Do Not Go Gentle--A Bellarke Story

Chapter 16

Chapter 16

He watches her out of the corner of his dark eyes, peering curiously at the girl beside him. He recognizes her outward appearance. . . . slightly. He does not recognize the tentative way in which she carries herself, nor the way she looks around herself with awe, taking in the supposed beauty of the woods for the first time.

Clarke suddenly furrows her brows. "Did you hear that?" She asks. Tentatively. Naively. "That voice?" Curiously. Confusedly.

"What?" Bellamy's pounding heart speaks for him.

"Is that Monty? Some sort of code?" Innocently. Tenderly. Interrogatively.

Bellamy's tongue stammers in his mouth, vibrating and trying to form words that don't come into the air. Surely it could not be the man the woman the changeling the manipulator, how could she he it that thing still be inside Clarke, he can't let it do anything else to her, he has to protect her, oh God her eyes her eyes are so innocent, so innocent too innocent too bright, why has he never seen her like this before, he must protect her, make her better, make her happy, it could not could not could not be it again.

"What did you hear?"

"A single word."

"Tell me, please."

"Just a number--ten. I don't understand what it means."

Ten. . .ten she said ten, not ten, not again, no more can die.

"Nothing else?"

Clarke shakes her head. Simply. Naively. "No. Do you know what it means? Is it code for something?"

Oh yes oh yes it is.

"Just tell me if it happens again."

"Bellamy, you're not telling me something."

Please wait Clarke, wait until I get your memories back, I can't do this much longer without you, the whole you, the real you that is intact. Be patient with me, my--

--Bellamy catches himself.

"Be patient, Clarke, please."

"Bel--"

"Please."

He has never heard his voice like that before, broken, his very timbre bruised, echoing and bursting through his teeth harsh and soft all at once, full of fire and ice. He has not felt the fire on his tongue since that night. He wants to ignore the weakness he feels creeping up on him, he can feel the denial in his mind, and at last he lets go.

Bellamy lets go of his denial for the first time, and he sees clearly. He sees the tendrils of hair falling in her face, the confidence, the assuredness with which she used to hold herself, remembers vividly her mouth on his, realizes for the first time that they are equals.

He throws his denial away; he should not have let it linger for so long. Bottled up emotions tend to explode when set free, and explode they did.

Bellamy breathes in. And he realizes how deep he is in. How completely, unavoidably, perfectly she holds his heart. How it seems to beat for her and only her. Thump thump.

For the first time, he admits it. For the first time he knows. . .

. . .He loves her.

Unavoidably, completely, he loves her. Oh God, this wasn't supposed to happen, he wasn't supposed to admit it, not even to himself, love is dangerous and cruel and extreme, it can destroy and restore in a single look, a single touch, but he cannot help the feeling that floods him, the joy that pulses through his veins, he loves her he loves her he loves her.

They are marching through the woods, nearing the river, nearing the battleground.

"There it is again, for a third time now." Confusedly. "Tell me you hear that?"

"What did you say? What number is it now?" Oh he's in so deep. He loves her too much. This is dangerous.

"Eight."

"Eight?"

"Yes. Bellamy, what's going on? It's counting down. What does it mean?"

He was asking himself the same question. They had only been walking for three. . .maybe four minutes. And already there had been three numbers, and yet there were no people dead. Bellamy realizes. The numbers, they were going down, not up. This was not a death count. Not a prediction of the future.

This was a countdown.

One number per minute. Three numbers three minutes.

He acts quickly.

"There it is again! Seven, this time." Naively.

Bellamy pulls the walkie out of his pocket. "Monty, you got the connection yet?"

A crackle. And then. "I've got it."

"You've found her? The woman in the red dress?" The creature, he adds silently.

A pause. "I think so. It's confusing, however, because it almost seems as though. . ."

Bellamy is desperate. He's scared. "What is it, Monty?"

There is a pause, allowing Clarke to announce the next number. Six.

"It almost seems like. . .it almost seems like the signal is coming from, well, from your walkie."

"My walkie? That doesn't make any sense. How could a woman fit inside it?"

"She's made up of code, Bellamy. Technically, she could survive slightly in any technology. She could even survive in a human being, if she was fed properly."

"Fed? Monty, what on earth are you getting at?"

"If it was in a human being, as it appears to be because I don't understand why she would be in your walkie, she would only need some bit of data, a chip perhaps. . ."

"Five," Clarke interrupts softly when Monty trails off.

"A chip? How would that get inside someone, Monty? And wouldn't I know if I had someone inside of me."

"I think so, Bellamy. And I think we both know who has had a memory loss recently due to a mysterious woman said to be inside someone's head."

"You can't be serious, Monty. You think that this woman is literally inside. . ." Bellamy trails off, not wanting to say Clarke's name and scare her.

"It's the only thing that makes sense, man."

"And this countdown? What does it mean?"

"Four." She whispers the number fearfully.

"I think there's only a certain amount of time before this woman completely overtakes her mind. You've got to get whatever that thing is out of her head. Look for a head wound. Get a knife. Be careful."

Bellamy nods, heart pounding, head pounding. "I'll call you back when it's done."

Hastily, Bellamy hangs up and, raising his voice, calls out to the group. "Stop! Our fight is here."

He turns to her, to Clarke, to the woman he loves. He softens his voice, his look, his tense shoulders. "I know what took your memories. I need to get it out for you, to get the voice out of your head."

A pause. Clarke blinks and, finally, firmly, nods. "Just get it out."

Bellamy nods and faces her, faces love in the face, no more denial, he loves her so completely, he will save her, he will rid her of the demon in her head.

He will get Clarke back.

AN: Hey guys! Guess who's back? I've missed you!

I really hope you all enjoyed this chapter. Basically, Clarke still hasn't recovered any of her memory, but has been able to use her intuition to figure out that she came from somewhere in the sky. I also hope this chapter helped to explain some very confusing things.

Feedback? :)