"Clarke, tell Bellamy to let me up there." Octavia requested when Clarke walked in on the Blake siblings fighting in the Dropship, again.
Clarke held her hands up. "Not my business. You two work this out on your own."
"But he-!" Clarke shrugged at Octavia making the younger girl groan.
"What did Jaha want?" asked Bellamy, turning from his angry little sister.
"Just my mom again."
"Who you should talk to," mumbled Octavia.
"Also, not your business," pointed out Clarke. She turned back to Bellamy. "He mentioned a supply depot I want to go check out."
"I'll meet you in ten." They nodded and Clarke left, patting Octavia on the shoulder as she walked by, ignoring the annoyed huff she got in return.
While Bellamy left to grab their packs, Clarke walked the camp, checking on Finn and Raven, then checking on their food and water supplies. She found Monty and Jasper there.
"How does it look?"
Monty shrugged, Jasper answered, "kinda like teenagers did it."
Clarke managed a smile, taking a nut and popping it in her mouth. "Can't be that bad then, right?"
"Got Clarke's seal of approval," cheered Monty.
"How goes the Grounder?" asked Jasper, a touch of nervousness in his voice.
"Still locked away."
"It's been days since Bellamy captured him. How long till his friends come looking?"
Monty exchanged a look with Clarke, and spoke up. "Cheer up. In that time, we'll all die of hypothermia, right doc?"
"Bellamy and I are handling that, too. We're going on a supply run today."
"Both of you?"
"Leaving for a whole day?" clarified Jasper.
"We'll get back as soon as we can." The two best friends looked at each other and grinned.
"While mom and dad are away,"
"The kids can play!"
Bellamy walked up then, and Jasper and Monty's dance party got cut short. "Clarke, let's get a move on."
Clarke nodded, eyeing the amount of rations Bellamy grabbed, but not saying anything in front of Monty and Jasper. The hike to the deposit was mostly pleasant. They bounced ideas off each other about preparing for winter and handling the Ark's arrival. The latter led to a common argument of Bellamy not talking to Jaha. Clarke found the supply depot's door and once inside, she found blankets. Bellamy, with a shit eating grin, found guns.
"Ready to be a badass, Princess?"
She wasn't thrilled at the idea of arming juvenile delinquents, but she knew it gave them a shot at surviving. Besides, it'd been awhile since she'd seen Bellamy smile so wide.
He fought her on practicing in the depot, being more insistent than she was prepared for. "You have to know how to fight, Princess. You've got the strength for it, but this could save you from a Grounder. You need to learn how to do this."
She agreed, wondering why he was so determined to ensure she knew how to protect herself. After a couple of duds, Clarke shot, the kickback like a shot of adrenaline. "That was amazing."
Bellamy laughed. She turned to grin at him, but he shook his head and turned her around. "Try again."
Clarke shook her head, "No, we shouldn't waste ammunition."
"You need to practice," he argued.
"No, we need to talk about having guns in camp and where they will be kept. Mostly, who has access."
Bellamy wasn't listening, shaking his head while he lifted his gun and aimed at his makeshift target, getting far closer to bullseye than Clarke had.
Clarke listed off people she thought were responsible enough for a gun in her head. Aloud, she commented, "You left Miller in charge of the Grounder, which also means in charge of Octavia. You must trust him."
Bellamy stared at the target, pausing before replying. "He is a good guy. You should keep him close. He'll listen to you, protect you."
"Protect me?" Bellamy wouldn't look at her. She moved in front of him. "And where are you gonna be?" He turned away in faux exasperation, but she followed his eyes to his pack. Realization hit her hard and Bellamy saw it. He turned around.
Clarke shoved him in the back. "You're going to run?"
"I don't have a choice, Princess." He turned back, equally as heated. "The Ark is coming down soon."
"What about Octavia? You're just going to leave her?"
"Octavia, hates me."
"It's just a fight! You're both being dumb about this whole thing." Bellamy scoffed, setting his gun down and walking towards the exit. "I need some air." Clarke let him go only because his pack was still down here. He wasn't running yet.
"Murderer! Murderer!"
Behind Jaha, a person in the crowd began to approach, the crowd parting for her. Bellamy looked up at Clarke, the Clarke he'd thought he knew before he'd met her. The Council's Princess.
"You're a coward, Bellamy Blake. A selfish coward. Everything you do, everything you've done, has been for yourself." Bellamy shook his head, closing his eyes against the sight. Clarke slapped him.
"Fight back!" yelled Clarke, shoving him. "You think you can just give up, run away, because it got hard? Because the consequences are reaching for you?"
Clarke scoffed then turned to walk back into the crowd. Bellamy reached for her, but Jaha kicked him back.
"You want it to over, Blake?" Bellamy blinked, staring after Clarke. The Council's Princess flickered, the Chancellor blurred. Where was his Princess? "Because you're gonna get it."
That wasn't the chancellor's voice.
The world came back into focus with the cock of a gun. Bellamy looked up into a barrel with one of the 100, Dax, standing on the other side of it. "Nothing personal."
Dax pulled the trigger, but a click sounded instead of a shot.
"Put it down, Dax." Bellamy turned to see his Princess standing with a gun in her hands, the side of her head bleeding from a blow, presumably also from Dax.
"Should've stayed down there, Clarke," threatened Dax. "I tried not to kill you, but here you are, and Shumway said no witnesses." Clarke glanced at Bellamy, then back to Dax. "Walk away now, and I won't kill you."
"Put it down."
"Your choice."
Clarke pulled the trigger of her gun first, but another 'click' sounded.
"No!" shouted Bellamy, as Dax's gun finally fired, trapping Clarke behind a tree.
