twenty two . . . estranged kin
( april 26, 2281 — eligius iv ship )

SHE DIDN'T HANG around Gracie's Cryochamber for too long after both Bellamy and Sloan left — Bellamy had said to take an hour before meeting in the mess, and that's exactly what Cullen done. Staring down at Gracie's older, yet still miraculously beautiful, face could only spare Cullen so much procrastination, and after what seemed like forever, she finally looked away. After two semi-explosive reactions to what she had done, Cullen was left questioning whether the two men would act the same way towards her daughter as they had before; only time would tell, she supposed. But with their new world on the brink of their touch, how much time could they be spared?

Walking into the mess, Cullen's eyes drifted across to where Bellamy, Echo, Murphy, and Emori sat together, before her eyes found Jordan's. He was standing near the entrance, a tray lined with bowls of algae in front of him — as Cullen approached, his smile grew larger, essentially sparkling up something close to a friendly greeting on her features.

"Hey." Her voice was light as she stopped in front of Jordan, quick to avoid his questioning eyes.

"Hi. I made food for everyone." He replied, pointing down to the remaining bowls of algae that looked the least bit appetizing to Cullen. "I remember how much you didn't like it, but it's all we've got until we get to the ground."

Cullen accepted a bowl and brought it up to her lips, testingly holding back her grimace as the liquid slipped down her throat. "Never gets easier to swallow."

"Grace liked it." Said Jordan, a fonder smile replacing the one that was already on his lips. At the use of the nickname, Cullen's eyebrows twitched together. "She said it reminded her of the food that was grown in the bunker."

"From the hydrofarm." Cullen nodded. "I'm surprised she remembered it after all that time."

"Oh, she remembered everything. Her memories were a little unclear, but she made sense of them." Jordan's smile suddenly dropped, and he questioned, "Are you gonna wake her up?"

"Yeah. I just..." she trailed off as her eyes wandered over to Bellamy, who had just laughed at something Murphy had said, "I will after we've got a plan. I don't want her worrying about things as soon as she's awake."

"She can handle it." Jordan insisted, nothing but confidence in his words. "She's strong, just like you."

Her doting smile couldn't help but appear. "Thank you, Jordan." She said sincerely, before nodding her head towards their friends' table. "Are you gonna come sit and eat with us?"

"I will soon. Sloan, Clarke, Raven, and Shaw aren't here yet, and I want to give them their bowls before I eat." The kindness in his words reminded Cullen of both Monty and Harper, and while their offspring stood in front of her, her heart panged achingly at how much she missed them.

After thanking Jordan again for the food, Cullen wandered over to the table and took the only free seat beside Bellamy, deliberately focusing her attention on Murphy and Emori instead of the Blake man and Echo. She sipped on her algae, ignoring how Bellamy's knuckles turned white as he clenched the fist that rested on his thigh.

"What about you?" Murphy's voice cut into Cullen's thoughts, bringing her eyes away from Bellamy's fist. "Do you have any idea on how to get off of this damn ship?"

Her eyes flickered between his and Emori's before she said, "The Gagarin — same way we came up. Unless you want to take this whole ship to the ground, it's the only option."

"How do you know?" Asked Emori.

To this, Bellamy angled his body towards her, and raised his eyebrows rhetorically. "Yeah. How do you know?"

Discomfort twitched at her heart as their eyes met. "Monty told me."

"I don't remember that being in the messages." Said Echo.

"Because it wasn't. Monty woke me up and shared his research with me. That's how I know." She finalized, eyes dropping back down to her bowl before Murphy, Emori, and Echo launched into another conversation, leaving Cullen to deal with Bellamy's eyes blazing holes into the side of her face. Following a few seconds of her hoping he'd look away, she turned her head and asked, "What?"

He was quiet, simply staring around her face before asking, "How many days were you awake?"

"They woke me up every year on her birthday following the day of the tenth year anniversary — so, fourteen altogether. Why?"

"Just wondering if you thought of living your lives with Monty, Harper, and Jordan instead of going back to sleep." Bellamy said with an accusing tone, moving his eyes back down to his own bowl of algae.

"No, I didn't." She replied with a hardened jaw. "I wouldn't do that to you."

"Because what you done wasn't just as bad." He countered, sparing her a nasty look before his eyes caught on Clarke, who was walking past them and towards where Abby sat on her lonesome at the table behind theirs. "Hey, you seen Raven or Shaw?"

