Chapter 2:
Monty and Jasper looked at Clarke as she held her hands in front of her face. "I don't feel anything." She said in an extremely sedated voice. "Is that weird?" Her hair was tied back into a high bun and her skin was recently cleaned but covered in bruises of all shapes and sizes. It was Monty's idea to give her the "pain-reliever" unaware that it would have such a strong effect on her. At the time, she'd looked so miserable and he couldn't let his friend lay on the metal slab, constantly in pain when he had something to stop it.
"She is so baked." Jasper said with a small chuckle, "Clarke…tell me, is the pain gone?"
"Where's Bellamy?" Clarke asked, "That's a funny name—do you think Bellamy is a funny name? Well, I guess Clarke is a funny name too…and Monty…and Octavia…and Monroe…and…wow, just wow."
"Wow." Jasper mocked. He was amused by everything she said in her small, innocent voice. It was a voice they didn't hear too often. Of course, once the drugs wore off she'd be back to her usual self and fun would be over. He decided to make it last. "Clarke—you want to go outside? You haven't been outside since you got back to camp."
"Outside is a beautiful place." Clarke said, "Did you know that outside is a preposition? How well did you pay attention in school? I bet you were a smart kid, right?"
Jasper nodded, "I guess you could say that."
Clarke slipped off the table and laughed once her feet were against the ground. They walked out of the drop ship, Monty sending Jasper a warning look. "If Bellamy catches you messing around with Clarke's mind—he'll kill you."
"I'm not messing around with her mind. I'm letting her explore the world through different eyes." Jasper said, "Its fun." She stayed close to Jasper, her head tilted towards the sky as she walked. Jasper and Monty looked up to see what she was staring at until they came to an abrupt stop in their path. Clarke had stopped which caused Jasper to run straight into her. "Sorry." He said before looking at the person in front of him.
"Speak of the devil." Jasper joked, "We were just making sure Clarke didn't hurt herself out here. We'll go back inside now." Clarke opened her mouth to speak but Jasper stopped her, "Oh no need. I know you're in a lot of pain right now. Stubborn! Stubborn! I told you that you needed to stay in the drop ship and recover."
Monty looked at his rambling friend with furrowed eyebrows, "Dude…just stop. You aren't a good liar."
Clarke backed away from Jasper into Bellamy, "You said you wanted to go outside. I just followed." Her words were slurring now. Monty realized that Clarke might be getting extremely tired because of the herb. Honestly, she sounded like a really intoxicated person. "Just wow…"
Jasper groaned, "Stop talking…please."
"Wow." Clarke repeated.
"Wow." Jasper mocked her again in his best impression of Clarke. She blinked and yawned before moving back farther into the silent Bellamy.
Bellamy didn't stop her. "So, let me get this straight. Looney right here is what—high? You give her something that makes her walk around in a haze?"
Monty swallowed, "Just a little bit of something."
"And then you let her out of the drop ship on a little bit of something because…?"
Jasper swallowed this time. Clarke yawned again, "I'm so sleepy now." She proclaimed, her eyes half-way shutting as she looked at Monty. "Remember when you said Bellamy had a funny name?"
Monty looked at her, "I didn't say that, Clarke. You did."
She shook her head, her eyes fully closing now. "No…you did."
It was weird to see her falling asleep against Bellamy like a child. In fact, everything about her behavior was childlike. But the way she looked—god, she looked like a warrior. She looked horrible but completely riveting as well. She could handle herself and Bellamy admired her strength…but he also admired the way she screamed when she was away from their people because of the pain—how she had that much self-control in her to do so.
He admired this Clarke, too. Her innocence swept over him like a thick fog—reminding him of Octavia as a child. He picked her up like a princess, making sure he didn't hurt her or hit any of the heavily sensitive black and blue areas on her skin and carried her to his tent. He couldn't trust Monty or Jasper to keep her in the drop ship anymore so he was going to watch her himself (under his own terms).
She crawled into his bed as if it were her own and covered himself with his blanket. He cocked his head at her, amused by her actions. "Go on…make yourself comfortable, princess." He smirked as he sat in the chair she usually inhabited when she forced him to have meetings in the middle of the night. He crossed his arms.
"You're being a creep." She mumbled, her eyes closed while she drifted in and out.
"How so?"
"Watching me sleep." She smiled, "It's creepy."
"It's necessary."
She sighed and said something he couldn't translate into English and fell asleep. He tried not to look at her, a faint redness touching his cheeks when he found himself eyeballing her. Seriously, he was going to have to air out his tent to get the smell of her skin off of his bed and away from his dreams. He could burn some type of herb.
Herb.
He started thinking about the herb Monty had given her. That little bastard was holding out on them…He probably knew an ass load of things that they leaders didn't and he just kept it to himself. He wondered when Monty found the herb…did he have it when Octavia broke her wrist last month? Or when Monroe got her leg caught in the fence and cut it up?
But he looked at Clarke and he remembered how serious her injuries were compared to the others. She'd taken a beating from the grounders and just walked away. She'd been through her own miniature war and won.
She'd returned with a promise of peace like a true leader.
And what did he do in return? Stare at her while she recovered from battle as if he were the medic and she was the one supposed to be protecting everyone.
