Bellamy was woken up by a groan. His head was throbbing while he opened his eyes. It was hard to focus on anything. The surroundings he did see were unfamiliar. He heard another groan and shifted feeling something dig into his wrist. The pain made his eyes focused and he took in his surroundings. Dirt floor and rock walls this looked like the kind of cave Lincoln lived in. The pain from his head shot down the side of his face. He was trying to remember what happened and how he got here. He heard another groaned and turned his head to find the noise source. Bile rose in his throat. Clarke was hanging by her wrists from shackles in the ceiling, being as short as she was only the tip of her toes drug against the dirt. All the memories hit him at once. They had gone out as a hunting party for some food and halfway into the trip he remembered seeing a grounder come from the trees and knock Clarke out with his club it didn't take long for him to execute the kill shot. Bellamy had stayed closer to Clarke his gun angled up in the trees trying to keep an eye out, but he felt a sharp pain in his head and that's the last thing he remembered.
"Clarke." his voice was came out hoarse and he could feel the earth in the back of his throat. He coughed and tried his best to loosen it and swallow. "Clarke!" He tried one more time, but she didn't move. He heard her groan again, "Clarke!" he did his best to scoot closer but the shackles on his wrist bit into his skin.
The door swung open and slammed into the rock wall beside it. "Ah the leader of ski cru has graced us with his presence." Bellamy didn't say anything he just stared at the man doing his best to not show any emotion, but he couldn't fight the urge to glance over at Clarke every few seconds to make sure she was still okay. "Oh are we not so talkative now?" the grounder walked over and dug his thumb on the side of Bellamy's head and searing hot pain shot through his head and down the side of his face all the way into his shoulder. Bellamy yelled in pain no matter how hard he tried not to give him the satisfaction. The grounder kept his thumb there still pushing as hard as he could until he pulled away but the pain was still radiating everywhere. He saw the grounder lick blood from his thumb. Pulling up a makeshift chair he looked down at Bellamy.
"Now where is our traitor?" The menacing glare the grounder gave off was enough to make any person shrink back, but all it did was infuriate Bellamy. "Lincoln needs to pay for his crimes." He continued to sit there refusing to talk. They wouldn't give them any information. It bought him some time until he figured out he was going to get Clarke and himself out of here. He felt a horrid pain on the side of his face whipping it to the side. The metallic taste hit his tongue and he spit out the blood.
There was another groan from Clarke and Bellamy looked over at her and saw she was starting to stir. "How about we make her tell us." The grounder smirked at him but walked up to Clarke and ran his finger down the side of her face.
"Don't you touch her!" Bellamy yelled. The grounder ignored Bellamy's yells and continued to run a finger down her neck to the collarbone. "Stop! Leave her alone!" Bellamy was pulling as hard as he could to get out of the shackles he was going to kill this grounder and he would take great pleasure in it. Bellamy could feel the liquid running down his arm from the shackles biting into his wrist as he did his best to pull out of them. He watched as the guys hands began to wonder down the curve of her side. "So you prey on an innocent girl because you can't handle someone who doesn't tremble over you, because they have no fear towards you. You're weak-" Bellamy felt the guys fist before he even saw him walk over to him. Bellamy felt the blood running down into his eye. "For a grounder you can't punch for shit?" Bellamy became his punching bag, because as long as he was punching him he wasn't touching Clarke. The grounder started punching Bellamy in his stomach.
"Stop! You're hurting him!" Bellamy's hairs raised up on the back of his neck and he spit out the blood that had pooled in his mouth. She wasn't supposed to wake up, she wasn't supposed to say anything until he could figure out how to get her out of here.
"Ah so the Princess has awoken." Bellamy's blood boiled over him calling her Princess. It was irrational given the circumstances but he didn't fight it. Her eyes connected with his and for the first time since they landed here she looked truly terrified. Bellamy's stomach clenched. He needed to find a way out, he had to. Bellamy was watching Clarke as the grounder walked toward her, the little bit of fear he saw was completely gone. The guarded and angry expression, that he was on the receiving end on way too many times since they landed, is all she gave the grounder.
"So I'm going to ask you the same thing I asked your boy." Clarke looked at Bellamy but the grounder grabbed her chin and made her look at him. "Where is Lincoln?" Clarke looked surprised.
"I don't know where he is." Clarke's voice was unwavering no matter how much the grounder tried to intimidate her but he saw Clarke pulling herself off the ground trying to relieve the pain from hanging from the shackles.
