twelve; HOW LONG DID YOU KNOW?

seventeen years earlier

Reese Kane witnessed her first crime when she was just six years old and it came in the form of a crying baby wrapped inside a blanket that was being passed to Bellamy who stared down at it in awe.

"You should name her." Aurora Blake whispered and Bellamy looked up at her in surprise before he smiled faintly.

"Augustus had a sister." He spoke and Reese remembered the story that Aurora had read them, "Octavia."

"Bellamy, you can't let her cry." Aurora murmured tiredly when the baby girl, Octavia, began to fuss, "Here, give her to me."

As Bellamy began to shift in order to pass the baby back, Aurora's head fell against the wall and she let out a soft sigh.

"Miss Blake." Reese exclaimed, her eyes widening, "Please stay awake."

"You can't fall asleep," Bellamy said desperately and he used his free hand to shake her.

"I'm so tired." She murmured, her eyes flickering to where Bellamy and Reese her huddled together, the baby rest over their laps, "Your sister. Your responsibility."

"Mom, Mom, what do I do?" Bellamy cried as his mother's eyes rolled back in exhaustion and Reese tried desperately to shush the baby like she had seen Mrs Jaha do in order for little Wells to fall asleep, "Mom!"

"It's okay, it's okay." Reese cooed to no avail.

"Shh, please, shh." Bellamy hushed tearfully and the two sighed in relief as she began to quiet,

"See? We told you it's okay." Reese whispered smiling down at the baby.

"I won't let anything bad happen to you, Octavia." Bellamy swore, "I promise."

They sat there for a few minutes in silence just content with watching the baby before Bellamy finally looked up at Reese.

"You can't tell anyone about her." He whispered frantically, "Please, they'll float my Mom and take Octavia away, please don't tell."

"I won't tell anyone." Reese told him sincerely, "I swear."

"Trust you to bring a deck of cards down."

Alexander grinned and reshuffled the crinkled and slightly torn deck before he spread them out once again and held them out for her.

After the rockets had been fired and everyone had finally wandered away to do other things, Reese and Alexander had made their way to the tent they had made up for him and just talked about what they had missed out on in one another's lives since Reese had been arrested.

Reese told him all about what they'd already been through on Earth as there wasn't really much to tell him about lock-up that he didn't already know and Alexander told her about what she hadn't been around for that he knew she'd want to know and when he had accidentally let slip something about her father, he grudgingly told her what her father had been up to and it had her fuming until he changed the subject and told her about a spacewalk he'd done with Red.

"Pick a card, Miss Kane." He said pompously and Reese laughed at him, using her leather-clad foot to push his hand away.

"I'm not picking another card." She finally told him, "We've done this six times already, find someone else to show the trick to."

"No one else appreciated them." He pouted.

"I don't appreciate them." She responded after a few seconds had passed, giggling when his frown deepened, "You haven't been here long enough to have shown everyone, try Monty and Jasper, they'll be stoked."

"I wanna bother you though." He whined dramatically and Reese snorted.

"Are you sure you're twenty-four?" She asked him with a raised eyebrow.

The retort died on his lips when the flap was ripped back and they turned to see Bellamy peering inside, a flame in his hand that highlighted the disappointment on his face.

"Don't look too excited, Bell." She told him when she grasped one of the cards from Alexander's deck and peered at it, placing it back in as he smiled happily.

"Have you seen Octavia?" He asked urgently, ignoring her teasing.

"No, I haven't seen her since we were talking to you in the tent last night." Reese shook her head with a frown, "Is she not in our tent?"

"No." Bellamy replied, "Look, I haven't seen her since we argued this morning, I was hoping you would know where she was."

"I'm sorry." Reese told him, worry beginning to simmer in her gut as she stood, "We'll find her though, don't worry."

Bellamy nodded, his shoulders deflating slightly as he moved away from the rent opening in order for Reese and Alexander to scramble out, the latter stuffing his card deck into his back pocket as he went.

