AN: "The House of the Rising Sun" is a traditional folk song, sometimes called "Rising Sun Blues". It tells of a life gone wrong in New Orleans, referring to either a brothel or a prison that the singer is tied to and cannot escape from. The most successful commercial version was recorded in 1964 by the Animals.
Day 6
Clarke had slept soundly last night for the first time in an entire week. Normally, she would wake up not long after the sun had risen, but today the sun is well into the sky. As she stretches out her muscles, the tarp that is the "door" to her tent is gently pushed aside and Wells sticks his head in.
"Good morning, sleepy head."
Clarke yawns and then smiles at her childhood friend as she slowly gets to her feet. "Morning Wells. What's up?"
"You're the only one who knows where the freshwater is, and the sun has been up for a while, so I came to wake you up."
"Right. Let me just get changed, and I will be right out." Wells nods his head in confirmation and leaves as Clarke strips off her oversize shirt and baggy shorts and starts rifling through the clothes she had grabbed from the wreckage for herself. At first, she had balked at wearing someone else's underwear even though it was clean, but after two days in her own pair she had accepted her fate. Although, her suitcase is up in the caves so hopefully she can get back to wearing her own clothes. Clarke winces as she catches a whiff of her armpits and quickly reaches for the deodorant; she desperately wants to take a cold shower, and not just rinse off in the warm saltwater when she has time. As she pulls on a T-shirt, she winces as the stitches pull in her side and checks them with her fingers, but it seems as if Lexa did a good job on them that first day as they are still holding well. She quickly throws on her jeans and boots, fantasizing about how she could maybe take a shower with the freshwater that she found.
After taking two strands of hair and tying them in a knot at the back of her head to keep her hair out of her face, Clarke steps out into the morning sun and looks around. She finds a bottle of water with a few sips left in it and a mango, which Wells must have left her for breakfast. Knowing that it will make no difference on her body if she drinks the water all at one time instead of spacing it out, Clarke drinks what's left in one go and looks around for Wells. Instead, Clarke sees Lexa further down the beach loading water bottles into several backpacks and decides to head over to her. On the way, she starts eating her mango, just taking big bites out of it and not bothering to peel it.
"Morning!" Clarke cheerily greets Lexa, still happily chewing on her mango as juices cover her mouth.
Lexa only raises her eyebrow at Clarke's voracious eating and returns the greeting, although not with the enthusiasm that Clarke has.
Clarke rolls her eyes at the brunette. "Shut up, I didn't eat at all yesterday; I'm hungry. But I slept for like 10 hours last night for the first time since probably before I started medical school so I'm feeling great!"
Lexa can't hold in the small smile that forms on her lips at Clarke's energy, so she turns her head back to her task.
Clarke doesn't miss Lexa's smile and grins happily as she takes a seat on the piece of metal next to all the empty water bottles that Lexa has lined up and continues to happily munch on her mango. Lexa works in the comfortable silence, and Clarke just observes the stoic brunette, watching Lexa work until she catches a flash of black on the back of Lexa's neck when her ponytail swings.
"How many tattoos do you have?" Clarke asks, genuinely curious.
"What?" Lexa asks the blonde, confused as to what prompted Clarke to ask her that.
"Well I saw the one on your back the other day when you stripped in front of me," Clarke teases, "and obviously that one," Clarke gestures to the tribal tattoo on Lexa's bicep which is revealed by her tank top, "and I just noticed the one on the back of your neck."
Lexa reaches up to the back of her neck and runs her fingers over the broken infinity sign, not needing to see it to follow its shape perfectly. With Clarke still staring at her expectantly, Lexa realizes that she had been asked a question. "Uh… It's just these three."
"That's cool. I always wanted one, but I could never decide what to get. What do they mean?"
Lexa hesitates for a second and averts her eyes from Clarke's piercing blue in order to focus on zipping up one of the backpacks. "The one on my bicep I got with my unit. We each got different ones, but we all got them at the same time."
When Lexa doesn't elaborate, Clarke decides to back off. After all, they have barely known each other a week. "Sorry, if they're personal. I didn't mean to pry."
"It's fine. I mean, they are personal…" Lexa trails off, lost in her own thoughts, but quickly brings her mind back to the present to hold out the full backpack for Clarke. "I don't blame you for being curious. A lot of people ask about them."
Clarke wipes her sticky fingers on her jeans and turns around and holds out her arms so Lexa can help her slip the backpack straps over her shoulders. "So does that mean if I keep asking about them I'll eventually get an answer?" When she doesn't get a reply, she huffs in mock annoyance and grabs the small duffel bag with only one strap and holds it out to Lexa. "Fine, be mysterious and broody all you want. You still should be taking it easy on your shoulder." When Lexa looks like she wants to protest, Clarke sternly tells her, "Doctor's orders." When Lexa sighs and accepts the bag, swinging it over her good shoulder, Clarke smiles triumphantly. "Who else is coming with us?"
"Thelonious and Jasper."
"Not Wells?"
Lexa stiffens almost imperceptibly, but enough for Clarke to pick up on. "He decided to stay and help with the fishing."
"Oh, that makes sense. We used to fish in the creek behind his house back when we were kids. I just thought since he woke me up this morning that he was coming…" Clarke trails off as she watches the stoic woman become even more stoic, which confuses Clarke, as Wells is normally well liked by everyone.
Lexa looks down at her feet and shifts the duffel bag around on her shoulder as she mumbles, "I asked him to. I thought you would be more comfortable, because you have known each other for so long…"
Clarke can't help but smile at the sweet gesture. She gently runs her fingers along Lexa's forearm to get those green eyes to focus back on her. "Thank you, but next time, don't worry about it. It's not like I sleep naked," Clarke laughs as Lexa blushes. "Plus, we're friends, right?"
"Yeah, of course we are. Friends." Lexa manages a half-hearted smile, but Clarke doesn't notice this time, just beams back at her.
With how easily she can make Lexa blush, Clarke can't resist teasing her a little more. "I'm glad. I don't let just anyone get me out of my bra the first day we meet."
Lexa's eyes widen in surprise, but before she can even attempt to come up with a flustered response, Jasper walks up to them. "Wow, looks like I picked the right time to jump into a conversation. Who's getting to second base, and how do I get in on that?"
Clarke and Lexa both glare at Jasper, and Clarke even goes so far as to punch him in the shoulder, hard enough for the skinny man to take a step back. "Hey, what happened to do no harm?"
"Doesn't apply when you make comments like that."
Jasper pretends to pout and Lexa takes the moment to replace her emotionless mask and hands one of the remaining backpacks for Jasper. "Have you seen Thelonious?" When Jasper shakes his head, Lexa grabs the last pack and gestures for the two to follow her as she walks down the beach looking for him. Clarke resists the urge to pout as all her hard work of coaxing Lexa out of her shell are gone, as the brunette is all business once again. Once they find Thelonious talking to Wells, the groups heads off into the jungle while Wells heads back down the beach to talk to Monty.
Monty is still making the last few adjustments to his net when Wells and Harper walk up to him.
"So we're using a nets?" Wells asks as he bends down to examine Monty's work. The young man had managed to weave together a mass of seat belts and mesh from the storage compartments on the seat backs to create a makeshift circular net about 10 feet in diameter with a long rope off the center. Some of the mesh is overlapping and all of the seat belt buckles hang off on the outside of the net.
"Well just one for now, until I can make more. Octavia and Lincoln disappeared down the beach a while ago with her spear, but this should be easier and yield more." Monty tells them as he makes a few last tugs on the net, testing its durability and hoping it will hold.
"You have that little faith in us?" Harper pretends to be insulted, but with Monty focused on his work he doesn't see her smiling.
Monty looks up in alarm. "No, it's not that…" When he sees Harper and Wells grinning, he fights to hide his blushing cheeks behind his actions to pick up the net.
Harper gently touches Monty's arm as she grabs the other end of the net. "I'm just teasing, Monty. Thank you for doing this; you're trying to fix communications with Raven and you're teaching us how to fish."
When Wells catches the way Monty and Harper smile at each other, he fights to hide his grin at the obvious crushes the two have on each other. He gives them a few seconds before interrupting, not wanting the sexual tension to escalate further. "Soooo… How does this work?"
Monty tears his gaze away from Harper to look at Wells. "It's best if I show you." When Wells nods his acquiescence, Monty lifts the net up so it doesn't drag on the ground and carries it towards the water.
