Robby pov
"Hey," I say walking slowly toward him holding out the canteen.
He flinches which causes me to freeze.
"It's all right I'm not gonna hurt you," I say as calmly as I can.
"You thirsty," I ask and wave the water canteen.
He says nothing.
"He might think it's poisoned," Octavia says.
I take a drink in front of him so I can prove that he has nothing to fear. I hold it out for him again and he tilts his chin toward the water. I give him a drink. I wave the canteen again and he nods. I give him another drink.
"You have a name?" Octavia asks
The grounder says nothing.
"Octavia," she says pointing to herself
"Robby," she says pointing it me
He finally speaks and just mutters "Lincoln,"
"It's nice to meet you Lincoln," I say
Once again, we get the silent treatment.
"You might be right he doesn't speak English," I say trying to think of something to get him to say something at all.
Octavia sighs and sits down next to me on the floor. My mind wanders to Finn who is currently in surgery with Clarke and Dr. Griffin. I trust them, but I don't really have a choice. I'm looking toward the door and hearing muffled voices below.
"He's gonna be fine," Octavia says breaking the silence.
"I believe he will be. I trust Clarke," I say
"I wanna talk about you for a minute. How can you not be furious with me? I said horrible things and you should hate me," I say giving her a inquisitive expression.
"I forgive you Robby. I know your a good person and everyone gets angry, Bellamy blamed me for my moms death today when we got back to camp," she says her voice breaks a little.
"I can't believe he would say that. It wasn't your fault. Your birth was a blessing O. Your mom and even Bellamy despite everything love you and would do anything for you," I say.
"it's not like you would go through grounder hell to save a hookup and dump," Octavia says beaming at me.
"O, you know I never would think of you like that. Your too special, your one of a kind," I say giving her a warm smile.
I caress her cheek and she leans into my hand. Before I do anything else, she leans up and kisses me. In that moment everything seems right. She tastes like everything good and sweet in the world.
"I thought you were stubborn. Why are you always so quick to forgive me?" I ask sweetly.
"Oh please every stubborn person has that one who melts their heart enough to knock the stubbornness out the window," Octavia says smirking.
"I don't deserve you," I say smiling at her.
"Well too bad cause I'm not going anywhere," she says jokingly.
"Good," I simply whisper and pull her in for another kiss.
"By the way, I prevented population reduction while you were gone," I say as we break apart.
"Really, how so?" Octavia says clearly assuming that I'm lying.
"Long story. I'll tell you once we're done with him," I say looking at the grounder who is now giving me a dirty look for some reason.
"Hey Lincoln, look, if you speak English, then you need to talk to us because we want to help you. If you stay quiet Bellamy and the others will torture you until you die. If you die, then how can we stop the killing?" I say holding up the water canteen to Lincoln again.
He looks over at his pack that we brought in with him. I start going through it and find tubes of leaves and liquid. Toward the bottom I find a book and start to open it. He thrashes in his restraints.
"You don't want me to look at this? Alright," I say putting the book down.
"Robby, it could have vital information," Octavia says.
"If we want him to talk we have to show him that we respect his wishes," I say
"Y'all have 5 minutes!" I hear Bellamy yell.
At this point I'm starting to get fed up with the grounder.
"All right that's it. You have five minutes to save yourself from them coming up and torturing you so START TALKING!" I yell
He just scowls at me.
"Ok if you won't talk, then I'll just have to find out for myself," I say and start looking through his book despite his protest. it just looks like normal sketches of the woods and grounder figures.
"This is quite good, where'd you learn to draw?" I say.
"Let me see," Octavia says snatching the book from me.
"Yeah these are pretty good Lincoln," Octavia says smiling at him.
She turns to a drawing that looks exactly like her. My blood instantly boils as I see how this man drew her most likely while or before he kidnapped her. Who did this creepy motherfucker think he was? I snatch the book out of her hand. I hold it up to Lincoln's face.
