Chapter Four: Charlotte

I spun Murphy around and made him face me. "I'm sorry John… I swear to god if he ever touches you again I'll break his hands." I was shaking because I was so angry.

Murphy took me into his arms. "Don't worry about it Sky. I brought that on myself. I should never have pissed him off. I know how he is."

"He still shouldn't ever put his hands on you he knows that I-"

Murphy held me out at arm's length. "Enough Skylar. I'm fine. Go to your tent, get some sleep."

"I'm staying with you tonight." I walked over to Bellamy and I's tent before Murphy could tell me no. When I got over to our tent and walked inside I hadn't realized that Bellamy had gone in there. As I walked in he instantly jumped up and pulled me into a hug. I pushed myself away from him. "Don't." I reached down and grabbed a blanket and one of the pillows that had come down on the dropship with us.

Bellamy stood silent for a moment, watching me before speaking. "I'm sorry, you know how I am when it comes to Octavia."

I glared at him. "And you know how I am with John."

"Skylar please." I walked back out the door of the tent, followed by him. I saw Murphy standing in front of his tent a couple down from ours. Bellamy grabbed my arm and pulled me. My first reaction was to hit him, but I knew that wouldn't end well.

When Murphy saw Bellamy grab my arm he walked quickly over to us. "Let her go Bellamy. You may be stronger than me, but I'll try."

A glare stayed between Bellamy and Murphy and Bell finally let go of my arm. Murphy picked up my blanket and pillow that I had dropped and put his hand on my back, walking me to his tent.

I climbed in and Murphy climbed in behind me. When I laid down Murphy sat beside me. I slowly moved myself as close to him as I could get and looked up at him. He leaned down and kissed my forehead. "I love you cub." It was the first time he had used that name since I had found him.

When Murphy and I woke up the next morning it was an eerie feeling around the camp. Neither of us had any clue what was going on. As I climbed out the air around me made me feel queasy. I walked over to the area beside the tent but enough in the woods so that no one could see me. I didn't want people to watch me be sick.

It had been two weeks since Jasper had started to get better and we were all ecstatic about the fact. When we walked out of the tent Bellamy turned around. He looked upset about something. We both walked over to him.

When I stood in front of him he put his hand on my waist and kissed my forehead. I looked up at him. "What's going on?"

"Wells is gone."

"Then go find him." I looked over at Murphy. :"He'll go with you." My heart started to race. Wells had saved Bellamy's life and I was forever grateful to him.

Bellamy hung his head. "No Sky, not gone as in missing."'

My jaw dropped and I couldn't believe what I was hearing.

Murphy did what he did best, hide his emotion, and got right to work. He looked over at Bellamy. :"This section should be done by tomorrow." He pointed to the section that was being worked on. One of the kids started to slow down and dropped the end of one of the trunks. Murphy instantly started in, his anger getting the best of him. "Hey!" He walked over to him. "You think that the grounders are just going to sit around and wait for us to finish the wall? Maybe we should let the little girl do the lifting for you, huh?" He pointed over at Charlotte.

The kid, whose name was Conner, looked up at him. "I just need some water, okay? Then I'll be fine."

Bellamy walked over, butting in. "Murphy, get this guy some water." Murphy walked away and Bellamy looked over at Charlotte. "Hey, you got this?" Charlotte dropped what she was doing and started toward Bellamy. He walked over and stopped her from walking. "I'm just kidding." She smiled at him. Bellamy dropped to his knees and picked the other end of the log up and walked with the other kid with it.

Before I knew it my brother was standing behind Conner, urinating on him. When Conner felt water on his back he stood up quickly and yelled. "Uh! What the hell is wrong with you, Murphy." Conner went to run at Murphy and three guys ran in front of Murphy, grabbing the front of Conner's jacket.

I ran at him as well and Murphy held his arm out and stopped me. "I got it." I stopped moving and let him take care of it. "You wanted a water break." He looked around at everyone. "Get back to work!"

Octavia came running around the corner and Bellamy instantly began to panic. "O, what's going on?"

