Chapter Text
With the days feeling so short in the winter, the next four weeks pass by in a whirlwind.
Raven and Murphy move into their own family unit, a feat that takes them three whole days thanks to a particularly gnarly blizzard and the state of the unit when they’re handed the keys. Raven swears there wasn’t one surface that wasn’t covered in cobwebs.
And unlike singles units, family ones came as is. Their unit had been barren save for a TV, a long dining table and a wooden bed frame. Raven cringes when she thinks of how many credits they spent just purchasing necessary furniture and household items to make their unit livable. Their friends all braved the snow to help them carry things up the six flight of stairs, and she will forever be grateful. It still feels empty, but she figures that will be remedied as time goes on. A couch is high on their want list, but hadn’t been as necessary as a mattress. There was no way that she could sleep on the hard floor, especially at 24 weeks pregnant.
Bellamy and Clarke lucked out. Eden tried to accommodate the few families when they all first moved into the settlement by providing key pieces of furniture. God knows how many credits they could have saved had she and Murphy just gone for it right from the start.
Still, she wouldn’t change anything. Living apart from Murphy made her realize how much she cared for him—needed him, even. It might have taken her longer to sort out her feelings had she had him accessible at all times.
Having their own family unit, a space where their son will grow up in and call home… It was a bit surreal at first. They had so much space. The kitchen was ample, and looked over into the living space—very much like Clarke and Bellamy’s.
Her and Murphy’s bedroom had its own door leading out to the wrap-around balcony. Once the snow melted away, she could see herself spending a lot of time out there.
Only one other family lives in the same tree as them—a Wonkru couple with a toddler. Their unit is on the fourth floor. The other six units are vacant.
The seclusion creates a quiet unlike one Raven has ever been familiar with. Other than the crackling of their fireplace, or the hum of the heater in their bedroom, there are nights that she can’t hear a sound. They haven’t heard the others in weeks, and they’re too far away from the center of the settlement to hear the hustle and bustle of the early risers heading to work, or the chatter on the street from people walking to various parts of Eden.
The singles units were in the midst of all the action. The family ones are all about tranquility.
It drives Raven a little nuts. Murphy too.
So they make their own commotions— Cranking up music as they make dinner, getting into loud, petty discussions bordering on arguments, then chasing them by making love in their bedroom, or in front of a roaring fire.
It’s a small dose of chaos that keeps them both sane. And happy. Raven is so damn, happy.
No moment could embody that more than this one. She and Murphy are lying in their new bed. It’s after dark, and they’ve changed into their sleep clothes. Despite the cold, Murphy is bare-chested, a pair of thick, black sweatpants hanging low on his hips. She’s wearing one of his hole-ridden T-shirts from the Ark and a pair of loose shorts.
Murphy traces patterns on her stomach as they brainstorm ideas for names.
“You really don’t like Atticus?” he says.
Raven lets a sharp laugh escape her lips. “No, I really don’t. It sounds pretentious—and totally something Bellamy and Clarke would name their kid,” she says. Murphy makes a face. “Do we want to be Bellamy and Clarke?”
“Point taken. Atticus is out,” he makes a sliding motion with his free hand. He props himself up with his elbow on the bed. “What about… Ray? Since he’s going to be a Murphy, we might as well incorporate your name into his.”
She scrunches her eyebrows as she mulls it over. “No…I’m not crazy about that one either.”
Murphy flops on the bed with a groan. They’ve been discussing names ever since it was confirmed that they were having a son, and they have yet to agree on one they both like.
What they did agree on, however, was what names would not be in the running.
Finn, Sinclair, and Alex—all important figures in their lives in some way shape or form. All ghosts that would forever remind them of pain. They didn’t want to burden their son with that.
Raven settles back on the pillows, wincing at the soreness of her lower back. Her hand settles next to Murphy’s on her belly. Ever since he found out she could feel the baby move, he’s been adamant to feel it himself.
“I like the idea of giving him a timeless name,” Raven says. “Like Edward, or William or even Henry.”
Murphy pretends to snore. “Boring,” he says, drawing out the word. “He’s going to end up sounding like some bourgeois snob.”