"You know, the people you handed over to our enemy to be tortured." Emori followed.

"Now, for Clarke, we call that a Tuesday." Murphy grinned coyly across to Cullen, who looked away unamused at their hostility towards the Griffin woman — while Cullen hadn't known of what they were talking about, she didn't think Clarke deserved such backlash.

"Easy." Echo said to her friends. "She did the right thing in the end."

"No. I haven't seen them." Said Clarke before walking away.

As Cullen turned back to her bowl, Echo caught her eye and asked, "Where's Sloan?"

She shrugged. "Beats me."

Before anything else could be said, Jordan reentered the room with a new tray containing three different containers full of algae — as he walked past their table, Cullen's eyes followed after him as he planted himself in front of both Griffin women. "Will first-culture algae do? My Dad wanted me to give this to you."

Clarke's eyes widened. "The stuff Bellamy used on Octavia."

Unintentionally, her eyes flickered back to Bellamy, who dropped his gaze down to the table in guilt. In order to ignore the reassurance she wanted to give him, Cullen turned back around and asked, "What's it for?"

"To hopefully save Kane." Jordan answered, and handed the cylinder shaped container to Abby.

She inspected it for a few seconds before smiling up to Jordan. "Thank you." Abby stood, Clarke following alongside her. "Take Jackson to the ground. I'll wake up Niylah to assist me."

"I'm helping, too." Cullen called out as Abby passed their table — the woman spared her a quick nod of her head before fleeing from the room. After quickly gulping down the rest of her algae, twisting her face in dissatisfaction of the taste, she stood from her own seat, only to have Bellamy catch her wrist in the process.

"If you help Abby, you can't go to the ground." He told her.

"He's right, Cullen." Clarke stepped closer to them. "We can't wait to go down, and we might need our best fighters."

"Then take Sloan. He's as good a fighter as I am, and you can trust him." Upon speaking his name, Bellamy dropped his hold on Cullen's wrist and sighed. "If they're waking Kane up, I need to be here. Once you've made contact on the ground, come back up and get me."

Seeing that Bellamy wasn't going to answer, Clarke nodded. "All right."

Cullen didn't waste another second of being in that room before rushing after where Abby had went, throwing Raven and Shaw a smile as she passed them. She walked casually through the hallways, eyes scoping for Sloan at all times before she eased her stance as she entered into the Cryo room. Walking towards Gracie's Cryochamber, Cullen's eyes spotted Abby further down the hallway before her soul attention dropped to her daughter.

She had done this before — woken Gracie up. When she did so on her birthday a hundred and fifteen years ago, she was just as nervous as she was now; possibly less, as there wasn't as much to explain back then. At five, Gracie's only concern was as to whether she'd see her Mom and Dad again — the aspect of growing up was merely a speck of dirt in Gracie's world. And as she grew older and came to understand why Cullen had made such a sacrificing decision, going back to sleep on the eve of her birthday got easier and easier. Going to sleep and waking up were two very different things, however, and Cullen knew that.

As she clicked the button to release Gracie's Cryochamber from the wall, Cullen held her breath and watched it slide out. It took a few seconds for her hazelnut colored eyes to open, but when they did, Cullen could see her little girl — the same little girl she had risked everything for, and would do so again.

"Mom?" Her tone was scratchy, tired, and drastically different.

"Hey." Cullen smiled largely down to Gracie, reaching to brush her longer hair away from her face. It was a blessing that as Gracie got older, everything about her looks was a replica of Bellamy; the deep brown eyes, the thick curly hair, the impossibly long eyelashes. She was beautiful, but then Cullen always thought that Bellamy was, too. "You feeling ok?"

"Except from the pain in my head?" She murmured as she moved to sit up.

"It'll go away soon." Cullen promised, and reached up to help Gracie step down from her Cryochamber. Once stabilized on her feet, Gracie's arms wrung around Cullen's middle, her face burying into her chest. "Did you dream of anything?"

"If I did, I can't remember it." Gracie hummed, lingering in her Mother's arms for a few seconds longer before pulling away. "Did you?"

Cullen grinned knowingly. "I dreamt about you."

"You say that every time."

