Chapter 12
The next morning, Andes woke up to find Clarke packing her bag. She rolled out of bed and padded naked to the bathroom. Clarke knew she was going to miss that sight for a week. Maybe the time off would help her get a hold of herself. When Andes came back, she put on some clothes, and looked dejected.
“Well, I guess I’m off.”
Andes couldn’t stand it, she went to Clarke and pulled her in for big hug. Clarke wrapped her arms around Andes shoulders, and they held each other for a few seconds. Andes released her and backed away a little bit. “Are you sure you don’t want me to come with you?”
“No, I’ll be fine.”
“Who’s going with you? Who’s protecting you?”
“Andes, I’ll be fine. Octavia is going to be with me, Kane, and we’re taking Brian and Miller.”
Andes put a stray hair behind Clarke’s ear, and Clarke remembered the last time she did that. She didn’t need these thoughts in her head right now. “I gotta go.”
“Ok, take care of yourself,”
“It’s just for a week.”
“I know, but a lot can happen in a week.”
“Like what?”
“I don’t know.”
“I’ll see you next week, ok? Have fun while I’m gone. Don’t get into any trouble.”
“Ok, bye Clarke,”
“Bye Andes.” She said with a smile. She turned and headed out the door, already missing her. How was that even possible?
Clarke made it back the following Sunday, a day early. She went straight to her room, hoping to see Andes. She missed her, more than she thought she would. She battled this new demon all week. The Andes demon. It was becoming a craving, craving something you couldn’t have, which only made you want it more. She dreamed about her too, those gray eyes haunting her, waking up to wetness between her legs, yearning for release. A couple times, she just couldn’t stand it, she took care of herself, her fingers bringing herself to climax, thoughts of Andes driving her. She was surprised, she thought after that first night together, things would calm down, a night of lust would cure all, but it had just made the attraction stronger. Figures. And then there was last week, after they danced in the room. She’d rather just concentrate on the lust, push those other thoughts far from her mind. She was disappointed because Andes was nowhere in sight. She walked outside and saw Echo, “Clarke, welcome back.”
“Thanks , hey, have you seen Andes?”
“She usually runs with the dogs for a couple hours in the afternoon. Probably still out with them.”
“Ok, thanks.” She walked towards the guard house and stopped short, Andes was walking through the gate now, dogs following her. What a sight. She didn’t see Clarke yet, so Clarke could observe without being noticed. She had a baseball hat on, and someone must have given her a sports bra, because she had that on instead of bindings, with shorts that came down to her knees, and her sandals. Sheen of sweat covered her body. Clarke’s insides turned to liquid just looking at her. She stood and waited for Andes to notice her. Jaks actually was first to see her, he suddenly ran away from Andes and straight to Clarke, jumping up on her. Clarke looked up and Andes eyes were on her now, slowly walking towards her.
“Hey you,“ she said as she walked up to Clarke.
Clarke didn’t care who was looking, she hugged her, smelled her sweat and it was intoxicating, felt the slickness of it on her arms, “Hey yourself.” When she pulled back, she looked up at Andes, loving this look, shook the brim of her hat. “What’s this? Looks like Bellamy’s.”
“It is, I won it off him at poker.” Andes sensed that Clarke was digging the hat.
“Isn’t that his favorite hat, “
“I know, I was going to give it back to him. How was your trip?”
“Productive, I think.”
“Good. Missed you, was boring around here without you.”
“I missed you too.” Now she just stared, getting her fill.
“What?”
“Nothing.” She shook the brim again, “I like that, “
“Maybe I should keep it,”
“No, you should give it back.”
Andes smiled, she was going to have to find another hat somewhere. “I’m giving archery lessons to some people in a little while, if you wanted to stop by, out by the gardens.”
“Ok, I’ll come check it out.”
“Good, nice to have you back, Clarke,”
“Nice to be back.”
