Clarke could hear Octavia crying in her room and had to force herself to stay in her room instead of going and comforting her friend, knowing that was the last thing she needed. While it hurt her to say those things, Octavia needed to hear them. It was important for her to wake up from the fairy tale she was living in her head that let her believe just because they had made it to Earth, that they would live. Or that Bellamy would always be around to protect her. Nothing was guaranteed, the sooner Octavia realized that the better and longer she would survive.
She was debating in her head on what to do with her free time when someone knocked on her door. With a sigh she got up to open it, knowing that her free time was over before she got to enjoy a second of it.
Clarke rolled her eyes at the grin on Bellamy's face when she answered his knock. That grin was never good.
"Bellamy. What do you want this time?"
"Come on Clarke, you act like I'm always up to no good."
She raised one eyebrow at him and crossed her arms, not really in the mood to play his games.
"Fine alright, don't give me the look! The guys are going to see if we have enough people to put together a small poker tournament."
She just stayed silent and waited for him to get to the point. She knew Bellamy wasn't there to ask if she wanted to play if so, he would have just come out and asked her.
"Clarke, oh great one, would you please take my next shift so I can go join them?"
Clarke almost laughed when Bellamy Blake tried a pout. "Depends on the job." She wasn't going to just agree without knowing, as it was well known that Bellamy (and often her as well) took the harder jobs.
"Monroe and Finn didn't go fishing this morning, they said the area was clogged again on two sides."
They had a few places they liked to fish, one place, however, was really good but completely out in the open. To protect whoever was fishing at the time, they sectioned off the spot with a chain-link fence that they could go into and lock themselves in. It was large enough for a few people, chairs, and all their gear. While it helped make fishing there very easy, the downside was that since it was used so often, it tended to attract the dead and when it got bad enough they had to be taken care of. Of course, another flaw was that the zombies could get in from the water's side since it wasn't a completely enclosed fence but so far that hadn't happened and if it happened while someone was there, they would be facing the water and could see them coming.
"How clogged?"
"Finn said about a dozen."
"Sure, I'll take care of it. You take my clean up duty tonight?" Clarke didn't mind doing her share, not at all, however, anything kitchen related she always was up to trade.
"Deal and thanks, Clarke."
After he gave her a quick rundown on the trading situation, she watched him as he seemed to hesitate on saying something.
"What is it, Bellamy?"
"I know Octavia stitched you up, but it doesn't seem to be bothering you. Are you hiding the pain or is it like the other day?"
That day she had been with Bellamy fishing and while she was gutting and filleting a fish, her fingers slipped and the knife sliced deep into her palm. It bled furiously for a moment and they quickly wrapped it up. A few hours later when they got back, he had to remind her to clean her palm up as she had completely forgotten about it. She unwrapped her hand and to the shock of both of them, her palm looked like it had already been healing for some time. They didn't know what to think about it and she still didn't. There had been no time for testing since then but she would have to find time to do so soon, as it was too important not to find out all they could.
"Yes, it's like the other day." She wished she had more to offer him, some kind of explanation. She had a theory, just not the time to test it and look into it. And, yeah, maybe she was stalling a little bit since the testing meant cutting herself to see how fast she healed.
He gave a nod as if she only confirmed what he already knew and left after letting her know that he wanted to figure it out soon.
While she gathered up what she needed from her room she wondered who Bellamy had been partnered with, as they liked to assign outside tasks to at least a pair when possible. She hoped it wasn't Dax or she might be tempted to not bring him back.
Even though 10k was following Doc and a few others to where ever they were going, his mind was back on Clarke. What was it about her that he couldn't get out of his head? And why was he thinking about how soft her skin looked? What was wrong with his brain today?
"...and I traded with Clarke to play some poker, that means one of you have to go with her since my partner was Dax and they don't need to be forced together just yet."
10k almost walked right into Doc's back, he was that lost in his thoughts that he didn't see that they had arrived and was talking to Bellamy.
Doc turned around, grinned at him and slapped him on the shoulder. "Whatcha say, Kid? Wanna play some poker?"
10k could only pull up one shoulder in a half-shrug, honestly not sure if he wanted to play. Not only did poker not sound entertaining to him, but he also didn't want to say no to Doc. Something about the old man tugged at his heart. He still didn't know why he saved him when he did. There had been other people to come and go, he might even have been able to save some but never tried before Doc. The more he got to know Doc, the more he found himself looking out for him, watching his back more than anyone else. He even went as far as sneaking some of his rations into Doc's bag when no one was paying attention.
10k looked around Doc, trying to find out what was going on. Doc saw where his attention was and filled him in on what he missed.
"They are going to set up a poker tournament and Bellamy traded some job with that doctor of theirs so he could play. He's seeing who wants to go with her since it's a two-man job."
Before his brain caught up with his mouth he had already spoken. "I'll go with her."
10k turned away from Doc's questioning gaze, it was asking questions that he had no answer for.
