A/N: Hi everyone! Sorry I have not updated in a very long time, school has been insanely busy. But! I finally found some time and here it is! Just a reminder that I would love to hear what you are all thinking of the story, so please please please review! I have finals soon and then I will be a lot less busy so hopefully I will be able to crank out a lot more of the story once my summer starts! Thanks for hanging in there and waiting for me! Enjoy!

Chapter 6

The trek back to camp was grueling as the group now had to carry Jasper and the large beast that had attacked them; they were lucky that Wells had thought to bring part of a parachute to be a sort of sling. The boys took turns carrying Jasper and the animal, while Clarke and Kendra carried the packs and led them back. Every time Jasper was jostled, he moaned in pain and Kendra winced every single time; she could not even imagine the kind of pain he was in. She was trying to figure out the gun situation with Bellamy, but her attention was focused on Jasper, her worry increasing with every groan. She breathed a sigh of relief when she saw the dropship come into view, they could finally stop moving Jasper so much.

Monty came running out of the dropship as they approached, his face paling at the sight of Jasper's limp body, "Is he-?"

"He's alive, M, but he's in bad shape," Kendra replied.

Clarke started barking out orders to anyone who would listen about what she would need to clean him up, when the attention was diverted to Bellamy and Murphy who had dropped the body of the animal on the ground.

Bellamy shouted, "Who's hungry?!" and smirked as cheers went up through the crowd, praising him.

Kendra made her way over to the dropship to follow Clarke and help out as much as she could, but before she entered the dropship, she turned and made eye contact with Bellamy, whose smirk fell a bit as they stared. They stood there for what felt like hours, blue staring down brown, and Kendra could see the same conflict in his eyes that she saw as he held her suspended over the spikes. With that thought, she looked away and turned to go be with Jasper, she could worry about the problem of Bellamy Blake once her best friend was not on the brink of death.

Since they did not have any medicine, there was not much they could do for Jasper besides clean him up a bit. She and Clarke were wiping his face with wet cloths in silence when Finn came up and handed Clarke some sort of metal carving. Kendra bit back a comment about this not being the time for their flirting, turning her focus to Jasper instead. She held in her tears as she looked over his wound again, if it had been just a couple inches to the left, he would be dead right now. She wasn't sure if that meant whoever threw the spear had bad aim, or perfect aim. She also was not sure which of those options she preferred.

After she and Clarke got him as clean as they could manage and Clarke checked his vitals, they made their way back outside. Finn was waiting outside the dropship, and Clarke informed him that Jasper was okay for now, but their attention was immediately drawn to the fire. It looked as though Bellamy and Co. were making the kids take their wristbands off in order to get food. Kendra narrowed her eyes at the scene.

"No way! I won't do it." Clarke was saying.

"I refuse to give that douchebag the satisfaction," Kendra agreed.

Finn just looked at them and said, "You don't have to."

With that he walked over to where Murphy was "guarding" the skewered meat and grabbed a piece for him and Clarke.

Murphy stopped him, "What, you think you play by different rules?"

Finn just looked at him, "I thought there were no rules?"

Kendra laughed at Murphy's scandalized face as she grabbed one for herself, and, realizing that Bellamy had taken notice of them, said, "Whatever the hell we want, right?" raising her stick in a sort of toast to Bellamy.

One of the kids who had obviously been listening stepped out from the crowd to grab some meat for himself, but Bellamy grabbed his wrist before he could and punched him in the face.

Kendra reacted immediately, running forward to help the kid, while screaming, "What the hell, Blake?"

He didn't respond as she helped the poor kid stand up, and she turned to him, handing him her stick of meat she said, "Here, have this one, and share with anyone else who doesn't want to take their wristband off. Okay?"

He nodded at her before making his way over to a group of kids with their wristbands on. With that, Kendra turned back to Bellamy, who almost took a step back at the fire he saw blazing in her eyes. Key word being almost.

"What is wrong with you? First, you use food, you know a thing necessary for survival, as a bribe to get more wristbands off, but now, what? You punch kids? Just because they maybe still have people they love up there? Just because they don't want those people to die because of one selfish idiot who decided he's king of the world down here?"

Her voice rose with every question so she was basically shouting by the end of her rant. Bellamy could not help but think as he stared at her that she looked like a Fury from the myths he used to read. With the fire behind her, creating a fierce glow that was only dimmed when compared to the fire in her eyes, he decided this was not the time to fight back, he was not sure if he wanted to see how far he could push her. So instead he said,

"I don't need to explain myself to you."

She looked taken aback, clearly not expecting such a response and with such a calm delivery.

"Fine, don't explain yourself to me, but stop being a hypocrite, either there are rules or there aren't. You can't keep up this double standard and expect things to turn out okay. You say you want things to be different, but right now all I am seeing is that we went from one tyrant on the Ark to another one down here."

With that, she shot him one last glare and walked away. Bellamy would never show it, but he hated how deeply her words had affected him. And more than anything, he hated that he knew she was right.

