AN: I can't believe this is it, the end… it feels like only yesterday I started writing this fic, but at the same time it also feels like I've been posting it forever! I want to thank everyone who has gone on this journey with me, and a special big thanks to those of you who have taken the time to leave reviews – they have made my day every single time.
I also want to take the opportunity to wish everyone happy holidays! I'm hoping to get some quiet time, but we'll see how that goes…
That's it, really… on with the epilogue!
As always, and for the last time (at least for now) I don't own anything relating to The 100
-Epilogue-
Clarke watches as the children run around the open, enclosed space in front of the school building that they have turned into a sort of playground. Damon and Hope, being the oldest, have taken charge of the game, which seems to involve some sort of tag. The younger kids – Raven and Shaw's one-year-old daughter, Leyla, among them – are happily going along with whatever they want, as usual.
Lynx is sitting on her haunches next to her, purring contentedly when Clarke scratches behind her ears. They discovered that Lynx is indeed female a few years ago, when she suddenly disappeared for a couple of months, only to return followed by four completely adorable kittens. Lynx has had another two litters since then, even though none of them have spotted another cat anywhere near the village. Clarke has just assumed that there's a pack of them somewhere in the woods, or perhaps further away, and that Lynx joins them now and then. The all in all ten kittens have been distributed among the people who wanted them.
"You here to take over for me?" Shaw's voice comes from behind her, and she turns to see him leaning against the wall nearby.
"If you want to take a break, sure," she agrees. "But I need to get back to the med bay in half an hour or so."
"That's plenty of time," he replies, gesturing at a dark stain on his shirt. "Niylah should be back soon anyway, and I just want to run home and change, Aran decided it was a good idea to throw overripe fruit at me earlier."
Clarke can't help but laugh at that, and he rolls his eyes before disappearing around the corner.
She sits down on the steps up to the school and turns her attention back to the kids – there have been twelve born in the two years and eight months since Damon, making fourteen in total. Not all of them are here, of course, some of them are still only babies and home with their parents, but there is a fairly large group and she's very glad they're contained and can't go running off in ten different directions. She has a hard enough time keeping track of Damon and Hope when she's alone with them, never mind another eight little hooligans.
They have organized childcare for children under school age now, most people in the village taking their turn to watch the kids with two people in charge of the little group at a time. It's one of Clarke's favorite duties, even if she does still enjoy working in the med bay with her mom, Jackson and their new recruits.
There's no reproduction program per se – something that had been suggested by Diyoza at one point but almost unanimously voted down by the council, at least for the time being – but people understand that to build a new society, they have to have children. There are currently seven women in various stages of pregnancy, among them Emori, who finally managed to convince Murphy a few months ago, and Clarke knows a couple more who are considering it.
She waves to Octavia as she emerges from her and Niylah's cabin twenty yards down one of the paths leading from the school, and her sort-of-sister-in-law smiles and waves back before turning to head in the other direction.
When they first landed and started building the settlement, Octavia had moved in with Jordan, and for a while, Clarke had thought something might develop between them. In the end, though, he had started seeing a lovely Grounder girl, Kira, and when they moved in together almost three years ago, Octavia started rooming with Niylah. Clarke wasn't exactly surprised when the two women became an item a few months later, but she might have been one of very few. Octavia had confided in her before anything happened between them, wanting Clarke's help to figure out her feelings, and Clarke had done what she could.
Now, O and Niylah have been a couple for over two years, and Clarke knows that they're trying to figure out some sort of arrangement with Miller and Jackson, considering artificial insemination – if they can figure out how to manage that with the limited medical equipment they have at hand – so they can start a slightly unconventional and larger than normal family, all four of them together.
"Well, well, well," Bellamy's voice announces his presence a moment before he flops down next to her on the steps. "Fancy seeing you here, Princess."
As always when she sees him after some time apart – be it a few hours, like now, or a couple of days when he's off on a longer hunting trip or she's off gathering medicinal herbs with her mom or Jackson – Clarke feels her stomach swoop with familiar desire.
"Hi there," she replies leaning over for a kiss. "Shouldn't you be down at the farm?"
The farm down in the valley has grown enormously in the last few years, from one small plot to four large ones – one for root vegetables, one for their wheat, one for other vegetables, like a cucumber-ish one they came across just last year, and one for berries, especially a type that's very similar to strawberries on Earth – plus there's a large field for a small herd of goats that they have managed to domesticate, which gives them milk and wool for clothes. They also planted trees last summer to hopefully get an orchard in the next couple of years, so they'll have their fruit in one place rather than having to scour the whole forest for it.
"Early day," he tells her, sliding an arm around her waist to pull her into his side. "You on kid duty?"
"Not really. I was just taking a break and Zeke needed to change his shirt."
"Aran?" Bellamy asks.
"Aran," she confirms. The kid is known for his temper tantrums, which involves throwing whatever is close by more times than not.
They sit in silence for a moment, watching the kids run around, before Clarke speaks again.
"So… you think we're ready for another one?"
She glances sideways just in time to catch his eyes widen and drop to her stomach. "You mean…?"
She quickly shakes her head. "No, of course not. Do you really think I'd get the implant out without even discussing it with you? I just thought we might… plan this one for a change."
