Three days later, Bellamy shows up at medical for that lunch date walk. My mom stays silent, even if she stares him in his guard uniform up and down and obviously appraises him to judge whether or not he's good enough for me.

Bellamy walks us over to the door of the empty hallway, closing the door behind him and reaching out to my shoulder, speaking low enough that no one farther than a couple feet away could possibly hear him. "Thanks for the other day. It was nice to see her get to just hang out with someone her age for a change."

I grab his hand and pull him to a nearby window, overlooking the moon. "What is your plan for her?"

Bellamy doesn't answer and the air feels heavier at every passing second. It quickly makes me frustrated. "Nothing? Just…let her grow old and die in there? What's going to happen to her when you leave to get married? When she's lonely and wants someone for herself? When your mom dies?"

"I'm not leaving her! My sister. My responsibility. Keeping her safe is the only thing that matters to me. Everything else…it's worth the sacrifice if I can save her. She has me to keep her company. Maybe you sometimes now too. That'll have to be enough."

I take a deep breath in, wondering not for the first time what the hell their mother was thinking to do this to them. "How's she doing?"

"Better. Mostly back to normal except, now, she's always staring at the door." He smiles like a father telling a funny story about their child. I suppose in a way he kind of is.

"Well, she's pretty interesting herself." I slip my hands into my pockets and look around us, double checking that there's no one in hearing range eve though we're speaking low enough to barely hear each other and Bellamy just looked for the twentieth time about a second ago.

"I'll come by tonight, if that's good for you. I want to take a look at where she stays under the floor. See if I can figure out a source of the infection. Make sure it doesn't happen again. If she's doing well, I'll start a vaccine regiment next week to get her caught up."

Bellamy nods, but he doesn't seem as happy as I would've figured. "What is it?"

"I just don't know how I can repay you."

"I don't need payment."

"Oh I know. You're the ark's princess. Doctor. Daughter of two council members. Word's going around that you're marrying Jaha's son. I just…I know I don't have anything to offer-"

I snort accidentally before he can even finish "Jaha wishes! Wells is like family to me, but I'm NOT marrying him." We make it to the alpha station cafeteria and I automatically go about filling up my plate until I notice Bellamy staring at me and around the place in general wide eyed. I guess he's never been in here. Eventually, he takes a ration bar, but nothing else. Right. Three people on two rations. I wonder what…or if… Octavia is eating for lunch back in their quarters. Silently, I reach forward and grab an extra serving of blueberries and mixed vegetables. More than two would be suspicious, but I'll save some of mine to send home with him for Octavia.

Bellamy clenches his jaw, clearly wanting to protest, but stays silent. We move to a table far away from anyone else near the back wall. Bellamy opens his ration bar, but leaves the berries and vegetables alone. I eat about half of everything on my plate, but that's plenty enough to satisfy me. Bellamy has to still be hungry. "I'm full. If you aren't really hungry, why don't you pack yours for your mom to have later and just finish mine?" I ask him a little louder than necessary, making sure he has an easy excuse. He glances up to me and grins conspiratorially.

"I think I will. Thanks, Princess." He pulls my plate over to his side of the table and happily scarfs down the rest of what's there. I try not to think about the fact that he has no problem eating after me. He's hungry, after all. I shouldn't read into it other than that…but the action still feels oddly intimate. I decide to go ahead and pack up the untouched full portions I'd paid for out of my family's ration card for him to take to his sister in silence.

That night his mother is gone again. "Does she have a boyfriend?" I find myself asking, nestled in between Bellamy and Octavia like the cream they put in-between two cookies and pass out on Union Day. I know it's none of my business, but her work as a seamstress certainly wouldn't explain it.

Octavia gives an involuntary shudder beside me and my hand instinctually flies up to her forehead in worry. Were the antibiotics not enough? Was the infection trying to rear it's ugly head back again? Had the high fever left neurological damage? I didn't even think to as how long she had been feverish before-

"Is this a normal thing people do?" Octavia asks me curiously, obediently sitting still beside me as I check her forehead and neck with the back of my hand.

"Is something wrong?" Bellamy's worried voice comes in from my other side.

