Chapter Seven: It's Not Easy Being In Charge

The rain poured down on us. We all sat in the drop ship, the tents weren't holding up in this rain very well. Young men are pulling the curtains that we have hanging in the doorway up and trying to keep the rain from coming inside without success. In the background all we could hear through the people pulling the curtain was Raven talking. "This is Raven Reyes. Calling Ark Station. Coming in Ark station." She repeated herself. "Can anybody hear me?"

I walked over to Raven and put my hand on her shoulder. "You can do this."

Raven looked from me and back to the radio without a word.

Octavia walked over to me. "I'm sorry."

"You didn't do anything wrong O." I leaned against the wall and closed my eyes, sighing. "It's not your fault that someone took you, It's not like you asked for it."

Octavia wrapped me into a hug. "I know, but if I hadn't wandered off after Bellamy and I fought then we wouldn't be in this mess in the first place."

I kissed her cheek.

Just the mention of Bellamy's name sent me into a panic. He was still out there with Jasper and Monty. A man's voice broke the silence.

"This is a restricted station. Who is this? Please identify yourself." Everyone turned at the sound of the radio coming through with a voice.

Raven got excited. "This is Raven Reyes. I'm from Mecha Station. I'm transmitting from the ground. The hundred are alive. Please, you need to get Dr. Abby Griffin. Now."

I let go of Octavia and ran over to Clarke. Clarke looked over at me and took a deep breathe. I gave her a weak smile. "We might be getting to work."

"Yea." She gave me a weak smile back.

"Hang on Raven, we're trying to boost your signal." A couple of minutes later we heard the voice of a female come over the radio. "Raven, are you there?"

Clarke lit up. "Mom, mom it's me."

The voice over the intercom lit up as well and I knew it was Abby. "Clarke?"

"Mom, I need your help. One of our people was stabbed by the grounder."

Suddenly the voice of the Chancellor came over the intercom and I tensed a little. If they came down from the Ark what would happen. Once again all I could think of was him, terrified of what might happen to him. "Clarke, this is the Chancellor, are you saying there are survivors on the ground?"

I spoke up. "Yes, the earth is survivable. We're not alone."

Abby spoke again. "Who's that?"

"It's Skylar Smith from the Factory Station." Clarke continued. "She's helping me, she has medical background from being there. Mom, he's dying. The knife is still in his chest."

"Okay, can you patch me through to medical?" A man spoke and with that Abby was gone, leaving on the Chancellor to speak with us. I began to clear out the room, leaving just Clarke, Raven, and I left.

"Clarke. Is my son with you?"

The three of us froze and Clarke was the only one that could speak. "I'm so sorry. Wells is… wells is dead."

Suddenly we heard a click and then Abby's voice again. "I'm going to talk the two of you through it step by step." We all stood our ground as the drop ship began to shake and people began to move back toward the table and into the room. "Clarke, just find…." She was cut out. Clarke began to panic at Raven as I ran to the curtain separating the rooms.

I looked towards the door and hollered. "HEY!"

Everyone turned around looked to where I stood. "We have something going on in here so all of you need to stay put, from this time until we say no one is to come back here without permission."

Octavia walked up to where I stood. "Everyone back up. Find another place to stand. Nobody gets through here unless I say so!" She turned to me and lowered her voice. "I'll go and get Monty's moonshine, no germ can survive that. Go save Finn."

Clarke peeked her face through the curtain and looked at us. "We need those doors shut Octavia."

Octavia looked at Monroe who was standing by the doors. "The storm is getting worse, shut the doors."

Monroe looked over at us. "We still have people out there. Monty and Jasper still aren't back you."

I looked down at the ground. "Neither is Bellamy."

Clarke grabbed my arm. "It's okay, they'll find somewhere to ride it out, you know they will."

I turned around and followed Clarke into the room. Everything that we needed was laid out for us and Octavia walked through with the moonshine.

As we walked into the room Raven went into panic mode. "Tell me that you can do this." We both looked over at her, neither of us speaking.

Suddenly we heard people in the other room yelling. "Hey ! They're back!"

I looked over at Clarke. "I'll be right there." Octavia and I both took off at a run. When we flung open the curtains a weight was lifted off my chest. I ran to him and basically jumped into his arms. As I looked behind me I saw Octavia's face. I followed her line of site to see two of the young men that had been with Bellamy holding the arms of a grounder.