Andes watched Clarke walk away, mostly watched her ass. Those tender feelings from last week were safely tucked away. She beat them back with the biggest stick in her brain. Better to just want her, much safer that way.
Clarke joined the lessons while they were in full swing. Andes still had her hat on, the longer shorts, and now a tank top. Clarke was dying a slow lustful death. Andes was showing the setup to everyone who was there, standing behind them as they pulled the bow back. Steadying their arm, helping them aim at the target. Her cast barely limited her, in fact, it didn’t limit her at all. When it was Clarke’s turn, she took a deep breath and walked over to Andes. “Ok Clarke, let’s see your form. “ Clarke took her stance, pulled the bow string back and let an arrow loose. She did hit the target, but was still a ways from the bulls eye. Andes had her take her stance again, then moved in to help correct some flaws. Clarke once again was intoxicated by her smell, Andes pressed her body to hers, a little closer than the others. Clarke felt her breasts press against her back and her hand shook. Andes held it still, and looked down at her, smiling because she knew what was going on. She ran her hand down the length of Clarke’s arm, adjusting her aim, and Clarke started breathing heavier. “Relax Clarke,” Andes whispered in her ear, the huskiness of her voice turning Clarke on, bad, “take a deep breath, steady yourself, and let the arrow go. “ By now Clarke’s legs were like jello, but she did as she was told, and the arrow got a little closer to the mark. “That’s better.”
Monty thought it was impossible to hit that small red circle. “It’s not, Monty, trust me, it can be done.”
“Show us then.” The rest of them chimed in, “Yeah, show us.”
“OK, ok, calm down my impatient pupils. “ She took the bow out of Clarke’s hand and told Monty to go and retrieve all the arrows. Clarke was watching her now as she readied the bow, sticking about six arrows in the ground at her feet, turning the baseball hat backwards, oh god, now there’s a look Clarke thought. She suddenly had a vision of Andes leaning over her naked, with a baseball hat on backwards. Jesus, what is happening here, this was getting close to an obsession.
Andes made a show of getting ready, moving her head back and forth, rolling her shoulders back. She notched the first arrow, it was loose and in the circle, followed by the next one and the next one and the next, all rapid fire, one after the other, all clustering around the red circle. Clarke almost lost control watching that, she was so turned on she almost jumped Andes right there. The rest of the group hooped and hollered, incredibly impressed by the show. Andes only had eyes for Clarke, she winked at her, giving her a crooked little smile. Clarke started to walk away, this whole scene was a little much for her, she needed to bring her temperature down, “I gotta go, I’ll catch you later at dinner.” For the first time in her life, she actually felt like she needed a cold shower, and that’s what she was going to do.
The next morning Andes was in the medical bay with Abby. The cast had been on for a couple weeks now, and it was time to check the progress. Abby ran the scan and looked it over. “Wow, it’s almost healed.” She looked at Andes, a little shock on her face. “We might be able to remove this cast a lot quicker than I thought, maybe in less than a week.”
Andes shrugged, “I told you I was a quick healer.”
Abby looked down and noticed Andes necklace. “What’s this?” she asked, reaching for it, never noticing it before.
“It’s supposedly my father’s. I don’t know what it’s supposed to be.”
“It’s a dog tag.”
“A dog tag? For dogs?”
“No, it’s from the 21st century, or maybe even the 20th, they called them dog tags, the men and women in the military wore them, they were identification tags, dog tags was their nickname. They usually had their name, rank, serial number and blood type on them.” Abby turned it over and saw the letters on the back. “Oh my god. Loom,” she looked up at Andes.
“What?”
“Loom, I think this is supposed to say Loomis. “ She went to the intercom to page Raven. “Raven, do we still have access to the archives of the people on the ark? I’m talking about 20, 25 years ago.”
“We should, I think those survived the crash. “
“Ok, I’ll be right over.” She said to Raven, “C’mon Andes, “ Andes followed Abby down to the control room where Raven was waiting for them.