"I'll check the tents furthest from the dropship." Alexander exclaimed, "Leave no stone unturned and all that jazz, eh?"

Bellamy grinned faintly.

"It's good to see you, Lerolan."

"It always is, Blake." He responded with a smirk before he turned on his heel and wandered off.

Reese shook her head with a smirk at the exchange, "I'll check the butterfly field, you check the tents that you haven't checked already and we'll meet at the dropship in twenty minutes."

When she began to move, Bellamy's hand closed around her wrist and she turned to look up at him curiously.

"I know I haven't been the greatest friend to you recently, but thank you." He told her with a smile.

Reese couldn't help but smile at that, no, things hadn't been like they used to be and she shouldn't have been so surprised that they weren't, but they'd get back on track eventually, they had to.

"It's Octavia, there isn't a thing I wouldn't do for her." She responded as though it were obvious, "We'll talk when we find her okay?" 

He nodded in response and the two parted ways and when she grabbed one of the flame torches and turned back, she saw him talking to Clarke and she felt better knowing that someone would be helping.

The butterfly field wasn't too far from camp and Reese moved quickly, breaking through the trees into the field, only to find it empty when he eyes scanned the area,

Her shoulders slumped in defeat and when she felt a presence behind her.

"She's not here." She called, assuming it was Bellamy and when she turned, her heart skipped a beat in fear at the sight of the woman from two days earlier, "Holy shit, please stop doing that!"

"Sky girl." The woman spoke, "You really should stop wandering through these woods alone."

Reese scoffed, "Why? You trying to decide whether or not to kill me this time?"

"No." The woman spoke, the glow of the butterflies enhancing her features, "Der ste monsters dei de lurk in de nat."

Reese frowned, there was that strange language once again, "Lurking monsters?"

The woman sighed, "Emo gaf in yu stegeda gon fleim au, gon buk au red kom jus, gon der gon ste no survivors." She finally spoke, again in the foreign language and Reese assumed it was because it came to her easier than English.

"Fleim au, flame out, so burn. Red, possibly blood." She said, attempting to figure out the strange words and the grounder look impressed before her face became blank once more, "No survivors, I assume that means that your people want mine to die?" At the woman's nod, she scoffed, "That's not a surprise, we already knew that considering your people strung Jasper up after you speared him."

"It's not just my clan." The woman said, her face darkening as she chose to ignore the accusation, "The reapers."

"The reapers?" Reese questioned, not like that fact that the terrifying woman looked fearful.

"Reese?" A voice shouted, "Did you find her?"

"Beware of the reapers." The grounder woman spoke in warning before she slipped off into the shadows again just as Bellamy appeared with Alexander right behind him.

"My God, she's confusing." Reese huffed out before she collected herself and shook her head, momentarily putting aside the grounder's warning, "She's not here."

Bellamy's face fell at the news.

✦❀✦

"Hey, everybody." Bellamy called out, "Gather around and grab a weapon."

He dropped a piece of ripped material onto the ground that held the horde of melee weapons and everybody moved to grab one and Reese just the odd-looking spear with a hesitant feeling in her gut before she shook it away and hooked it into her belt loop.

Octavia is in danger, She scolded herself harshly, There is no time to worry about hurting someone.

"My sister's been out there alone for twelve hours." He exclaimed, guilt oozing from his tone that Reese caught because she felt it too, knowing she should have remembered the girl when they separated, "Arm up, we're not coming back without her."

As Clarke spoke to Jasper, who was clearly disagreeing with whatever she was saying, Reese walked over to them just as Bellamy was speaking, "We need all the people we can get."

"Ready." She spoke up determinedly to Bellamy who immediately shook his head.

"You're not coming." Before she could open her mouth to protest, he continued to speak as he grasped her arm and pulled her away from an unbelieving Clarke and a confused Jasper, ignoring her incredulous look as he stopped, "I cannot look for her and worry about you being out there at the same time."

"Bell, you just said that you need all the help you c–"

"Reese." He cut her off, "If you get hurt out there, I won't be able to handle it."