Bellamy tackled the boy, but after a punch, Dax hit him with his elbow and threw Bellamy off. Disregarding the unreliable trigger, Dax hit Bellamy with the gun, then presses it down against his neck, cutting off his air supply.
"Get off him!"
Clarke whacked Dax with the butt of her gun. Dax pulled the gun off Bellamy to hit Clarke with it. Just as Clarke fell to the floor, Bellamy grabbed the misfired bullet and stabbed it in Dax's neck.
The boy stumbled backwards, choking on blood, landing next to Clarke with a hack and last breath.
Clarke and Bellamy hefted themselves off the ground, but both swayed. Bellamy made the few steps towards her, before they collapsed against a tree. She leaned into his side until he coughed to catch his breath and she leaned back to check on him. "You're ok." She determined. He shook off her touch.
"No. I'm not ok." Bellamy looked up at the sky, horrified that his voice was cracking, that his eyes were wet. Horrified that he'd just put a bullet in someone, again. Clarke rested a hand on his shoulder, and he realized he was shaking.
"My mother…" he shook his head. "If she knew what I've done, who I am. She raised me to be better."
"Bellamy-"
"And all I do, is hurt people. I'm a monster."
Clarke pulled away from him. Bellamy turned from her as a tear escaped. He'd let Octavia go, told her what she needed to hear to start seeing him as he really was. Now, Clarke saw it too.
He opened his eyes to see Clarke hovering in front of him. In a way only Clarke could, her expression conveyed anger and sympathy.
"You are not a monster, Bellamy Blake. You saved my life today. Hell, you've saved my life every day we've been down here. Sure, you can be an ass sometimes, and yes Octavia no longer thinks you hung the moon, but you are not a monster." She dropped a bit of the anger. "And you can't leave camp. You can't run away. I need you. They need you. None of us would have survived this place if it wasn't for you." Bellamy turned away, Clarke pushed on. "You want forgiveness, I'll give it to you. You're forgiven, ok?" Bellamy looked back, mostly because she nudged him to look at her. "You're forgiven, but you can't run, Bellamy. Camp needs you."
Bellamy shook his head. "I can't control a group of delinquents anymore, Clarke"
"You and me, right? You have to come back with me. You have to face it."
"Jaha will kill me when he comes down," said Bellamy for the umpteenth time. Clarke sighed, sitting down and shrugging. He couldn't help the chuckle. He peered down at her and saw an impish smile aimed at him.
"He can try."
They ran the whole way back to camp, but stopped before rushing in, well aware of the chaos their meeting was going to bring. Bellamy observed any injuries on Clarke and O, both of whom had one too many arrows shot in their direction for his liking.
Spacewalker was staring at him and Clarke with a particular vehemence. "Got something to say?" spat Bellamy
"I told you no guns!" Finn stepped up to Clarke angrily.
"I told you we couldn't trust the Grounders. I was right!" retorted Clarke.
Raven stepped up, also yelling at Finn, "Why didn't you tell me what you were up to?"
"I tried, but you were too busy making bullets for your gun." This was punctuated with a nasty look at Bellamy.
"You're lucky she brought that! They came to kill Clarke, Finn. To kill one of our leaders to cripple us!"
"You don't know that! Jasper fired the first shot!"
Jasper, who'd been gathering himself on the outskirts of the group, managed to look up angrily. "You ruined everything," accused Octavia, turning around heatedly.
"I saved you! You're welcome," he shouted after her. He too, stormed off into camp.
"Well, if we weren't at war already, we sure as hell are now." Clarke and Bellamy looked at Finn, irritated. Finn stepped up to Clarke, lowering his voice. "You didn't have to trust the Grounders. You just had to trust me."
Finn stormed into camp, Raven marching behind him. Clarke watched them stomp off, rubbing her face in frustration. Bellamy, despite hearing shouts in the camp and knowing he needed to go find O, kept his eyes on Clarke.
Since Dax had tried to kill them, she fulfilled her promise of being a leader with him. Camp wasn't just efficient anymore, it was home. Clarke had shifts, mealtime, and walked around participating jobs. She was a far better leader than Bellamy. Which was why the Grounders had wanted to talk to her, and why Finn had told Lincoln she was the one leading the 100.
He kept seeing her on that bridge. His Princess, alone, out in the open, vulnerable to an attack. She'd asked him to follow, to keep an eye out for danger. And she'd almost gotten stabbed and shot under his watch.
Clarke turned away from camp and looked at him. He offered a half smile.
"Next time you go meeting Grounder Princesses, I'm at your side, not the sidelines."
Clarke huffed. "Yeah, that's where it all went wrong."
BOOM
The sound had them and camp looking up. Bellamy squinted as he spotted the Exodus ship in the sky, dreading the adult's arrival, but knowing Clarke's mom and supplies were on that ship.
"Your mom's early."
Clarke laughed, moving from under the trees to see better. Bellamy frowned as the ship moved through the sky. He was barely able to follow it at the speed it was going.
"Wait. Too fast." Bellamy's stomach tightened as the ship got closer to the ground. He reached forward, placed a hand on Clarke's shoulder she pushed off, walking as though she could reach it. "No parachute? Something's wrong."
The explosion of the Exodus ship crash was seen from miles away. It was Clarke's whimpered that had Bellamy's ears ringing.
She stumbled to her knees. Bellamy caught her. "No." She didn't shout or scream it, just repeated it over again while staring at the billowing cloud.
Bellamy pulled her to his chest, winding his arms around her. "You're okay. You're okay." Clarke covered her face with her hands, burrowing into his chest. "I've got you."
Next chapter wraps up Season 1!
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