"Because every time it's true." The sound of Gracie laughing quickened Cullen's heartbeat, spreading a revering smile across her face — it wasn't active for very long, as the second Gracie's eyes diverted and dropped down to Bellamy and Sloan's empty Cryochambers, the smile was gone.

She looked back to Cullen and asked, "Are they awake?"

"Yeah. So are some of our other friends. Monty left instructions for Jordan to wake us up and play us some messages he and Harper had recorded." She explained, and quickly reached to tilt Gracie's chin up when she began slouching in dolefulness. "Your Dad's in the mess and Sloan's wandering around somewhere. I told them about you — about what I done."

Gracie pulled a face. "How'd they take it?"

"As bad as we thought." Cullen sighed. "But there's more pressing issues then your age. Monty finally found that planet he was talking about."

"He cracked the files?" She inquired excitedly, resurfacing Cullen's smile.

"Yeah, he did. And our new home is literally right outside. There's a team going down to scout whether it's survivable or not."

Upon hearing the tone in her Mother's words, Gracie nodded knowingly. "I'm guessing that team doesn't involve us."

"You guessed right." Cullen ignored Gracie's sigh of disappointment as she wrapped an arm around her shoulders and began leading them out of the room. "I'm staying here to help Abby wake Kane up. Monty left some first-generation algae that might help bring him out of the coma."

Another pleasure of Gracie growing up to an age of maturity was being able to share the difficult things with her — like Kane's critical state, and why they hadn't woke Octavia up to discuss their new home. When Gracie was five, all things that could disrupt her innocence were kept from her per Cullen's request; the Vander female had admitted to herself that sharing such things with her daughter now was odd, but she preferred it to the secrecy. Again, her decision came into play for the greater good.

"Is he gonna be ok?" Gracie asked, looking up to her Mother. "Pops?"

Sometimes the difficult things were difficult to indulge in. "We're gonna do everything we can to save him. But it's Kane, you know we won't give up on him."

"Good. So, what can I do to help?"

Opting to have Monty and Harper raise Gracie was one of Cullen's most proudest moments. There were aspects of Gracie's personality that were purely the two of them, and while she had Jordan to fill their forever vacant spaces, she had Gracie, too. Monty had taught her all about engineering, and Harper's kindness came into play in all areas — Cullen adored it so much.

"You can help Raven and Jordan at the bridge. But right now—"

"Dad!" Gracie's gleeful shout echoed through the hallways as she tore herself from Cullen's grip and went barrelling towards where Bellamy stood by the opening of the Gagarin. Everyone that was awake stood around them saying their goodbyes, but the only people Cullen could focus on was Bellamy and their daughter.

He dropped the backpack that hung loosely over his shoulder and caught Gracie effortlessly, not even staggering upon impact of her hurdling body. Her arms clung tightly around his shoulders while Bellamy supported her middle, one hand holding the back of Gracie's head as a series of words rushed from his lips, incoherent to anybody but them. From the distance Cullen stood she was able to see the pure glorification that streaked through Bellamy's eyes, proving her thoughts wrong — nothing would change in the way Bellamy acted around their daughter. He loved her unconditionally, even now with thirteen years having been pried from his grasp.

Cullen was sure she hadn't ever witnessed a more wholesome sight then what was in front of her right now. Selfishness was always the factor of her personality that she detested the most, and she was well aware that what she had done would negatively impact her and Bellamy's already fractured relationship, but right now, Cullen couldn't care about that. All she could care about was Gracie's overwhelming happiness that lit up the entire ship as Bellamy placed a kiss on her forehead.

A flicker of gingery blonde hair coming in from her left snapped Cullen's attention away from her daughter immediately. Sloan walked with his gaze diverted, more than comfortable strolling straight past Cullen if it weren't for her catching his wrist and pulling him to a reluctant stop.

"Hey." She rounded his body and forced their eyes to meet — the duplicity in them was at a level Cullen had never seen before. "Were you gonna say goodbye?"

"Were you?" He fired back, unholding of his temperament.

The frown that curved her lips downwards had no effect on the man in front of her; Sloan felt true betrayal for what she had done, and Cullen didn't know how to rectify that. "Sloan—"

"We'll radio when we touch down." Were his final words before he took his wrist from Cullen's grip and continued on his way towards the Gagarin, only stopping to hug and kiss Gracie goodbye before disappearing inside.

