"This is dangerous Clarke."

"Maybe, but so is starving to death."

"There are other things to eat in this forest."

"Yeah, well we haven't been eating much of anything lately."

"The river's a boundary and I don't like being within sighting distance of the grounders."

"I don't like it either Bellamy but everything we do is about risk management. Sometimes you need to take a risk to get the reward."

"Why's it always gotta be you taking the risks?" He grumbled.

"I've told you a hundred times, I'm not asking anyone to do something that I wouldn't."

Bellamy rolled his eyes and slouched further into the fur pelt hanging around his shoulders.

"You know, leaders who say that kind of thing are very idealistic but they end up dead."

"Well, I'm not dead," Clarke snapped.

"Yet," Bellamy muttered under his breath.

"That a threat?" Clarke asked over her shoulder as she stomped through the snow.

"More like a promise of what's to come if you don't smarten up."

"Thanks for the concern," Clarke snarled.

"You've never even been fishing before."

"There are a lot of things I never did before I got here."

"How do you know the ice is thick enough to stand on?"

"I don't."

"Great. Sounds like a perfect plan, princess."

"You know we have to at least try-" Clarke halted and widened her eyes, staring out across the frozen river. Bellamy followed her gaze. A young girl was walking on the ice. Under all of her furs it was hard to distinguish her face but there was no mistaking the long hair styled with bone adornments and leather ties- she was clearly a grounder child.

"She shouldn't be out there alone," Clarke muttered.

"Clarke, don't," Bellamy urged but in a heartbeat Clarke had bolted toward the river's edge.

"Go home!" Clarke yelled hoarsely and waved at the girl. Clarke hesitated at the edge of the river; she didn't know who was watching her from the other side. The girl looked up in sudden fear and started scrambling back to shore. There was a sound like a gunshot and the girl fell through the ice.

"NO!"Clarke screamed and shuffled quickly across the ice.

"CLARKE," Bellamy roared but he knew it was no good, she was sliding across the ice as fast as her feet would carry her and nothing he said would make her turn back. He didn't dare step out on the ice with her, he didn't know how much weight it could take. Clarke reached the jagged hole in the ice and plunged her arm into the water. There were bubbles rising up and the water stirred violently which Clarke took as a good sign. She reached around until she felt fur and grasped tightly to the pelt, pulling hard. The girl came spluttering out of the water, coughing and sobbing.

"It's okay, it's okay," Clarke smoothed the girl's wet hair back. "Come on." She dragged the girl across the ice, taking slow, ginger steps. When they reached the shore, a grounder rushed out of the trees and embraced the girl. The woman took the girl up in her arms and nodded at Clarke before turning back into the trees.

Clarke turned back and saw Bellamy waiting for her on the opposite shore. She stepped lightly across the river, careful to walk a wide circle around the hole in the ice. She was nearly back to the shore when she plunged through the ice. The water was shallow enough for her to stand but when she fell in her head went under and she was completely submerged. She stood and Bellamy reached out and grabbed her by the scruff of her furs to haul her out of the river.

"What were you thinking?" he growled and pulled her along roughly.

"Slow down," Clarke protested, her whole body racking.

"I can't, I've gotta get you out of this cold cus you're a goddamned idiot," Bellamy said through gritted teeth and half dragged her along the path. "Its so cold out you're not even going to make it back to camp without freezing to death."

"Bunker," Clarke said, her teeth chattering.

"Yup, that's where we're headed princess, now come on."

Clarke's legs started giving way, her body shutting down in the cold and Bellamy scooped her up in his arms and carried her. Trudging through snow, it was not easy work but he had little other choice. Seconds turned to minutes and Clarke had already been out in the cold too long. Finally, Bellamy reached the bunker door and wrenched it open. He pushed Clarke through the door and shut it closed behind them. Even underground, the air was cold enough to mist their breath. Bellamy set Clarke down on a chair and pointed a finger at her.

"Take your clothes off," he said firmly before turning to rummage through cases looking for the blankets and glowsticks they had found the last time they were there. Clarke weakly obliged and started pulling off her boots and peeling off her wet furs and the shirts she had layered underneath. Bellamy broke several glowsticks and scattered them over the floor before dumping all of the blankets on a tiny bed in the corner. He crossed the room to where Clarke was attempting to lay out her clothes to dry and he shook off his pelt and sweater.

"Here," he said gruffly. "Dry off with this," he handed her his sweater. It was dark and cold but even in the half light of the glowsticks he could see the blue hue of her lips.

"Dry?" he asked her after a minute or so.

"Ya," she nodded fervently and tossed the sweater back to him.

"Good," he said and scooped her up in his arms again. She started to protest but he had already crossed the room and dropped her on the bed.

"Get under the covers, I'm coming in." He unbuckled his belt and pushed his pants off while Clarke burrowed under the blankets. Even the bed was cold in the frigid air. Bellamy stripped down to his shorts and climbed in after her.