"Why do you have this?" I hiss
"Why were you drawing her you creep?!" I yell then punch him in the nose as hard as I can. He grunts and I hear a sickening pop as his nose starts bleeding.
"Robby stop!" Octavia pleads.
"Answer me you fucking freak!" I yell
"Robby please!" Octavia begs
"One minute to get the grounder talking!" Bellamy shouts.
"We've tried to be nice, but I'm afraid you brought what your about to get on yourself," I say flipping through the book one more time
"Also word of advice, if your trying to get the girl you like, maybe try something other than stalking, kidnapping, and drawing her because that's just weird man. No offense. Maybe if we ever find peace between us you can teach me how to fight," I say coming across a picture of our camp and a bunch of lines with a few of them having X's through them.
"What do these mean?" I ask accusingly.
"Somehow I doubt you were responsible for the deaths of our people," I follow up.
"Lincoln please tell us something," Octavia says.
"Peace is impossible," Lincoln says in a whisper.
"You speak English?!" Octavia and I say in unison.
He goes silent again and we hear people climbing up the later. Bellamy appears along with Miller and a few other guys.
"Bellamy wait 5 minutes we're making good progress just please," I beg.
"You said twenty minutes pretty boy and I gave you twenty," he responds not moving at all.
"Well we know he's is not hostile which shows that not all grounders are," I say.
"How exactly would you know he's tied up. He stabbed Finn!" Bellamy pipes motioning toward Lincoln.
"Because we gave him water when he could have head butted me or spat in my face," I say hoping that will make a difference.
"Ya he... was probably thirsty," Bellamy says not sure how to respond.
I don't want to tell him about the book because if he sees the picture of Octavia he'll kill Lincoln.
Clarke appears in the room and says bitterly to Bellamy "if he didn't hate us before he does now."
This is most likely because of the blood running down Lincoln's nose.
"Who cares," Bellamy remarks.
"Finn is he—?" I ask
"Alive, for now, I stitched up the wound, but he's pale and warm. It could be because of blood loss," Clarke says.
"So he's gonna pull through?" I ask my heart beginning to drum against my chest.
"I assume so," Clarke says satisfied.
"Bellamy, his people will come looking for him. How long do you think we can keep him here?" Clarke asks concerned.
"As long as it takes," Bellamy responds angrily staring down Lincoln who returns the evil eye with just as much hatred.
"Robby, did y'all find anything at all?" Bellamy challenges.
"He speaks English and he told us peace between our people was impossible," I say with dread
"Why are your people killing us?!" Bellamy asks Lincoln though gritted teeth.
Lincoln just scowls at him.
I use Bellamy's distraction to rip the picture of Octavia out of his book and stuff it into my pocket.
"Bellamy don't hurt him?" Octavia begs.
Bellamy reels back to punch him.
"Wait I found this!" I yell and Bellamy stops.
I crouched by his pack before talking so it would look like I just found the book. I hold it and flip through it. Lincoln struggles against his restraints. I look at him with no expression and hand Bellamy the book.
"He's seizing!" I hear Raven's voice
"On my way!" Clarke responds and practically jumps down the ladder.
My blood runs cold and my heart begins pounding against my chest. I realize that I could lose my brother.
"Lincoln what happened why is he seizing?!" I ask.
"Wait you know this grounder's name?!" Bellamy yells.
"He told us," Octavia says.
"Lincoln, he's my best friend if you sit quietly, he will die!" I yell trying to get Lincoln to tell us.
"That's it I'm making him talk," Bellamy says
At this point I'm willing to let them torture Lincoln. I don't care if we have to force him to eat his own fingers I'll choose Finn over him any day.
Clarke comes back up the stairs again holding the knife that was used to stab Finn.
"What's on this?" Clarke snaps at Lincoln.
"What are you talking about?" Bellamy asks.
"He poisoned the blade," Clarke answers.
"So you knew that Finn was gonna die no matter what we did?! And here I thought not all grounders were bloodthirsty savages," I seethe at Lincoln in betrayal.