"You sky people came down here and wreck the villages we built while killing our families."
Bellamy yelled pulling at the shackles, "You attacked us! All we did was defend ourselves!"
The grounder walked over to Bellamy and punched him in the face, "I lost a brother and two sons in your ring of fire!"
"That was me! I did that! I pulled the lever! Bellamy wasn't even in the drop ship!" Clarke was yelling out quickly. Her voice was going hoarse from how loud she was yelling. Bellamy watched in horror as the grounder stalked over to Clarke with his knife out. His face was right up to hers.
"Then you don't mind if I condemn you for their deaths." The grounder took his knife and slid it over Clarke's arm. The blood was already pouring over her arm and down her shoulder until it dropped on the ground. "That's for my son Miko. His first battle was his last."
Bellamy was pulling more and more on the shackles his wrists burning from the constant pulling and the blood was still dripping onto the floor. "STOP! No. I told her to pull the level, I should carry the deaths of your family! Please! Just let her go, you can do to me whatever you want but don't hurt her!"
The grounder just smiled even more, "Then where is Lincoln?"
Bellamy clenched his jaw. He wanted to be the one hanging from the ceiling not her, but he couldn't send people to kill Lincoln. Octavia would never forgive him if she ever found out he was a part of them trying to kill him.
"I DON'T KNOW!" Bellamy was getting mad. To the point where his emotions were running rampant. He watched as the grounder slid the knife down the front of Clarke's shirt ripping it open. "Stop! Leave her alone!" Clarke's eyes were shut but all he could think about was getting her out alive.
"Where is Lincoln?"
Bellamy was looking at Clarke. He was never the one that could get them out of a situation, he was normally the reason they were in a situation. He had once told Clarke that you can't save everybody, yet here he was trying his best to save her and Lincoln. Bellamy heard a scream and his head snapped to Clarke ripping him from his thoughts. The grounder had dug his knife into her skin and slid it about three inches and he was waiting for an answer. "I don't know!" Bellamy said forcefully.
"Wrong answer." The grounder slowly slid his knife across Clarke's stomach the cut being much deeper than the first.
Bellamy was getting enraged but it didn't overflow until the grounder punched Clarke in the stomach the bleeding got worse and was running down her stomach and was starting to stain her jeans. "You asshole! Let me out of here! Be a fucking man and fight with someone who isn't shackled to a wall. You seem to think you're all big bad and mighty."
The grounder looked at Bellamy his eyes shooting daggers. He turned to Clarke and punched her rib cage on each side and Bellamy couldn't take the screams of pain, the worst was the whimpering he heard from Clarke. He started pulling the chains over and over again as fast as he could yelling that he was going to kill him.
The grounder was getting angry, "Were is Lincoln!?"
"We don't fucking know!" everything in Bellamy wanted to give him the answer he was seeking, to just tell him that Lincoln was at their camp and save Clarke. But Bellamy knew that if it was her that she'd be doing the same thing he was, trying to save them both.
The grounder yelled out and sunk his knife into Clarke's leg. Her scream carried and it put tears in Bellamy's eyes. "I don't believe you! All you tell are lies. Do you know what we do to liars? We cut their tongue out. Is that what you want sky person?"
Bellamy's eyes were glued to Clarke's hanging body, "Clarke no no no, stay with me. Don't you dare give in!" he could tell she was about to pass out but he couldn't lose her. He felt the grounders punch land straight on his mouth. His mouth filled with blood instantly and he spit it off to the side. "Is that the best you got?"
The grounder roared and went over to Clarke where she hung there barely conscious, "It seems your guy here doesn't think that was the best. Shall we prove him wrong?" The grounder started punching Clarke in the head and stomach. Wailing on her rib cage.
Bellamy was yelling for him to stop, tears streaming down his face. Everything in front of him felt like it was playing in slow motion. There was nothing he could do. He was helpless. The grounder turned at looked at him once Clarke's body wen completely limp.
"Noooooo!" Bellamy's chest was aching. This pain was worse than being beat up and having his face punched in. This pain was from his heart, he had promised himself that he would look out for Clarke. They became closer after everything they went through. It was always him and her and he didn't want to be just himself. "Clarke wake up!" He could hear himself wailing but it was like he wasn't in his body. That he was witnessing a man's break down. "You can't leave me. You said you needed me and I need you too! Don't make me do this on my own." There was no movement and she was ghostly pale with blood loss.