None of her expectations on how Sloan would react matched this scenario. Vulnerable anger was never a good attribute to have as a warrior, and in the six years they spent in the bunker, Sloan lost track of what he was capable of — how could Cullen have known it would be her own actions that would bring out this side of him again? She expected hostility, but mostly from Bellamy. Receiving it from Sloan was notoriously displacing.

She hadn't noticed Bellamy and Gracie saying their final goodbye until Gracie reappeared at her Mother's side, linking their arms together as the last of the team entered the Gagarin.

"Dad saw you and Sloan talking so he told me to tell you he said goodbye." Gracie mumbled as the Gagarin began detaching from the Eligius IV Ship. Cullen didn't answered, only watched as their friends descended down to an unknown planet; she must've been quiet for too long, because it took Gracie tugging on her arm to regain her Mother's attention. "They'll come around, Mom. Their attitudes can't change the past."

Cullen couldn't help but laugh at the irony. "Let's hope."

💛

AFTER A WHILE, there wasn't much else Cullen could do to help Abby with Kane. Seeing him in such a critical state, his life literally in her hands, Cullen concluded with herself that she couldn't do it, and that was something Kane told her was always all right to admit. With Niylah in her place, Cullen excused herself and saught out to find Gracie and update her on Kane's status.

The door to the bridge slid open, Cullen passing Jordan a smile before wandering over to where Gracie sat by the window, looking down on the planet. "Hey." She sighed lightly as she sat down.

Gracie turned and smiled loosely back to Cullen before returning her gaze to the planet. "Raven said they haven't radioed back yet. They've been down there for almost six hours."

"If it wasn't survivable, they would have come back up." Cullen assured, reaching to place a hand over Gracie's, drawing her attention away from the window. "Something must be interfering with the signal."

"Or they're dead."

"Hey." Cullen instantly refused, firmly shaking her head at the deadened tone to Gracie's words. "We don't think like that. Your Dad and Sloan will do anything it takes to get back to you."

Her youthful eyes were apologetic. "Us — back to us."

"Right." She agreed simply to make the topic go away, and tightened her hold around Gracie's hand. "You know how strong they all are. It's an exploratory team, meaning they'll explore everything they can to make sure it's safe for the rest of us to go down."

"I know. I just miss them."

Cullen frowned. "You're gonna have plenty of time to be with them. I promise."

The silence between them lasted a few seconds before Jordan hesitantly approached them, eyes moving between the Mother and daughter, but attention focused souly on Gracie. "Raven just asked for us to come to the engine room."

When Gracie looked back to Cullen she quickly let go of her daughters hand and ushered for her to go. "Go. I'll be waiting here for when you get back."

A smile was sent Cullen's way before the duo left the room, Cullen watching them go before her eyes flickered down to the planet. Upon Raven and Jordan's discovery, the planets name was Alpha, and it was actually a moon — a moon with two suns eclipsing just behind them. The impossible made possible, Cullen thought, before dampening thoughts of how much Monty and Harper would've loved it seeped into her mind.

She wasn't alone with her thoughts for too long; Cullen was exceedingly thankful of this, as Bellamy Blake had began to worm his way through survivability and living life on a moon. After five minutes, the door to the bridge slid open again, and in stepped Abby and Kane.

Cullen shot to her feet instantly, taking in Kane's weakened state before their eyes met for the first time in over a hundred and twenty-five years. Looking at him now, a man Cullen cared for with the entire capacity of her being, she realized she couldn't even remembered the last conversation they had had. Now, he was nimbly making his way towards her, feeling the exact emotions that played out on her features.

"Come here." It was the simplest order he had ever given her, and one she complied to without a second thought. As delicately as she could, Cullen wrung her arms around Kane's middle and burrowed her face into his chest as he held her with enough strength to barely snap a twig — it wasn't like their other embraces, tight and consoling, but present and devoted. "I missed you."

Her tears gleamed brightly in her eyes as a choked laugh bubbled up her throat. "I missed you, too." She said with upmost sincerity. And, though she was reluctant to pull away, she did and smiled softly up to him. "Are you ok?"

"I've been better." Kane admitted, wrapping an arm around Cullen's shoulders for support.

"I was able to wake him up with enough blood." Said Abby as she joined Cullen in walking Kane to the window.

