A/N So so sorry it's been so long. I've been helping out my mother recover from a complete knee surgery. So needless to say it's been beyond busy so now I'm hoping things are starting to get back to normal. Enjoy, please review and like always thanks for reading p.s. note the chapter title change, I promised to call it reunion but found a better fit btw has anyone been checking out season 3, in a word wow… just wow. Mixed feelings but that's why I love it!
Chapter Eight: Something Lost Returned
Bellamy's POV
He thought he was looking at a ghost. She had been missing for two weeks and he felt as if his entire world had collapsed. Then come the war. He couldn't mourn his loss, wouldn't mourn his loss because if he did he wouldn't have made it. He hadn't been able to protect her, again. Yet here she was.
She was bloodied, bruised and had a wild tortured fear in her eyes. Still she was the most beautiful sight he had ever seen. She stood there in front of him with a look of shock, tears welling in her eyes. She didn't have anything on her feet and she was dressed in a white short sleeved shirt and short pants covered in dirt. In a matter of seconds he was at her side pulling her into his arms. She let out a quiet sob as she clung to the front of his shirt. Her legs gave out on her and he tightened his hold as he lowered the two of them to the ground. Pulling her shaking body into his lap, he placed her head on his shoulder with his hand in her hair.
"I've got you." He said softly in her ear. I've got you." He repeated. The others started to stand around him.
"Where did she come from?" Murphy asked. Bellamy just shook his head as Octavia knelt down beside them.
"Bell look at her arms." She gently took an arm running her hand lightly over the bruising and very obvious needle marks. Rylie just sat there not moving or speaking. She started to shiver and he pulled her closer trying to get her warm. He spoke in her ear trying to get her to respond.
"Hey Sunshine, what did they do to you?" Her only repose was tightening her grip on his shirt and pulling herself even closer to him.
"I think she's in shock." Octavia answered for her. "We need to take her back." Bellamy nodded in confirmation holding her even tighter.
"We don't have time for this." Finn spoke up with frustration clear in his voice. "We need to find Clarke!" Bellamy was trying very hard not to become angry with the boy. He understood his frustration, he did. But he had been watching him slowly come on hinged and frankly it worried him.
"Look…" He started. "I know we need to find her but we have three wounded people here. We need to get them somewhere safe and then we will go and find Clarke." Finn turned away in disgust and then turned quickly back to Bellamy a look of anger on his face.
"What you get your girlfriend back but to hell with mine!" Before Bellamy could respond however Octavia jumped up and poked a finger into Finn's face.
"Hey, back off! What do you suggest we do? Leave them behind? Because that is not going to happen!" She gestured to Monroe who had an arrow wound in her leg and the girl Mel whom Bellamy had just rescued from the side of the cliff. Bellamy had a sudden burst of pride for his sister as he looked up with gratitude. She continued as her voice took on a softer tone. "Look we all have lost something. Let's focus on what we can save." Finn just looked at her for a moment before he looked away again, a flash of guilt in his eyes. Bellamy caught her hand.
"Hey O, thanks." He said as she once again knelt down next to them.
"No problem big brother. She's special to you so she's special to me." She added with a smile. "Besides she is one of the few people I actually like down here. She is also the only person I know who can keep you straight." Bellamy looked down at her again as she still lay in his arms shivering. "We do need to get her out of her though." She added just as Murphy approached them with his arms full of clothing which he dropped in front of Bellamy.
"Here, use these." He then stepped back and looked at the Blake siblings both looked back at him in awe. "What? Anyone that doesn't back down to him can't be that bad." He said indicating to Octavia. Octavia gave him a half a smile in return.
"Be careful Murphy, your starting to come off as someone who cares."
"Whatever." He said with a sniff as he looked away.
"Where did you get these?" Bellamy asked.
"Do you really want to know?" He said glancing around indicating what Bellamy had originally thought the bodies on the ground. "It's not like anyone else needs them right now. Just don't tell her okay." He said nodding down at her. "Can't have her freaking out. She's scary whens she's angry." He turned back to look at Finn and then back down at Bellamy who held the frail girl in his arms as if he was never going to let her go. "Look, get the girls home. I'll go with Finn and you can catch up later." Bellamy thought about this for a moment as he reached behind him to retrieve a gun he hand tucked back there. He tossed it to Murphy as they both exchanged a nodded. He caught his sister looking at him as if he had gone crazy.
