Work Text:
Clarke finds out Bellamy is dead at two in the morning just as she is getting off from the hospital.
Octavia called her, she could barely speak. As soon as Clarke can figure out where Octavia is, she runs to her car and drives to her.
Octavia is at the police station. When Clarke sees her, she pulls her into a tight hug.
Octavia is sobbing into her shoulder. Clarke feels her own tears coming but she holds them back. They tell Clarke it's a hit and run. They haven't caught the driver, but witnesses say they saw a sliver truck drive away from the scene.
Clarke identified the body, she couldn't put Octavia though that. He doesn't looks bad, at least his face doesn't. He looks like he is sleeping.
The tears come back, and this time, Clarke can't hold all of them back.
The police officer with her offers her a tissue.
*
Clarke helps Octavia plan the funeral.
It's sad and emotional for both of them.
Octavia gives the eulogy, she keeps it together until she leaves the funeral home.
She breaks down in the parking lot with Jasper holding her.
Clarke can't quite grasp the fact that Bellamy was gone. He had been in her life since she was five. He had been in her life for 14 years and now he was gone.
It was so weird and wrong.
*
Octavia couldn't clean out Bellamy's house.
Every time she tried, she ended up leaving in tears.
Clarke knew that Octavia needed to sell the house, she needed the money. Plus she couldn't pay the bills off the house for much longer. So Clarke volunteered to do it for her.
Being in the house is weird. Bellamy had brought the house four years ago when he was 21. His reason for buying a house when he was so young was that he wanted to raise a family here.
It broke her heart that he wouldn't be able to do that.
*
Clarke is packing up his living room when she hearsa noise in the kitchen.
It's the middle of the afternoon, no one would be this stupid to rob a house in the middle of the day.
Clarke quietly walks toward the kitchen, she picks up Bellamy's old baseball bat and holds it up.
When she reaches the kitchen, she screams.
"Jesus fucking Christ, Clarke, knock that off," Bellamy says annoyed.
Clarke stops her scream. But her mouth is still wide open.
"You're dead, I saw the body," she sucks in air quickly, "I am going insane, I am hallucinating. I must be crazy," she says.
Bellamy rolls his eyes, "You're right, Princess. I am dead. I believe I would be a ghost. But hold on to your socks, because guess what? You are the only one you can see me."
Clarke sinks to the floor, "Oh god, I am so going crazy."
She holds her head in her hands.
"Clarke, you aren't going crazy. I am here, really," he says not unkindly.
"How do you know I am the only one who can see you?" she demands.
He sighs, "Octavia came by with Jasper the other day. I stood right in front of them, nothing happened. They walked right by me."
Clarke rubs her eyes, "Why is this happening to me?"
"Damned if I know, Princess," he says.
Clarke looks at him. He looks the same in death as he did in life. He is wearing the clothes that he died in, his hair is still a curly mess, and he still has his freckles.
God, she really was going insane.
*
Clarke spends the next four hours talking to Bellamy about his ghostly skills and googling insanely.
He can't touch things but if he focuses hard enough he can move them with his mind. When he touches her, a cold feeling sinks into her body. He can't leave his house, some kind of force keeps him there.
The internet tells her the same thing.
Something is keeping his soul here on earth.
*
"It must be who ever hit you, the universe must need justice somehow," Clarke tells him the next day.
"But how are we going to find that out, Clarke?" he asks, "I don't remember anything about being hit."
Clarke shrugs, "I'll get the police report."
*
She gets the police report and they spend the next three days in his old bedroom reviewing it.
All they find out is that the driver was male and he drives a sliver truck.
Clarke flops against the bed, "Tell me about it one more time," she says for probably the millionth time.
"I was walking down the street, it was just past midnight. I was crossing the street when I saw headlights. I looked up and saw the car right before it hit me. Next thing I know, I wake up on the floor of my house," he says calmly.
"Anything else?"
"Nothing."
"No number sticker? Or license plate number that you recognized?" she questions.
He thinks for a minute before saying, "The car felt familiar, like I had seen it before."
It wasn't much, but Clarke would take it.
*
They narrow the list of all Bellamy's friends, coworkers, ex girlfriends, and anyone else they can' think of, to who has sliver truck.
The list has ten people on it.
*
"Hey Clarke?"
"Yeah?"
"How's O doing? For real?"
Clarke sighs, "Not very good, she is spending the nights at Jasper and Monty's place. She isn't working and school is out if the question right now," Clarke pauses for a second before adding, "She misses you, she misses you a lot."
Bellamy runs his hands though his hair, "I miss her too. I miss seeing her, I miss talking to her. I miss life, Clarke. This whole being dead thing sucks."
Clarke feels her chest tighen, "This isn't all there is, Bellamy, you know that right? After we figure this out, you'll move on."
"Move on to what?"
