CRACK!
"Agh! You bitch!" The boy convulsed in pain.
"You'll be fine." Clarke rolled her eyes as she not-so-gently laid the boys now set leg back down. She barley spared him a glance as she looked to his friend. "Make sure he keeps the leg elevated and stays hydrated. He should be able to stand again in a week or two, as long as he doesn't try to soon." The friend nodded and Clarke climb down the ladder, eager to be away from what had become the med bay for the 100.
"You're getting good at that Griffin."
Clarke let out a frustrated breath. "It comes with the practice."
Raven nodded, her coal black hair shadowing over her caramel skin. Clarke watched her lithe body as the girl made her way over to the blonde. It was easy to see why Finn had connected with her back on the Ark. Even easier when Raven took charge and made things work. Clarke wondered how it felt to build and repair things rather merely patch them up and pray that fate was kind.
"It seems like you're getting a lot of that."
Clarke bit the inside of her cheek. It was awkward for the two girls to be around each other, and Raven had to know that as well, to feel that. It was a shame, but it was the relationship they had. "Unfortunately. There are a lot of injuries coming from building the walls. Not to mention the boys that go hunting."
"Or the ones who get attacked by the grounders."
Finn. Of course it didn't take long for them to wade into those waters. "He's recovered quickly."
"Yes, but you wouldn't know that. You haven't been around to check on him like the others."
It was obvious why, wasn't it? "I'm sure you've been taking great care of him." Clarke rummaged through her bag as she walked out of the pod ship. Just look busy and maybe, just maybe she'll go away. "And, um," Clarke licked her lips. This plan wasn't working. Raven's dark eyes followed her. "I have a lot of patients. I don't have time to check up on a third of them like I need to…" Just go away. They had an uneasy alliance-both wanting the best for the "colony" on the ground and for Finn. And that meant that Clarke needed to stay far, far away, and the pair never needed to utter his name around the other. "And from what Monty told me, he's up and walking around."
"And you think he should be?" Raven's voice increased in pitch. I have been telling him for a week to stay still and let himself heal, but he won't listen to me. You and I both know he needs to rest a lot longer than he has. If he doesn't he could-"
"He's fine okay! He's the Spacewalker right? And if he won't listen to you, what makes you think he'll listen to me?"
"Because you're the only doctor we have down here. And maybe-just maybe-if there's the two of us to chain him down he might actually listen."
They were starting to draw a crowd. It was hilarious almost. In a vast and open world, there was still no privacy to be had. Clarke swallowed the lump in her throat, burden with fury and stepped closer to Raven. "I'll be by later, okay? I have to check on the grounder first."
Raven looked like she wanted to argue, but luckily she merely nodded and walked away. Clarke let out a low, shallow breath. It was possible that eventually today would get simpler. But, right now, with the prospect of seeing both Raven and Finn together later, and having to go check on the grounder that had been tortured, albeit under her orders, with a probably still seething Octavia, Clarke sincerely doubted it.
The King
The cheers and shouts from the camp drummed in Bellamy's ears as he and the hunters made their way back to camp. They had managed three hogs in the hunt, although, with their tusks the size of a child's arm, one of the boys had been injured.
Princess wouldn't be happy about that.
He should care a bit more about than he did. Especially after that morning when he had baited her a tad bit more than he had meant to, but at the moment he more pressing matters.
Like a younger sister that currently hated his guts. Bellamy was sure that if the grounder was free and uninjured, Octavia would order Bellamy's head on a spike and the grounder would only be oh so happy to indulge her. Not that Bellamy blamed her. She couldn't exactly be blamed for anything now could she?
"Bellamy, what should we do with him?" Hector gestured to the half screaming boy whose leg had drenched his pants in blood.
"Take him to Clarke and let her handle it." He dismissed the slow witted boy away with a swat of the hand. "Don, start a hog on the fire and make sure everyone gets fed." The dark haired boy nodded and set off with the others, the monstrous hog carcasses being worshipped as gifts as they passed by the people of the camp.
Good. Every bit of food he bought back granted him the awe and respect of the others. He needed that, needed the power it granted him. But power came with a price. Bellamy roughly ran his fingers through his hair. The idea of relieving stress with one (or a dozen) of the girls of the camp seemed like a wonderful idea. Half of them openly latched onto the leader of the 100 as often as they could, making it clear as day that they would willingly offer what they had if he asked. The other half was already taken, more reserved, or Clarke. But the first half was free and wild and he imagined himself sinking into the joy it gave, but he knew it wouldn't fix what he had broken.
So he sought out the nerd with the goggles. Jasper was his name, the boy that had saved Octavia apparently and then sought to save her a second time with Bellamy and his rescue group. That would have granted him respect from Bellamy, in a way it had, but the attack the boy had encountered had left his mind less than…sane. Goggle boy wasn't someone Bellamy would have talked to on the Ark and being on Earth was no different. But Bellamy knew that if there was anyone that knew where Octavia was, it would be the slightly unhinged nerd.
Bellamy found him huddled against part of the wall that had survived the storm. His friend Monty was with him and for that Bellamy was glad. Jasper seemed slightly saner around one of the other Do-Gooders. They both glanced up wearily as they saw Bellamy approached. Bellamy wasn't sure whether he should smirk or grimace at that. It wasn't his fault that his arm was bigger than both of the twigs combined.
"Jasper, where's Octavia?"
The boy shivered against the chilling air. "With the grounder. As always."