He chuckles at that.
"You mean as opposed to finding it or having it be a complete surprise?"
"Kind of, yeah."
He's quiet for so long, eyes staring into the distance, that she finally pokes him lightly in the side with her elbow.
"So? I think Damon's at a good age, and Madi's basically self-sufficient by now…"
Their adoptive daughter turned sixteen a few months ago – sometimes Clarke still can't believe that – and has just started her apprenticeship in the med bay. Clarke was a little surprised when the girl decided that's what she wanted to do, she had honestly expected her to follow Raven into the technical field, but it seems like a good fit so far. She's also been hinting that it might be time for her to move into a cabin of her own, so they might not even need to add another bedroom if they do have a new baby, like they did when Damon was seven months.
Bellamy shakes his head as if clearing it and looks down at her, eyes serious. "You're the one who'll actually have to be pregnant and go through the delivery, so if you feel like you're up for it, then hell yeah. I'd have a dozen kids with you if that's what you want."
"A dozen might be a few too many," Clarke reasons. "But one more, maybe two… can I take that as a yes?"
"Of course," he says, his fingers sneaking under her shirt and up her spine, warm against her skin. "Ask your mom to get the implant out as soon as possible. Isn't Damon having a sleepover with Hope on Saturday? I'm sure we can suggest that Madi stays with Raven or one of her friends, start trying right away."
Clarke has to laugh at that. It's not like they don't have sex with the kids in the house, but there's always the risk of being interrupted by banging fists or an outraged cry at a less than ideal moment, so more often than not, it's rushed. Clearly, Bellamy's planning a real all-nighter, which they don't get very often these days. "It probably won't be that quick, my body has to realize the implant's gone first."
"Still…" he says, leaning a little closer and nuzzling the skin just below her ear, making her shiver. "Might as well get some practice in."
"Right, because we really need to practice that part."
As it turns out, it is that quick – almost, at least.
Iris Aurora Griffin comes into the world screaming her tiny lungs out eleven months and two weeks later, in the pre-dawn hours of a beautiful day in early spring.
Madi decided that she wanted to stay this time, insisting that childbirth will be one of her duties in the future, which none of them could really argue with. Even though it was obvious that the girl struggled a little at the end, when Clarke could no longer bear the intense pain silently, she stuck it out. Damon's been with Diyoza and Hope since labor started the previous afternoon, though, so while Jackson and Madi clean Iris up and Abby helps Clarke with the afterbirth, Bellamy goes to pick him up.
Once Clarke's propped up against a mountain of pillows, the newborn asleep on her chest and Madi next to her in the bed, Bellamy enters the room again, Damon on his hip. The little boy's eyes widen when he sees his little sister for the first time.
They've tried to let him be a part of the process, explaining from an early stage that there's a baby in Mommy's tummy and that he'll have a little sister soon – they decided to find out the sex this time around – and even though Clarke's not sure exactly how much he understands at his age, he's been very excited the last few weeks.
"That's the baby that was in Mommy's tummy," Bellamy says, sitting down on the edge of the bed and keeping a firm but gentle grip on the wriggling toddler to keep him from jumping onto the bed. "Remember?"
"Baby come out?" Damon asks.
"That's right, the baby came out," Clarke tells him. "You're a big brother now, and she's your sister."
Damon turns to Madi, eyebrows adorably furrowed, and she twists her face into a funny grimace for him. "Madi my sistew."
"I'm your sister too, but this is our baby sister. Can you say that?" Madi asks.
"Baby sistew."
Clarke laughs – Damon's speech is coming along nicely, but he has some trouble with the letter R. "Close enough."
"Remember what we talked about, bud?" Bellamy asks, trying to keep Damon's attention and failing miserably. "How you have to look out for your baby sister like Madi looks out for you? Make sure the big kids don't tease her and that she's not sad when Mommy and Daddy aren't there?"
"Uh-huh." Damon nods his head vigorously though Clarke's not sure he's really paying attention. Bellamy's letting him lean forward so he can pat the bundle that is the baby wrapped in her blanket, and he seems completely fascinated by her.
"Good, buddy. But you're just her big brother, OK? Everything else is Mommy and Daddy's job, not yours. Do you understand?"
"Uh-huh, Daddy!" Damon repeats, and Clarke knows that he probably hasn't taken in much of what Bellamy's said.
She also knows that he needed to say it anyway, that he doesn't want Damon and Iris' relationship to be like his and Octavia's – they're in a good place now, great even, but it's taken a lot of time and effort to get there, and there's been so much heartache along the way. So it was important for him to get this out there.
She reaches a hand out to squeeze his arm, telling him without words that she understands, and he smiles at her.
Your sister. Our responsibility.
AN: And that's all she wrote… I hope you've all enjoyed reading this fic as much as I did writing it. I'm not ruling out revisiting this universe in the future, though I suspect season six might discourage me… and right now, I'm working on something else, something completely different. It's probably (hopefully?) about halfway written, and I know where it's going and sort of how to get there, I just need to work out the details. So if you're interested, keep an eye out at some point in the new year – that's nice and vague, right ;)
But for now, this is goodbye.