"But you can with everyone else?" She asked, crossing her arms over her chest as she stared up at him defiantly, gesturing toward the small group of people who had already agreed to join him in his search.

"Yes." He responded simply, "But not you."

"I care about Octavia." She stressed, "I need to be out there."

"I know." He told her softly, "But, you're needed here, just...please?"

"Fine." She muttered moodily.

"Finn, get out here." Bellamy called out loudly as Reese sighed, guilt already eating away at her as she watched him walk back to Clarke who was still watching them, "Finn, we're leaving."

"All right, I'm coming," Finn called as he exited his tent with significantly shorter hair and began to talk to Clarke.

"Hey, check it out." A voice called, "It's so beautiful."

Reese turned, looking up at the sky in order to see what looked to be a meteor shower and the colour drained from her face when she saw the star that was the ark high above it.

"They didn't work." Raven's words cut through the awed silence as she appeared beside Reese, also staring up at the night sky, "They didn't see the flares."

"A meteor shower tells you that?" A sceptical Bellamy questioned her.

"It's not a meteor shower, it's a funeral." Clarke responded sadly, "Hundreds of bodies being returned to the Earth from the Ark, this is what it looks like, from the other side, they didn't get our message."

Bellamy's face fell at the news and Reese sighed sadly, how many were people she knew, did they even know they were going to die or did the council leave them in the dark?

"This is all because of you!" Raven shouted and Reese was snapped from her thoughts as Raven rushed at Bellamy angrily and the older girl quickly stopped her, pulling her back with the help of Finn.

"I helped you find the radio." Bellamy snapped at her defensively, masking his sadness in a way that Reese knew all too well.

"Yeah." She agreed sarcastically, "After you jacked it from my pod and trashed it!"

"Yeah, he knows." Clarke told the fuming woman, "Now he has to live with it."

Bellamy's eyes flickered upwards to the sky before he turned back to the four who were still standing near him, "All I know is that my sister is out there and I'm gonna find her." He looked at Finn and tilted his head in the direction of the search party, "You coming or what?"

"Yeah." He nodded and Bellamy walked away, smiling faintly at Reese before he disappeared.

"What are we waiting for?" He called, "Move out!"

"We have to talk to them." Clarke spoke once the people dispersed, "Three hundred won't be enough, the oxygen level will just keep dropping

"If we don't tell them that we're fine, they'll keep sacrificing more people," Reese whispered in realisation and Clarke nodded.

"They have to," Clarke told her sadly as Alexander wandered passed Reese, saluting her in farewell as he followed after Bellamy.

"They're leaving." Jasper told them, "We gotta go."

"You should stay and fix the radio, okay," Finn told Raven when she made a move to grab one of the weapons that still lay on the tarp.

"Fix it?" She asked in disbelief, "The transmitter is smashed, so unless there's a parts depot down here, Reese and I can't fix it so we're not going to be able to talk to the Ark."

"Art supply store." Clarke spoke up and Finn nodded in realisation as Reese and Raven looked between the two in confusion, "I know a place you two might be able to get a transmitter."

"Great." Raven said, looking at them weirdly when they shared an odd look, "It looks like you're coming with me instead. You up for a trip, Kane?"

"As long as it makes me feel useful, sure." She responded as Jasper told Finn they wouldn't be able to find Octavia without him and he turned, looking at Clarke and then Raven.

"Be careful." He told them.

"Am I suppose to not be?" Reese whispered to Clarke who chuckled and as Finn moved to follow Jasper, Raven pulled him back

As the mechanic said goodbye to Finn, Reese looked at Clarke, seeing the look on her face that she had seen earlier in the night when the couple was watching the flares together and she tilted her head in confusion.

"It's this way," Clarke said awkwardly, not waiting for an answer as she turned and walked away from the two.

"Is he acting weird to you?" Raven asked her friend as she jutted her thumb in the direction that Finn had gone in.