No fever. My hand goes down to her pulse point next. Normal. "You shuddered. I just want to make sure everything's okay. I should've-"

"She's okay." Bellamy says gently from where I have my back turned.

"We can't know that." I insist. "Octavia, how long was it since you got that puncher wound before Bellamy brought me here?"

The girl paled in front of me. "Um-"

"Six days." Bellamy provides. "It must've happened during inspection, then she started looking sick two days later. Four days after that I got you."

I keep my eyes on Octavia as Bellamy speaks and her face is white as a sheet. Breathing quickened. Pulse suddenly racing. Something isn't right. She's either getting sick all over again right in front of me or she's starting to have a panic attack.

"I'm going to have to take another look at that wound." I decide aloud. My hand is on Octavia's pulse point near her wrist and her heart is racing where it was totally normal just a few minutes ago.

"It looked normal this morning when I helped her clean it." Bellamy supplies, worry and self doubt creeping into his tone.

Not wanting to upset either of them further until I know what I'm dealing with, I hand Bellamy my ration card out of my bag. "It's probably fine. I'll do a quick double check if you'll make a run to the cafeteria before it closes though. I haven't had dinner yet and I'm in the mood for the vegetable stew I saw earlier. Do you think you can grab me some and a bag of popcorn for our movie afterwards?"

To my relief, he takes the bait and nods, heading out into the Factory Station hallway. It'll take him a while to get there and back from here. I look back up to Octavia. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah. Fine. Why?"

"Because I've seen my fair share of panic attacks in the med bay, so I know something was upsetting you."

"Does it matter?"

"Of course it does. If you have anxiety then-"

"No, does it matter what day I got the cut?" Octavia insists, clearly uninterested in my inquiry into her mental health.

I freeze then, realization hitting me. Those bruises. The one on her collarbone and the ones that looked like fingerprints on her thighs. Those weren't six days old yet. She's hiding something either from me or from Bellamy or from both.

Slowly, I nod to her, trying to make eye contact with her forest green ones and communicate that I care. For a long time, she doesn't say a word.

"Four days. Not six." Is all she ends up saying after what feels like forever.

I nod to her, taking in a deep breath and keeping my voice as calm and even as possible. "And those bruises? Did those happen at the same time?"

Octavia picks a distant spot on the wall away from us to stare at and nods, bringing her knees up to her chest and wrapping her arms around her skinny legs.

I don't know what to think. Those bruises, coupled with the near panic attack, suggests sexual assault. The professional doctor in my brain knows this. On the other hand, Octavia isn't part of the normal population. She's alone here other than her immediate family and, occasionally, me. If any one else had found out about her, their mother would've been floated and Octavia locked up until they could float her at eighteen. They might even float Bellamy.

The only male in this equation is Bellamy and he certainly wouldn't assault his own little sister…would he? Could the loneliness involved in protecting her secret become too much for him? He had told me that he didn't have a girlfriend and that he never intended on marrying. Could him acting all grossed out at seeing her naked have just been an act? Is he capable of that kind of depravedy?

I have to get to the bottom of this! If Bellamy did this, he's the worst sort of monster. A- a child molester for gods sake, even if she is a teenager! He's seven years older than her. Five years older than me. Where the hell is their mother during all of this? Why hadn't she protected her? Oh God, was this even the first time…or has this been happening to her for years? Her family may protect her from what they rest of the ark would do to her, but there is no one to protect her from her family if she needed protection from them.

"I should have known when I first looked you over." I tell her apologetically. "I was so focused on the sepsis. I didn't know if you'd survive through the night. I'll get you an implant in place as soon as I can, but until we know you aren't already carrying, I can't risk it."

"Carrying what?" Comes her sixteen year old voice that sounds oh so much younger all of a sudden as she finally turns her head to look at me from where it rests on the tops of her knees. Once again, I'm unwillingly taken aback by just how beautiful she is, although it's certainly not what I want to be thinking right now. I clench my hands shut and open a few times and take in a deep breath.

"Octavia, has your mother explained to you that intercourse leads to babies? Not all of the time, of course, but-"

"I can't have a baby. There's no way to hide two of us in here."

