Work Text:
2015
Clarke groaned when Bellamy kissed her forehead before he left for the train station. She’s not a morning person and it’s insanely early, he didn’t want to wake her before her alarm so he wrote her a note and kissed her forehead before leaving.
He didn’t want to leave. The school year had just ended and he wanted some time to rest but the district chooses one teacher to go to the convention per year and he was chosen. It was also a prime opportunity to get to talk to Abby alone about his future with Clarke. He’d been meaning to for two years but whenever he tried, Clarke would walk in the room and he’d have to wait for the next opportunity when they were alone. Octavia and Raven grilled him last year about his intentions and if he even wanted to get married. What kind of question is that?
He threw his bag over his shoulder and locked the apartment behind him, descended the two story staircase and walked out into the street, towards the subway that will take him to Grand Central.
“Bellamy!” he heard just before he rounded the corner, turning around to find Clarke bolting towards him, barefoot and in the tiny tank top and sleep shorts he’d left her in.
She slammed into him, arms wrapping around him as she caught her breath. “I love you,” she sighed.
“I’m coming back,” he chuckled, holding her waist.
“Yes, but a week is too long to go without you.”
“I’ll call every night with complaints about someone’s idiotic teaching method.”
Clarke chuckled into his neck before pulling back—barely—and looked up at him with her sleepy smile, “I know. I just wanted to tell you and kiss you before you left.”
“Well, then kiss me so I don’t miss my train.”
“You’ll catch another.”
“I was supposed to leave yesterday and you found this one at this ungodly hour. I have to go.”
Clarke sighed, dropping her head back to his shoulder.
“Whether you kiss me or not, I still have to go. You know I’ll miss you more than air.”
“Miss me more than O?”
“Of course.”
“And—“
“Clarke, I’m serious. Kiss me so I can go to this conference.”
“This week is going to suck.”
“Call Raven and Monty, Luna and Roan. We have plenty of friends that can make your evenings fly by. I have to schmooze with teachers from around the country whom I’ll never see again. You win.”
“I do!” she perked up with a wide smile and Bellamy grimaced. “Though you have Miller and Jackson.”
Bellamy rolled his eyes. “Goodbye, Princess,” he said pulling out of her grasp to go to the subway another block away.
“No!” she grimaced, pulling him down for a scorching kiss that even telenovela actors were in awe of the passion. She loved him too. “You can’t leave me again.”
“I haven’t even left yet,” he smirked, untangling her arms from him.
“I just know I’m going to be miserable, our friends have lives.”
“Jasper and Monty don’t have lives and Roan is one phone call away from stardom, they have time to hang out with you. I have to go and you have to cover up before our neighbors see you all sexy like this.”
“Fine. Call me when you get there,” Clarke pouted and Bellamy kissed her again before turning back to the subway.
Nerves.
Bellamy never really experienced them until he met Dr. Abigail Griffin. She’s a W.I.C. and they intimidated him, but it was also because he was crushing hard on her daughter. And they’ve been together for three years and he wants to marry her. Marry Clarke, not Abby. They graduated two years ago, they both somehow managed to get jobs in the same city, him a teacher at a high school and her the art director at a museum. Of course, he’d love to be a professor at Columbia or NYU, though it’s a stretch, but he wants to give back to the community for a while. Get his bearings and probably let age get the better of him so he’ll stop looking like a fucking college student while teaching college students.
The principal forced him into going to this teachers conference that’s held every year with teachers from across the country coming together to share their experiences and methods. Bellamy barely had a method, still trying to feel out the school board and all but there he was, spending his mid-winter break in Washington DC with a bunch of other underpaid educators crammed together in the same building during one of the most grueling elections he’s ever bore witness to and he only had one goal when the conference wasn’t going on, he had to see Abigail Griffin.
Which was how he ended up sitting at a picnic table in the hospital’s courtyard, his foot tapping anxiously under the table as he picked at the empty coffee cup in his hand.
“Bellamy Blake, what do I owe this pleasure?” Dr. Griffin asked sitting across from him.
He smiled sheepishly as he pulled his hands away from the cup and looked up at her. She looked the same as she did at Thanksgiving, not a shock there though. “Dr. Griffin, I was in town, thought I’d say hi, see where you work, it’s an impressive hospital.”
“Yes, it is. And I have a surgery I should be prepping for, but I heard that today hasn’t been your first time visiting this week. You’re looking for me, why? You could have called.”
“I’m on the same plan as Clarke and if she looked at the records… I didn’t want her wondering why I called you.”
“Why did you call me?”
“I would like to marry your daughter. I know she’d want me to ask Jake for permission, but I can’t. I know you guys don’t have the best relationship and you’re trying to mend it, but I think it’d mean something if you—“
“Jake wouldn’t shut up about you. Clarke was so pushy that weekend, we just had to meet the man who made her dinner twice a week because frozen dinners and take-out weren’t healthy. They’re not. You impressed him, though it wasn’t too hard to do because his daughter was smitten. If Jake were here, he would have hugged you and asked you what’s taken you so long.”
Bellamy thought about it, the only time he met Jake Griffin, how the man watched him like a hawk while also being kind and open. Bellamy respected his skepticism, he and Clarke had a rocky start and became friends in the strangest way, he didn’t even realize that he was fond of her until the endo of her sophomore year and he didn’t want her to go back to DC. Saying goodbye hurt, he didn’t expect it and he hated it, but it happened and he never wants to say goodbye to her again. “We’re in a good place.”
