A/N: Oh my god. It's done. I can't even tell you guys what a journey this has been for me. I've loved writing this, and I love you guys for being there with me the whole way. To everyone who has stuck it out through long hiatuses and confusing dialogue and that thing where I totally forgot Jay couldn't have a sibling but then fixed it so it all works out, thank you. From the bottom of my heart, thank you. You're amazing. Your positive comments meant so much to me and your questions absolutely shaped this story. I read every single comment and I appreciate it all. I hope you like where this has taken us, I hope you like the finished story. As always, I would really love to hear your thoughts on this, especially now that it's a whole story. Thank you for being there, and I hope all of you have an amazing life. X's and O's.

-Kara

Things are good. There were weeks, months even, when Clarke had really doubted that things would ever be good again. But it has been five years since they made it to the ground in that dropship, five years since the human race got a second chance at survival on earth. Of course, they hadn't known then that humans had been surviving on the ground for nearly a century already. Evolution will always find a way.

To her right, the laughter of children catches her attention, and she turns to watch Evelyn bounce Phoenix on her knee. The little girl is almost four now, and Clarke still remembers the day she was born. The first child. Her hair is red like her mother's, dancing like fire across her back. Evelyn says the hair was her inspiration for Phoenix's name. Clarke thinks it has more to do with the way Evelyn got a second chance to live after her daughter was born, but she keeps it to herself. It's not really her business anyways. Anya, Raven's daughter, giggles from her seat beside the pair of redheads. She's almost two now, and she looks so much like her mother that Clarke was in no way surprised when her first words was "piston". She has Monty's smile and Raven's eyes and she's already smarter than her parents know how to handle. She'll be a genius, Clarke knows.

The expansions on the barracks are almost finished, and Clarke flashes back to the day she showed Bellamy her blueprints.

Bellamy was pacing, muttering to himself. He'd been so preoccupied lately, Clarke had hardly seen him. She clutches the rolled up floor plan and walks up to him. He doesn't notice her.

"Bellamy." He looks up. Smiles.

"Hey." He kisses her, but he's a million miles away. She sighs.

"I have something to show you." She tells him, unrolling the blueprint on the table in front of him. He feigns interest.

"Oh?" He approaches the table, eyes skimming disinterestedly over the lines running across the page. Slowly, his expression changes, his eyes widen. His mouth falls open just a little as he takes in the elaborate plans in front of him, muttering under his breath as he reads the numbers, the estimates. After a few minutes of this, he turns to Clarke. "You did this?" She nods.

"Miller helped." Bellamy just glances back at the table, running his finger across the sketch. "Do you like them? I mean, do you think this will work?" She asks, finally. She's nervous in a way that's unfamiliar. She knows fear and anxiety and anticipation. Knows the gut-wrenching nerves of battle. These are butterflies.

"Will it work?" He repeats, looking at her. "This will speed up construction by at least a week. This….it'll work, yeah." His face is neutral, that mask he wears around camp all the time. Then his face splits into a grin, a genuine smile, and for the first time in days he's looking at her like he sees her. He's looking at her like she's used to. He grabs her by the wrist, tugging her closer, and he kisses her with a reverence that makes her shiver. He's not gentle, he's rarely gentle, but he lingers and it burns her in the best way. He pulls away.

"I like them." He whispers in her ear. She smiles. That's all she really needs to know.

"You're not building me a house." She informs him. He eyes the blueprint again, clearly checking for the lack of an extra residence. He sighs.

"I don't want you bunking with the guys. They can get rowdy and we all need a well-rested healer." Clarke rolls her eyes.

"Well I was thinking I could just bunk with you. You've got your own quarters in the lodge with Jasper and everyone. Unless you don't want a roommate." She says, not wanting to stifle him. They've just kind of been together, ever since the kiss, but also before that. The first night she stayed in his tent was the first night she felt like herself. What they are is undefined, a partnership in the most tangled, complicated way. She wonders if it would be better if he had his own space.

"That," Bellamy says, running his fingers lightly up her arm and making her shiver. "Is a very good idea. I can't promise you'll be well rested, though." He adds, a familiar glint in his eye. Clarke pokes him in the chest, laughing. Tries to tell herself she's not relieved that he still wants her around.

