"We can't…lose Clarke," Bellamy ground out, wobbling even on his good leg. He met Monty's gaze, and the words just came out, "I can't lose her."
"We'll find her, ok?" Monty assured him. "We'll figure something out, I promise."
The way he said it, Bellamy actually believed it. Not that they would save her, but that Monty understood Bellamy's desperation and the urgent need to find Clarke. He could feel Kane, Pike, and Monty's mom watching him. They didn't understand.
Clarke wasn't just a friend or even their leader. She was that and a symbol and, well, she was his princess and after everything he wasn't sure what to do if she never came back.
"This isn't the way," Monty continued.
Bellamy didn't know how to argue. Rain and tears made it hard to see, and the blow to the head made it hard to stand straight, and that didn't even account for the hole in his leg. "Ok," he barely got out.
Monty pulled Bellamy upright, and it was all he could do to keep from crying out. It was going to be a very unpleasant rover ride.
Bellamy sat in the back of the rover on the floor, almost grateful for every time his head thunked against the wall behind him.
She'd been gone for so long, left him to face the ghost of what they'd done—alone. He'd been angry, but seeing her tied up like that, all that anger had disappeared and he just wanted her to be safe.
All things considered, she'd looked good. But didn't she always?
Kane shifted, so he was further from the others, closer to Bellamy. "Recognize her capturer?"
"No. Clearly Ice Nation."
"Anything you can tell me?"
"He was big and had a sword?"
Kane did not look amused. "We will find her, Bellamy. We just can't right now, especially with your leg."
"I did find her," Bellamy countered.
"And then you got yourself stabbed. You should have waited for us."
"If I waited, she would've been gone."
"She is gone."
"Damn it, Kane, you think I don't know that?" Bellamy snapped. "You haven't been here long, so you don't get it. That's not just Clarke Griffin. That's not just one more person in medical, or Abby's daughter. She's the only person who the Grounders negotiate with. We need her alive!"
"I'm aware," Kane said calmly. "But right now there's nothing I can do."
"You can go after—ngh!"
"Sorry," Monty called from the front seat. "It's a bit rocky here."
"Bellamy, put your hand on—you're bleeding out, Bellamy, pay attention," Kane snapped.
But everything had lost its urgency, and even though he remained conscious of all going on around him, Bellamy had no desire, or ability, to respond.
Bellamy heard Kane shouting at him. He felt the pressure on his leg and saw the blinding white flash it created.
It wasn't that he didn't care—he did. It wasn't that he couldn't feel the pain—he definitely could. It was just that he didn't have the strength to move. It was all he could do to keep his eyes open.
"Monty, drive!" Kane. "He's bleeding out. I have no idea how much blood he lost before we arrived, but it must have been a lot."
"I'm driving as fast as I can." Monty, tense.
"Make him lay down so you can elevate his leg above his heart." A woman's voice. Monty's mom.
"I'm not sure he'll fit." Kane. "He's pretty tall."
"Here, let me help." Pike, the one who had refused to even try to track Clarke's trail.
Bellamy felt himself being moved, felt his leg being lifted, and every. Single. Bump the rover hit.
"Bellamy, can you hear me?" Kane again. Who put him in charge, anyway? Even Monty had more Earth experience than Kane.
"Yeah, I hear you."
"Good. You need to stay awake until we can get you to Abby."
Abby. Clarke's mom. Bellamy was in no particular hurry to face that woman and tell her he'd failed to rescue her daughter. Or that she was being hunted.
Or that she was the Commander of Death.