What If (Season 5 AU)

Chapter 24

Bellamy storms out of the medical and out of the bunker to the ruble of Polis. With all the chaos of last night their plan failed and Echo never made it onto the transport ship in time. Too many shots were fired, bodies falling in her pathway. The doors closed and the ship left before she could make it on board. But in that moment Bellamy didn't pay attention, all he cared about was making sure his children were safe; and now they were. Only because of their mother's quick thinking and heroic action, but safe none the less.

He leaves her with them as he weaves his way through the crumbles buildings and to the area where everyone's tents were built. It doesn't take him long to find the exact one he was looking for, and when he stroma inside he finds the woman on his mind sitting on the ground with head in her hands. The bravely me at to hack the eye was placed on the table next to her. Once she notices the tent flap opening she stands, her eyes falling on the newcomer. She was sense at first, fearing Octavia was on her way to keep her word and banish her to the desert, but her shoulders relax when she sees the other Blake sibling there.

"Bellamy-"

"Don't." Confusion and hurt flashes across her features as she looks up at him in silence. He shakes his head and rubs on through his curls, the long waves falling over his face. Before she can get a chance to speak, he stops her. "Why, Echo? Why didn't you stay? Just a few more seconds and I would have been here with the kids." Suddenly she looks away and closes her eyes. "You and Clarke would be in the Valley by now, the eye could be down..."

"Are they okay?" Bellamy scoffs and shakes his head.

"So now you care?"

Echo snaps her eyes up to his and stands. "I always cared. Bellamy-"

"No. You didn't. And if you did you never showed it." Echo looks down at the ground. "Since the moment Madi came out of those tress and Augy called me his father... you've been different. Turning back into the Azgeda spy that I met back in Mount Weather." She sighs and shakes her head, then crosses her arms.

"I'm not her anymore, you know that." Echo looks up, a hand reaches out to touch his cheek, but Bellamy pulls away quickly, as if her touch burned him. "I didn't mean for them to get swept in the crowd. And I didn't know there was a sniper until it was too late."

Bellamy takes a deep shaky breath and lets it out. He needed to keep his emotions under control. In the back of his mind her repeats the same sentence over again. Clarke and the kids are safe. Clarke and the kids are safe. One he's grounded himself and centered his anger he steps away from Echo and moves to the table. His back hits the wood while his hand grip the edges, his knuckles turning white.

"Why are we doing this?" Echo stays silent, tilting her head to the side as the tries to think what he could mean. "This. Us?"

Echo steps closer and reaches for his hand, but one he he shakes his head she takes the message and steps back. She knew where this line of questing was going. 

"Tell me your with me because you wanted to be. Not because you needed someone else to follow." At this echo stays silent. "Not once have you had the space and mindset to be your one person. And then when something gets in your way, you stop it. First it was Nia... Then Roan, now me. So-"

"Can you honestly stand here and say we weren't both filling a void? You were with me to get over the hole that was left when Clarke died. You were there for me when I had no one else. It worked. We were what the other needed back then and it was perfect." Bellamy clenches his jaw. "But that's not what this is about. This is not about us, Bellamy."

"It is."

"I made a mistake, and I am sorry. I didn't know they would actually follow me outside. But you said so yourself they're fine."

Bellamy places a hand on his waist and the other through his hair. He stays silent and doesn't look up at her. Not completely. But he knew he couldn't stay silent, and there was no proper way of saying what needed to be said any further. This has been a long time coming, and maybe they should have had this conversation a longtime ago. But back then Bellamy couldn't see what was right in front of him all along.

"Clarke was hit." Is all he can say as he keeps his gaze forward. "Clarke was shit while trying to keep the kids safe. So yes, they're fine, but this never should have happened and you know that." 

Echo keeps her own eyes away, not willing to look up at Bellamy. It was no secret she wasn't a big fan of Clarke's even before Primfaya. And while she did have sympathy for the woman and was grateful for her sacrifice, she never expected her to get in the way of this. Clarke was noble and loyal to a fault, and while Echo respected that she was no more happy the woman survived than she was when finding out about the love child she has with Bellamy. The man who promised her that nothing would change when they landed, and here they were with everything they've built over the last six years, their two year relationship going up in flames.

 "You're right." He says, pulling Echo from her thoughts. " We used each other. But I can't keep doing this." Echo scoffs at this, knowing full well what was to come next.

"Its because of her, isn't it?"

"It's not just about Clarke! Or the fact we have a son. And its not only because you put my kids in danger. This," he points between them, "isn't going to work. We have no future waiting for us, Echo. We were what we needed each other to be back then, but now... We served our purpose then and its over." Echo say anything but nods and starts to walk away. "If you knew they would have followed you, would you still have left?"

"No."

Bellamy looks away as he nods, not bothering to stop as she flees. He knew Echo wouldn't go out of her way to let the kids succumb to harm, nor let them die, not by her own hand. But he needed to be sure she wouldn't hurt his kids even if it was indirect.