Chapter Text
It was too late. There was nothing else to be done. After nearly a century of retrofitting, repairing, and jury-rigging, there was nothing left to fix. It couldn’t be done, Jake Griffin knew that. After almost one hundred years of stubbornly holding on to what they had, holding on to the hopes that they could limp their way to reclaim what they lost, he had learned that it simply couldn’t be done.
They were running out of air.
There had to be a solution. Not one for their oxygen, Jake knew, that was already a foregone conclusion. He instead was hoping for another path. There had to be something they could do. Anything. If there wasn’t, the Ark was going to end up being a toxic to them as the radiation was on the ground. He no longer had any answers, or solutions, or stop measures, Jake was out of options on his own. He needed help, other perspectives, new ideas. There had to be someone on this station that could spot something he couldn’t.
The problem with that, however, was that Jake knew that his news was not one anyone wanted to hear. And that made it dangerous information. Not for him, Jake wasn’t much concerned with what could happen to him. No, he had others to worry about. Two people who could be just as stubborn as he was, if not moreso. And if either of them saw this pending disaster the same way he did, Jake wasn’t going to risk that they could put themselves in danger to spread the news. Or maybe not. Maybe there was at least one person he most wanted to protect who would instead get torn by her duty. Perhaps she would feel as if she had to choose between the truth, a truth everyone deserved to know, and whatever vote the council ultimately decided to go with. He didn’t want that for her either.
Who could he tell then? People deserved to know, Jake was adamant about that, but how could he make sure their future was restored if he acted so rashly that he risked not being around to help? Jake was a man of figures, math, what he could prove, dealing with the truth in other words. Numbers couldn’t lie. The Ark was dying. There was no way to dance around that fact, but he knew that was what people would want to do. What the council would want to do. They wouldn’t want to believe that after all this time, after being so, so careful to preserve their entire people, that it could have all been for nothing. He certainly didn’t want to believe that himself. But Jake also knew that pretending that to problem didn’t exist would be their death sentence anyway. He had to convince someone that putting the entire Ark’s population to an alternative solution was the only way to survive.
And there was only one man who could possibly help him with that without risking who Jake himself feared for.
“You want me to do what?!” Marcus huffed out, not loudly, but emphatically enough to convey his disbelief at what the man sitting across from him was asking for.
The chancellor didn’t look any happier than Marcus felt right now. “Marcus, it’s the only way. Jake isn’t going to keep quiet about this, and we need his help. I don’t want to float him, he can still be reasoned with. I don’t even think he’s told Abby about this.”
“Why tell me?” Marcus asked bluntly. “If the council hasn’t been informed, if Jake Griffin came to you on his own, why are you telling me? If he wanted to tell everyone about the Ark’s oxygen, he could have tried to get a message out Ark-wide. It probably wouldn’t work, but Jake’s stubborn enough to try it.”
Thelonious sighed heavily. “That’s exactly what I’m afraid he will do if we don’t get on top of this. He believes that if everyone on the Ark knew, we could all look for a solution together. He doesn’t realize that it would create a panic.”
Marcus grimaced at that. The Griffins were probably the most optimistic people he knew. Dr. Griffin was a bit more reasonable about potential risks than her husband was, but Jake Griffin liked to believe the best of people. Unfortunately, he was not head of the guard. He didn’t see the kinds of people Marcus saw. The sort that never seemed to understand that they all lived up here together. And that they could not afford to be selfish. If they did what Jake wanted, it wouldn’t matter that they were running out of air. Riots could break out. People would revolt out of desperation, and if they did, there was no where to go in space. The Ark was all they had. Crime was not tolerated on the Ark out of necessity. They did not have the space for it, nor the resources. And if they could not afford even the most petty of thieves on the Ark, they could hardly afford rebellions, looting, or anarchy.