"Sharing body heat-" he started to explain.

"Survival 101, I know," Clarke snapped and Bellamy heaved a sigh of relief. If she was already strong enough to argue then maybe she'd pull through this. Clarke's fumbling, shaking hands reached towards him and he pulled her flush against his chest.

"God, you're ice," he whispered as her skin made contact with his. She pressed her face into his neck and he ducked his chin against her head. His arms wound tightly around her and his hands splayed across her back, trying to cover every inch of her skin with his. Her legs tangled in his and she was still shaking uncontrollably.

"You know," he said as he rubbed a slow circle against her back, "when they used to turn the heat down in Walden I'd do jumping jacks in my bed to warm up the sheets."

"They used to turn down the heat in Walden?" Clarke's teeth chattered.

"Gotta conserve resources, right?" Bellamy said bitterly. "Anyway, I'm going to do some half jumping jacks."

He kept his arms firmly around Clarke but his legs opened and shut like a jumping jack lying down. Slowly, the space between the blankets started to warm up and Clarke could feel his heat bleeding into her. She stopped shaking and felt her body relax.

"No more shivers?" he asked.

"Nope," she said into his neck.

"Good."

She didn't tell him that her chest hurt and her throat felt tight. He didn't need to know how hard it was for her to breathe in the cold or how hard it was just to get words out.

"You shouldn't have gone after her," he muttered.

"Had to."

"No you didn't. She was a grounder. Let them look after their own, they're certainly not looking after us."

"She was a child."

"A child who probably already has burns on her back and will grow up trying to kill us," he growled.

Clarke drew in breath to protest and started to cough. The cold air made her throat tight and her chest was sore. It was hard to get any words out at all.

"Sit tight princess," he rolled her off of him and reached over the side of the bed to grab a glowstick from the floor. When he rolled back towards her, he pulled the covers over their heads.

"Breathing warm air should help a little but I don't know what you've done to your body," he said, surveying her blue lips and the ragged heaving of her chest. "I'm not the doctor around here. In case you don't remember, that's you. And you went and threw the only person we have with any medical training into a freezing river, some leader you are. If you had an ounce of sense you'd realize we can't afford to lose you." His voice was low and angry.

Clarke said nothing, she only pulled herself closer to him and his heat.
"Let me see your fingers," he said abruptly and snatched at her hands. Her fingers were cold but red- not black or blue- a good sign. Her feet were freezing against his and he reached up to feel her nose; also freezing.

"Your extremities are so cold," he said and without thinking brought her hands up to his mouth, exhaling his hot breath onto her skin.

"Body's trying to heat my core," she stuttered. "Diverting warmth away from non-vital organs."

Bellamy smirked. "See, your body knows what you don't."

Clarke stared at him, puzzled.

"You're the brain, that girl was a toe," he explained with a shrug.

Clarke narrowed her eyes. "You sound like Jaha," she said. "Turning down Walden's heat to keep Council members warm."

"That's different," he grumbled. "Anyway, you should shut up- your talking is wasting the energy your body needs to warm up."

Clarke rolled her eyes and Bellamy pushed her onto her back, shifting his weight as he went until he was mostly on top of her.

"Just rest now," he said, "we'll stay under here til you're warm and your clothes are dry enough to wear outside."

"Fine," she agreed with a frown, her hands reaching up to thread through the hair at the nape of his neck. She pressed her forehead against his shoulder and closed her eyes.

****

When she awoke, Bellamy was slumped heavy against her body, his nose squashed against her cheek. She felt sticky with sweat and pulled the blanket back to expose her face to the cold air of the bunker.

"Hey," Bellamy stirred and pushed himself up. "How you feel?" he asked huskily, still squinting from sleep.

"Better," Clarke allowed him a rare smile. "I can feel my toes."

Bellamy grinned in response and rolled out of bed, reaching for his jeans.

"Here," he tossed her one of his shirts. "Your clothes are still wet. Surprise, surprise: soaking wet clothes don't dry too quickly in a cold basement. Think you'll be able to stay warm if I run back to camp to get you some dry things?"

"Yeah," Clarke said, fidgeting to put his shirt on without letting too much heat out from her cocoon of blankets.

"Good," he nodded as he zipped up his jacket. "And eat these," Bellamy handed her the rations he had packed in his make-shift knapsack. "You probably burned a lot of calories with all that shivering."

He shrugged into his fur pelt and stared at her appraisingly.

"Sure you're alright?"

"Bellamy. I'll be fine. My body temperature is back up, my skin is a normal colour, I've got nuts to eat and warm blankets and a flannel shirt, I'll survive the 20 minutes it takes you to get to camp and back."

"Alright," he smiled. "Stay in your tower, princess, try not to go saving any grounders while I'm gone."