"The net is a large circle, and the seat belt buckles act as weights on the ends. If you throw the net correctly, the net will fan out and the edges will sink quickly, trapping the fish inside. Then you just pull the net back to shore and pull out the fish. Make sense?" When Harper and Wells nod, Monty continues with his demonstration. "So we're looking for groups of fish near the shore in 5 feet of water or less. Try looking for flashes of silver or movement. First, we wrap the end of the rope around your dominant hand and the end of the net in the other and shake out the net so there's no tangles. Grab halfway down the net with your dominant hand and then use your other hand to grab half of the bottom material of the net and put that in your dominant hand as well." Monty pauses his actions to look up and make sure that both of his pupils understand before continuing. "With your non-dominant hand, grab the other half of the material, and then swing back and twist around to throw the net with your dominant hand, swinging your other hand down and in the opposite direction. And make sure that when you release the net that the rope in the middle is still attached." Monty demonstrates and the net flies out over the water, landing spread out and quickly sinking. He pulls it back in and holds it out for Wells to try. Monty corrects him on his technique and once he has done a few tosses, he helps Harper.
After Harper has had a few successful throws, she hesitantly asks, "So, once we catch the fish, what do we…" Monty looks around and picks up a large rock and hands it to her. Harper looks at it in puzzlement, but when she realizes what they have to do with it, she quickly tosses it to Wells. "I'll let you do that part."
Wells chuckles and starts teasing her for not wanting to kill the fish, but Monty is too lost in his own memories.
"You're leaving again? But you just got back…" Monty struggles to keep his tears from overflowing and stares determinedly at the red and white bobber floating in the middle of the pond.
"I know sweetie, but they need me over there." Hannah puts her hand on her son's shoulder, but he shrugs it off.
Monty turns to face his mom with anger in his eyes. "But I need you here. You're always leaving. Where are they even sending you this time?"
"You know I'm not allowed to tell you that. I'm sorry." When Monty doesn't respond, Hannah wraps her arm around his shoulders and pulls him in to snuggle against her side. She holds back a sigh, knowing that when she comes back her little 10-year-old boy may be too big to hold like this. "I promise I'll, write, and call, and Skype whenever I can." Monty starts to cry and Hannah squeezes tighter, trying to comfort him. Some time later, he finally calms down enough to wipe the tears and snot off his face on his mom's shirt. "Hey!" She yells, playfully pushing him away.
Monty gives her a small smile, leans his head back on her shoulder, and returns his gaze to his fishing line. "I love you." He whispers as he closes his eyes.
"I love you too." She whispers back. After a few moments, she jerks forward, dropping her own fishing pole. "Hey, you've got a bite!"
Monty's eyes flash open and he jumps to his feet and starts frantically reeling in his line.
"Not too fast! We don't want it to get off. And keep your rod tip up." Hannah coaches as Monty slowly reels the fish in. When it gets to the shore, Hannah grabs the line with her hands and lifts the fish onto the shore. "Great catch Monty! We can have it for dinner tonight."
The young boy beams proudly at his mom's praises and dutifully holds the fish up for a photo. As Hannah grabs her own pole and reels her line in, sensitive, sweet Monty starts to worry about his fish. "Mom, why is it still moving?"
"It's OK, it will stop soon." Hannah offhandedly says as she packs up her tackle box and the two fishing poles.
"Is it suffering? Like what happens when people try to breathe underwater?"
"Kind of, but it's different for fish. It doesn't hurt as much." Monty still looks sad, so Hannah takes the fish from him. "We have to eat other animals to survive; it's just the way the world works. Fish eat plants, and we eat the fish, and when we die we help grow the plants. Every death has a purpose in furthering life. But you're right, we don't have to let the animals we eat suffer." Hannah picks up a rock and bashes the fish over the head with it and the fish immediately stops moving. She hands the fish back to Monty and he tentatively takes it in his hands, looking slightly less distressed. "Now c'mon, you're old enough to learn how to clean your own fish." Hannah tells her son, laughing when makes a face of disgust at having to touch all the fish guts.
Clarke had followed behind Lexa as they walked into the jungle, waiting for the brunette to realize that she had no idea where they were going. After a few minutes, Clarke is almost bursting with laughter, and once Lexa stops and turns to face her with the smallest hint of a pout on her face, Clarke can't contain it anymore.
"Now would be a good time to tell me where we are going, Clarke."
"You just took off into the jungle, all Commander mode, and you don't even know where we are going!" Clarke giggles which only makes Lexa's pout even more.
"Does that make you the guy in relationships? Because you don't want to stop and ask for directions?"
Both Clarke and Lexa turn to glare at Jasper, who immediately shrinks away under their fierce gazes. Once she feels that Jasper has been thoroughly chastised, Clarke takes the lead, with Lexa close behind and Thelonious and Jasper at the rear.
The group only walks for about 30 minutes until Clarke starts to recognize the clearing. She leads the group up a rise and down the side, picking her way through the narrow trees and boulders.
"Are you sure this is the right way?" Lexa asks as she glances around the dense woods. Clarke only hums her assent as she ducks behind some bushes and leads the group into a large cave.
"Wow! How did you find this place?" Jasper shouts as he spins around in the large cavern.
Clarke shrugs, ignoring the odd, knowing look that Thelonious is sending her way. "Luck, I guess."
Too busy looking around the large cave, Jasper stumbles on a piece of wreckage and almost falls. "Hey, look at this stuff! We should go through it."
Lexa glances at the wreckage and nods at him. "Good idea. Clarke and I will fill up the bottles while you and Thelonious go through the wreckage for anything useful."
Jasper is shocked. "Good idea? You think something I said is a good idea?"
Lexa ignores him and heads toward the water, dropping her bag to the ground so she can examine the stream. Clarke just laughs at Jasper and gives him a playful nudge. "Keep an eye out for any medical supplies for me, yeah? Drugs in particular."
"Oh…" Jasper mumbles. "Right, of course. Drugs."
The only person who notices Jasper's strange behavior is Thelonious, as Clarke has joined Lexa, who is crouched above the stream. The water is clear, and appears to come out from between two rocks before flowing through the cave and out through a small exit. "It looks safe, but we should boil it just to be sure."
Clarke ignores Lexa's words and scoops up a handful and takes a big slurp. "No need. I drank some last night. If there was something wrong with it, I would be sick by now."
"You know that's necessarily true. It could be a parasite or…"
Lexa trails off as Clarke shushes her by flicking water at her face. "I'm the doctor, remember? Now drink before you pass out from dehydration."
Lexa mock glares at Clarke before turning to scoop some water into her hand to drink. Clarke smiles at her victory and starts to fill up water bottles. Once Lexa has sated her thirst, she starts to fill water bottles too, and the two work in companionable silence for a few minutes until Lexa suddenly stiffens.
"What's wrong?" Clarke asks, alarmed at Lexa's behavior.
"Where are Thelonious and Jasper?" Lexa stands up as Clarke looks around the cave, but their other companions are nowhere in sight.
"I don't know, maybe they went…"
Lexa shushes Clarke, cutting her off. "Shhh. Did you hear that?"
Clarke looks at Lexa in confusion. "Hear what?"
Lexa pulls the gun out from the holster on her thigh and strides quickly towards the entrance of the cave.
Clarke quickly jumps up and follows Lexa, and as she approaches the cave entrance, she can hear the voices of Thelonious and Jasper coming from outside.
"Don't move!"
"I just had to take a leak…"
"Do. Not. Move!"
Lexa takes a left out of the cave and comes around a tree to find a nervous looking Jasper standing with his arms out for balance and Thelonious speaking to him in a firm but soothing tone.
"What's wrong?" Lexa asks as she comes up behind Thelonious.
"Jasper's standing on a beehive." Thelonious points to the sandy spot of ground where several bees are swarming around Jasper's feet angrily.
"There are beehives in the ground?" Clarke questions as she comes to stand next to Lexa and Thelonious.
"Yes, and he needs to stay very still because the beehive is fragile and if he moves he could split the hive, which would make the bees very angry."
"I have an irrational fear of bees…What if I'm allergic?" Jasper cries in a panic as bees start landing on his face and flying around his arms.
"Jasper, just be quiet. Lexa and Clarke are going to find something to cover the hive, and then we're going to get you away from the bees." Thelonious continues to soothe Jasper as the two women take off running towards the cave.
Back at the beach, Monty is helping Raven fix the old antenna and make some additional antennas when Lincoln and Octavia walk into the tent.
"Hey Monty, Raven, what's up?" Octavia cheerily asks as she bounces into the tent with her spear in hand.
