Chapter Text
Clarke went and asked for her soul mates’ name on her eighteenth birthday. She simply couldn’t risk that if she waited, they might go and collect it… she couldn’t bear the frustration, the lack of control she would have if she didn’t know.
Of course, there was always the chance that they’d already turned eighteen and knew her name. And she would never, ever know theirs for sure. She’d be reduced to trusting that they were telling her the truth; that she was indeed their soul mate – not just someone they were using until their real soul mate came along and she’d be left alone and broken. Honestly, after her pleasant little experience with Finn Collins a little over six months ago, she doubted she’d ever believe someone telling her that she was their match made in heaven or whatever.
The Names Office had hard wooden floors and at least a hundred people sitting in the big squashy chairs, most clinging to a small piece of paper with a number attached. It seemed that although some of the people there had brought friends, most were, like Clarke, alone. Three or so were in their early twenties easily, two women with un naturally red hair and running mascara, and a tanned man with dark curls who just stared at the wall in front of them – they’d clearly given up on an old-school romance dream, but almost everyone appeared to be 18 like Clarke. She didn’t doubt that today was either the day of their birthday or the day after – most people who were going to collect their name at eighteen didn’t waste a lot of time.
Clarke strode as confidently as she could manage to the ticket dispenser and pulled out her number. 309 stared back at her, and glancing at the number up on the board (213) she knew she was in for a big wait. She settled herself into one of the seats – they were every bit as comfy as they looked, probably to help the kids there feel a little more at home – and began to wait.
A solid hour later she was deathly bored and the number on the board had only crawled its way up to 260. What on earth was taking so long, she would never understand. Some people went into those offices looking as though they suddenly thought they were going six feet under, but they all seemed to emerge with great smiles. The smile of someone who knew the name of their soul mate and was off to start their wonderful new life together. A few came out with tears unshed in their eyes, and still more with tears catching the light on their eyelashes and cheeks. Some of these people clearly came out empty handed, without the official, thick, creamy paper that held their soul mate’s name, but interestingly, more of them held the paper. Clarke supposed that they’d come out holding the wrong name – not the name of their boyfriend or their crush. She was glad that it was impossible for that to happen to her, as she was currently boyfriend-less and crush-less. Still, she felt nerves flutter through her belly. What if she got a name that she recognised? Then she’d have to go home and explain to them that she was their soul mate. That she had never felt anything for them before in her life, but now felt obligated to try.
The minutes slowly ticked past, bringing her closer to knowing. Despite her nerves, part of her held firm that she’d be better off. Once she knew what her problem was, she could tackle it. If she knew the person, well… at least she could start trying to feel something for them. If she didn’t know the person, she could keep her eye out for them, look them up, add them on Facebook… something.
She just needed to know which problem to solve.
Finally, her number was called. She jumped slightly, then stood, trying to recover her dignity a little. Today she was strong, and being strong meant looking strong.
“Just through here, hon.” The secretary smiled at her, eyes soft. Clearly the monotony of her job hadn’t broken her yet, as she still looked at Clarke like it was the most important thing in her whole world that Clarke found what she was looking for.
“Thanks.” Clarke flashed her a smile, although she felt nothing like smiling. The moment was getting to her, she knew. She stepped into the tiny office indicated. There sat an old lady, the type who looked like she had always planned to be a nurse and had turned left instead of right on the way to classes and ended up doing something else entirely. She had her steely hair scraped up into a perfect bun, and her brown eyes had a soft, faded quality to them.
“Hello, I’m Paula.” She smiled slightly, and Clarke smiled back.
“Clarke Griffin.”
“Okay…” The old lady fiddled with the computer at a glacial rate. Finally, she nodded to herself, and Clarke heard the printer cough to life behind her. “You’ll like his name – got a good bit of alliteration happening.” Clarke grinned hugely. In just a few seconds, after she’d signed for it, she would know. For better or for worse, at least she would know.
“Just sign here, then run over and grab the paper and you’re done.” Paula held out a pen and tapped the dotted line on an official looking document. For just a second, Clarke considered not signing, apologising for wasting Paula’s time and going home. However, it was only a second and then she was back to herself. She took the pen, and began to sign.
However, she’d only finished her first name when the computer started making the most horrendous beeping noise she’d ever heard. It was worse than her alarm on a Monday morning.
“Stop!” Paula cried, and so Clarke looked up, taking her pen off the page. The paper was immediately whisked out from under her hand and almost before she knew it Paula was at the printer, folding Clarke’s paper carefully in half, before pulling out a lighter and setting it on fire.