He felt like taking it back when almost everyone turned to stare at him, attention was the last thing he wanted. Thankfully Bellamy answered him quickly, thanking him, explained what they would be doing and where to meet her. With a nod that he understood and a quick word with Doc that he would be back later, he was off.
Walking up he could see that she didn't expect him. "Bellamy asked for someone to replace Dax." His explanation was well-received, he could tell that she was thankful for the change in partners.
"Did he tell you what we have to do?" 10k nodded at her and then assured her that he was ready when she asked.
It didn't take long for them to get to the area and they were able to take care of the Z's without any problem.
Clarke slowly walked closer, not lowering her gun and double-checked that they got them all. After she was finally sure, she put her gun back in the holster on her belt and grabbed one by its feet, dragging it away from the fence. He noticed that she didn't seem to be favoring the side that had got stitched up and wondered if she took something for the pain or she was just that good at blocking out the pain she had to have been feeling.
"Uh, excuse me? What are you doing?"
Not stopping what she was doing, she answered him. "Since we come here often, we don't want large piles of these laying around. So we burn them."
Working together it didn't take them long to finish piling them and to get a fire started.
"We have to stick around for a while, just to make sure the fire is all out."
10k told her that he understood and walked over to the fishing area. "Too bad we didn't bring anything to fish with."
Clarke came up behind him, startling him at how quiet she was, he wasn't used to anyone sneaking up on him. "Do you like to fish?"
"I used to. Before." He bit his thumbnail to force himself not to say anything else. He was grateful that she didn't ask any questions, he didn't want to talk about his time fishing before. That was precious time spent with his Pa fishing, or with his cousin when he was around, not something he wanted to talk about. Some of his favorite memories with both his Pa and cousin featured fishing and his heart clenched at the thought of them. He had to give himself a mental shake and push the thought of his cousin away to the back of his head, where it hurt less to think of him. He still didn't know what happened to him but liked to think that he was one of the few that were made for this new world and was alive somewhere.
She seemed to be comfortable in the silence like he was, but he felt like he wanted to say something, he wanted to talk to her. He just didn't know what to say. The weather? That the day was sunny with a good chance of Z's? He mentally sighed to himself at his lame thoughts.
He didn't know if she felt the need to fill the silence as well, but she started speaking just before he was about to possibly say something embarrassing. "Bellamy updated me on the trade, said that Miller told him that without you, it wouldn't have gone as well as it did. You helped us out a lot. Thank you. "
As he turned to look at her felt the back of his neck heat up at her complement and opened his mouth, to his horror, though, nothing would come out. Instead, he tried to smile at her, hoping that it at least came outright.
She plowed on as if his lack of reply didn't bother her. "And I heard that you will also be helping plan some sort of home or cages for the animals to live in?"
Finally, a question he was positive he had the right answer for. "Yeah. Raising animals and making homes for them isn't anything new to me. I don't mind helping."
"I was wondering, would it be possible to make a mobile farm? We have a school bus, could they live in that?
That wasn't something he was expecting and it made him stop and think.
"I haven't done anything like that before, but yeah, I think it could be done. Though it would take more supplies and work." He could have sworn that they already had a plan for animals, a grassy area already fenced off. Why wouldn't they use that? "Although it may be better for the animals if we make the cages easy to transport and just leave them outside. I'll also help work on the vehicle you pick, make shelves, and get it set up so that all you have to do is put the animals in their places."
"Yeah? Okay then, I'll trust your opinion on them if you say it would be better for them outside. I was thinking that we should have something in place just in case anything happens and we have to leave here. Then we would have a portable food source on the go."
He was impressed, it was a really smart idea. "That's a good idea, it's not easy finding food when you're on the road, not easy at all." He thought back on how often they went hungry and thirsty, a portable farm would take more work and gas but very worth it if they ever had to leave, hopefully, something that never had to happen.
After that, they silently stood watching as the fire died down, leaving as soon as it was put out.
"On the way back do you mind a slight stop?"
He didn't really and told her so, before following behind her as they headed back.
Clarke was happy, she had a plan in motion for a way to move the animals if they ever had to leave. Maybe they never had to use it, she hoped not. It was going to be one of those "just in case" things that got planned for the worst.
Not long into their walk back she reached into her bag and pulled out two folded up cloth totes and tossed one to her silent partner, laughing at his confused look. "It's for apples. Up ahead there are some apple trees and we are going to take some home." She enjoyed the face he made and how he walked just a bit faster. And tried to ignore how her heart skipped a beat as she watched his face light up when he spotted the apple trees she was talking about.
Between both of them, it didn't take long to fill their bags of delicious looking apples and Clarke walked up to him just as he was reaching up to grab one last one.
"We should start heading back, don't want your girlfriend to start wondering where you are." She was mostly teasing but there was a small part that didn't want to cause any sort of problems.
10k had just taken a drink of water and started coughing at her words, causing the water to go down wrong.
"Girl what? Girlfriend?" He sputtered out. "No. I don't have one."
Clarke turned around to start walking so he wouldn't see her grin. "Oh, my mistake." His embarrassment amused her the whole way back, not that she let it show as she didn't want him to think she was laughing at him.