After hours of tinkering and testing and adjusting and retesting at the end of the day, Clarke and Nyko succeeded in rebuilding the chem set. When they'd finished, Clarke ran through a basic antibiotic made from the red seaweed. This impressed Nyko so much that he gave her her first braid.

"Let's go get some wine and celebrate less death." Nyko patted her on the shoulder and they got two steps out the door when yelling echoed from across camp.

They ran to see what the commotion was and found that the hunting party had been attacked by mountain men. There were gunshot wounds and burns from grenades. An explosion interrupted the chaos.

Returning to her work after less than a second's pause, Clarke applied a tourniquet to a woman's bleeding leg, then listened to a young boy's chest, deducing he had blunt trauma from a blast.

After spending most of the night operating on and stitching up the wounded, Nyko told her she needed to clean the wounds of the rest of the hunting party. He was going to bed, and since he was senior to her, had the authority to give such an order. Before he left he said, "Anya put you up in the house next to Indra's. Two rows over, four houses up. The one without a tapestry, but rather a metal door."

"Thanks." Washing her hands for the billionth time that evening she called the three remaining hunters in.

The first was Bellamy with a cut along his leg. "Considering they used me as bait, I'm surprised this is all I got. I think I got snagged on a thorn."

Clarke washed the scrape with some shine and wrapped it with a clean bandage. "We can't afford to complain right now, Bellamy. This isn't bad. Should be completely closed by morning."

"Thanks, Princess." He stood up and leaned in to whisper in her ear. "Be careful. Murphy's here and I doubt he'll be happy to see you."

She dipped her chin in acknowledgement. "Keep that clean."

The other two were half asleep as she cleaned and bandaged their scratches and brush burns.

Alone at last, she cleaned up the shack before heading to her assigned home. The moon hung low as the sky lightened with the coming dawn. It wasn't difficult to find her new house. Every other shack had an intricate tapestry hung over the doorway while hers was metal like Nyko said. A metal cage backed with more metal. The door creaked as she opened and closed it. A mat filled most of the floor. A not empty mat. Two lumps left a cavern in the middle, as far from each other as they could get without falling off the mat. While she didn't like the idea of being flanked on both sides while she slept, Clarke's exhaustion didn't care. She crawled onto the mat and fell asleep without even taking her boots off.


"And what did Anya say about our accommodations?" Bellamy asked as Murphy walked back into their hut.

Murphy rolled his eyes as he plopped down next to the still sleeping Clarke. "Fuck off, Bellamy."

"Yeah, whatever. I'm going to get something to eat." Bellamy walked out with a lazy gait.

After the door closed, Murphy sighed. "I only built this place. Not that it matters to anyone."

"Mmm, sleep time, not talk time." Clarke's face nuzzled into Murphy's pillow made the words indistinct.

He yanked the pillow out from under her, fluffed it and put it under his head.

"Hey!" Her eyes narrowed when she saw him. "What happened to your head?"

Touching the still wet wound along the side of his scalp, Murphy shrugged. "It's nothing."

She pulled herself over toward him and examined the wound. "This looks like it came from a bullet."

"Yeah, so? One of the mountain men grazed me right before I took his head off." He batted her hands away. "It's fine. Leave it alone."

"It needs cleaned." She looked around and saw nothing helpful. "I'll be right back." She pulled herself up and headed for the door.

Groaning, Murphy followed her. He'd rather not have her mess up the house with shine and cloths. He'd roll up the mat later. "Why bother? It's not like you give a shit about me."

Her sudden stop and turn staggered him to a stop as well. The serious look on her face shut him up. "Look. You getting hung was my fault. So in a way everything that happened afterward is partly on me too. You shoulder a lot of the blame too, but none of that matters. We're here now. We live together. And I need this truce to hold. So that means forgetting old grudges whether I like it or not. Plus my job here is as a healer. If I don't do my job, how long will Anya and Indra keep me?"

Hands in the air, Murphy pivoted around her. "Then let's get this over with."

Minutes later he was sitting on her exam table while she used the flashlight she'd never gone without into his eyes. "How did you sleep last night? Too much, too little?"

"I slept fine."

"Any dizziness?"

"No."

"Nausea?"

"No."

"How's your vision?"

"Fine."

"Hearing?"

"What?"

"How's your…" then at his smirk she sighed, "Cute. Get up. We need to check out your balance and coordination." She ran him through a battery of drills and he passed. Then she asked him as many questions as she could think of to check his memory. That seemed fine too. His cooperation surprised her a bit.

"Well I don't think you have a concussion. But you needed stitches. Trouble is it's been too long, so we'll have to wait a couple days before I can do a delayed closure. So in the meantime, I'm going to pack this. Since we don't have saline, you'll have to see me every four hours, so I can make sure no infections set in." She paused, then took off her watch and handed it to him. "You can keep track of time with this. I know every nick and scratch on this, and if I see any more when you give it back to me, I'll kill you. Got it?"

Taken aback, Murphy nodded. "Yeah, sure. Got it." She cleaned, packed and dressed his wound without another word. When she stopped paying attention to him and concentrated on the chem set in the corner, he said, "I'll see you in four hours." Once outside, he put the watch on.


While Bellamy carried water from the well to the middle of town where a fire blazed to boil it, he saw Murphy lugging wood. A glint on his left wrist caught Bellamy's attention. Setting the water down and rushing over, Bell grabbed Murphy's wrist, dropping the wood he'd been carrying to the ground. "Why're you wearing this?"

"Chill." Murphy yanked his arm away from Bellamy. "Clarke gave it to me to keep track of time. I have to see her every so many hours to check on this." He pointed to the bandage on his head.

"Clarke just gave you her father's watch?"

Murphy tried to cover his surprise but failed. "I guess she takes her job more seriously than I thought. Now, I have work to do." He bent down to pick up the wood, faltered, then fell, looking senseless.

"Get Clarke!" Bellamy looked at the crowd until he saw a kid run off. "Hey, John. Talk to me." He picked up Murphy's head pushed the too long hair out of his face.

Able to focus again, John pushed Bellamy away. "I'm fine. I just got a bit dizzy."

When Murphy tried to get up, Bell held him down. "Stay still until Clarke checks you out."

In no condition to fight, Murphy had no choice but to sit and wait the thirty seconds for Clarke to show up with Nyko. "I'm fi-" Vomiting cut him off.

Clarke grimaced at him. "You lied to me didn't you? You've been nauseous and dizzy the entire time."

"And exactly what can you do down here for a concussion, Clarke?" Murphy asked. "There's nothing here to help get me better."

"No but you need to rest. No heavy lifting, no overexertion. You need someone keeping a close eye on you so you don't hurt yourself."

Murphy snorted.

"Or anyone else." Her voice tinged with temper. "So let people take care of you."

Nyko touched Murphy's pale and clammy skin. "She's right, Sky Boy. This isn't something you can ignore."

Anya, attracted by the crowd, had heard everything. "Murphy, you've proven to be an excellent hunter and warrior. You either listen to them, or leave."

"Yes, Anya." Murphy then looked at Clarke. "And what does the doctor order?"

"Let's get you home, where you can get cleaned up and then rest." She helped him up, avoiding the puke on his chest.

"I'll get the wood." Bellamy said as he watched Clarke and Murphy leave. "And I'll bring some food and water when I get a chance."

Clarke looked over her shoulder. "Thanks, Bellamy."