Monty stared at the ground, pulling his sweater tighter around him while he walked around Camp Jaha. He snorted. What had Jaha ever done for them? Other then send 100 teenage delinquents to earth to be slaughtered and then abandon everyone when things didn't go his way. But they had survived. Against all odds they defeated a Grounder army and made it out of Mount Weather without any help from the adults that had survived their own journey to the ground. But not without great losses.
Out of the original 100, less than half had survived. Hell, they had lost two before they even touched the ground. They had lost more than half of their family before Mount Weather had even decided to use them as living blood bags and marrow donors. Sure, they made it out, but not before losing the one thing Monty had hoped he wouldn't lose. Himself.
He still woke up every night with nightmares. Not nightmares of being drilled into. No, those he could never wake up from. Those weren't nightmares anyway, they were memories. Memories he relived every night of a drill entering his body, extracting that which gave him life. The worst was the part of the memory where he was forced to watch the same happen to Harper. Her screams and cries haunted him all hours of the day. She didn't deserve that, none of them did, so why did all this shit keep happening to them?
But no, the nightmares that woke him up, the ones that came every night without fail right after the memories of the drillings, were the ones about the Mountain Men that he killed. The innocent people that he had irradiated just to save his family. Sure, he didn't pull the lever as Bellamy and Clarke had reminded him, but without him, that lever would have been useless. He was the one that hacked into the system and made it possible for the deaths to happen. He was the one that killed the girl Jasper loved and hundreds of innocents, lever or no lever.
Not that he regretted helping to save his family's lives. No, that was something he would never regret. He knew that Maya wouldn't have survived anyway. Those guards would have shot her and she would have been dead, along with Octavia, whether Jasper managed to kill Cage or not. Jasper didn't know this, and Monty would do everything in his power to keep it that way. He would not let his best friend – because no matter what, Jasper would always be his best friend – go around knowing that there was no chance of saving Maya. As Clarke said, he would bear it so Jasper wouldn't have to. His lack of regret couldn't stop the nightmares.
Footsteps coming towards him snapped Monty out of his thoughts, reminding him that he was supposed to be on his way to see if Raven and Wick needed any help. Not that he thought they did, but it was either that or get caught by Clarke's mom and dragged to Medical to get checked out. He had managed to avoid that in the few days they had been at the camp, firmly believing that there were more important people, better people, than him who needed help. Not that that stopped him from dragging Harper to the makeshift room to get her drill wounds checked out and checking on Raven the day they got to camp.
Monty had just quickened his pace to get to the mechanics station when white hot pain erupted from his shoulder, right where his most recent drill wound was, as someone rammed into him. His vision blurred and he was vaguely aware of someone screaming before everything went black.
Jasper was walking around camp, heading towards his family's tent. He was pleasantly surprised when they had made it to Camp Jaha and found out that his family had survived the trip to Earth. Their reunion had been full of tears and joy, but then they had broken the news to him that the Green's hadn't been on the surviving station.
Jasper had been shocked, but had felt a sick sense of satisfaction at this. Now Monty would know what it felt like to lose someone you love. He quickly shook off those thoughts though. No matter how much he hated the boy, no one deserved to lose their entire family. Not that Jasper had felt any sympathy towards him. Sure, he had forgiven Clarke and to an extent Bellamy. They hadn't known Maya that well and were only doing what was right for their people. Monty however, he could never forgive. Monty had known Maya, had been friends with her, and was Jasper's best friend, yet he had went and killed her, right when Jasper had been about to kill Cage and hopefully end their torture.
At the sound of approaching footsteps, Jasper looked up just to see Monty walking right towards him, head facing the ground. A feeling of rage boiled in the pit of his stomach and before even realizing what he was doing, Jasper rammed his shoulder into Monty's as he passed, irrationally hoping to transfer some of his pain to the boy who had once been his best friend.
