Chapter Text
Clarke supposes that she ought to be grateful. At least, that’s how President Wallace is selling it, and it’s what her people seem to be buying. We saved you. We’re safe, clean, and not hungry. Clarke tries not to scowl. She grew up in the best conditions on the Ark and it wasn’t up to these standards, but she’s learned that anything that seems too good to be true probably is. A place like this has to have secrets. Why did the Mountain Men come for them? Why did they wait until after she’d killed 300 Grounders… and lost over half her people? If they were a day earlier, if they really were saving them, if Bellamy had just stopped fighting and come back… There were too many what ifs and not enough proven facts.
Finn would have told her to relax and enjoy it. Bellamy would be standing beside her right now, scowling suspiciously with her. She looked around the common room, watched her people interacting with the Mountain Men. They looked so… happy. Carefree. She sighed. It didn’t feel right. She glanced over at Jasper and Maya. She’d thought he would have had her back. But he was the one calling her crazy. Somehow, the boy whose life had been the first she’d saved letting her down stung more deeply than she’d been expecting. She glanced around at the people, and noted the guards on the doors. The cameras in the corners. No, something wasn’t right here. And she was going to find out what it was.
“It doesn’t feel right, does it?” a voice interrupted her contemplation and she started, glancing over her shoulder. Miller. You should keep him close, they listen to him, Bellamy had said. Kick the asshole out, Miller had said. Clarke chewed the inside of her lip slightly, pausing before she spoke.
“It really doesn’t,” she replied. Miller looked at her, eyes roving over her face, looking for something. Clarke didn’t flinch.
“He’d agree with you, you know,” Miller says after a moment. “He’d think it was too good to be true.” She didn’t need to ask who he was talking about, so she simply nodded in response. He was still looking at her carefully.
“He also probably wouldn’t forgive me for not having your back,” he adds, another moment later. Clarke raises her eyebrows.
“Bellamy and I are not exactly best friends, Miller,” she says, present tense, but he shakes his head, dismissing her.
“No, you were more than that. You were a team. I’m just saying, if you need help with whatever crazy plan you’re going to cook up, you let me know. I’m in,” he states, like it’s obvious she’s going to have a crazy plan. It’s the past tense that’s getting to her though, and he won’t stop using it. She tries to force away the pin pricks in the back of her eye. But he notices, and she wonders if anyone else would have.
“I miss him too,” he says simply, before walking away and sitting down beside Harper and Monty, who are playing some kind of card game with a teenager from inside the Mountain. He doesn’t look back at her, but she watches him for a while anyway, considering. Bellamy told her to trust him, to keep him close. She set her jaw. His word was good enough for her. She could honour him in this, at least. Clarke considered for another moment before deciding. She’d need him, and all the help she could get if she was going to uncover the truth.
Clarke stood and walked over to where he was sitting with Harper and Monty, placing a hand on Miller’s shoulder and leaning down to speak so only they could hear. She tried not to look at the guards tracking her with their eyes.
“Pretend you’re happy and this is normal,” Clarke instructed quietly. Miller smirked, Monty looked confused, but Harper just smiled. She had a moment of appreciation for the girl, she’d not previously spent much time with her.
“We are happy,” Monty offered. Clarke fought back the urge to roll her eyes.
“Something’s not right here and I’m going to find out what it is. Meeting later in the dorm?” Clarke asks, but her tone of voice makes it clear that it’s not a question. Miller and Harper nod their assent quickly, Bellamy’s soldiers, but Monty takes longer, and his nod is slower. “You guys are the ones I trust. I don’t want to tell the others yet.”
“I’ve got your back,” Miller says, repeating his earlier sentiment. Clarke feels a warmth in her chest. It’s the first time since she got here she’s actually felt something as a sensation. She smiles before leaving, quirks her lips really, and is rewarded by another smirk from Miller, and smiles from Monty and Harper. As she moves back to her chair and the binder with more questions than answers, Clarke is grateful that she’s not alone.
The meeting was not going well.
“Look, I don’t want anything to do with this and I really wish you’d just stop. You’re going to make trouble for us, Clarke. I actually like it here,” Jasper said forcefully. Clarke glared at him from the next bunk. There were five of them, sitting on adjacent bottom bunks, talking at under the ambient room noise. Miller, Harper, Monty, and Jasper: these were the people Clarke trusted. To be fair, she hadn’t exactly invited Jasper, but he and Monty usually came as a package deal.
“If you don’t want to be involved, then move along, Jordan,” Miller suggested. Clarke threw him an appreciative look. He tried not to feel so appreciated, but it was a losing battle. There was a reason Bellamy had called her a princess. Bellamy’s princess, he reminded himself. Not that he’d ever actually done anything about it, not that he was probably alive… Miller forced himself to let that train of thought go and focus on the conversation in front of him.
“You need to stop encouraging her, stop this. It’s safe here. Stop looking for enemies among friends,” Jasper tried. Clarke scowled.