"Be careful and don't do anything stupid." Murphy grinned before he and Finn turned to leave.
"Was that wise?" Octavia asked. "Giving him a gun?"
"Probably not but what choice do we have?" He answered. "Can you help me get her dressed?" He asked as he sat Rylie up. She was still listless, unresponsive and pale. Bellamy was starting to get really worried about her, something Octavia noticed.
"Hey" She said catching his attention. "She'll be okay. She must have gone through hell."
"Yeah but what?" They started to dress her when she shivered again and muttered something he didn't catch. He put his hands on either side of her face forcing her to look at him. Her eyes were starting to become clear.
"Hey there sweetheart, I'm right here." She grabbed his wrists with both of her hands and looked at him with a look he couldn't identify.
"Where am I?" She asked quietly. Bellamy looked at her with a questioning look.
"Were on the ground." He said looking to see if that clarified things for her. She looked around as if to get her bearings.
"No more walls?" She mumbled as Octavia finished putting boots on her bear feet.
"I think she's still in shock." She said as Bellamy nodded. He leaned Rylie up ever so slightly so that his sister was able to wrap a jacket around her and then standing her up. He himself stood and then scooped her up. One arm supporting her back, the other beneath her knees. He turned to the other two and his sister.
"Okay, let's go." He said as they head toward home.
After several hours the now familiar fallen Ark finally came into view. Named Camp Jaha still left a sour taste in his mouth but for now it was home and a safe place. Well as safe as it can get. Once they entered the gate he tightened his hold on Rylie as several of the guards swarmed them. They still made him nervous mostly due to recent events, but he would not let them take one of the most important people in his life. That was very apparent when Abby approached him and tried to convince him to hand Rylie over to one of her medical personal. Instead he insisted on caring her there himself. He had lost her so many times before that there was no way he was letting her out of his sight, not for a second. Not even when Clarke, whom had been missing, came charging at him. With her story as to where she had been and seeing the state of Rylie he was starting to believe that the grounders weren't the ones who had taken their people.
Staying in the room with Rylie refusing to leave until she woke up he held a conversation with Clarke and her mother. He could tell almost immediately that Abby Griffin was not his biggest fan and was fighting both him and her daughter about going out to get the rest of their people. After several failed attempts to let them get a team out there the two of them just sat there with Rylie.
"So these mountain men, what do they want?" Bellamy asked her.
"Our blood basically and they will do anything to get it. They believe it holds healing properties so that they can survive on the surface." Bellamy turned to look back down at Rylie.
"She was in there for two weeks. What did they do to her?"
"I don't know but if it's anything like what I saw…" She shook her head. "We need to get our people out."
"We will and we will find Finn." She nodded in response but before she could say anything a voice called out to him.
"Bellamy." Her voice was quiet but clear. He was instantly at her side as she blinked several times before looking around the room before settling on him. She seemed to instantly relax.
"Hey Sunshine, welcome back." He took her one hand in his and used the other to brush her hair away from her face.
"How…long?" She asked through a scratchy voice.
"You've been missing for two weeks." He took the water Clarke handed him and helped her sit up so that she could take a sip.
"Two weeks?" She asked as she settled back into the bed,
"Do you remember what happened?" Clarke asked her with a sense of urgency. Bellamy held up his hand to stop her but Rylie sat up a little more.
"I remember everything. Everything they did to me, everything on the Ark. Everything…" She paused as she looked at him as if she remembered an important detail.
"What is it?" He asked her quietly. She just shook her head lightly.
"It's nothing, just something I remembered." She had a slightly worried look on her face and she wrinkled her forehead between her eyes. Bellamy smiled slightly as he took his thumb and gently smoothed out her brow.
"Why so worried Sunshine?"
"Um, where am I exactly?" She asked as she looked between him and Clarke.
"Well" Clarke began. "That's a long story." So they told her. About the two weeks she was missing, the grounder attacks, the mountain and about the Ark crashing to the ground. "This is currently what's left of part of the Ark." She finished.