"Jasper and I found something at the gate." She held out her hand to show a knife. "And there was more. I think they're Wells' fingers." She held out a piece of fabric in her hand without uncovering it.

Bellamy looked around and spotted Clarke. "Clarke!" When she looked up he spoke again. "A word?" Bellamy grabbed Octavia by an arm and I grabbed Jasper's, dragging them into the tent.

Octavia put them all down on the table in front of all of us. Clarke picked up the knife and examined it. "This knife is made up of metal from the dropship."

Octavia looked around. "What do you mean?"

"Who else knows about this?"

"No one. We brought it straight here."

I looked between Clarke and Bellamy. I knew exactly what that means. I spoke the words that no one else wanted to say. "It means the grounders didn't kill Wells. It was one of us."

Octavia crossed her arms and looked behind her. "So, there's a murderer in the camp?"

Bellamy looked over at Clarke. She was getting restless. "There's more than one murderer in this camp. This isn't news. We need to keep it quiet."

I walked out of the tent. This was too much to deal with when I had just woken up and too much to deal with when I was nauseous already. I walked over to my brother and stood with him as he oversaw everything going on. A young kid went to get a drink and Murphy knocked it out of his hand. "No water until this section is done." The kid went to hit Murphy and another kid stopped him from doing it. Murphy turned around and looked at the kid. "What are you staring at, huh?"

Suddenly Clarke came flying over to Murphy. "You son of a bitch!" She broke through everyone and pushed Murphy back. My sisterly instincts kicked in and I jumped in front of him. "What's your problem?" I glared at her, trying to warn her to stay back.

Clarke held up the knife from inside the tent. "Recognize this?"

"It's my knife. Where'd you find it?" Murphy reached around me for it.

"Where you dropped it after you killed Wells."

"Where I what?" Murphy grabbed me and moved me out of the way and I saw Bellamy stand next to Clarke and cross his arms. "The grounders killed Wells, not me."

"I know what you did and you're gonna pay for it." She got really close to Murphy's face.

Murphy got defensive. "Really?"

Why wasn't Bellamy defending my brother. "Bellamy, you really believe this crap?" I gave him pleading eyes.

Bellamy said nothing, just stared. Clarke spoke again. "You threatened to kill him, we all heard you. You hated Wells"

I put my fingers on Clarke shoulders and moved her out of my brother's face. "Plenty of people hated Wells Clarke."

Murphy was still getting defensive. "His father was the chancellor that locked us up."

"Yeah, but you're the only one who got in a knife fight with him."

"Yeah, and I didn't try to kill him then either."

Octavia spoke up and I shot her a look as soon as she did. "Tried to kill Jasper too."

I looked at everyone, but left my glance on Bellamy when I finished scanning the crowd. "Come on, this is ridiculous."

Murphy looked around at everyone. "I don't have to answer to you." He pointed at Clarke. "I don't have to answer to anyone." Murphy started to walk away

Bellamy stepped forward. "Come again?"

When Bellamy spoke Murphy stopped walking and looked at him. "Bellamy, look, I'm telling you man. I didn't do this."

Bellamy looked between Murphy and I. "They found his fingers on the ground with your knife."

Clarke started to speak to the crowd. "Is this the kind of society that we want? You say there would be no rules. Does that mean that we can kill each other without… without punishment?"

"I already told you, I didn't kill anyone."

Octavia spoke up again and said something I could never forgive her for. "I say we float him."

Everyone around us started to yell. "Yeah!"

Clarke turned around. "That's not what I'm saying."

"Why not? He deserves to float. It's justice."

I walked closer to Octavia and got into her face. I saw Bellamy tense. Seeing the two girls he loved at each other's throats was something he wanted to do with his life. "Revenge isn't justice."

"It's justice. Float him!"

Everyone started to chant "float him" and Murphy tried to run at Conner, who had started the chanting. A couple of guys tripped him as he ran and he hit the ground. I watched as they pulled him up and grabbed a hold of him. As I went to grab at them more of them surrounded me and grabbed me as well.