"Nothing much, just trying to fix the damage from Commander Clumsy." Raven grumbles as she struggles to tighten a bolt. When she catches Lincoln's frown, she mumbles a "sorry" to the big man who is holding several fish strung together on a vine.
When Monty sees all the fish that Lincoln is holding, he gently puts down the wires he is fiddling with and stands up to take the fish. "Oh good, you've got some fish. I'll show you how to clean a couple and then let you do the rest."
Lincoln nods and follows Monty out of the tent, but Octavia stays behind to talk to Raven. When Monty gives Lincoln a questioning look, the fierce man's face forms a soft smile. "She told me that since she was doing all the work in catching the fish that I had to do the cooking."
Monty chuckles as he takes the fish from Lincoln and heads towards some nearby rocks that look relatively flat. He carefully pulls one of the fish off the vine and sets it down belly up as he pulls out one of the knives that Lincoln had given him a couple days ago.
"So first you make a cut right below the gills." Monty instructs as he saws halfway through the fish's body. "Make sure not to cut all the way through at this point." When Lincoln nods his understanding, Monty then turns the fish on its side and runs his knife along the fish's belly, splitting it open. When he gets to the end of the fish's belly where it starts to taper into the tail, he stops. "We want to cut the belly open, and then once we get back to this last fin, we can cut the rest of the head off. If you just cut the spine, then we can easily pull out the intestines." Monty flips the fish on its stomach and cuts the spine near the head right above his previous cut, then pulls the fish head towards the tail and all the intestines come right out. Monty flips the fash back onto its stomach and pulls apart the sides to reveal the inside of the fish. "If there's any veins or pieces of intestines or eggs still left, just pull or cut them out." Laying the fish flat on its side again, Monty begins to rub the knife along the skin in the opposite direction of the scales. "Now just get all the scales off, and once that's done, cut off the tail, and it's all ready to go."
Lincoln gently pats Monty on the shoulder and pulls out his own knife as he grabs the next fish. "Thanks for the refresher, Monty. I haven't had to clean a fish in a few years, not since before I joined the army."
"No problem. I'll watch you do the next one and then leave you to it." Monty replies, watching as Lincoln quickly and easily cleans the next couple fish. Lincoln looks confident and seems to be doing well, so Monty heads towards the ocean to wash the fish guts, blood, and smell off his hands and knife. As the blood washes free from his hands and dissipates into the water, he thinks back to one of the last times that he had cleaned a fish.
A 14-year-old Monty stands in his family's barn, cleaning fish and tossing the entrails to the eagerly awaiting cats. When he hears footsteps walk up behind him, he ignores them and continues cleaning the fish he had caught this morning. When he finishes the last one, he looks up at his mother who is standing at his side with a proud smile on her face.
"Couldn't have done it better myself." Hannah smiles at her son and goes to wrap him in a hug, which he reluctantly allows. "You've grown so much baby."
"That's what happens when you're gone for two years, only come back for 6 months, and then leave for two more years." Monty growls as he pushes himself out of his mother's arms.
Hannah doesn't want to let her son go, but allows him to push her away. "I know, and I'm sorry. But I'm back for good now. I promise I'm never going to leave you again."
"You're only back because Dad is dead!" Monty yells, trying to hold back his tears.
Hannah steps forward once more and pulls Monty in for an even tighter hug. "Shhhh it's OK. I miss him too. But I promise to be here for you. I love you so much, and I came back for you. Everything's going to be OK." Hannah continues to whisper comforts into Monty's ear as she strokes his hair, which only makes the young boy cry harder.
Clarke and Lexa had quickly run back to the cave and grabbed the first suitcase they could find. Lexa unzipped it and spilled everything onto the ground and then took off for the hive with Clarke close on her heels. When she got halfway there, she slowed to a walk and focused on calming her breathing and heart rate.
Clarke almost runs into Lexa's back when the brunette suddenly slows down. "What are you doing?" She angrily pants.
"Trying to calm my heart rate and breathing. Bees can sense distress, and Jasper needs us to appear as calm as possible."
"Oh, right." Clarke nods, although Lexa doesn't see it as she is approaching Thelonious and Jasper.
Quietly and slowly, Lexa walks around Thelonious and towards Jasper, who is becoming increasingly more nervous. "I'm just going to gently lay this over the hive. Just keep still Jasper."
Jasper looks down and intently eyes Lexa and the approaching suitcase. "This is never going to work! There has to be a different way!"
Lexa stops and looks up at Jasper, meeting his wild eyes with her calm ones. "Jasper, we're doing our best. Let me worry about the hive, all you have to do is stay still. Pull it together, you can do this!"
"It wouldn't be an irrational fear of bees if I could just pull myself together!" Jasper bites back at Lexa.
"Hey Jasper, look at me!" Clarke calls to the anxious man. When his gaze meets Clarke's soft blue eyes, she sends him a smile. "It's going to be OK. I know you're scared, but just focus on your feet on the ground." Thelonious motions to Lexa to start moving again, so she slowly creeps forward as Clarke tries to distract Jasper. "Close your eyes, and just focus on your weight over your feet and standing perfectly upright." Jasper nods and closes his eyes and doesn't move, despite the bees that are now crawling on his face. He lets out a whimper and Lexa centers the suitcase on the hive, but before she can lay it down, Jasper jumps as a bee crawls up his nose.
Unfortunately, Jasper doesn't land on the ground, he lands smack on top of the bee hive, irritating the swarm of bees and destroying the hive. Lexa quickly drops the suitcase over what bees she can and takes off running, grabbing Clarke's hand as she flies past her and swatting away bees with the other. Jasper starts smacking bees that land on his body and blindly runs the other direction. Thelonious takes off after a now shouting Jasper, not wanting to leave the poor man alone. Thelonious starts smashing bees off Jasper's back and urges him to run faster when the bees swarm him too. Both men rub the bees off their arms and out of their hair as much as they can while still running through the dense jungle foliage.
Lexa pulls Clarke along until there are too many bees around and she must let go of her hand to start swatting them away from her. She can hear Clarke's grunts of pain behind her, and can't help letting out a few pained hisses as she gets stung several times under her clothing. Once she reaches the cave, she yanks her shirt off and starts swatting the swarms with it. Clarke is close behind the brunette and rips off her shirt full of bees as well, but she drops it on the cave floor and races over to the stream, where she starts splashing water on the bees still following her and the angry red stings that cover her arms.
As the hum of the bees disappears, Lexa stops swinging her shirt wildly and walks over to collapse next to a heavily panting Clarke, who is leaning forward over the stream with her arms completely submerged and her head face down on top of them. "You alright?" Lexa asks as she scans Clarke for any injuries besides the angry red spots spattering her back.
Clarke gives Lexa an exasperated look. "As well as can be expected for the amount of times I've been stung." She tries and fails not to notice Lexa's abs once again, although now they are spotted with angry red welts. Grinning mischievously, she lifts her arms out of the water and flicks it all over the brunette, giggling when Lexa sends her an affronted look. "It's good for the swelling."
Lexa rolls her eyes and tries and fails to tear away her gaze from a wet, giggling, only bra-clad Clarke. Fortunately, before Clarke can catch her staring, Thelonious calls out to them.
"Hello? Clarke and Lexa, are you two alright?"
"Yeah, we're both OK." Lexa stands up and slowly puts on her shirt, still favoring her hurt shoulder. Clarke is once again given a view of Lexa's back tattoo, and she tries to decipher what the strange shapes could possibly mean.
"Well I'm glad I provided a good distraction, because I was stung several hundred times…" Jasper angrily points at all the wells adorning his face and arms.
"Maybe you should be more careful about where you step next time." Clarke teases back as she gets to her feet.
"I don't know, it actually turned out pretty well for me. I'm enjoying the view right now." Jasper sends Clarke a wink as he tosses her the shirt she had dropped.
Lexa steps in front of Clarke as the blonde blushes and quickly slides her shirt back on. "It was full of bees." She says bashfully, keeping her eyes pointedly away from Thelonious, who is practically an uncle to her.
"I'd have thought C's actually." Jasper laughs but then immediately stops when Clarke glares at him and Lexa narrows her eyes dangerously at him. "Sorry." He mumbles and looks away from the two women.
Thelonious is the first to break the awkward silence. "So it seems like the bees have dissipated, so we should probably get the water back to camp. I think Jasper and I should stay and continue to go through what we can of the wreckage."
