"That's gotta be enough wood for like 4 fires there." Bellamy said as they walked into camp with their arms full of wood, bark and twigs. He diligently followed the redhead over to the side of the dropship, where she dropped them in a corner.

"Try three." She gave him a puzzled look. "I thought you said you were good at earth skills?"

He gives her a look and she laughs. "I am."

"I'm gonna get to work on the first fire, I'm thinking there." She pointed to in front of the drop ship, "it can be the main one for everyone. Then we have enough to set up two smaller ones in different places."

He just nodded with a smirk, "get to work, Thorn."

"Don't boss me around."

"Well, you're not the leader here." He just grinned widely and she knew he wanted her to give in to his wishes; become co-leader with him, but she couldn't, it wasn't her.

"Nice try." She said, giving him a shove and held back her smirk when it threw him slightly off balance. Shaking her head, she watched him walk off to talk with someone else. Nora tried to wipe the smile from her face, but she couldn't. Despite everything that had happened on the Ark, this was the best possible outcome for her right now. She was down here on earth, with two of her favourite people, surviving so far the best they could... building new lives.

But her smile was soon wiped off when Murphy caught her eye. He was sat on a big log in the distance, with his two cronies beside him. He just stared at her as he sharpened what she thought looked like a blade.

Sending him a dirty look, she turned for the wood and gathered a load in her arms before carrying them over to the empty spot. Earth skills was one of her favourite classes at school, she always excelled, and Pike had always been the one to encourage her to do better and learn more... and it was finally paying off.

Steadily, she built up the base of the fire with small twigs and dried leaves and bark. Then she dropped down, with the dried bark and leaves in front of her and a smaller stick and piece of wood in hand. Rubbing the stick against the wood, she worked hard to create friction and hoped the embers would start soon because her arm hurt already.

She had forgotten how much hard work it was to build a fire. It had been a while since her last earth skills class.

But it didn't seem like anyone else was in a rush to build a fire and she knew it would get cold quickly, as it was already starting to get darker.

Keeping her eyes focused on the wood, she moved faster and eventually, she saw some smoke start to rise from the cluster of leaves below. She worked faster for another short minute before picking up the bundle of leaves and bark and blowing gently on the smoke. It didn't take long for a small group to gather, watching her closely. Slowly, the smoke grew and eventually she saw the embers glowing from within. When the first flame appeared, she smiled and placed it under the pile of smaller twigs and watched as it gradually took and the fire expanded.

The small crowd around her cheered, gathering round with their hands out over the fire. "Can you all grab some big rocks to put around it, please?" She asked and a few people nodded, rushing off to grab the rocks and she followed them to the treeline and picked up two of her own. They built a ring of rock around the fire and she felt her chest puff up a bit as people thanked her for the fire, as she put an extra branch on the fire.

"If you want to enjoy the fire, you can go and get some larger logs from the perimeter for this evening!" She yelled out to them, watching as they nodded, walking off in groups to the edge of their camp.

Grabbing a few more twigs and bark from the pile, she then went off to find the next spot for her fire and in doing so, caught Bellamy's eye along the way. He just smiled at her, while talking to Murphy and another guy, and then gave her a nod. His smile would always be her weakness.

Let it go. Let it go. Let it go. She told herself as she walked down a slope, past a group of teenagers banging a tune on a set of makeshift drums.

No romance. I'm here to survive. But it was easier said than done, because every time she looked at him she felt those feelings resurface and every time he touched her, whether it was to catch up or cleaning up her cut, she felt her stomach buzz with those same emotions.

Just a friend to him. He just wants to help you. She told herself, while her mind replayed the ever embarrassing moment she had kissed him and he did nothing but freeze. She felt her whole body warm and her cheeks flush again.

God, she hated that moment.

No, this was a new chance at life and a new chance at building a strong friendship with Bellamy again. She needed to go back to how they were before that kiss. If today was anything to go by, exploring by the river, then they were on the right track and hopefully the whole kiss was just being forgotten by Bellamy.

She knew she was trying hard enough to forget it ever happened.

She would never live it down if Octavia found out though.

Nora began to repeat the same process, piling some dried bark and leaves together, before building the frame of the fire, with stacked branches and smaller twigs that would catch fire quicker than logs would. They would come later when the fire was in full effect.

This seemed like the perfect second spot for the fire as many others had gathered around in small little pods, smiling, laughing and having fun. They had gotten their freedom, despite whatever crime they committed. She hoped they would be of some help when it came to actually making this place a home with tents and beds.

After this fire was built, she would inspect the parachute material and see how much was salvageable for tents.

"Nora?" A small voice called from behind her. She stopped rubbing the two pieces of wood together and looked over her shoulder to see none other than Charlotte run up to her. The girl wrapped her arms around her shoulders tightly from behind and gave a little sob, before Nora could even put it all together. "I thought it was you." She mumbled into her as she squeezed the older woman.

She was in shock; her mouth dropping open into an O shape.

Here was the little girl she watched get arrested for fighting back against guards. She was alive and on earth too. It seemed lock up hadn't been too hard on her, despite it being more than a few months. Nora dropped the pieces of wood and turned to embrace the girl tightly.

