When Clarke walked to the large fire pit in the center of camp, everyone stopped what they were doing and stared. It was as if a Grounder had suddenly appeared and no one knew what to do. Had they all seen her drunk last night? Did they know that she had slept in Bellamy's tent?
Octavia was the first one to approach Clarke after yelling at everyone to mind their own business. Clarke ducked her head, hiding a smile. She was so much like her older brother. Even now, with her long hair cascading down about her shoulders and her dark, expressive eyes, the Blake siblings could've been twins.
"Clarke, I'm so sorry." she said.
"About what?" Clarke replied. Octavia's jaw popped and it looked as though she was considering not telling Clarke about whatever she wanted to tell her. She let out a long, exasperated sigh.
"I know my brother likes…sleeping around. He's so full of himself, thinking he can have any girl he wants. I know you were drunk last night, he knew it too, and he still took you to his tent. You probably don't even remember…" her words came out in a rush and her hands were all over the place.
"Octavia –"
"I see the way he looks at you, Clarke. He likes you, a lot. If I didn't know any better…" She took a deep breath. "Never mind. Anyways I'm sorry he's such a dick – sleeping with you while you were drunk. Bell has no idea what it's like to love someone – you know, like the kind of love you had for Finn…"
"Octavia," Clarke interrupted, placing two hands on the girl's shoulders. "Nothing happened between me or your brother."
The look on Octavia's face was priceless. It was one of utter disbelief. "You mean to tell me that Bellamy just slept with you, as in actually sleeping?"
Clarke shook her head. "No, he –"
She closed her mouth. Clarke thought she had slept in his bed alone, assuming that he had slept on the floor or in another tent, not with her. A flicker of memory ignited in the back of her mind. She remembered being warm and being talked to…
"What do you mean?" she asked, a little too loudly. Octavia shot her a disparaging look.
"You seriously don't remember?"
Clarke crossed her arms. "Being wasted usually doesn't come with shitload of pleasant memories or, for that matter, memories at all."
Octavia rolled her eyes. "When I walked in on you guys this morning you were practically sleeping together like, well, people who just had sex. You were snuggling and everything."
She wrinkled her nose and furrowed her brows as if discussing her brother like this was absolutely appalling. For the second time that day, Clarke was horrified – actually horrified.
"You can't be serious. What was he doing?" she asked before she could stop herself.
"Ugh, can we not talk about this anymore. Talking about my brother's sex life is physically and mentally disturbing."
"We didn't have sex!"
Last night anyways.
"Fine." Octavia snorted and flipped her hair over her shoulder. "If you really want to know, Bellamy was holding you and playing with your hair. Good enough?"
Clarke put her face in her hands and groaned. Yes, she loved Bellamy, but having his little sister walk in on them – it was embarrassing. It was hard enough being around him with Finn gone. Clarke felt as though she was betraying Finn's memory by being with him, especially after Finn told her that he loved her. She didn't want the entire camp finding out about their little escapade with the Grounders… which reminded her.
"Octavia, where's Miller and Monty?"
"They're in the dropship, why?"
"I need to talk to them about something." Clarke replied. Octavia gave her a quizzical look.
"It's almost dinner, they'll be out soon enough." she said. Clarke ignored her, she wasn't hungry anyways. She had to talk to them about Mount Weather and the possibility of getting inside. The dropship was quiet when she stepped into the metal container. Clarke didn't dare look at the medical table – she didn't want to have another breakdown.
There was a loud bang from upstairs followed by loud cursing. Clarke climbed up the ladder and opened the hatch.
"Dammit!" Monty shouted, sitting cross legged in front of the dropship's black box. "The wires fried again."
Miller, who was resting his back against the wall beside Monty, rubbed his bare wrist. "Look, if we can somehow get a signal up to my dad, he can relate it to the main station."
Monty glared at him. "What do you think I'm trying to do?" he snapped.
Clarke cleared her throat. Both boys turned to look at her. She pushed herself up and closed the hatch behind her. Monty gave her one look before returning to his work. Miller's gaze lasted a little longer.
"What I'm about to say stays in this room." Clarke exclaimed. She heard Monty huff in the corner.
"What?" Miller taunted. "You slept with Bellamy and now you're pregnant with his kid?"
Clarke opened her mouth, but it was Monty who responded. "Shut up, asshole. Clarke would never get with him. That's Harper's job."
Ouch, that stung. The image of Bellamy and Harper quickly passed. Clarke had forgotten what life was like before their encounter with the Grounders…it seemed so long ago. Returning to camp – it had been painful. Bellamy had sex with plenty of girls, who knows how many times he had actually told them that he loved them. Perhaps she was just another girl that he added to his long list.
"Everybody knows she was drunk last night and that Bellamy was the one to lead her away." Miller continued.
"Do you have a death wish, Miller?" Clarke growled.
"That depends… am I right?" he waggled his brows.
Clarke was about to punch the son of a bitch in the stomach when Monty suddenly appeared in front of her. He held up his hands, blocking Miller from her view.
"Clarke, what was is it you wanted to tell us?" Monty said and looked over his shoulder, glaring at Miller. "I'm sorry about dickhead over here. He's just upset because we shorted out another wristband."
Clarke shot daggers at Miller before being dragged away by Monty. He was smiling at her with a cocky expression on his face. No doubt he had probably been talking to Murphy. His words still stung though.
"Clarke?" asked Monty a little more quietly.
"The Exodus ship, there were survivors."
Miller was on his feet in seconds.
"What?" Monty breathed.
"Yeah, they were taken from the Grounders by the Mountain Men. They're being held at Mount Weather. The Grounders have people who are being held there too." Clarke explained.
"What do the Grounders have anything to do with this?" asked Miller.
"Their willing to help us break in."
"You're joking, right?" Monty whispered. "Why aren't you telling Bellamy this?"
Miller snickered. Clarke elbowed him, hard; so hard that he bent over double.
"Because, Bellamy doesn't want to negotiate with them – I do." Clarke started. "He's afraid that we're going to lose people by attacking Mount Weather. But every moment we waste here, doing nothing, puts more lives in danger. There are mothers, fathers, engineers, planters, trapped in that rock and we need them."
"I'm in." Monty said without hesitation. Clarke glanced over at Miller.
"Fine, I'm in too, but if Bellamy kicks my ass when he finds out what we're doing, I'm not covering yours." Miller spat.
"Good. We need to prepare tonight and leave tomorrow. I'll let Jasper, Murphy and Raven know. That's it – no one else." Clarke said.
"You sure you trust Murphy and Raven?" Monty asked, raising an eyebrow.
"No, I don't," she replied. "But we need Raven's engineering skills and Murphy's brawn."
Clarke sat down with them and went over the rest of the plan.