His plan had been to just keep walking, he had no desire to talk to Monty, but a horrific scream of pain from behind him stopped him in his tracks. He turned around and saw Monty on the ground, screaming and clutching his shoulder in pain. Jasper stood there frozen, not knowing what to do but wishing for the screams to just stop. For the first time since they landed on the ground, some higher deity must have been listening to him because a moment later Monty was quiet. However, Jasper wished then that the screams would start again as he watched the smaller boy pass out cold on the ground.
He stood there staring at the prone body on the ground, not knowing what to do, when he felt someone push past him. He looked over, noticing Miller leaning over Monty's body.
"Help me get him to Medical," Miller said, more of a command than a request. "Come on!"
When Jasper still didn't move, unsure of what was going on or how to deal with it, Miller sighed in frustration, picked up Monty and ran past Jasper, heading straight for the medical tent. After Miller left with Monty Jasper stayed frozen. What had happened? It wasn't like he had ran into him that hard? It's not like Monty was just trying to get attention, that scream was filled with excruciating pain. Finally, Jasper decided that his best bet of finding out what happened would be to go to Medical and ask.
When Jasper arrived at the med-tent, he saw Clarke's mom leaning over a still unconscious Monty, dabbing at something on his shoulder with a wet cloth. Miller was in the corner of the tent looking on with concern, but when he saw Jasper rage filled his face. He stalked over to the skinnier boy and pushed him back out of the tent.
"What the hell did you do?" he growled at Jasper.
"What do you mean? I didn't do anything!" Jasper yelled back defensively, even if that wasn't technically true. He definitely did something, but he wasn't sure what.
"Don't give me that crap. One minute you're walking past Monty and the next he is on the ground screaming in pain while you just stand there and watch!" Miller seethed. When had Miller gotten so protective over Monty?
"I just bumped into his shoulder. It's not like he got shot, he is probably just playing it up, trying to get attention," Jasper said weakly, despite deciding earlier that Monty most likely wasn't acting. Miller just stared at him like he was the biggest idiot to ever walk the Earth. "What?"
"You just 'bumped' into his shoulder?" At Jasper's nod, Miller continued, "You mean the same shoulder that a week ago was being drilled into for bone marrow? The same shoulder that just got a bandage slapped over it when the jackasses were finished with that area before moving on to another? You mean that shoulder?" Miller asked incredulously.
Jasper was shocked. With everything that happened after he had saved Monty and Harper, and his anger at Monty after they had escaped, Jasper had totally forgotten that Monty had been used as a human donation center as well. Apparently it showed on his face.
"You idiot!" Miller yelled, but before he could berate Jasper anymore, terrified screams started up from inside the tent. Miller didn't even spare Jasper a glance as he ran inside the tent. Jasper hesitated a few moments before following.
When he entered the tent for a second time, the scene was nothing like what he saw the first. Medical supplies were everywhere, and Monty was thrashing around on the cot, still unconscious, with Abbey and Miller trying to hold him down without hurting him anymore. It was what Jasper heard through the screams though that almost brought him to tears.
Monty was obviously in the middle of a nightmare, screaming "No" and "Stop" over and over. The worst though was when he started to scream "Take me instead." It was obvious that he was remembering his time trapped with Harper.
What seemed like hours – though was probably only minutes – later, Monty finally stopped screaming. With the sudden silence inside the tent, Jasper could hear people gathering outside, wondering what was going on until Abbey went out and told them it was ok and they should go about their business.
How had no one heard Monty screaming the past few nights if this was what it sounded like? Jasper got his answer after looking more closely at the boy. He had deep bruises under his eyes, evidence of more than one sleepless night.
Suddenly, Jasper found himself being pushed back out of the tent and was once again met with an angry Miller.
Before Miller could start yelling again though, Jasper asked, "How has no one heard that every night?" even if the answer was obvious.
"Why do you care? It's not like you remember the torture he went through in the mountain, which he is reliving in there," he said, pointing at the tent. Before Jasper could protest, Miller continued in a softer, well softer for Miller, tone. "Listen, I get that you are pissed at him, but he is still your best friend." Now it was Jasper's turn to get pissed.