“Then we keep an eye on him,” Marcus said after a long pause. “We keep an eye on the Arks comm systems. If he tries anything, then I’ll move in. I can’t arrest an innocent—”
“She isn’t. It’s not anything serious. She would win her review if you do this, and would get released back into the Ark once she comes of age. We need Jake to figure this out. Abby will notice the health issues long-term oxygen deprivation will cause sooner rather than later, and we’re going to need her too to treat them. Neither of them will risk Clarke’s review. I have to think of our people Marcus. Do what is best for us all. You know that,” Thelonious said bitterly.
He did. Marcus studied the man sitting in front of him. Thelonious Jaha had long since been a man who Marcus feared could not make the hard choices. Those that the Ark required to survive. He thought Jaha was too soft. Yet, here he was, practically ordering him to arrest his own best friend’s daughter. Still, the order didn’t sit comfortably with Marcus. He would essentially be arresting a child for her father’s potential crimes. What was worse, was that Marcus had no knowledge of Clarke Griffin breaking any of their laws whatsoever. The girl had been long considered a model citizen. Certainly, Marcus didn’t think she would be beyond bending the rules, what with who her parents were, but if Marcus wasn’t aware of any crimes she could have possibly committed. If Jaha knew something before he did, Marcus could only conclude that whatever Clarke had done, as innocent as it probably was, Jaha had known about it, and had chosen to look the other way.
Until now.
And they both knew that the Ark could not afford criminals, of even the most petty caliber. He would be well within the law to put her in the Skybox if she had stepped even slightly out of line. And even if they couldn’t afford crime, the Ark was not completely ruthless. If this was as innocent as Thelonious claimed, Clarke could be ‘rehabilitated’ as a minor during lockup. He wouldn’t be condemning a relatively innocent girl to die for her father’s actions.
He hoped.
“What did she do?” He asked, trying not to rub his face in frustration.
Thelonious leaned forward on the table, face nearly as hard as stone. “She and Wells have been siphoning rationed materials. Drawing supplies mostly. I know you probably realized by now that I’ve been looking the other way. Out of all the rations they could be stealing those were probably the least possibly important. I want you to arrest them both. The Griffins are hardly stupid. They will realize what I’m doing by arresting Clarke. I don’t want them turning against me in their anger, even if I deserve it. So, I will be sacrificing exactly what I’m asking them to.”
Marcus tried not to think about how they were now risking two kids’ lives because of their parents. Survival was won on the back of sacrifice. It wasn’t pleasant, it wasn’t nice, but it was the truth. He hated it. More than most would probably realize, Marcus was well aware of his reputation on the Ark. But he would do his duty, do what was best for the Ark. If the Ark needed Jake and Abby Griffin badly enough to use their own daughter as blackmail against them, then he would do it.
He tried not to think about the fact that he wasn’t being asked to sacrifice anything.
Her mother had been agitated all day. Clarke had tried to ask her what was wrong. It had started when a girl came into the clinic earlier in the day. She had been complaining of headaches and vision loss. Clarke hadn’t known what was wrong, and even as she observed her mother’s examination, Abby had failed to properly explain the girl’s ailments like she usually would. It was obviously serious, her mother had spoken with the girl’s father alone, and never explained to Clarke what was wrong after they had left. And then pretended everything was fine. Clarke wasn’t fooled. Abby had her tells, and Clarke knew more than a few of them. Furrowed brow, jaw slightly tightened, and narrowed eyes, it was obvious her mother wasn’t happy, and that things weren’t ‘fine.’
So that meant there was only one thing she could possibly do.
Eavesdrop.
There was only one person her mother ever confided with, and that was her father. Clarke couldn’t blame her. Her dad was a pretty good listener. But with how small the Ark was, it made it very easy to listen into conversations she probably shouldn’t hear. Her mother was so preoccupied, she had failed to shut the door to Jake’s work area in their quarters, and Clarke waited around the corner to hear exactly what had been plaguing Abby all day.