"Are you okay?"

"Mhmm." She just said in reply, not looking up yet, but squeezing her even tighter. Nora gently smoothed her wild blonde locks down.

"We need to braid that hair of yours." She joked.

"Can we?" The little girl finally dropped down to the ground and looked up at her, her big wide eyes full of hope. This was her second chance and Nora's too, but it was also Nora's second chance at saving her and doing better by her side this time. She'd try harder to protect her and mould her into a strong person.

"We can." The redhead nodded and smiled, "but first we gotta get this fire going."

"Can you show me? Pike only spent a couple of lessons on it before we came down."

"Sure, I can. I'm sure Pike taught you—" She stopped short as it all clicked into place. Charlotte had the same lessons Octavia had while in lock up. "Pike taught you all... Pike knew..." Charlotte just frowned back at her, while she stared off in the distance. Her words clicked together like a jigsaw puzzle. "He knew about the mission to the earth and he said nothing to anyone."

"H-he didn't look happy about the lessons."

"I'll bet he wasn't. Pike doesn't like being told what to do." Nora scoffed and shook her head, before wiping the slate clean. It didn't matter. They were down on the ground and alive.

Before settling back into making the fire, she spared a look to the small huddles of teenagers around them. "Anyone else want to learn how to make a fire?" She called out, seeing their heads pop up immediately, listening to her words. "I won't be making every fire around here." She followed up, seeing them look to each other before a few nodded and came over to sit around her and Charlotte.

"Okay, so you're gonna need something like bark and dried leaves, like this." Nora started, holding up the small bundle for them to see. Sparing a look down to her side, she saw Charlotte listening intently and gave her a smile. "You're also gonna need some twigs and smaller sticks, nothing too thick because it won't catch fire as easily to begin with. You want to build your fire slowly."

She was surprised at how well they all seemed to listen to her talk about building fires. Her earth skills classes with Pike from a few years ago had clearly paid off.

Once the small fire grew, they all went off in search of branches to feed the fire with and rocks to place around it. Meanwhile, Nora and Charlotte settled down beside the growing fire, the younger girl enjoying the warmth. As Nora began to section off Charlotte's hair, she heard her open up to her about lock up. If she closed her eyes, it was just like they were back on the children's centre.

But this was better, somehow.


His eyes had followed Red around camp, watching as she instructed the other teenagers to follow her and help her with fires. He just scoffed and looked back at the knife he was sharpening.

She was irritating him already, immensely.

John Murphy wanted control, but he wasn't going to get that when Red was walking around whispering in Bellamy Blake's ear, telling him what to do and taking him off for walks in the forest for wood. He needed to be beside Blake, not her... she needed to be out of the picture.

"Murphy!" He looked up slowly, his patience already waning for whoever was calling his name. His eyes fell on Blake, approaching him with a slight swagger. "You got a minute to go over a hunting operation?"

The self appointed leader cast a brief look to the men around him and Murphy stood up. "Yeah, what'd you need?"

Bellamy's eyes were still fixed on the men and their weapons. "You're making knives?"

"Yeah, we need to be able to defend ourselves." He saw Bellamy's eyes narrow slightly. Was he on his side? Murphy thought absently. He needed him on his side.

"Against who?"

Murphy rolled his eyes. "We're surrounded by criminals, Bellamy, who do you think?"

He watched as the older man seemed to accept that answer and agree with him, his shoulders relaxing. "Reckon you can organise a few people to come hunting when Clarke and the others get back? We can do some recon out there?"

He nodded, a smirk touching his lips as he realised... So he does trust me then. "I can do that." His eyes caught sight of a tall brunette standing to the side, eyeing up the pair of them. But it was Bellamy who was the main focus of her attention. And that's when Murphy's idea came to life. "You know that woman?"

Bellamy looked over his shoulder, and Murphy watched as the woman's eyes widened before giving him a slight smile.

"Not really."

"Maybe you should get to know her." Murphy jested.

He watched him hesitate, before saying, "no, we need to get the camp sorted."

"Look, that Princess and her crew aren't due back for a while. You need to have a bit of fun down here. What else are you gonna do? Build fires? Collect more wood?" Murphy scoffed. "You need to actually enjoy yourself."

Bellamy chuckled, wiping a hand across his mouth and Murphy watched him with a hidden glee.

The quickest way he could get Red out of the way would be to get Bellamy with another girl. He didn't know if the pair were together or just friends, but he saw the way she looked at him. He knew that Red was interested. He'd see how fast her interest would die down now with Bellamy entertaining another woman.

Murphy gave him a small slap on his back, watching as he smiled before walking over to the brunette, who smiled even brighter.

He couldn't wait to see Red's face.


Nora Thorn was damn proud of the fire she had built. She felt her chest puff out as she watched it grow and even prouder when she watched others feed it to continue growing. That short lesson with the teenagers had clearly worked and she hoped it would continue to spark their need to build their camp.

She had no clue what it would look like at the end of it, but it didn't matter.

The smaller fire down the hill had died back after everyone had favoured being closer to the dropship. Wells had even leant a hand at one point, helping her find some larger logs.

