The fire raged long into the night, the rain passing them and taking with it their glee. Charlotte had fallen asleep somewhere inside the dropship, but Nora had remained soaking in the warmth by the fire as the night dragged on, drying out her green jacket. It rested on the log beside the fire, while she extended her hands out to the flames.

She was ambitious with how much she wanted to achieve down here on Earth. She wanted them to build a home, become resourceful and build things with their hands. But it seemed some of the teenagers lacked her same ambition and she knew she couldn't do it on her own.

Bellamy had been making the rounds, making the effort to speak to a lot of the people here. They had openly accepted him as their leader. She knew she wasn't the leader; she had denounced that claim today with him, but she needed his authoritive help to round up volunteers to build tents and maybe even houses eventually, if they could.

They were easy enough to persuade to grab some rocks and wood for the fire, but she had a feeling people would be less enthusiastic about spending their whole days building.

Someone cheered in the distance and when she looked over, she saw Murphy with a girl, who was now waving around her new bare wrist.

She didn't know how many had taken off their wristbands so far, but she knew she wouldn't be one of them. Murphy couldn't force her; it was her choice. She knew they served a purpose and hoped, like Clarke said, that Abby and everyone else on the Ark could see that they were alive.

"So what do you say, Thorn?" Bellamy said from behind her, tearing her gaze away from the girl and Murphy as they grew closer. "You next?"

Looking up, she saw his big smile as he stopped in front of her but she couldn't give him a smile back. Instead, she looked back at Murphy and the next person who gave over their wrist willingly beside the blazing fire.

"I'm not taking mine off." She looked back at him to see his face falter. Nora could tell he wasn't expecting that. "If there's a chance that those kids think I'm alive, I'm not going to do that to them. I can't let them think I'm dead."

He didn't say anything for the longest time and Nora wondered if he was angry at her for it, but she also wondered why he had such an intense yearning to make the Ark think they were dead. What was he trying to achieve with that? He knew how much she loved all of those kids and Gwen too, so why did he think she would be ready to do that to them?

Her hazel eyes stayed fixed on him, watching him internally debate his next step with her. Nora watched as he raked a hand through his wild, dark locks, pushing them back off his face. "Just keep it hidden then."

She frowned and looked down at the ugly wristband, it was hardly an easy accessory to hide. But still, Bellamy reached forward and tugged her jacket sleeve over it. The same green jacket he had got her before this happened, before she kissed him, before they wound up in this mess on Earth.

Clenching her jaw tightly, Nora nodded to him. "Why are you so eager for everyone to take theirs off?"

He faltered again, looking down, as if he was ashamed of something. "I'll tell you why one day, maybe."

"Hey." She grabbed his arm, before he could turn away from her, pulling him back to face her. "No secrets. This is our clean slate down here, remember? All our crimes forgiven?"

"Your crimes are forgiven." Bellamy said, his eyes trained on hers, but before he could say anymore, he stopped and she frowned in response. What did that even mean? "I-I... I can't talk about it now."

And just like that, she felt a little bit of Bellamy slip away from her. He left no room for further questions as he slipped off, back to the fireside, leaving her to wonder his real motive behind all of this.

What had he done to get down here?


Her hazel eyes followed him out of camp that same evening. She saw him slip from behind the dropship to the shadows. He disappeared from sight, but she heard voices that followed him. She knew the voices well; they were the ones who were hanging around Murphy and Bellamy a lot, Mbege's loud cackle bouncing off the trees.

She didn't know what they had planned but she didn't like that Bellamy was involved now too.

But soon, their whispers faded to nothing and she fell back into her trance beside the fire and her makeshift pillow of a log. She just hoped he wasn't doing something he may regret later.

As the sun began to rise the following morning, Nora woke. She was one of the first up, everyone else seemed to be fast asleep throughout their camp. But she couldn't sleep well in the open, exposed area.

Most had taken up residence in the dropship, but it was busy and cramped with that many bodies inside, filling each levels. She wanted the fresh air, but also couldn't wait to get tents made for them all to sleep better in.

Maybe she would get a head start on building one for her, Octavia and Charlotte. Rounding the back of the drop ship, she began to look for something sharp enough. She would need to make some knives sooner or later. Maybe out of the dropship metal?

Spotting a larger piece of metal, she grabbed it and began to section off the parachute.

Thankfully, the material gave her a lot to work with, but people would need to buddy up to save on tent space. She knew Octavia wouldn't mind rooming with her, but she couldn't leave Charlotte out in the cold. She just hoped the youngest Blake would accept and be understanding.

Nora turned at the footsteps behind her, her shoulders relaxing when she saw Bellamy's tall form. "Morning." She said, causing his head to whip round to her. He offered her a brief look and smile, but then it was gone.

"What you up to?"

"Getting a head start on making some tents. We've got more than enough fabric here to do it." He just nodded. "I'm gonna make a prototype for Octavia, Charlotte and I."

"I'll have to get to work on mine too, see whose is the best." He grinned and Nora just rolled her eyes.

