WHO: Echo and Bellamy WHEN: When Echo showed up *squints* the 22nd? WHERE: Fort Neill WHAT: Reunion, even if Echo just saw Bellamy, it's been awhile for him. WARNINGS: Nah STATUS: Complete
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Echo appeared in Fort Neill’s base feeling nauseated and confused. It was worse than when they rode in the rocket to and from the Ark. Grounders were not made for space travel, nor were they made for portal hopping. She promptly threw up upon arriving at the base and wriggled underneath the grip of those trying to give her vaccines. Echo didn’t necessarily say ‘no’ but it reminded her too much of Mount Weather and kind of put her into a frozen state.
It wasn’t long before she was told someone was coming for her. She held her blade in one hand, white knuckled grip on it. She hadn’t let go of it since she was in the backseat of the Rover with Madi and Bellamy.
Echo sat in the hallway of the clean building-- almost too clean, and well lit as well. The chair was uncomfortable and she waited. She waited for what seemed like hours. And then-- there he was.
One thing Bellamy hadn’t done since his arrival was talk about the years he’d been back in space, not with Octavia when she had arrived, and least of all with Clarke. Part of it was because he knew Octavia wouldn’t take kindly to his relationship with Echo, and the other part had been because he still didn’t altogether trust this place. No matter how many faces came and went from his world, a large part of him believed he was going to wake up from this dream eventually.
Having Clarke back (again) was a relief. Undeniably she was the most important person to him next to Octavia, but that didn’t exist as an absolute. Six years had proven to be a long time, long enough to mend old wounds, build new bridges, and watch old ones try to slither away into isolation. In Echo, he’d carved out history, found a semblance of peace, and he didn’t want to share with anyone how much he missed her.
Then, the news came that she had arrived. It took him all of two seconds to jump into his rover, power it up, and speed off to the base down roads he knew exceedingly well from picking people up. Upon arrival, he barely took the time to turn off the vehicle as he launched himself out of it and ran to the door. Mustering up some patience to ask where she was being held, he practically skidded to a halt at the end of the hallway and saw her. She had to be real.
He couldn’t quite count the seconds between his position and hers, but he had her in his arms before he even paused to take in a breath. Eight months, give or take, that was how long it had been since he’d gotten to feel her. Bellamy buried his face in her hair, and held her tight.
“God, I hope you remember us, otherwise this is gonna feel awkward and painful,” he murmured, somewhat displeased with himself for assuming she would remember them. Every drop of hope he had could be suspended on stars at the very sight of her.
The blade clattered the floor loudly as Bellamy gathered her up in his arms. He squeezed her so hard she felt like the breath had been knocked out of her, but she wouldn’t complain. She never thought a man would mean so much to her. That anyone-- would mean so much to her. Her whole life her loyalties lay in Azgeda. To the Queen, to Roan. To her people. But now Spacekru were her people. Bellamy was her people.
It took them three years to become friends again-- sure, they spoke from time to time during those years, but it was all business. He taught Raven how to fight and turned her on Echo. Maybe working together as a team is what brought them together. Three years passed and then a few days later, she was in his bed. It became more than that, in the following three years. Echo thought maybe she loved him.
She was stiff in his arms for a moment but then molded herself against him, wrapping her arms around his middle and grasping her other hand. “I remember you, Bellamy.” Her leg had been jogging nervously when he walked up to her, expecting to see Octavia with him. “Is Octavia here?” That was her first question, because she knew Octavia could and would take her in a fight if she knew how her brother felt about Echo. Or at least, how Echo thought Bellamy felt about her.
Bellamy wished his sister was still there. Not knowing what was happening to her on the ground killed him, but he had learned how to focus on the present. He concentrated on Raven, Monty, Harper, Emori, and hell--even Murphy. Most of all, he’d been wrapped up in Echo. It didn’t matter to him if it was love or not, it felt right being with her. Maybe that was love, he didn’t know. He didn’t bother to define it.
“She’s not,” he lamented audibly. Bellamy had more confidence in his sister’s ability to forgive, to the point that it was genuinely foolish. He banked on the Octavia he had mended bridges with before having to go back into space. The time apart could and had changed his sister in the same way it had changed all of them.
“She was,” he added as he drew back, hands resting atop Echo’s shoulders. He wasn’t about to disconnect from her any time soon. “The portal brings people here and randomly takes them back. She’s been gone a while. I’ve been here a long time, too. It’s been around nine months since I saw you last, Echo.” He’d kept it sealed up tight how much he had missed her, too.
Echo only grew more confused. “You’ve been … here nine months, but also … in space with us?” She had listened to Raven when she spoke about the science of the Ring, the science of an irradiated planet. But never the science of multiple universes.
When he hugged her, she rose up onto her feet. She was nearly as tall as he was and kept her eyes on him, and her hands around his waist. “I’m sorry your sister isn’t here,” her voice sounding relieved. “I’m-- I mean maybe she’ll be different when she does.” Octavia kicked her out of the bunker. She wanted Echo dead.
“What have you done in eight months?” She wanted to ask if he found someone else, but here he was hugging her, so maybe not. “Who else is here?” Echo tilted her head at him, looking at him fondly. She brought one hand up to cup his face. “Are you treated well?”