"I don't know, what do you think?"
Bellamy stays silent for a minute before saying, "I always liked that parallel universe theory. It made sense to me. I always liked how in another universe things could be better."
Clarke smiled, she tears build up in the back of her eyes, "Well, just imagine after this life, you'll move on to the next."
*
Clarke tracks down all the people on her list. Until she finds the one.
She runs into his house, yelling, "Bellamy!"
He appears next to her suddenly, saying, "Boo," right in her ear.
She rolls her eyes and says, "I figured it out, I know who killed you."
His eyes went wide, "You do?"
She nods, "It was Murphy. I talked to everyone who owns a sliver truck, they still have theirs. But when I talked to Murphy, he wasn't driving it. And when I asked, he said that he sold it a month ago. But I saw him driving it the day you got hit."
"You talked to him? Clarke, what the hell were you thinking?" He exclaims.
"I was thinking that we needed something to make a tip to the police and now we have it."
"What if he had hurt you? I couldn't live with myself if you got hurt because of this," he says.
"Technically, Bell, you are already dead. But none of this matters, I am going to make the call now, ok?" She says as she pulls her phone out.
*
The police arrest Murphy, they found his car. It had blood on it. But it doesn't work, Bellamy still can't leave the house.
Clarke goes to the internet again.
"There has to be something here," she mutters to herself.
Bellamy is pacing behind her.
"Clarke, what does the internet say about someone keeping a soul on earth?" He asks calmly.
"What do you mean?" Clarke asks.
"Like how does love factor into this?"
Clarke frowns at her laptop screen, "It says here that true love can sometimes keep a soul from crossing into the other side"
Clarke turns around to face him, but he is now where to be found.
*
Clarke comes back the next day.
"Bell? Are you here?" she calls into the house.
She hears a noise upstairs, she quickly walks up to see him in his bedroom.
"Bellamy, I was worried. After yesterday, I didn't know if," she trailed off, not really wanting to finish her sentence.
He faces her, his dark brown eyes are sad and before she can ask what's wrong he says, "Clarke, I think I love you."
Her eyes go wide but she doesn't say anything.
"That night I was hit, I was walking to your appartment. I was going to tell you that I liked you, in more than a friend way. I got all the way to your building before I lost my nerve. I should have knocked on your door, I should have told you. Then none of this would have happened."
Clarke feels tears slip down her cheeks, "How dare you tell me this, you can't tell me you love me. Bellamy, you're dead and nothing is going to change that. And the fact that you are telling me this is cruel."
"Why is it cruel? You said it yourself, I need to move on into the next life," he agrues.
"It's cruel because you'll be gone and I'll be here alone!" Clarke yells.
Clarke turns and before she runs out of the house, she says, "And I wasn't even there that night, I covered someone's ER shift."
*
Clarke goes to Jasper and Monty's.
When Monty opens the door, Clarke starts sobbing again.
Monty wraps his arms around and leads her into his bedroom and lies her down. He sits with her until she falls asleep.
Clarke wakes up early the next morning to Jasper and Monty talking softly to each other outside her door.
"Apparently she's been sleeping there, she spends days over there. Did you see what she was wearing? One of his shirts and a pair of his old sweat pants," Monty says.
"You don't think Clarke had feelings for him? Do you?" Jasper asks
Monty sighs, "I don't know Jasper, I really don't."
*
Clarke goes back to Bellamy's house that afternoon.
She sits on his stairs for a minute before saying, "I wish I could say I loved you too. But I can't."
"I know," Bellamy says appearing in front of her.
Clarke's eyes fill with tears, "But I think, with more time, I could have loved you. I think in another universe, if you showed up at my door that night and kissed me, I would have let you do it."
Bellamy kneeled in front of her, "It's funny, when I couldn't leave, that's all I wanted to do. I just wanted to move on. But now that I can, all I want to do is stay."
"But you can't, you have to go," Clarke says sadly.
"I know," he says again.
He pushes himself onto his feet.
"See you on the other side, Princess," he said winking at her.
She laughs softly.
Bellamy walks toward the door, he glances back at her before he opens it. His eyes are sad.
"Watch out for Octavia, ok?" He says.
"I will," she promises.
He opens the door and walks out.
*
Clarke goes back to the house three days later.
She stands in the hallway.
For the first time, he doesn't appear next to her.
The house is quiet. She walks toward the staircase and sits on the bottom step.
Clarke listens for something, anything that could indicate that he was still here.
All that could be heard was her own breathing.
"I miss you, Bell," she says softly.
And for once, no one responds.
*
In another universe, Clarke didn't cover someone's ER shift.
In another universe, Bellamy gets the courage to knock on Clarke's appartment door that night and she is there to answer.
In another universe, he kisses her when she opens the door. And she kisses him back.
But this universe is, as they say, the darkest timeline.