Archive of our own
By:buttercup_90
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Clarke walked along the long aisles, wishing she had the energy to shop for groceries; she'd already thought about living off of take-out but she'd just agreed to pay $30 a month to use a gym and she was trying to convince herself that she couldn't have both. She felt herself being pushed from behind, Clarke turned to find her best friend's older brother, and the bane of her existence, Bellamy Blake smirking behind her.
"Watch it, Blake." She continued to walk forward, lacking the energy to have yet another argument with him.
"Well I never thought I'd see the day when the Princess actually used a grocery store, I thought your butler would shop for you or you'd at least have it imported from Europe." Clarke stop and turned to face him, scowling at his devious grin.
"What is your problem with me? Seriously, it's getting ridiculous."
"My problem is that you think you're better than everyone else."
"Oh and where did you get that from, because you certainly couldn't have picked that up from our twenty minute date where you left through the kitchen?" She walked closer to him as she spoke.
"I really affect you don't I, Princess?"
Before she could retort, a gun shot rang through the air; Clarke was pushed down to the floor by Bellamy, she looked up and saw him hovering over her, shielding her body.
"I know you're in here, Blake! I watched you come in here! How about you show yourself and we can discuss the fact you tried to kill me!" Clarke had heard the voice before but couldn't remember where.
"Shit." Bellamy whispered.
"What the fuck is going on?" She spoke quietly.
"Murphy has lost his mind."
"You tried to kill John Murphy? Are you insane?"
"Now is not the time, Princess."
"Oh, Bellamy, my dear, dear friend, why won't you show yourself? Are you ashamed, or is your leg still hurting from beneath me and leaving me to hang?" Clarke's eyes snapped to Bellamy.
"You tried to hang him, what the fuck is wrong with you?"
"No offence but shut the fuck up." He looked around for somewhere to move to, somewhere less in the open.
"Come on." Bellamy whispered, He pulled her arm and led her to the door to the manager's office; he rose slightly and entered the pin.
"How do you know that?"
"I worked here in high school, hopefully they haven't... thank god, get inside." Clarke obliged and crawled into the room, watching as Bellamy closed the door gently.
"Spill it."
"What?" Bellamy ran his hands through his black, curly hair, a frustrated look on his face.
"Why is John Murphy shooting up the local grocery store shouting your name?"
"Not now, Clarke." She leaned on the edge of the manager's desk.
"No, you tell me why the hell my life is in danger. I'm stuck in here with the man Murphy is trying to shoot. I deserve an explanation." She watched him pace back and forth, sigh and then turn to her.
"Pike..."
"Who's Pike?"
"He runs the narcotics unit in Arkadia."
"What's the narcotics unit want with John Murphy?"
"Are you being serious?" She nodded.
"Murphy is like the biggest drug dealer in town, he's been linked to a gang in Cuba."
"Wait, is Murphy a part of the cartel?" Bellamy laughed.
"Something like that."
He sighed again and told Clarke how he had been approached by Pike and his team and they had asked him to help them infiltrate Murphy's business. Octavia had mentioned that Bellamy had joined the army straight out of high school and when he had left, he had thought about joining the police force; her Dad had offered him a position at his precinct but he had turned it down. Bellamy spoke about how Murphy had allowed him to infiltrate his deals and believed that Bellamy had truly wanted to be a part of that world. Less than a week ago, a deal had gone bad and Murphy had figured out that Bellamy was working with the police; they had fought and apparently Pike had gotten there in time as back up. Pike had tied the rope around Murphy's neck and instructed Bellamy to take away his support.
"I felt like I was back there again, Clarke. Being forced to take a life that I didn't want to. I didn't feel like myself, it was like it wasn't me doing it, trying to kill him." Clarke was silent, she didn't know what to say.
"If you don't show yourself within the next fifteen minutes, I'll kill a hostage." Clarke watched as Bellamy stared at the door.
"I need to go out there."
"He'll kill you." Her voice was barely audible.
"I can't let an innocent person die because of this."
"The clock's ticking, Blake. What're you going to do?" Bellamy walked over to the door and moved to unlock it, he was quickly stopped by Clarke pulling him away from the door. They fell backwards, knocking over a chair in the process.
"Hiding in the manager's office are we? Looks like you want innocent people to die." He moved passed Clarke and took the intercom from the desk, avoiding eye contact with Clarke as he spoke.
"Don't do anything stupid, I'm coming out now." He placed the object back on the table and tried to move passed Clarke again.
"Bellamy..."
"Tell O that I'm sorry."
"Bellamy." He didn't answer, Bellamy opened the door, enough for him to fit through but not enough for Clarke to be seen. The door shut and Clarke was left alone.
Bellamy walked away from the door and placed his hands in the air, slowly walking towards the sound of muffled cried. He rounded the corner and saw twenty civilians sat on the floor, half of them crying, the other half staring at the floor.
"Let them go, Murphy."
"You took your time, poor Evan here almost had his head blown off." He heard the man next to him whimper.
"I said let them go, I'm the one you have a problem with, so let them leave!" Bellamy's voice echoed through the store.
Clarke paced back and forth debating whether she should try to escape or to stay in there, unsure of how long she could be in there. She felt her phone buzz in her jean pocket, her Dad's name flashed across the screen.