Bellamy let out a frustrated growl. He had told the guards of the grounder to keep Octavia away from the grounder, and had forbidden her to be around him. He should have known better. Once there was a time she would have listened to anything coming from his mouth as the gospel, but that was before angry half-lies had poured from his mouth like acid daggers. He wanted to make peace with her; it's all he had thought about doing for days. But she had managed to avoid him so far, and it would be harder trying to apologize to her next to the man he had tortured.
"Clarke's there too." Monty spoke up, leaning away when Bellamy shot him an angry, questioning look. "Doing a check up on the grounder."
Great. As if it was a near impossible situation before. The idea of seeking out a stress-free girl was sounding better now.
"There's some hogs to eat. Make sure you get some."
The Princess
"Go away."
"Octavia, I'm here to help."
"You've helped plenty already."
Octavia didn't spare the blonde a glance as she continued washing the grounder's wounds. He had been moved from the pod for reasons unknown to Clarke, to a tent sitting underneath the tree. The grounder was still tied up, the rope binding him uncomfortably to the tree, the tent preventing prying eyes from seeing him without a guard coming after them. Although none of the stationed guards were there at the moment. Clarke figured Octavia had somehow coerced them into leaving, how, she didn't want to know.
It would figure that the one patient Clarke wanted to see-not really, but more so than the promised later one-would be the only one that she shooed away from. Clarke dropped to her knees, completely exhausted with the day.
"Octavia, I know I screwed up. I'm not perfect okay? I was scared out of mind and so was Raven. All we wanted was to save Finn. You would have done the same to save Bellamy-"
"Right now I would do to Bellamy what he did to him." Octavia turned to glare at her. "And the same to you."
Despite the rage burning in those Blake eyes, Clarke didn't believe in that fire. "No you wouldn't. You're not us."
Octavia huffed. "What's that supposed to mean?"
"You might not be easily forgiving, but I don't see you as the revenge type either."
"Revenge is a Blake trade mark, haven't you noticed?" She turned back to the grounder, dipping the cloth into the water and ringing it out. Clarke saw how the grounder's eyes watched and studied Octavia's every movement. She wondered how long the man had watched the young girl before the day he had taken her away. Octavia often went to the butterfly trees. Had he watched her then, enticed by the girl still new to the world? He turned his eyes to Clarke and she felt herself pinned by those dark orbs of fury. Rage seeped into the very air in that tent. It was a mistake coming there, but then, it wasn't either.
Clarke locked her jaw. She wasn't Wells who was always calm and collected, who had always been calm and collected. She had a temper same as any Blake and she had almost enough of the sibling by now, even if the tension with one was the fault of hers.
Clarke through her bag at the ground. "I was wrong okay?! I know that! I'm sorry, but I didn't know what else to do. I was on your side in the beginning, remember? I still regret telling Bellamy to go ahead with it. But you know what? Finn was dying. Do you think he," she stared pointedly at the grounder, "would have done any different if it was you who had been on the table foaming at the mouth?" Clarke's eyes dared the grounder to show any sign of contradicting her, any at all. Their eyes locked, but he hesitantly looked away. Exactly. "I can't make you forgive me, either of you, but I did what I thought I had to save a friend. So hate me for being stupid, but you can't fault why I did it."
Silence settled over the trio. None of them moved. The wait was killing her. Clarke didn't want Octavia to hate her. They wouldn't have been friends on the Ark. There was the class difference and they would have never met. Then there was the fact that Octavia was more free in so many ways than Clarke. Clarke would have envied her and looked down on her for so many reasons, and none of them that Clarke felt right for, but it was the truth. But here on Earth they had formed some sort of pack, Clarke, Octavia, Jasper, Monty, and even Finn, and Clarke had grown accustomed to it and had found herself welcoming it. Things were bad enough with Finn as it was, and Jasper wasn't always himself, Monty was more often than not tending to Jasper, and Wells was dead, and Clarke had never truly had a friend that was a girl before (or even one that wasn't Wells), and she was just so tired of losing people. She couldn't take one more person leaving her. No more, please, no more.
Octavia licked her lips, stalling until the grounder nodded to her. Still, she wasn't sure, but being locked under the floor for years only to be hurled into solitary had left its lasting impression on the young girl. "Here," she handed the rag to Clarke, still not looking at her, "you clean the right, I'll clean the left. He has a lot of cuts and bruises. Check his ribs too, I don't trust that they're not broken…" Clarke eagerly took the rag and sat down next to her. Octavia snapped her head at her. "I'm not saying you're forgiven. Out of everyone I thought you'd do what was always right and you failed that. But I'd rather have a healer on my side than against me." Clarke nodded weakly. It was a start. "And besides, I can imagine what someone would do to save a loved one." She said barley above a whisper, but Clarke caught it and it burned.
Later was not a moment she was wanted to think about, but it was there, hovering over head as she washed at the wounds she had helped command into being. Clarke had committed so many mistakes, so many sins, she had lost count. But she was willingly to pay the price to make it end. Like seeing to a certain boy she was trying hard to forget.
The King
Bellamy walked away from the small tent, taking careful, measured steps. He didn't want to be heard.
"Revenge is a Blake trade mark, haven't you noticed?"
Sometimes he thought he should have stayed on the Ark. He had done more right there than he had on Earth.
I finally caught up on the last episode. So far everything that has happened on the show (as of episode seven) as happened in the story. Therefore this is a week after episode seven. I may or may not (probably not) keep following the show story line.
And, am I the only one who thought the grounder was hot? And yeah, Bellamy too.
Thank you for all of the great reviews! And TheGirlWithTheGreenLightSaber, nice to see you again, lol.