A/N: Nothing has ever been so difficult to write as this epilogue. I always knew they were supposed to leave Camp Jaha together... but then the finale happened. And that's all I have to say about that.

A/N2: My internet wife/beta, Marina Black, was joined by Persepholily and Lucawindmover on this piece. These three women are the most wonderful, supportive, beautiful women I've had the luck of befriending. I am grateful to each of them for making my world a little brighter. I love you ladies.

A/N3: I'm finished with grad school. REPEAT: I AM FINISHED WITH GRAD SCHOOL! Do you know what this means? It means I'M BACK, BITCHES! (Sorry, I'm giddy and channeling Octavia.) Writing updates, responding to reviews, fangirling... I'm so excited!

Epilogue

Day 46

Clarke should have known it would not be a fast process, finalizing the negotiations between the Mountain Men and the Grounders. But as she stood in the chilly main yard of Camp Jaha almost two weeks later watching Bellamy move through the crowd, she didn't care. Really, all of this – the battered, gravity-bound Ark glittering brittle under a weak winter sun, the tattered fragments of the Chancellorship and the Council – these were the last grasping pieces of an old system, a way of surviving that left too little room for the Heart. She would not miss it when they were gone; she had already divorced herself from this place and this culture. In every way but the physical, she and Bellamy had moved on long ago.

He wandered among the collected group of travelers, oblivious to her gaze: checking packs and straps, making sure the children (there weren't many, but Monty had been adamant about his three wards) were secure and safe. Clarke smiled to herself, lighter than she had been in a long time. Bellamy needed this at least as much as she did, and it felt right and good to help him search for his peace.

"What's the plan, though?" an eager voice asked from somewhere just behind her. Clarke swiveled toward Octavia and Lincoln. The youngest Blake sibling hiked her own pack slightly higher on her shoulder. "I mean, where are we headed?"

"Well, we could go anywhere," Clarke answered with a head tilt and a shrug she knew she had picked up from Bellamy. "But we thought we'd start by visiting the coast. It's time to see the ocean." There was little reason to say more: Lincoln nodded in understanding and headed toward Bellamy, already pulling his journal from the recesses of some hidden pocket in anticipation of the planning they would need to do.

"Clarke," Octavia began once they were more or less alone, "We never talked about Bellamy."

"No, we did," Clarke assured her. "I got the message, I promise." Clarke had always had a soft spot for the willful innocence of the girl under the floor, but these days there was a new depth to the feeling. Octavia's determination to see the beauty in life had not been dampened by the horrors they had survived; if anything, the fires that had forged her into a fierce fighter had also refined her until she gleamed, a bright joy in the lives of all she met.

Clarke knew Bellamy was responsible for much of Octavia's iron will. She wondered if he realized Octavia was responsible for his soft warmth. It was through Octavia that Clarke had first come to understand just what kind of man Bellamy Blake was. Clarke owed Octavia more than she could ever truly express.

"No, Clarke… I mean I have to… thank you," Octavia whispered. She looked away for a moment, trying to compose herself, but Clarke saw the tears building anyway.

"Why would you thank me?"

"Because he – " Octavia stopped, swallowed hard, frowned. "For loving him. He needs you," she managed. Clarke stepped forward, grabbed her friend's hand, and pulled Octavia into a hug; and as they held each other, a silent conversation took place in the space of several warm heartbeats: a conversation about the man they both loved too much, about his weakness and his strength. About the importance of protecting his heart, so he could protect their people.

"Let's just call it even, okay?" Clarke smiled as she pulled back and searched Octavia's damp face.

"Clarke?" Monty called from somewhere within the milling crowd, and Octavia nodded a quick goodbye, then set off after Lincoln.

"Hey Monty," Clarke greeted her friend. He had changed so much – and not just with the loss of his parents. The aura of sadness that had followed him back to Camp Jaha had deepened when they learned Jasper was not leaving, because he and Maya wanted to help the newly homeless Mountain Men adjust to the world above ground. Clarke had almost expected Monty to change his mind when that conversation happened… but Monty had looked over at the three children from Agro Station, his jaw tight with resolve. The decision was final. Jasper's choices were his own to make.

"Sorry to bother you," Monty began, "But I was wondering about the horses. Are you sure it's safe?" Clarke looked behind her at the gate, where two of Lexa's guards stood with parting gifts from the TreKru: a wagon pulled by a lone, bored-looking pony, and a pair of saddled horses.

"Monty, the kids will be in the back of the cart with Raven. They'll be fine." He still looked worried; Clarke patted him on the shoulder reassuringly. She was one of the few actually looking forward to riding, perhaps because the Earth's animals still seemed so foreign to most of the Ark survivors. "Tell you what: I'll make sure you're sitting up with the driver, just in case. Okay?" He nodded in relief, but then his brow furrowed and he pointed behind her. Clarke turned in time to see Raven slap Wick in the face.

"You better go," Monty urged her, and Clarke sighed as she headed toward the altercation.

"Raven?" It was hard not to let a warning note slip into her voice.

"Butt out, Clarke."

"No, don't." Wick's eyes danced over Raven's face and he crossed his arms, a bit too nonchalant for a man who had just been attacked. "Go ahead, tell her why you're upset. This should be good."

Clarke froze, waiting for more information. It occurred to her that Raven was blushing. An embarrassed Raven was almost too uncomfortable to witness.

"Fine! Dickhead," Raven muttered before turning to her friend. "He thinks he's coming with us." As she said it, something in Raven's face shifted, and a hint of a smile settled into the corners of her mouth.