"Do you know how to get back to the beach from here?" When Thelonious nods his head, Lexa returns it. "OK, Clarke and I will bring the water back to the beach. Make sure to be back before dark, and don't worry about carrying everything back, we can get the rest tomorrow."
"Oh, wait! My suitcase is here, and I want to grab a couple things from it." Lexa and Thelonious both look at a now blushing Clarke, as she thinks about the thing she wants the most from her suitcase, a pair of her own underwear and a bra that will actually fit her well.
Lexa ignores Clarke's strange behavior to fill up the last few water bottles and pack them up into the four bags, while Thelonious heads towards the wreckage to sift through the luggage. Once Clarke has her clothing items, she tucks them in the backpack that Lexa hands her and follows the brunette out of the cave back to the beach.
Raven and Monty are back to building antennas when Lincoln and Octavia walk in with two grilled pieces of fish on large leaves.
"Hey guys, you hungry?" Octavia cheerily asks the two.
"Oh yeah, I am ready for some fresh fish." Raven cheers as she sets down her work and holds out her hands, wiggly her fingers greedily. Octavia chuckles and hands over her fish to Raven, while Lincoln hands a piece to Monty.
While Raven immediately starts wolfing her fish down, pulling bones out of her mouth as she encounters them, Monty picks more delicately at his piece of fish, although with his hunger it doesn't take him too long to eat his piece. "Great job you guys. They were cooked perfectly."
"Yeah, O, you better wife him up if he can cook like this." Raven teases as she rubs her stomach, which hurts from the way she had practically inhaled her food.
Octavia blushes and Lincoln smiles, holding up his hand to stage whisper to Raven, "The secret is Eucalyptus. And the salt and pepper packets from the plane."
"Wow, when you salvaged the wreckage you really salvaged… everything." Raven compliments Lincoln.
Lincoln brushes off the compliment with a shrug. "It's just part of our training. Salt is particularly useful as a preservative, and pepper is great seasoning. Just basic stuff. Ow!" Lincoln winces as he rubs the bicep that Octavia had just not so gently punched.
"You told me you were going to give me survival training yesterday and you never did!" Octavia raises her voice and narrows her eyes at Lincoln.
"We were all a little busy yesterday, don't you think Octavia? Was the punch really necessary?" Monty raises an eyebrow at Octavia as he defends his fellow man.
Lincoln holds his hand up at Monty and smiles at Octavia. "It's OK, you are right, I did promise to teach you. But we have plenty of time now, if you would like to start?"
Octavia shouts with joy and grabs Lincoln's arm to pull him from the tent as fast as his crutch will allow him to go.
Monty and Raven both chuckle and share a knowing grin as the two depart from the tent. Monty goes back to working with wires while Raven gently lowers herself down to the bed she had made from airline cushions. Her leg is hurting her and she needs to take a pain killer, which always make her drowsy so she might as well take a nap. With the water shortage, she has to dry swallow the pill, and coughs as she manages to choke it down.
Monty looks up from his work to check on Raven, but finds her closing her eyes and pillowing her arms underneath her head, so he goes back to work. After a few minutes, Raven breaks the silence, bored while waiting for her pain relief. "Where did you learn to do all this?"
"Me?" Monty asks, having thought that Raven had fallen asleep.
"Is there anyone else in this tent that I'm not aware of?" Raven teases him, smiling and gesturing around the tent with one arm, although both of her eyes remain closed.
Monty huffs a laugh and goes back to work. "I went to MIT and majored in computer science. While there, I also joined the robotics club."
"Wow man, good for you!" Raven mumbles sleepily, finally starting to feel the effects from her pain medication.
"What about you?" Monty turns in his chair to look at Raven, but finds her jaw slack and her body relaxed in sleep. Glad that she is finally getting some rest and time to be pain free, Monty turns back to his work, but just stares blankly at it as he remembers the day he got accepted to MIT.
"Mom! Mom! Look!" Monty screams as he runs across the field waving a letter in his hands. Hannah looks up from where she is fixing a fence to watch their cows run away from the frantic looking boy. Hannah starts to worry, until she sees the smile on her son's face and knows that it could only be good news.
"Mom! I got into MIT!" Monty shouts as he jumps into her arms.
"That's great sweetie!" Hannah laughs as she stumbles back from the weight of her 17-year-old son. "Where else did you get in?"
Monty folds the letter in his pocket and grabs the empty pair of work gloves from the truck, an extra jump in his step as he steps up next to his mom to help hold the fence still while she works on it. "I didn't even look at the other letters, I just saw the one from MIT, opened it, and came straight here. Isn't this amazing?"
Hannah tries to hide the apprehension from her face as she smiles back at her ecstatic son. "You're so smart Monty, I knew you'd get in."
As excited as he is, Monty doesn't miss his mother's facial expression. "What's wrong, mom?"
"You know I never went to college, so I went in to the high school last week to talk to your advisor about how all of this works. I know MIT is your dream school, I'm just worried about the cost. I want to do everything I can to help you accomplish your dreams, son, you know that, but the farm has been struggling these past few years, and I just don't know…" Hannah trails off to hide her increasing emotions about failing her only son.
"Mom, it's OK." Monty tells her as he pulls her into a hug. "I already applied for scholarships and financial aid, and I can always take out loans. If I need to, I can always get a part-time job."
"I just want you to be able to focus on your studies, not worrying about how you're going to be paying for school. Besides tuition, there's food and textbooks to buy, and rent, not to mention flights back home, and new clothes… I just want to give you everything, and I can't." Hannah tells her son as she hugs him tighter.
"It'll work out, Mom. We'll figure it out in the end." Monty whispers to her.
Lexa had been in front when they first were walking towards the beach, but around the time they were halfway there, Clarke had brushed past her and pulled the second bag of Lexa's shoulders. "Why do you insist on obeying every doctor's order I give you?" Clarke grunts as she lifts the weight of a second water bottle filled bag onto her shoulder.
"Clarke, I'm fine. You should let me carry that." Lexa tries to take the bag back from Clarke, but the blonde just swings around and whacks Lexa with her backpack, slinging the side strap over her shoulder and leading the way back to the beach.
"I'll be fine. Plus, we're about halfway back, so it's my turn to carry the third bag anyways."
Lexa sighs in frustration but decides to choose her battles and let Clarke carry the bag. Although she is loath to admit it, her shoulder has been hurting, and this will allow her to shift more weight from the backpack onto her good shoulder and off her still injured one. Trusting Clarke to know the way back, Lexa eyes glaze over as she stares straight ahead and continues walking, going over plans in her head.
After a few long moments of silence, Clarke is worried that she has offended the recently grumpy brunette, so she checks over her shoulder with a tentative smile to make sure Lexa isn't truly mad at her. What she sees makes her grin, and she stops suddenly. Lexa almost runs into Clarke, but puts her hands on the blonde's backpack to steady herself. "Were you checking me out?" Clarke smirks at the brunette.
Lexa blinks twice, trying to break completely free of her thoughts. "What?"
This only causes Clarke's grin to widen. "You were totally staring at my ass! Not that I mind, but…"
Before Clarke can finish, Lexa takes a step back and immediately denies it. "No, of course not, I wouldn't demean you that way."
Clarke only raises her eyebrow, distinctly remembering one or two glances that had lasted only a second too long. "Suuuuure…" She makes sure to draw out the word as she smirks at the blushing brunette. When Lexa doesn't seem as if she is going to admit it, Clarke takes a step towards her, and Lexa holds her ground, refusing to give in to the shorter woman's intimidation tactic. Clarke crowds Lexa's personal space, ignoring the look of confusion on the soldier's face. "So, if you weren't checking me out, what were you thinking about?" Clarke husks out.
Lexa is conflictingly confused and turned on at the same time. Is Clarke flirting with her? When they had first gone into the jungle, she thought there had been flirting, but then Clarke had said she had a boyfriend, and her childhood best friend, who clearly had romantic feelings for her, was always hanging around. But this, Lexa doesn't know what this, standing too close to each other and talking about asses, was. "I was thinking about moving to the caves."
"What? That's the excuse you come up with?" Clarke smiles as she teases the stoic brunette.
