The Slowest Burn - Bellarke

5x13- a goodnight kiss

*Clarke can't say goodbye to Bellamy*
*Bellamy can't let Clarke go without telling her how he feels*

Bellamy walked through the ship. He could hear people screaming still, as the limited number of medics attempted to save them all.

He shut his eyes and exhaled, trying to calm himself.

Today had been one of the most draining of his life, and that was saying something.

He walked toward Clarke, who was sitting on a bench.

She wiped the sweat from her brow, pulling the bloody mask away from her face.

She sighed.

"Hey." Bellamy said softly.

He'd forgiven her completely for leaving him to die.

He'd forgiven her the moment he knew about the radio calls.

Madi was right.

He'd done stupid things to protect O.

Clarke's actions were no different.

'Mamma bears don't think, they just protect their young.'

He smiled at the memory.

He knew now that Clarke didn't leave him because she didn't care, it was because she cared to much for Madi.

He had betrayed her, and she reacted.

She had given him endless second chances.

Why couldn't he?

"How's Murphy?" He asked, nervously.

After everything, that idiot was his family.

They all were.

Clarke smiled.

"We managed to get the bullets out." She said relieved.

"And Gaia will get to keep her leg." She added, a grin surfacing.

"What about Kane?" Bellamy asked genuinely.

He didn't approve of what Kane and Abbey forced Octavia to do, but he sure as hell didn't want the man dead.

He meant what he did when he told Madi that they needed to start forgiving people.

Letting them prove their worth is better than killing them outright.

"They've put him in a drug induced coma, but it won't last long." She whispered softly.

Bellamy grabbed her hand instinctively.

He sighed.

"I don't know a lot about Cryo, but maybe you could try it on him." Bellamy suggested.

Clarke smiled.

"That's brilliant." She congratulated him.

She looked down at their hands entertwined.

"You're not mad at me anymore?" She whimpered.

She looked at the brown eyes she loved. So familiar, yet so changed by the years they spent apart.

She loved him.

She had loved him for 6 years.

Everyday she turned on that radio and she prayed to hear his voice, his laugh, his breath, anything to let her know he was alive.

Here he was. But he seemed further away now than he had when he was in space.

This distance was different.