma! I didn't think I would ever…" She stopped then and regained her composure, remembering where they were, and why. An all too familiar mask of indifference slid over her face and she swallowed. "I was being weak," she said coldly. "This deal is worth the risk."
Bellamy closed his eyes and sighed. He wasn't going to play games any more. He decided he needed to take desperate action.
Stepping up into her personal space, Bellamy grabbed her wrist and jerked her gently forward, just as a whooshing sound filled his ears.
"Bellamy," Clarke cried and slumped forward heavily into his embrace.
He propped her up, saw the arrow embedded in her upper arm, spun his head around searching the woods, and then quickly dragged her to cover behind a huge cedar with creepers entwined around the trunk.
Indra took one look at the arrow and growled.
"Azgeda," she declared. "It will be poisoned. We need to get her back."
"So much for your union," Octavia sneered, as they lifted Clarke onto the back of Bellamy's horse.
Back at the tower they patched her up. Roan willingly provided the antidote they needed, despite Bellamy's harsh accusations as they carried Clarke into the building.
"This had nothing to do with me," the Ice Nation King vowed. He should have known he'd see Bellamy again, especially now.
The clans argued incessantly over the attack on Clarke. Those who had been pro Skaikru called for Azgeda blood and those who had been pro the Ice Nation claimed they had been set-up.
Clarke believed Roan, but she wasn't satisfied with the fact that his people were trying to destroy the union.
"Skaikru will not commit to a King who does not have the loyalty of his own people," she decreed in front of the clans. "I call on Azgeda to expose the traitors in their midst and deal with them as is their way. Until they can clear their ranks of radicals then there shall be no union!"
The chamber erupted with cries of consensus, as the clans descended on Roan.
Some of the ambassadors began to chant her name. "Wanheda! Wanheda!"
Her guards encircled her as the crowd surged forward, pushing her towards the throne.
Bellamy stepped backwards, into the shadows.
Clarke looked for him frantically in the chaos of the crowd but he had already ducked out of the room into the hall.
Octavia found him bracing his hands on his knees in the corridor, as if he couldn't breathe.
"What are you doing?" She seethed between her teeth. "Go back in there and get her."
Bellamy stood up and clenched his jaw.
"She's not coming home Octavia. She's made her choice."
By the time they returned to Arkadia they had received news that Clarke had been appointed "acting" Commander of the coalition.
It was then that Bellamy began his dangerous downward spiral – indulging in a self-loathing so impenetrable not even Octavia could break through.
His out of control drinking, screwing around, insubordination and mindless brawling was harming his reputation amongst the Arkadians and destroying what little morale was left amongst the remaining 100.
Finally, it was Kane who came up with a solution and approached Bellamy after he'd gotten into a senseless melee with a visiting Azgedian who had made the mistake of questioning the acting commander's honour.
Not long after, the homestead was born.