Lexa decides that now is the time to take a step back and get some space from the blonde as she outlines the plan she has been turning over in her head. "It's not an excuse when I was actually thinking about it. I used to plan missions all the time in my head when not leading my unit; all I had to do was follow the person in front of me. If 46 people need to drink 1 to 2 liters of water a day, assume 2 with the heat and physical exertion, then that's 92 liters of water. We need miscellaneous water for cooking and things like that, so let's round up to 100 liters of water a day. We have around 75 water bottles, which means that we would have to take at least two trips. Let's assume that we use 25 water bottles to use around camp in addition to the cups and bottles in checked luggage, then that leaves 50 water bottles to use hauling water, so that's two trips every day to the caves. We have the tarp to store water in, so at least we don't have to wait for people to drink the bottles. Based on the time it took us to get to the caves today, I would allow an hour of travel time for both ways, plus time to fill the bottles and rest, so conservatively two hours each trip. Backpacks and weight limit how many water bottles a person can carry, so that means at least 4 people will need to spend 4 hours a day just carrying water back and forth to the beach, for a total time of 16 hours. We're close to the equator so we get about 12 hours of sunlight every day, 12 times 46, put that under 16, that's almost 3% of our available man hours spent on just obtaining water."
Clarke allows a frown to form on her face as she tries to follow Lexa's math. "You did that in your head?"
Lexa nods and turns Clarke around to continue walking, this time side by side. "Yes. I'm in charge of planning missions, I have to do a lot of calculations."
Clarke wishes she could pull out her phone and check Lexa's calculations, just so she could put off having to actually process what Lexa had said for a few seconds longer. "You said 3% of our time would be spent collecting water, is that bad?"
Lexa shrugs her shoulders as she holds aside some leaves for Clarke to pass by. "It's not bad, per say, it's just a considerable junk of time we could be spending doing something else every day, not to mention the people that will be getting the water will be some of our most physically fit, who could better do tasks that aren't easy manual labor. We have a lot of things that we need to be doing, to take care of everyone. Hunting animals, gathering food, building more permanent shelters, helping Raven and Monty with the transceiver, cooking, cleaning clothes, building some sort of latrine and shower system, keeping a signal fire burning, collecting firewood for cooking, creating defenses for camp, mapping the island for other resources, trying to find other survivors…" Lexa trails off as Clarke's eyes widen considerably.
"Sounds like you're planning for an indefinite stay."
Lexa refuses to meet Clarke's eyes at first, unsure if her usual stoic façade is enough to keep Clarke out. "Don't worry, it's just a hope for the best, plan for the worst kind of thing that's been ingrained in me."
When Lexa sends her a reassuring smile, Clarke tries to return it, but she senses that there's more to it. It has been 6 days, and there's still no sign of anyone coming to get them. Maybe it's time to start thinking more long term? But the reality of what that means, that no one is going to come for them and they are going to be trapped on this island forever, is too terrifying to even contemplate, so Clarke chooses to ignore it for now. "Alright, so how do you propose that we fix this 'waste of time' as you so put it?"
"Well, the caves would make an excellent natural shelter. There's an unlimited supply of freshwater; they are cooler in the day and warmer at night; they provide protection from the sun, wind, and predators; and if people become sick or get injured, it would be a safer and more comfortable place for them to heal."
Clarke frowns, disliking the conclusion Lexa is leading her towards. "Essentially, you want us to move to the caves?"
Lexa nods slowly, watching Clarke closely for her reaction. "Not all of us, but most of us. It would be safer and easier for us all to survive there. Obviously, a few people should remain on the beach in case rescue happens to come by, but until Raven and Monty have a way to get in contact with people, it's the best course of action."
"Uh huh." Clarke hums, thinking the idea over in her mind. Everything that Lexa has said appeals to her logically, but to her it just feels like they are giving up hope of rescue, something she does not want to do. Are they just supposed to move to the caves until eventually everyone dies off from disease or injury? Live like cavemen with sharpened sticks? Will she and Lexa be the only two left, like some crazy biblical Eve and Eve? It wouldn't be a bad life, she could grow old painting cave drawings until they both succumb to old age and their home becomes a tomb for them. Clarke nearly laughs at the absurdity of it. Who is she kidding; the idea of never getting rescued and never getting to fix things with her mom and never getting to do simple things like watch TV again absolutely terrifies her.
Lexa watches the emotions flicker across Clarke's face until the dominant one becomes fear. Immediately, Lexa grabs the blonde's hand, wanting to distract her from whatever thoughts have oh so clearly terrified her. "Clarke, it's going to be fine. I promise, we're going to…"
Lexa is interrupted by a shouting Octavia. "Oh, I see, instead of bringing back water for the people dying of dehydration, you use the opportunity to go on a romantic stroll. I see how it is." Octavia half jokes and half yells at the pair.
Lexa immediately drops Clarke's hand, deflecting the fiery woman's accusation. "Why are you alone in the jungle?"
Octavia huffs. "What are you, like 4 years older than me?" When Lexa only stares fiercely at Octavia, the smaller brunette holds up her hands in surrender. "Yeah, yeah, I know, jungle dangerous, don't go alone, blah blah blah. But I'm not alone, Lincoln is with me."
Trying to forget her previous thoughts until she has more time to talk to Lexa about them, Clarke enters the conversation and gestures around the clearing with one arm. "Where is he then?"
Octavia frowns, remembering her previous failures. "He's training me. Said that first I must become one with nature and learn to walk silently through the jungle. He's sitting in a clearing about 40 yards that direction," Octavia waves one hand behind her, "and I'm supposed to sneak up on him, but it's impossible."
Lexa can't hide her snigger, earning her a fierce glare from Octavia and a raised eyebrow from Clarke. "Well you two are very loud as you walk through the jungle."
Clarke rolls her eyes and gently pushes Lexa to the side. "Care to show us how it's done then, Jungle Jane?"
Hoping that this will be a welcome distraction for Clarke, Lexa decides to play along. "Alright, you two walk that way and stop once you get to the edge of the clearing that Lincoln is in. Try to be as quiet as you can, so he thinks you're sneaking up on him. I'm going to circle around the other direction."
Octavia appears skeptical but does as Lexa orders, taking one of the backpacks from Clarke and then leading her towards the clearing. The two stop once they get to the edge of the forest, and Clarke sees Lincoln sitting in the middle with his eyes closed and both legs stretched out in front of him as he leans back on his arms.
"I can hear you, Octavia!" Octavia pouts, as she felt she had been silent, but she decides to blame it on a heavily breathing Clarke, who had just spent all morning hiking with a bag full of water. Octavia sees Lexa emerging from the opposite direction of them, and nudges Clarke, who looks up just in time to see Lexa holding a water bottle in front of her and holding one finger up to her plump lips in the 'shhhh' sign.
The pair watches as Lexa steps into the middle of the clearing, slowly walking towards an unsuspecting Lincoln. Lexa manages to sneak up right behind her friend, only a few inches away, before she sends Clarke a wink and upends the entire bottle over Lincoln's mostly bald head.
In his surprise, Lincoln's eyes shoot open, only to have the water flow directly into them. He tries to rub the water from his eyes and only ends up falling flat on his back once he's lost the support of his arms, where he sucks in a breath and accidentally swallows some water, rolling onto his side as he chokes.
The side of Clarke that is a medical professional wants to be concerned about the poor man, but the other side that is watching Octavia rolling and wheezing on the ground in laughter and the radiant, triumphant smile floating off Lexa overrides that as she starts laughing one of the most genuine laughs she has let loose since they crash landed.
Lexa feels her smile grow bigger as she sees how happy Clarke is, but remains aware enough to jump back several feet as soon as she hears Lincoln stop spluttering, just barely missing his outstretched arm trying to retaliate.
"What the hell, Lex?"
"This is how you're teaching Octavia survival skills? This is straight out of the Lion King 2. Dark broody outsider tries to win affections of rebellious princess? Sound familiar?"
"If anyone is broody it's you." Lincoln huffs as he holds out his hand for Lexa to help him up. When Lexa hesitates, he sends her a sweet smile. "C'mon, I'm injured, help a guy out."
Warily, Lexa holds out her hand, only to have Lincoln pull her down on top of him, where he proceeds to put her in a headlock. The two playfully wrestle back and forth for a few moments, one gaining the upper hand only to lose it a moment later.
"Do you think we should stop them?" Clarke asks in concern after a few minutes have passed and there doesn't appear to be an end to the play fight in sight.
"Naw, this is too good. I'm learning so many new moves that I can use on Bellamy!" Octavia grins gleefully.
Meanwhile, Lincoln puts Lexa in an arm bar, and just as she's about to break it, he grunts out, "Give or I'll tell Clarke about your collection."
Lexa goes completely still and hisses at Lincoln. "You wouldn't dare."
"Collection of what?" Clarke calls out, raising an eyebrow in interest.