The longer he got to look at her, the more relieved he felt to see her in return. Bellamy hadn’t the capacity to speak of Echo, he missed her too much. So, remaining quiet on the topic of her as best he could helped him cope, at least in a way. He had Clarke now (again), Murphy, Raven (again), even Luna; and, he had some friends not from their world now. Life could have been worse.
“It’s been a hell of a ride,” he admitted, smile stupidly fond as he regarded her. “Went to Atlantis, few other places… This town is where we always seem to come back to, nobody knows why. Raven could explain how it’s possible better than I could. She’s here, you can ask her. So is Murphy, Lincoln, Luna, and Clarke.”
He paused with a faint grimace. “Lexa is, too. It’s possible for people who’ve died to come here. It’s a mess, but… doesn’t matter right now. You wanna get out of here? I can take you to my place. Looks like our room on the Ark.”
Echo had never heard of Atlantis, so she only smiled along with him, just as stupidly fond. She listened to him as he listed off people, and only frowned a little when Lincoln and Lexa were mentioned. Trikru, and enemies of Azgeda. Instead of saying it aloud, she just thought to come to peace with it now. She was Spacekru now, and she was loyal to them. She just hoped Lexa wouldn’t hold it against her for being Ice Nation at one point. “Wait, Clarke? She’s alive? Or is she from before, like Lexa?” The whole dead and not dead thing was confusing to her, but she just put it in the compartment of Apparently Possible, things she’d want to ask Raven about later.
“You’ll have to show me the town. Never been anywhere bigger than Polis.” She bent down to pick up her blade, then back up to smile her so-serious-are-you-sure-that’s-a-smile smile at him. “Ugh, it looks like our room? I was hoping to get away from that.” She nudged him with her shoulder. “Lead the way, Bellamy.”
A quick glance at his--their--place would be all he afforded her for now, too. With Lexa around, he didn’t want to put either of them in a position where she could easily find them. As much as Bellamy trusted Clarke, he didn’t trust Lexa, and the olive leaf he extended her was mostly for the sake of his dearest friend, nothing more.
“She’s alive,” Bellamy told her. “She survived Praimfaya. Can’t say that surprises me either.” If anyone could do it, he knew it would be Clarke.
Gratefully slinging his arm over her shoulders, he coaxed her along next to him. He had missed this, missed it to the point that he couldn’t express it in words, and now he would be hard pressed to part from her. Things would be rough with Lexa around, but if Clarke had hope, then he could, too.
“It’s no Polis,” Bellamy commented, guiding them out of the base. “I hear this town is pretty small for what else is out there. We’ll go see it, all of it. I promise.”
Echo walked along the hallway, shoulders straight, even with his arm around them. She slipped her own arm around his middle and walked in step with him. She had just seen him recently, and they had been together for some time, but it was still nice to be around him.
She only remembered up to a point when a child, a grounder like herself, appeared and took Bellamy to Clarke. She wasn’t sure if it was really Clarke, to be honest. Thinking anyone could survive was crazy.
“All of it? Can we go to where it’s snowy first?” She missed snow. The taste of it, the way it felt on her skin. As they walked, she leaned over and kissed him, vaguely near his ear. “You missed me, is that so?”
So numbed to the absence of her, Bellamy had almost gotten used to not having someone by his side. She fit against him so well and easily that he lapsed right back into the habit of simply being with Echo. A huge piece of himself hadn’t made it through the portal, but now she had arrived and it was close to completion. They still lacked Emori, Monty, and Harper. He kept them all in the back of his mind.
“Yeah… You’re gonna wanna see some snow once you feel the temperature outside,” he snickered, smile widening at the brush of her lips. Once they were through the front doors of the building, he turned around to seize her by the waist gently and kiss her again. “Damn right I did, Echo. Like you wouldn’t believe.”
First, he would get them to the car, then find them a place to stay that wasn’t his apartment. Bellamy wasn’t going to take any risks. Echo was far too important to him.
Echo certainly didn’t like that Monty, Emori, and Harper weren’t here. But Raven, Murphy, and Clarke were at least half of them. From where she came, the three left behind were hiding in the forest while Bellamy made his deal. So while she didn’t quite understand the logistics of the timeline business, she knew they were mostly safe, somewhere.
When he kissed her, she gripped his arms. She was nearly as tall as he was and didn’t need to strain to get to his lips. Echo was tall for a woman and found herself getting things off of shelves for Emori and Raven. Harper would have rather got a chair.
Once outside, Echo went to shield her eyes with her arm. “Hayon,” she mumbled. She only spoke Trigedasleng with Emori lately. She couldn’t help but make up words with the other girl and teach them to the Sky People. It was a little thrill. “The rover,” she said with a bit of excitement in her voice. She climbed in and let Bellamy take her wherever, she wasn’t worried. She trusted him.
Funny how so much time apart could feel like nothing at all, at least for a split second. He kissed her and it somehow erased the long months he’d experienced on the ship and Tumbleweed alike without her. She fit right back into his life as though she’d never been gone, which was the white lie he would tell himself in order to commit that to memory. She had been with him, even if he hadn’t voiced it.
Back in the rover, he grinned at her. “You picked a good time to show up. Nice weather, good breeze. It’ll be a good drive to the place we’re gonna stay. Just for now.” Until he could trust that Lexa wouldn’t try to bring any harm to Echo, they would lay low in a hotel on the outskirts of Tumbleweed.
At least this way, she’d get to see most of the town on the drive.