“Wait!” Clarke choked, but the damage was done. The paper couldn’t be salvaged. Paula dropped it into her metal bin by the door, still burning, and looked at Clarke apologetically.
“Sorry, dear. But you were a second too late. They’ve claimed your name.”
-----
“Clarke Griffin.” Bellamy read aloud.
“It’s a good name.” The middle aged man said encouragingly. Bellamy could only nod. He didn’t know her. He sighed with relief. That meant that the girl he’d been dating for the past couple of months wasn’t his soul mate, as much as she’d hinted that she thought she was. Of course, she was the type that didn’t know her soul mates’ name, and didn’t really plan to. He could break up with her now with no lingering questions. Which, to be fair, was all he’d ever wanted anyways.
“Thanks.” He said, a huge grin spreading across his face. He was free once more, freed by the knowledge of his soul mate’s name where before he had been liberated by not knowing. He turned and left, striding through the building and out onto the street. As he left, he couldn’t help but notice a stunned looking woman staring at the bin as he walked past. What on earth had made her pull that expression he had no idea.
As soon as he was on the street, still clutching his piece of paper, he dialled Roma, his soon to be ex-girlfriend’s number.
“Hey!”
“Uh, hi. Look, I was just in the Names Office and-“
“You what!” Roma cried into the phone in shock “Okay, okay, was I right? Is it me?”
“No.” Bellamy carefully ignored the guilt that suddenly flooded him.
“Oh.”
“Yeah.”
“So is this goodbye or do you want to try and make it work anyways?” She asked, and he could hear that she was trying not to let it get to her.
“This is goodbye I think, Roma. We can still be friends…?” He offered weakly, knowing in his heart that it was unlikely he’d so much as hear from Roma again, never mind remain her friend.
“Yeah, I’m sure we can.” Her voice sounded off, and she shut off the call a moment later.
Next, Bellamy called Octavia, almost afraid to tell her how he’d broken up with Roma – although, she had to have know that he was desperate to do so.
“Hey Bell! What name?”
“Someone called Clarke Griffin…”
“Wait, Clark? Hang on; I didn’t know you were into guys. You know that you could have –“
“O, its –“ Bellamy tried to explain that he hadn’t been hiding bisexuality from her, and that if he was bi he wouldn’t have kept it from her, but she cut him off.”
“Told me ages ago. I want to be there for you – “
“O!”
“What?” His sister sounded vaguely annoyed.
“Clarke with an –e. She’s a girl. And if I was bisexual, I wouldn’t keep it from you, I know that you would still love and accept me, yeah?” Bellamy finally got out.
“Oh. Okay. Very true. So do you know her?”
“Nope, never heard of her in my life!” Bellamy couldn’t help but laugh with a little joy as he said the words, drawing a strange look from an 18 year old walking into the Names Office.
“So, Roma?” Octavia asked softly, as though she’d already guessed.
“I called. She knows.”
“Ouch. You know, if some guy did that to me you’d beat them to the ground?”
“Sure would… I don’t know O; I just figured it would be better to rip it off like a Band-Aid. She didn’t want to know for sure, just wanted to hint at it. I don’t want that, and you know it.”
“Fine. But if she beats you up I won’t be defending you.”
“Fair enough.” Bellamy smiled anyways, knowing that his younger sister was right, and that he was too joyful to care. “How’s work?” He asked, easily moving onto a new topic, one that Octavia threw herself into with gusto. As he listened to his sister, he couldn’t help but notice the blond who’d been staring at the bin as though it held all the answers to his life leave the office. She looked shocked; as though something had happened that was so unexpected she hadn’t even begun to process it. Still, she walked with a straight back, and an inner confidence that Bellamy found himself drawn to. He shook himself focusing back on his sister. The stranger didn’t matter, not at all. His freedom, however, did.
“Look, O, I’m not going to be home until late tonight, yeah? There’s lasagne in the fridge. If you want to get someone to stay over if that makes you feel better, that’s completely fine.”
“I’m not a baby, Bell.” Octavia laughed. “I can take care of myself for one night!”
“Whatever you say.” Bellamy deadpanned, then the two said their goodbyes. Finally, Bellamy had only one more call to make. John Murphy’s name flashed up on his contact screen, and he picked up within two rings.
“What?”
“Yeah, yeah, it’s lovely to hear from you too, Murphy. Do you want to hit the clubs tonight?”
“And Roma?” At that, Bellamy knew he had him.
“Her name’s not Clarke Griffin, is it?”
“Wait, your soul mate is a guy?”
“Oh come on!” Bellamy laughed, preparing to hear that from every single one of his friends.