“What’s wrong with the Ark’s oxygen levels, Jake?” Abby jumped right in, never one to beat around the bush.
Clarke had to bite her lip to keep herself from giving away her position. Life support had issues off and on over the years. Everyone knew that. Her father and his team had been able to fix the problem every time it had come up. But, Clarke was not ever aware of a time they had done so and her dad not saying anything. Her parents liked to trade tales of their workdays, not bothering to hold the terminology of their work back. Whoever was the first to ask what it was the other was talking about in plain English lost the game. Clarke lost a lot before she was old enough to shadow her mother in the clinic. Even if she couldn’t understand a work of her dad’s engineering work, she at least could team up against him with her mom.
Jake didn’t answer her for several moments, and Clarke knew then that this was far more serious than it had been before.
“I’ve had six kids come into the clinic showing symptoms of long-term oxygen deprivation over the past month. They’re going to go blind if nothing changes,” Abby continued, impatient for his answer.
“It’s not going to change,” Jake said heavily. “I can’t fix it this time, Abby. The Ark’s life support systems are going through a critical failure. They’re too old, we don’t have the materials to properly replace parts that should have been scrapped decades ago. We have about two years of air left if we’re lucky.”
The silence to this news was so great, Clarke thought her parents would discover her just from her heavy breathing. Two years? If they were lucky? Everyone knew that it would take another one hundred years before the ground was livable again. If her dad was right, and he was right about just about everything when it came to his job, then….
“How long have you known about this?” Her mother asked roughly.
“I suspected for a few months, confirmed it a few weeks ago. Why hasn’t Thelonious told you? He said he would be having a meeting today,” Jake said, and Clarke didn’t have to imagine her father’s frown.
“No, we didn’t have a meeting. Why didn’t you tell me?”
“You’re on the council. I didn’t want to make you choose if it came to that. Thelonious… we don’t really see eye to eye about what we should do. People need to know about this. We can’t lie to them, it’s not right. Maybe there’s someone out there that can think of something I haven’t. Maybe there isn’t, and they should know anyway to face what’s coming.”
“And he doesn’t want to tell anyone yet,” her mother guessed. “He’s right, it would cause widespread panic.”
“Or it could bring everyone together,” her father came as close to snapping at Abby as Clarke has ever heard him.
“You can’t tell them! Think about Clarke!”
“I am thinking about Clarke!”
Clarke heard her mother take in a sharp breath before she continued. “No, think about what would happen if you went behind Thelonious’s back with this. He’d float you. It would crush her.”
Her thoughts started racing too quickly to hear her dad’s response. Clarke knew her father, she knew that Abby knew her husband. He was going to do what he thought was right. That realization had Clarke’s heart racing so quickly it ached. The potential price her father could pay echoed through her thoughts over and over again.
Dimly, Clarke heard a hiss travel from the front of their quarters. The front door, Clarke had locked it….
“Clarke?” Her father, investigating the noise, stopped abruptly when he found her right outside the door. His confusion turned to sinking realization as he quickly concluded that she would have heard everything he and Abby were talking about.
But voices soon invaded their quarters, tearing him away from whatever he was going to tell her. Clarke couldn’t keep from jumping as she felt her mother touch her shoulder, but that too had to wait as bulky and awkwardly armored guardsmen burst into their quarters where they could see them. Marcus Kane, a man Clarke knew her mother hardly saw eye to eye with right behind them.
“Jake, what did you do?” Abby asked fearfully.
“Nothing—”
The nearest guardsman forcefully pushed Jake aside, and clamped onto Clarke’s arm in a vise-like grip. Abby’s furious cry shattered the stunned hold over Clarke’s body as she realized the same thing her mother did.
They had come for her .