There was a hint of her Bellamy in there still, he hadn't completely been corrupted by Murphy yet. "Always so competitive. So where'd you go last night?"

Her question wiped the grin off his face in an instant, she sat back on her hunches as she looked up to him. His jaw clenched and unclenched as he looked away from her.

"I heard you leave after everyone went to sleep… with the others…" She continued.

"It's nothing you need to concern yourself about, Nor." She flicked an eyebrow up at him and his comment. But before she could question him further, he said "don't get involved" and then walked on past her.

She knew whatever it was meant trouble. It always would. Especially if those other guys were involved. She for one couldn't sit back and drop anything, she wanted to know what was going on with him. She had told him no secrets, but there had been so many secrets already with him that she could feel a shift in their friendship, as if he were pulling away in order to hide something.

She wasn't sure what was happening to him down here? Had something happened between her being arrested and earth? She knew he had to have made a deal to get on the dropship… he wasn't a prisoner.

Maybe he committed a crime to get thrown on there?

But that still didn't explain the weird behaviour of wanting everyone's wristbands off and the people he was associating himself with. She had told him that Murphy was trouble and that that was her gut feeling. He had disregarded it completely. But she had a feeling things were not going to be easy for them down here… Nothing in life was ever that simple.


As the day dragged on, the group hadn't returned yet from their food mission and the teenagers were growing hungry. A small group had carried out a nearby search for anything and had only come up with some berries and some questionable leaves.

Nora hadn't spoken to Bellamy since this morning; he had started work on his own tent, with Miller dipping in to help him. Probably in hopes of sharing the tent. But she knew Bellamy wouldn't want to share with everyone.

As predicted, the teenagers were influenced by Bellamy, with a collection copying them and grabbing supplies for their own tents. They all were looking over at his tent, watching carefully what he had been doing.

She had raised her eyebrows when she saw the first spike go up, seeing the full size of his tent and then looked back to her one. It was a bit smaller and she just had to roll her eyes.

He sees her looking on and gives her a small smile, and she just shakes her head, but then when she looks back, a brunette had joined his side, laughing as she helped him. She caught his own smug grin, clearly proud of showing his tent off and the woman had smiled again, holding the tent in place for him as he sewed another section into place.

She felt herself recoil.

Just friends. Just friends. Just friends.

God, it was going to be harder than she thought to bury those feelings. She'd need a ten foot grave, on a faraway mountain and a giant shovel at this rate.

Her eyes moved away from them, shaking her head and they soon found the smirking face of Murphy looking her way. In his hands, he sat sharpening a piece of metal in his hand.

Good luck trying to find someone to share a tent with, ass. She thought, with a frown.

Nora sewed the last piece of the parachute into place and threw it over the makeshift structure, Charlotte lending a hand to secure it to the poles in the ground. She had chosen a pretty good spot too, near the quieter side of the dropship, but still close enough to the fire for the warmth.

Once the walls were built, they would be close enough to the perimeter to use for protection against any wind or rain, or at least she hoped they would be. The size was perfect for the three of them; she made sure they each had enough of their own space to be comfortable. It was not cramped for three adults… but definitely not as roomy as Bellamy's.

Somehow, hers and Bellamy's tents had been put opposite each other, but quite a fair distance apart and that seemed to be the best decision if the brunette was still leeching onto him.

Stop it. She growled at herself, securing the last point in place and burying her jealousy in the bottom of her stomach as she used a rock to smash some makeshift pegs into the ground.


Bellamy wasn't about to admit it to Nora, but her tent was pretty impressive. Having seen the others build theirs, hers far succeeded them. Her stitching wasn't as good as his, but she had thought of things he hadn't, like a tie to secure the tent closed at night, instead of open flaps.

The sun blazed down on them as he inspected it, smirking to himself; he was pretty proud of her. Octavia would just be pleased she wouldn't have to stay in his tent.

The teenagers hadn't taken long to copy him and Nora either. He knew she didn't see herself as a leader, but she had already made them far more productive than he had imagined.

Drums sounded in the distance as everyone milled around the forest grounds, some getting on with their tents and others gathering around a fire.

It was going to be a test for him, to keep this many people motivated and working together. It wasn't something he pictured happening, but he needed the control more than Clarke did. He needed them to follow him, not her.

So far, it seemed to be working, especially with the Princess out of camp.

"Reckon you can help me with mine next?" His head twisted to see Fox, the brunette woman who had been helping him this morning with his tent and had sat with them all last night in the rain. The same one who Murphy told him to have a little fun with yesterday.

He had given it a shot, gotten to know her a bit and she was nice enough, but not what he was looking for right now.

But he wouldn't turn down the opportunity to help someone, so gave her a smile and a nod, "sure. You got the parachute?"

A/N: Apologies for the filler chapter and the massive delay in getting it out to you guys, but the next chapter is coming up sooner than you'd think! Where do we think Bellamy's heads at?

Sending everyone nothing but love