-----
It took Clarke a long time to come to terms with the fact that if she ever did meet her soul mate she would have no definitive proof that they were telling her the truth. At first she’d been angry, angry that she’d hesitated for that split second before signing, angry that Paula had taken so long to find her name on the system, angry at the system itself – why should only one of a pair know the other’s name?
Then she’d simply been sad. Sad because she doubted that she’d ever trust enough to be happy, sad that as far as she could tell, her future was known by a total stranger. She was sad too that she couldn’t solve any of her problems, only wait for them to come to her. Whoever her soul mate was, they weren’t exactly seeking her out. All she knew was that they had an alliterative name, which, to her vast relief ruled out Finn Collins. That, she’d been able to admit to herself afterwards. If that slimly little lowlife had been her soul mate… It also ruled out one of her best friends, that she knew her parents had been hoping it would be, Wells Jaha. Honestly, she was simply grateful, even though she knew that he was saddened by the news. She had only ever seen Wells as a friend, and so losing that would have been heartbreaking and scary. However, it did open her up to lots of ribbing from Raven, who spent the next six months laughing that she was Clarke’s soul mate. Of course, neither of them believed it, and on Raven’s 18th birthday her partner had already claimed her name.
“Don’t worry, Clarke. You’ll always be my soul mate to me!” Raven had laughed, and the two of them had gone home. Raven didn’t take it has hard as Clarke had, despite being hurt far worse than Clarke by Finn. Clarke supposed that that was simply Raven’s nature. She was comfortable enough in herself to allow for the worse, while Clarke built walls miles high.
College packets arrived eventually, and Clarke was overjoyed to find that she’d been offered a position in Harvard for medicine, which fitted her perfectly as she already lived in the area. Raven got into an engineering course nearby, and Wells went abroad to study international relations, so Clarke got calls every night about the theories behind why which country had done what until her head spun.
By Clarke’s 21st, she was achieving well in her course, and was about to start prac at her local hospital.
By the time she was 23, she’d seen some things, but she still loved Medicine with all her heart. Prac at the hospital was gruelling but her body was coping better by then, and her Mum was always giving her tips that saved her on more than one occasion. She was still close with Wells and Raven, both of whom were thriving in their courses. She still hadn’t seen hide nor hair of her soul mate, but she’d managed to have a few short term relationships with people whose names weren’t alliterative, so that when they started to hint that she was their soul mate she could leave with no doubt in mind. Of course, she’d stopped having mini heart attacks whenever people with alliterative names introduced themselves. In fact, she was starting to believe she’d stopped looking for her soul mate, wherever they may be.
It was one day working through her shift in Emergency when that began to change, although Clarke had no way of knowing it at the time.
“Girl with some sort of head trauma, she’s here with her boyfriend.” One of the nurses, Monroe, informed Clarke on their way to the emergency room.
“Thanks, Monroe.” Clarke flashed her a tired smile.
“Hi there. What are your names?” Clarke asked brightly, smiling at the girl and then at her boyfriend.
“I’m Lincoln, and this is Octavia.” As she checked over Octavia’s vitals, she saw Lincoln relax a little.
“Nice to meet you both. What happened?” Clarke looked at Octavia for a response but got nothing but a languid gesture to Lincoln.
“She got in a fight.” Clarke had to admit that she hadn’t expected that answer.
“Oh, okay. Um, can you tell me what she was hit with?”
“I’m not sure, I think the guy might have been wearing a ring? I wasn’t there, sorry.” Clarke had to admit that she doubted anyone would have fought with the slight woman (Yet now that she thought about it, Clarke could she that the girl had a strong build none the less) with her boyfriend standing right there – that boy had some serious muscle.
“What happened to the other guy, huh?” Clarke smiled at Octavia and she smiled back, if somewhat slowly. “Okay, Octavia, what year is it?”
“2015.”
“And what day is it?”
“Saturday.”
“And how many fingers am I holding up?” Clarke asked, extending two.
“Two.”
“It would appear that she has had some minor form of concussion but doesn’t seem to be suffering any side effects other than feeling a little woozy.” Lincoln perked up at this news. “However, I’d really like to keep her overnight just to be sure – sometimes the side effects from these sorts of injuries take a few hours to develop, and I don’t want to take any risks. However, this basically just a precaution. You can stay overnight with her if you’d like, but I can’t promise it’ll be overly comfortable!” Clarke smiled at him encouragingly, and was rewarded with a little smile in return. He nodded once, and Clarke knew that he would stay.
