Chapter Text
"Hi Bellamy."
Clarke put down the receiver and waited. It was uncomfortable, the static filling the room as she waited for a reply. It sounded almost foreign. Twenty-four days had passed since Praimfaya. Twenty-four days filled with silence and stillness Clarke had yet to experience on Earth. The first three or so were hellish, having woken up on the floor of the lab in agonizing pain after an unknown number of hours had passed. She tried to treat the radiation as best she could, not knowing if the Nightblood solution would have taken, before finally she began to recover. Then the worst part hit. The isolation. The lack of food. Of water. Clarke looked down at the receiver before picking it up again.
"I know it’s surprising but…" Clarke inhaled deeply "I’m alive." She worried her lip between her teeth, hoping that maybe he’d respond. She continued after a minute.
"I’m really hoping that you aren’t responding because you’re too busy to be working with the radio staying alive and not because-" Her voice cracked. "Because I failed you." She felt a tear escaping and quickly wiped it away.
R"emember how I responded when you called from Mount Weather? Yeah, I wish you’d return the favor right about now." She took a deep breath.
"I hope you all are getting along up there. I can imagine it now; Monty and Raven are probably deep in repairs to the ship. Getting the farm running and all. Murphy is probably driving you up a wall and Harper’s trying to make sure Monty’s sane after… Jasper." Clarke took a deep breath wiping her eyes. "You and Monty and Murphy... you had to have made it back. You had to. I’d know if you were gone. You can’t be no- you aren’t."
Clarke put down the receiver. She laid back against the cold floor of the lab, wondering if she even believed that he was alive. Was the ache in her chest due to loneliness or the loss of her partner. She thought on that for a moment. That was all they were technically. Partners. She now had spent equal time with him and without him on Earth, between her stupid quest to find her after Mount Weather, and her time in Polis with Lexa. Clarke stared up at the ceiling of the lab, imagining it were the sky instead of part of a bunker. She knew that she wouldn’t change the time that she spent with Lexa or finding out who she was after the mountain for anything, as these experiences were important to forming who she was, but maybe, just maybe if she had one more day with Bellamy she would have told him.
She sat quickly back up, not allowing that train of thought to continue. She picked up the receiver again.
"Raven would be proud of me. I got the radio working all by myself after 24 days. And that’s before her, no less. I’ve been planning a lot, to keep myself sane I guess. So, I think, if it’s still standing, I might try to go to the house. There might be more food there, and right now with strict rationing, I might have enough food to last for another week. Thank you, Bellamy, for leaving me a few packs of food. I knew it had to be you. You always had hope about me making it. I’m going to have to fix my suit. I cracked the entire mask, but don’t worry. I’m fine now. The Nightblood solution worked."
Clarke took a deep breath. "I don’t blame you for leaving me here. I know you probably didn’t get my message when I radioed you at the tower, but I wanted you to go. The others and you, they wouldn’t have survived here, and I wanted- I want you all to live because I care about you all. I hope you’re listening, Bellamy. That you’re up in the Ark somewhere maybe barking orders at Raven trying to get her to fix your end or something like that." Clarke closed her eyes, smiling, trying to imagine their interactions. She turned her head and the shattered helmet caught her eye.
She sighed and then picked up the receiver again. "Bellamy I’m going to let you go. You probably have to keep our friends alive and I have to keep myself alive so I can see you. 1801 more days. May we meet again."