Abby

'Jackson, get me the scalpel.' Abby's voice was clipped, methodical, ignorant of everything around her. She ignored Bellamy, who stood just to the side of his sister's bed, Clarke's arms wrapped around his waist as she tugged him backwards step by step. 'We need to open her up. There's too much fluid.'

Her hands were steady, and as Jackson stretched his arm out to pass her the tool, she channelled that same steadiness to her breathing.

One. Two. Three. In. Out.

'Bellamy, you can't be in here for this.' Her dismissal was curt, and she didn't care. Her attention had to be on Octavia, not on her brother. 'Clarke, get him out.'

She heard her daughter shout for some of their friends, and moments later, footsteps raced down the corridor. Bellamy shouted again, even as Abby pressed the tip of the blade to Octavia's side.

Jackson's practiced hands slid a bowl underneath where Abby was opening, to catch any fluids that spilled out. And just in time, since a clear fluid erupted from the incision once she cut through the last layer of muscle.

'Forceps?'

She took them from Jackson, and twisted them until the opening was held. 'Don't suppose we have any working suction here?'

It was Clarke who answered her. 'No. Raven didn't think it a priority because we didn't need it for Emori.'

'You got the plants?' Abby spared her a glance, before turning her attention back to her patient as Clarke murmured in the affirmative. 'Good. Can you make any sort of liquid from it? Something she can ingest, or we can inject?'

'I can make a tea. There's no saline though – nothing to infuse it into to safely inject into her.'

Jackson moved, one hand beneath Octavia's chin as he worked to keep her airway clear. 'What about a paste? A poultice, around the incision, to draw out anything we can't get now?'

Abby nodded her agreement. 'It's worth a shot.'

'I'll get right on it.' She heard Clarke walk away, calling out more requests to her friends. 'You don't mind if I prepare here, and keep an eye on Madi?'

Jesus. Madi. Abby had forgotten about the girl that Clarke had taken under her wing from the moment Octavia had begun convulsing. Her gaze flittered to the child, still asleep in the chair beside Emori's bed.

'Of course.' She turned her attention back to Octavia, moving now from where she let the fluids drain to instead help Jackson clear her airways.

Several long minutes later, as she stroked her fingers down Octavia's neck, she froze with realisation.

'She was an illegal child. She never got our vaccines.'

Jackson's face was confused, but Abby continued. 'She never got the chance to develop immunity … and the other Arkers we lost – they were young or had grown sickly.'

'What are you …?'

She scanned his face, waiting for him to realise – but he didn't. 'Jackson, what are the vaccines every child born on the Ark receives?'

He frowned. 'Measles, mumps, rubella, whooping cough, chicken pox, meningitis,' he recited. 'Hepatitis, diphtheria, TB, HPV, Polio. Among others.'

She nodded, fingers stroking Octavia's swollen glands. 'Being an unknown, she didn't receive any of them growing up, and only got the basics when she was sent to the Skybox. The Grounders – they wouldn't have had any immunisations. Ever.'

His eyes slowly lit with realisation. 'One of them carried a virus into the Bunker that didn't become active right away,' he stated, and she nodded.

'Someone – one of the first sick, likely – carried latent TB that eventually developed.' She looked down. 'Octavia wasn't vaccinated against TB – and definitely not against a form that's had a hundred years of radiation to mutate in. That's why she's got it, and so few of the rest of our people did.'

Clarke sidled up beside her, bowl in her hand filled with green-tinged water. 'So how do we treat TB without medicine?'

They exchanged a long look. 'We give her what we can,' Abby finally said, gesturing to Clarke's bowl. 'And we keep an eye on her. And we pray.'

With that, the three of them set back to work.

Abby applied Clarke's poultice around the incision she'd made, stitching up all but the last few centimetres to allow any final fluids to drain. Jackson manipulated Octavia's throat, helping her to swallow the dose of tea they gently poured into her mouth.

When they'd done all that they could for now – the rest was up to her – they finally relaxed; Jackson laying down on a spare bed, Clarke slumped on the floor beside Madi's chair, and Abby leaning against the wall.

'How long until we know if it works?' Clarke asked, voice timid.

Abby shook her head. 'Until she wakes up, I guess. I've only ever read about treating tuberculosis before. I've never had to treat it myself – and never been without the antibiotics we had up on the Ark.'

'Will it work on Gaia?' Jackson stifled a yawn as he asked the question. 'She's infected, but she's only just got to the stage of coughing up blood.' His eyes remained closed as he settled further into the bed. 'I bet … if we gave it to … find out …'

He was asleep before he could finish his thought, tired out from treating those injured by the gunshots, and Emori, and Octavia. Abby gave a wry smile.

'He has a point, Mom.' Clarke rested her head against the arm of the chair. 'If we try the tea on Gaia, we might see results quicker than we could in Octavia – she's conscious, and not as far advanced.'

She sighed, sliding down the wall until she sat on the floor. 'It's worth a shot,' she agreed. 'We should also probably let Bellamy in before he kills one of your friends out there.'

She'd tuned him out for the most part, but she could still hear him cursing and sobbing and threatening to hit every single person holding him back from the doors. Including Marcus, who she was trying desperately hard not to listen to.

Clarke barked out a laugh, and Abby smiled. She'd missed that laugh. 'Yeah, probably for the best.'


Finally a name for the disease!

Fun fact: when researching, I basically typed in the symptoms and result #2 popped as pretty darn close. A few adjustments, because 100 years of radiation will make nearly everything adapt, and I was happy.

No evil cliffhanger this chapter!