Clarke kicked out instinctively as hard as she could, catching the man in the stomach. It was useless, a part of her knew, there was nowhere to go in the Ark, nowhere to run. But the choking gasp the guard made as he fell to the floor was oddly satisfying. He released her arm to clutch at his stomach, and before another could take his place, Abby pulled Clarke behind her with a rough yank to the arm she held. Clarke couldn’t fault her for the rough treatment right now.
“What are you doing?!” Abby demanded, fury lacing every word. “She hasn’t done anything!”
Kane stepped up, face impassive and impossible to read. “Clarke Griffin is under arrest for stealing rations. Don’t make this harder than it has to be.” He gave them all a hard look in turn, probably knowing that neither Clarke nor her parents were about to just let this happen.
“Stealing….” Her father started before storming as close to Kane as the nearest guard who wasn’t gasping for air would allow him to. “She hasn’t done anything! This is about me, isn’t it? Thelonious sent you for her! Kane—”
Jake was cut off as Kane grasped him by the front of his shirt and pulled him closer. Clarke could see his lips moving, but could hear nothing. She couldn’t see her father’s face either, but whatever Kane was telling him had Jake tense tightly before slumping as he was released. To Clarke’s growing dread, he turned to face them, jaw tense and face pale.
“Abby,” he said quietly. “We have to let her go.”
“Dad!” Clarke burst out, in complete disbelief that this was happening. How could her father even think that she had done something? Sure, she and Wells had been sneaking a few pencils off the top of the pile every now and then, but getting arrested for it?
Her mother seemed even less keen on this idea than even Clarke was. Her grip on Clarke’s arm tightened even further, but Clarke could scarcely feel the pain, too preoccupied with what could happen if her mother was actually holding her more loosely.
“What did he say to you?” Abby demanded. “Jake, what did he say?!”
He stepped closer to them both, and put his hand over Abby’s tightly clenched grip over Clarke’s arm. “Listen to me. This doesn’t have anything to do with you, Clarke,” he whispered. “I’m sorry. This is about me. If you go with them now, Jaha will clear you in your review.”
“Jaha?” Abby hissed out. “He’s arresting Clarke in the first place. I don’t—”
Clarke could easily imagine the kind of betrayal her mother was going through, Clarke was feeling it right now on two fronts. “Dad, I don’t want to go.”
They were apparently taking too long. The guards started to move in, and Clarke, in complete disbelief, watched blankly as her father’s hand—wrist watch flashing in the sterile lights of the Ark—forcibly pulled Abby’s hand from her.
She had no idea what anyone else was shouting now. Just that her mother was shouting, the guards were shouting, but Clarke could not hear the words. She was too busy screaming herself as one of the guards started to haul her away. Not in terror, well maybe a little terror, but in rage.
“I’ll tell them all!” She shouted out. “I’ll scream it from here to the Skybox!”
“Clarke!” Jake started, face even paler than it was before, but Clarke couldn’t bring herself to care. In fact, his fear made her feel even angrier.
“THE ARK!” She bellowed. “IT’S RUNNING OUT OF—”
Her entire body seized painfully before going limp. Blearily, Clarke could see the arcing light of a stun stick in Kane’s hand as her vision wavered. With her last few moments of awareness, Clarke’s gaze lolled towards her parents. Both of them look stricken, her father holding her struggling mother back. Clarke forced herself to focus one last time, a final effort to deliver one last glare laced with enough betrayal and anger towards her father. It had enough heat to force his eyes to the metal floor as the guards hauled her rapidly unconscious body away.
Abby went limp after the door closed behind Kane and her daughter. How had this happened? She knew the answer to that. He currently had his arms wrapped around her waist in an unforgiving grip. Jake released her after a long moment of complete and terrible silence, probably sure now that she wasn’t going to chase after Kane and get herself floated for attacking a fellow council member and head of the guard. Abby wasn’t going to do that, he could be sure of that. The bitterness came easily to her, knowing that there was nothing she could do for Clarke right now. She had been outmaneuvered by Jaha, Kane, and Jake himself from protecting her daughter.