“That’s a pretty big word for you,” she says, flicking his fingers lightly. “I’m proud of you.” Murphy captures her hand in his and she smiles. “Fine, maybe none of those…but how about… James?”
“James?” Murphy stares up at the ceiling, rolling the name around in his tongue. “James Murphy.”
“We could call him Jamie for short.”
He doesn’t say anything immediately, which is rare. If he hated it, he would’ve said something by now. He has her on pins and needles. The silence is brief, but it feels like an eternity.
“So?” she presses when she can’t help herself.
“It’s not the worst,” he says, and she fist bumps. That’s Murphy-speak for he likes it.
And someone else seems to like it too. As soon as she feels it, she grabs Murphy’s hand and lays it over a spot on the right side of her belly. He’s kicking.
“Whoa,” Murphy breathes, his eyes zeroing in on her. “Is that? Can you get him to do it again?” He sits up on the bed so that he’s able to place both hands on her belly. “Hey squirt, can you kick for dad again?”
Raven’s heart melts when she hears him call himself “dad.” It releases warm butterflies inside her, and when Murphy’s expression turn crestfallen as the baby quits moving, Raven finds herself wanting to remedy that.
“I read that the baby might move if I get on all fours and cough,” she offers.
Murphy raises an eyebrow. “That’s not slightly bizarre at all,” he says. “That being said, you should do it. Get on your knees, Reyes.”
She rolls her eyes, amused at his choice of phrasing. She turns her body around, bracing herself on the bed on her knees and elbows. “This is weird,” she says. “All my clothes are on.”
Murphy chuckles behind her. “This is wholesome family bonding time. Get your head out of the damn gutter.” He puts his hands on her belly, helping a little with the weight of it in this position. “Now, cough.”
She’s honestly not sure if this will work—it seemed like an old wives tale when she read it in the booklet. But Murphy has been waiting for this, and she knows he didn’t get a good feel just now. So, as ridiculous as it feels, she starts coughing.
And because the universe hates them, this all happens at the very moment Bellamy flies into their bedroom. He stops mid-stride when he sees them, raising a finger in question. “You know what, I don’t want to know,” he says.
Raven kneels, looking back at Murphy with a gaze that she hopes communicates “I told you so.”
Murphy is annoyed when he sits back on his heels. “Bellamy, how many times do we have to repeat ourselves? We gave you a key for emergencies,” he says.
She can’t resist. “I told you that was a mistake,” she mutters.
She gets it. They lived in close quarters for six years. But Bellamy needed to work on his boundaries. This is the third time since they’ve moved in that he’s just waltzed right in for “an emergency.” The first time, it was because Madi accidentally shattered her data pad and he believed Raven was a miracle worker and could fix it (she could not—a broken screen is a broken screen), and the second time, he woke them up in the middle of the goddamn night because he swore Clarke was having pregnancy symptoms and wanted to pick Raven’s brain. For the record, Clarke just had a nasty case of prolonged acid reflux after eating the mess hall chili.
“This is an emergency,” Bellamy insists, and Raven and Murphy exchange a glance. “I pinged you like 15 minutes and you haven’t answered.”
“Really?” Murphy says. “We were kind of in the middle of a moment.”
Bellamy shakes his head, exasperated. “No, listen. The mission is on—tonight.”
“What?” Raven looks outside. It’s pitch black and temperatures have already probably dipped below freezing.
“One of the drones picked up a few of the others moving around in the dark. Russell thinks they’re part of the colony we were trying to corral before the snow fell.”
“But I thought they were in hibernation?”
“They’re supposed to be. Russell seemed worried that this herd wasn’t.”
Murphy groans. “And if Russell is worried, we should be even more so.” Bellamy nods in agreement. “So, we’re moving forward with the plan tonight?”
“Yes, but we have to move quick. The mission is scheduled to leave in 20. Octavia is sneaking Clarke onboard as we speak.” Bellamy glances at Raven. “Everything ready to go in your end?”
“All we need is the alien,” she affirms.
“And an alien we’ll get,” Murphy says, his tone unenthusiastic.
This is the plan.