The grounder bent down to look Bellamy in the face. His face was smug and all he wanted to do was kill him. Bellamy brought his head back and the connected it with the grounder head as he leaned forward head butting him. The grounder stumbled back but he was angry and he walked over to Clarke's body and pulled his knife from her knee. Bellamy felt bile rise into his throat when she didn't even move.
"I'm going to enjoy this greatly." The grounder sneered as he was getting closer.
A war cry filled the cave and a machete suddenly appeared in the middle of the guy's head. His body slumped down and to the side and he saw her sister standing there. "O!" he had never been so glad to see her. She caught a key thrown by Lincoln and started to undo his shackles. "NO! Clarke first!"
Octavia followed her brother's gaze and she gasped upon seeing Clarke. Both Octavia and Lincoln rushed to help her down. Once she was down Lincoln came to his side and unlocked the shackles. He went straight to Clarke once he was free. His eyes scanned her body. Her face looked practically unrecognizable. Her nose and lips were busted. He could see the sickly bruises showing on both ribcages. Bellamy took his shirt off and started tearing it into different sized strips. He wrapped her arm where he had cut her first. Her skin was so cold but he wrapped it tight and moved on to her thigh where he had stabbed her.
"Bellamy what happened?" Octavia whispered.
"O, I can't do this right now." His voice was shaky and he was pleading to himself that she would let it go. Her presence beside him disappeared and he saw Lincoln was ushering her out to the hall giving him some privacy.
Bellamy looked over her body, from blood soaked clothes and a torn shirt to the small bruises forming all over her body. If he had known that Lincoln wasn't at camp he would have told the grounder. But now he's got Clarke laying in front of him in the worst shape he's ever seen anyone. His hands were shaking he reached out to touch her but his hand hovered before he just took a deep breath and tried to find a pulse. He had tears rolling down his cheeks when he was able to detect a faint one.
"I'm so sorry Clarke." He was holding her hand, "I failed you and I'm so sorry. But please don't leave me. I don't want to do this alone. I can't be a good leader without you. You're the whole reason I'm able to be who I am. You've made too big of a mark on my life to be able to walk out. Just like you needed me, I need you." He dropped her hand and cupped her face placing a kiss on her forehead.
Bellamy did his best to stand up and go get Octavia and Lincoln to help lift her up so they start home. Lincoln was carrying her in his arms as they walked outside, but once they reached he first tree Bellamy stopped. "I want to hold her, we need you to be able to fight if any more grounders come."
Lincoln looked at Octavia and then Bellamy, "You really need to rest, neither of you are in the best condition right now." Bellamy looked down at his wrists he had open wounds and dried blood everywhere.
"I don't care, I need to carry her." It made no logical sense and he knew that but he just needed Clarke in his arms, to protect her.
Bellamy opened his eyes as he felt movement under his hand. He glanced up and his eyes met hers. "Clarke!" his voice raspy. He hadn't seen those eyes for three weeks. Bellamy was suddenly moved out of the way when Dr. Griffin came in.
"I'll come get you after we've checked her. Go take a shower, you've been here every day. She's awake right now and there's nothing you can do until I'm done with my examination, now go." He watched Abby nod her head towards the living quarters. He looked over her shoulder and saw Clarke's eyes on him before her head was being turned to the side with a flashlight checking her eyes.
The shower made him feel a little better but he ran right back to the med bay. He almost ran into Abby. "Whoa! Slow down. You can go in." Bellamy beamed and walked inside. He pulled her chair right up to where it was before and he took her hand.
"How are you feeling?" Clarke still looked extremely bad after three weeks but it was also a definite improvement.
"I'm okay. They want to keep me here for another week. The medical side of me says that's the right idea but the real side of me just wants to sneak out." Bellamy shook his head.
"You're not leaving camp for a while" Bellamy chewed on his bottom lip. "I can't have anything happen to you again. I can't go through that again. I can't lose you Princess."
Clarke smiled but winced her split lip shooting up pain. "I'm not going anywhere."
Bellamy looked at her seriously, "With everything you went through you better not." Clarke raised an eyebrow "You've been out cold for three weeks Clarke, that's long enough."
Clarke put her hand over Bellamy's and rubbed the back of it with her finger. The warmth of their hands touching caused a sense of comfort. "Every Princess needs their beauty sleep Bellamy."
Bellamy laughed and kissed her head "And every Prince needs a princess" he whispered in her ear.
A/N: I know i should be writing for Taking Arcadia, but this hit me randomly and i just had to write it. Remember reviews are incentive and i'm always up for oneshot ideas. So drop a review if you can. You guys are the best.