"I won't let it come to that." I try to reassure her, reaching out to take one of her hands cautiously. She lets me and just stares up at me from her place. "There's ways to make it go away, if that's happened." I tell her gently, vigorously hoping that it doesn't come to that. Abortion is a common thing on the Ark any time an implant fails or if someone is pregnant with twins. The one child law demands its practice no matter how distasteful some of us finds it in order for all of us to survive. There simply isn't enough space and resources to make any other option work.

A tear rolls down one of her cheeks, silently, but she never moves. I squeeze her hand, trying to reassure her. "Hey, it's gonna be okay. I need you to tell me though, what hap-"

The words die in my throat as the door opens and Bellamy quickly comes in and shuts the door behind him before anyone in the hallway could possibly see anything inside.
Octavia quickly wipes the rouge tear from her face and turns her head around away from him so that her face is obscured.

I quickly reach down and grab my tablet, pressing it into her hands before he sees what we're doing.

"Got the last bowl they had of the stew you wanted." Bellamy smiles brightly, walking over to us and handing me a still steaming bowl as he sits close by and places the bag of popcorn on my lap. His attention turns to his little sister, watching her as she scrolls through the digital library for another movie to pick, apparently engrossed in all the title choices once again despite what had just happened between us.

It isn't as easy for me to simply pretend nothing happened. I just found out that, the girl kept hidden underneath the floor for the last sixteen years had been assaulted…sexually assaulted…and it was either someone else on the ark that had found out the Blake's secret or it was Bellamy Blake himself that had committed it. My stomach rolls at the thought.

The way he looks at her certainly doesn't seem creepy. He looks at her like my dad looks at me…a mixture of indulgence, love, and the constant worry he's repeatedly told me comes with being a parent. What does that really mean though? What way would he look at her if was attracted to his own sister? The vegetable stew sits steaming from it's bowl in my hands, but the smell that seemed so appetizing just a few hours ago does nothing for me now. If anything, I feel just a little queasy.

"Here. You have it." I say, holding the bowl out towards the brunette girl who's still sitting all scrunched into herself beside me. Octavia looks up from where she was intently scrolling to the bowl I'm holding out to her.

Her perfectly sculpted eyebrows scrunch. I wonder whether her mother taught her to trim them that way or if she's just naturally that perfect. "Don't you want it?" She asked, apparently dumbfounded at the idea that I might turn away food.

I shake my head and pull out a cardboard tasting nutrition bar from my bag. "Think I'll just grab one of these." Usually the tastelessness would be off-putting to me, but just now it's probably the only way I'm going to be able to get the calories down that I need.

"Umm…okay. Thanks." I can hear the surprise in her voice, being taken off guard and given something she isn't used to. She puts the tablet down in my lap before taking the stew and looking over to Bellamy, as though for permission.

With a small grin, he nods at her encouragingly and she starts eating enthusiastically. I pick up the discarded tablet and scroll through the titles myself, choosing on old action movie with a strong female lead that I'm pretty sure Octavia will like. I don't know what Bellamy would pick. It should be his turn to choose, really, but I'm too worried about whether he raped his sister to want to do him any favors right now. Just having him sit next to me is ruining my appetite.

As the movie plays and both of the siblings watch, I use the time to observe them both. Bellamy is sitting just as comfortably as he did last time on my left, closest to the door. Octavia is to my right, farthest from the door and her whole body hidden from view if anyone were to come in by Bellamy's much bigger frame and the way the two siblings are each positioned, as if hiding and being hidden come as naturally as breathing. I guess by now, for them maybe it does. Octavia eats her stew with such wonder and excitement that I'm pretty sure she's never had what I handed her before. Honestly, it's kind of heartbreaking watching her eat. She seems happy though. If she has a care in the world, it doesn't seem like it in that moment. She doesn't notice me watching her, too entranced in the movie and the taste of the stew she's savoring. Bellamy does though. He studies me, even as I study his sister. I can feel his dark eyes on me and I can't help but cringe a little. What is it that he's thinking?

Is he happy to have found someone trustworthy to let into their secret lives? To finally have someone he can talk to about her? To have found her a friend? Or, is he worried that I'll find out his secret? That I'll stop him somehow? That I'll explain to Octavia how wrong it is for him to ever touch her like that? I bet she doesn't even know. How could she? He probably has her thinking that what he's done to her is somehow okay, or even normal. How could she possibly protect herself from him when he's in charge of her entire life and the source of at least half of the information she's ever given?