Four years later they still haven't killed each other or tired of each other or caused too many scenes with heated arguments in public places. The latter has happened a few times, but the truth is they'd done that before they were together, and the camp has gotten used to it. Their friends still call them Mom and Dad, and the grounders, whom they've struck a truce with, call them 'Tuyur Elhib' which one of them finally admitted roughly translates to 'lovebirds'.

He's still the best part of her life and he still makes her smile in the morning and he still make her angrier than anyone else she knows. They fight, daily, and they make up, almost daily, and their rhythm works perfectly for them.

The biggest fight they've ever had was when Murphy's body was found on a hunting trip, a spear through his chest. Clarke wanted to bury him, to mark the grave. Bellamy couldn't understand why she thought he deserved it, after everything, and told her not to go back to that spot. Clarke hadn't listened, had snuck out one night to bury him herself. It had taken hours, and she'd been exhausted, and hadn't heard the cougar sneak up behind her. She wasn't stupid, she'd taken a gun with her, and the cat was down before it got a chance to do much more than claw up her arm a bit. She'd returned to camp, bloody, just as the sun was coming up, and Bellamy had all but had an aneurysm when he'd seen her. Apparently he had been up all night wondering where she'd gone, and the truth was that her injuries had been worse than she'd known. She still has a scar running up her neck, stopping just under her chin, from where the cougar caught her.

She doesn't regret it, though. She'd told him as much that night, when he was watching Jay stitch her back together, again, and he'd been so angry he hadn't spoken to her for a full day. He finally caved only because she tried to take Evelyn out to the grave site, and he had no intention of letting her out of camp ever again. But she'd done it for Evelyn, and for Phoenix, and Clarke thinks sometimes that Murphy was just a kid who made a lot of bad choices to go with the shitty hand life had dealt him, and hadn't they all? So she forgives him. Phoenix looks a little like him, she has his eyes, and in his daughter Clarke can see what a kinder world might have done to John Murphy.

Clarke misses her parents. There are kids running rampant through camp these days, and it makes her ache for the family she lost. She regrets that her mother died before she had a chance to forgive her. She regrets that she's the last of her bloodline. She regrets a lot of things that have to do with the ark and everything that happened before their people started over on the ground. But she's proud of what she's built. There are families here, ones with more than one child, and ones that have bridged the gap between their camp and the grounders. Bellamy had been livid when Octavia had started seeing a grounder, but Nyko is a good man, and their relationship was the first step to the truce that had finally allowed peace into their lives. They're happy, and Bellamy's learned to let them be, even learned to respect Nyko, and the truth is Octavia can more than handle herself.

Their little village started with two dormitories, a dining hall, a latrine and an infirmary. Over the past few years that had grown to include some private residences, a distillery, and a workshop that Jasper, Monty and Raven all share. People have started building their own cabins, and what started as a camp is now starting to resemble a little town. They've begun to trade with a few of the nearby grounder villages, and that has evolved into a harmonious relationship Clarke wouldn't have predicted even on her most optimistic day.

Feeling a tug on her sleeve, Clarke looks down. Phoenix beams up at her, green eyes wide. Her freckles are her mother's, but they remind Clarke of someone else, and she's never been able to refuse her anything.

"Hello." She crouches beside the little girl. Phoenix holds out her hands and Clarke sighs. She's getting a little old to be carried all the time, but she's spoiled absolutely rotten, and Clarke finds herself lifting the redhead into her arms.

"Mommy says to tell you something." Phoenix says, dimples flashing. Clarke grins and whispers conspiratorially in her ear.

"What is it?"

"She says there's another baby."

"Another baby?" Bellamy asks, walking up behind the two of them. He pokes Phoenix on the nose and she giggles. Bellamy is beloved by the children of their village, and watching him with them always manages to arouse and amuse Clarke.

"Our baby." Phoenix tells him. He raises his eyebrows.

"Are you having a baby, Fee?" She giggles again, red curls bouncing.

"No. Mommy is." Clarke's mouth falls open in surprise. She turns to look at Evelyn, Phoenix twisting in her arms, reaching for Bellamy. Clarke hands him the girl, and makes her way over to the older redhead, the girl she's formed a strong friendship with over the past few years.