As they began to kick my brother I began to scream. "No! Get off him! JOHN!" One of the guys that was holding me kicked my legs out from under me to get me on my knees. When Bellamy heard me scream in pain he lunged at the younger guys and they let me go. Bellamy held me back and let the crowd do their worst on Murphy. One of the guys that was after him grabbed a strap and wrapped it around his mouth so he couldn't speak and tied his hands together.

"Let him go!" Clarke was yelling as they picked him up off the ground and walked away with him. I tried and tried to fight, but each time I tried to get away Bellamy's grip got stronger.

When the group got to the edge of the hill they threw Murphy down and watched him roll. I could tell he wanted to scream out in pain, but the strap kept him from it.

One of them took a long rope and threw it up over a thick tree branch and I knew what they were planning to do. "NO! NO!" They wrapped the rope around Murphy's neck and put something under him to hold him up.

Clarke ran over to Bellamy and I and pushed Bellamy a little. "You can stop this. They'll listen to you!"

Bellamy looked from Clarke to Murphy and then to me. "Please don't do this Bell! Tell them to let him down!"

Conner walked over to Bellamy. "Bellamy! You should do it." Conner looked around at the crowd and started another chant. "Bellamy! Bellamy! Bellamy!"

I saw Octavia behind me started to panic and I took the opportunity. "You started this! It's not such a good idea now, is it O!" Octavia gave me an apologetic look, knowing that I probably wouldn't take it.

He let me loose enough to turn around and look at him. I began to plead with him. "I saw you in the woods with Atom. I know you're not a killer Bell. Stop this!" I saw his eyes well up and he kissed my forehead. I began to panic. "Bellamy, don't do this. Don't…" Bellamy let me go and started to walked quickly as I yelled. "Don't. Bellamy!"

He walked over to the platform that my brother stood on and I grabbed one of his arms. "You can't do this Bellamy!"

I looked up to meet the pleading eyes of my brother. "John, I'm sorry!" I grabbed Bell's arm again. "Bellamy!" Murphy was trying to plead as well. Bellamy kicked the platform out from under him and my brother hung there. "NO!" Everyone around us started to cheer.

Clarke slapped Bellamy's chest. "No. Bellamy, no."

Bellamy turned around and grabbed ahold of me, holding me back from going anywhere. He looked at Clarke. "This is on you, princess. You should've kept your mouth shut."

I tried to grab the rope that was holding my brother up and Bellamy held me back. I turned around and clocked him in the side of the head, causing him to let me go. As I got to the rope that had been tied up and tried and tried to pull it apart. I could hear Finn talking in the background put I couldn't make out what he was saying. I searched frantically for the knife that Bellamy had given me, then remembered that I had given it to John last night when he couldn't find his. I turned to the boys that had attacked him. "Where's my knife! John had it!"

I grabbed at the guys faces and three of them grabbed me, holding me back when a small voice spoke above the rest. "Stop! Murphy didn't Kill Wells… I did."

Clarke looked over at Bellamy and grabbed the axe out of his belt, slamming it into the tree next to me, letting Murphy free to hit the ground.

Bellamy ran at the guys holding me and they let go. Once Bellamy had me in his arm he stared blankly at Charlotte. I broke free of him and ran next to my brother. I put his head in my lap and watched him struggle to get his breath. "John, I'm so sorry." I started to cry and begged him for forgiveness over and over again.

As we all stood outside Clarke, Finn, Bellamy, and Charlotte sat inside the tent in front of us. Murphy was finally up and moving around. "Bring us the girl Bellamy!" He paced back and forth and I tried to stop him.

I stood in front of him. "John, please."

He looked down at me. "Your boyfriend just tried to kill me Skylar."

"John, please. You can't hurt him without hurting me."

"He tried to kill me and you're not leaving him?"

"John, I can't, you don't understand."

"What do you mean you can't?" He grabbed my wrist. "Why not?" Bellamy walked out before I could tell John what was going on. Murphy walked away from me. "Well, well, well. Look who decided to join us."