"Hey, that's not what I said," Wick corrected. "I think 'I love you and I'm not letting you out of my sight, so just deal with it,' is a lot closer to how it went down." As he spoke he reached out for Raven's ponytail, giving it a gentle tug. Clarke bit back a laugh and tried to think about this news responsibly.

"Have you cleared it with Sinclair? Because we can't leave Camp Jaha with a depleted staff."

"Nah, it's all good, Sinclair already started training Jasper. Besides, he only ever kept me around for my dashing good looks anyway." Both Clarke and Raven shot him a glare, and Wick held his hands up in mock surrender.

"Hey, I call it like I see it! But really, Clarke. I have just as much right to decide my future as the rest of you. And she's my future. Okay?" His eyes fell on Raven, adoration lighting an unusually passionate fire in the generally flippant engineer. Clarke knew Raven was affected by the confession too; the diminutive brunette leaned into Wick for a kiss. Clarke slipped away, searching the group as she moved, ready to find Bellamy again so they could say their final goodbyes to Camp Jaha together.

He could not have lost track of her even if he tried. He was hardwired to think of loved ones first, and while all his people mattered now – mattered more than he had ever foreseen – with Clarke it was different. She was a quick bright heat flitting from Octavia to Monty, then on to Raven and Wick. As she finally approached Bellamy, he wondered if it was even worth pretending she wasn't the sun around which his life now rotated.

"I saw you with Miller," Clarke began. It was as good as a confession: she had been tracking him too. He smiled and, despite their unspoken agreement not to indulge too often in public affection, allowed a quick caress of her cheek. She leaned into his hand as he did so, her eyes fluttering closed, a small but important signal of trust. Bellamy felt the weight of that trust as surely as he felt the sharp line of her jaw. His heart ached with the gift of Clarke Griffin.

"He's not coming," Bellamy admitted. The words hurt to say out loud; both he and Clarke had grown accustomed to the young man's comforting presence. But Miller and his father were re-learning how to be a family, and that had value. It was not something Bellamy or Clarke could ever challenge.

"I wondered. I'm sorry, Bellamy." Clarke caught sight of Murphy, chatting with Harper and Fox, and her brow furrowed in surprise at the pack on his back. Bellamy followed her gaze and grunted slightly.

"You know, he's actually not so bad."

"I'm not there yet," Clarke admitted. Bellamy nodded but said nothing. He knew Murphy was still a reminder of Finn's descent into madness, and he knew Clarke still carried that tragic misstep as a personal failure.

"Well, I think when you are, he'll be ready to talk. If you want." Bellamy handed Clarke her bag – he had insisted on double-checking it for her, despite her protests against such needless protectiveness – and shouldered his own. They pushed toward the gate, and the faces of those gathered for farewells. The collected breaths of their audience were as a thin white fog obscuring sight periodically, lending a ghostly quality to the emotions and conversations invading the yard.

"I see Abby has taken Maya under her wing," Bellamy murmured, and Clarke shook her head, silently asking not to have that discussion. In a way, Bellamy considered, it was good those two had found each other. The dark-haired girl had an interest in medicine, and Abby would need a surrogate daughter since both Clarke and Raven were abandoning her. His thoughts turning to Raven, he slowed long enough to catch a line or two of her conversation with Sinclair: the paternal edge Bellamy'd noted before was back in full force now, and Sinclair choked back a tear as he handed his favorite mechanic a radio and a box full of electrical odds and ends, securing a promise to keep him updated. Raven surprised the greying gentleman with a long hug and a kiss on the cheek, before Wick scooped her up and placed her gently into the wagon beside the children from Agro Station.

Bellamy faded into the crowd while Clarke and Abby said their goodbyes – he was conflicted only by this separation. Perhaps he was forcing Clarke to make a choice, to leave before her issues with Abby could be resolved. Perhaps, Bellamy considered, he was thrusting his own parentless-ness onto her out of a selfish need to share his pain with her.

"Well, you look too damn sad for someone starting out on an adventure," Kane murmured, and Bellamy turned, startled by the Councilor's presence.

"No, I… It's Clarke. She needs more time with her mother."

"I see." Kane was quiet for a long time, watching the women. "She's not a child, son. She's been through more than most of us, and grown up a lot. At some point we all leave home. Besides," and now the older man cracked a grin, "I dare you to tell her what she should and shouldn't do."

Bellamy laughed. "Point taken."

"We'll miss you around here, Blake. I hope you know you'll always have a place with us. You've been an asset, and I should probably have told you that earlier. But with everything…"

"It's fine. And thank you, for the offer. But you said it: with everything…"

They sank into silence, each unconsciously mirroring the other as they scanned the milling Arkers, as they watched one group slowly but steadily pull itself free of the larger crowd, as that smaller group gathered into a quiet, determined mass just beyond the gates.

Kane turned to Bellamy.

"May we meet again," he offered the young man. Clarke appeared, and slipped her hand into Bellamy's. She looked up at Marcus and answered for them both, and Bellamy was grateful for her strength in that moment.

"May we meet again."

The young leaders turned away from Camp Jaha. They moved to the front of their people, headed toward a new, uncertain future.

Together.

** This story has been a labor of love, of course. I've enjoyed this piece, but I'm also eager to announce that I will be posting the first chapter of "Tell Me" - my summer hiatus Bellarke fanfic - later today! I hope to see you all over there. And I will be SO much better about responding to your reviews! **