What the hell kind of screwed up situation have I gotten myself sucked into here? I mean, it has to be Bellamy, right? If it were anyone else, Bellamy would be freaking out based on everything I know about him. He's so careful. They all are. That much is incredibly obvious. If they weren't they'd have been caught by now. There is no one else that knows. Their own mom won't even risk bringing the boyfriend that she apparently has back to their quarters and risk it. Instead, she stays out every night that I've seen them, even when her daughter is deathly ill…maintaining appearances, I guess. She probably uses Bellamy as her excuse not to use her quarters with the boyfriend. Whatever she doing and wherever she goes, she leaves Octavia alone at night with Bellamy a lot.

To Octavia, Bellamy is literally the only man in the world. He's handsome too, easily just as much so as any male lead she'd see on those old movies. Honestly, I'm not sure which sibling is more physically attractive. Bellamy is the standard for tall, dark, and handsome with his large muscular frame, but somehow also manages to look boyishly cute at the same time with his thick curls and freckles. Not having a girlfriend or even a wife at his age is certainly by choice and not any lack of options.

Octavia, on the other hand is devastatingly beautiful. The kind of lean, athletically built beauty that, in another lifetime with more food on the old earth before the bombs, could have been an action star on the screen of one of these movies…riding motorcycles and doing action fighting scenes like the actress on the projection she's watching is doing. Her facial bone structure is like a damn work of art and her light green eyes pull in in every time I look at them under those perfectly shaped eyebrows.

They are both incredibly attractive from my perspective, but surely that doesn't translate to attraction towards each other. Does it?

"Have you ever done that, Clark?" A voice from beside me asks, still curled up as though maybe cold, but clearly no longer upset for the moment.

"What, infiltrated a skyscraper full of thugs? No." I chuckle at her, knowing that isn't what she meant. The movie ended with the male and female leads kissing. She smiles at my teasing and almost throws a piece of the popcorn we're all sharing at me only to think better of it at the last moment and eat it instead.

"No. Kiss someone." She smiles wistfully. "I'll never get to and Bellamy won't tell me anything about it. I want to know what it's like." I turn to smirk at Bellamy, who shrugs and scratches the back of his neck in discomfort, blushing.

"It's not that big of a deal, really." I can feel a blush creep onto my cheeks as well.

"If it's not a big deal, then why are you blushing? Is it amazing? Do you just not want to tell me because I'll never get to?"

I look over to Bellamy. At least I know he hasn't been kissing her, I guess, but that doesn't explain the assault or whether he was involved. You don't have to kiss someone to rape them. As handsome as he is, I can't stand the thought of touching him until I know without a shadow of a doubt that he didn't hurt her. In the short time since I've known him, he's gone from being a weird hypochondriac to a creepy stalker to a near saint like family man who would do anything to protect his little sister to a possible sister molester. The saint like family man version of Bellamy was incredibly attractive while it lasted and maybe it's unfair of me not to give him the benefit of the doubt and still assume that's the case. But that bit of suspicion, given the crime, is enough to kill any sexual desire I might of had for him.

Octavia, on the other hand has always been a confusing mix of childlike innocence and incredibly attractive on a physical level. It feels wrong to want her given the circumstances though. If they were both unrelated, un attached people in the normal population of the ark, it's hard to say which I'd choose to date and possibly come to love. Maybe part of what makes her so stuck in childhood though is her in-access to those who might ever look at her as anything but a little girl.

"Fine. I'll show you." I hear myself say before I can stop myself. What the hell am I thinking? Bellamy bugs his eyes out a little at the words.

I stand up, making sure I'm well away from the bed to help make it clear that this is going to be chaste. Educational only. Not at all gratuitous for me. I take in a breath.

Octavia stands up, raising an eyebrow at me. "Girls kiss other girls? I thought that was a girl boy thing."

"Relationships can look all kinds of ways." I find myself saying as I shrug. "Some people only like guys, some girls, some both, like me."

"You like girls too?" Octavia asks, surprised.