"I want to stop the killing so help me stop it by telling me how to save his life!" I scream at Lincoln.
Bellamy starts walking toward Lincoln and Octavia grabs his arm and begs him to stop.
"The vials," Bellamy realizes and picks up the vials and holds them to Lincoln.
"Which one is the antidote?!" Bellamy asks angrily.
"Bell stop," Octavia says.
"Finn is down there dying! Does that mean anything to you?!" Bellamy yells at Octavia.
"He saved my life!" Octavia tries to defend.
God she's stubborn. I'm usually attracted to how stubborn she is, but right now it just makes my blood boil. She's acting like a brat and I'm starting to get annoyed.
"Well we're talking about Finn's life!" Bellamy yells back
"Clarke you said is yourself, this is not who we are!" Octavia pleads with Clarke.
"Our method didn't work, he wants to do this the hard way," I say succumbing to defeat.
"Do it," Clarke says.
"Just tell us!" Octavia begs Lincoln as Clarke and Bellamy hold her back.
Bellamy walks up to Lincoln with the knife and cuts off his shirt. At this point I'm almost looking forward to watching this grounder feel what I'm feeling because my best friend is down there dying. However, I see the blade that Lincoln poisoned.
"Wait!" I say picking up the blade.
I hold it to my wrist "if you don't tell me right now you're killing me to," I say and start slowly cutting.
"Robby no!" Octavia cries and takes the knife before I can cut anymore.
"He won't care about you, but he won't let me die," Octavia conforms and cuts her arm just like i did.
Lincoln starts thrashing again. He then looks at the tube on the right.
"This one?" Clarke asks holding up the tube he's looking at.
He nods. Clarke pours some on Octavia's cut.
"Thank you," she whispers
She goes to pour some on mine "no save Finn first," I say
"Robby I need to give it to you before the poison starts affecting you," Clarke says in a doctor voice.
"Listen to her," Lincoln says.
"Oh so you care now?" I say smugly.
Lincoln looks down in what looks like remorse. (Hmm that's weird)
"Alright fine hurry!" I order holding out my bleeding arm.
Clarke pours the antidote.
"Go help Finn... now!" I say with a sense of urgency.
Clarke scurries down the ladder. I wasn't trying to sound rude, I'm just worried about my friend. I'll apologize later. I put my hands on my knees and sigh. I wipe some sweat off my brow. I look at Octavia then Lincoln.
"I'm... sorry I punched you and called you a freak," I muster out.
"You remind me of myself when I was your age," he says making a face that looks almost smiling.
"You really care about your friends and a trait like that earns respect among our people" he whispers in a gruff voice.
Octavia gets a rag and wipes the blood off his face with very gently. I knew how to fix a broken nose I did have an interest in pursuing a medical future at some point.
"I-I can fix your nose," I offer.
He just holds his head up.
"This is gonna hurt," I say grabbing his nose with the palms of my hands.
I quickly set his nose back into place and he grunts in pain as a loud crack echoes. Octavia winces.
"You've got a mean right hook you know that," Lincoln says between breaths.
"I didn't think you people were capable of jokes," I say to Lincoln
He just looks down at the ground.
"We shouldn't keep him locked up here," Octavia says.
"Unfortunately, that isn't our decision," I shrug.
"Since when did you listen to people?" Octavia remarks.
"It's not that. It's just that it's impossible to break him out. We have people on watch at night and the entire camp would have to be distracted," I say.
"What if we could distract the whole camp?" Octavia says looking at the ceiling deep in thought. Her eyes suddenly open wide as if the cartoon lightbulb appeared above her head.
"Drugs, the winter rations" She says snapping her fingers in realization.
"What about them?" I ask
"There are these nuts that make people hallucinate if they go bad," Octavia tells me.
"And how do you know this?" I ask suspiciously.