Lexa and Lincoln continue to have a stare down, and when Lincoln raises his eyebrow and opens his mouth, Lexa quickly smacks his leg. "I give." Lincoln smiles and immediately releases Lexa, who starts rubbing circulation back into her arm, pouting about the fact that now both her arms are sore.
Clarke takes a seat next to Lexa while Octavia is congratulating Lincoln on his victory. "Lexa, collection of what?"
"Nothing Clarke, it's nothing. Just Lincoln being… Lincoln."
"I bet it's sex toys." Clarke, Lexa, and Lincoln all turn to Octavia with wide eyes. "What?" She shrugs. "What could possibly be more embarrassing than a room full of sex toys? Are you into BDSM or something?"
"No!" Lexa sputters as Lincoln starts laughing at Lexa's expression. "It's nothing like that at all."
"So is this going to be another one of your mysterious secrets? Just like you won't tell me what your tattoos mean?" Clarke questions as she pulls out two bottles of water and hands them to Lincoln and Octavia.
Lincoln smiles evilly. "I know what her tattoos mean."
Lexa holds up a finger and her face looks stern as she commands him, "Don't. You. Dare. Or I'll tell Octavia what your tattoos mean."
Lincoln narrows his eyes but holds out his hand. "Truce?" He smiles when Lexa firmly shakes his hand.
"Awww man, but I wanna know what they mean!" Octavia whines.
"Don't worry O, I'm sure you can get it out of him using other means of persuasion." Clarke winks at her.
Lincoln blushes and Lexa smirks at his red cheeks and a happily grinning Octavia. For just a few moments, it felt like they were just normal group of friends, and no one is eager to break out of that fantasy.
Jasper felt like he had been going through wreckage for hours, although it had only been around two hours. He knows it's because he hasn't had a fix since last night, and it's starting to show as he gets jumpier. Thelonious appears to be occupied with a suitcase, so he quietly starts walking out of the cave.
Thelonious notices Jasper leaving, so he quickly gets up and follows the skinny man. Once they get to the mouth of the cave, Jasper whips around to face him.
"Are you following me?" Jasper accuses the older man.
"Yes." Thelonious replies calmly with a smile.
"Well don't bother, I'm just going to the loo."
"Is there something you're hiding, Jasper?" Thelonious asks, only to receive an angry glare from the younger man. "It's dangerous out there, as evidenced by the last time you went into the jungle alone. We shouldn't be out of each other's sights."
"Piss of, man." Jasper flips Thelonious the bird and turns around to leave.
"I know who you are." Thelonious calls out before Jasper can get too far away. "And I know what you're looking for."
Jasper tries to hide his surprise as he turns around. There's no way this old guy could know about his drugs, he has kept everything hidden.
"You were in Dropship. Bass, correct?"
Jasper smiles, remembering his glorious days as a rock star, but more importantly, his days playing music. "And guitar! I also wrote the songs."
Thelonious smiles and leads Jasper towards a piece of wreckage, pulling out a bottle of water and handing it to Jasper as they take a seat. "I may be old, but my son is not, and your songs were always on the radio when it was his turn to choose the station." Jasper's smile on grows wider, and Thelonious knows that he has finally gotten the young man to be more open to him. "How long since you played?"
Jasper checks his watch as he thinks about it. "Probably around 8 days and eleven hours."
"Probably, uh?" Thelonious jests, smiling widely at Jasper, who is now picking at one of his bee stings. "Do you miss it?"
Jasper's face becomes solemn as his eyes meet Thelonious'. "It feels like a part of me is missing. Some bloke at the counter wouldn't let me carry it on the plane. I was skeptical of it making it through that unscathed, but now, after the plane has crashed? The odds are not looking good for me."
Thelonious leans over and pats Jasper on the knee. "You'll see it again. Just have faith. There's still a lot of wreckage to go through yet."
Jasper looks skeptical, but nods and gets up to go back to looking through the wreckage.
"Wait, you want to move everyone to the caves? What about the rescue parties?" Octavia squints at Lexa, clearly skeptical of her plans.
"Well like I said to Clarke, not everyone would go. Some people would stay behind to keep the signal fire burning and stuff like that. But this is what's best for the group as a whole."
"What happened to live together, die alone?" Octavia yells at the other brunette.
Lincoln puts his hand on Octavia's arm to calm her down. "Easy Octavia, it's just a discussion. No one's making you do anything yet."
Octavia turns her attention on Lincoln now, not calmed in the slightest. "Is this you actually agreeing with her, or just blindly following a commanding officer? Just give up all hope of rescue? It's only been 6 days! Planes and ships could be out there right now looking for us, and if we move inland, they could pass us by and not even know we're here!"
Lincoln sighs and quickly glances towards Clarke, who is anxiously fiddling with the watch on her wrist, refusing to meet anyone's eyes. "O, you know how unlikely that is." Lincoln mumbles, referring to the distress signal that had been on a loop for 15 years. Octavia pales and looks away at his reminder, having tried to forget that little horrifying fact. Lincoln looks up at Lexa, who is glancing worriedly at Clarke and Octavia. He does trust Lexa implicitly, but that doesn't mean he won't question her if he feels that she is wrong. In this circumstance, he thinks she is right, but getting people to accept it is going to be extremely difficult if not impossible.
"I'm not ready to give up hope yet." Clarke murmurs the first thing she has said in a while.
Lexa gently rests her fingertips on Clarke's arm, prompting blue eyes to meet green. "You wouldn't be. It doesn't take 46 people to keep a fire burning, or write a signal in the sand. Monty and Raven will still be working on communications, and they can do that from anywhere. Moving to a more habitable location does not mean that you are giving up hope."
"I'll go." Octavia looks up, her eyes a little red from holding back tears.
Lincoln squeezes Octavia's hand and smiles at her. "Good. And it's not like you'll never go back to the beach, it's only a 30-minute walk. You'll still be able to work on your tan."
Octavia huffs and shoves Lincoln over. "Shut up."
"We should probably get back to the beach, everyone's probably thirsty." Clarke says as she gets to her feet. She barely waits for everyone to gather their things before she is leading the group back towards camp.
Sensing Clarke's distress, Lexa lets Octavia catch up with the blonde doctor and instead decides to stay back to talk to Lincoln. Quietly murmuring in Trigedasleng, she asks him, "Do you really agree with me, or were you just backing me up in front of them?"
Lincoln keeps his gaze focused on Octavia and Clarke in front of him, not wanting to call too much attention to their conversation. "I agree that it's a good idea for most of us to move to the caves, but I imagine there's going to be incredible resistance. It might be time to tell them about the transmission we heard, so they could make a more informed decision. At least tell Clarke, she deserves to know."
Lexa sighs, knowing that she probably should tell Clarke, but at the same time worried about how emotional she had been lately, running off into the woods alone. Her head was telling her that they couldn't have their only doctor going missing, and with how devastated Clarke had looked earlier, her heart was telling her that she didn't want to put the blonde woman through any more pain. "Maybe in a couple days, once things are more settled. You saw what happened yesterday, we can't have a repeat of that."
Lincoln sighs internally, Lexa could be so stubborn sometimes, and the longer she waits, even to spare Clarke pain, the likelier it is that someone will let it slip to her. "I'll follow your lead on this one, Leksa, but know that I think you're making the wrong decision. You should tell her." Lexa stares longingly at Clarke, but doesn't respond as the beach is now within sight. At this moment, Lincoln wishes that Anya were here; Anya was always the best at talking to Lexa when the stoic woman let her emotions get to her.
Clarke had been sitting quietly on the beach, staring out at the ocean, when Bellamy had come storming up to her. "Clarke, do you know what Lexa's doing?"
Clarke resists groaning in annoyance at the interruption. "Yes, Bellamy, I'm aware."
"So you're just going to let it happen? Let people go live at the caves when we should be here trying to get rescued?" Bellamy yells as he gesticulates wildly.
"I'm not going to stop people from making their own decision, if that's what you're implying. We're all adults here, and Lexa is right, not everyone needs to be on the beach." Clarke glares at Bellamy, knowing that he's most likely angry about his sister deciding to move to the caves without him.
Angry that Clarke wasn't being more helpful, he storms off back down the beach, headed straight for Lexa who is speaking to a group of people that Clarke had only seen in passing.
Murphy, who is walking nearby, chuckles at the scene taking place and saunters closer to Clarke, who has now turned her glare on him. "He's more pissed about his sister shacking up with Tarzan than he is concerned about the caves situation, which doesn't surprise me at all. What does surprise me, however, is that you aren't packing your bags. Isn't this like every lesbian's dream, U-hauling it after only knowing each other after 6 days?"