Bellamy got defensive instantly. "Dial it down and back off."

Murphy was testing him. "Or what? What are you gonna do about me? Hang me?"

"John, just listen to him."

"I was just giving the people what the wanted."

"Yeah. Yeah, that's a good idea." Murphy turned around to look at the crowd of people. "Why don't we do that right now? So, who here wants to see the real murderer hung up? All in favor?" Only three people raised their hands, the three people that followed my brother everywhere. Murphy was clearly getting more agitated. "I see. So, it's okay to string me up for nothing, but when this little bitch confesses, you all let her walk? Cowards! All of you are cowards!"

I stepped forward and reached for my brother. Murphy shook his hand from mine as Bellamy began to speak again. "Hey Murphy." Bellamy got really close to Murphy's face. "Murphy, it's over."

Murphy backed up a little and backed down. "Whatever you say boss."

I knew my brother better than that. Bellamy walked away and Murphy grabbed a log out of the pile and swung it at him, hitting him square in the back of the head. Octavia and I both ran at my brother. "Son of a bitch!" I grabbed at Murphy, but Jasper jumped in front of O and I and Murphy clocked him in the nose, walking away. He looked back at his guys. ""Lets get the girl."

I ran over to Bellamy and knelt on the ground. Octavia sat next to me. I lifted Bellamy's head into my lap and looked over at O. "Go get me a cup and some water."

Octavia got up and ran off. Murphy lifted the door to the tent and turned around quickly, yelling. "Charlotte!" He looked around. "Charlotte, I know you can hear me! And when I find you you're going to pay!" With that he ran off.

I turned and looked at him. "JOHN! NO!"

Octavia came running back with some water. "What are you gonna do?"

"Watch this." I grabbed the cup out of her hand and splashed it on Bellamy's face, causing him to jump as he woke up. Octavia smiled at me and I looked down at Bell, I kissed his forehead.

Without missing a beat Bellamy sat up. "Where is he?"

"I don't know. He ran off."

Bellamy and I had searched the woods for hours before we finally caught a break. As we walked I spotted her; Charlotte was walking along in the distance. I nudged Bellamy's arm and pointed. Bellamy put his fingers up and motioned for us to move forward. When we got to Charlotte Bellamy wrapped his arms around her and I covered her mouth with my hand so she wouldn't scream out. We could all hear my brother yelling for her in the distance.

As we started to run Charlotte fought back. Bellamy had her arm in his hands. She screamed as we ran. "Let me go!"

Bellamy turned around. "I'm trying to help you."

We all stopped running and Charlotte looked Bellamy in the eyes. "I'm not your sister. Just stop helping me!" Bellamy let go of her arm and stood still.

Charlotte began to run and I ran over to her, grabbing her around the waist. "Are you trying to get us all killed?"

"Just go, okay. I'm the one they want."

Bellamy snapped out of it and stood in front of her. "Okay, Charlotte, listen to me. I won't leave you."

"Please Bellamy." She turned her head and started to yell. "Murphy, I'm over here." Bellamy scooped her up and threw her over his shoulder, running. Charlotte slapped Bellamy as we ran. "Put me down!"

We ran until we couldn't run anymore. We hit a ledge and Bellamy and I exchanged glances. I knew my voice was panicked, but I couldn't help it. "What do we do now Bellamy?"

"Damn it." He whipped around as we heard my brother's voice say his name.

"You can't fight all of us, give her up." Murphy was trying to reason with him for my sake.

"Maybe not, but I guarantee I'll take a few of you with me."

Clarke came bursting out of the woods with Finn. "Bellamy, stop! This has gone too far!"

I looked over at my brother. "John, just calm down. We can talk about this."

Murphy grabbed Clarke and spun her around so she was facing Bellamy, Charlotte, and I, holding a knife to her throat. "I'm sick of listening to you talk."

Finn moved forward. "Let her go."

"I will slit her throat."

"John, stop. You don't need to do this." I begged him.

Charlotte felt guilty, you could see it in her face. "No, please. Please don't hurt her."