Octavia looked over at Bellamy. "What the hell are you doing?"

"It's time to get some answer." He wrapped his arm behind my back.

I turned to look at him. "You mean revenge." Octavia raised her eyebrows in agreeance.

"I mean intel." He looked down at me, clearly annoyed, and then to the boys. "Get him upstairs."

I heard the radio in the next room. Bellamy looked surprised. I looked over at him. "This isn't who we are Bellamy." I began to walk into the other room, Clarke had to have been ready for me. I stopped in my tracks with what he said next.

"It is now." There was no emotion in his voice. Bellamy walked away and followed the guys up the ladder with the grounder.

I walked into the room shaking my head, Clarke was already talking to her mother. "The

blade is at a sharp upward angle between his sixth and seventh rib."

Abby answered. "How deep?"

"Well I can't tell how deep it goes."

"It's alright, just don't remove the knife yet." Clarke handed me the moonshine to sterilize my hands. As I finished I passed it to Raven who took a swig before doing her own hands and handing it to Octavia. "Clarke, do you see any fluid?"

"He feels a little warm."

"That's alright too. Fever sometimes accompanies a trauma. Clarke, I need you guys to tell me if there is any fluid leaking from the wound."

I looked around. "No."

"Pleural membrane is intact. That's good. That's really good. You got lucky."

Raven smiled at Finn. "Hear that? You're lucky."

As we got ready to take the knife out Abby spoke up again. "Okay Clarke, firm grip on the knife. You're gonna need to angle it upward and to the left very slightly as it exits the rib cage."

"How very slightly?" I could feel my heart start beating faster as I asked the question.

"3 millimeters. Got it?"

Clarke swallowed hard. "Yea, I got it."

"Steady hand Clarke. You're assisted me on trickier procedures than this and I know the work that Skylar has done on Factory Station. Once that knife is out the hard part is over."

"Extracting now."

As Clarke began to move the knife Finn began to stir. I looked over at her. "He's waking up Clarke!"

"Hold him still." I pinned him down as much as I could without blocking Clarke. "Finn, we're gonna get that knife out of you."

Finn spoke very weakly. "Good plan."

I pinned him down more. "You can't move Finn. "

Clarke tugged and tugged as slowly and as cautiously as she could and as the knife slid out the entire drop ship lurched and we all fell to the floor. Clarke stood back up and her mother began to speak. We both were frozen and we couldn't make any sounds. Raven spoke up before anyone else. "They did it."

I helped myself up the ladder everyone turned around as I did except Bellamy. He was speaking to the grounder whom was tied up against the wall. "They've been watching us since we got here."

Bellamy turned around after speaking and saw me. "Get out of here."

"Why?" I walked closer to him.

"Stay back Skylar. If this guy goes nuts I don't want you in the crossfire."

"Then give it a break and come talk to me for a second." I raised my eyebrows as I waited for his answer. "We're done with FInn. We got the knife out, Clarke is stitching him up now."

Bellamy walked toward me and turned me around, leading me toward the ladder. "Let's talk then."

We climbed down the ladder and went into an empty corner away from everybody. He leaned against the wall and looked over at me.

"Do you really not feel bad about this Bell?"

"What do you mean?

"I'm starting to think that Octavia is right. This whole thing with Finn. If we would have just left with Octavia told us to before he woke up then none of this would have happened."

"Don't blame this one me. If you want to blame this on someone blame it on the grounder that I have upstairs."

"I'm not blaming you. I'm just saying that maybe-"

He cut me off. "Maybe what?" He threw up his hands. "Maybe we would have left and the next thing he would have done is come straight for camp and taken Octavia again or even tried to take you." He turned away from me and walked back up the stairs. "I wasn't letting that happen."

I turned around to face the doorway to the outside and stared at the rain, letting a small sigh escape my mouth.

After giving Bellamy some time to cool off and checking on Finn to make sure that everything was going okay I followed Clarke up the ladder to where they were keeping the grounder. As we walked up we heard them trying to get them to speak. Bellamy was holding onto a book that he must have had with him. He pointed to a page and showed the grounder. "A friend of yours?"

One of the young guys that was with Bellamy walked over to the two of us and stood in front of us. I gave him a glare. "Get the hell out of my way."