"Not that it's any of your business, but I'm bisexual."
"Oh, so I've still got a chance with the hot doctor everyone's been falling all over themselves for?" Murphy smirks at Clarke and sends her a wink.
Clarke responds by rolling her eyes and getting to her feet. "Well now that my peace and quiet has been disturbed… Was there something that you needed?"
"Just wondering where you're gonna weigh in on this situation, Princess Peach."
Clarke raises her eyebrow in curiosity. "Why do you care where I go?"
Murphy shrugs his shoulders. "I'm a survivor, and you're the only doctor on the island. From what I can see, the boar hunter will stay here on the beach,"
"His name is Wells." Clarke growls.
"Whatever. But there's also water at the caves, and there's only the hot sun here. I guess it depends on if you consider yourself a pessimist or an optimist."
Despite the hesitance she feels, Clarke decides to play along. "I guess I would consider myself more of an optimist."
"Ah, so you'll be staying to wait for rescue with the rest of the optimists, although I don't see much to be optimistic about, seeing as how that guy has been waiting 15 years to be rescued."
Clarke frowns at Murphy's comment, thoroughly confused. "What guy? What are you talking about?"
"Oops." Murphy winces and then shrugs his shoulders. "Well, I guess it was going to come out sooner rather than later. Remember when we took the transceiver to the top of the mountain? We told everyone that we didn't get a signal, but we did. Someone has been broadcasting a distress signal from the island for the past 15 years. I'm surprised your girlfriend forgot to mention it."
Clarke can only stare at Murphy, gaping like a fish. She is in shock about the news and what this means for their survival and rescue, but she is also feeling really betrayed. Everyone who went on the trip must know, and most likely Raven. Suddenly, a lot of their and Lexa's action suddenly make sense. Lexa. How could she not tell her? It couldn't be her.
Murphy watches the emotions and thoughts pass over Clarke's face and is about to try to snap her out of it when she straightens off and leaves, without another word. "Well I guess they won't need a U-haul after all." Murphy chuckles as the blonde disappears amongst the other survivors.
"Do both of you know?" Clarke angrily yells as she storms into The Workshop. Raven jumps and Monty drops the electronic he is working on in surprise at the blonde's sudden interest.
"Do both of us know what?" Monty asks nervously.
Clarke steps closer, not wanting to yell out anything that the other survivors could overhear. She appreciates the need for discretion with the others, but she's one of the leaders. "Don't play dumb. Murphy told me about the distress call, and I know you both must know what's going on."
Monty pales and Raven grumbles, "That little rat."
"Why the hell did no one tell me?" Clarke hisses, her eyes fiery with anger despite their cool color.
"If it was up to me, I would have told you. I wasn't even there when they made that decision."
Clarke turns her attention to Monty, who looks down at his hands in shame. "Who, and why?" Clarke growls lowly.
"Lexa." Monty whispers. Clarke immediately storms from the tent, and Monty calls after her, "Wait, Clarke!" but the blonde doesn't slow even a little bit.
Raven throws up her hands in frustration. "Well that was a shit show. I told you we should have told her."
Monty wishes he could warn Lexa about the storm that is heading for her, but he knows that there's no way he's going to beat a rampaging Clarke towards her target. Bending down to pick up the item he had dropped, he mumbles to himself, "She was just trying to protect her."
Monty looked up from his homework as soon as he heard a car turning down their farm lane. It was unusual, as they rarely got visitors all the way out at the farm. However, as soon as he sees the 3 letters stamped onto the side of the black van and the two police cars behind them, he gets up so fast from the table that he knocks his chair over.
Monty bursts outside the house running as fast as he can to the barn where his mother is. When he hears the loud sound of an approaching helicopter, he pumps his arms faster. Monty had never been a big fan of sports, but at that moment he felt as if he could beat everyone on the track team with how hard he was pushing himself. When he sees his mom step out of the barn, wiping her hands on a rag and looking around in confusion, he quickly pushes her back inside and drags the barn door closed.
"Monty, what's going on? Why is there a helicopter out there?"
Out of breath and trying to hold back tears, Monty's words start pouring out of him frantically. "I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to, I didn't think I would get caught, I'm so sorry."
Hannah grabs Monty by the shoulders and forces him to sit down on a nearby crate. She bends down in front of him and puts one hand on his shoulder and the other on his face to steady him. "Monty sweetie, calm down. What's going on?"
"This guy at school, Tyson, he gave me something. He knew I was smart and aced our agriculture class, and found out I got into MIT… He said no one would find out, I just planted some down by the back creek under the trees and then... It was only supposed to be for a few months, until I made enough to afford rent at college, I swear!"
Before Hannah can reply, there is a loud pounding on the door. "Ma'am, this is the DEA, we've got a warrant to search the premises! I need you to open this door immediately!"
Monty looks at his mom with anguish and she leans forward to give him a brief but tight hug. As she pulls back she gives him a kiss on his forehead. "It's going to be OK."
"Ma'am! I'm giving you until the count of three!" The man yells again.
"Alright! I'm coming out!" Hannah yells as she slowly pushes the barn door open and steps out with her hands raised.
"Hannah Green?" The tall, dark-haired man asks, one hand on his gun and the other displaying the warrant.
"Yes, that's me. Please, there's no need for violence. I'm not resisting. My son is right there."
The man peers around Hannah and notices the crying boy. He drops his hand off the butt of his gun and begins to read the warrant to Hannah, who only stands there listening quietly.
"Roy, you there?"
The man pulls out the walkie talkie from his back pocket and replies to the unseen voice. "I'm here."
"From the chopper it looks like we've got around 20 or so plants down here."
Roy radios back, "Alright. I'll send the guys down, direct them once they get there, then head back in." He tucks his walkie talkie back into his pocket and pulls out a pair of handcuffs. "Ma'am, you are under arrest for the illegal possession of a controlled substance. You have the right to remain silent."
"Nooo!" Monty screams and runs towards his mother, trying to stop them, but another agent grabs him and holds him back as the DEA agent continues to read the Miranda warning.
Hannah doesn't resist, but before she is led away, she turns her head around to yell to her son. "Sell the farm, Monty. Use the money to go to school. I'll be OK. I love you."
That was the last time he had seen his mother free of prison, and he had been waiting for her to get out for 10 long years.
It was now late afternoon, and Thelonious had been talking about spending the night in the caves to finish up going through the wreckage tomorrow. Jasper had agreed, and now the two were out in the jungle collecting firewood. Jasper had used the opportunity to sneak away, picking up some small sticks under the ruse that he was just wandering off accidentally. When he thinks he's far enough away, he starts reaching into his pocket, only to hear the snap of a twig as Thelonious comes out from behind a tree right in front of him.
"Listen, I just need a moment alone for some privacy! Do you have some kind of fetish or something? I just want a moment alone to go to the bathroom! Jasper's face is starting to turn red from his anger, and he shoves his hands in his pockets to hide their small tremors.
Thelonious holds out his hand, face as calm as ever. "Just give it to me."
"I don't know what you're talking about." Jasper hisses as he takes a step back.
"You're going to run out eventually. I'm guessing pretty soon. No matter what, you're going to go through withdrawal. But it's your choice when that happens. It can be your own choice, or the only choice you have."
"What makes you think you know anything about what I'm going through!"
"I know a lot more about not having a choice in life than you think. And I can tell you, making a hard choice is better than having none at all." Jasper just rolls his eyes and turns his back to walk away from the older man. "Do you want your guitar?" Thelonious yells out, which actually stops Jasper.
"Don't play games with me." Jasper desperately pleads with Thelonious, although he knows that there's no way this man can guarantee anything to him.
"Do you want it more than your drugs?" Thelonious asks, and when Jasper nods solemnly, he smiles. "This island is special. It can give you what you're looking for, but you have to give it something in return."
When Thelonious holds out his hand, Jasper just looks at it for a moment, considering. This man must be crazy, there's no way what he is saying could possibly be true. Yet, at the same time, Jasper is desperate for something that no high has ever been able to bring him. Reaching into his pocket, he slowly pulls out his dwindling supply of heroin and hands it over to Thelonious, who puts it in his own pocket.
"So now what? We just go looking for my guitar? Or will I get a delivery while I'm sleeping like Santa Claus?"
Thelonious smiles and claps the smaller man on the back. "Look up."
"Am I praying? Is that what this is?" Jasper asks, still staring at the man who he is now convinced is completely crazy.