Ooooooooooo

Hours later, Kendra found herself sitting on a fallen tree some ways away from the main camp - every time she got closer, she could smell the meat and her stomach would growl loudly, so she found it best to stay where she was. She had gone back to see Jasper at one point, but she couldn't stand the idea of not being able to do anything else to help him, so she left and found herself here. She was never religious, but she found herself praying to whatever higher power was out there that Jasper would make it. Kendra, Jasper, and Monty had all been friends since they were in diapers. They'd had the same babysitter, so they grew up together and anyone who knew them would refer to them as "Kendra and her boys." The boys always complained when they heard it, but all three of them secretly loved it. When Kendra lost her family, her only comfort was that at least her boys were fine. Now, one of her boys was not fine and it was killing her. She had no idea what she would do if she lost him. She would have to be there for Monty, but she wasn't sure that she could be if it came down to it.

She was shaken out of her thoughts as she heard a twig snap near her and she whipped her head around, fists clenched as she prepared to defend herself. She held back a groan as she saw their "fearless leader" himself approach her makeshift seat. Once they made eye contact, he stopped, seeming to ask permission to approach with his eyes. She rolled her eyes and turned away, looking out to the forest once more. She heard him take a few more steps before he spoke.

He cleared his throat, "Mind if I join you?"

She refrained from rolling her eyes a second time as she responded, "I have a feeling even if I said no, you would sit anyways."

With that, he sat down on the tree next to her. She looked at him, preparing for a fight, but was slightly shocked to see that he just looked tired.

He sighed and turned to her, handing her a stick with meat, "Here, you must be starving."

"No, I'm actually fine." She was betrayed by her stomach as it let out a particularly loud growl once the smell of the cooked meat reached her.

He smirked a bit at that, "You were saying?"

She eyed him warily, "I'm not taking my wristband off, you know that right?"

He rolled his eyes, "Yes, you have made that quite clear. Now, do you want it or not?"

Kendra huffed and grabbed the stick from his hand, stifling a moan as she bit into the meat. It may not have been delicious, but with how hungry she was, it was the best thing she had ever tasted. Bellamy had to hide a smile at the satisfied look she wore as she ate. The two sat in silence as she finished her food. Both looking out into the darkness of the forest in front of them.

Once she had finished, Kendra turned to Bellamy, "Why?"

He jumped a bit, she appeared to have startled him from his thoughts, but he responded, "Why what?"

"You know what. And don't say you don't have to explain yourself to me again."

He sighed, "Because you were right."

She gaped at him. She did not know what she was expecting, but it certainly wasn't that.

"Don't ever tell anyone I said that, but I thought about what you said. About me being a tyrant. And while I wouldn't say I have been that bad, making people starve because I want something is definitely not the way to create a better society down here." Kendra still couldn't figure out what to say, so he continued, "When you walked away, I saw the look some of the younger kids were giving me, they looked scared. I don't want them to be scared of me."

That finally got a reaction from her as she scoffed, "Really?"

He rolled his eyes, "Okay, so maybe I want some people to be scared of me, but not the younger kids. Just the older kids who need something or someone to fear so that they don't do stupid things."

Kendra scoffed again, "So holding a girl's face above a fire or getting into a knife fight or threatening another person several times aren't stupid things?"

"That's just Murphy. And if he didn't fear me, those would be the least of our problems, I think."

Kendra sighed, "I actually think you may be right on that one. Don't look at me like that, I can agree with you when you aren't saying dumb things. But let me help you out. You want everyone to respect you, not just fear you. Respect usually involves more admiration and appreciation, and sometimes a little bit of fear from guys like Murphy. Respect means people will follow you because they know you make good decisions that will benefit everyone, and not just you. They will follow you because they know you will listen to others' opinions and use that to make better and more informed decisions."

They sat in silence as Bellamy contemplated her words. It was a couple minutes before either one spoke again.

"So, do you respect me?" He asked, somewhat tentatively.

She scoffed, "What do you think, Blake?"

He shrugged, "I'll take that as a no."

"Remember that part about listening to others and doing what is best for everyone and not just yourself? Yeah, that's where I'm not convinced."

"I guess that's fair enough."

They sat in silence for another few minutes before Kendra spoke up, "So, is there anything else, or?"

Bellamy looked at her, seeming to be conflicted about what he wanted to say next. Finally, "I wanted to tell you that I am going to be on watch over the food in about ten minutes, but I might be about five minutes late."

She just looked at him confused, "What does that have to do with anything?"

He sighed, "So in those five minutes where the food is left unguarded, it would be a shame if someone took some of that food for the kids who didn't want to take off their wristbands."

It finally dawned on her what he was getting at. Her face lit up a bit and she had to hold back a smile, "Yeah, such a shame."

"And if anyone were to do that, they might take a piece for Jasper, to see if he can get anything down as well."

Kendra couldn't hide her shock anymore as she stared at him, her mouth opened just the slightest bit, "Who are you and what have you done with Bellamy Blake?"

He chuckled a bit, "You know, as much as you may think I am a 'tyrant,' I do have a heart."

"Could've fooled me."

"Ha-ha. Now if anyone were to try to take the food, they might want to get a move on because I am supposed to start in about seven minutes now, and we are about five minutes away from camp."

With that, she jumped up, "Right, well, on a completely unrelated note, I just remembered I have something to do!"

He smirked, "Well you better go do that then, sunshine."

She started walking away, when she stopped and turned back, "You know, I like this version of you, Freckles. This guy, I could learn to respect."

As she walked away, Bellamy tried to ignore the warm feeling spreading through him at her words. It was just because she would be a good ally to have on his side, that's why. Definitely not because of her nickname for him, not at all. And as she walked towards camp, Kendra was trying to pretend that respect was the only thing she could see herself feeling towards this version of Bellamy.