“What’s up?”
“See if you can pull up the name Loomis.”
“Ok, Loomis, “she inputted the letters and hit enter. The return was immediate, “Here you go” she said looking at Abby.
Abby read off the screen, “Dr. Andrew Loomis, nuclear physicist, astrophysicist, biologist.”
“It just shows his birth date, nothing else, he’s not that old. What happened to him?” Raven asked.
Abby was lost in her memories now. “I remember Andrew, extremely intelligent, brilliant actually. He and Jake were good friends.”
“Who’s Jake?” Andes asked.
“Clarke’s father, my husband. Andrew stole one of the exploration pods, launched himself out into space the day before he was due to be floated. It was a big scandal. Nobody escaped being floated.”
Andes remembered what Clarke said about being floated, what happened to her father. “Why was he going to be floated?”
“He was one of the first people to speak up about the Ark not being able to sustain itself. God, that was almost 25 years ago.“ Andes remembered Clarke telling her why her dad was floated, so he must have discovered the same thing. “Anyway, nobody knew what happened to him. He was always saying that he wanted to go to earth, he thought the atmosphere would have been fine. So when he got the chance, he took it. We couldn’t track his pod because he was able to block his tracker from us.”
Raven was impressed. “Wow, he was like space cowboy. Cool. So you think he landed on earth?”
“Yes, I’m pretty sure he did.” Looking at Andes now.
“So, it’s a great story and all, but what’s it got to do with anything?” Raven asked.
“Raven, is there a picture in the archives?”
“Hold on, let me check. Yep, here it is, may I present Doctor Andrew Loomis.”
They all looked at the picture, larger than life up on the screen. Raven and Abby immediately looked at Andes, who was staring, staring at the spitting image of herself.
Raven started to get excited, “Holy shit, Andes. Is this your dad?” Andes was just looking at the computer screen. “ Wow, apparently hotness runs in your family,” Raven said as she playfully punched Andes on her shoulder. Andes looked over at Raven, a look of wonder on her face. She reached out and touched the screen, wavy bleached blond hair, gray eyes.
Andes looked to Abby for confirmation. “Honey, I think we found your father. I knew Andrew, he was a wonderful man.”
“How?” Andes was speechless for once.
Abby smiled, “Well, he made it down to earth, and I guess he met your mom, and the rest is biological history. Andrew wore that dog tag, it was from his great, great grandfather. I hadn’t seen it on you before. I remember the first day I met you, I had a sense that there was something familiar about you, but I just couldn’t put my finger on it. “
Andes finally started smiling, “Really? You think this is possible?”
“I do. The likeness is incredible. I can run blood tests if you want, I’m sure his DNA is coded into his file.”
“No, no blood test.” Andes said a little too quickly. She didn’t want Abby to see her blood color, that was still her secret, hers and Clarkes.
“Okay, but it’s a way to really know for sure.”
“No, I know it, I feel it. Do you think he’s still alive down there somewhere?”
“That I don’t know. So you never met him?”
Now that Andes was looking at his picture, a memory did come back to her, she was a baby, and she remembered looking up into gray eyes, kind eyes, but that’s all she could recall. “He wasn’t in our lives at all, but I think I remember him looking at me after I was born.”
“Well, this explains that brain of yours. Dude was a genius too, by the looks of his files. Not quite as much as a genius as you, but he was up there.” Raven said as she pulled up pages of data.
“Where’s Clarke? I have to tell Clarke!” Andes wanted to share this with her.
“She was out on patrol, but she should be back by now.” Raven went to the intercom, “Paging Griff, paging Griff, you are needed in control, stat.”
Clarke showed up about 5 minutes later. “What’s up?” Andes grabbed Clarke’s hand and pulled her over to the computer screen, where Andrew was smiling down at them. Clarke’s mouth dropped open, the resemblance was uncanny, she looked at Andes, “What? Who is that?”