I nod. "What you like is up to you, but this is just to answer your curiosity, since family members don't touch each other like that." I make sure to work that part in, just in case she needs to know that. "If you want to know what it feels like, I'll show you, but you might not like other girls that way. Lucky for you, kissing feels the same no matter if it's a guy or girl you're doing it with…so you'll get the gist even if you'd rather it be a guy."

"You're seriously going to kiss Octavia?" Bellamy asks in shock, still sitting in the same place he'd picked when he first came back.

"She wants to know. It's not like she knows anyone else that isn't a direct relative, does she?" I ask, digging in for more information and watching his face carefully for any signs of lying.

"Just me and mom and you now." He says as though he were only confirming the obvious. If he's lying, he's good at it, but he would be to hide her all this time, wouldn't he? He's probably more practiced at lying than almost anyone else on the ark except for his mom and a few of the council members.

I look back at Octavia and she hesitates, then nods. A cloud of uncertainty is in her pretty light green eyes and I'm not sure if it's at the question or at my offer to kiss her. "Just you." She says, looking at me as though she's trying to solve a puzzle herself.

"Okay. Well, it's up to you. Obviously you don't have to, but I will if you want me to. No pressure."

She nods vigorously. "I want to. So what do I-"

"Just hold still." I interrupt the awkward question to answer. Then, very slowly, I lean forward and turn my head just enough, gently pressing my closed lips to hers and simply leaving them there for a short moment before backing away again and opening my eyes. Her lips were soft and plush. "There. See? No big deal." I tell her as the intense look she's giving me begins to feel uncomfortable with her brother still staring at us.

Her lips part a little and she brings up a hand to lightly touch her lips with a couple of her fingers in a way that looks both endearing and sexy as hell. She's savoring the sensation of it, maybe? I'm not entirely sure except that it clearly meant something to her. I look over to Bellamy who's chuckling and rolling his eyes at the girl, but then shoots me a grateful look and smirks.

It was only a peck…more chaste than even my first kiss with Wells when we were twelve and curious ourselves…but with Bellamy staring at us and Octavia being so new to pretty much anything I do, it felt significant in a strange way. My lips are left with a little tingle running through them at the odd excitement of it, even though it's probably wrong. Not for the first time, it occurs to me how fucked up their whole situation is. Did I just take advantage of her? I really did only mean to answer her question and make her happy, but was that wrong? Is she capable of consent given the context? Or did that even matter? If she's never going to have any sort of life other than what her family and I can give her inside these small quarters, does her happiness count for more than what people would or wouldn't say is wrong?

Octavia smiles at me and I'm suddenly almost overcome with the desire to pull her back up to me and kiss her again, for real, tasting her this time. I blink and find my mouth falling a little slack and the brunette continues to stare at me, just as entranced.

Bellamy chooses that moment to loudly clear his throat. I don't know whether to feel thankful or angry at him as I snap out of the odd moment and turn away from the other girl.

"Bellamy, will you walk me home? My parents should see us out together if we're going to make this work."

"Sure." He nods, standing and heading towards the door.

"I'm glad you're okay." I tell Octavia, hoping against hope that she actually is. "I'll check back in on you tomorrow before work."

"I have guard duty early. I won't be here to cover for you."

"That's okay." I smile, handing Octavia my tablet. "I'll just say that I came back for this. I need it for work. You guys can pick something else to watch, if you're not too tired."

Bellamy smiles at me gratefully even as Octavia's eyes bug out a little at being handed the tablet full of movies and books. "I have to get to bed pretty soon, but O doesn't have anywhere to be tomorrow. She can binge watch or read all night if she wants and sleep while we're at work." Beside me, the younger girl's eyes light up at the suggestion from her brother and I see him wink at her indulgently from the corner of my eye.

"Thank you." She says in that surprisingly deep voice of hers.

I just nod at her as I walk to the door. "I'll see you in the morning."

Bellamy closes the door behind us and looks around to see whether anyone else is in the empty hallway, probably out of habit. "You made her really happy, just now, you know. I try to do whatever I can to make her happy, but there are some things that I just can't do for her. Thank you."