"The only thing I actually payed attention to in Pike's class when he talked about suspicious food items that are dangerous and Lincoln told me while I was in the cave," she shrugs.
"How did he know?" I ask.
"Our people use them as a means of interrogation and when the nuts are exposed to radiation in the winter, they cause hallucinations. We call them Jobi nuts" Lincoln pipes up.
"If we're able to gather these how do we get everyone to eat them?" I ask.
"We mix them with he nuts we've already gathered then wait for people to start going loopy," she answers.
"Why do y'all want to help me? I tried to kill your friend?" Lincoln asks.
"Because we want your people to know that we don't wanna fight. Maybe letting you go will get us one step closer to peace," I say.
"Like I told you, peace is impossible," Lincoln remarks giving me a stern look.
"Nothing's impossible," I say.
"Your naive," Lincoln says shaking his head.
"Maybe so," I shrug.
"We're not the enemy," Octavia says.
I nod at her remark.
"And if I help you escape, you have to teach me how to fight," I say giving him a smirk
"It takes years of training," Lincoln says.
"I'll figure it out. I've survived two scuffles with Bellamy Blake for crying out loud, the guy that almost tortured you. I may not have actually won, buuut I did hold my own ... kinda well. Emphasis on the kinda," I say shrugging.
"But the most important thing is peace between our people," I say giving Lincoln a pleading look.
"I don't have the power to make the arrangement for our leaders to talk. I'm sorry," he says.
"Well your return should mean something," I say.
Lincoln says nothing.
"I'm gonna go check on Finn," I say and open the hatch to go down.
"I'll go with you," Octavia says
Lincoln looks a little sad to my surprise. His crush on Octavia was a bit strange. They met yesterday and they probably have a large age gap. He's a likeable guy, but his approach to meeting Octavia was a little... off putting.
"We'll be back, don't worry," Octavia says.
We climb down and Raven is sitting by Finn's who is now sleeping soundly.
"Hey, how was our new friend," Raven says sarcastically.
"Not terrible, a little stubborn," I say shrugging.
"How's our current friend?" I follow up.
"He's recovering," Raven says stroking Finn's hair.
I fed bad because I remember Finn and Clarke getting quite comfortable behind Raven's back and I did nothing to stop it. I'm not sure if they ever actually did anything. Raven already has enough on her plate. I'll talk to Finn then I'll encourage him to tell Raven if anything happened. If he doesn't, then I'll tell her myself. She deserves that much.
"Your gonna be just fine brother. Your a fighter," I say looking down at him.
"If it seemed like I cared more about not torturing Lincoln than Finn surviving, then I didn't," Octavia says defensively and looks down at Finn.
I forgot I was mad at Octavia about her acting bratty earlier. However, I wasn't about to let anger get the best of me again and I knew she cared about Finn.
"I didn't want him tortured either, but i cared more about him living than that grounder being comfortable," I said pointing at Finn and putting emphasis on the word grounder.
Lincoln was a decent human being, but I've only known the guy for an hour and he spent most of it giving me death stares.
"Whatever," she sighs.
"You can't seriously think less of Robby because he'd choose Finn over that damn grounder," Raven says sizing Octavia up.
"Raven, it's okay," I say.
"I don't think less of him, back off!" Octavia snaps at Raven.
"Don't snap at me Pocahontas," Raven says smugly.
"Raven," I warn
Octavia scoffs at Raven then turns around to walk away. I follow her out of the dropship into the now soaking wet ground, humid air, and clear sky.
"Don't take it personally Raven's got a good heart. She's just sassy and can be a lot to handle," I say putting my arm around Octavia and pulling her close.
"I'm just sick of everyone thinking me not wanting Lincoln to be tortured is a bad thing," Octavia says throwing her arm in the air.
"I need a break from this place. Want to find somewhere be alone?" I propose.
"I thought you'd never ask," she says seductively. "Back to the butterfly field?"
"Nah I got a better place," I say trying to remember where exactly the bunker was that I saw Finn and Clarke come out of.