"A bit, yeah, but I don't really know him as well as you do." She replied and Raven nodded, shaking her head as they followed Clarke.

✦❀✦

seven years earlier

Octavia's excited giggles caused Reese to smile from her spot across from Aurora, her eyes leaving the task she was helping the mother of two with to watch as Bellamy jumped about the small home with his younger sister clinging to his back.

"I want another pony ride." Octavia laughed instantly after she slid off of Bellamy's back

"You want another one?" Bellamy asked breathlessly and Reese grinned when he promptly agreed, "Okay, you want to go through the jungle or the forest?"

"I want to see the Ark, Bell." She announced after she thought it over, twisting her fingers as she stared at him, "Take me out the door."

Reese's smile slowly fell and her chest felt heavy when she saw the pleading look that Bellamy was usually so susceptible to in every circumstance, except for this one.

"That's enough, both of you." Aurora spoke up firmly as she looked up at the clock, "It's time."

"But...no. I don't want to!" Octavia responded sadly, "How do you even know?"

Reese stood and she shared a look with Bellamy as she pulled her chair to the wall.

"Yeah, Mom, tell us how you're never surprised by surprise inspections," Bellamy said both bitterly and knowingly as he moved the other chair away from the table and Reese helped him push it away from the panel so they could access it better.

"Mind yourself, Bellamy Blake." Aurora warned him, as she crouched down in front of Octavia, "Tell your sister what happens if they find her."

Reese frowned at the words, she hated when Bellamy was reminded in such a rigid way.

"She knows what happens." Bellamy responded when he pulled the panel up to reveal a blanket and pillow that Reese had taken from her home for Octavia, "You've told her a thousand times. O, you know the drill."

"I hate the drill." She complained, looking down into the hole fearfully, "Sometimes I wish I was never even born."

"Stop it, Octavia. I know you're afraid, but fear is a demon." Aurora told her daughter fiercely, "Close your eyes and tell yourself that you are not afraid, that is how you slay the demon."

A loud knock broke them from their silence after Aurora's words.

"Say it."

"I'm not afraid," Octavia responded and Aurora smiled, leaning up to kiss her daughter on the cheek, who turned toward the hole as another knock sounded.

Octavia tore her eyes from the hole and quickly moved to get her bear from the bed but Reese had beat her to it, handing the stuffed animal to the girl who hugged it close to her and smiled up at the teenager.

"I wish you could come with me." She said sadly.

"Me too, bug." Reese told her softly, "But, we both don't fit down there anymore."

"Open the door!" A guard shouted as Octavia jumped into the hole and Bellamy closed it with some encouraging words and he quickly stood and grabbed one end of the table and Reese grabbed the other, the two moving it back to its original place and as Aurora moved to the door, they placed their school books onto the table and Reese slowly began to place some of them into her beg,

"Miss Blake, by the authority of the Ark's council, we are here to perform a random inspection." Inspector Grus announced as he and two other guards stepped into the home.

"Inspector Grus." Aurora smiled, "It's good to see you"

The Inspector nodded to her before he glanced at Reese and nodded respectively.

"Miss Kane, you know the drill." He told her and the teenager nodded, throwing her packed bag over her shoulder, "You don't live here, so you must leave during the search."

"Yeah, I know." She told him with a smile, before she turned to the mother and son, "See you tomorrow, Bell, thanks for having me, Miss Blake."

The two bid her farewell as she left the residence, sharing a look with Bellamy as she walked out.

"Your uniform's ready." Was the last thing she heard before the door closed and she released a shaky breath and the further she walked back to her own home, the less her heart pounded but the more that her worry increased.

"Let's try this one," Clarke suggested, placing a plastic box onto the table as Reese and Raven looked around the small bunker.

"How did you find this place?" Raven questioned.

"And why haven't you told anyone else about it?" Reese added, raising an eyebrow at the blonde who was digging through the box she'd opened.

"I didn't, Finn found it." Clarke answered in a light tone, "We kept it a secret just in case we had another Charlotte situation, will this work?"