“Did you get a ring?”
“Not yet,” he grimaced.
“Clarke always snuck into my jewelry box after her grandmother passed away, slipped it on her finger. It’s this art deco design that’s unique and it’s perfect for her. Would you like it? I know she’d want it.”
“Um, are you sure?”
“It’s too big for her finger, it’s going to have to be resized but yes, it’s all yours.”
“Yes. Yes, thank you, Dr. Griffin.”
“We’re family, Bellamy. You can call me, Abby.”
“Okay. Thank you, Abby.”
“You leave tomorrow?” she asked.
“Yes, my flight’s at one.”
“I have the morning off. Come by the house on your way to the airport and I’ll give it to you. Right now I really have to go. Surgery.”
Bellamy nodded and hugged Abby before she left, thanking her once again.
“She’s going to love this,” Abby smiled in the kitchen the next morning, pouring another cup of coffee for Bellamy, Kane sat quietly at the other end of the island reading the Post and drinking his coffee.
“Abby, I—I really don’t know what to say, this ring is beautiful.”
“Say thank you and let me know when you do it, I don’t just want a save the date email.”
Bellamy scoffed. “I will, Clarke might beat me to it once she sees it though.”
“I couldn’t be any more proud of you, son,” Kane said, folding his newspaper.
Bellamy grimaced before realizing that the man might feel a little hurt that Bellamy didn’t ask for his permission. Not only is he Clarke’s stepfather, but he’s also known her all her life. “Kane, I—“
“Double-edged sword,” the man carried his mug to the sink and dropped it in before kissing Abby on the cheek, “I’ll see you tonight.” He turned to Bellamy, giving him a stern handshake, “Congratulations.”
“Thanks,” Bellamy smiled back softly as the guilt ate away at him.
Once they heard the door close, Abby turned back to Bellamy. “He’s happy for you guys, he just thought you might have saw him as a father figure.”
“He said that?”
“Not in those words, but he taught you and Clarke up at NYU and you were his TA. He watched the two of you fall in love and thought that maybe you’d let him know since you still call him all the time.”
“I know and I was going to, but you’re her mother and she’s not going to be happy finding out I asked either of you, but she’s going to. I love her and want her to be happy more than anything.”
Abby nodded, “You make her happy.”
“There was a time I thought she’d never be happy again.”
“Me too. Jake was a huge part of her life, better to her than I was. I’m trying as much as she’ll let me.”
Bellamy smiled, “I know. She talks to me about you and I sometimes have to remind her that you are trying. I really mean no offense by this but I tell her better late than never. It gives her that perspective that she is lucky. She still has a parent around to drive her crazy. She loves you and she hates that you didn’t convince Jake into chemo but she still has you around and you are trying. I don’t and saying that reminds her of that too.”
“Your father?”
“And mom, she wasn’t the best, but she did try her hardest to provide for us and she did. The crash was sudden and I had to work three jobs to keep O and I in college even with scholarships and grants. They weren’t enough.”
“You don’t know your father at all? Not even his name?”
“No, I know he’s Filipino.”
“I didn’t know that.”
“Yeah, my mom didn’t think he’d split either, but he did. I feel like I haven’t missed much most of the time but then there was Kane and he made me feel like I missed out on my childhood. It’s weird and I didn’t expect this either, talking to you.”
“I’m glad we are and I’m sorry for judging you when Clarke first brought you around. I thought Finn was good for her, but I can see that you’re more than Finn.”
“I really hate that guy,” Bellamy laughed.
“Yeah, he wasn’t the best. I also think of Raven as a daughter, Clarke always brought her around after everything with Finn.”
“Another orphan finding a surrogate parental figure to look up to.”
“Octavia never saw me like that.”
“Indra is the closest she got. She also befriended Gaia so that’s why she was over there more.”
“And Lincoln didn’t hurt either.”
Bellamy grimaced, “They’re lucky I didn’t find out until she was of legal age.”
“He respects you.”
“He’s a good guy. Have you ever considered moving up to New York?”
“No, I like it here, it’s less hectic. I love visiting you guys though. It’s a nice change, not exactly a vacation, but different from the day to day.”
“You’re always welcome.”
“Thanksgiving,” she smiled. They agreed years ago that she’d visit on Thanksgiving and they’d go see her and Kane for Christmas. It’s easier than Bellamy taking days off work to visit during Thanksgiving and then spring break they’d all go down to Kane’s beachfront bungalow in Naples, Florida. They all get a vacation, though it usually turns into a catfight between the Griffin women and that’s when Bellamy volunteers to play golf (horribly) with Kane, Jaha, and Pike, all Princeton alumnus of the same year and frat.
Bellamy hates golf.
“You’re welcome to visit more.”
“You say that, but I’m afraid that if I do, Clarke isn’t going to be so pleased. We’re good, Bellamy. We argue like crazy, but we always have. You and Kane are great buffers too.”
Bellamy checked the time on the stove behind Abby and sighed. “I should go, my flights in three hours and I have to check in.” He stood and put his mug in the sink before closing the ring box and putting it in his pocket, “Thank you so much, she’s going to be surprised.”
“Keep me in the loop and if you need anything you can always call me.”
Bellamy nodded and hugged Abby before leaving with a smile on his face.
Now he just has to find the right moment to propose.