From the second Raven saw that unused maintenance shed with Uriah, she knew it would come in handy eventually. In the weeks since formulating the plan, they’ve completely gutted the inside—working in the evening hours when the majority of people were staying warm in their units.
They moved some usable lab equipment from the school to the shed. Raven created a solar panel that generated enough power for the equipment and a small computer. Octavia and Murphy had put their blacksmithing skills to the test and created their largest work yet. The iron cage took up most of the back of the shed, complete with shackles attached to the sides. It would take a lot for an other to get loose.
Now, in terms of executing the plan, Murphy, Bellamy, Echo and Octavia managed to all get on the mission’s military roster. As Echo created a diversion in the landing dock, Octavia was to sneak Clarke onboard. Emori and Shaw traded shifts with the designated pilots in advance, which wasn’t too complicated because most of the pilots, or at least those in their right minds, weren’t crazy about leaving Eden at night with the amount of blizzards they’ve been facing.
Murphy and Bellamy’s role wouldn’t kick in until they were up in the air. As soon as they were, they needed to secure one of the closet-sized bathrooms in the ship—this is where they planned to hide the other. One of them was going to be in the bathroom with the alien for the entire trip back.
And it wouldn’t be Murphy, per Raven’s insistence.
Once on the ground, as the military corralled the others with fire to wherever the hell Russell wanted them to, Octavia and Murphy needed to isolate a single alien without any of the other military members noticing. Echo and Bellamy were to cover for them.
When they had the alien where they wanted it, Clarke would need to move quickly to shoot it with a tranquilizer dart. Raven had made the gun, Clarke made the serum.
Then, somehow, they had to move the other back on the transport ship as surreptitiously as possible. If needed, Emori and Shaw were ready to create another diversion.
It all sounds very exciting to Raven, who because of her very pregnant status, had to stay behind. She was tasked with staying in the cold ass forgotten maintenance shed until they got back, and keeping an eye on the Eden security systems in case something went wrong.
She’s bundled up with her coat, scarf, hat and even goddamn gloves, but she’s still freezing. They needed to hurry the fuck up with the mission.
She’s also bored out of her mind, and she’s been here for less than five minutes. It’s going to be a long night.
Her whole body stiffens as she hears the door slowly creak open, and Raven reaches for the gun Murphy left her. She holds it defensively in front of her, only relaxing when she sees Diyoza peering inside.
“Jesus Christ,” Raven says as she puts the gun down.
Diyoza is unfazed. “Goddamn, you’re as jittery as a teen girl at prom,” she says. Raven furrows her brow because the phrase doesn’t make sense to her. Striding inside the shed, Diyoza scans the room. Her eyes gloss over the computers and lab tech and fixate on the large iron cage at the back of the shed. “What are you guys up to?” she says, her words slow and curious.
“You should go home,” Raven says. “Hope is probably wondering where her mom went.”
Diyoza waves her off. “Hope is with Kane and Abby. I requested a night off. God, I feel like I haven’t slept a full night in ages.”
“Maybe you should go home and sleep then.” Raven raises her chin in defiance.
“And miss on whatever this is you and your friends are plotting?” Diyoza turns back to Raven. “Don’t give me that look. I know you guys have been up to something for weeks. You are all terrible at hiding things.”
“You need to leave,” Raven says.
It’s clear Diyoza has zero intention of doing that. She takes a seat in a chair across from Raven, pulling a stool toward her with her feet. The stool makes a grating sound against the shed’s concrete flooring. Slowly, deliberately so, she rests both feet on it, crossing her ankles.
“How far along are you?” Diyoza asks with a nod of her chin.
“Just hit 24 weeks.”
Diyoza whistles. “That’s almost how far along I was when we got back to Earth.” When Raven doesn’t offer anything to the conversation, she continues. “Now, I know what you’re thinking. Why the hell did I ever let McCreary inside me?”
Raven inwardly groans. No, she wasn’t even remotely thinking that. She casts a bored glance in Diyoza’s direction, hoping she gets her nonverbal cues that this conversation needs to end. Quickly.
“All I’ll say,” Diyoza continues, “is that you take what you can get when your days are numbered.”