I give him a small worried smile, putting my hands in my pockets as we walk close together and whisper. To anyone else, it would look like two young adults whispering private things because they're into each other. No one could suspect what we were really discussing. "She deserves so much better than being locked up like that. But the fact that she's not a total basket case is kind of amazing, considering. It's clear that you two are really close. I'm sorry if I made you uncomfortable. I didn't know what else to do and she kind of-"

"Yeah, she'll do that." He cuts me off to reply, knowingly. "Once she gets something in her head, she doesn't let it go. She'll probably bug you about it forever now that she's gotten a taste."

"What do you mean?"

"Her only window out of that room is through those old movies she watches, the books I bring her, what we tell her…but it's never enough. She's like a sponge. Now that she thinks its okay to kiss you, she'll probably ask you to again."

"Is it wrong, you think? I mean, I feel like it's wrong, but when I put myself in her shoes…"

Bellamy looks distinctly uncomfortable for a long moment as we walk. "I don't know. Living in such close proximity is…uncomfortable sometimes ever since she went through puberty. I just try to let mom handle any questions that come up in that department. Trying to homeschool her usually takes up most of the evenings while mom's out-"

"Where does she go? Does she have a boyfriend?" Could the boyfriend be the culprit? Could he have found out about Octavia and been preying on her when he'd known she'd be alone?

Bellamy looks even more uncomfortable. "My mother has had to do whatever she could to keep Octavia hidden. Before I became a guard, it was important for her to find out about any surprise inspections…". He drops off for a moment, but I'm starting to get the gist anyway. Wow. The misery of the Blakes really does know no bounds. "She's had to resort to doing personal favors sometimes." He finally finds his voice to begin again, but sounds hoarse. "I thought all that was over after I completed cadet training and became a guard myself, but she's been spending a lot of time with one lately anyways. Thing is, the guy is a real piece of work. I don't know, maybe she's just lonely."

Our talk tapers out after that, both of us too caught up in our own heads to say much of anything to the other. I don't really know what to say to him anyways. The man walking closely beside me is either the worst kind of despicable or nearly a damn saint and I can't know for sure which until I can get Octavia alone and convince her to tell me the truth.

I'm not at all prepared the next day when I'm on my way to the Blake's quarters again and nearly walk right into a guard in the hallway leading to their wing of Factory Station quarters. "Are you turned around, Dr. Griffen?" Commander Shumway asks. I sigh. Out of all the high ranking officers on the ark, he's the biggest asshole of the bunch.

"No, just retrieving my tablet from my boyfriend's quarters." I tell him smoothly because it's true…mostly. Not that it's any of his damn business.

"In Factory Station." He replies doubtfully with an almost sarcastic tone in his voice. "Do your parents know about this?"

"I'm 18." I say, my tone making it clear how much it isn't his business. "Isn't there a council meeting you're supposed to be guarding in a few minutes?"

There's a tense moment that feels like an odd power stand off, but that's just how Shumway is…a self-important jerk who is a good example of why people hate authority. Eventually he has to move because I wasn't kidding about the council meeting, but it clearly has him fuming to fail to assert some kind of authority there just because he thought he could. What a jerk.

I wait until he's finally gone to start moving again, but when I get to the Blake's door, I realize I have no idea how to get in without Bellamy there to unlock it. I knock a few times, knowing Octavia must be inside, but she never opens the door. Not wanting to draw attention, I go to find Bellamy to borrow his keycard.

He isn't hard to find, working in the same station where he lives and he happily hands over his card, leaning forward to kiss my cheek for good effect, since there were plenty of people around to notice.

Inside, I can hear the shower running from the bathroom. "Octavia?" I call softly, cracking the door open just slightly so she can hear me without making too much noise. No response. Shrugging, I shut the door and go to sit on the chair by the desk and wait. I can't stay too long, needing to be at the clinic by ten to start my shift, but I don't want to barge in on the girl either. After another two minutes, the showers timer goes off and it shuts down automatically as it did everywhere on the ark to conserve water. I expect to see her come out a minute or two after that, but she doesn't.

"Octavia?" I call softly again at the bathroom door, tapping at it a few times before simply turning the handle and sticking my head inside. Warning bells are going off in my brain and I need to see that she's okay. I've bathed her before anyway, so it isn't like there's anything I haven't seen.

Inside the tiny bathroom, Octavia stands in front of the shower, towel covering her body for the most part, but she never looks at me…just the floor.