Murphy took his opportunity. "Don't hurt her? Okay, I'll make you a deal. You come with me right now, I'll let her go."

Clarke looked at Charlotte. "Don't do it Charlotte."

Charlotte tried to walk to Murphy, but Bellamy grabbed her. "Murphy, this is not happening.

"I can't let any of you get hurt anymore. Not because of me. Not after what I did." Charlotte turned around and looked at the ledge and I knew before anyone else what she was going to do.

"Bellamy, grab her!"

Before Bellamy could get his hands on her she jumped over the edge and went careening down the side. My brother's face turned from anger to shock as he looked around. He gave me pleading eyes and I didn't know what I could do for him. Clarke and Bellamy sat on their knees looking over the edge.

Bellamy slowly stood up and my brother tried to talk to him. "Bellamy." Murphy didn't get more than one word out before he had Murphy on the ground, hitting him in the face repeatedly.

I ran over to them. "Bellamy stop, you'll kill him!" I grabbed the back of Bellamy's jacket then pulled them apart. "Get off me." He spun around and moved me backwards, trying not to push me hard. "He deserves to die."

I grabbed the front of his jacket and pulled him to me. "No! We don't decide who lives and dies. Not down here."

Bellamy looked over at Clarke and pointed at her. "So help me god, if either of you say that the people have a right to choose-"

Clarke looked over. "No, I was wrong before, okay? You were right. Sometimes it's dangerous to tell people the truth. But if we're gonna survive down here, we can't just live by whatever the hell we want. We need rules."

"And who makes those rules, huh? You?"

"For now, we make the rules. Okay?"

"So, what, then? We just take him back and pretend like it never happened?"

"No!" Clarke looked apologetic as she looked over at me. "We banish him."

I let go of the front of Bellamy's jacket. "What? No!"

Bellamy walked over to Murphy and lifted him up by the front of his jacket. "Get up!" Bellamy held Murphy right by the edge of the ledge. "If I ever catch you near camp, we'll be back here. Understand?" Murphy nodded and Bellamy threw him on the ground, looking at the four guys behind him. "As for the four of you, you can come back and follow me, or go off with him to die. Your choice."

As everyone started to turn around Bellamy walked back over to me. "Let's go." I looked between him and Murphy. "You can either stay with him or come with me. That's up to you, but I hope that you realize you're better off with me."

I couldn't even speak, I opened my mouth and nothing came out. I could feel my eyes welling up with tears and I finally squeaked out. "I'm sorry Bellamy."

Bellamy stared at me with no emotion. "What?"

"I'm sorry."

I could see the tears welling up in his eyes as well. I walked over to Bellamy and put his face in my hands, kissing his lips softly. He still stood there, not moving and not blinking. Finn grabbed his arm and started to pull him the other way.

After Finn had him a good distance away I let my walls come down. Murphy crawled over to me and grabbed me around the waist, holding me into his chest to muffle my sobs. I pushed him away from me. "Why did you have to do this?"

Murphy looked dumbfounded.

"Why couldn't you have just listened to what Bellamy had to say?" I was more ranting to myself than anything else.

Murphy grabbed my hand. "Why were you saying that you couldn't leave him Skylar."

I couldn't spit any words out anymore. I was in hysterics.

"Is the reason what I think it is?"

All I could muster was a nod.

"Go. You need him. He has a right to be with his child."

"I can't leave you John."

"I'll be fine. Just go." He pulled my head down to him and kissed the top of it. "Now get out of here and take care of my niece or nephew. I'll meet them one day."

I stood up and walked backwards until I couldn't see Murphy anymore. When he was out of sight I began to run, not really knowing where I was running. "Bellamy!" I kept running. "Bell!" Finally I heard something in the distance.

"Skylar?!" I saw his figure come running out of the trees. I ran for him and buried myself in his arms. He let all of his emotions go and held my head. "I'm so glad you came back."

"We need to talk." I looked up at him.

He took his free hands and wiped the tears away from my eyes. "About what?"

"I'm pregnant."

His face went blank and I heard him swallow hard.