That, Raven can understand. She’s been in enough life or death scenarios to get why people gravitate to each other in hard times. It may be a flaw of humanity that they often seek out the wrong person, but that is life. She tries not to think about that too often—it reminds her of Wick.
“What are you going to tell her?” Raven asks. “When she asks about her dad?”
A small smile appears on Diyoza’s face. “The truth,” she says. “No other option. What are you going to tell yours when they ask about your leg?” At Raven’s apparent shock, she explains, “Shaw told me.”
That annoys her a bit. She and Murphy have nothing to hide, and her lack of mobility in her left leg isn’t a secret. But it’s not Shaw’s story to tell. It’s theirs.
“The truth,” Raven says. “No other option.” After a beat, she adds, “It’s a boy, by the way.”
“Congratulations.” Diyoza is being genuine. Maybe for a terrorist, she’s not the worst.
The shed only grows colder as the night goes on. Raven brings her knees up to her chest, attempting to conserve as much core body heat within herself as possible. It’s all she can do to keep her teeth from chattering.
Diyoza certainly isn’t as relaxed as she had been a couple hours ago. She has her legs crossed, hands tucked underneath her arms. Raven can see her exhales in the dim lighting.
“G-go home,” Raven says. It’s almost like she’s become a broken record. Diyoza shouldn’t be here. If anything went wrong…
“Not until you tell me what you guys are up to.” Diyoza’s growing exasperated at this point.
For a brief moment, Raven really does consider telling her. Diyoza could be an asset if things ever took a downturn and they had to confront Russell. But at the end of the day—that’s not their goal. They don’t want to cause an uprising in Eden and throw a balanced society into the garbage just because they could.
They just want answers. These others are not what Russell claims them to be. There has to be more to their story.
“I could help you,” Diyoza says, drawing her out of her reverie. “I’m sure whoever you’re planning on putting in that cage deserves it, considering the risks.”
It takes her a beat to realize Diyoza said “whoever” and not “whatever.” She thinks they’re planning to keep a person in here. For all her talk on knowing they were up to something, Diyoza could be no farther from the truth.
But she was about to find out.
The door to the shed flies open and her friends come barreling inside. Raven stands as quickly as she can, her eyes taking in the other being carried inside by Bellamy, Shaw, Octavia and Echo. The alien has been wrapped in cloth, like a mummy. He’s not moving. That’s probably a good thing.
“What the hell is she doing here?” Octavia asks. Her tone is scathing, and accusatory as she stares at Raven.
“I think the question should be what the hell are you doing?” Diyoza shoots back.
Raven sees Murphy and she crosses the shed to stand beside him. She looks him over. No blood—that’s good.
“Well you’re here now, so I guess you’re about to find out,” Clarke says. She bends down to the ground to help Bellamy and Shaw unwrap the alien.
“I told her to leave,” Raven says. “But you know what they say—curiosity killed the cat.”
To her credit, Diyoza remains expressionless as the cloth reveals the body and face of the other. His eyes are closed, mouth open just enough to grant them all a good look of his glinting, razor sharp teeth. From the corner of her eye, she sees Murphy shudder.
Bellamy tells Clarke to back up, and the rest of them do as well. If this thing woke up right now…That wouldn’t end well.
As Bellamy and Shaw are securing the other inside the cage, Raven turns to Murphy.
“Are you okay?” She raises a hand to cradle his jaw.
He winces at the cold feel of her glove. “Are you? Jesus, Reyes you’re freezing.” At her persistent expression, he sighs. “I’m fine. Everything went right, for once.”
They turn back to see that the alien has been shackled to the walls of the cage. He’s slumped over on the floor now, but he won’t always.
“Well,” Emori says, and they all look to her. “He’s here.”
“The question is,” Octavia says, leaning against the thick iron bars of the cage, “what are we going to do with it when we’re done? We either have to kill it or set it loose.”
Bellamy steps out of the cage, shutting the heavy padlock closed. “That’s a problem for another day, O.” He glances at Diyoza, his face impassive. “For now, we all need to be on the same page. No one can know we brought in an other inside Eden…Are we clear?”
“Crystal,” Diyoza replies. She grins.