"Will that be enough?" Cullen asked across Kane.

"Can we discuss this later?" He requested, not waiting for a reply as they reached the window that displayed Alpha. Unhooking his arms from both women, Kane pressed one hand against the glass and looked astonishingly down to their new home. "I'm ok. I've never been more ok in my life."

Cullen grinned as she looked between Kane and the planet. "This is planet Alpha — it's a moon."

"We sent an exploratory team down there. Clarke's on it." Said Abby.

"She'll be fine." Kane assured, wrapping an arm around Abby's waist. "Everything we did, everything that happened, happened so we could get here."

"I believe that, too." Abby whispered.

Approaching footsteps sounded from behind them, making Cullen swing around to see Octavia strolling mightily into the room. "Then you're a bigger fool than him."

Cullen stepped forward alarmingly. "Who woke you up?"

Octavia's head tilted. "Not the people I thought cared about me. Where's Niylah?"

"Waking people up that she shouldn't, apparently." Abby answered, ignoring Cullen's tested look.

"She needed my blood to save the life of a traitor."

Kane staggered past Cullen, holding his side as he went. "I'd gladly give it back if I could."

"You think you're better than me, Kane? We lost four hundred and seventeen people in that gorge. Ethan was the first to die. They put a bullet in his head. I wonder how your friend Jaha would feel about that." Octavia taunted, moving to step forward but Cullen moved first, features unwavering to Octavia's condescending tone.

"The gorge was a hundred and twenty-five years ago, Octavia. Don't bring up the past when it has no benefit to the future." Cullen advised, more for Octavia's sake then anybody else's.

From behind her, Abby had muttered something to Kane that he completely ignored, moving to talk to Octavia again. "You led them to the slaughter."

"It was only a slaughter because you betrayed us." Octavia contended.

"I was promised that you'd be allowed to surrender and then work out terms for sharing the Valley." Kane explained, beginning to double over in pain.

Octavia scoffed bitterly. "You were promised? Promised by who, by which murdering psychopath? Everything I did in that bunker I did for my people. Am I a monster? Is that it? Just like both of you — the cannibal doctor and the man she loves, even after he floated her husband. The man who caused three hundred of his own people to die on the Ark when the ground was survivable. You think you're better than me, Kane, that you've learned from your mistakes?

If it was up to you, Wonkru would have died of starvation in that bunker. You were too weak to do what had to be done, and then you ran, became a traitor, made a deal with our enemy that you knew they would never keep."

"Enough." Cullen barked, roughly shoving against Octavia's shoulders to put distance between her and Kane. When Octavia fought against her hold, reaching to swing a fist towards Cullen's face, the Vander female caught her hand and used it as leverage to push Octavia even further away. "None of us is innocent, Octavia, and you are in no position to call someone out for their mistakes. You waged that war. You burnt down the farm."

"You did that for power. For vanity." Kane shouted from behind Cullen, pushing himself forward before blood began coughing up his throat. "You were lost. You're still lost."

As he toppled forward into Cullen's arms, knocking them down to the floor, the same nightmare replayed in Cullen's mind — her Father and Maya dying in her arms, her being helpless in saving them. "Kane!"

"Marcus. Marcus." Abby's panicked voice cut in as she helped Cullen lift Kane up again.

Another pair of hands shot out to help, but Cullen knocked them away before they could make contact with Kane's body. "Don't you dare." She seethed, looking venomously towards Octavia and the blame she was so willing to pass on to somebody else. "Go away, Octavia. Now."

They quickly disregarded the Blake woman as they lay Kane down on the closest table, where their eyes flickered down to where he was bleeding through his shirt. Immediate panic began to flood Cullen's body as her hands froze, attention moving to a chaotic Abby Griffin.

"What's happening to him?" Her words were a jumble, tongue swelling in her mouth. "Abby. Is he gonna be ok?"

"I don't know." She responded as she pushed a cloth into Cullen's hand and moved it to press down on Kane's wound. The honesty of her words was what slammed against Cullen's chest the most, because up until now, she always believed there was something they could do to save Kane. "I don't know."

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a/n . . . i forgot how much i disliked cullen and octavia not getting along :( but octavia's whole redemption arc has to include our girl too ...

teaser for next chapter: might possibly be in sloan's point of view ... so rip to everyone that doesn't like him tehe :)