"Survivors?" Rylie asked her.
"Yeah but not as many as we would like." Rylie had that worried look on her face again. "Was there someone you were looking for?" Clarke asked gently. Rylie looked down not meeting anyone's eyes.
"No just…" She started to say but shut down.
"Are you worried about someone you don't want to see?" Bellamy asked catching on to her train of thought.
"Yes." She said as she looked down at her hands and bruised arms. "But getting our people out of that damn mountain is what matters." Bellamy could tell something else was bothering her and shared a worried look with Clarke but before either one could question it Abby walked into the room.
"I see you're awake. How are you feeling?" Rylie just looked at her for a moment before gripping Bellamy's hand even tighter. A flash of fear flickered in her eyes and she seemed to shrink back into the bed. Clearing her throat and taking a deep breath she regained some of her compositor until she could answer.
"Fine" Was all that she would say and wouldn't meet Abby's eyes. The doctor tried a different approach.
"Well I'll let you get some rest and be back in a bit." She turned to leave and motioned to her daughter. "Clarke a moment." Clarke gave Rylie a sympathetic look before she turned to go.
"What about our people in the mountain?" She asked suddenly causing both mother and daughter to pause and turn back around.
"We need to concentrate on getting Chancellor Kane back and then we will get everyone else."
"It will be too late! Do you have any idea what they do in there? Do you have any idea what they are capable of? Do you care now that you have your daughter?!"
"That's not fair! We are doing…." Abby started to respond defensibly.
"I'll tell you what's not fair!" She was almost shouting at this point. "What's not fair is being used as a guinea pig not once but twice! What's not fair is you knew what they did to me and you did nothing to stop it!" Abby seemed to pale suddenly and opened her mouth to respond. 'Yes, I remember everything so right now the only thing I am interested in hearing you say is how are we are going to get our people out." Abby regarded the angry yet scared girl voiding her face of all emotion before she responded.
"We will send a team if and when it is deemed safe." She turned and left before anything else could be said. Clarke followed a few seconds later. They could be arguing in the hallway outside. Bellamy cleared his throat before he continued.
"Well that went well. You want to tell me what that was about?" He could practically feel her seething with anger.
"Not really." She firmly stated as she swung her legs around as she started to get out of bed.
"Whoa, where do you think you're going?" He puts his hands on her shoulders to stop her.
"Going to get our friends. Now let me go Blake!" He refused to let her up and looked down catching her eye.
"Hey I get you're angry but do you honestly think I'm going to let our people stay there? Raven, Clarke and I already have a plan in mind. We just need to get Murphy and Finn back first." She looked up at him and blinked back a few stray tears. He used his thumb to brush one away. "We will get them back, okay." She nodded and then laid her head on his chest wrapping her arms around him. He returned the gesture resting his chin on the top of her head as he ran his hand through her tangled hair.
"I'm sorry." She whispered into his chest.
"You have nothing to be sorry for." He whispered back as he kissed the top of her head. Just then someone else entered the room but instead of pulling away he tightened his hold on her vowing to never let her go.
"Hey Blake." Raven said as she approached the two. "We're ready." She nodded to Rylie smiling slightly. "Glad to see you made it girl."
"You too." Rylie answered as she pulled away slightly. Raven gave a slight nod and added. "Meet you outside in about fifteen minutes?" Bellamy nodded as Raven left and he once again looked down to her with a bit of a smirk on his face.
"See plan in place."
"Then what are we waiting for?" She asked as she pushed him away and attempted to once again stand.
"Where do you think you're going?"
"With you, of course. Now where are my pants?" She said it with such conviction that he knew immediately he was fighting a losing battle.
"In another time I would very much enjoy a conversation about your missing pants but right now you are in no condition to go anywhere."
"Really?!" The look she gave him would turn a lesser man to stone. "Are you really going to try and stop me? If you don't take me with you I will just follow you." He looked at her for a moment and took a deep breath.
"Fine." He finally said. "But you stay by my side every second. If I say run, you run. If I say get down, you do. Understand?" His answer was a tight nod with a sparkle of victory in her eyes. He shook his head with a slight chuckle.
"Now about those pants…"