She wasn’t going to chase after Clarke. Getting floated wasn’t going to protect her now. Abby would find another way. Starting by stepping shakily away from her husband and slapping him loudly across the face. He let it happen, and the anger fueled slap had her feeling worse than she had before. Neither had ever raised a hand to the other in their marriage, but it seemed like this was a night of firsts all around in their relationship. Keeping secrets, betraying their daughter, hitting him wasn’t the worst thing that had happened today, was it? No, that honor went to poor Clarke, getting thrown into the Skybox, overhearing something that could easily get her killed, and getting shock lashed for good measure.
But that knowledge still did not erase the guilt she felt for hitting him. Abby wasn’t sure if she wanted it to.
Instead she turned away from Jake. Tears were threatening her vision, but she wouldn’t allow them to fall. Not yet. Abby needed to speak with someone before that happened, and she was not going to allow herself to show anything but her abject rage while confronting this person.
“Abby?” Jake asked quietly as she made her way to the door. “Where are you going?”
The lump in her throat made it too hard to speak with him right now, so she decided to ignore him. Before she could press her hand to the door control, however, Jake’s hand was over hers, and pulling her back gently.
“We can’t do anything for her right now, Abby. Don’t go after them.”
He was pleading with her.
“Don’t,” she nearly sobbed out. “Don’t….” She trailed off, before taking in a hitching breath. “I’m not going after them. I’m doing what you should have done instead of risking our daughter’s life.”
Jake stepped back from her, looking more hurt than when she hit him. This she felt a little better about.
“We didn’t have a choice,” he said miserably. “Kane, he told me this was the only way Thelonious could keep me quiet without floating me. That Clarke would be released when she turned eighteen—”
“I don’t trust Thelonious!” Abby shouted. “He’s using Clarke to blackmail you. To blackmail us!”
“I know that!” Jake shouted back. “I know, Abby. I don’t trust him either, but what else could I do?! Tell me, because I want that. I want a better way! If we didn’t let them take Clarke, Kane could have arrested all of us for assaulting members of the guard. Clarke already assaulted a member of the guard. We can only hope that he doesn’t include that in his report, that it doesn’t put Clarke’s review in jeopardy. We both could have gotten floated today, Abby. And if that happened, who would be left to protect Clarke? Jaha’s betrayed us, Clarke would have been alone.”
Helpless anger and fear bubbled through her veins. There was no other way. Thelonious probably instructed Kane to arrest Clarke in their quarters and in front of them for a reason. That reason being to let them both know, in no uncertain terms, that whatever they did from here until now would be affecting whether or not their daughter would be returned to them. Whether or not she would be executed for ‘stealing.’ Abby very much doubted the legitimacy of Clarke’s charges. Her daughter’s life was on the line, hedged against them in order to keep them in line. The knowledge had Abby simmering bitterly. If Kane hadn’t been able to take Clarke now, he would have done so eventually.
That fact wasn’t so easy to compartmentalize right now though. Clarke ripped away from her so soon, by Jake himself no less. It was going to take some time for Abby to even consider forgiving him. She needed time. For now, though….
For now, Abby had a mission.
Jake didn’t let her leave alone. Maybe he wasn’t sure she wasn’t going after Clarke, maybe he felt as bereft as she did right now, either way Abby didn’t allow herself to dwell on it. Instead, she stormed to another section of private quarters in Alpha Station, intent on getting to the man who had caused this in the first place. As she finally got to the correct door, Abby practically banged on it as hard as she could. She could see passerby give her strange looks at the mild disturbance she was causing, but she didn’t care. All she knew was that Jaha better open the damn door before she started screaming out here. And god help him if that were to happen.
Fortunately for them all, the door did hiss open. Abby shot in quickly, stalking to the man she once considered a friend. Thelonious was sitting at his desk, face hardened, and rubbing a chess piece in his hand. He didn’t look at her as she stood before him.
