The delinquents gathered in the center of their camp, gaping at the sky. Libby found Jasper in the crowd and stood next to him.

"Hey," Jasper said quietly. "I'm sorry about earlier. I know you don't like talking about your parents."

"It's fine," Libby said.

"Have you been crying?"

"Fuck off."

Octavia appeared on Libby's other side. "Bellamy, get out here!"

Bellamy emerged from his tent shirtless. Sweat glistened on his muscular torso, and his damp curls were stuck to his face. Roma and Edith appeared behind him, wrapped in blankets and apparently naked.

Harper was right, Libby thought. What the hell is his problem? Charlotte died a few hours ago!

"They're coming to help us," Jones said loudly. "Now we can kick some Grounder ass!"

"I hope they sent shampoo," Roma said wryly.

Libby ran a hand through her lank, greasy hair. Shampoo wouldn't be the worst thing the world.

"I want somebody on top of the dropship," Bellamy said. "Mark where it goes down."

"I'm on it," Jones said, and hurried away.

Libby stared fixedly at the incoming pod as it drifted over the treetops, slowly losing altitude. Eventually, she lost sight of it among the trees.

Minutes later, Jones ran out of the dropship and made a beeline for the meeting tent.

"Did you see it?" Libby said.

"Yeah," Jones said shortly.

"We need to be ready to go after it," Octavia said.

"We can't all go," said Libby. "We can't leave the camp unguarded."

"Fine," said Octavia. "Ten people?"

"Make it six, plus Bellamy and Jones," Libby said.

Libby followed Jones into the meeting tent.

"What are you doing in here?" Bellamy said. He was wearing a shirt now, and a jacket. His axe hung on his belt.

"Helping," Libby said. "Jones, what did you see?"

"I lost sight of it when it went over the ridge," Jones said. "So it's probably by the lake."

"Great," said Libby. "Octavia's assembling a team."

As if summoned, Octavia ducked into the tent. "We should get going."

Bellamy shook his head. "Nobody's going anywhere while it's still dark. It isn't safe. Be ready to leave at first light."

"I don't know if we can afford to wait that long," Libby said.

Octavia nodded in agreement. "Everybody around here saw that thing come down. What if the Grounders get there first?"

"It's because of the Grounders that we have to stay put," Bellamy said. "It isn't safe to travel at night."

"We won't go unarmed," Libby said. "If we take enough people—"

"This is not up for discussion!" Bellamy said sharply. "The Grounders have a huge advantage over us, especially at night. They know this terrain much better than we do. And we'll never find it looking the dark. Unless you have night vision. Do you have night vision, Lizzie?"

"It's Libby and you know it, jackass," Libby said. "Fine. We'll wait. But not for long."

"Fine," Bellamy said, clearly irritated. "One hour."

Miller and a few others were waiting outside.

"We leave in an hour," Octavia said authoritatively. "Don't go far."

Everyone was too hyped up to go to sleep. They all milled around the camp restlessly. Libby and Octavia ensured that a watch was kept on the walls, just in case.

The sky was barely beginning to pale when Finn and Clarke hurried through the gate. Libby hurried to meet them.

"There you are! You saw that, right? It has to be supplies."

"We'll find out," said Clarke. "Let's go get it."

"We've already got a team," Libby said. "Bellamy made us wait."

"Where is Bellamy?" Clarke asked.

"He's in his tent," Libby said. "But I wouldn't—"

Clarke brushed past Libby.

"—disturb him," Libby finished.

"Why not?" Finn said.

"He's, um, got two girls in there," Libby said.

"Shit," said Finn.

They hurried after Clarke and burst into Bellamy's tent.

Roma stood in the center of the tent, holding up her shirt to cover herself. "Oh, great, it's a free show. Take a look, everybody!"

"Where's Bellamy?" Libby demanded. "We're supposed to leave soon."

"He took off a while ago," Roma said.

Clarke turned to Libby and Finn. "He told everybody to stay. Whatever's in that thing, he wants it," she said. "We need to get to it before he does."

"Do you guys want backup?" Libby asked.

"No, you stay here," Clarke said. "If people know Bellamy tricked them, there'll be trouble. Keep everybody calm and working."

"What should I tell the people who were going to go looking?" Libby said.

"Tell them I said stay put," Clarke said.

"Hopefully they'll accept that," Libby said.

"They will," Clarke said.

Finn and Clarke left. Libby looked around for Octavia but didn't see her. She found Miller instead.

"Clarke came back and called the mission off for now," Libby said. "They're going to check that everything is safe."