Reese turned to see Clarke holding a small toy in her hand and Raven walked over to inspect it.

"Sweet, RF." Reese grinned as Clarke looked at her in question.

"Radio Frequency." Raven elaborated, "If we can just find the controller, we'll be golden."

Reese moved to another shelf that they hadn't looked through, she pulled down a box and pulled off the lid and began to sort through it, finding nothing but clothing and a few blankets so she moved onto the next box which was piled high with books and she placed that one to the side to sort through at another time and moved to the box beside it, barely registering the conversation that Raven and Clarke were having about the two-headed deer that they had seen on the day one.

"Guess we're golden, Reyes," Reese exclaimed when she pulled a controller from her third box, grinning triumphantly as Raven turned to her, eyes lighting up at the sight of the device and the three moved closer to the table so the two mechanics could ensure it wasn't a dud transmitter and Clarke grabbed something from Raven's hand as they moved.

"Finn always does that." Raven told the blonde as she cracked the controller open and Reese smiled happily at the sight of the transmitter that didn't appear to have anything wrong with it, "Finds the beauty in the unexpected."

"Good to go?" Clarke asked them impatiently.

"Hurry up and save the world, right?" Raven questioned, "Yeah, we're good."

Clarke nodded and walked passed them towards the ladder as Reese followed and her hand gripped the first wrung before she turned to look over her shoulder at Raven who hadn't moved.

"You okay?" She asked worriedly when she noticed how tense the younger girl looked.

"I'm not sure," Raven answered honestly.

"Are you coming?" Clarke's voice floated down, sounding extremely annoyed and Reese rolled her eyes.

"We're coming." She shouted, before her voice dropped to a whisper, "So impatient."

✦❀✦

The two women had been seat in front of the radio for the better part of an hour, working in silence, they had taken the transmitter from the control carefully and were still attempting to come up with a way to safely connect it with the radio without frying it, each writing down possibilities using pen and paper that they had found in the bunker, showing one another their ideas.

"Hey, do you know what's going on with Clarke and Finn?" Raven broke the silence, staring at Reese expectantly as she looked up from her paper, where she had written down something that could work.

"I don't know." She replied honestly and Raven sighed, grabbing her piece of paper and looking it over, quickly scribbling a section of the writing out and writing her own and when Reese looked at it, she beamed, "I knew there was a reason I kept you around, Reyes."

"Shut up." Raven murmured with a smile as she grabbed the correct wires they'd need to use to replace the old transmitter with the new one, "So nothing?"

Reese shrugged as she looked at the girl, "I mean, I think Clarke has a thing for him but I could not tell you if any has happened, I'm sorry."

"How's it coming?" Reese jumped at the sound of Clarke's voice and she looked over her shoulder to see the blonde staring at them expectantly.

"I summoned her." She whispered to Raven, who smirked at her, but ignored Clarke's question.

"So?" Clarke asked.

"It's coming." Was all Reese said to her in response as she grabbed the radio and carefully placed the transmitter they got from the controller into it, connecting two of the wires before she pushed it to Raven who placed another part in next to it.

"Are you okay?" Clarke asked, directing her attention to Raven, "You hardly said a word the whole way back from the bunker."

Reese glanced between the two as Raven let her screwdriver drop onto the table with a clatter and she sighed, heaving herself up from her seat and pulling something small from her pocket as she turned to face Clarke, whose face fell at the sight of the figurine.

"Raven–"

"Tell me I'm wrong, tell me Finn didn't make this for you." Raven cut her off, her face was blank but her eyes were a storm of emotions as she spoke, "Tell me you weren't screwing my boyfriend as I was risking my ass to come down here."

"I can't tell you that," Clarke whispered as she shook her head and Raven's eye twitched faintly as she took a step forward so she was inches away from Clarke.

"He made one for me, too." She spat, lifting her necklace high enough for Clarke to see the figurine at the end of it, "Just in case you thought you were special."