“Didn’t know President Wallace was such a great ventriloquist,” she said in a tone that sounded casually idle but was fooling no one. Jasper winced.
“I’m not going to turn you in if I don’t have to. So don’t make me have to,” Jasper said before giving up and leaving their group. Monty looked conflicted like he wanted to go after him, but decided to stay.
“I should go after him,” he says, pitifully. Clarke shakes her head.
“He won’t turn us in unless he catches us doing something really bad,” she says. She sounds tired suddenly, and Miller knows this is when Bellamy would call her ‘princess’ and make a sarcastic comment to get a rise out of her. But he’s not Bellamy.
“Clarke, you know I’m 100% on your side, but I just… Jasper might have a point. Things have been good here. I know it’s not the same without Finn and Bellamy and Raven... I’m not arguing with you I’m just… asking,” Monty says after a moment, looking heartbroken to be questioning her. Clarke’s eyes flash and her jaw tightens.
“I know you all think I’m just some privileged princess who had it good on the Ark and I just want to stay in charge of everything. But can I remind you I was locked up for treason? I know a thing or two about secrets, and I’m telling you this place has them in spades and it’s dangerous. I’m not going to feel safe here until we know the truth about this place. And honestly, I don’t think you should feel safe either. They timed our capture perfectly, all the survivors in one place, gassed us and took us here. And where is Anya? I haven’t seen her anywhere. They have guards on the doors in every room we enter and there are cameras everywhere, probably microphones too. And these people are twitchy, I don’t trust them. And they’ve done nothing to prove me wrong. So yes, I miss the others, and I want them not to be dead. And yes, I get that things seem fine here. But things seemed fine on the Ark too and they were lying to us. I’m trying to do the right thing here,” Clarke whispered fiercely. Monty looked suitably chastened, and Harper’s mouth had formed a small ‘o’. Miller was pretty sure he had a small smile on his face. Clarke was terrifying it was true, but she was also incredibly impressive.
“I’m with you,” he said when no one spoke. She glanced at him with something like gratitude in her eyes. He shrugged in response.
“Me too,” sighed Monty. “You’re right; there are things that don’t fit.” Harper nodded.
“I’m in too. I don’t like the way they look at us,” she added. Clarke smiled at them in a way that wasn’t really a smile, her lips rolling inwards, quirking up slightly in the corners, but her eyes shining.
“So, what’s the plan?” Monty asks after a moment. Her smile twitches and disappears, and she pulls the welcome binder out from behind her.
“Well to start with, this map doesn’t have any exits on it. And I’m pretty sure it’s not complete. We need to start filling out this map,” Clarke explained. “The uncharted areas are probably where we will find answers. And we need a way out. Just in case.” Miller nodded, thoughtfully
“Most of the doors have key card access,” Monty said after a moment. Harper shook her head.
“Not a problem. I can do a lift,” Harper said affirmatively. Miller noted gratefully he wasn’t the only one swivelling to look at her in shock. Harper shifted uncomfortably, but gave a small smile. “Pickpocket,” she admitted, the positive tone replaced with something closer to shame. Clarke, however, rewarded her with an approving look, and Miller could swear she almost blushed. Clarke had that effect on people. Also, it was probably the only time she’d ever been told her skills were valuable.
“And for the doors that don’t, I’m pretty good with a lock,” Miller supplied. Clarke’s lips quirked up at him, and he couldn’t help but feel a rush of pride in his criminal activities.
“Well, looks like you and I are going to be spending a bit of time together then, Miller,” she says, sounding pleased. Miller smiled at her without thinking. This was going to be fun.
“So basically the plan is ‘let’s be criminals’?” Monty asked. Clarke chuckled.
“Got to play to our strengths,” Clarke offered. They were all grinning at each other now, stupidly happy to just be on a team together.
“Well, I bet you never thought treason would come in useful,” Miller smirked. Clarke glanced at him, grin disappearing from her face, and he wondered if he’d done something wrong. But she just considered his words.
“No,” she says after moment, still looking at him, considering. “I don’t suppose I did.” She looks like she wants to say more, but she cuts her gaze away suddenly, turning to Harper.
“How long until you can lift a key card?” she asks Harper. She considers it for a moment.
“Next meal time, I’ll swipe it off a guard,” she offers. Clarke nods.
“Alright. Then tomorrow afternoon, let’s go exploring,” she says, her voice becoming a question. Miller nods once, and sensing the meeting is adjourned, gets up to walk away, followed by Harper and Monty, but Clarke stays there, getting absorbed in the map. He glances over his shoulder at her, and he can tell that she thinks no one is looking, because for the first time since he met her she looks truly broken. But not beaten, he decides after a moment, letting Fox tug him into the seat next to her to learn to play a card a game. And that is what he likes most about her. Clarke Griffin might look like a princess, but she’s never truly beaten.