Miller shrugged. "Okay."

When the sun came up properly, Libby set people to various tasks to keep them occupied. She set rotating watches, and found things around the camp that needed building or fixing. Miller had ideas about a smokehouse for their meat, so Libby put him in charge of that.

The sun was almost directly overhead when Clarke, Finn, Bellamy, and a girl Libby didn't know sprinted back into camp.

"We need people to go out, now," Clarke said.

"Why, what happened?" Libby said.

"I'll explain on the way," Clarke said. "Get a crew."

Libby looked around. "Jones, Connor. Grab Derek and Max. Meet at the gate."

"Everybody looks busy," Finn said.

"Yeah, but it's been tricky," Libby said. "People keep asking when we're going after the cargo pod."

"It wasn't a cargo pod," said the strange girl. "It was just me."

"Okay, so what are we going after?" Libby said.

"The radio," the girl said.

Jones appeared at Libby's side. "We're ready."

"Miller!" Libby called to him. "You're in charge, okay?"

"What—okay?"

Libby followed the rest of the crew into the woods. She practically had to sprint to catch up with Clarke.

"Tell me what happened."

"Raven came down from the Ark," Clarke said. "They're about to kill 300 people to conserve oxygen."

"Well, fuck," Libby said. "What are we doing about it?"

"Bellamy threw the radio in the river," Clarke said. "We're going to look for it."

Libby slowed slightly, letting Clarke run ahead, until she was jogging alongside Bellamy. "Why'd you throw the radio in the river?"

"We don't want them down here interfering," Bellamy said.

"They could really help us! And what about the people who are going to die?"

"I didn't know about that," Bellamy said gruffly.

"Would you still have done it if you had?"

Bellamy didn't reply, and Libby didn't press him for now. He wasn't one of the delinquents; who knew what he'd done to get on the dropship with Octavia. Whatever he'd done, he didn't want the Ark to know.

It occurred to Libby that she hadn't seen Octavia in a while. Miller will tell her what happened, Libby thought. She'll help him keep everybody calm.

Bellamy led them to a riffle, where shallow water ran over rocks.

"I threw it from here," he said.

"We need to be systematic about this," Libby said.

Clarke nodded. "It's more likely to have washed downstream. Finn, Raven, Jones, and I will start here and work our way down. You take the others a little upstream."

They fanned out across the river and started looking, overturning rocks and checking the upstream side of obstructions. Bellamy stood alone on the bank, watching.

After about fifty yards, Libby called a halt. "No way Bellamy threw it farther than this. Let's turn around and go over it again, but switch places so you're not looking at the same riverbed twice."

They obeyed her without question, which surprised Libby. Maybe it's just whoever's smart enough to come up with a plan, Libby thought.

Before Libby's team returned to their starting point, Jones shouted: "I found it!"

Raven took the radio from Jones and examined it.

"Can you fix it?" Clarke said.

"Maybe," said Raven. "It'll take half the day just to dry it out and find what's broken."

"Like I said," said Bellamy, "it's too late."

Clarke sloshed to Bellamy and shouted in his face. "Do you have any idea what you've done? Do you even care? Three hundred people are going to die today, because of you!"

"Wait," Raven said. "We don't need to actually talk to the Ark, right? We just need to let them know we're down here."

"How do we do that without a radio?" said Finn.

Raven grinned. "I can make flares, using fuel and parts from my pod. Only thing is, I'd need more power."

"Monty can do that," Libby said. "He can tie in the batteries from the dropship. I'll go back to camp and tell him. Is eight people enough for you, Raven?"

Raven nodded. "Should be. We need the fuel, control panel, firing circuits—"

"You'll have to make do with seven," Bellamy said. "Libby shouldn't go back to camp alone. It isn't safe."

"You just don't want to help," Clarke said accusingly.

"I can get our people organized," Bellamy said.

Clarke glared at Bellamy for a few seconds. "Fine," she said. "We don't want you dumping the rocket fuel in the dirt or something."

Bellamy looked at the ground.

"I want three launch points," Raven said. "Steep inclines for the flares to shoot up. They should be metal, so they don't catch fire."

"Got it," Libby said, and jogged away from the river.

Bellamy followed. "I think we can take struts from the ship without collapsing it. Those would make good launch points."

"Sounds good," Libby said tersely.

"Are you mad?"

"Why would I be mad?"

"Because of what I did," Bellamy said.

"You weren't supposed to be on the dropship." Libby spoke succinctly to save her breath. "Whatever you did to get there, it was bad. You don't want the Ark to know."