Drew stood his ground and changed his glance from me to Clarke. Clarke wasn't having any of thing. "Move the hell to the side."

Bellamy finally spoke."Drew it's fine, let them through." When we started walking Bellamy made me stay back some. "I thought I told you that I didn't want you up here with him."

"If he didn't hate us before then he sure does now Bellamy."

"Who cares?" Bellamy grabbed both Clarke and I's wrists and pulled us away from the

two. "How's Finn?"

"Alive." I ripped my wrist out of his hand.

Clarke began her lecture. "His people will care. How long until they figure out where he

is. And what happens when they do. I mean when, they come looking for him." She paused for a breathe. "They will, Bellamy."

"Relax Princess. No one saw us take him. He was chained up in that cave the entire time, and thanks to the storm, we didn't see a soul on the way back."The whole drop ship lurched and we all looked around as we stood our ground. "In case you two missed it, his people are already killing us.

I started in on him this time. "How many more of our people need to die until you realize we're fighting a war? We're not soldiers, Bellamy." I looked over at the grounder and pointed. "Look at him. We can't win."

"You're right. We can't win if we don't fight."

Suddenly we all heard Raven scream. "Clarke, Skylar, he's seizing."

I looked over at Clarke. "Do you need me?"

"I've got it covered." She spoke as she made her way down the ladder.

Bellamy walked over to the hatch and closed it. He walked toward me and pushed me backwards to the wall. "If you're staying up here then you stay over here." I nodded. He sat me down and kissed my forehead before walking back out to the grounder with a menacing look.

Not long after going down we heard banging on the chute which pissed Bellamy off. We heard Clarke screaming as Bellamy began to turn around and walked in a circle, clearly annoyed. As She tried to climb up Miller, the other young man with Bellamy put his hands on the ladder so she couldn't move. She gave him the death stare and he moved, letting her up. She walked right up to the grounder and got into his face with the blade. "What's on this?"

Bellamy walked toward her, trying to move her back some in case the grounder tried something. "What are you talking about?"

Octavia followed up the ladder next as we all watched Clarke scream at the grounder, trying to intimidate him. "He poisoned the blade. All this time he knew Finn was gonna die no matter what we did." She got even closer to him. "What is it? Is there an antidote?"

I stood up and walked next to Octavia. "They've been working on him forever up here, he doesn't understand you."

Bellamy thought for a second and then grabbed a small tin can off the box next to him. It contained four small bottles. "Vials. It's gotta be here."

Clarke started to lay them all out in front of him. "You've got to be stupid to have a poison around this long without an antidote." She looked up at him. "Which one?"

Bellamy was getting ticked off. "Answer the question."

Octavia tried to plead with him. "Show us, please."

Clarke was starting to panic. "Which one? Our friend is dying down there and you can stop it."

Bellamy started to walk toward him. "I'll get him to talk."

Octavia grabbed Bellamy's arm and fought him to pull him back. "Bellamy, no."

"He wants Finn to die! Why can't you see that?!" Bellamy was clearly angry. Clarke had the same look as Octavia, but I was beginning to think that Bellamy was right, something had to be done about this grounder. "Do you want him to live or not?"

Octavia begged Clarke now. "Clarke, you even said it yourself. This is not who we are! He was protecting me. He saved my life."

I walked next to Bellamy and looked at Octavia. "We're talking about Finn's life."

"Do it."

Octavia went to run at the grounder and was pulled back by Drew and Miller. "Just tell us!" She pleaded with him while fighting the two guys that were pulling her back.

Bellamy walked over to the seats on the top deck and used his knife to cut one of the seat belts off. Using his knife he cut off the grounders shirt and spoke as he did so. "You're gonna show us the antidote or you're gonna wish that you had.

"Bellamy no, please." As Octavia spoke Bellamy whipped the grounder with the seat belt that he had in his hands.

After a couple of whipped I pulled Bellamy's shirt back and let Clarke step in front of him with the bottles again. "Please, which one is the antidote."

I had never seen Octavia fight so much for anyone other than her brother. "Just tell them!" Bellamy walked over to Clarke as she knelt on the floor and put his hand on her shoulder, telling her to move out of the way. Once she was clear he began with the whip again. Octavia went to lunge again and this time I grabbed onto her. "Enough!" She screamed as I brought her down to the floor and wrapped her in a hug.