"Hey, Clarke." Her hoarse voice finally, finally answers me and I immediately know that something is very wrong. I step forward to touch her shoulder, but she jerks away from me, pushing past me to get out of the small room wordlessly before I can touch her.

Her walk is off…not that I've seen her really walk much before. There's nowhere for her to go beyond a few steps in any direction. It's a shame considering the narrow, athletic hips she has that look like they're made for running. But there's a definite wrongness to her gait now.

"I have your tablet right here." She sits on the edge of the rumpled bed and fishes around for it in the sheets until she finds it with her fingers and hands it to me without making eye contact. "Thanks for letting me borrow it."

I put the tablet back down on the desk behind me, paying it no attention as I continue to scrutinize her towel clad body for some explanation for the alarm bells ringing in my head.

"Are you okay?" I ask, head tilted and eyebrows scrunched. Something is wrong here.

Her eyes darts around for a moment as she nods, before finally managing to look at me properly. I might not know her well, but I know that this isn't how she's acted before. It's clear that she doesn't really know what to do with herself. She turns to walk towards the single dresser in the residence for all three of them, rifling through a drawer for a threadbare dress and pulling it on over her head before letting the towel drop from underneath the loose fabric. I sit down on the side of the lower bunk and search out her eyes, waiting until she's looking at me before asking "Octavia, what happened to you? Was it…did Bellamy…did someone-"

"Don't." Octavia interrupts firmly, voice low in warning. "Bellamy- it'd would get him killed!" Suddenly, she's up in my face, the towel she'd been clutching to her body forgotten, and her hands clutching my shoulders in something that I'm not sure is supposed to be a plea or a threat. Honestly, I don't think she's sure either. "You have to promise me, Clarke. You can't say anything!"

My mouth drops open, but I find myself rendered speechless for a moment. Then I take a breath in, grit my teeth together and gently, but firmly push the younger girl in front of me backwards so that she's sitting on the edge of the bunk. "I have to check the damage. Lie down." I grit out through my clenched teeth.

She does, surprisingly without any reservation considering the circumstances and I gently begin taking her through the necessary steps of a pelvic exam. She doesn't argue or act concerned. It's odd, considering. I know everyone reacts to trauma differently, but it still feels like she should be more shaken than she looks.

I grimace when I see. "Jesus, O. You need stitches. This is-" Brutal. The last word only comes out in my head. What the fuck? There is no way that this was consensual...or even what Octavia could have thought was consensual. This was violent.

"I'm fine."

"No, you're not! You're-"

"I'm fine!" Octavia says as loudly and angrily as she probably can without risking being overheard. "I can handle it!"

"You can't stay here! You can't- if Bellamy-"

"You are gonna get my brother killed if you don't just shut up about this. Wanna get me stitched up? If that'll make you feel better, fine! I don't need your help other than that. Just take your tablet and leave!"

"You're seriously worried about Bellamy right now?! Are you kidding me? This is sick!" I stand up, trying very hard not to raise my voice even though I feel like yelling and maybe throwing something.

"He and mom are all I have!" Octavia whisper yells to me. "You can't say anything! You'll get them killed."

"Does your mother know about this?!"

Octavia tears up "She walked in before when…and she tried to keep him away. He said not to tell her or he-"

"Your mother is the one responsible for this in the first place." I grind out angrily through my clenched teeth.

Octavia just stares at me bug eyed and incredulous. "What exactly do you expect her to do? She's already-"

"I don't care what she's done. It isn't enough. There has to be some way to…to…" To what? I frantically think to myself. To what? She's dead if she ever takes one step outside this cramped room. I live with my parents. Hiding her in my quarters is not an option even if I could figure out how to get her there- clear across the ark- without being spotted. There's nothing- NOTHING I can do for her and the rage that fills me at the thoughT is enough to make me feel physically sick.

"I'll need a needle and thread." I finally say, feeling truly defeated for the first time in my life.

The rest of the day feels hazy and out of focus for me. At work, my mom becomes concerned enough to shoot me her "we're having a talk after work" look. The thought of leaving Octavia for one moment longer than absolutely necessary, at this point though, feels like reckless endangerment. What am I going to do?

Chapter Management