"Do you think I wanted this?" Clarke asked when Raven turned away from her, and her voice broke, "I didn't even know you existed. Look, as far as we knew, you were dead, Raven or you would have been soon enough, My Mom, too, and everyone we ever knew on the Ark, and there was nothing we could do to stop it."

"He could've waited more than ten days,"

Raven stared Clarke tearfully as she sniffed before she turned away from her and sat back down.

Reese sighed softly as Clarke began to walk out and leaned forward to grab Raven's hand in her own as she called out, "Do you love him?"

"I hardly know him," Clarke replied and Reese knew her enough to know that Clarke, had she more time with the boy, could have loved him.

"That wasn't an answer," Raven told Reese shortly after the blonde had disappeared from the dropship.

"I know, and I'm here when you're ready to scream." She told her quietly and Raven shot her a watery smile as she leaned back in her chair.

two months earlier

Reese drew another mark on the wall, a sigh escaping her as her leg bounced up and down.

She was supposed to have been floated two hundred and seventy-three days ago.

A beep sounded outside and she tensed, flinching as the door opened and she turned to face it, the fear leaving her expression and being replaced with confusion when Marcus Kane stepped through the door into the cell, nodding at the guard behind him who closed the door.

"Dad?" She asked in surprise, pulling her knees up to her chest as she gazed at the tense man.

"How long did you know?" He questioned sternly, "About Octavia Blake?"

Here we go, Reese thought to herself.

"I was there the day she was born." She replied lightly and Marcus' eyes widened in surprise, clearly not expecting that.

"You aided a crime, Reese." He exclaimed angrily, "You should have told me!"

"Bellamy is one of my best friends, I would never betray his trust like that." Reese told him, furious at the mere suggestion, "And if I had to go back to that day, I would do everything the same."

Marcus ran his hand down his face in frustration, "You're too much like your mother."

Reese's chin trembled at the mention, "Don't do that, don't tell me that I'm too much like Mom like you weren't the one who arrested her. You don't have the right."

Marcus sighed, it appeared as though her feelings for him had not changed in the year that they hadn't seen one another.

"Anyway, you here to float me now?" Reese questioned flatly.

"No." He responded and at the eyebrow raise, he continued, "Your hearing is set for October first, the day of your eighteenth birthday."

Reese stared at him strangely, her thoughts jumbling together before she finally found her voice.

"Eightee...what are you talking about, I'm already eighteen." At her father's look, she placed her feet back onto the ground and slowly stood, "What did you do?"

"What I had to," Marcus responded and Reese's chin began to tremble once again.

"Did you change my year of birth?" She asked quietly, her tone irate, and when her father did not speak, she scoffed, "And you waited two hundred and seventy-three days to fill me in on this information?"

"I was preoc–"

"Do you know how scared I get every single damn time that door gets opened?" She asked him, cutting off whatever it was that he had started to say, "I flinch every time a guard comes in, I am petrified every time I need to leave my cell and you couldn't take five minutes from your busy schedule to come in and tell me that I didn't have to be so afraid?"

"I thought you'd be happy."

"Yeah, well, maybe I would have been if you'd bothered to tell me months ago." Reese said as her eyes began to sting, "Get out."

"El–"

"I said get out." She snapped, turning away from him.

Marcus sighed and tapped on the door.

"Guard." He called and the door opened, "I'm sorry sweetheart."

She heard a few footsteps and when the door closed, she allowed the first of many tears to fall.

══════════════════

so, where do you guys think reese will be during the six year jump if she makes it there?? i've already decided but i'd like to hear some opinions and thoughts as to where you all think she'll end up or where you'd want her to end up.

Der ste monsters dei de lurk in de nat - There are monsters that lurk in the night

Emo gaf in yu stegeda gon fleim au, gon buk au red kom jus, gon der gon ste no survivors - They want your village to burn, to run red with blood, for there to be no survivors

next chapter we have bellamy and reese tension and a very partial reunion between reese and her father.

thanks for reading!

~r