"You're pregnant?" She asks. Evelyn grins at her.

"Yeah. I don't think Fee really knows what that means, but she's excited." Clarke sits next to her, smiling.

"This feels like déjà vu." She admits. Evelyn stares.

"God, I hope not. Last time was….terrifying." She bites her bottom lip. Clarke nudges her.

"You're right. You look happy."

"I am." Evelyn says, flashing the dimples her daughter inherited. Clarke wonders if this new child will get those. She really hopes so. Phoenix wanders over, apparently too interested in the baby talk to cling to Bellamy like she usually does. She climbs into her mother's arms, and Clarke feels a twinge at the automatic way Evelyn's arms wrap around her daughter. She looks up to see Bellamy waiting for her. Giving her friend a final congratulations, Clarke stands up, making her way over to him.

"Another one, huh?" He asks, winding an arm around her waist.

"Apparently." Clarke blows a strand of hair out of her face.

"Well, Fee is pretty cute. Let's hope Sterling's genes are mostly recessive." Clarke punches him lightly.

"Be nice. They're a great couple. Besides, Sterling's great looking." Bellamy frowns at her.

"Oh, really?" Clarke can't help but laugh.

"Really. But he's not my type."

"What's your type?" Bellamy wonders, twisting a blonde curl around his finger. They're close, noses almost touching, and Clarke is starting to get distracted.

"Freckles." She says a little breathlessly. He smirks. "Messy hair. Stubborn. Big…" She pauses, and his grin widens. "Hands." He shakes his head.

"You're the stubborn one." He tells her. They're barely apart now, she can feel his breath on her face.

"Bellamy-" Clarke's mind fills with fog as he tilts his head just slightly, lips barely brushing against hers. "Wait." She presses a hand against his chest. He pulls away, confused.

"Everything okay?" She nods.

"I just have to… I have to tell you something." He waits. "I'm uh, I think I'm pregnant." He freezes, hand on her arm. "Bellamy?" His eyes dart down to her stomach, then back up to her face.

"Pregnant?" She nods again. He shakes his head, a wry look slowly sliding in to replace the pure shock.

"What?" She asks.

"It's just… déjà vu." He murmurs, and instantly Clarke is taken back five years. Evelyn had just told her she was pregnant, and Clarke had been sick, and Finn had almost become a very permanent part of her life. She frowns up at Bellamy. It's true, the circumstances are strangely similar. But Evelyn had also been right. Things are different now. For one, the baby is Bellamy's. For another, the thought of a baby doesn't send waves of panic through her chest. In fact, watching Evelyn and Phoenix had sent a different kind of pang through her chest. Something that felt like yearning.

"It's a little different now." She finally murmurs.

"That's true." He says. "No spacewalker." He still uses the nickname, mostly because Finn hates it. That rivalry never really died down.

"Well, yeah." Clarke says uncertainly. His lack of a reaction is starting to unsettle her. "Just us." He seems to refocus at the word 'us', and then he's staring intensely down at her.

"Are you sure?" He asks.

"I'm pretty sure." She tells him. She wants to tell him that she's actually been pretty sure for a few weeks, and she's somewhere like three months along, and that means there's actually going to be a baby in six, but she doesn't get the chance. He brushes his lips against hers, hands on her face, and it's the most tender kiss they've ever shared. For some reason it makes her want to cry. She really hopes it's not because of hormones.

"Another baby." He says, echoing his earlier words. But this time there's a light in his eyes, and pure joy in his smile and he's looking at Clarke like his world starts and ends with her. She gives him a watery smile.

"Not just another baby. A baby with freckles and messy hair and-"

"Their mother's eyes. If they're stubborn they inherited that from you." Bellamy cuts in. He won't stop looking at her, but she can't look away either. She pictures it, for a moment, this freckled, stubborn, wonder child. She feels a rush of emotion, like nothing she's ever felt, and she suddenly loves that baby with an intensity that nearly knocks the breath right out of her. She blinks, and imagines the look on Bellamy's face mirrors hers. He feels it too.

"Clarke." Is all he says. But she understands. She always does.

Things are good.