“Did you get that, Octavia?” She turned to the patient, smiling comfortingly.
“Yeah, you won’t let me go home.” Octavia didn’t sound overly impressed.
“Not tonight, but probably tomorrow. If it makes you feel better, I can come and check on you tomorrow?” Clarke offered, praying that this girl wasn’t going to go on some rampage about how much she hated hospitals. That had been last night’s major issue – a professional athlete who was a solid foot and a half taller than her essentially throwing a tantrum about how much he didn’t want to stay overnight.
“Fine.” Thank goodness.
“Glad to hear it. I’m just going to clean up this cut now, okay? This will probably sting a little, but it’ll be gone by the time you count to ten.” Clarke approached with an antiseptic swab to the nasty looking cut. However, after she’d cleared most of the blood, it was clear that it wouldn’t even need stiches.
“It was lovely to meet you, Octavia, and you too Lincoln.” Clarke smiled at them and caught up to Monroe just as she was heading off to reception.
“Can you let them know that we need a bed for Octavia Blake for observation? Oh, and if you can manage it a chair or a blanket or something for her boyfriend please?”
“Sure thing, Clarke!” The nurse smiled easily and headed off while Clarke went to finish her rounds.
-----
“She what?” Bellamy yelled into the phone.
“She was in a fight. She’s being kept at the hospital for observation, but it’s just a precaution.” Lincoln’s answer was slightly garbled.
“Okay, I’m coming.” Bellamy muttered, and then grabbed a pillow and a book and ran out of his apartment. His car had enough gas to get him to the hospital, so he hit the road, weaving in and out of traffic to get there as fast as he could.
Not much had changed in Bellamy’s life. He was still close with Murphy and Miller, and still had Octavia with all of her dorky high school friends over every other night. However, Octavia did have her own apartment in the city, which even he had to admit was a major change. Still, she was always visiting (With said dorky high school friends in tow) and leaving a mess, so that was still the same. Clarke Griffin’s name still allowed him more freedom than he’d ever had before – pretty girls were willing to hope that the person who’d claimed their names years ago might just be him.
Finally, he arrived at the hospital, and had a very short conversation with a receptionist to find out where Octavia was and then practically ran to her room.
“O?” He huffed as he stuck his head in to room 309.
“In here.” Lincoln called softly.
“Hey Bell.” Octavia smiled dreamily before dropping back to a light sleep.
“What the hell happened? How could you let this happen?” Bellamy spat at Lincoln, fear turning to anger as he saw his sister safe and sound.
“She got in a fight! I turned away for a few minutes – just to get her a drink – and I turn around and she’d thrown herself and some random guy!”
“You’re supposed to be her soul mate, but you can’t even keep her out of a brawl!” Bellamy yelled.
“She’s an adult! I’m not her babysitter.” Lincoln’s response was far more measured.
Bellamy became aware of the sound of purposeful footfalls as he yelled, “I never said you were! I just said that –“
“That’s enough.” Bellamy swung around to see a short blond woman with her arms folded angrily across her chest, eyes blazing. “Who are you?”
“Bellamy Blake.” He started to calm down, his racing heart slowing. “I’m Octavia’s brother.”
The doctor frowned. He just assumed she was annoyed that it meant that she couldn’t throw him out. “In that case, you want her to get better, yes? So you need to stay calm and avoid yelling. You’re waking up the other patients, and we’re understaffed tonight as it is.”
“Yeah, weren’t you in Emergency?” Lincoln asked.
“Tell me about it.” The woman smiled wanly. “Look, please, just don’t make too much noise.” Looking into her eyes was like staring into an icy ocean. They somehow managed to plead with Bellamy while still letting him know that to fight would be pointless.
“Fine.” He huffed, forcing himself to look away. She had eyes that sucked him in – and he really didn’t need that at that particular moment.
“Thanks.” She shook herself and turned to leave.
“Wait.” Bellamy called, surprising himself. She turned to face him once more, her face quizzical. “What’s your name?”
“I’ll see you tomorrow, Octavia.” She said softly, and left. Bellamy couldn’t help the frustration that flooded through him. He hadn’t meant to be creepy – he just… Well, he wanted to know.
He and Lincoln spent the rest of the night curled up on the plastic chairs and utterly failed to sleep at all.
-----
Clarke walked away from Octavia’s room with her head spinning slightly. The man she’d just met had been gorgeous – thick dark curls and golden skin that looked as though he’d been blessed by the gods themselves, and warm brown eyes that made her feel strangely safe, despite the fact that he’d just been yelling at his sister’s soul mate.
Not to mention, he had an alliterative name.