"He is not my best friend! My best friend wouldn't let the girl I love and tons of innocent people die!" Jasper yelled.
"Like you never killed anyone?" Miller shot back, "and Monty didn't 'let' Maya die!" Jasper just scoffed, but before he could say anything Miller continued. "The guards had caught her and Octavia. They were about to shoot them whether you killed Cage or not."
"Yeah? Who told you that? Monty?" Jasper yelled.
"No, I did," a voice from behind him said, startling the two teens. Jasper whipped around and saw Bellamy standing behind him. "I'm sorry Jasper, I saw it through the monitors. Neither of them were going to make it out of there." Jasper just shook his head, trying to process this new information. "Now what is going on? What is with the screaming?" Bellamy asked them.
With a glance at Jasper, Miller spoke up. "Monty let his drill wounds get infected. Abbey told me he never showed up to Medical after we got here other than to bring in Harper to get checked out and to visit Raven. The screams were a nightmare. I'm guessing we haven't heard them before because he has been avoiding sleep since we got free."
Bellamy just shook his head. "I'm not really surprised. A lot of us have been avoiding sleep, but I'm glad he is finally getting some, no matter the circumstances. I have to go check on the others. Let me know if anything changes," he told the two before walking towards the little sub-camp the remaining delinquents without parents had set up.
Jasper turned to Miller, "I… I've got to go, see my parents," he mumbled before walking quickly away thinking about the new information. Why hadn't Monty told him?
Monty could hear voices. He wasn't sure what they were saying, but he could just make out that one was a boy and the other a girl and they both sounded vaguely familiar. He turned his head to try and listen better when the voices stopped. He felt a pressure on his hand and when someone spoke again, it was easier to understand.
"Monty?" the voice asked. It sounded so much like Miller, but he couldn't think of why Miller would be there in his tent. Thinking about it though, Monty realized he wasn't in his tent. This place smelled vaguely like anti-septic and blood. If the smell and the ache all over his body was any indication, Monty was in the med-tent. How had he gotten there? Before he could respond and ask his questions though, a slight knock sounded throughout the tent.
"Hey, how is he?" someone asked. Monty was shocked to hear that it was Jasper.
"Better," the voice attached to the hand holding his said. Monty was 90% sure it was Miller. "Abbey cleaned his wounds the best she could and gave him a little bit of anti-biotics to help fight the infection."
"That's good," Jasper responded awkwardly. "She say when he should wake up?"
"She said anytime now, but it's only been a few hours so she's not too worried yet. Said she wouldn't be surprised if he slept the rest of the day." There was an awkward silence until someone sighed. Finally Miller asked "What are you doing here Jasper?"
After a few seconds Jasper finally answered. "I needed to tell Monty something, but I'm afraid I'll lose my nerve if I have to wait, so would you tell him for me when he wakes up?" Miller must have nodded because Jasper started speaking again. "Could you tell him that I can't forgive him yet, but I'm working on it? Just give me some time?" Monty could hear the tears in Jaspers voice and wanted nothing more than to hug him, but knew that now was not the time and he would blow his cover.
"I'll tell him, but you should really think of telling him yourself someday," Miller said with a sigh.
"Maybe. I'll think about it. Thanks Miller, I'll see you later." Jasper must have left the tent because silence fell on the two teens for a minute before Monty felt Miller lean close to his ear.
"I hope you heard that Monty. Things will get better."
Hi peoples of the internet and Jupiter! So I have recently become obsessed with the show The 100 and decided to write a story for it! Monty is my favorite character ever and his and Jasper's friendship is my favorite thing ever… I also love Minty (Miller and Monty) so I decided to add a little of that also… I do not own The 100 because if I did nothing bad would ever happen to Monty, and Jasper and he would be friends always… Have a wonderful Tuesday! Even if it's not Tuesday when you are reading this… Or when I am posting this…