She didn't know where she stood with the kid right now. She didn't like his dad. But then again, he wasn't his dad. His decisions were not Wells'. Even if he did agree with some of them.

But for now, she would judge her opinion off him from everything that was happening down here. If he wanted to make a difference to life on earth, that would be great in Nora's opinion... she just didn't want him as their leader.

Bellamy had taken over that role for now. But it seemed, even after her talk about Murphy earlier, the eldest Blake was still set on associating himself with him. She had seen them have hushed talks at various points of the day, along with a few others, with Bellamy even joking with him.

Her gut feelings were normally right. But her feeling for Murphy went deeper than that, it was almost as if she felt it in her bones that he was trouble.

This evening was proof of that. It seemed by Bellamy giving him power, it had fuelled him to create a commotion fireside.

Everyone had gathered around, soaking in the warmth and Murphy had spoken to them about rebelling against those on the Ark, and one by one he wrenched off their wristbands.

She felt a twist of sickness rise up as they all hollered around the fire as if in celebration of their new found wristband-freedom. Bellamy hadn't spoken to her about it yet. He hadn't spoken to her at all since their time together earlier. Her eyes had found him throughout the day, as Charlotte had glued herself to her side, while Bellamy seemed to have others glued to his... including an influx of women.

Clearly they were attracted to the power their leader held.

The first time she had spotted the brunette girl with the high ponytail, she had already built the second fire. He was smiling with her by the dropship, talking about something that made her laugh, but it just made Nora scowl.

She had no right to be jealous, but she was. She had told herself 'no romantic feelings' down here. This was their fresh start, reclaiming their friendship after that disaster kiss. Bellamy didn't like her like that, so he was obviously showing his interest in other girls. It was only natural. He had so much more freedom now, than compared to on the Ark.

But still it made her stomach twinge with jealousy. She couldn't hide those feelings so easily.

Her hazel eyes found the same brunette, watching as Bellamy gestured to a space on the log in front of the fire for her and led her to that spot; the woman smiled up at him and said something to him. Bellamy just gave her a small nod, before turning back to the crowd.

Nora and Charlotte had settled at the top of the ramp on the dropship, watching the crowd around the fire. Her thoughts switched to the kids and Gwen as her other hand gripped around the wristband digging into her skin. Yes, she wanted it off for convenience purposes. But in reality, she never wanted Gwen or the kids to think she was dead. She couldn't bear the thought.

And for that reason, she knew she could never take it off.

Footsteps from behind them, made her and Charlotte look up from their current spot, where they had been munching on some berries. Wells hobbled down the ramp a few steps before asking them, "what's going on?"

"They're being idiots. Murphy especially." Nora grunted, shaking her head with a slight sneer. But Wells had already followed the flames before she could continue ranting.

"Who's next?!" She recognised Bellamy's voice and her stomach churned again. She didn't have a good feeling about this. Murphy was proving to be a terrible influence on him and his choices right now.

It was as if they hadn't had that chat this morning, as if he didn't care about her bad feeling about Murphy, and as if he didn't even notice the dark path Murphy was leading him down.

"Is Bellamy gonna make us take them off too?"

"He can't make us doing anything." Nora said, casting a soft look her way before popping another berry in her mouth. "We can do what we choose to."

"Really?" Charlotte questioned her, but something told Nora that Charlotte wasn't talking about Bellamy anymore.

Sighing, she nodded. "Yeah. If you want to keep your wristband on, you do that. If you want it off, that's fine too. It's your decision. Don't feel pressured in to doing something you don't want to do though, okay? You understand?" The girl just nodded. "And if anyone, and I mean anyone, threatens you, you come straight to me, okay?"

"Okay." She said quietly and Nora seemed content enough with that answer.

"We can take care of ourselves! Can't we?!" Bellamy's voice boomed to the crowd again, who yelled out their agreement.

She had been right all along. He was the leader they had chosen. Bellamy hadn't been too concerned with it at first, but she did worry hasty decisions would be made without thought. Hasty decisions like this, that were being influenced by Murphy.

"Here, there are no laws!"

Her stomach churched again at Bellamy's voice. She wished he would stop yelling now. He would get caught up in their cheers and—

"Here, we do whatever the hell we want, whenever the hell we want."

Say something like that.

As the cheers grew louder, it became impossible to hear the hushed words between Wells and Bellamy. Then Murphy and his big mouth yelled out, "whatever the hell we want!"

It was the way the crowd repeated those five words that sent shivers up her spine. Why was Bellamy allowing this? Was this Murphy's influence? What was making him so eager to get these wristbands off people?

Then the heavens opened and the cheers grew even louder. Charlotte laughed beside her, her hands touching the rained that stormed down on them all. She looked so happy that she momentarily forgot about the chaos around them.

Nora felt cold as the rain touched her skin. Leaning her head back, she closed her eyes and opened her mouth to taste it. It was so clean, so pure… they needed to store it, but that could wait. She never wanted to drink anything else. Not even moonshine.

A/N: That's the next reunion done! Charlotte is back with Nora... More from her v soon! Do we trust what Murphy has planned? :) Let me know your thoughts!