"If I'd known about the culling, I wouldn't have thrown the radio away. I don't think."

"Don't think about that right now. We still have a chance to save those people. Let's give it our best shot, okay?"

"Okay."

Setting up the flares took the rest of the day. Miller organized the building of the launch points. Monty unhooked the batteries from the dropship and ran long wires out to where the others were working. When Raven returned to camp around sunset, she tweaked a few things and set up the flares. Libby didn't understand most of what was happening, but she could follow directions.

It was dark by the time they finished. Everybody gathered around to watch the flares launch, cheering when the flaming lines arced across the sky.

"Think it'll work?" Monty said.

"I don't see why not," said Libby. "It's a clear night."

They watched the sky until the light from the flares faded. People began to disperse, either to sleep or go on watch.

Libby volunteered to take the first watch at the gate. She clambered up the wall and found a perch, her back to one log and her legs dangling into the camp. Flickering firelight lit the closest trees, but she couldn't see much beyond that.

She'd been there less than an hour when Bellamy knocked on the wall below her.

"Can I talk to you?" he said.

Libby pushed herself off the wall and jumped. It was about ten feet to the ground. She landed, stumbled, and fell into Bellamy's warm bulk.

"You okay?" His strong hands gripped her arms and pulled her upright. He let go of her immediately, as if she were made of hot metal.

"I'm fine." Libby brushed the hair out of her face. "What did you want to talk about?"

"You were right," Bellamy said. "About why I stole the radio. I did something illegal on the Ark to get on the dropship."

"That's not exactly a revelation—"

"I shot the Chancellor," said Bellamy quickly.

Libby blinked. "Oh. That's not great."

"Personally, I think he deserved to die, but they'll probably kill me if they come down."

"Maybe not," Libby said. "There's not an oxygen limit down here."

"I shot a man! He didn't die, but still."

Libby tapped her finger against her lips, thinking. "You did it for your sister?"

"I didn't want her to be alone," Bellamy said.

"I get it. Why are you telling me this?"

Bellamy shrugged. "You…basically guessed it. I wanted you to know. You would've done the same thing for Jasper, right?"

"Probably." Libby sighed. "God, I really hope the flares work."

"Me, too," said Bellamy.

Libby waited, but Bellamy didn't say anything else.

"I'm on watch," Libby said pointedly.

"Right." Bellamy stuck his hand in his pocket. "I, um, found something today. In the river. I thought you might like it."

He held out his hand. Nestled in his palm was a flat piece of pale rock. Spread across its surface, slightly darker than the surrounding material, was the clear outline of a leaf.

"A fossil!" Libby reached for it eagerly and cupped it in both hands. "Thank you!"

"It's nothing," said Bellamy gruffly. "I thought it was cool, and I couldn't think of anybody else who'd find it interesting."

"You're probably right about that." Libby ran her fingertips reverently over the leaf. "Wow, you can still see the veins and everything!"

"There's one more thing," Bellamy said.

Libby tucked the fossil into her pocket and looked at him expectantly.

"I'm officially putting you in charge of food for the camp."

"Why?"

"You know about edible plants. You're smart, decisive, and levelheaded. You can handle the responsibility, and organize people to help you."

Libby's face warmed. "Um, thank you."

"Don't thank me," Bellamy said wryly. "Feeding ninety-five people won't be easy. But I trust you. I think you can do it."

He's very complimentary all of a sudden, Libby thought. She said, "I won't let you down, sir," and saluted him mockingly.

Bellamy grinned. "All right, Liz. Aren't you supposed to be on watch?"

"It's Libby."

"I know. I just like the look on your face when I get it wrong."

"Jackass," Libby said.

"It's a curse," said Bellamy. "Good night." He walked along the wall, hands folded behind his back, checking on the watchers.

Libby climbed back to her post and settled herself as comfortably as she could. She didn't want to fall asleep at her post, but she'd be there for a few hours. She pulled the fossil out of her pocket and looked at it.

It's beautiful, Libby thought, with the moonlight on it. Bellamy's so lucky to have found it. If I were him I would've kept it. Why didn't he give it to Octavia? Sure, I love plants, but I'm not his sister. That doesn't seem like Bellamy. But I don't actually know him that well. He saw it and knew that I'd like it.

The thought made Libby smile. She carefully tucked away her new treasure, and turned to the dark, silent forest.

A/N Hi, guys! Merry Christmas, or whatever you celebrate! This isn't technically late, but I thought I'd apologize anyway. I blame Christmas and Star Wars. In that order. Hope you enjoy. Feedback always appreciated. Best, ST.