I spoke to her with soft words. "It has to be done O."

"Which one? Which one is it? If you tell us, they'll stop." Clarke pleaded with him and Bellamy bent over, trying to catch his breath. "Please, tell us which is the antidote and they'll stop this."

"If that doesn't work," Bellamy threw the seat belt off to the side as hard as he could and picked up a sharp pic. "Then maybe this will." He looked over at Octavia, Clarke, and I. "You don't have to be here for this you guys."

"I'm not leaving until I get that antidote."

Bellamy walked up to him and looked him directly in the eyes. "Last chance." The grounder didn't make a move. With all his force Bellamy took the pic and shoved it through the grounders hand, causing the grounder to shake in pain.

I closed my eyes as I grew nauseous. I felt faint so I walked over toward where Bellamy had just sat down and stumbled next to him, hitting the box kind of hard. He quickly stood up and knelt in front of me as Raven came running up the ladder. As Clarke and Raven spoke Bellamy stayed in front of me. "Sky, are you okay?"

"I'll be fine." I swallowed hard and closed my eyes again. "Just nauseous."

"Go downstairs and lay down. You're stressed. Think about the baby here" I shooked my head and before Bellamy could object Raven had run over to the wires next to the grounder, pulling out two that sent out an electric shock. "What are you doing?"

"Showing him something new." She rubbed them together to let him see the shock and the grounder jumped a little. As she put them to his skin he jumped and screamed in pain, the scream barely being contained by the cloth in his mouth. "Which one is it? Come on!" He said nothing so she hit him again. "He's all I have!"

Octavia was having a panic attack. "NO MORE!"
"He's letting Finn die!"

We all noticed the knife in her hand after Raven spoke. She put it up to her arm and sliced into it, all my queasiness went away as I jumped up and ran to her. "Octavia, no!"

"He won't let me die."

Bellamy went to grab her. "Octavia, what the hell did you do?"

She dropped to her knees in front of him and started to point at the bottles. "This one?" He said nothing so she moved to the next one. "This one?" Nothing again, but then he did something that we didn't expect, he nodded in the direction of one. As Octavia pick up the vial he nodded his head. She handed it to Clarke and Clarke took off running. Bellamy went to help her up off the ground and she shoved him away. "Don't touch me."

Octavia stood up and started to walk away. I walked over to her and grabbed her hand. She turned around and stared at me, finally giving me a small smile before heading down the ladder.

When the storm subsided we finally opened the hatch to the drop ship again, and when we did we were all shocked at what we saw. Our entire came had been destroyed by the storm, the only thing that was still standing were sections of the wall. Everyone looked around and without someone even telling them to everyone got to work to clean up the mess.

I hated to watch everyone else clean up what I should be helping with so I walked around and began to clean. I tried to keep my eyes on Bell, if he had seen me doing any heavy lifting he would have my head. It wasn't exactly easy for me to hide, I was about 3 weeks and already starting to show. Bellamy looked over toward me and I dropped what I had in my hands and tried to duck behind the post that I was standing by. The person that I had been holding the other end of the log for looked back at me which gave away where I was.

Bellamy came rushing over and looked at the guy I was helping. "Are you an idiot? Why would you let her help you?"

"I'm not broken Bellamy. I'm pregnant, there's a big difference.:

"Didn't I tell you earlier to get some rest and not to lift heavy things. You've been on your

feet all day and you've had enough stress today."

"You've really gotta cool it Bell. I'm not that fragile." I kissed his cheek. "But I'm glad that you care that much."

He raised his eyebrows at me and I knew that my fun was over. "Either stop and walk

with me or go and chill in the tent. I have ours back up again."

I rolled my eyes. "Fine." I put my arm around his back and walked with him.

Clarke came up beside us and Bellamy turned to face her. "We'll get it cleaned up."

"I wish this was our only mess."

"Clarke," He grabbed her hand and spun her back around. "Who we are and who we

need to be to survive are very different things."

"What are we gonna do with him? We can't keep him locked up forever."

He grabbed the pic that she had taken out of the grounders hand from her. "If we let him go, he'll be back, and not alone next time." He stopped and looked around. "It's not easy being in charge, is it?"

Clarke said nothing and we began to walk away.