“Why?” Abby ground out.
“It was the only way,” Jaha said emotionlessly.
Her husband stiffened beside her, and if Abby doubted he was as angry about this as she was, she didn’t now. “‘The only way?’” Jake repeated dubiously. “Thelonious, you just arrested Clarke for my actions! Or the threat of my actions! I haven’t even made a move to tell the Ark!”
“Yet,” Jaha added with a humorless chuckle. “Jake, I know you. You would have done what you thought was right. We can’t afford that anymore. The Ark is dying. I’m taking your data as seriously as I possibly can. I need you here, Jake. Not floated for treason. If you can’t fix it, then we need another solution. Abby, we need you in medical to deal with the fallout from oxygen deprivation. The Ark can’t afford to lose either of you. Not if we plan to ever get humanity back on Earth again. I have to think about our people. Clarke… and Wells, neither of them can help the Ark. They can only keep us motivated to do whatever we can to ensure our people survive. Jake, you told me we have two years of air left. Clarke is sixteen. She has two years before her review. If either of you can find, or even help us find a way out of certain death, your daughter will be pardoned of all her crimes.”
“Wells?” Abby breathed out in a mixture of disgust and horror. Had… did he just practically admit that he was risking his own son’s life to floating too?
“Crimes?” Jake demanded in unison with her.
Jaha sighed and looked them both in the eye. “Yes. Wells and Clarke’s original crime was stealing art supplies. It was never much, but enough to make their arrests legitimate. Clarke, unfortunately, now has charges of assault and treason against her.” He huffed at them. “Don’t give me that look Abby. Kane was going to tell me everything that happened today. I ordered him to. As much as you hate the man, his actions today were on my orders. He didn’t even want to do it.
“Nevertheless, Wells can easily pass his review without my intervention. Clarke will need much more than that now. The only way she won’t get floated, as per the Exodus Charter, will be from my personal pardon. And that can’t happen unless one of you gives me a something to work with. No going public with the life support status, Jake. Abby, I expect you to act just as you usually do in council meetings. I don’t by any means expect us to always agree in them, but you won’t be voting against measures simply to revolt against me. Or openly hate me. People can’t know of our arrangement here. If they ever suspect that my pardon of Clarke is anything more than my exercising a tool of office, then the council could overturn her pardon with a vote. Do your jobs like as well as you always have, if not better. We will need as much as you can give us to save everyone we possibly can.”
Abby practically had to force herself not to vomit at what she was hearing. Clarke…. “You knew she wouldn’t go quietly,” she said. Her tone was calm, belying the gut wrenching horror she felt at just how far her former friend had gone to back her daughter into this corner.
“Clarke made her own choices today,” Thelonious told them.
“Stop talking, Thelonious,” Abby growled out, calmness passing her at his gall. “Clarke was just as frightened as you knew she would be. You knew she would fight back. You counted on it! We practically raised our children together, you knew exactly what she would do. We’re done, Thelonious. I’ll play nice, god forbid you use a dirty look from me to justify executing my kid. But I swear to you that I’m never going to forget this. A day will come when I make you answer for what you’ve done today. I promise you that.”
She didn’t wait for Jaha to respond, didn’t wait to see if Jake would follow her. He probably was. Abby just knew that she needed to get away from this man. If she didn’t, she’d probably throttle him from over his damned desk, and then Clarke would lose her only way out of getting floated. She hated Jaha in this moment. Probably always would. She didn’t trust him, and never would again. But, as much as she resented it, Abby knew that Clarke had a slim chance at the moment of Thelonious keeping his word. That was better than what the foregone review would get her over crimes like assault and treason. The last nearly had her spitting as trumped up as that charge was. Clarke had been angry and frightened, she didn’t deserve to die over that.
Abby didn’t trust the man she thought had been her friend. She wouldn’t leave Clarke’s life to him, she promised herself this now. She would find her own way to save her daughter’s life.