“It’s my father.”
Clarke looked at Andes, looked at the picture on the computer, then looked at her mom and Raven. “I don’t understand, how did you find this?”
Abby pointed to Andes necklace. “The dog tag around her neck.”
Clarke remembered the letters on the back now, LOOM. She looked up at the picture, Andrew Loomis. Andrew, Andes. The hair, the eyes, the smile. She looked at Andes, “Oh my god, that’s your dad.” She reached out and pulled Andes in for a hug, which Andes was quick to return, wrapping her arms around Clarke and lifting her off the ground. She put her down, but their arms remained around each other.
“I know, it really is, I feel it Clarke, when I looked at him, I felt something, and I had a memory, and that’s him.”
“Oh my god, this is awesome, there he is, and his name, Andrew, and your name, you were probably named after him. Wow.” Andes filled Clarke in on Andrew’s story, of how he launched himself into space, how he must have landed and found Andes mother.
Raven and Abby watched the two of them together, and Abby just smiled at Raven, both knowing what the other was thinking, they both saw the obvious affection between the two them, saw the caring, they were a stunning couple, now if they could just stop being so stubborn about it.
“Someday they’ll get it, “ Raven said quietly to Abby. Abby nodded, she hoped so, she really liked Andes, and she knew she was good for Clarke, her lightness balancing out the darkness in Clarke.
Later that night, Andes was sitting on her bed, with her back against the wall, looking at the laptop that Raven gave her, reading about her father. His file contained tons of data. Abby did some searching in their resource library, and found a couple ebooks that Andrew had written, and she loaded them up on the laptop also. Clarke came out of the shower, her hair wet, just a towel wrapped around herself. Andes looked up to watch Clarke take it off and get dressed. She stopped being modest after their night together, and Andes always enjoyed this show, especially since Clarke didn’t seem to mind her watching. As usual, her body reacted, intense heat everywhere, heart beating out of her chest. And as usual, since she had been here at the ark, she had to control herself, talk herself down, cool herself off. That stupid promise. She often would think of what she would do if that promise wasn’t made, she would think of these things in the middle of the night when she couldn’t sleep. She pictured herself grabbing Clarke and showing her how much she wanted her, how much she cared. She knew Clarke would be in to it also. She wasn’t so good at hiding her lust.
“What are you reading?” Clarke asked after she was done putting on a shirt and shorts.
“Reading about my dad, he wrote books, he wrote poems, it’s quite fascinating. “ Clarke wandered over to stand next to Andes bed, craning her neck to see the screen. “Here, sit down,” Andes moved over to give Clarke room. Clarke scooted up on the bed and leaned in close. Now their bodies were touching, from shoulder down to their feet. The temperature in the room shot up. “So, look, here’s some pictures, I think this might be your dad, Jake, right?”
Clarke looked at the picture and smiled, “oh my god, it is. So what, were they friends then?”
“I think so, there are a lot of pictures of them both, and your mom. None of you as a baby though, I looked. I guess he must have left before you born. And look, he wrote poetry.”
Clarke read some of the poems. “Wow, he was romantic, wasn’t he?”
“Yeah, they’re really sweet poems. I wonder if he had someone up there that he cared about?”
“Maybe. So, did you get that romantic gene?”
Andes laughed, “I don’t know, I mean, I guess I haven’t had somebody to be romantic with. You know, since I’ve never been in love and all.”
“Yeah, that’s a shame.” Andes was looking down at Clarke now, looking at her mouth, wishing she could kiss her. “Don’t look at me like that,” Clarke said as she pushed her shoulder into Andes.
“Look at you like what?”
“Like you want to, “she couldn’t find the word.
“What?” Andes asked softly.
“Devour me.“
“Devour you? Well, I don’t know about devour.” She kicked that one around in her brain, “ Maybe.” She was smiling at Clarke, trying to give her the sexiest smile she could.