"Dad." She whispered, not wanting anyone to realise she was in there.
"Please tell me you changed the day you go to get groceries?" Clarke felt like crying as she heard her Dad's voice.
"Unfortunately not, please tell me you're outside?" Clarke stopped walking as she heard Bellamy shout from inside the store.
"Of course I am. Where are you?" Clarke stared at the door, debating whether she would be any help to Bellamy or put everyone else in more danger.
"I'm in the manager's office."
"Thank God you actually paid attention when I warned you about these situations."
"It was Bellamy that got me in here, and you can repay him by making sure Murphy doesn't kill him." She heard he Dad mutter to someone on the other side.
"Is it just John Murphy with a gun?"
"Yes."
"Let me speak to Bellamy." Clarke glanced at the door.
"He left, he went to speak with Murphy. Dad you need to do something, he's going to kill him." She felt her palms sweating as she clung to her phone.
"Don't worry sweetheart, everything's going to be fine. Now I need you to look in the drawers and find something you can use to defend yourself with, just in case." Clarke rummaged through the drawers and came across a gun, hidden underneath a fake drawer bottom.
"Have you found something?" She took the gun in her hand and stared at the door.
"Yes."
"Good, now stay put, we won't be long." Clarke didn't answer, she hung up the phone and headed towards the door.
Bellamy couldn't stop his hands from shaking as he held the noose around his neck and watched Murphy moved closer and closer to the chair.
"Why bring a gun when your aim was to hang me?" Murphy looked up and smiled.
"You weren't going to show yourself if I was walking around with a piece of rope, and these lot definitely wouldn't have taken me seriously." Bellamy saw that the group of innocent people had huddled together, terrified for their lives.
"What are you waiting for? Just do it already!" Bellamy screamed. Murphy lunged forward inches away from kicking the chair beneath him, when a gun was placed to his head and made Murphy freeze.
"Untie him, now." Clarke held the gun steady in her hands and kept her voice calm.
"Clarke, what are you doing?" She had never heard Bellamy sound so worried.
"How the tables have turned, the Princess is trying to save the Rebel King, I guess she does like you back Blake."
"I said untie him, Murphy." She stepped forward and took the gun from his the back of his jeans; Clarke glanced at the group of people behind Murphy, she nodded towards the door and mouthed the word go.
"I don't take orders from you, Princess." He snapped.
Murphy waited until the last of the hostages had left his sight before he turned to attack Clarke; he grabbed the guns from her hands and tackled her to the floor, smiling as he heard Bellamy screaming for him to stop. He grabbed her chin and angled her head to look at Bellamy.
"Time to say goodbye Blake." Clarke screamed as the chair was kicked from beneath Bellamy, she watched in horror as he struggled to breathe.
Another shot rang through the air and Murphy yelled in pain as the bullet entered his leg. Clarke took the opportunity to move from underneath him and tried to run to Bellamy, someone pulled her back from behind.
"I told you to stay where you were!" She realised that it was her Dad that had pulled her back to allow the men on his team to save Bellamy.
"I'm sorry." Her Dad ushered her outside and towards the paramedics, despite her protests of wanting to stay with Bellamy.
"What were you thinking? You could've gotten yourself killed." Her eyes dropped to the floor and her Dad pulled her towards him for a hug, she sighed and returned the affection.
"Do you want a ride to the hospital? I'm sure you'll want to see him." She nodded and followed her Dad over to the car.
It took a lot of convincing before the nurse allowed Clarke to see him, she wasn't family but Jake had pulled some strings so that she could at least see that he was alive. Clarke walked into his room and found him on the phone, smiling softly, a large, red mark around his neck.
"Octavia, the press are blowing it out of proportion, I'm fine." He looked up and smiled at her signalling he'd only be a minute.
"Listen, I've got to go, I'm going to be discharged soon anyway. I love you." He placed the phone on the chair next to the bed.
"I don't know whether to call you stupid or say thanks?" She laughed and moved further into the room.
"I didn't really do much so I'd go with stupid." Bellamy leaned forward and took her hand in his own.
"You didn't have to come for me."
"I wasn't going to let you die." Her eyes fell to his neck, Bellamy noticed and consciously touched it.
"The nurse said it won't look this bad in a few weeks." She smiled.
"That's good." They were silent, both smiling at each other.
"Can I ask you something?" She spoke, he nodded.
"What Murphy said about me liking you back, what did he mean?" Clarke saw the heat rise to his cheeks.
"I was an idiot for leaving you that night, I panicked thinking that I wouldn't be good enough for you so I left. And every time I saw you it made me realise how much of an idiot I actually am. I've wanted to tell you so many times that I was sorry but every time we spoke I just kept insulting you, which I'm also sorry about by the way." This time it was her turn to have the heat rise to her cheeks.
"Oh."
"I mean you're funny, smart, not afraid to tell someone when they're being a jerk, beautiful and a badass with a gun, which is also extremely hot." Clarke felt as though her face was as red as a tomato by the time Bellamy had finished taking.
"Maybe we should start again." She removed her hand from his and extended it to him, waiting for him to shake it.
"Clarke Griffin." He took her hand.
"Bellamy Blake. Would you like to go to dinner with me Clarke Griffin?" She smiled.
"I'd love to."