Thelonious just points up with his finger, and Jasper follows the direction, to where, halfway up a cliff, his guitar case is snagged on a branch. A smile stretches across his face and he almost feels as if he could cry in joy at seeing his beloved instrument.
Clarke finds Lexa in her tent packing up the last few of her items into a backpack. She stands there at the entrance of the cave, arms crossed, waiting for Lexa to turn around and acknowledge her.
Lexa zips up her bag before turning around, having heard Clarke stomping through the sand and knowing that this won't be a casual conversation. However, she is completely take off guard by the anger that is displayed on Clarke's face. Lexa puts up her walls, knowing that whatever has happened, this isn't going to be a pleasant conversation.
"Can we talk?" Clarke growls.
Lexa gives Clarke a curt nod and follows closely behind the blonde as she leads her farther down the beach, well out of ear shot of the rest of the survivors. Once they are far enough away that Lexa knows they won't be overheard, even if they are yelling, she grabs Clarke's shoulder to stop her, but Clarke shrugs it off and whips around, getting right in Lexa's face.
"I know."
Lexa refuses to back down and even leans imperceptibly closer to the blonde, showing that she won't be pushed around. "Know what?"
"The distress signal. Murphy told me." Clarke laughs derisively. "Of all fucking people."
"He was there. I would not have chosen to tell him if I could have, for this exact reason."
Clarke puts her hands on Lexa's shoulders and pushes her hard, not caring about the flash of pain that she knows comes from Lexa's still injured shoulder. "Chose who to tell? So why didn't I make the list, uh? When were you planning on telling me, after we still hadn't been rescued in 15 years? Lexa, why the hell didn't you tell me?"
Lexa had stepped back when Clarke had pushed her, willing to get some space between the two of them. And while Clarke may be yelling, Lexa doesn't need to in order to give her voice weight. "You're the only one with medical experience. People will die without you, Klark. You are already under enough pressure and stress as it is, it would help nothing to add to it when there's nothing you can do."
Clarke steps forward, invading Lexa's space once more. "Oh, I get why the Commander made that decision, it makes perfect sense. I'm talking about you, why Lexa, the person who has become my friend these past few days decided to lie to me, and to convince other people to as well! I've walked into The Workshop and had Monty and Raven stop talking and look guilty before. It all makes sense why you want to move to the caves, and why it was so easy to convince Octavia, Lincoln, and Bellamy to go with you. It's because you think that we're never going to get off this island! And now I understand why you were so quick to kill Gustus." Lexa swallows hard at the mention of her now deceased friend, but remains silent. "But you don't care about that, do you? As long as I don't get myself killed running off into the forest on a stress induced craze!"
Tears are streaming down Clarke's face, and Lexa's heart aches in a way that she didn't think it ever would after Costia died. "I do care, Klark. But I made this choice with my head and not my heart. My duty to keep everyone alive comes first."
"Whatever you need to tell yourself, Commander." Clarke angrily swipes at the tears rolling down her cheeks and turns away.
Lexa knows she should leave so that they can reach the caves before darkness falls, but she can barely turn away from staring at Clarke's back as it shakes silently with sobs at not only her betrayal, but at the fact that they may very well die on this island. Lexa is completely shocked when a single tear rolls down her own cheek, and she knows that she must leave before she completely loses her composure altogether. "You know where to find me, if you need me." Lexa whispers quietly, but she knows Clarke has heard her by the way the blonde's back stiffens.
"I won't." Clarke growls, voice rough from crying and yelling.
Lexa wants to say more, feels like she should say more, but when she opens her mouth and her lip trembles ever so slightly, she clenches her jaw and turns away, wiping away her tear and taking deep breaths as she shoves her emotions down and slips on her Commander mask.
Raven and Monty were sitting by the fire, talking about whether they should move to the caves or not. It would be more comfortable, and they wouldn't have to worry about the elements damaging the electronics they were working with, but Monty was worried about getting Raven to the caves safely with her brace.
"Are you guys really considering moving to the caves?" Harper asks, taking a seat next to Monty.
"Umm, I'm not sure yet. Right now, we're leaning towards no." Monty tells her, smiling at the opportunity to see Harper for the first time since this morning.
Raven decides to be a good wing woman and carefully gets to her foot, balancing on the crutch so that she can keep her weight off her brace enclosed leg. Clarke had told her to stay still as much as possible, but her leg was completely immobilized, and the blonde wasn't paying attention to anyone at the moment, just sitting alone at her own fire staring at the flames.
Raven slowly makes her way towards the water, but before she can try to balance to scoop a bottle full from the tarp, Wells jumps up to help her.
"Here, I got it."
Raven huffs, but thanks the man, mostly annoyed with herself and the fact that she can barely do anything without needing assistance. When Wells sits back down, Raven decides to sit on the log next to him. She hadn't had the opportunity to talk much with Clarke's childhood friend, even though they had been on the island for almost a week.
"Do you know what's wrong with Clarke?" Wells asks her, gazing at the blonde with concern.
Raven feels bad for the poor woman, and clearly everyone had got the silent memo to stay away, as she has a fire all to herself. "I think it's just all getting to her, about the crash and stuff. We still haven't been rescued, and I think she got into a fight with Lexa about…" Raven hesitates, knowing that Wells could probably know the full extent of what's going on, but not wanting to risk Lexa's wrath, she decides to refrain from telling him. "moving to the caves, or something. I'm not really sure."
"I think I'm going to go check on her, if you don't mind."
"Not at all." Raven smiles, almost laughing at the fact that Clarke is literally a grumpy cat right now and people are still all over her. Maybe she needs to get her PhD, as clearly that whole doctor thing is working for the blonde. Raven does feel bad for the kind man though, as he clearly has unrequited feelings for his best friend.
Wells quietly walks makes his way over to Clarke's bonfire and sits down softly in the sand next to her. Clarke doesn't acknowledge his presence; she just imperceptibly tightens the arms she has wrapped around the legs.
Wells is familiar with this Clarke, the upset one who just wants to be left alone so she can bottle up all her feelings. He knew that trying to get her to talk would be like talking to a brick wall, so he just sits next to her and stares at the flames in solidarity. After a few long moments, he hears a sniffle, and Clarke lowers her head to his shoulder, legs still hugged to her chest. Carefully, Wells wraps his arm around her shoulders and comforts his friend, over what, he's still not completely sure, but he knows that she'll eventually tell him; that's what best friends are for. That last thought nearly makes him wince at the pain in his chest, but when Clarke burrows her face tighter into his shoulder, Wells forgets it and places a soft kiss in her hair.
About a mile and a half up the beach, Maya, Jasper, Thelonious, Bellamy, Octavia, Lincoln, and a couple more people sit around a couple fires, safe and warm inside the caves.
Lincoln looks around, noticing that Lexa still hasn't returned from when she had left around sunset, and he is starting to get worried. "I'm going to go check on Lexa." He whispers to Octavia, earning a glare from her brother. Octavia nods her acknowledgement, giving his hand a quick squeeze. She knows how close the two are, and even though Lexa had been all business on the way to the caves, Monty had told Lincoln and her that Clarke knew about the transmission.
Ignoring the glare from Bellamy, Lincoln steps out into the jungle, breathing in the cool night air. He looks around, but doesn't see Lexa or any signs of her nearby. His next thought is to look up, and he sees a lone figure sitting on the hilltop above the cave. Resigning himself to a long hike, he slowly makes his way up the side of the hill, picking his way carefully through the rocks and bushes with his crutch.
When he gets to the top, he lowers himself gently to the ground next to his Captain, noticing how she has her knees pulled to her chest with one arm wrapped around them and the other hand fingering the two pairs of dog tags that he knows are not her own. Lincoln aches for his friend, knowing how hard these past few weeks had been on himself and that Lexa would be feeling that much worse, but doing everything to hide it behind her mask.
He has never missed Anya more than in this moment. Normally, she was a pain in his ass, but she was also Lexa's best friend and older-sister-like figure and would know exactly what to do in a situation like this. Lincoln had always been the hugging type, and never felt shame about showing his emotions, but Lexa had always been so reserved.
Going with his gut, Lincoln slides his arm around Lexa's waist and pulls her flush against his side. Lexa tenses in his arms, pointedly looking straight ahead. "You were right." She whispers, and Lincoln is confused, until he remembers their earlier conversation. He sighs, and when he notices that Lexa's lookout gives her a direct view to the beach where several fires can be seen burning, he squeezes her even tighter to his side, content to stay here and offer whatever comfort that he can.