“Stop it,”
“What? I ‘m not doing anything. I’m looking at you, and you’re assuming something about the way I’m looking at you. It’s very subjective on your part.”
“I don’t have to assume, I know. Your eyes change color.”
“Really?“
“Yeah, they look like a thunderstorm when you’re…” Clarke stopped, not knowing if she wanted to continue down this path.
“When I’m what?”
“Turned on. They look like storm clouds.” Clarke said as she kept her eyes on the computer screen, not wanting to see what she saw in Andes eyes.
Andes reached down and put her finger under Clarke’s chin, brought her eyes up to hers. “Yours do too. Turn a different color.”
Clarke reached up and gently pushed Andes hand away. “Andes, please stop. You promised, remember?”
“Oh the promise, yes, I remember. The promise. It just seems silly to me, the promise.”
“What’s silly about it?”
“Well, it’s pretty fucking obvious that we have a serious connection here, whether you want to admit it or not.”
“I’ll admit that, yes, we have a strong sexual attraction here. That doesn’t mean we have to act on it.”
“You see, that’s what I don’t understand. Why not? Why can’t we act on it?”
“Because, I don’t know, because.”
“That’s not a good reason.”
Clarke sighed. “Ok, so we have sex, then what? Where do we go from there?”
“What do you mean where do we go from there?”
“Well, I don’t know. Just acting on something for the pure pleasure of it, and nothing more, seems, I don’t know, selfish, counterproductive. “
“What if it’s more than just for pleasure.” There, Andes threw it out there, feelings. Feelings, Andes knew she had feelings. Real feelings. If she were to be honest with herself, she knew she’d been dealing with them since she said goodbye to Clarke all those weeks ago.
“That’s not going to happen. I won’t let that happen, on my end. “
“You have that much control over your feelings?”
“I do, yes.” Clarke knew she was a liar. She knew if Andes grabbed her and kissed her, she wouldn’t even fight her, she would be begging for it. God she was weak.
Andes thought she had two options here, one, she could get all pissy about things, and probably Clarke would get off the bed and be mad. Or two, she could put a lid on her overactive sex drive, a sex drive that was driven strictly by Clarke, and laugh it off, keeping Clarke next to her on her bed, at least for a little while longer. She pushed her shoulder back into Clarke’s and tried to lighten the mood, option two. “Ok, fair enough. Just seems like a big waste of good sex.”
Clarke looked at Andes, saw the storm clouds receding, replaced by a soft gray. She smiled now, that little bit of a tense moment passing. “Why don’t you show me more pictures of your dad,” Clarke said, as she tried to cool herself off, wondering if Andes could see her insides as they trembled from being this close to her. They paged through more pictures and soon decided it was time to go to sleep. Clarke got up and went to her own bed, crawled beneath the covers.
“So, did you ever lip sync?” Andes asked her.
“I did, it was a while ago, but I did, why?”
“Maybe we could do one.”
“What, a lip sync?”
“Yeah, it’ll be fun.”
“We’ll see. Go to sleep.”
“Ok, bossy pants.”
Clarke picked her head up and looked at Andes across the room and threw her pillow at her.
“Oh, thank you, two pillows are much better than one.”
Clarke lay there for a bit, her head flat on her bed, missing her pillow, “I would like my pillow back, please.”
“You’ll have to come and take it from me.”
Clarke sighed, pushed her covers back and walked over to Andes bed. “Give it here.”
“You threw it away. “
“I was hasty, and I regret throwing it, so may I please have it back?”
“Well, that was a very nice way of asking for it, so, yes you may have it, “ and she handed it back, only she didn’t let go of it and when Clarke grabbed it, Andes pulled her onto her bed. “Oops. Now what’ll we do?”
Clarke got up from the bed, now having full control of the pillow, and bopped her in the head with it, and walked back to her bed.
“Good night Clarke. “
“Good night Andes.”